 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below and for the benefit of smartphone users it is provided also in the comment section. Let's move on to the first article analysis for today. This discussion is based on this open editorial. This editorial discusses about the trend of federalism in India in which the author defines electoral federalism then the author also talks about centrist bias of the constitution and he also discusses how the disagreement and dissident tendencies of some of these state governments on laws of parliament could be dealt by the central government using the constitution. The syllabus that is relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now we know that the controversial citizenship amendment bill became an act with the ascent of president in December 2019. This legislation and the proposed nationwide national register of citizens exercise was opposed by citizens of a country by way of democratic actions and it was also opposed by several state governments. Some of the opposing state governments are occupied by the opposition parties to the ruling party at the center and in some cases the opposition also came from the partners or former partners of the ruling party at the center. We are saying this because along with the state governments of West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and others even Shiv Sena in Maharashtra has told that they will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act and they will also not implement the NRC exercise. And as we have discussed some few days back in case of Kerala the legislative assembly of Kerala went to the extent of passing a resolution stating that the law contradicts the basic values and principles of the constitution. According to the author of this editorial, this resolution of Kerala may not be in tune with the federal scheme provided by our constitution. Now why author is saying such a statement? What does the author mean here when he says federal scheme under the constitution? Usually we say that Indian constitution has opted for federal polity but with strong central tendency. This is the federal scheme enshrined under the constitution because the constitution itself is tilted towards the center. In this regard, author gives one such example in connection with the recent center state conflict in the matters of CAA and the NRC. Here the author mentions three articles of Indian constitution. They are article 256, article 356 and article 365 of Indian constitution. If you see article 256, it obligates or requires the state government to ensure implementation and compliance of the laws that were made by the parliament. It mentions the obligations of both the center and the states. That is on the side of states, the executive power of every state shall be exercised to ensure compliance with the laws that were made by the parliament. If the state government fails to do so, then the government of India is empowered to give such directions to the state as may appear to be necessary. So this article 256 facilitates the center to issue directions to the states whereas the article 365 and article 356 facilitates the center to take actions against the state government. Now since the constitution itself empowers the center to do such actions against a state government for cases like non implementation of law, the constitution establishes a federal polity in India with central tendency. If the directions given by the center as per article 256 is not adhered by the state, then under article 365, it shall be lawful for the president to hold that a situation has arisen in which the government of a state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of this constitution. So what will happen next? After this, the central government may impose precedent rule in the state under article 356 of Indian constitution. We have elaborately discussed about the president's rule on November 7, 2019 in the news analysis while we were discussing the Maharashtra government formation. We request the viewers to have a look at it for better understanding. So the strong center concept that is introduced by the constitution is what is called by the author as the centrist buyers of the constitution. At the time of independence, the makers of the Indian constitution made such provisions of central tendency to handle partition and also to keep all states together into a single strong union. Now after this, author discusses the trend of federalism in India in the recent years. Here the author asks the question why there is opposition or concerns from the state governments on some of the laws made by the parliament or why there is opposition from the states against some of the proposed projects or measures of the center. One may easily say that this is because of the politics of ideology differences between the ruling party in the center and the ruling parties in the state. But there could also be some other reasons also and one such premise or argument is taken by the author for such opposition from the state governments. The premise is that because of the single party dominance at the center or at the national level, such kind of opposition is arising from the side of state governments regarding the laws made by the parliament. So why the author is worried about such single party dominance? See a single party dominance in itself is not a problem. Just imagine that there is a single party at the center where the party itself has the strong opposition in the debates and looks above, where the party accommodates the negative opinions on the proposals of the government, where the party itself listens to and also accommodates the views of the opposition parties and the single party that is the ruling party takes a justifiable, fair and reasonable actions based on the concerns that were raised. Now in such a situation there will be accountability but according to the author what is happening in the present single party dominance is that there is no accountability. It is because there is no opposition to the ruling party in the Lok Sabha and there is no opposition within the ruling party also. As a result of this parliament which is hailed as the temple of democracy has been reduced to a place for procedural formalities. And the Lok Sabha where debates have to take place constructively has become just an extension of the executive. That is Lok Sabha's role is to ensure accountability of the executive but now it itself has become an arm