 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankar I.C academy for the date 20th of September 2021. So, these are the news articles that I have chosen today for discussion. Today we have one editorial and one open article discussion and we have two important topics based on science and technology. In this first topic we are going to discuss about uranium enrichment and in this second topic we are going to discuss about two important missiles. One is the Naag missile and the second one is the Helena missile. So, don't miss this discussion it is very important from the current affairs perspective and in this last discussion we are going to discuss about few facts related to the Hindi language and in this practice questions discussion I have three practice questions which has been discussed elaborately today and one special question is also given for the aspirants to attend. Along with this we have one main practice question also. So, with this introduction let us move on to the first discussion based on this editorial article. This discussion is based on this editorial article. It talks about two important economic terms. The first term is subjective well-being and the second term is relative income and in this editorial the author tries to understand the relation between these two terms and the author tries to establish how these two interplay with each other. So, in this discussion let us first understand these two terms then we will see the relationship between these two. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. So, first let us understand what is well-being. Well-being is the state of being happy, healthy and prosperous. Now, when it comes to measuring well-being there are two distinct approaches to measure it. The first approach is the conventional approach and this measures the conventional well-being. For example, here we use the variables like income expenditure to measure the well-being in the conventional approach and this approach is used by many countries even India uses this conventional approach to measure well-being. Now comes the second measure. This measure is getting popular in the recent times and the second measure is the measurement of subjective well-being of a person. In subjective well-being we use variables like life satisfaction and happiness to measure the subjective well-being. These variables that is the life satisfaction, happiness etc. they go beyond the objective criterion of income and expenditure because in the conventional approach we used variables like income and expenditure only and in subjective well-being the variables go into the subjective nature of well-being. So it includes characteristics like age, gender, schooling, religion, caste, marital status, health, employment, social networks and the overall economic and natural environment etc. All of these play a huge role in understanding the subjective well-being of a person. So now what about relative income? What does it mean? Relative income is an income which is relative to that of a reference group. It refers to one's earning in relation to average income of a reference group. For example imagine there are two people a and b. Assume that a makes 50,000 rupees. At the same time the average salary of the peers of a is rupees 60,000. Now let us take b. Here assume that b makes 40,000 rupees and the average salary of peers of b is 30,000 rupees. So here you can see that a actually makes more than b but in a's case the relative income is lower than that of b because a makes 10,000 rupees less than her peers and in case of b, b actually makes 10,000 rupees more than her peers. So that is why we are saying that a's relative income is lower than b's. So this is how we measure the relative income. So now keep these facts in mind. Now let us get into the editorial discussion. In this editorial as I already said author tries to understand the relation between the subjective well-being and relative income. Author actually analyzes whether relative income matters more than the actual level of income and author also analyzes whether relative income plays an important role in enhancing the subjective well-being or not. So to understand these questions let us first discuss about a survey. This survey is the Indian Human Development Survey in short IHDS. This survey was conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research and University of Maryland. Now this survey is important in the context of subjective well-being because this survey included an important question that helps us to measure the changes in subjective well-being. The question was that compared to 2005 would you say your household is economically doing the same better or worse in 2012. So this survey tried to measure the change in subjective well-being and from this survey it was found that subjective well-being and income or expenditure they are positively related. It is also found that this positive relation is actually weak and according to the author this fact is actually in line with the Easterlin paradox that was published in 1973. So what is this Easterlin paradox? So according to this paradox the subjective well-being or happiness it varies directly with income but over time this happiness does not trend upward as income continues to grow. So what we mean is that as income is in the upward direction the happiness did not be in the upward direction rather it is in a stable position. So it is concluded that as a society becomes richer the average rank of a person does not change. So the average life satisfaction remains stable despite income growth and the same was also found by the survey and that is why author says that this survey is in line with the Easterlin paradox. So what we can conclude from this is