 Greetings, aspirants. I welcome you all to yet another video of the series, Shankar's summary. But before getting into our discussion, I have two important announcements to make. Shankar IS Academy is conducting free all India mark test to test your progress. We have simulated the test based on UPSC standards. You can gauge your competition with aspirants all over the India with all India ranking. And you can make corrections in your preparation with our answer keys and detailed explanations. Most importantly, it is completely free of cost. Then what are you waiting for? Just click the link in the description to register for the test. Three tests will be conducted under this program. First mark will be on 7th of May, second mark will be on 14th of May, and third mark will be on 21st of May. The test timing for GS will be from 9.30 am to 11.30 am and the test timing for CSAT will be from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm on the same day. Our second announcement is that we are resuming our daily Hindu news analysis from 15th of May 2023. As usual, keep supporting us. Now let us begin our discussions. These are some of the important topics from the November 2022 current affairs. Now let us solve our first question. The question asks for the best description about the term carbon negative with respect to a city. The correct answer for this question is option C. The term carbon negative refers to the removal of more carbon from the atmosphere than the amount of carbon we emit. To understand this concept better, let us take the case of Bhutan. Bhutan is a carbon negative country. More than 70% of the country is covered in trees. This large amount of tree cover has seen Bhutan becoming a carbon sink. Bhutan absorbs roughly 7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually and produces around 2 million tons. A city or a nation can be achieving the status of carbon negative by 3A forestation programs, moving from fossil fuel based energy production to renewable energy based energy production and changing our consumption patterns etc. This is about the term carbon negative. Now let us see other options also. The remaining three options are definitions of other three important concepts which are very much related to environment. Option A talks about the term carbon neutral. Since we are discussing this term with respect to a city, we can say that a city is carbon neutral if the carbon emissions let out by the city is equal to the carbon sequestrated by the city. Here the word sequestration means the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Option B talks about the term net zero. C, net zero is similar in principle to carbon neutrality, but is expanded in scale. To achieve net zero means to go beyond the removal of just carbon emissions. Net zero refers to all greenhouse gases being emitted into atmosphere such as methane, nitrous oxide and other hydrofluorocarbons. Here note that European Union has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2040 by aiming to be net zero by the year 2050. Option D talks about the term carbon footprint. It is the amount of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane that are generated by our actions. Just by seeing the term carbon footprint we should not be deceived that it refers to the emission of just carbon only. No it is not the case it refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted. Moving on to next question. Three statements have been given in the question and we are asked to choose the correct statement about DMH 11. Before answering this question let us quickly go through some of the important facts about the DMH 11. See the full form of DMH is Dara mustard hybrid. It is the second genetically modified crop to be approved for release into the environment for seed protection and testing. GM cotton is the first in the list. Currently GM cotton is commercially used in India. Here you should note the term hybrid. What does hybridization mean? See hybridization involves crossing two genetically dissimilar plant varieties that can even be from the same species. The first generation F1 offspring from such crosses tend to have higher yields than what either parent can individually give. Such hybridization isn't easy in mustard as its flowers have both female and male reproductive organs that is pistil and salmon respectively. This makes this plant largely self-pollinating. Since the egg of one plant cannot be fertilized by the pollen grains from another it limits the scope for developing hybrids unlike in cotton maize or tomato where this can be done through simple emasculation or physical removal of anthos. So the scientists at Delhi University's Center for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants developed the hybrid mustard DMH11 by crossing two alien genes derived from a soil bacterium called Baxillus amylolicifaciens. The first gene barnacea encodes a protein that reduces the pollen production and makes the plant into which it is incorporated male sterile. That is the gene barnacea induces the temporary sterility because of which it cannot naturally self-pollinate. This plant is then crossed with a fertile parental line containing the second bar star gene which blocks the barnacea gene's action so the resulted F1 progeny is both high yielding and also capable of producing seed sun grains. Here to develop mustard hybrids, a popular Indian mustard variety, Varuna with barnacea gene is crossed with an East European Early Hero II mutant with bar star gene. Now remember this both these plants naturally do not contain these genes. It is actually derived from a soil bacterium and then inserted into the plant varieties. When these two plant varieties are breed the result is DMH11. DMH11 is claimed to have shown an average 28% yield increase over Varuna in contained field trials carried out by Indian Council of Agricultural Research. So boosting domestic oil seed and vegetable oil production thereby reducing the import dependency is the main motive behind their development. Another main specialty about DMH11 is that their herbicide tolerant. So farmers who are spraying glufosinate ammonium to kill weeds don't need them anymore. The labor cost for weeding the fields will also reduce so the correct answer for the question is option A 1 and 2 only. Statement 3 is wrong because GM mustard is not a product of transgenic technology. It is a result of hybridization. The difference between the two is that while a transgenic plant contains a DNA from another organism via gene splicing. A hybrid plant contains DNA only from both parents via fertilization. That is why we already have an UPSC previous year question regarding this topic in 2018. You can have a look at it. Moving on to next question. This