 Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis session by Shankaray's Academy, dated 27th May 2021. The list of news articles for today's discussion is given for your reference, along with the page numbers of various editions of the newspaper. Now, before discussing these news articles, let us see few important preliminary questions asked in the year 2020. First question. With reference to the Indian economy, after the 1991 economic liberalization, consider the following statements. Statement 1. Worker productivity, rupees per worker at 2004 to 2005 prices, increased in urban areas while it decreased in rural areas. Statement 2. The percentage share of rural areas in the workforce steadily increased. Statement 3. In rural areas, the growth in non-form economy increased. Statement 4. The growth rate in rural employment decreased. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? The options given are option A, 1 and 2 only, option B, 3 and 4 only, option C, 3 only, option D, 1, 2 and 4 only. Firstly, let us know about economic liberalization. See, in 1991, India met with an economic crisis relating to its external depth, where the government was not able to make repayments, especially on the borrowings from abroad. You have to know that in addition, the foreign exchange reserves which we generally maintain to import petrol and other important items dropped to a level that was not even sufficient for a fortnight. See, this crisis was further compounded by rising prices of essential goods. Hence, as a result, major reforms were undertaken in the industrial and financial sectors by the government. The major external sector reforms include foreign exchange deregulation and import liberalization. And with a view to improve the performance of public sector, there was a consensus on reducing its role and opening it up to the private sectors. This was done through disinvestments and liberalization measures. Now, let us focus on the question. See, as per the report by Nithya Yog, changing structure of rural economy of India, implications for employment and growth 2017, the absolute level of income per worker, that is nothing but the worker productivity has increased for both rural and urban areas. For instance, if you consider the rural areas, the absolute level of income per worker was Rs. 37,273 in 2004-2005, while in 2011-2012, it increased to nearly Rs. 1 lakh. Similarly, while considering the urban areas, it was around Rs. 1,20,419 in 2004-2005, whereas in 2011-2012, this increased to nearly Rs. 2,082,000. Hence, the first statement which says the worker productivity increased in urban areas while it decreased in rural areas is an incorrect statement. Now, consider the second statement. It says the percentage share of rural areas in the workforce steadily increased. From the table that is given for your reference, you could infer that the percentage share of rural areas in the workforce has been steadily decreasing. See the year in 1993-1994, the workforce was around 78% whereas in 2011-2012, the workforce percentage has decreased to nearly 70%. Hence, the second statement is incorrect. Know that the contribution of rural areas in different sectors of non-firm economy revealed large variations and interesting patterns. Kindly refer to the table given. See, this table shows the share of rural areas in total net domestic product and the workforce across different sectors. See, the growth in the sector can be inferred through the net domestic product. Know that the net domestic product is nothing but the gross domestic product minus the depreciation. As per this, the non-firm activities, especially the manufacturing and construction sectors have registered growth in the rural areas. Thus, the third statement is correct. Now, coming to the last statement. You have to note that after the year 2004-2005, the rural areas have witnessed negative growth in employment in spite of high growth in output. See, the growth rate of rural employment was just 1.45% during the 1994-2005 while it fell to the negative growth rate of 0.28% between 2005-2012. Hence, the fourth statement which says that the growth rate in rural employment decreased is a right statement. Hence, the answer for this question is option B, 3 and 4 only. Now, moving to the second question. With reference to chemical fertilizers in India, consider the following statements. Statement 1. At present, the retail price of chemical fertilizer is market driven and not administered by the government. Statement 2. Ammonia which is an input of urea is produced from natural gas. Statement 3. Sulphur which is a raw material for phosphoric acid fertilizer is a byproduct of oil refineries. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? The options given are option A, 1 only, option B, 2, 1, 3 only, option C, 2 only, option D, 1, 2, 1, 3. See, consider the first statement. It says the retail price of chemical fertilizer is market driven. See, the government of India subsidizes fertilizers to ensure that the fertilizers are easily available to the farmers and at the same time the country remains self-sufficient in agriculture. In that way, the subsidy on phosphorus and potash fertilizers is being governed by the nutrient-paste subsidy scheme with effect from April 1, 2010. In accordance to its farmers-friendly approach, the government is committed to ensure that the availability of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to the farmers are made on affordable prices. In addition, the government also fixes the market price of urea as per the new urea policy of 2015. Thus, the statement 1 which says that the retail price of chemical fertilizer is market-driven and not administered by the government is a wrong statement. Now, eliminate the first statement. The options will be left with option B and option C. So, the second statement anyhow is correct. Now, let us move to the third statement. See, sulfur is a non-metallic chemical element and it is a valuable commodity and also an integral component of the world economy. See, it is used to manufacture numerous products including fertilizers and other chemicals. Note that sulfur is a major byproduct of oil refining and gas processing. Also, most crude oil grades contain some sulfur, most of which must be removed during the refining process to meet strict sulfur content limits in refined products. This is typically done through hydrotreating and results in the production of hydrogen-sulfide gas which is converted into elemental sulfur in the sulfur recovery unit. Also know that the most of sulfur produced by refineries is sold into the petrochemicals market where it is used to make sulfuric acid. Hence, the third statement is correct. So, the correct answer is option B, 2 and 3 only. In addition, let us see about ammonia also. See, ammonia is critical in manufacturing of fertilizers and it is also one of the largest volume synthetic chemicals produced in the world. Know that ammonia is used to produce various nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate, urea, ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfate. And in addition to it, the manufacturing of some inorganic nitrogen compounds are also done using ammonia, the most important one being the nitric acid. In addition, the liquid ammonia is also used as a refrigerant. Note that the synthetic ammonia that refers to ammonia has been synthesized from the natural gas. Thus, ammonia can be produced from natural gas. The statement 2 which says that ammonia which is an input of urea is produced from natural gas is the correct statement. Now, let us move to the third question. Consider the following statements. Statement 1, in terms of short-term credit delivery to the agriculture sector, district-central cooperative banks deliver more credit in comparison to the scheduled commercial banks and regional rural banks. Statement 2, one of the most important function of district-central cooperative banks is to provide funds to the primary agriculture credit societies. Which of these statements, given above, is sure or correct? The options given are option A, one only, option B, two only, option C, both one and two, option D, neither one nor two. C, the institutional sources of the agriculture credit includes commercial banks, cooperative credit institutions, and regional rural banks. In order to understand the performance of different agencies in lending to the agriculture sector, a comparative analysis has been done showing their share in total agricultural and allied credit outstanding. Have a look at the pie chart given for your reference. Make note that the scheduled commercial banks contributes nearly 78 to 80 percentage in agricultural and allied credit, whereas the cooperative institutions, which also plays a significant role in extending agriculture credit as a share of around 15 to 16 percentage putting all together the cooperative banks and institutions. In addition, the regional rural banks also contributes remaining 5 percentage of the agriculture credit. Thus, the first statement which says that the district central cooperative banks deliver more credit in comparison to scheduled commercial banks and regional rural banks is an incorrect statement. Now, let us move to the second statement. See, the district central cooperative banks are a type of rural cooperatives, along with state cooperative banks and primary agriculture credit societies. See, you have to know that the short term cooperatives are arranged in three entire structures in most of the states. With the state cooperative bank at the apex level and district central cooperative bank at the intermediate level and the primary agriculture credit societies at the grass root level. Since this question is related to district central cooperative banks, let us see about the district central cooperative banks in brief. See, the DCCBs mobilize deposits from the public and provide credit to the public as well as the primary agriculture credit societies. Also, one of the most significant role of district central cooperative banks is to support and develop the primary agriculture credit societies. Hence, the statement 2 which says that the most important function of DCCB is to provide funds to primary agriculture credit society is the correct statement. The answer for this question is option D 2 only. With this, let us move to the article's discussion. The first topic for today's discussion is ED probing charges against IFF CO MD. See, this article reports about the enforcement directorate and its probing of money laundering cases in connection with the case. This case was recently registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the Indian Farmers' Fertilizers Cooperative Limited managing director and others. They have been alleged import of fertilizers and raw materials at inflated rates. So, in this light, let us see in detail about the enforcement directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Indian