that when an individual's income increases her or his well-being increases and along with this the relative standing of the individual will also increase but this increase in relative standing can be offset by change in the reference group that is if the reference group is changed then this relative standing will be affected because here the new group and peers they will serve as the reference point and by comparing to that reference group it could be said that the relative income does not change that much in spite of income increase and this ultimately affects the subjective well-being of a person. Additionally you should also remember that as the income increases individuals get adapted to material goods and these materials yield little joy for most individuals. So we can say that in the long run the consumption of material goods has very little effect on well-being. So this leads to a point where money loses its power to improve well-being of an individual. So from all of these observations we can say that relative income has a huge impact on subjective well-being it has the impact that if the relative income is lower then subjective well-being is also lower. On the other hand if the relative income is higher then subjective well-being is also higher and that way we can say that relative income plays a huge role in improving the subjective well-being. So based on this author concludes the editorial by saying that we should give more importance to relative income and we should stop our relentless pursuit of income growth that is rather than focusing on our own income growth we should focus our attention on the shared growth and this could be done through an enhanced remunerative employment of the peers along with our own and this will enhance our well-being. So this discussion establishes an important relationship between two important aspects of our life one is the relative income and the other one is subjective well-being. So with this understanding now let us move on to the next discussion. This discussion is based on this news article which talks about uranium enrichment the news article mentions that North Korea is expanding the uranium enrichment plant this plant is a part of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex. So remember this Yongbyon is related to North Korea's nuclear plant. So in this discussion let us understand what is uranium enrichment and we'll also see what the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons treaty has to say about this uranium enrichment. So first let us understand about uranium enrichment. See first understand that natural uranium consists of different uranium isotopes it consists of uranium 238 uranium 235 uranium 234 exactly this natural uranium consists of approximately 99.3 percentage of uranium 238 then 0.7 percentage of uranium 235 and less than 1 percentage of uranium 234. Now we know that this uranium is used in nuclear reactors as a fuel and it is also used in weapons. Now in order to use this uranium as a fuel in nuclear reactors and in weapons we have to increase the concentration of uranium 235 this is because uranium 235 is a fissile material so it can sustain a chain reaction in a nuclear reactor. So we try to increase the proportion of uranium 235 through the process of isotope separation that is the different isotopes of uranium are separated in this process especially the uranium 238 is separated from uranium 235 and this process is what is called as uranium enrichment. So the level of separation or the level of enrichment varies according to the use of uranium for example for nuclear weapons enrichment is required up to 90 percentage or more and this is known as weapons grade uranium. On the other hand for nuclear reactors the enrichment required is just up to three to four percentage and this is known as low-enrich uranium and sometimes it is also called as reactor grade uranium and this enrichment can be done through several processes but mainly three processes are utilized worldwide they are gaseous diffusion gas centrifuge and the third one is laser separation. Now in this representation you can see that using one of these processes uranium 238 is separated. So now moving on to the NPT NPT stands for treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. So when we say proliferation it means a rapid increase in the number of something so non-proliferation means a decrease in something. This NPT is a landmark international treaty its objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology. In addition to this it also aims to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In addition to that NPT wants to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. See this treaty is very important because it is the only multilateral treaty which has binding commitments towards the goal of disarmament by nuclear weapon states. This treaty entered into force in 1970 and as on May 1995 this treaty was extended indefinitely and so far a total of 191 states have joined the treaty. So this treaty has been ratified by more countries than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement. So this is a testament to the treaty's significance and that is why this treaty is regarded as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and it is also essential for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. So remember this treaty was developed or designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Second to further the goals of nuclear disarmament. Third general and complete disarmament and fourth it also aims to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Apart from this the treaty also establishes a safeguard system under the responsibility of international atomic energy