of the executive. Here the contention is that because of single party dominance in the center the parliament's role is not fulfilling as there is no effective opposition. If you see even in the last six years there is no leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. So here one question may arise that who is recognized leader of opposition in Lok Sabha. For this we have a law called as the salary and allowances of leader of opposition in parliament act of 1977. This act defines leader of opposition. According to this act leader of opposition means that member of the house who is the leader of the party which is an opposition to the government in that house. This party should be having the greatest numerical strength and the leader should be recognized by the chairman of the house in case of Rajasabha or the leader should be recognized by the speaker of the house in case of Lok Sabha. Here the greatest numerical strength should be among the parties which are in opposition to the government and it does not include the ruling party. Now from this act we can see that the leader of opposition is based on speaker's recognition and the position is also based on the greatest numerical strength but the act has not mentioned clearly about what should be the exact numerical strength that is required to be a leader of opposition. In addition to this act if you see section 2 clause b of the leaders and chief whips of the recognized parties and groups in parliament facilities act of 1998 this act defines the term recognized party in parliament. According to this act a recognized party in the Lok Sabha or the house of the people means a party that has not less than 55 members. So therefore the position of leader of opposition is based on the provisions of two legislations hence to become leader of opposition the individual's party should be in opposition with at least 55 seats in Lok Sabha. If you see in the present Lok Sabha and also in the previous Lok Sabha no opposition party had the 55 MPs or more that is why the author is saying that there is no leader of opposition in Lok Sabha in the last six years. Now the absence of a leader of opposition is harmful for a democratic polity it is because there are many appointments where the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha is a member of selection committee. So if there is no leader of opposition this means that such appointments will be made in the absence of leader of opposition. Therefore such appointments are not democratic appointments in spirit. Also when there is absence of effective opposition and absence of leader of opposition this means that there is no credible political check to the dominant ruling party at the center. This means the ruling party can take any extraordinary measure as it has no checks and balances. So how the people of India and India as a democratic polity is coping up with the absence of opposition in the center. To answer this question the author introduces the term electoral federalism. To understand this term assume that there is a single party dominance in the center and there is no effective opposition. So the ruling party in the center will not be able to form a stable government at the level of states. This is because of the voting behavior of the people. The people who voted for ruling party in the center are purposely avoiding that party when it is the general elections for the state legislative assembly. People are doing this to establish opposition governments against the center at the level of states. This is to fill the opposition deficit in the center. This is what is happening in the last two years according to the author. This is how the people of India and India as a democratic polity is coping up the absence of a credible opposition in the center. And this is the reason why the state governments are in conflict with the central government. See what was earlier happening in the Lok Sabha in debates has now become a matter of center state conflict because of lack of recognized opposition in the Lok Sabha. Now after discussing all these points author says that it is clearly visible that the constitution scheme is leading to a strong center and weak states. When constitution itself is silent on the recognition of opposition leader and when the constitution itself is not having mechanism to protect the interests of the states against the dominant center then we should not say that whatever mentioned in the constitution is perfectly alright or there should not be constitutional idolatry. That is when there is need for correcting and inserting few provisions in the constitution one should not worship the correction requiring provisions as an idol. With these points and arguments author concludes the editorial. So now what can be the possible suggestions with respect to this editorial? One suggestion is that constitution should bring a new chapter. There shall always be a leader of opposition and in some cases this shall not be based on a minimum number because in some cases the minimum number rule is not obtained by the parties in the election and even in democracy there is a saying that if there is no opposition an opposition has to be created. So new provisions have to be introduced which should be in line with this saying. Then secondly what can be done is just like the provisions for protection of union in the constitution there has to be provisions for the protection of states also and they should be present to solve the problem whenever there is a difference of opinion in the matters of law or rule or directions that is brought by the union. So with this we come to the end of this editorial discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. This discussion is based on this news article which is about a scheme that is to be launched by the Andhra Pradesh state government. The scheme is called as Jagannanna Amma Vodi scheme or Jagannanna Amma Vodi program. We are discussing a scheme that is introduced by the state because in our syllabus you can see that there is an area welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections of the population by the center and also by the state and this scheme is one of such schemes and even last year if you see in the mains GS paper 3 there was a question on cyber dome project and this project is a project of Kerala police department. So that means there can be direct questions on the important schemes, initiatives and projects of state governments also. So