Farmers' Fertilizer Cooperative Limited. The syllabus covered under this topic is given for your reference. First, let us see about the enforcement directorate. See, the directorate of enforcement is a specialized and a financial investigation agency which comes under Department of Revenue which is under the Ministry of Finance. It is a multi-disciplinary organization managed to be the task of enforcing provisions of two fiscal laws, namely the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999 which is shortly called as FEMA and the other act is Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002. The enforcement directorate has got its headquarters in New Delhi and it is headed by the director of enforcement. Similarly, the directorate has got five regional officers that are headquartered at Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Delhi and each of them is headed by the special director of enforcement. Regarding its composition, apart from direct recruitment, the directorate also draws officers from different investigation agencies like the customs, central excise, income tax, police, etc. on deputation in order to undertake a mission. Let us see some of the functions of enforcement directorate. See, the functions of enforcement directorates includes investigating contraventions that are related to the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act. Addition to it, it also investigates money laundering offenses under the provision of Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002 and other important function is to process fugitive cases from India under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018. Also, the adjudication related to show-cast notices that are issued under the Repealed Foreign Exchange Management Act is also one of the important functions of enforcement directorate. Know that EDE also sponsors cases of prevention detention under Koffee-Posa Act in regard to FEMA contraventions and in order to render cooperation to foreign countries in matters relating to money laundering and restoration of assets under the provision of Prevention of Money Laundering Act and to seek cooperation in the matters related to it, the enforcement directorate plays a major role. Note that being a premier financial investigative agency under the Government of India, the EDE functions in strict complaints with the Constitution and the Law of India and it respects the guidance of all lawful authorities and at the same time it attempts to establish and maintain high professional standards and authority and credibility. Now, let us move on to Central Bureau of Investigation. Know that the CBI is the premier investigative police agency in India. See, during the period of World War II, special police establishment was constituted in the year 1941 in the Department of War of the British India. This was to inquire into allegations of bribery and corruption in the war-related procurements. Later on, it was formalized as an agency of the Government of India to investigate into allegations of corruption in various wings of Government of India by enacting the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946. Following this in the year 1963, CBI was established by the Government of India with the view of to investigate serious crimes related to defense of India, corruption in high places, serious fraud, cheating and social crimes particularly hoarding, black marketing and profiteering in essential commodities. Remember, CBI derives its legal power to investigate crime from the said Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946. Note that the superintendents of CBI related to investigation of offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988 lies with the CBC which is nothing but the Central Vigilance Commission. In other words, it lies with the Department of Personal and Training in the Ministry of Personal, Pension and Grievances of the Government of India. Now, let us discuss about the main mission of CBI. See, to uphold the Constitution of India and law of the land through in-depth investigation and successful prosecution of offenses is one of its mission. Also, in addition to provide leadership and direction to police forces also to act as a nodal agency for enhancing interstate and international cooperation in law enforcement. Note that the laws under which the CBI can investigate crimes are notified by the Central Government under section 3 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. Under this are present CBI as the following three divisions for investigation of crime. They are the Anti-Corruption Division, Economic Offences Division, Special Crimes Division. Let us see about it one by one. The Anti-Corruption Division investigates cases that comes under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988. In addition to it, this Anti-Corruption Division also investigates cases related to the Prevention of Corruption Act of 2018 where the act is against the public officials and employees of Central Government, PSUs, corporations or bodies owned or controlled by the Government of India. Note that this is the largest division that has a presence almost in all the states of India. Next is the Economic Offences Division. This division investigates crimes related to major financial scams and serious economic frauds. This includes crimes relating to fake Indian currency, fake Indian currency notes, bank frauds and cybercrime. Finally, it is the Special Crimes