agency and the fact that you should remember is that India has not yet signed this treaty. So now what this treaty says about enrichment? We saw that NPT clearly provides access to non-nuclear weapon states to the nuclear technology that do for peaceful purposes only. But it does not specifically afford or even deny enrichment. Based on this Iran is arguing that it can develop the entire nuclear fuel cycle including enrichment because it is using it for peaceful purposes only and many other states are also arguing that enrichment for peaceful purposes is implicitly recognized as a right by the NPT. So in this regard you should remember that many other non-nuclear weapon states pursued enrichment because they interpret that NPT is giving them the right to do enrichment and this includes the countries like Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Japan because they have also pursued enrichment. But on the other hand if you take USA it is also using this same clause because we just saw that NPT does not specifically either deny or afford enrichment. So stating this USA is saying that NPT is silent on enrichment. So that does not mean that it provides a right to enrichment. So it is opposing it. So remember this fact it is an important fact about NPT and enrichment. So keeping these facts in mind now let us move to the next discussion. Now this news article talks about an important missile. It is the Helena missile. The news article mentions that Helena has completed all its trials and this Helena is a helicopter launched NAG missile. So that is why in this discussion we are going to discuss about NAG and also about Helena. Now to understand about these missiles we have to first know about anti-tank guided missile. So we know that a missile is a rocket propelled weapon and it is designed to deliver an explosive warhead. And usually this missile delivers the warhead with great accuracy and that too at high speed. Now in case of an anti-tank guided missile you should understand that it is basically created to destroy vehicles that are heavily armored like the tanks. And these anti-tank missiles can be of different sizes. For example we even have the smaller missiles that can be carried by just one person and it could be shoulder launched. And we also have bigger missiles which needs a team to transport or launch that missile. And there are even much bigger missiles that are mounted on aircrafts and other vehicles. And one such missile is the NAG missile. So this NAG missile is an anti-tank guided missile and this NAG is a third generation anti-tank guided missile. It is developed by Defense Research and Development Organization that is DRDO and it was developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program IGMDP. See this IGMDP was launched by the Ministry of Defense in 1983. It was actually the brainchild of former late president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. This program was developed by important agencies like DRDO and Ordnance Factories. And the purpose of this project was to develop strategic missiles into various categories. So it involved the development of a family of strategic and tactical guided missiles. And under the strategic program two ballistic missile systems were developed. These were the Prithvi and Agni. So under this Agni 1 to 5 were developed. Then under the tactical guided missile systems, the medium and short range surface-to-air missiles were developed such as the Akash and Trishul. And even this NAG it was also developed under this IGMDP. But remember this project was terminated in 2008. Another fact to be remembered here is that the Agni P missile that is the Agni Prime is not a part of IGMDP. So now coming back to our NAG discussion. See this NAG missile has top attack capabilities. Let us see these capabilities now. First it is an all weather missile. Then it effectively engages and destroys all known enemy tanks both during day and night. So it could be deployed in the day and also in the night. Apart from this, this NAG is a fire and forget missile. So whenever we say fire and forget in terms of missiles, it means that the missile guidance does not require further guidance after the launch. And still it will hit the target even if the launcher is not in the line of sight of the target. So if a missile is a fire and forget, then after firing it, the launcher can move from that place and move to a safer position. And note that this NAG missile comes in four variants and these variants can be launched from both land and air. Also note that the minimum range of NAG is about 500 meters and its maximum range is up to 20 kilometers. And this range changes according to the launch type. And the missile has a top speed of about 828 kilometer per hour. So these are the facts that you need to know about NAG missile. Now let us see about the Helina missile. See this Helina missile is the helicopter launched version of this NAG missile system. Actually the name Helina can be separated into Heli plus NAG. Heli stands for helicopter and NA stands for NAG. So like the NAG missile, this Helina missile is also a third generation fire and forget anti-tank guided missile. And this Helina missile is generally mounted on the advanced light helicopter because it is a helicopter launch version only. And similar to the NAG missile, this system also possesses an all weather day and night capability. And it can also defeat battle tanks with conventional armor. Additionally, it can also defeat the battle tanks having explosive reactive armors. In addition to that, the missile can also engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as the top attack mode. So when we say a direct hit mode, it means that the missile can lock into a target