try to know about these schemes, initiatives and projects. So in this line let us discuss about this Amma Vodi scheme of Andhra Pradesh state government. Before that these are the areas in the syllabus that can be linked to this discussion. Now the motto of this Amma Vodi scheme is poverty should not be a hurdle to achieve total literacy. Under this scheme a financial assistance of rupees 15,000 per year will be given. It will be given to all poor and needy mothers or recognized guardians in the absence of mother. This is to enable the mother or the guardian to send their child or children to school. This benefit will be available for eligible mothers whose children study in class 1 to class 12 and they can be studying in any government school or private aided school or private unneeded schools or even junior colleges including the residential schools or colleges in the state. Now this scheme will be applicable from the academic year 2019 to 2020 and this Amma Vodi scheme is a part of Navaratnalu scheme which is a set of nine welfare schemes of the state. So now who are all the eligible beneficiaries under this scheme? As we saw already the beneficiaries are the mother of a child or children or the recognized guardian who belongs to a below poverty line household and this scheme is applicable irrespective of caste, creed, religion and region. And also the mother or guardian must ensure that their wards or children maintain the attendance of minimum 75% age in the school to get the cash benefit under the scheme. If the child drops out of the school then the scheme would not be applicable to the beneficiary and according to some sources government employees and income taxpayers are not eligible for this scheme and the important aspect of the scheme is that the government has also included orphan children and street children in the scheme who are studying in schools through voluntary organizations. So in the case of orphan children and street children the financial assistance will be provided to these voluntary organizations. And according to the news article the total budget allocation for this scheme is around 6400 crores and this scheme is expected to benefit about 43 lakh mothers and 82 lakh children in the state of Andhra Pradesh. So we can say that this program or scheme is in line with the fundamental right guaranteed by article 21 capital A of Indian Constitution. According to this article the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 in such a manner as the state may by law determine. So that is why we are saying that this scheme is in line with the fundamental right guaranteed under article 21 capital A. Further this financial assistance scheme would incentivize a mother to send her children to the school. Actually this can be already seen as according to the news article student enrollment in the state has increased by 30% age after the announcement of the scheme itself. So once the scheme rolls out it will definitely increase the student enrollment in the state. So now how will the beneficiary get this financial assistance? According to some sources the financial assistance under this scheme will be transferred directly to the registered and verified bank account of the mother or the guardian of the child every year. So this eliminates any intermediaries between the government and the beneficiaries. So now let us see what are the advantages offered by the scheme. We know that it is very difficult for a student from a poor background to sustain the education. This scheme provides financial assistance till intermediary stage that is from class 1 to class 12. So the intermediary education is taken care by this scheme. So this will help to address the problem of dropout by the school children because normally the children from the poor background drop out of school to take up some child labor so that they can help their family financially. But this scheme will incentivize the mother in such a way that it will prevent her from sending her children to do labor and it will also prevent the children from taking up work without going to school. Hence on one hand the child will get education and on the other hand the family will not be forced to send their child for child labor. So hence over a period of time the overall literacy of the state will increase and it will lead to overall societal development. And also know that this is not the first scheme of Andhra Pradesh government in the education sector. Already there are number of schemes which are aimed at complete reformation of the education sector in the scheme. For example one of such scheme is the Manabadi Nardu Neetu scheme. This scheme aims at the complete revamp of infrastructure of government schools, junior colleges, degree colleges and hostels. It aims to provide minimum facilities such as protected drinking water, toilet facilities, furnitures etc. Now there is also one drawback in this Amma Vodi scheme. One of the main drawback is that this scheme is based on the family and not on number of children. So even though there is no upper limit for the number of children which is a positive it still is a drawback because those who have one child will be benefited more than those who have three or more children. So these are the information that you should know with respect to this Jagannna Amma Vodi program or scheme. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The complete practice question will be discussed in the last session. This discussion is based on this news article which is with reference to a statement released by the Indian Meteorological Department on 6th January 2020. This statement is called as the statement on climate of India during 2019. In this statement IMD has stated that last year that is 2019 is the seventh warmest year on record since 1901. So based on this we will see the information on temperature rainfall and cyclonic disturbances in the year 2019. Now this discussion will be quite factual and you have to pay attention to these facts because direct questions from these facts can be asked by UPSC in the problems examination and the syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. You first know that the Indian Meteorological Department comes under the Ministry of Earth Sciences in Government of India and every year in January IMD releases a statement on the climate of India in the previous year. So for the previous year of 2019 let us see the key takeaways from the recent statement made by IMD. First let