 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 26th of January 2023. First of all, happy Republic Day everyone and on this auspicious day I am very happy to share with you that Shankar IAS Academy's pre-storming batch 5 is going to start tomorrow. See solving test series is very important for prelims preparation. See prelims is also coming nearby, right? So grab this opportunity and utilize it fully. And with that note, let us see the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Now without any delay, let's get into the article discussion. Now today we'll start our discussion with this news article. See this news article says that 5 persons from Tamil Nadu and 1 person from Puducherry, they have been chosen for Batma awards this year. They have been awarded the Batma awards due to their contributions to their respective fields like medicine, art, snake catching and social work. And this is about the news article given here. In this discussion today we'll be focusing on Batma awards. See Batma awards is one of the highest civilian honours and know that the award is announced annually on the eve of Republic Day. So last night, that is the night before the Republic Day, this year's Batma awardees were announced. Every year, since its inception, that is since it's starting, the Batma awardees are announced on the eve of Republic Day except for brief interruptions during the years 1978, 1979 and from the years 1993 to 1997. So if there is a statement in prelims mentioning that Batma awards are provided every year since its inception, without any interruptions, then that statement is wrong. There were interruptions during 1978, 79 and from 1993 to 1997. Now coming back, if you look at the history of Batma awards, the Batma awards along with the Bharat Ratna was instituted by the Government of India in the year 1954. See during its inception, the Batma awards had three classes namely Pahela Warg, Dasra Warg and Tisra Warg and these names were subsequently renamed as Batma Vibhushan, Batma Bhushan and Batma Shree and it was done through a presidential notification in the year 1955. See in these Batma awards, Batma Vibhushan is provided to people who have rendered exceptional and distinguished service and Batma Bhushan, it is provided to people who have rendered distinguished service of high order and Batma Shree, it is provided to people who have rendered distinguished services. See Batma Vibhushan is the highest in the hierarchy of the Batma awards and it is followed by Batma Bhushan and Batma Shree. Here note that a higher category of Batma award can be comfort on a person only where a period of at least five years has elapsed since the conferment of the earlier Batma award. It may sound a little confusing, let me explain it with an example. Let us say that person A is awarded with Batma Shree. Then this person A has to wait five years to get the Batma Bhushan award even if he is eligible but however in the highly deserving cases a relaxation can be made by the Batma awards committee and we will learn about this Batma awards committee later in this discussion. Now coming back, the Batma awards recognizes the contribution of people in various fields like art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, civil service, sports and other fields like propagation of Indian culture, protection of human rights, wildlife protection etc. And if a person has contributed significantly to all of these fields or any one of the fields then Batma award will be given to them. Here note that the award does not amount to a title and cannot be used as a suffix or prefix to the awardee's name. That is, awards like Batma Bhushan, Batma Bhushan and Batma Shree do not amount to titles within the meaning of Article 18, Clause 1 of the Constitution. Now go and read what is Article 18, Clause 1. Now coming back to the main question, who presents the Batma awards? See Batma awards are presented by the President of India usually in the month of March or April every year. During the awards ceremony, the awardees are presented a sanat or a certificate which is signed by the President. And the Batma awardees are also provided with a small replica of the medallion. See the awardees, they can wear the award during any ceremonial or state functions if they desire. And the name of the awardees are published in the Gasset of India on the day of the presentation ceremony. Here note that people of any race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these awards. So there is no discrimination. See even foreigners and NRIs are also eligible for Batma awards. For example, this year's list includes two persons from the category of Foreign's NRI, PIO, OCI. But know that government servants including those working with the PSUs, that is public sector undertaking, they are not eligible for these awards. But government doctors, scientists working in government institutions are eligible for the Batma awards. Know this difference okay? And also the award is normally not conferred posthumously that is normally the Batma awards are not conferred after a person has passed away. However, in the highly deserving cases the government would consider giving an award posthumously. For example, this year's Batma awards list includes seven posthumously awardees. So generally they are not conferred posthumously but in the extraordinary cases they are also provided posthumously. And also note that the total number of awards to be given in a year should not be more than 120. And this 120 is excluding the posthumously awards and awards given to NRI's