question asks for incorrect statement regarding the resort series of satellite. To answer this question you must know some of the basics about Resat. We will first see them and then try to answer this question. See radar imaging satellite is shortly known as Resat which is a series of Indian radar imaging reconnaissance satellites built by ISRO. Now what is meant by radar imaging and reconnaissance? See radar imaging or imaging radar is a concept that uses radar technology to take pictures. It works the same as a flash camera. As we all know a flash camera sends out a pulse of light that is flash and records the light on the film that is reflected back at it through camera In the same way radar uses its own light to eliminate an area on the ground and take a snapshot picture. But note the small differences here. See the radar instead using the components like the lens and film which is used by camera. It uses an antenna and digital computer tapes to record its images. And in a radar image we can see only the light that is reflected back towards radio antenna and not the clear image unlike camera. This is about radar imaging. Now coming to the term reconnaissance. See reconnaissance is the activity of getting information about an area for military purposes using soldiers planes drones satellites etc. Know that the previous Indian observation satellites relied primarily on optical and spectral sensors which were frequently hampered by cloud cover and there was no possibility of all weather surveillance. So to overcome this problem only Resat series of satellites were planned. Resat series are the first all weather earth observation satellites of ISRO. It provides all weather surveillance using synthetic aperture radars that relies on radar imaging technology. See initially resort one was planned to launch but after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks India was in immediate need of surveillance capability and the indigenous technology that needed to develop the resort one was still on the development process. So with the help of Israeli technology in April 2009 ISRO launched resort two and this is the first of the resort series to reach orbit. This satellite enhanced India's capability for disaster management applications and also the country surveillance capabilities. Note that resort two was not indeed genius. We have used the help of Israel. Then only in 2012 ISRO launched resort one and that was India's first indigenous all weather radar imaging satellite. The other satellites in the series include Resat 2B and Resat 2B R1 were launched in 2019 and the Resat 2B R2 and Resat 1A were launched in November 2020 and February 2022 respectively. Now we will see about the applications of Resat. Firstly for spot imaging see the satellite will be useful for high resolutions spot imaging of locations of interest. Then the remote sensing applications of resort are used to monitor the vegetation of a particular area. Then in field of agriculture to monitor the health of the crops and also in monitoring of forestry, soil moisture, geology, coastal regions and ocean. Then the resort supports the field of disaster management. During the time of emergencies the high resolution and all weather imaging capabilities could be utilized for disaster management support. And finally in the aspect of surveillance and security the all weather imaging capabilities could be utilized for border management and counter insurgency applications. For example it will be able to provide use of terror camps bunkers etc. From the above discussion we can say that the correct answer for this question is Option D. Why Option D? Resat 2 is not first indigenously developed satellite in the series. It was developed with the help of Israel. Moving on to next question the term blue bugging sometime seen in news is related to which of the following and four options are given. The correct answer for this question is Option C. It is a type of malicious attack that allows the hackers to gain access to bluetooth enabled devices. Now let us learn some points about blue bugging. Blue bugging is nothing but a malicious attack or technique that allows hackers to hack into bluetooth enabled devices. By using blue bugging technique the hackers can get access to the commands on the bluetooth enabled devices. The blue bugging attack is often limited due to the range of the bluetooth connections. See bluetooth connections have a range up to only 10 meters. So the hackers need to be in a 10 meter to carry out a blue bugging attack. But the hackers have a solution for this also. They can use booster antennas to widen their attack range. So bluetooth enabled phone laptop is highly vulnerable for blue bugging attack. Through blue bugging technique the hackers can spy on your private conversation or they can bug your devices like phone tablet laptop etc. This means that your device can be controlled remotely by the hacker. Since they have the remote control of the device hackers may send and read text messages. They can even monitor the phone calls. That's all you have to know about blue bugging. With this information let's move on to our next question. Look at this question here. The question is about electronically transmitted postal ballot system ETPBS. Here five categories of people are given and we have to find who among them are eligible to cast their vote through ETPBS. Now before getting into the answer let us see some points about ETPBS. See electronically transmitted postal ballot system which is shortly called as ETPBS is a type of postal ballot system. In case of ETPBS the postal ballot will be transmitted through electronic means to voters. This enables the voters to cast their vote through electronically received postal ballot which is also called eBallot. See with the help of eBallot the voters can cast their votes from their preferred location which is typically outside their originally assigned voting constituency. So ETPBS is seen as an easier option to facilitate voting. Know that the ETPBS is developed by the election commission of India with the help of Center for Development of Advanced Computing that is CDAC. Note that ETPBS is a fully secured system and it has two layers of security. Firstly OTP is required to download an encrypted electronically transmitted postal ballot that is ETPB file. Then secondly PIN is required to decrypt the ETPB. So the secrecy and securities maintained here also know that every eBallot will have a unique QR code. So the possibility of duplication of votes through the ETPBS neglected. Now who are all eligible to cast their votes through ETPBS? See the service voters are eligible to vote through ETPBS. The service voters includes the persons who are serving in armed forces of the union, the people