us see few information related to temperature in 2019. The average temperature over India during the 2019 was above normal. In 2019 the annual mean surface air temperature was 0.36 degrees Celsius above the average surface air temperature for the period from 1981 to 2010. Then another point is that the year 2019 was the seventh warmest year on record since nationwide records commenced in the year 1901 and in this table we have given the seven warmest years in India since the year 1901. If you see the global mean surface temperature variation during the year 2019 for the period January to October 2019 the variation was 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels. Now this fact is as per the provisional statement on the state of global climate released by the world meteorological organization. Next let us see the information on 2019 with respect to the rainfall provided by IMD. The 2019 annual rainfall over the country as a whole was 109 percentage of its long period average value for the period 1961 to 2010. Generally long period average refers to the average that is taken for a longer period and in the recent statement made by IMD this average is from 1961 to 2010. Simply we can say that the average of annual rainfall over these 50 years is called as long period average. Then the statement also noted that the southwest monsoon rainfall over the country as a whole was 110 percentage of its long period average. Now here southwest monsoon rainfall refers to the rainfall that was received during the period of June to September 2019. Then the statement also noted that the northeast monsoon rainfall over the northeast monsoon core region of south peninsula was 109 percentage of its long period average. Here northeast monsoon is pertaining to the period of October to December of 2019. So this was the information mentioned in the statement about rainfall. Now let us see the information with respect to cyclonic storms. According to this statement during 2019 eight cyclonic storms were formed over the indian seas and among these eight cyclonic storms arabian sea contributed to five cyclonic storms. See normally we see one cyclone per year from arabian sea but this year arabian sea has contributed five cyclonic storms and the last recorded such instance in which arabian sea contributed to five cyclones was in 1902 only. Therefore the number of cyclones formed over the arabian sea equals the previous record of 1902 for the highest frequency of cyclones over the arabian sea and out of the five cyclonic storms formed in arabian sea two are very severe cyclonic storms one is extremely severe cyclonic storm and one belongs to super cyclonic storm category. See by this we are just trying to say that 2019 witnessed the development of more intense cyclones over the arabian sea. Now we have given the classification of cyclonic disturbances based on the associated wind speed in the circulation for your reference. Here you have to note that the extremely severe cyclonic storm comes under the associated wind speed of 90 to 119 knots or it comes under the associated wind speed of 166 km per hour to 221 km per hour. So by this we can say that extremely severe cyclonic storm is included under the very severe cyclonic storm category and one of such detrimental cyclone that we saw last year was the cyclone phony which was classified as extremely severe cyclonic storm and it claimed more than 64 lives in odisha in may 2019. However if you look at the cyclone activity over the Bay of Bengal then during 2019 there was only three cyclones against the normal number of four cyclones per year. So we can say that Bay of Bengal contributed to less number of cyclones than usual. So these are the information that you should know with respect to the climate of India during 2019. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion the displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion. This news article is related to the foreign direct investment in coal mining in India. So in this context we will discuss about what do we mean by foreign direct investment. Then we will see about the decision of the union cabinet to allow 100 percent FDI in coal mining and we will also see about the locations of coal mines in India from examination point of view. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First let us see what is meant by FDI or foreign direct investment. In simple terms we can say foreign direct investment refers to the direct investment that is made by a foreign company or a foreign individual in any business or businesses that are located in other country and in our case if a foreign company or a foreign individual invests in India then it is a foreign direct investment and this FDI is a major driver of economic growth of any nation. It is a source of non-debt finance for the economic development of any country. If you see the Indian government has allowed FDI up to 100 percentage on automatic route in most sector or activities such as in sectors like defense, construction, development, trading, pharmaceutical, etc. Here automatic route refers to the foreign direct investment without the prior approval of the government or the Reserve Bank of India in all activities or sectors as specified in the regulation 16 of foreign exchange management regulations of 2017 which were framed under the foreign exchange management act of 1999. If you see the FDI reforms in India have attracted huge FDI inflows in the last five years but still there is potential for India to attract more FDI so for that purpose the government has decided to introduce number of changes in the FDI policy in many sectors and one such sector is the coal sector. If you see at present the FDI policy of our country allows 100 percent FDI under automatic route in the coal sector and it is allowed particularly for the coal mining for captive consumption by power projects by iron and steel and cement units and other eligible activities as permitted by respective laws and regulations. Here captive consumption means the consumption of goods that is manufactured by one division or unit of organization and it is consumed by another division or unit of the same organization. So here the power projects iron and steel and cement units can mine the coal and use it for their own purposes. Then 100 percent FDI under automatic route is also permitted for setting up coal processing plants like washeries but subject to certain conditions such as like the company shall not