Foreigners and OCI's. Now as I already promised, we are going to see about the Batma awards committee. As I told you already, the awards are presented by the president. But the Batma awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Batma awards committee. See, the Batma awards committee is nominated by the prime minister every year. This committee is headed by the cabinet secretary and includes home secretary and secretary to the president and four to six eminent persons as members. Every year people can send their nominations to the Batma awards committee. And the nomination process is open to the public. Even self nominations are also acceptable. What does this mean? Even you can nominate yourself and send your name to the Batma awards committee. And if your contribution to a particular field is highly deserving, then Batma awards will be conferred on you. Now based on all of these nominations, the Batma awards committee gives its recommendations to the prime minister and the president of India for approval. And after their approval, the final list is published. And this is all regarding the Batma awards. See in this discussion, we saw about what are Batma awards and what are the different types of Batma awards and when it will be given. And who gives the Batma awards and what are all the different fields for which Batma awards are conferred. And we saw the persons for whom Batma awards are given. We saw whether Batma awards are given posthumously or not. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing the Batma awards committee. Now that's all regarding this particular article discussion. With these points in mind, let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this article here. Actually this article says that Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. And the Israeli ministry said that the Palestinian who was killed by the Israeli troops tried to stab a soldier. And this is about the news article given here. Here we are not going to discuss about the issue between the Palestinians and the Israeli troops. We'll use this as an opportunity to revise the map of the Middle East region, okay? And specifically we are going to concentrate on the map of Israel. Now look at these two maps here. Can you find out where Israel is? Yes, this is where Israel is, okay? It is a country in the Middle East. See this entire region is called as Middle East, okay? Now in this discussion today, we'll see a question first. And after that, we'll see the Israel map, okay? Which of the following countries have border with the Israel? Option one, Lebanon, option two, Saudi Arabia, option three, Syria, option four, Iraq and option five, Egypt. Now we have to find out which of these following countries have border with Israel. Now look at this map here. See this is only Israel. See this region is where Israeli people live. And the Gaza Strip and the West Bank region is where the Palestinians live. Here what we have to do is, we have to find out what all countries have border with Israel. So from this map here, we can see that Lebanon has border with Israel, Syria also has border with Israel, Jordan has border with Israel and after that Egypt has border with Israel. The Saudi Arabia has border with Israel? No. And Iraq is nowhere near the region of Israel. So now coming back to the question again, we can rule out option two, Saudi Arabia and option four, Iraq. So what is the correct answer here then? It is option C, one, three and five only. See I have taken this article here and I have given this practice question because whenever you come across articles like this in the newspaper, note it down and read the map of that country, okay? UPSC may not ask the issue given in the newspaper but there is a chance that it will ask map-based questions regarding the countries, right? So you have to look into that as well. So don't miss out articles like this and don't forget to read the map of the countries, okay? Now moving on to the next article. Now for our next discussion, let us take this news article. It talks about the current geoeconomical order of the world. See so many times we have seen about the geopolitical order of the world. So for a change, today we will see this article which is regarding the geoeconomical order of the world. See the article is written in the backdrop of increasing currency swap agreements and trade in national currencies by the countries which are part of global south. And all this denotes that multipolarity in the current global order not only ends with geopolitics but it also extends to geoeconomics as well. And this is the premise based on which the article is written. So in this discussion we are going to learn about how currency swap agreements operate and also we will see some points discussed in the article regarding the international trade in local currency. But before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference, please go through it. Now let's first start with a little background about the universalization of dollar. See as we all know dollar is the official currency of US and dollar as a currency came to be used all across the world because of its high stability. See when compared to other local currencies or other countries currencies dollar offers high stability right and that is exactly why it is used all across the world. And the article says that dollar emerged as a universal currency post the 1970s. See US being the largest economy in the world it aided the usage of dollar in the world market. Here note that most of the countries has certain amount