 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarai's Academy for the date 20th of January 2022. Before getting into the list of articles, we have an announcement for you. See Shankarai's Academy has designed a refresher course called as CSAT+. See some aspirants, though they score good marks in GS paper in problems, they find it very challenging to qualify in the civil services aptitude test paper, shortly known as CSAT paper. So to help students to easily qualify for the CSAT, Shankarai's Academy has come up with the course which starts on 27th January 2022. The class timing will be 5.30pm to 8pm. The program is also available in online mode. The admission is now open and by joining, one will get the benefits which I am going to mention here. You'll get a complete overview of CSAT course, all the shortcuts for time management and accuracy. You'll also be provided with toppers interaction, strategy to select easy and eliminate difficult questions which fetch more marks, strategy to improve and manage the English skills to understand the question and you will also be provided with previous year's CSAT paper analysis topic wise. To register for the program, visit the link given in the description below. So with this piece of information, now let us move on to the list of articles. Today we have chosen 5 different articles. First article is about electoral bonds. They might ask a question in Mainz in JS2. Second article is about anonymity. We'll be seeing ethical perspective of anonymity. Thirdly, we'll be seeing about eShram portal, the users of the portal who launched the portal and followed by that we'll be seeing an article regarding near-earth objects. Finally, we'll end our discussion by discussing about swamedies. So now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. See in this news article, the author highlighted various issues with the electoral bond scheme and why the judiciary must intervene and strike down the electoral bond scheme. So in this discussion, we'll focus on the basics about the electoral bonds, justifications given by the government and the counter points provided in this article by the author. Before getting into the discussion, the syllabus regarding this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. Firstly, we'll see a brief introduction about what happened before the introduction of electoral bonds. See before the introduction of electoral bonds, if a political party received a donation of less than 20,000 rupees from a donor, then it was not mandatory to reveal the source of funds. Obviously, this rule was misused by all the political parties. The political parties said that they received 90% of their political funds in the denomination of less than 20,000 rupees. Due to this, large amount of black money went into electoral funding and it was used in the electoral process as well. So a huge amount of black money was generated and used in the election campaigning. Have a look at this data from Association for Democratic Reforms. You can clearly see that between financial year 2004-5 to 2014-15, the political parties, both regional and national, received most of the funding from unknown sources. So to address this issue, the concept of electoral bond was first introduced in 2017 in finance bill 2017. Just know that it is introduced in Lok Sabha after the presentation of the annual budget is passed by the House. Here, finance bill is nothing but a bill which is introduced in each year to give effect to the financial proposal of the Government of India for the following financial year. Now coming back to our discussion, the electoral bonds were introduced as part of financial bill 2017. We saw that right? Then on 2nd of January 2018, the Government of India notified the electoral bond scheme. Now we will see in brief about how these electoral bonds are issued and processed. See, electoral bonds are a banking instrument used to fund political parties. See, although electoral bonds have the word bonds in it, the electoral bonds will not provide any interest. Don't be misled with the word bond. It is just a banking instrument used to fund political parties. See, as per provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds may be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. So, who can buy it? An individual who is a citizen of India or a corporate which is incorporated or established in India, they can purchase these electoral bonds. See, this individual can either buy electoral bonds single or jointly with other members as well. Know that only the political parties registered under section 29A of the Representation of People Act 1951. In addition to this, political parties who secured not less than one percentage of the votes pulled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State can only receive the electoral bonds. Now, through which account will the transaction will take place? See, the political parties are allotted a verified account by the Election Commission. Note that all the electoral bond transactions are done through this account only. Electoral bonds can be redeemed only by an eligible political party by depositing it in their designated bank account, maintained with authorized bank. And in order to curb the influx of unaccounted money, the purchase of electoral bonds would be allowed to buy electoral bonds only on due fulfilment of all the extent know your customer norms. Note here that for purchasing electoral bond, the payment must be made from a bank account. Additionally, the electoral bond will not carry the name of the pay. Now, what is the validity of this electoral