and hit it. And the top attack mode means it enables the missile to hit the tanks and other armored targets on their roof because roof is the place where the armor is the thinnest. So it is very easy to cause major damages if that armored target is hit on the roof. So remember Helina is a helicopter launched version of NAG missile and NAG was developed as a part of IGMDP. So keeping these facts in mind, let us move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is going to be based on this editorial article. It talks about the social and emotional learning. See as the legendary Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, man is by nature a social animal. So that means being social and emotional is considered as basic human trait. Therefore, like the knowledge of numeracy, language and science, children should also be exposed to social and emotional learning through their educational system. And this article highlights this along with this, it also highlights the importance of this social and emotional learning, which in short is called as SEL. And it tries to explain as to why there is a need to incorporate SEL in our educational system. So in this discussion, we will see what is this SEL, we will see the definition, then it's importance and need and we'll also see the way forward. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First, let us understand what is this SEL or social and emotional learning. See, as you know, there are many types of learning. We have a practical learning, theoretical learning, etc. And this SEL is also one such type of learning only. This SEL provides the foundations for self-awareness, self-management, social awareness. It provides foundations for relationship skills and also responsible decision making of the individual. So this is a learning process that actually helps an individual to recognize and manage emotions. And it also equips the individual to navigate the social situations in a better way. So that means when we say social and emotional learning, it means self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. These five competencies are provided through SEL. Now this SEL especially has two key elements. The first one is the cultivation of empathy. See as a term, this empathy means the ability of an individual to understand the emotions and feelings of the fellow person. Therefore, being empathetic means being aware of the feelings and emotions of other individuals from their own perspective instead of viewing those feelings and emotions as a third person. And the second key element is the theory of mind. It refers to the ability to understand a fellow person's intentions, knowledge and beliefs. This theory of mind also helps in recognizing and understanding even those intentions, knowledges or beliefs which may be different from our own. So this is the basic that you need to know about SEL. It includes competencies like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. And it has two key elements, the cultivation of empathy and the second one is the theory of mind. But why is it important to incorporate this SEL as an integral part of our educational system? See research says that students who are well acquainted with SEL, they are found to have more success. Why? Because through SEL, they possess greater social skills as well as emotional regulation. This happens because various brain regions like the prefrontal and frontal cortices are found to be involved in the various cognitive mechanisms of SEL. In simple words, we can say that the brain systems which are responsible for basic human behavior, they are said to be reused while they are engaging in complex mechanisms involved in the SEL. And this is one of the reasons as to why what we feel physically directly impacts our social emotional evaluation of the world. Scientists also propose that there is an inherent link between the physiological and psychological factors of SEL. That is what we see or feel directly, it affects or influences our psychological motives and intentions. So that means this SEL has greater impact on an individual's mind and learning. Apart from this, SEL also supports various skills including communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. And this is also one of the reasons why SEL should be an equally important goal in the curriculum. But the issue is that even though this SEL has an important role, it is often added as just a chapter in the larger curriculum. It is not included or integrated in the whole curriculum. So there is a need to include even the social and emotional experience as part of our learning process along with numeracy and language. But even our new national educational policy of 2020 fails in this aspect because even though it mentions SEL as an important facet of education, it still notes only numeracy and literacy as its central aims. And thirdly, why we can integrate SEL as part of our education is because of the gains that have been made by various countries in this regard. See, SEL learning has already been adopted in many countries. For example, in the recent years, it has been applied in Vietnam, especially at the private educational institutions. And here in Vietnam, SEL is not taught as a single subject, rather it is integrated into the content of school subjects. And these private educational institutions of Vietnam have adopted SEL framework from other countries like Netherlands, USA, Canada and Switzerland, who have employed SEL in their institutions, mainly for primary students. In this regard, the Synapse School of California is worth mentioning. See, the Synapse School is an independent elementary and middle school in California. They consider SEL as a central pillar and they have incorporated