of dollars as their reserve currency. And that is how much important dollar is okay. Whenever we hear the term international trade dollar only comes to our mind. But that scenario has changed according to the author of this article currency swap agreements trade in national currencies have been increasing. So now we'll see about the currency swap agreements. See a currency swap is a transaction in which two parties exchange an equivalent amount of money with each other but in different currencies. Let me explain this using an example. Now consider a company A that is holding US dollars and this company A needs British pounds to fund a new operation in Britain. Meanwhile a British company B it needs US dollars for an investment in the US. And these two companies come to an agreement where they both get the cash they want without having to go to a foreign bank to get a loan. So what does this company A do? It pays the British company B in US dollars and the British company B it pays the company A in the US with the British pounds. And by signing a currency swap agreement they can avoid the foreign bank loans which would likely involve higher interest rates. See this currency swap agreement is for a certain period only. And at the end of the agreement they will swap again at either the original exchange rate or at the pre-agreed rate. Here note that all currency swap agreements have a certain time period mark and this is how currency swap agreements work. See last year when Sri Lanka was facing an economic crisis, India and the Sri Lanka signed a currency swap agreement. In this agreement India agreed to swap dollars for the Sri Lankan rupee for a short period to help Sri Lanka. India signed the agreement to help Sri Lanka to overcome the liquidity crunch it faced. Here note that India also signed currency swap agreements with other countries like Japan, Maldives etc. And this is about the currency swap agreements. Now let us move on to see the trade in national currency. See the author says that non-west countries are pushing for international trade in local currency and it is replacing the dollar dominated trade in the world market. See this has been made possible due to the increasing trade relationship with the non-west countries that is among themselves. Here the author quotes the example of China. She says that China has significantly widened its trade with its Asian neighbors. And the author is also saying that China's trade with Asian countries doubled in the last few years and this trade value has overtaken the trade value with the west. So here what they are doing they are trading with the non-west countries here preferably with the neighbors. And even countries like UAE, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia they are also trading in local currencies with their regional partners. See for this the author is saying that due to the increased exchange rate of dollar emerging economies have initiated trade in national currencies by bypassing the dollar. And this is the major reason why trade in national currency is happening. Now coming to India specific information, India from the year 2019 onwards has been paying Russia in rupees on an informal basis and it is paying in rupees to Russia for fuel, oil, minerals and specific defence imports and India has also worked out a similar local currency trade with the countries like UAE, Japan, Turkey and Korea. Now let's see the reasons why the countries are using local currency for international trade bypassing the usage of dollars. See recently due to high inflation federal bank of US increased its interest rate and due to this increase US dollar appreciated against most of the local currencies around the world. And countries like India faced imminent danger of imported inflation due to this phenomenon. And to avoid this situation international trade with the usage of local currency was carried out by some countries. And this is the first reason. Secondly due to the trade war with US, China facilitated local currency trade with its trade partners to move away from the US dollar dominated world trade. And this facilitation by China was one another reason for the recent upsurge in the trade in local currencies. And thirdly Russia-Ukraine war. See the Russia-Ukraine war and the subsequent marginalisation of Russia from the world trade made Russia also to move away from dollar based international trade. Previously we saw that due to trade war with the US, China moved away from US dollar dominated world trade. Now after sanctions imposed by West due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Russia also moved away from dollar based international trade. Russia accepted local currency trade with some of the country after its Ukraine invasion. And these are the reasons why countries are moving away from US dollars and preferring local currency trade. Now before ending our discussion we'll see about the challenges associated with the local currency trade. Firstly the challenge for national currencies is that these national currencies are not fully convertible. See there is also instability associated with the national or local currencies. And some countries they are showing reluctance to accept the local currencies by their trade partners. And because of all of these reasons international trade with the local currencies or national currencies becomes difficult. And this is the first challenge. Secondly the dollar makes up 60% of the global currency and due to this huge percentage moving away from dollar can be a difficult task. And to make an alternate