do coal mining and then the company shall not sell washed coal or sized coal from its coal processing plants in the open market and also the company shall supply the washed or sized coal to those parties who are supplying raw coal to them. So until now there was no rule for 100 percent FDI under automatic route for selling of coal or for coal mining activities but now the government has decided to permit 100 percent FDI under automatic route for the sale of coal and for coal mining activities which includes associated processing infrastructure. For this purpose the government has decided to amend the relevant provisions of coal mines special provisions act of 2015 and also the provisions of the mines and minerals development and regulation act of 1957 and the government will also amend the other relevant acts on this subject. Now here when we refer to the associated processing infrastructure this infrastructure involves the various processes such as coal washery, coal crushing, coal handling and separation of magnetic and non-magnetic portions of coal etc. So as per this decision of union cabinet these two laws will be amended and in this you should know that this mines and minerals development and regulation act of 1957 regulates the mining sector in India and this act also specifies the requirement for obtaining and granting mining leases for mining operations. Then this act which is the coal mines special provisions act of 2015 provides for allocation of coal mines and provides for investing of rights, title and interest in and also over the land and mine infrastructure together with the mine leases to the successful bidders as per the coal block auctions. This act ensures continuity in coal mining operations and production of coal. So what are the likely advantages of this 100% foreign direct investment in coal mining? This is expected to ease the mining rules and it will enable foreign direct investment in coal mining. So this would boost the ease of doing business and it will increase growth avenues for coal mining. Then this relaxation in the mining rules will help the steel industry to get cheaper coal. So these are some of the advantages because of this decision of union cabinet. Here you should note one point that till now the coal injera limited could only mine and sell coal in our country and this coal injera limited is a Maharatna central public sector enterprise. So after this move by the union cabinet if this ordinance is promulgated by the president then any private player would be able to participate in the auction of coal blocks across India. So this was all about the news article. Now based on this news article we should also know the important locations in our country where coal is found because it is important from the prelims perspective. See in our country coal occurs in rock sequences mainly of two geological ages. They are gondwana and tertiary deposits. The most important gondwana coal fields of India are located in the Damodar valley. This Damodar valley lie in the Jharkhand Bengal coal belt. In this map you can see some of the important coal fields in this region. They are Raniganj, Jharia, Bukaro, Giridhi, Karanpura. Now in this Jharia is the largest coal field and the second one is Raniganj and this gondwana coal deposits are also found in the northeastern part of our country and they are found mainly in Assam and Sikkim and apart from this the other river valleys that are associated with Kolar, Godavari, Mahanadi and so on. Then the most important coal mining centers are Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh where a part of Singrauli coal field lies in Uttar Pradesh. Then comes Korba which is situated in Chathisgarh and then Talchir and Rampur which are situated in Odisha and then Chandavardha then Kampthi and Bandhe they are located in Maharashtra and then Singraini coal mine is located in Telangana and then Pandur coal mine is located in Andhra Pradesh. These were the important gondwana coal fields of India. The next it is discussed about the tertiary coal bearing locations. These tertiary coal bearing sediments are found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya. It is extracted from Dharangiri, Charapunji, Mulong and Langrin in Meghalaya and then from Makum, Jaipur and Nazira in Upper Assam. Now here don't confuse Jaipur with Jaipur. This Jaipur is a little town in Upper Assam. Then the tertiary coal bearing sediments are also extracted from Namchik, Namfuk in Arunachal Pradesh and also from Kalakot in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. So these were some of the tertiary coal bearing sediment locations. Apart from this in our country brown coal is also available. This brown coal is also called as lignite and it occurs in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Gujarat and then it is also found in Jammu and Kashmir. One of the largest lignite mine is the Naveli which is located in Tamil Nadu. So these are the important coal mine and coal fields that you should know from examination point of view. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion that displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion. This news article is based on a recent Supreme Court order on the conservation of lands that were degraded due to mining activities. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. The Supreme Court yesterday ordered that mining lease holders should be held responsible for the regrassing of mined areas so that the biodiversity in the area can be restored. The Supreme Court ordered the government to include regrassing of mined areas as a mandatory condition in every mining lease, every environmental clearance and every mining plan across the country. Supreme Court has taken this stand because mining causes many environmental issues such as erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity and contamination of soil, contamination of groundwater and contamination of surface water by the chemicals from mining processes. And the complication with these environmental issues is that they persist for years and the biodiversity and the land of that area remains degraded. So as a result of all these an area which is mined results in complete elimination of grass. This in turn denies fodder to the herbivores that are present in that area. So as a solution to this problem the Supreme Court suggested regrassing of such mined areas. So what do we mean by regrassing? Regrassing means to plant again with grass