SEL into their curriculum. And they have incorporated this through self-science classes. See, in this self-science classes what happens is the students participate in activities, discussions and assignments and these activities, discussions and assignments, they lead the students through a sequence of developmental goals. And the activities and discussions encourage students to increase their self-awareness and awareness of others. It helps them to evaluate the consequences of choices. It helps them to develop healthy and effective coping strategies, etc. So whatever competencies that are learned through SEL is provided under the self-science classes. And therefore every member of the community including these students, teachers and parents are engaged in a continual process to become more aware, to become more intentional and more compassionate in life through these self-science classes. And based on these examples, our country needs to incorporate this SEL in our curriculum and it should be given equal importance to the theoretical learning. That is instead of keeping SEL as a separate subject, it should be integrated and incorporated in the mainstream learning itself. So in this regard, author has provided a suggestion. According to the author, the application of SEL practices should be based on students' socio-economic backgrounds and the SEL strategies of caretakers and educators must be aligned with one another. Especially the SEL practices should be based on the scientific evidence, that is based on the evidences of other countries and other institutions. So that means as a conclusion we can say that while making future policies or future changes, an important educational reform is needed where the policymakers need to prioritize inclusive and equitable quality education. And this could be done through incorporating social and emotional learning in the curriculum. So in this discussion, we focused on an important development that is needed in the education sector and this topic becomes important in our ethics paper also. Because as you can see, role of family, society and education institutions in inculcating values is an important part of our syllabus along with this emotional intelligence is also a part of our syllabus. So now let us move on to the next discussion. Okay, now our last discussion for today is going to be based on this news article from the front page. This article talks about the Hindi language and its promotion. See as you know, Hindi is one of the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution. But why we are suddenly discussing about this? It is because the news article mentions that Hindi is gaining popularity as a result of changing demographics. So what is demography? It is the statistical study of populations and this study is based on factors such as age, race and sex. So the news mentions that due to the shift in demography, the Hindi language is getting prominence. And in this regard, the article also mentions some of the arguments for and against promotion of Hindi. It also provides certain census data in this regard. And it also lists other factors which are cited as a reason for the prominence of Hindi language. So let us see all these aspects one by one. That is, we will see the arguments for and against promotion of Hindi. We will see the census data. This is going to be important from Maine's perspective. See, we are going to analyze this news article, taking a middle point and we are going to take down points that are relevant for the examination. And whenever such controversial topics appear, you should approach it with a neutral mind. Because as an aspirant, you have to learn the positives and negatives of such topics or such areas. After knowing that only, you will be able to take a stand in the examination. So before knowing everything about a particular topic or area, don't take a stand. Because as an aspirant, your answer should have the facts that is demanded by the question. So keeping this in mind, let us get into the discussion with a neutral mind. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. So we are going to start the discussion with the arguments favoring Hindi promotion. And we'll also see the reasons for its prominence, as mentioned in the news article. The news article mainly relates the prominence of Hindi language with the fertility rate. The news article says that the Hindi speakers within the Hindi speaking states have increased. Along with this, the Hindi speakers have also considerably increased in the non-Hindi speaking states also. This statement has been made based on the census data. If you look at the census, as you can see here, in the 1971 census, only around 37% of our population spoke Hindi language. But in 2011, as you can see here, this percentage has increased to 43.63%. And this significant rise could not be witnessed in any other scheduled languages or even in the non-scheduled languages also. The major fact that you should note here is that this significant rise also includes the rise of Hindi speakers in the non-Hindi speaking states. And that is why we have a question as to why there is a rise in population of those who speak Hindi. See the reason for this rise, we can see in two aspects. One is the reason for rise in Hindi speaking states and the reason for the rise in non-Hindi speaking states. First, if we take the Hindi speaking states, the reason given here is due to the general rise in population in these states. And this general rise is happening due to their highest fertility rate. So, since these states normally speak Hindi, their Hindi speaking population is also gradually increasing. And the news article particularly mentions that this high fertility rate is prominent among the