trade system operational it requires huge infrastructure and sustained a long term effort by the global south. Thirdly local currency trade would not be accepted by US and its allies obviously right. And this is one another challenge. And these are some of the concerns associated with the usage of local currency in the international trade. Now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion we saw about geo economical order of the world. First of all we started with significance of dollar in the world market. And after that we saw about the currency swap agreements and how it works. And after that we saw the trade in the national currency. And we moved on to see about the India specific information regarding trade in local currencies. And after that we saw the reasons why countries prefer using local currency for the international trade. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the challenges associated with the local currency trade. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this news article according to the news article. A partial albino dole has been documented in the Kaveri wildlife sanctuary. And this is the first time albinism is documented in dole's not just in India but also from its entire distribution range. See dole's are also known as Indian wild dogs. They are an endangered species found in forests and the scrub land. See the Indian wild dogs are found in 11 Asian countries along with India. Now coming back to the news article. The scientists they are not entirely sure that the spotted albino dole is entirely due to albinism. See this is because there are some chances that the spotted individual could be an interbreed between a domestic dog and a dole. So only if a DNA testing of the individual is carried out then a proper conclusion can be made. And this is about the news article given here. And in our discussion today we'll focus on albinism, its causes and challenges for animals with the albinism. First of all what is albinism? Albinism is a condition in which our body produces very little or sometimes it ceases to produce a substance called melanin. We all heard about melanin right? Melanin is a natural skin pigment. The skin, hair and eye color in people and animals mostly depend on the type and amount of melanin they have. See special skin cells called the melanocytes make the melanin substance. The more melanin an individual produces the darker that individual's eyes, hair and skin will be. So melanin production is directly proportional to the intensity of the pigmentation of eyes, hair and skin. See the amount of melanin in individual's body depends on a few different factors. The different factors includes genetics and how much sun exposure that individual's ancestor population had. Like this it depends on a few different factors. Now coming to albinism, see when the amount of melanin production is less in an individual's body then that individual is suffering from albinism. Now what causes albinism? Albinism is an inherited genetic disorder. Have a higher chance of being born with albinism if both of their parents have albinism or both of their parents carry the gene for albinism. So it is a genetic disorder. Now what are all the symptoms associated with the albinism? People with albinism normally have lighter than normal coloring of the skin, hair or ears. See in some cases they have patches of skin that have an absence of color. See know that people with albinism have vision problems. They may experience impaired vision, photophobia or sensitivity to light, cross died and they may also experience involuntary eye movements. And finally know that there is no permanent cure for albinism but steps can be taken to protect the skin and correct the eye related defects. Now these are all some of the important points about albinism. Now with these points in mind let us look at the challenges that the individuals or animals with the albinism face. The first challenge they face is poor eyesight. We already saw that people with albinism have poor eyesight. Likewise albino animals also have poor eyesight and this makes them easy targets for the predators. And the second challenge is that due to their skin condition they lose their ability to camouflage. And this also makes them easy targets for the predators. And the third challenge that they face is melanoma or skin cancer. See melanin only protects our skin from sunlight. So if a particular mammal lacks the melanin then it means there is a higher risk for developing melanoma. And the last and most important challenge is the inability of an albino animal to find a mate to procreate. And this challenge leads to the reduction in population of a particular species. Now that's all for this article discussion. In this discussion we saw about what is albinism and its causes, symptoms and some of the characteristics of albinism. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing the challenges faced by the animals with albinism. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this article from the text and context page. See it gives us some updates on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. So in this discussion we'll try to understand the background and then we'll see what's been written in the article. But before that the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. Kindly go through it. See first of all you should understand why all of this happened. So I'll try to tell you the background of war in a brief manner. See Ukraine is a country that is wedged between Russia and Europe as you can see in this picture. And Ukraine was formerly a part of the Soviet Union but it declared its independence in the year 1991. And in November 2013 the European Union offered a deal to the Ukraine to integrate with the European Union. But the then President Victor rejected the deal. But there were mass protests against the move by the President. See the protesters they were supported by the US and its allies. But the President Victor he was supported by Russia. Now why should Russia support Ukrainian President? It is because of the strategic importance of the location of Ukraine. See Russia sees Ukraine as a gateway for NATO's threat. If Ukraine joins the hand with the West that is the US and its allies then the West could easily access Ukraine territory and this posed a threat to Russia. Now coming back to the story of President Victor. See despite support from Russia President Victor could not sustain. Why? Because there were a lot of opposition. So Russia took its next move. It annexed Crimea in the year 2014. And conflicts continued to happen despite the peace talks. And in the beginning of the year 2021 Russia built up a large military presence near its border with Ukraine. That is here. And Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the enlargement of NATO. And he also demanded that Ukraine should be barred from joining the military alliance of NATO. And after this on 21st February 2022 Russia officially recognized the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as independent states. Now you may get confused. Why Russia is recognizing these states as independent states? See it is because they are pro-Russian separatist region in Ukraine. And that is exactly why Russia has recognized these states as independent states. And three days after this Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine. And it was announced during a television broadcast marking the start of full scale invasion of Ukraine. And this is how the war started and it is continuing till date. Now this news article gives us some updates on this ongoing war. It's been 12 months since the war started. That is, it's been almost a year. And both sides are gearing up for major escalation now. See Ukraine has been asking for heavy weapons from its NATO allies. Germany was reluctant to send its Leopard to battle tanks to the Ukraine. And this created a rift within the NATO itself. Now you may wonder why Germany was reluctant to send Leopard to the Ukraine. If you see geographically, Germany is closer to Russia. And Germany is lacking nuclear deterrent. See Germany sees itself in a disadvantageous position in the event of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. See Berlin was also worried that Russians could capture the tanks and gain insights into the Germany's technology. And despite these concerns, Germany said that it would consider sending Leopard if the US agreed to send its Abram tanks. See the US has initially ruled it out saying that Abrams ran out of jet fuel and it has complex systems. Therefore it would require many months to train Ukrainian troops on that. On the other side, the lack of advanced tanks could put Ukraine in a disadvantageous position, especially when Russia has deployed its modern T90s. So after heavy pressure from its allies, Germany took the decision of considering sending Leopard to Ukraine. See talks continued and in a recent announcement, both Germany and US have agreed to send Leopard and Abram tanks to Ukraine. Now this is the reason why Germany was reluctant to send Leopard to Ukraine and how it agreed to send Leopard to Ukraine. Now we'll see what is the current status of the war. In the south, Russian troops have pushed through the front lines in Zaporizhia. As of now, Russian controls only parts of Zaporizhia province including the Zaporizhia nuclear plant which is the Europe's largest nuclear plant. See by pushing through the front lines in the east and the south, Russia is mounting enormous pressure on Ukraine's army. Now you can see in this map here the controlled territories. Here there is another thing which you should understand. Did you think why the Russian troops are trying to get through the southern eastern part of Ukraine? Yes, it is because of the ease of access. But apart from that, there is also one more reason. See this is the ethno-linguistic map of Ukraine. Look at this carefully. About two-thirds of Ukrainians speak Ukrainian as their native language mostly in the country's west and about one-third are native Russian speakers and they are mostly in the country's east. And this is another major reason why Russia wants to take these territories from Ukraine. See, Russia believes that it would get the support of local population there. So these are some important aspects that you should know about the ongoing war. And this is the reason why Russia is moving in front lines through the southern and eastern part of Ukraine. Now during the course of the article, the author has mentioned some weapons and tanks. So we'll now try to get a brief idea on these war systems. First of all, we'll see about Leopard tanks of Germany. See, the Leopard 2 is a third generation German main battle tank. It is the world's most advanced main battle tank with expanded command capabilities. The Leopard 2 has a diesel-powered engine which is much easier to maintain and it is more widely used across the Europe. And this is about the Leopard tanks. Now moving on to see about the Abrams tank. See, it is conceived for modern armoured ground warfare and now one of the heaviest tanks in