or to cause grass to grow on the land. It is a technique to reclaim land by growing grass on land that is affected by mining activity. So this regrassing is a part of land reclamation and this land reclamation is a part of three R's that is important to conserve the land after mining activity. Now the first R is reclamation. Reclamation means returning the mined out land with useful life. It implies restoring the land to a form and productivity that is useful and which is in conformity with a prior land use. And the next R is rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is to bring back the degraded land to a normal stage by a special treatment. It is a process of taking some mitigation measures for disturbed environmental condition that was created through mining activities. And the third R is restoration. Restoration is the process of returning the mined out land to being fit to an acceptable environmental condition. However, the general acceptable meaning of this term restoration is bringing the disturbed land to its original form. Restoration is often used to indicate that the biological properties of soil are put back to what they were earlier. So in this manner, the regrassing that was suggested by Supreme Court is a part of the first R reclamation. Now the Supreme Court suggested this regrassing so that the area that was mined can be restored in a manner that grass and other vegetation including trees can grow in the mining area for the benefit of animals. So for this purpose only the Supreme Court directed the Union of India to impose condition in the mining lease and a similar condition in the environmental clearance and also in the mining plan so that the mining lease holders shall undertake the regrassing of mining area and any other area which may have been disturbed due to their mining activities. And based on the order the mining lease holders have to restore the land to a condition which is fit for growth of fodder, flora and fauna etc. And this has to be done by the mining lease holders after the mining operations have ended. In this regard, Supreme Court also asked the Union of India to devise appropriate methods for ensuring the compliance of this condition at the cost of mining lease holders that is the cost of regrassing the mined area will be borne by the mining lease holders. And this condition of regrassing shall be in addition to those conditions which have already been imposed for achieving the same purpose under the mine closure plan. Now this mine closure plan is a plan that has to be mandatory included by the mining lease holders in their mining plan. For this, the central government amended the mineral concession rules of 1960 and mineral conservation and development rules of 1988 in 2003 through a notification. As per these amendments, all the existing mining leases are required to submit the mine closure plan. And this mine closure encompasses the rehabilitation process as an ongoing program that is designed to restore the physical, chemical and biological quality of land that was disturbed by the mining activity. And this mine closure plan must aim at leaving the area or the land in such a way that rehabilitation does not become a burden to the society after the mining operation is over. And this plan must also aim to create a self-sustained ecosystem. So this means that the mine closure operation is a continuous series of activities that starts from day one of the initiation of mining project. Hence, this plan has two components. One is progressive or concurrent mine closure plan and the second one is final mine closure plan. Now in this, the progressive mine closure plan would include various land use activities that is to be done continuously and sequentially during the entire period of mining operations. And then the second one which is the final mine closure plan would include the activities that would start towards the end of mine life. And it may continue even after the reserves are exhausted or even if the mine is discontinued. And the activities under this plan is to continue till the mining area is restored to an acceptable level to create a self-sustained ecosystem. And this recent order by Supreme Court is also a part of this final mine closure plan only. Because it is to continue till the mining areas is stored to an acceptable level. So in this regard, finally the Supreme Court also ordered the government to file an action taken report in three weeks to the Supreme Court. Just to see what were the actions taken by the government in this regard. So this is what mentioned in this news article. In this discussion we discussed about the environmental issues caused by mining. Then what do we mean by regrassing and then we also discussed about the three hours that is important to conserve the land after a mining activity. And then finally we also discussed about the mine closure plan. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion. This discussion is about the midterm performance review of the National Hydrology Project. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now before discussing about the news article let us first understand what is this National Hydrology Project. So literally the term hydrology means the scientific study of occurrence of water, movement of water, physical and chemical properties of water on the earth's surface and beneath the earth's surface. And particularly this National Hydrology Project was launched in 2016 to 2017 and it was launched as a central sector scheme. And this project was under the Ministry of Water Resources River Development and Ganga Regeneration which is now the Ministry of Jals Shakti. And the duration of this project is eight years so the project will continue until 2023 to 2024. Now the objective of this project is to improve the extent, quality and accessibility of water resource information and also to strengthen the capacity of water resource management institutions in India. Now this National Hydrology Project is a World Bank assisted scheme with the Pan India Coverage that is all India coverage. And the total outlay of this scheme is around 3600 crores and a part of this amount will go to the establishment of National Water Informatics Center and the objective of this center is to maintain comprehensive water resources data. Now this project aims to introduce the concept of integrated water resources management all over India using the modern information and technology based tools and also by acquiring