bond? See, electoral bond would have a lifetime of only 15 days during which it can be used for making donation only to the political parties. So, if the government is issuing electoral bonds, you can purchase it and from the date of purchase, you can use it only until 15 days. Beyond 15 days, you cannot use it and you can use them for making donations only to the political parties. Just know that the sale of electoral bonds is only done through the State Bank of India. See, presently 29 branches of State Bank of India have been authorized to sell the electoral bonds. And the bonds under the scheme will be available for purchase for a period of 10 days each in the month of January, April, July and October as may be specified by the central government. And an additional period of 30 days shall be specified by the central government in the year of general election to the House of People. Here, the minimum amount for donation in electoral bonds is Rs 1000. There is no maximum limit for donation. In addition to this, the donation will be tax deductible under section 80 GGC and 80 GGB of Income Tax Act. And the benefitting political party will get a tax exemption for the amount received. Also know that the face value or the denomination of the electoral bond will be Rs 1000, Rs 10000, Rs 10000 and Rs 1 crore. So, these are some of the basic facts that you have to know about electoral bonds. What are the electoral bonds? Electoral bonds are a banking instrument used to fund political parties. Now, who can buy electoral bonds as a citizen or a corporate which is incorporated or established in India? They can purchase electoral bonds. They can purchase as an individual or jointly with other individuals. How will government issue the electoral bond? Government issues the electoral bond through State Bank of India. Presently 29 branches of State Bank of India have been authorized to sell the electoral bonds. So, through State Bank of India, government sells electoral bonds in the denomination of Rs 1000, Rs 10000, Rs 10000 and Rs 1 crore. So, if I wish to fund any political party, I will go to State Bank of India and I will buy the electoral bond of any denomination as per my wish and I will buy through online transaction. So, after buying the electoral bond, I will just give it to the political party to whom I wish to fund. Know that this electoral bond which I have purchased will not have my name or the political party to whom I am going to fund. So, the political party, after receiving the electoral bond, they will redeem the money which I have donated through a verified account allotted by the Election Commission. So, this is how it works. I hope you are clear with this. So far, we saw about how electoral bonds are issued and how it is processed. Now, we will see some of the important facts about electoral bonds. Now, let's see government's stand about electoral bonds. Firstly, the government claims that the electoral bonds will curb black money use in the electoral funding. See, since the donor purchases electoral bonds after submitting KYC details, that is know your customer details to the bank, it is a more transparent tool than cash. So, this is the first argument from the government side. Secondly, the government claims that electoral bonds will help bring in transparency. This is because the political parties are required to submit the details about contributions received through electoral bonds to the Election Commission. Hence, the bonds help in cleaning up the system of electoral finance in India. Finally, the government claims that the right of the buyer to purchase bonds without having to disclose his preference of political party is in accordance with his right to privacy. And also, keeping the identity of the donor anonymous is also an extension of his right to vote in a secret ballot as well. So, now let us see some of the issues with the electoral bonds highlighted by the author in this article. See, make note of these points very important. You can use these points as a value addition in your main stanza writing. The first argument given by author against the electoral bond is that electoral bonds are against democracy. See, in our country, right to know is made part of the right to freedom of expression under article 19. In a functioning democracy, there is no piece of information more important than the knowledge of who funds political parties. But the electoral bonds act as a hurdle to this. On one hand, it ensures right to privacy. But on the other hand, it curtiles the right to know. Second thing is, see the electoral bond removes any limit set on electoral fundings. See, prior to 2017, section 182 of the Companies Act 2013 stipulated that a company can donate only up to 7.8% of its average profit of the last three years and must disclose this amount and the beneficiary political party. So, this was before 2017. But now, through the electoral bonds, there is no limit to the amount companies can donate. Here, both the provisions were deleted like the requirement for firms to have existed for the last three years on a profit making basis and disclosing the amount and the beneficiary political party. Both the provisions has been deleted. The result of this change is that even loss making company or shell companies can be used to purchase electoral bonds. So, here comes the problem. So, basically corporate entities and individuals can now donate unlimited amounts to a political party through electoral bonds and that too anonymously. In addition to this, under Article 13A of the IT Act, companies contributing through electoral bonds will not