service. The Abram uses a more powerful and more complex turbine engine. See, the main difference between these tanks is the engine only. You can see other specifications of these two in these images. And then there is this Hemar's missile system. It is basically a US-made high-mobility artillery rocket systems or simply known as Hemar's. It is a multiple launch rocket system or shortly referred as MLRS which is nothing but a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision guided missiles. So the vehicle carrying the rocket system will move and while the vehicle is moving the rocket will be launched. See, Hemar's has superior range and precision. See, you should know an important thing about Hemar's. Hemar's had previously aided the NATO off-ins by targeting Taliban hideouts in the Afghanistan and that is where Hemar's were used. And finally there is one more system which is M270 MLRS which was sent by UK to Ukraine. See, it can fire 12 surface to surface rockets within a span of 60 seconds and these rockets hits the target as far as 80 kilometres and these are all the weapon systems that were sent to Ukraine. Firstly, we saw about Leopard from Germany and after that we saw about Abram's tank from US and after that we saw about Hemar's again from US and finally we saw about the M270 MLRS which was sent by UK. Now that's all for this discussion. In this discussion we saw about a brief of the start of the war. We saw how the war started and what are all the reasons for it and after that we saw the current status of the war and how Russia has been progressing in the Ukrainian lands and we saw the reason why Russia is concentrating on the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the war systems mentioned in the news article. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this small article given here. This article talks about the new changes brought into the scheme of Monument Mitras. According to the article, private firms from now on are allowed to partner with the government for the upkeep of ancient monuments. And this is the essence of the article given here. In this context, let's learn about the scheme and prelims perspective. See, India is a nation dotted with high number of heritage structures all across the country, right? But as you know, proper maintenance of them is a huge challenge for the government. Many monument structures are now in a very bad condition due to the negligence of the government officials. To solve this structural problem, Monument Mitra as a heritage structure protection scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Tourism in the year 2017. Here note that the scheme forms a part of Adopt a Heritage Initiative. See, this project is envisioned to fulfil the objective of the government of India to provide an enhanced tourism experience to all travellers. See, the scheme aims at ensuring good infrastructural facilities across heritage, natural and tourist sites through active participation of private and public sector organisations and even individuals. So, these are all the vision and aim of the scheme. And according to the vision and the objective of the scheme, public or private sector companies, NGOs and even individuals who are involved in the preservation of cultural heritage of India are called as monument mitras. See, the project began with 93 ASI monuments, that is Archaeological Survey of India monuments and it has extended to heritage, natural and tourist sites across India. And these sites are classified into various categories based on visibility and footfall. As I already said, the revised scheme was recently transferred to the Ministry of Culture. So right now, monument mitra scheme was functioning under the Ministry of Culture, okay? Remember this. And accordingly, the Ministry of Culture is now planning to reopen private players also to maintain the Archaeological Survey of India's monuments located across the country. And this is about the brief background of the scheme. Now, with this information about the monument mitra scheme, let us see in detail about the objectives of the scheme. Firstly, the objective of the scheme is to develop basic tourism infrastructure in and around the heritage sites, monuments and tourist sites. Secondly, the objective is to promote cultural and heritage value of the country and develop avenues to create awareness about the tourist sites in the country. And thirdly, the scheme envisions to develop and promote sustainable tourism infrastructure and ensure proper operation and maintenance of such tourism infrastructure. And finally, the scheme tries to develop employment opportunities and support the livelihoods of local communities living near the heritage and the tourist sites. Now, these are all the objectives of the monument mitra scheme. With this, we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the monument mitra scheme, its establishment, the overlooking ministry and its objectives. Now, with these points in mind, let us move on to the next article discussion. Now, look at this news article here. It says that the inner core of the earth is now rotating slowly compared to the earth's surface. And this is according to a recent study. So, in this context, we'll try to understand the reason for this slow rotation of the earth's inner core. See, we all know that the interior of the earth can be divided into three different layers. The crust, the mantle and the core. This image here, it gives you an idea of how the earth's layer looks like. See, the crust is the outermost layer of the earth and the core