poor and less educated women. This fact is important as to why there is an increase in the Hindi speakers in non-Hindi speaking states. Because these poor and less educated women and their family, they migrate to other states. But how can migration increase the number of people whose mother tongue is Hindi? This is again linked to the high fertility rate only. See for example, let us assume that a poor illiterate Hindi speaking family is moving from Bihar to Kerala. And generally, a normal Bihar family has six children. Let us assume that. And a normal Kerala family has two children. We are just taking this as an example. This is not the exact fact. But when this poor illiterate Hindi speaking family from Bihar, they move to Kerala, they will have fewer children. Let us assume they are having four children. But this average is still more than the average Malayalam speaking family in Kerala. So this leads to the boost in the number of Hindi speakers in the non-Hindi speaking states also. And this rise in population and the proportion of Hindi speaking population in the non-Hindi speaking states is taken as the major reason for promoting Hindi in such states. And using this fact, Hindi is also used for governance. So those who oppose promoting Hindi, they argue that using data from sensors may not help or it is wrong. See, those who oppose Hindi promotion based on census data, they say that during 2011 census, many claimed Hindi and English as their mother tongue. But they did not say that they can actually speak these languages. We all know that our mother tongue could be something. For example, we always witness people whose mother tongue is some language and they are unable to speak that language. So similarly, it can also happen with the case of Hindi also. So those who oppose promoting Hindi, they argue that just because someone says Hindi is their mother tongue does not mean that they actually speak this language. And secondly, there is also another argument that many choose Hindi as their mother tongue just to be superior and to reap the benefits provided by the center. This argument is based on our second reason because if you look at the census data, many regional languages in the Northern India have been clubbed under a single label of Hindi. As you can see here, more than 50 regional languages and mother tongues have been clubbed under the umbrella language of Hindi. And due to this also, Hindi speaking population appears to be prominent. For example, if you take Bojpuri, we know that Bojpuri is spoken in Bihar. But as you can see here, the Bojpuri population is more than 5 crores. But since Bojpuri is a mother tongue under Hindi, this population is also calculated under Hindi only. So this doesn't mean that the population actually speaks the original Hindi. Rather, they also include those populations who speak the mother tongues that are clubbed under the language of Hindi. And we saw in the beginning that Hindi is a scheduled language. Now, this clubbing which we are seeing here is also a reason for this status of scheduled language of Hindi. And this also paved the way for Hindi becoming the official language of our country. Remember, Hindi is just an official language of our country. It is not our national language. So this clubbing has helped Hindi to gain the status of official language and to gain the status of scheduled language. But other prominent languages which even have more than one poor population have been excluded from the scheduled languages status also. The best example here is the Billy language. As you can see here, it also includes other mother tongues. For example, Dodia, Mauchi, Paradi, etc. And more than one poor population speak this Billy language. And this data is according to the 2011 census. And we can assume that after 2021 census, this figure could even go up. But still this language has not given the status of scheduled language. So all these reasons are paraded against the celebration of Hindi Divas. As you know, Hindi Divas is celebrated every year on 14th September. It is celebrated across schools, colleges, offices and organizations. Why this day? It is because on this day in 1949, Hindi was adopted as one of the two official languages of our country. English is also an official language. But we are still celebrating Hindi Divas. So that means by celebrating, the aim here is to promote Hindi language. But in the beginning, we saw that Centre is claiming that this language is gaining prominence. So those who oppose promotion of Hindi, they argue that rather than promoting a language, which the Centre is claiming as having prominence, Centre should promote languages like Billy or Gondi, which have lakhs of speakers and which are not pleased under the age schedule and which do not have the status of scheduled language. So these are the reasons as to why Hindi is considered as being imposed on the non-Hindi speaking states. But we can say that to an extent, this is being reduced. We are stating this fact based on the steps taken by the Centre to incorporate other powerful regional languages. For instance, if you take the NEET exam, which is an entrance exam into the medical programs, this NEET exam is now offered in 13 different languages. Along with this, even the engineering colleges have started offering courses in five Indian languages this year. So this shows that there are also steps being taken to promote other regional languages nowadays. And this is a result of the political pushback from non-Hindi speaking states. So when we talk about the pushback from non-Hindi speaking states against Hindi, you can mention the example of the anti-Hindi agitation of Tamil Nadu. This agitation was against making Hindi the country's official language. In