even be required to maintain records of such donations. See, if no records are mandatorily maintainable, no questions can be asked by income tax authorities. In addition to this, the RPA Act has been amended to exempt political parties to inform election commission of any amount received above Rs. 2000 if made through electoral bonds. The result is complete financial opacity. See, Dr. P. R. Ambedkar memorably pointed out, for a democracy to properly function, our country must guarantee not just one person, one vote, but one vote, one value. But we know money is the most effective way of influencing policy, right? So, by donating money through electoral bonds, corporate houses and high net worth individuals can influence the policy to their favour. So, essentially the concept of one vote, one value is lost due to electoral bonds. So, in conclusion, according to the author, the electoral bonds are against democracy. Second argument against the electoral bonds given by the author is asymmetry in power. See, the ruling party has more power compared to the opposition party due to electoral bonds. Since the donations are routed through the State Bank of India, it is possible for the government to find out who is donating to which party, but not for the political opposition to know, right? This in turn means that every donor is aware that the central government can trace their donations back to them. This mechanism invariably favours the party in power. Look at this data from the Association of Democratic Reforms. This graph shows the party-wise electoral bonds declared in the audit records for the last three years. You can clearly note the asymmetry in the donation received here. The ruling party has been consistently getting the maximum funding from the electoral bonds. This, according to the author, gave undue advantage to the ruling party. Now, moving to third argument against electoral bond, it is issues in government's claim. See, the author also argues that claims made by the government regarding the effectiveness of electoral bond to curb black money are false. See, according to the electoral bond scheme, only Indian citizens can donate to political parties. But the electoral bond scheme also allows companies registered in India to donate. So, foreigners by incorporating or registering a shell company or bogus company in India can donate unlimited amount to the political parties, right? Through the route of shell companies, even black money can also be used to donate to the political parties. So, according to the author, the electoral bond have increased the prospects of institutional corruption instead of decreasing it. Finally, the author also questions what preventing black money has to do with donor anonymity, making donations limited and leaving citizens in the dark. See, these are some of the issues in the electoral bond scheme highlighted by the author. He does not stop there. The author of the article also provides some of the solutions. Now, let us see some of the alternatives to the problem. Firstly, elections must be publicly funded to create a level playing field among the political parties. This will treat everyone equal. Secondly, caps must be placed on the financial contributions to political parties so that people do not have undue influence over government policies. This is the second thing. And finally, the judiciary must act. See, we know that government derives their legacy because people elect them through free and fair elections. Here, the electoral bonds have made the entire process of election questionable. This makes the legacy of the government questionable. So, the independent judiciary must enforce the ground rules of democracy. The judiciary must ensure a level playing field in our multi-party democracy. For this, according to the author of the editorial, the judiciary must strike down the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional. It must strike down the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional because it infringes on our constitutional guaranteed right like, right to know and the guarantee of equality before law. So, now we came to the end of the news article discussion. In this discussion, we saw about some of the basic points about the electoral bond scheme, the claims made by the government regarding the benefits of the scheme, the criticism on the electoral bond scheme, leveled by the author of the editorial and finally, some solutions provided by the author. With this, let us conclude the discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article here. It talks about anonymity. See, anonymity is nothing but not revealing one's identity on social media. In this article, the author talks about the consequences of anonymity and its implications on society as well as individual persons. So, this is the crux of the article given here. In this context, let us discuss everything about anonymity and the spread of fake news because of it. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. So, first, what is this anonymity in social media? Like I said earlier, it is not revealing one's identity. The most common type of anonymity involves the use of a pseudonym. The word pseudo itself means false, right? So, pseudonym is nothing but a fictional name or fake name. Such accounts may have a fake photo or not keeping the photo itself and it might not specify anything in the bio. The opposite of anonymity is when someone uses their actual first name and last name and provides their designation and company name and mention their interest. So, when a person provides their bio data, anyone can Google that combination to identify that real person on say for example like in LinkedIn and many other social media platforms. Now, let us see the researchers' definition of anonymity. Security researchers, they define anonymity as being unidentifiable within a set of subjects. But note here that identity is not that linear. For example, some may use only the first name and they would provide other information about them false. In such cases, they are still anonymous. For example, some may use only the first name and they won't provide other information about them. In such cases, they are still anonymous. We can't say that just because we know their first name, we can identify that particular person. This is because many person will have similar first names. There are other cases also. Some may use pseudonyms and mask their identity but leave traces of identifiable information through their content. See, identity is also tied to behavioral patterns that emerges from what is shared over a period of time. Hence, researchers are saying finding identity is not linear. Now, we shall see why one want to be anonymous. The most famous reason for anonymity is to be able to speak the truth against the policy of the government and express opinion without any fear. But what people don't know is governments with enormous resources these days may be able to trace the person. Moving on, another reason for seeking anonymity is the keenness to participate in online conversations without being judged for past experiences. Here, past experience in the sense if a particular person is a victim of harassment, they should not be judged for that. And they should not be judged for choosing non-heteronormative identities or for documenting deeply personal experiences. Here, heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation. So, non-heteronormativity is when certain persons choose to be homosexual. Example, lesbian, gay, etc. For example, social media users in LGBTQIA plus communities have spoken about the importance of online anonymity as a way to negotiate discussions of sexuality safely. They also said that disclosing their name might put them at significant risk of abuse and harm online and offline. Some said anonymity allowed them to access valuable information online. Now, let us see the next reason. See, another common reason for seeking online anonymity is to not let the viewers be tagged to the real person in the offline world. And this is where the problem begins. See, when the anonymity seeker knows that their real world that is home, workplace, neighborhood, immediate social setting will not get impacted. Then they will less bother about what they share and how they frame such opinions. The problem arises when such opinions are being shared by people who mask their identity. And particularly when these views are about other persons who have not chosen to be anonymous online. That is a controversial imbalance here because one person is anonymous and the other person is not. That is why the imbalance. The counter argument here is of the opinion that the person's decision to remain anonymous should have no implication on the conversation. And it is also true that not all anonymous accounts tend to be abusive or hold extreme views. But it is equally true that the most angry, abusive conversations or replies seem to come from anonymous persons. And more importantly, even if someone gets to know the identity of the person who is being abusive, there is no use in it. This is because they have absolutely no way of using the information in any meaningful manner beyond simply judging that person. They can perhaps tag the person's employer or family members that too only if they are available or traceable. Even then also the tagged entity may decide to not do anything about it. Considering the comment to be that person's freedom of expression. So far we saw anonymity by choice. There is this other aspect also which gives anonymity as norms. I'll explain how. See certain platforms they know who the real person is. How do they know as part of signing up in which the person will provide his personal information. But what they do is they hide any identifiable information when allowing such person to participate in online conversations. For example, consider a platform like Glassdoor where anonymous reviews are the norm. Glassdoor mentions in its community guideline that to safeguard privacy, we do not allow you to identify yourself or include any contact information in your post. Another example includes Fishbowl. It is also an online community. It also thrives on anonymity. Then Reddit, a platform famous for anonymity. See Steve Huffman, Reddit's co-founder. He said that when people detach from their real world identities, they can be more authentic, more true to themselves. This is the reason stated by the co-founder for anonymity. Now let us see the major consequences. See the issue here is not only about abuse or extreme opinions, but also the misinformation and disinformation. They are massive problems and anonymity either by choice or enforced by platforms gives the power to a person to avoid judgment by public opinion. Only a legal mandate can hold them accountable for spreading lies. So in simpler terms, let us say a person who chooses to be anonymous on Twitter. That person shares some fake information about you and if that information affects your reputation in various degrees, your only option is to go to the police and then get the platform to take the action. Since the other person is anonymous, you cannot use a less tedious approach such as appealing to