Division which investigates on serious, sensational and organized crime under the IPC and other laws on the request of the state government. It also can investigate cases when the orders of Supreme Court and High Court demands. Now, coming to the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited, know that it is one of the biggest cooperative society which is wholly owned by Indian cooperatives. It was founded in the year 1967 with just 57 cooperatives. See, the main purpose of IFFCO is to enable and to accurate Indian farmers to grow and flourish by providing sufficient, reliable and excellent agriculture information and services in a reasonable time and to run services to improve their quality of life. Some of the primary mission of IFFCO includes like providing farmers high quality fertilizers to make plants energy efficient, to help in incremental growth of employees and enable achievement of strategic objectives to acquire, assimilate, adopt reliable, efficient and cost-effective technology and in a similar way to ensure growth in core and non-core sectors. With this, we have come to the end of this news discussion. So, this article, we have learnt some important facts about the direct rate of enforcement, CBI and also about the IFFCO cooperatives. With this information, let us move on to the next part of the discussion. Now, let us see this open editorial, Losing the Way with a Map. See, this open editorial talks about the issues such as underfinancing of different programs under Ministry of Culture. In this context, we will be discussing the important issues highlighted by the author and the need to revive the national mission on cultural mapping. The syllabus covered under this topic discussion is given for your reference and moving with the article, as we know, India is one of the ancient civilizations of the world and has a rich diversified cultural heritage. However, unlike most other countries of the world that have homogenous communities across their landscape, India is a conglomeration of cultures. See, Indian art includes visual, performing and literary arts with multiple art types in each category. Also, thousands of artists over the years have spent their lives to shape and enrich these art forms. Know that, the Ministry of Culture is mandated to preserve, promote and popularize India's diverse culture and ancient heritage. In persons of this mission, the Ministry has been administering a few schemes to identify, nurture, handhold and train the upcoming and budding artists by way of scholarship, fellowship, pensions, etc. But this is not happening in reality. The author says that budget allocations for culture have been declining in the last five years, where it is standing at a mere 0.07% of the recent budget. Also, the outlay for annual budget 2021-22 of Ministry of Culture is around Rs. 2600 crores. This is very minimal considering the fact that Ministry of Culture runs three academies, 70 odd museums, three national galleries, several national libraries and art shifts and also implements many other schemes, etc. The issue of underfinancing of arts and culture was brought to limelight by the ongoing pandemic. See, when the pandemic struck, lakhs of people in the arts community suffered as they were no income for them. The author says that while countries such as China, Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom announced billion-dollar relief packages, India slashed the culture funding by a further 21%. Another persisting issue in the government's cultural institutions are vacancies ranging from 30% to 70%. In addition to it, lack of trained manpower is also another problem. So, what is the way forward? See, the census 2011 had recorded 34 languages being spoken by more than a million native speakers and about 122 languages spoken by more than 10,000 people. As the language dialects and the population associated with the changes, the art forms to take a change. According to an estimate in India, know that agriculture employs 37-40% of the total workforce, whereas the culture and creative industries employs 45-48% of the total workforce. In addition to it, all other industries put together employ around only 17-20% of the total workforce. So, there is a need to have a consolidated database of information about cultural assets and resources. That is, a cultural inventory at one place for essential planning, sustainable economic development and for preserving the scattered and existing art forms is the need of the art. This data can also be used to streamline and rationalize various financial grant schemes implemented by the Ministry for Artists and Cultural Organization. Here, the author further highlights the significance of the National Mission on Cultural Mapping. See, this National Mission on Cultural Mapping was set up by the Ministry of Culture in the year 2017. Know that this mission aims to compile data of artists, art form and geolocation with inputs from central ministries, state governments and art and culture bodies. In this direction, a specially designed data capture form with technical collaboration of National E-Governance Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been formulated for data collection. Also, the process of collecting data from art and culture academies of the Ministry of Culture has also begun. Under this mission at a broad level, there are three important objectives. Know that they are the National Cultural Awareness Abiyan, nationwide artist talent hunt, scouting process and the National Cultural Workplace. As parents can have a look at the schematic flow of mission for further understanding. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion. Let us move to the next topic. The third news article for today's discussion. Panel to investigate charges of illegal construction in Meghathadu. See, recently the National Green Tribunal has appointed a joint committee to look into allegations of unauthorized construction activities taking place in Meghathadu. Note that Meghathadu is a place in Karnataka where the Karnataka government had recently had proposed to construct a dam across the Kaveri River. In this context, let us learn about the Kaveri River from Prillam's perspective. See, this river rises at an elevation of 1341 meters at Talakaveri on the Brahmagiri Range. This Brahmagiri Range is near the Charangala village of Kodagu district of Karnataka. Know that the Kaveri basin extends over states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry, draining an area of nearly 81,000 square kilometers. Note that it is bounded by the western gods on the west and by the eastern gods on the east and the south and the reaches separating it from Krishna basin and Pinar basin located on the north. Now, let us learn about its tributaries. See, Harangi, Hemavati, Shimsha and Arkavati are the left-bank tributaries of Kaveri whereas Lakshmana Tirtha, Kabini, Swarnavati, Bhavani, Noyal and Amaravati are its right-bank tributaries. See, after flowing for nearly 800 kilometers, Kaveri river finally drains into Bay of Bengal. Since the article mentions about the National Green Tribunal, let us see about it in brief. See, the National Green Tribunal is a specialized body established under the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010. Also know that it was established for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forest and other natural resources. See, NGT also enforces any legal rights relating to the environment and also gives relief and compensation for damages to properties and persons. It is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving the multi-disciplinary issues. Also know that one of the important point is, tribunal is not bound by the procedures laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure 9008 whereas the NGT is guided only by the principle of natural justice. Also, the tribunal is mandated to make an endeavor for disposal of applications or appeals finally within six months of filing of the same. Also know that the NGT has a total of five places of sittings, namely in Bhopal, Pune, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai among which New Delhi is the principal place of sitting. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion. In this article, we have learnt about Kaveri river, its origin, its base and its tributaries. Also, we have learnt about the NGT in brief. Now, let us move to the next article. Now, let us see the editorial, the long shadow of political turmoil in Nepal. See, this editorial is about the recent political turmoil in Nepal. Recently, Nepal's President Bityadevi Bhandari dissolved the Nepal's House of Representative after the suggestion of Nepal's Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. This partisan move has received widespread criticism as it totally disregards Nepal constitution and ensure Mr. Oli continues in office and controls the state missionary. This editorial is a discussion on that and let us see about it. The syllabus covered under this topic discussion is given for your reference. See, Mr. Oli came to power in Nepal after the 2017 elections. This was the first election undertaken in the Federal Republic of Nepal established under the 2015 constitution. See, Mr. Oli is also known for his anti-Indian sentiments, but in spite of his anti-Indian sentiments, Nepal's relation with India saw positive movement during this period. Also, India was willing to overcome its reservation about Mr. Oli's anti-Indian nationalist tirades. Even our Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal in May 2018 shortly after Mr. Oli's visit. But Mr. Oli's autocratic tendencies soon began to surface. See, Nepal's political scenario was undergoing a turmoil. Mr. Oli needed a distraction to divert people from Nepal's local political issue. So, he found a great diversion in the Kalapani boundary issue. Now, let us see about the Kalapani issue. See, Kalapani is located at an altitude of 3600 meters on the Kailash Mansoorov range. See, the image is given for the aspirants. They can have a look at it. And it will be easier to locate where the Kalapani is located. See, the Kalapani borders Uttarkhand in India and Sudurpashchim Pradesh in Nepal. Since the Indochina War of 1962, Kalapani had been controlled by the India's Indo-Tibetan border police. Why is the Kalapani disputed? Let us see about it. See, under the Treaty of Sigauli signed between the Nepal and British East India Company in 1816, the Kali River was located as Nepal's western boundary with India. However, there were discrepancies in locating the source of the river, which later on led to the boundary disputes between India and Nepal. Later, India and Nepal produced maps supporting their own claims. This discrepancy has led to the boundary disputes between India and Nepal with each country producing maps including the territory in their own area to support their claims. The exact size of the Kalapani territory also varies