this agitation, promoting Hindi as an official language was seen as an effort to undermine and destroy the Tamil language and its culture. So a large-scale movement arose, which included fast demonstrations, protests, marches, processions, and even the destruction of public property. So this wide-scale anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 made the then Congress government to amend the Official Languages Act. So whenever you talk about the arguments against promotion of Hindi language, mention this anti-Hindi agitation of 1965. It will enrich your answer. So as a whole, we can conclude that majorly the problem is not actually promoting Hindi, but the problem seems to be not promoting other languages. So that means the center needs to take other steps to ensure that other languages are also equally represented like Hindi. So in this discussion, we saw some of the points in favor of and also against the promotion of Hindi language. You can mention these points in the main's answer or in your essay writing and you can also note your own viewpoints as to why you think Hindi should be promoted or as to why you don't think Hindi should be promoted. So viewers, with this news article discussion, we have come to the end of news articles discussion session. Now we are moving to the next session of practice questions discussion. So the first question which you are going to take is a previous year question. This question was asked in prelims 2015. Let us read the question first. Consider the following countries, China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, which among the above are nuclear weapons states as recognized by the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, commonly known as nuclear non-proliferation treaty. So it asks, according to NPD, which of these states are nuclear weapons states? So during discussion we saw that around 191 states are parties to the NPD. And these includes all five declared nuclear weapons states. See these states are the ones which manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon before 1967. So these states include China, France, Russian Federation, UK and USA. So from this you can say that one and two should be definitely in answer. So based on that you can eliminate options B and C. Now this question becomes simple because it also mentions India. We know that neither India signed this treaty nor it is a party to this treaty. So that means three should not be in the answer. So we have to eliminate option D also. And therefore the correct answer to this question is option A, one and two only. So without knowing whether Israel and Pakistan are nuclear weapons states or not, we have arrived at the correct answer. So at least know about the status of India regarding important treaties, especially the international ones. So now let us take this next question. Let us read the question first. Consider the following statuses. Official language, national language, classical language, schedule language. Which among the above statuses have been accorded to the Hindi language? This is actually a very simple question because without knowing which of the options is correct or not, you can attend this question based on the elimination technique. Because remember aspirants, Hindi is not a national language of our country. So two should not be in the answer. So if you eliminate two, you easily arrive at the correct answer which is option C, one and four only. So that is why we say we should know at least something about everything. And this question we are not attending on guesswork. We definitely know that Hindi language is not a national language of our country. Now during discussion itself, we saw that Hindi is the official language along with English. So our country has two official languages, Hindi and English. And coming to the schedule language status, we know that Hindi along with other 21 languages have been listed in the age schedule. So on a total 22 languages have been listed in the age schedule of our constitution. And these languages are called as the schedule languages. Among these 22 languages, six have been assigned the status of classical languages. And these six are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia and Sanskrit. So all the southern languages plus Sanskrit. And from this itself, it is clear that Hindi has not been accorded the status of classical language. And that is why three is not in the answer. So two and three should not be in answer. Our correct answer is option C, one and four only. Now this next question is a direct question. It asks, recently the term Helena was in news with reference to which of the following. COVID detection kit, supercomputer developed by Israel, satellite launched by European Space Agency, indigenous anti-tank guided missile. The correct answer is option D, indigenous anti-tank guided missile. And we discuss that Helena is the helicopter version of Nag missile. Okay aspirants, with these three practice questions, now I have this special question for you. This is based on the NPT treaty. This is a three statement question. Read these three statements carefully and then try to answer this question. If you are unable to answer it, go back to the discussion. This is the discussion again. And then try to attend this question. After you attend this question, post your answer in the comment section. I will review your answer and will tell you whether your answer is right or not. So, with this practice question, let us take one mains practice question. This question is based on our last discussion on the Hindi language. So, interested aspirants can write answer to this question and post it in the comment section. And it can be reviewed by other fellow viewers also.