data on groundwater levels by monitoring water quality and by using weather parameters. And the data which is obtained will be used for predicting drought. It will be used for designing water source structures and it will be also used for all water related research purposes. Hence this National Hydrology Project will result in the improvement of data storage, data exchange, data analysis and data dissemination through the National Water Informatics Center and it will also improve flood forecasting and it will help in mapping of flood inundation areas for the use by the Disaster Management Authorities. And this NHP will result in better planning of water resources by the assessment of surface water and groundwater resources in a river basin. And this project has four components. The first component is Water Resources Monitoring Systems. This component will finance the establishment or modernization of new and existing hydro-materiology monitoring systems. And one of the major objectives under this component is the establishment of supervisory control and data acquisition systems for the water infrastructure which is in short known as SCADA. Now this SCADA is a computer system for gathering and analyzing real-time data. Then the second component of this NHP is the Water Resources Information System. This component will support the strengthening of national and subnational water information centers with web-enabled water resources information systems. And it will be done through standardization of databases and products from various data sources and departments. So this component will make comprehensive timely and integrated water resources information to be available to the decision makers for effective planning, decision making and for carrying out operations. Then the third component is the Water Resources Operations and Planning Systems. This component will support the development of interactive analytical tools and decision support platform that would help in hydrological flood forecasting that would help in integrated reservoir operations and it will also help in accounting of water resources for the improved operation planning and management of both surface water and groundwater. Then the fourth component is the Institutional Capacity Enhancement. This component aims to build capacity for knowledge-based water resources management. It will support in the establishment of water resources knowledge centers. It will support professional development, project management and it will also provide operational support. So these were the four components of this National Hydrology Project. All these are technically in nature. So just know that there are four components under this National Hydrology Project and what are the names of these four components. Now after this let us discuss about the beneficiaries of this program. It will benefit the central and state agencies that are responsible for surface water or groundwater planning and management. So it will also benefit the river basin organizations. And the ultimate beneficiaries of this program will be the rural and urban water and power users because there will be proper data on water supply and management. Then it will also benefit the populations that are affected by floods and droughts especially the poor rural people and farm families who may benefit from improved irrigation water supply and management. And finally it will also benefit the research and educational institutions. So these were the information that you should know about National Hydrology Project. Now let us discuss the news article. The news article mentions that the mid-term performance review of the National Hydrology Project has ranked surface water at groundwater agencies in the states, union territories and river basin organizations. According to this article the rankings are based on the criteria such as assessment of annual rainfall and then water flow in rivers then real-time data collection. Then it is based on conduct of training programs and data digitization etc. So now based on this performance review this article mentions that Kerala has improved its ranking. Currently Kerala has been ranked 8th at the national level in the surface water category. Previously it was ranked at 13th position but when it comes to the groundwater category Kerala is ranked at 24th position and with respect to the surface water category the first rank is given to Gujarat and the second rank is given to the Damodar Valley Corporation. So this means that based on the mentioned criteria Gujarat and the Damodar Valley Corporation has performed better than the other states, union territories and river basin organizations. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the next session which is the practice questions discussion session. This question is based on Amma Vodi program of Andhra Pradesh. The question asks for the incorrect statement with reference to this program. The first statement is the program is in line with the objective of article 21 capital A of Indian constitution. Now this statement is correct because if you see article 21 capital A it states that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of age of 6 to 14 years in such a manner as the state may by law determine. So based on this the statement is correct because this program provides for a financial assistance of rupees 15,000 per year to the eligible mothers or guardians so that they can send their children to school. So this statement is correct. The next statement states it would help children from socially and educationally poor background to achieve basic education. This statement is also correct because the benefit available under this scheme is to the mother of the child or the recognized guardian who belongs to below poverty line household. So it will definitely help the children from socially and educationally poor background. Then the third statement states it would help in the elimination of child labor. This is one of the objective of the scheme because if the child who belongs to the poor background can go to school because of the financial assistance provided by the state government then the child will not resort to child labor to assist his or her family financially. So this statement is also correct. So that means the incorrect option should be option D which is the correct answer to this question. Because this statement mentions that the scheme would enhance the quality food provided through midday meal scheme