in different sources. Now, going back to the article, as we all know, India issued new maps following the division of state of Jammu and Kashmir into Union territories as Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. India included Kalapani into the Pitrugar district of Uttarkhand. You will know that Kalapani is a contested area between India and Nepal where both countries claim Kalapani as an integral part of their country. So, Mr. Oli used this issue as an opportunity to divert the people of Nepal from their local issue. But India was caught up in the first COVID-19 wave during this time and it kept differing bilateral talks with Nepal to resolve the issue. Also, in May 2020, India inaugurated the 75-kilometer road through Kalapani that linked to the Kailash-Pansorovar pilgrimage route. This escalated the issue even further. Mr. Oli's government issued a new map for Nepal which included Kalapani in Nepal's territory. This move by Mr. Oli almost halted the India-Napal relationship. Also, this diversion tactic did not help him for long as the local turmoil in Nepal's politics resurfaced again. This turmoil later on escalated further and further and Mr. Oli has finally resorted to unconstitutional method to retain his power. India has so far did not interfere in this issue. Also, India believes that Nepal's political turmoil is internal matter and should not be interfered. But know that China is actively participating in the local issues of Nepal that will bring China and Nepal close together which is not favorable to our country. Also, India stands for constitutionalism and multi-party democracy. Finally, the author concludes by saying India should actively engage with all political actors of Nepal to restore its constitutionalism and democracy. Hence, this is the way that will be beneficial to Nepal and India in the long run. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion. Now, let us move to the next topic. The next news article is regarding the rural economic distress. See, the open editorial Tackling Rural Economic Distress talks about the significance of the public distribution system and the MG and Rega in tackling the rural economic distress. As we know, the lockdowns associated with the second wave of pandemic have seriously impacted the livelihood of those in the informal sector. See, the migrant workers and the rural poor who belong to the low-income categories in the informal sector were hit indiscriminately by the job loss and the food crisis created by the pandemic. Note that this is substantiated by the hunger watch report published by the Right to Food Campaign and the Center for Equity Studies. According to this report, in October 2020, 27% of the respondents said that they had no income while 40% of respondents said that the nutritional quality of food had become much worse. In addition to it, nearly 46% of the respondents said that they had to skip one meal at least once in the day. According to the Stranded Workers Action Network, 81% of the people whom they reached out said that work has almost stopped since April 2021. Note that this network is a group of volunteers connecting relief to workers stranded across India due to the COVID-19 lockdown. See, the migrants and the rural poor might suffer the same again during the ongoing lockdowns. So, what is the way forward? Recently, the central government announced to provide 5 kg of food grains at free of cost to the poor for May and June 2021. This will cover nearly 80 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act. And as the economic crisis is likely to last for a long time, it would be helpful to extend the free food grain program to a year. Apart from this, author also says that there is an urgent need to strengthen the public distribution system and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. As we know, the public distribution system evolved as a system of management of scarcity through distribution of food grains at affordable prices. Over the years, PDS has become an important part of the government's policies for management of food economy in the country. In addition to it, the author also says that last year, Centre had procured record amounts of rice and wheat, which is way more than the current requirements for PDS this year. Thus, the government should expand the public distribution system coverage immediately and include all eligible households. Coming to the MGN Drega, the mandate of it is to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteered to do an unskilled manual work. Know that the union budget of the year 2021 to 2022 had allocated rupees 73,000 crores to MGN Drega. But note that this is substantially lower than the actual expenditure of rupee 1.11 lakh crores in the year 2020. So, the Centre and States shall revise their allocation for MGN Drega at least till the economy revives back. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion. Let us move to the last topic. Now, let us take up this news article, Quad targeting China. This news article elaborates on the speech made by the China's council general in Mumbai. In this light, let us see in brief a few facts about Quad. See, the Quad, which is officially called the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a strategic forum between the four nations. The four nations are namely India, Australia, Japan and the United States. This is a strategic forum for exchanging strategic intelligence and for conducting joint military exercises. See, the Quad countries converge through a common interest of maintaining a stable balance of power in the region, which is viewed in the context of raising security threats stemming from China. Also, the Quad initiative is expected to put an end to the economic coercion tactics of China and the cooperation with Japan and other allies is expected to checkmate Chinese development assistance and its hegemony in the region. Beyond the Quad itself, the four constituents have been deepening their bilateral ties over the last few years. The Quad countries also have trilaterals with each other as well as with the other like-minded countries like France, Indonesia and South Korea. In addition to it, know that the Quad constituents also participate jointly or in different configurations in other platforms with such like-minded partners across a range of issues. It also includes like tackling COVID-19 and its consequences. Also, note that the history of Quad can be traced back to 2007. It was when the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put forth the idea based on the 2004 tsunami collaboration between these countries. Again, the idea came to the fore in the 2012 under the name Democratic Security Diamond. But however, it was only in the year 2017 the first official dialogue took place in Manila. Thus, Quad has evolved from a loose coalition of democracies to a concrete entity that has met thrice since 2019 at ministerial levels. Know that the last ministerial level talk was in February 2021 and recently on March 12, the leaders of four nations of Quad grouping met digitally for the first ever virtual summit level meeting. So with this, we have come to the end of this discussion. With these relevant facts in mind, let us move on to the next part of the discussion, the prelims practice question. Now let us see the prelims practice question, question number one. With reference to national mission on cultural mapping, consider the following statements. Statement one, it aims at converting the vast and widespread cultural canvas of India into an objective cultural map in the form of a cultural repository of artists and art forms. Statement two, it is implemented by Ministry of Culture in partnership with UNESCO. Which of these statements given above is or are correct? The options given are option A, one only, option B, two only, option C, both one and two, option D, neither one nor two. As we have already discussed, NMCM aims at converting the vast and widespread cultural canvas of India into an objective cultural map. This mission will be designing a mechanism to fulfill the aspirations of whole artist community of the nation and preserving the rich cultural heritage of this country. Hence the first statement given is a correct statement. But while considering second statement, it says it is implemented by Ministry of Culture in partnership with UNESCO. See this is an incorrect statement as UNESCO is not yet a partner to the program. So the answer for this question is option A, one only. Moving to the second question, this is regarding the Kaveri River which we have discussed earlier. Question, consider the following statements. Statement one, the Kaveri River rises in the state of Maharashtra. Statement two, Hemavati, Arkavati and Bhavani are left bank tributaries of Kaveri River. Which of the above statements is or are correct? The options given are option A, one only, option B, two only, option C, both one and two, option D, neither one nor two. See as we have discussed earlier, the Kaveri River rises at Talakavari on the Pramagiri Range which is located in Karnataka. Hence the first statement which says that Kaveri River rises in the state of Maharashtra is incorrect. And considering the second statement, note that the Hemavati and Arkavati are the left bank tributaries. But the Bhavani is not a left bank tributary. As discussed earlier, we know Harangi, Hemavati, Shimsha and Arkavati are left bank tributaries. Whereas the Lakshmana Tirtha, Kabini, Svarnavati, Bhavani, Noel and Amaravati are the right bank tributaries. Hence the second statement is also incorrect. The answer for this question is option D, neither one nor two. Now moving to the last question, with reference to Vada little security dialogue, consider the following statements. Statement one, it is an informal strategic forum comprising India, Japan, Australia and the United States of America. Statement two, members share a vision of an open and free Indo-Pacific. Statement three, they conduct trilaterals with each other as well as with the other like-minded countries. See we have already discussed in our previous discussion where quadrilateral security dialogue comprises countries such as India, Australia, Japan and United States. So the first statement is correct and we also know that one of the objective of this quadrilateral security dialogue is to ensure an open and free Indo-Pacific region. Hence second statement is also correct. Now moving to the third statement, they conduct trilaterals with each other as well as with other like-minded countries is also the correct statement. Hence the answer for this question is option D, one, two and three. These are few main questions that are given for your practice and you may write and post them in the comment section for peer review. That's it for today's discussion. If you like the video, kindly press the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankaraya's Academy for further updates. Thank you.