their employer, family or friends to make them accountable for the disinformation. See given the tendency of people to behave in undesirable ways, when their real world reputation is not affected by what they say online, the pseudonymous social media handles and platforms that encourage pseudonymous profiles will increase. It will in turn increase the already existing issue around online disinformation and fake news. So it is essential for social media platform companies or a law enforcement agency to take action against such persons or activities. So in this discussion, we saw about anonymity, their different definitions, why people want to remain anonymous. We saw some of the reasons for that and then we saw some of the implications or consequence of people being anonymous in online platforms. So with these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article. See the Union Labour and Employment Minister while interacting with the representatives of unorganized sector unions and associations said special camps would be organized to register bricklin, plantation, forestry and other unorganized sector workers on the centres Yishram portal. So in this context, let us see some important points about the Yishram portal. See here, SHAM is a Hindi word meaning Labour. So it is basically an E Labour portal. This was launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. See India has over 38 crore unorganized labour force. Now who are called as unorganized labourers? See those workers who have not been able to organize themselves in pursuit of their common interest due to certain constraints like casual nature of employment, ignorance and illiteracy, small and scratched size of establishments etc. are known as unorganized labour. So India has over 38 crore unorganized labour force. The workers in the unorganized sector have no social security coverage. So the government must step in to provide them with social security but for this to happen, there must be a database of the unorganized workers. Only with a proper database can the government provide a well formulated welfare scheme. This is why the Yishram portal was launched. The Yishram portal will help build a comprehensive national database of unorganized workers in the country. It will also give a huge boost towards last mile delivery of the welfare schemes for roars of unorganized workers. See the registration is totally free and workers do not have to pay anything for registration. They can get themselves registered in any of the common service centres. Once a person gets themselves registered in the Yishram portal, a Yishram card with a unique universal account number that is UAM would be provided. So using this Yishram card, workers will be able to access the benefits of various social security schemes anywhere, anytime. Not only that, getting registered with the Yishram portal will come with the additional benefit of accidental insurance. If a worker is registered on the Yishram portal and meets with an accident, he will be eligible for Rs. 2 lakh on death or permanent disability and Rs. 1 lakh on partial disability. As of December 2021, nearly 10 crore registrations have been made in the Yishram portal, nearly 48% of registered workers are male and remaining 52% are female. Transgenders are also being registered on Yishram portal. So far, 2380 transgender have been registered on Yishram. Around 61% of registered workers belong to the 18-40 years of age group while nearly 22% are in the age group of 40-50 years. See, this data will facilitate government to devise social security welfare schemes to all the segments of the unorganised workers. And finally, just remember any worker who is working in unorganised sector and aged between 16-59 is eligible to register on the Yishram portal. For example, a migrant worker, a gig worker, a platform worker, agricultural worker, MG Nareka worker, fishermen, milkmen, Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, street vendors, domestic workers, rickshaw pullers and other workers who engage in similar other occupations in the unorganised sectors. Even they can register in Yishram portal. So, that's all you have to know about Yishram portal. You can mention this as an example of a government initiative in any mains answer or there might be a question in trillions. Because this news has been appearing in the news for the past five months very frequently, so you might expect a question in problems as well. So with these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This data point is about the celestial flybys. This term flyby simply refers to a flight of a spacecraft. But the flight is in such a way that it is closely approaching a planet or moon for observation. So when a spacecraft passes close to a planet or moon, it is referred as flybys. But today we are talking about flybys that are celestial, something other than a spacecraft. And it is in closer approach to Earth. We do have a proper name for such flybys. They are called near-Earth objects in short, innuos. But why suddenly we are discussing this topic? It is because on 18th January 2022, day before yesterday, an asteroid passed Earth. That is it was a flyby and this asteroid is classified as potentially hazardous asteroid. That is BHA. So therefore let us see in detail about innuos, some important innuos that is near-Earth objects based on their distance and size. Then we will also see when they will be classified as potentially hazardous asteroids. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Just go through it. Basically, near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets with orbits. See, asteroids and comets are the remnants which are left over from the early formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Now when such remnants have rocky bodies and are formed closer to sun than the Jupiter, they are called asteroids. But when these remnants formed farther from the sun and they contain substantial amount of frozen ises, they are termed as comets. Now these asteroids or comets become near-Earth objects when they are in distance of within 120 million miles or 195 million kilometers of the sun. Now when they are in this distance, it means they can circulate through the Earth's orbital neighborhood. Why? Because the distance from Earth to the sun is 93 million miles or 149 million kilometers only. And as you know, astronomers use the distance between sun and Earth that is 93 million miles as a unit of measure called the Astronomical Unit. So, due to this, we say Earth is one astronomical unit away from sun. Here you can see the distance in astronomical unit for other planets as well. So, when near-Earth objects that is the comet or asteroids are within 120 million miles, that means they are just less than 1.3 astronomical unit from sun. So, sooner they come into Earth's orbital neighborhood. They enter into this course of path due to the nudge by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets. That means near-Earth objects or asteroids or comets with orbits that bring within 120 million miles of the sun are less than 1.3 astronomical unit from sun. And they can circulate through the Earth's orbital neighborhood. Now when the near-Earth orbit is an asteroid, it is called a near-Earth asteroid or NHA. When it is a comet, it is called a near-Earth comet or NEC. But to become a NEC, the comet should also have a short orbital period of less than 200 years. So, keeping these basics in mind, let us see some crucial facts about NEOs. Firstly, about 28,000 near-Earth objects have been discovered so far. Secondly, most near-Earth objects are asteroids, that is NEAs. And they range in size from about 10 feet to nearly 40 kilometers across. Thirdly, majority of NEOs pose no risk of impact with Earth. That is, they have orbits that don't bring them very close to Earth. This means there is still a small fraction of NEOs which pose some risk. Especially, they have the potential to make threatening close approaches to Earth. These are called the Potentially Hazardous Objects or PHAs. And when the object is an asteroid, it will be called Potentially Hazardous Asteroids or PHAs. See, a near-Earth object is classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. When the asteroid has a determined size and at a particular distance from Earth's orbit around the sun, it should be at least 460 feet or 140 feet in size. And its orbit should bring it as close as within 4.6 million miles or 7.5 million kilometers of Earth's orbit around the sun. This is about 0.05 astronomical unit. And as of now, there are about 2,200 PHAs. Here you should note that these PHAs or Potentially Hazardous are only in a long-term sense. Maybe because almost all are not currently on Earth-crossing objects. But on the other hand, their orbits are close enough that over hundreds or thousands of years, these NEOs may evolve to become Earth-crossing. Now, in this table, you can see some of the largest NEOs so far. The recorded largest one was 4179 Tautatus. It was about 5.4 kilometers in size. This time, it made close approach was in 2004. So, now let us see few facts about the NEO that flew past Earth on 18th. See, it is a near-Earth asteroid with the name 7482. It was known since 1994. It has a diameter of about 1 kilometer. So, obviously, it was classified as a Potentially Hazardous Object or Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. This near-Earth asteroid is said to be the second largest asteroid to fly past Earth since 2018. That's all you have to know about the article. With these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here. It is about the fall in population of Swamdeets. According to the article, the population of vulnerable Eastern Swamdeets has dipped in the Kasi Ranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. Officials have attributed the decrease to two heavy floods in 2019 and 2020. And the decrease is from 907 individuals in 2018 to 868 during the Eastern Swamdeet estimation. See, the Eastern Swamdeet is endemic to Kasi Ranga. And it is not the primary prey of the park's carnivores, primarily the tiger. But its population is crucial for the ecological balance of the tiger reserve. And the encouraging sign is that the animal has now moved to other areas such as Orang National Park and Lokwa Buracapuri Wildlife Sanctuaries. See, the Eastern Swamdeet was once concentrated in the central Kohora and Bagori ranges of Kasi Ranga. So, this is the background of the article given here. Now, let us see some of the details about the Swamdeets from the prillum's perspective. First of all, let us see the habitat. See, the Swamdeet is the largest grassland dwelling endemic animal of India and Nepal. It is commonly referred to as Paraseha. It is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh and UP. See, the Swamdeet has three subspecies. First one is called as Northern Swamdeet, inhibiting flooded tall grasslands of Indo-Kansatec plains. The second type is called the Central Swamdeet or hard ground Barasingha, found in Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh. And third one is the Eastern Swamdeet, found largely in Kasi Ranga National Park of Assam. The Northern Swamdeet, which I mentioned