by providing nutritious meals. This statement is wrong because the scheme does not envisage enhancing food quality provided under the midday meal scheme. So this is the correct answer to this question. Now this next question is based on geography. The first statement states whether refers to the day-to-day state of atmosphere and its aggregated effect of various atmospheric parameters like temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, sun radiation, visibility and wind. Now this statement is correct because this is the definition of weather. Now the second statement states climate refers to the weather of a locality or region averaged over a long period of at least 30 years. Now this statement is also correct. This is the actual difference between weather and climate. Here the question asks for the correct statement. So here the correct answer is both 1 and 2. Now look at this next question. The question asks what is common to the places known as Karanpura, Singareni and Makum. Now after listening to today's discussion this question may seem very easy but try to attempt the same question after some one or two months and this type of question is also common in UPSC because even 2019 film's question paper had a question based on the water reservoirs in our country where three places were given and we were asked to choose for which the places were actually known for. So in this line this question has been framed and this Karanpura Singareni and Makum is known for coal mines. So the correct answer is coal mines. Karanpura is located in Jharkhand where north and south Karanpura coal fields are present and then Singareni is present in Telangana and Makum is located in Assam. Now this next question is with reference to the statement on climate on India during 2019. The first statement states the year 2016 is the warmest year on record since 1901. Now this statement is correct. 2016 is the warmest year since 1901 and 2019 was the 7th warmest year. Now this next statement states in 2019 more cyclones were witnessed in Bay of Bengal than the normal number of cyclones contributed by Bay of Bengal per year. Now this statement is wrong because in 2019 Bay of Bengal contributed to less number of cyclones than it actually contributes in a year. It contributed to only three cyclones. Normally Bay of Bengal contributes to four cyclones. But this statement would have been correct if in place of Bay of Bengal if we had Arabian Sea because 2019 witnessed five cyclones that were contributed by Arabian Sea and these five cyclones was last seen in the year of 1902. So after 1902 Arabian Sea has contributed to five cyclones in last year only. So this statement is wrong and here the question asks for the incorrect statement. So the correct answer is option B to only. Now this next question is based on National Hydrology Project. Its objective is to improve the extent, quality and accessibility of water resources information and to strengthen the capacity of water resources management institutions in India. Now this statement is correct. This is the objective of this National Hydrology Project and it was launched in 2016 to 17 and this project has a duration of eight years. So it will be carried out until 2023 to 2024. Now this next statement states it is a centrally sponsored scheme under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Now partially the statement is correct because initially the scheme was implemented by Ministry of Water Resources River Development and Ganga Regulation because this ministry has been merged with another ministry which led to the formation of a new ministry Ministry of Jal Shakti. So this part of the statement is correct but whether it is a centrally sponsored scheme no it is not because this NHP project is a central sector scheme in which 100 percentage of the amount is given as grant to the states. In a centrally sponsored scheme normally central government will contribute some percentage of money and the remaining has to be contributed by the respective states and union territories. Here the question asks for the correct statement. Here statement one is the correct statement. So the correct answer to this question is option A one only. Now this question is based on constitution. The question asks which article of the Constitution of India obligates the executive power of every state to ensure compliance with laws made by parliament. If you see the first option it is article 356. We know that article 356 is with respect to the president's rule under which president may by proclamation either with the report from the governor shall assume himself all or any of the functions of the government of the state and all or any of the powers vested in or exerciseable by the governor or any body or authority in the state other than the legislature of the state. So this article deals with the proclamation of the president's rule. Then the next article which is mentioned is article 365. This article which is also an emergency provision in which when a state government has failed to comply with or failed to give effect to any directions that was given in the exercise of the executive power of the union under any of the provisions of the Constitution then president can hold that a situation has arisen in which the government of a state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. Then this article 351 is about the directive for the development of Hindi language. It is the directive of the Constitution to the union which mentions that it shall be the duty of the union to promote the spread of Hindi language. So from this you can easily say that the correct answer to this question is option D because this article obligates the executive power of every state to ensure compliance with the laws made by parliament. Now let us see one main question based on G.S. Pippa 2. What do you mean by electoral federalism? Discuss the trend of electoral federalism in India. Our today's editorial discussion was based on this only. From that you can take points you can also add your own viewpoints to answer this question. You have to answer it in 150 words. You can write the answer and post it in the comment section and your answer will be reviewed and appropriate. Suggestion will be provided within 10 working days of posting of your answer. With this we have come to the end of today's analysis sessions. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar A.S. Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.