is the innermost layer of the earth. And this article here that we saw today talks about the inner core. See, the core is made up of very heavy material, mostly constituted by the nickel and iron. And the core constitutes nearly 15% of the earth's volume and 32% of the earth's mass. And it is also the densest layer of the earth. You know that the inner core is in the solid state, whereas the outer core is in the liquid state. So, the inner core sits suspended like a ball bearing in the molten metal ocean of the outer core. Now, see in this image, this is how the inner core of the earth will be. The inner core is in the solid state and the outer core is in the liquid state. And because of this liquid cocoon, the inner core may not spin at the same rate as the rest of the planet. See, over the years, some researchers have found that the core rotates slightly faster than the mantle and the crust. And this condition is called as super rotation. But this recent study has found that now the inner core has started rotating slower than the rest of the earth. But this is not a cause of concern, okay? Because the differences are not a threat to life on the surface of the earth. At the maximum, the inner core rotation might influence the earth's overall spin and it can contribute to the fluctuations in the planet's magnetic field. It will not cause damage to the life on the surface of the earth, okay? See, there is also evidence that this apparent slowing and speeding is a part of a cycle which lasts around 70 years. See, scientists believe that this could be due to gravitational coupling between the earth's inner core and the much more massive mantle. And how scientists are finding information about the inner core? See, the seismic monitoring of the earth is only yielding richer data about the planet's interior and it also provides a base for future studies also. Now, that is all regarding this news article. In this news article, we saw about the interior of the earth in a brief manner and we saw the reason for rotation of the inner core and we saw why it rotated faster in the earlier stages and why it is rotating slower now. Now, with these points in mind, let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now, look at this final article here. This news article talks about the difficulty faced by banks to rise deposits. See, according to RBA, due to increase in the interest rates on small-saving schemes, people are placing their money in these schemes instead of depositing them in the banks. Some of the small-saving schemes include National Savings Certificate and Kishan Vikas Patra. So, the RBI is of opinion that the banks may have to increase the deposit rates to attract the people and this is about the news article given here. In our discussion today, let us first see about the deposit rates and then let us focus mainly on the retail banking, okay? First of all, what are deposit rates? The deposit rate is the interest rate paid by commercial banks or financial institutions on cash deposits of the account holders. Say, I'm keeping an account in the A bank and I deposit some cash in that account, okay? For the cash that I deposited in that account in Bank A, the Bank A will provide some interest to me and that is only called as deposit rate. So, basically, the deposit rate is the interest rate offered by banks to their savings account holders. Now, moving on to the retail banking. See, when a commercial bank deals with the individual customers, then it is called as retail banking. See, in the case of retail banking, the commercial bank deals with individual customers on both asset side and the liabilities side. The asset side of the bank include mortgages, loans provided to the customers. And the liabilities of the bank include fixed and current or savings account of the customers, okay? See, loans and mortgages are assets because bank will get them back, right? But liabilities means banks have to pay the savings account money and the current account money to the customers and that is why these are called as liabilities. See, retail banking systems aims to provide banking services like checking accounts, opening accounts, savings accounts, loans, debit cards, and many more to the citizens. And this system targets the members of the general public and their personal needs of handling money. It includes companies, businesses, and corporations which may need more complex banking solutions. In simple terms, retail banking takes care of all the banking needs of individual customers. See, there are three primary functions of retail banking. Firstly, the banks offer savings accounts, recurring deposit accounts, fixed deposit accounts, and other financial services to safely secure the capital for the general public. This is the first function. Secondly, it offers credit. See, it offers credit through loans and mortgages. And thirdly, retail banks assist the customers in handling their money and managing their money through various retail banking solutions and services. See, these kinds of services help the customers in their financial matters and daily transactions like transferring money or receiving money, et cetera. See, apart from these three functions, banks provide safe deposit lockers for safe keeping of their valuables at annual charges. We all have heard about the dwell locker, right? It is a locker provided for keeping the jewels and it is used by the general public to safely keep their jewels there, okay? And apart from this provision, banks also provide services like fund transfer through UPI, NEFT, and