just now, they inhibit the areas of Dudwa Tiger Reserve and some Terai Forest of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarkhand and in Fragments in Southern Nepal. See, heavy floods, erosion of habitat and biological threats such as diseases acquired from domestic cattle make the Eastern Swamdeet vulnerable to extinction. Other important threat is poaching. As far as numbers go, the Eastern Swamdeet is more endangered than other charismatic wildlife species in India and hence requires immediate attention and conservation efforts. So, having said that, now let us see about the status and protection for the Swamdeet. See, the species is listed in the IUCM Red List as vulnerable and the population is noted to be decreasing. It is protected under Schedule 1 as per the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. It is also listed in Annexure 1 under Sites. I believe you know what Sites mean. Sites is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. It stands for Conservation on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. So, that's all about the article. In this article, we saw about Swamdeets. We saw about their subspecies and we saw some of the threats to the population and we saw their protection status. With these learned points, now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the Preliminary Practice Questions. Now, look at this first question. Consider the following statements about Sram Suveda Portal. First statement, it is launched by Ministry of Labour and Employment. Second statement, the Portal aims at allotment of unique identity that is Labour Identification Number, LIN, for effective, efficient and real-time governance in Labour Administration. Statement 3, the unique LIN are allotted to each employee. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? Option A, 1 and 2 only, Option B, 2 and 3 only, Option C, 3 and 1 only and Option D, all the above. For those who are not aware, this Sram Suveda is a web portal to provide a single platform for all labour compliance. India has more than 40 labour laws regulated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Government of India and State Government. Most of this compliance with these laws is tedious and time-consuming. So, to ease this problem, Sram Suveda was launched and this first statement is actually correct because it was launched by Ministry of Labour and Employment. The second statement is also correct because the Portal aims at allotment of unique identity that is Labour Identification Number for effective, efficient and real-time governance in Labour Administration. Now, look at this third statement, this statement is incorrect because the unique LIN number, it is not allotted to the employees they are allotted to the individual unit or employer or establishment. It is not the employee, they provide LIN number to the employer. So, to put it in simple words, Sram Suveda Portal facilitates businessmen to get all kinds of registrations and submit returns that are required under labour laws at a single online window. The objective of the Portal is to consolidate information of labour inspection and its enforcement. It will lead to transparency and accountability in labour inspections. So, the correct answer here is option A, 1 and 2, 1 lead. Moving on to the second question, which of the following statement is or are correct with reference to potentially hazardous object recently seen in news? Option A, they are the planet that make close approaches to the earth. Option B, they are asteroids whose perihelion distance is less than 1.3 astronomical unit, having a short orbital period of less than 200 years. Option C, they are near-earth objects that are more than 140 metres in size with orbit that bring them as close as 7.5 million kilometres of earth's orbit around the sun. And option D, none of the above. See, option A is incorrect because PHOs are not planets but near-earth objects which are comets or asteroids. So, first statement is incorrect. If you know first statement is incorrect, option D is also incorrect. So, you are left with only two options, B and C. Option B is incorrect because the second half of the statement is applicable only for near-earth comet. Not near-earth asteroid. So, the correct answer here is option C. They are near-earth objects that are more than 140 metres in size with orbit that bring them as close as 7.5 million kilometres of earth's orbit around the sun. Now, moving on to the last question, consider the following statements about Swamdeer in India. Statement 1, the species is endemic to India and is found only in Assam. Statement 2, IUCN category of Swamdeer is vulnerable, which of the statements given above is or are correct. Option A, one only. Option B, two only. Option C, both one and two. Option D, neither one nor two. See, the correct answer is option B, two only. Statement 1 is incorrect because we saw in our discussion that it is found in both India and Nepal, right? And in India, it is divided into three subspecies. We saw about all the three subspecies. The first one is named as Northern Swamdeer, second one is Central Swamdeer and third one is Eastern Swamdeer. So, first statement is incorrect. Now, look at this second statement. This also we saw in our discussion. It is vulnerable under IUCN category. So, the correct answer here is option B, two only. The main questions are displayed here. Please go through it, write an answer and post it in the comment section. With this, we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankara IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.