RTGS, internet banking, mobile banking, check clearance, and remittances. See, in India, almost all banks are involved in retail banking. All scheduled commercial banks like SBI, HDFC, regional banks like Pandian Gramavangi, cooperative banks like Tamil Nadu Cooperative Bank, small finance banks such as Equitas Bank and even Payments Bank, that is the Paytm Payment Banks are involved in the retail banking. But the main question here is that, who are all not involved in the retail banking? See, the development banks like NABARD and SIDB, Exem, and NHB, they are not involved in retail banking. See, these development banks do not focus on retail customers. For example, NABARD does not directly lend to the farmers, but it provides refinance to institutions that lend to farmers. So, development banks are not involved in retail banking. Now, that's all for this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about deposit rates, retail banking, its major features and functions, and we saw the examples of banks involved in retail banking, and we also saw examples of banks which are not involved in retail banking. Now, with these points in mind, let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. Today, we have five prelims question. I'll solve four of them, and one of them is a quiz question for you. Now, let us take this first question. See, it is a previous year prelims question which was asked in the year 2021. Consider the following statements in respect of Bharat Ratna and Bhatma Award. Bharat Ratna and Bhatma Awards are titles under Article 18, Clause 1 of Indian Constitution. See, the statement is incorrect. As we saw in the discussion, national awards such as Bharat Ratna, Bhatma Vibhushan, Bhatma Bhushan and Bhatma Shree do not amount to titles within the meaning of Article 18, 1 of Indian Constitution. Now, coming to statement two, Bhatma Awards which were instituted in the year 1954 were suspended only once. See, this statement is also incorrect. This also we saw in the discussion, right? There was a brief interruption in Bhatma Awards during the years 1978, 79 and from 1993 to 1997. Now, moving on to the third statement, the number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of five in a particular year. See, this statement is also incorrect. Like the Bhatma Awards, there is also a restriction on maximum Bharat Ratna Awards. Every year, a maximum of only three Bharat Ratna Awards can be given. See, we found out that all the three statements are incorrect. So, what has the question asked? The question has also asked for the incorrect statements. So, the correct answer to this question is option D, one, two, three. Now, moving on to the next question. See, it is a pair-based question. On the one side, wildlife sanctuary is given. On the other side, state is given. The first option, Kaveri Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu, Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary, Karnataka, Ramgarh Vishdari Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, Gurugasidas National Park, Chhattisgarh. See, the correct answer to this question is option B, two, Pazwanli. See here, Kaveri Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Karnataka. So, the first option is incorrect. Regarding the second option, Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary, it is located in Tamil Nadu. So, the first two options are interchanged and the next two options are correct. And that is exactly why two Paz are only correct in this question. Now, moving on to the third question, with reference to Monument Mitra scheme, consider the following statements. Statement one, it is implemented through Ministry of Culture. See, the statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. Initially, it was functioning under Ministry of Tourism. Now, it has come under Ministry of Culture. Statement two, private companies are not allowed to collaborate with the Indian government for preservation under the scheme. See, the statement is incorrect. What we saw in the discussion, we saw that recently, private firms are also allowed to partner with the government for the upkeep of ancient monuments. So, the second statement is incorrect. So, what is the correct answer? It is option A11 Lee. Now, moving on to the next question, consider the following statements. Statement one, the core is separated from the mantle by Gutenberg's discontinuity. Statement two, the discontinuity between the upper core and the lower core is called as Lehmann discontinuity. See, the correct answer to this question is option C, both one and two. Now, look at this image here. Here, you can see that the discontinuity between the mantle and the core is called as Gutenberg's discontinuity and the discontinuity between outer core and the inner core is called as Lehmann's discontinuity. Other than this, you can see the discontinuity between the crusten mantle and the upper mantle and mantle. You can also see the discontinuity between upper and lower crust also. So, take note of this, okay? Now, moving on to the next question. See, this question is about development banks. This is only the quiz question for you. Read the statements, think about it, carefully attempt the question and post your answer in the comment section. Aspirants, I have given here main practice questions. So, if you are interested, write it and post your answer in the comment section. And if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today, post that also in the comment section. And with this, we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.