who are serving in armed police forces to which army act of 1950 applies that is the forces of Assam rifles, CRPF, BSF, ITPB, SSB, NSG, BRO, CISF, etc. And finally the employees of government of India posted outside India for example ambassadors of India and members of armed police force posted outside India. These people are only called a service voters and they are eligible to vote through ETPBS. Also note that wife of a service voter who ordinarily resides with a service voter can also be eligible to vote through ETPBS. This is as per the provisions of section 20 of the representation of people at 1950. However, the husband of a lady service voter is not eligible to use this option of postal ballot under the RPA Act. Earlier the government has proposed to allow a husband of a lady service voter to cast this vote through postal ballot. For this purpose the government introduced representation of People Amendment Bill 2017. This bill was passed by the Lok Sabha but the bill was lapsed on the dissolution of 16th Lok Sabha in 2019. So as of now the husband of a lady service voter is not eligible to vote through E-Ballot. Now coming to non-resident Indians. As of now NRAs are allowed to vote in person and they are not allowed to vote through ETPBS or postal ballot. The election commission of India has proposed to allow NRAs to cast their vote through postal ballot. So we have to wait and see what is going to happen. Now let us take the question who among the following people are eligible to cast their vote through electronically transmitted postal ballot system. Ambassadors of India, residing outside India, non-resident Indians, husband of a lady service voter, members of armed police force posted outside India and finally wife of a male service voter. As of now NRAs and husband of lady service voter are not eligible to cast their votes through ETPBS. So the correct answer is option C, 1, 4 and 5 only. C, in this question 4 raw materials are given and we have to find which of the raw materials are approved by the Indian government for the production of bioethanol. Initially the government allowed only C heavy molasses for the production of bioethanol. In 2018 the government allowed the conversion of B heavy molasses, sugar cane juice and damaged food grains to ethanol. Then in 2019 the government allowed the conversion of sugar and sugar syrup into ethanol. So the correct answer here is option D, 1, 2, 3 and 4. As a part of this discussion let us also see what ethanol blending is and the advantages that India can derive by adopting ethanol blending. Ethanol blending is the process of adding ethanol to fossil fuel. The ethanol used for the blending process is mainly derived from the biological sources. India is currently blending 10% ethanol with petrol. India aims to achieve 20% ethanol blending with petrol by 2025. Our country has also targeted 5% blending of biodiesel with diesel by 2030. Now what are the advantages of ethanol blending? See India is an import dependent country in regards to fossil fuel. This increases India's import bill. Blending a certain amount of ethanol with petrol will bring down the cost of import of fossil fuels. Successful 20% ethanol blending program could save the country 4 billion dollar per annum or about rupees 30,000 crore. Also note that carbon dioxide released when ethanol is used in vehicle is offset by the carbon dioxide captured when crops used to make the ethanol are grown. As a result vehicles running on high level blends of ethanol produce less net CO2 than conventional vehicles which only run on fossil fuel. Now coming to the benefits of the farm sector ethanol blending can help sugarcane farmers and sugar mill owners to gain as they will be able to get a good price for their products. Moving on let us see the environmental impacts of ethanol blending. The carbon monoxide emission declines due to ethanol blending but ethanol blending has no effect on emission of nitrous oxides. Second ethanol blending is highly water intensive. For India sugarcane is the cheapest source of ethanol. On average a ton of sugarcane can produce 100 kilogram of sugar and 70 liters of ethanol but that would mean 1600 to 2000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of sugar implying that a liter of ethanol from sugar requires about 2860 liters of water. These are some of the issues associated with the ethanol production. That is all regarding the question moving on to the next question. In this question three different practices are given and we have to find which of these are recognized as globally important agricultural heritage systems by Food and Agricultural Organization that is FAO. First let us see some points about GAHS. Globally important agricultural heritage systems is a program of United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. GAHS was founded during 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. GAHS is an UN partnership initiative for sustainable development. This initiative aims to identify, support and safeguard globally important agricultural heritage systems and their livelihoods, agricultural knowledge systems, cultures and landscapes around the world. If we take India three agricultural heritage systems are recognized as GAHS by the FAO. They are Kuttanad below sea level farming of Kerala, Koraput traditional agriculture of Odisha and Pampur saffron heritage of Jammu and Kashmir. Now look at the question. The correct answer is Option D 1 2 and 3. Now let us see some points about three agricultural heritage systems we mentioned about. First let us take the Kuttanad below sea level farming. See Kuttanad is a region covering Alapula, Kotaem and Patanam Thitta districts in the state of Kerala. Kuttanad region is well known for its vast paddy fields and geographical peculiarities. Kuttanad agricultural system is unique as it is the only system in India that favors rice cultivation below sea level. In Kuttanad, rice cultivation is carried out in the land that was created by draining the delta swamps in the brackish waters. Now moving on to see about Koraput traditional agriculture of Odisha. The Koraput region is located in the eastern gods of Odisha and it is famous for its highland plateau. In such highlands paddy cultivation occupies most of the agricultural practices. See Koraput traditional systems are strongly linked to their tribal communities and their indigenous knowledge system. From their knowledge and practices a high biodiversity has been conserved through an in situ conservation preserving endemic species. Apart from this the tribes have the tradition of maintaining sacred grooves to preserve the plant species. Now finally let us see about Pampur saffron heritage of Kashmir. Saffron is a cash crop which is cultivated primarily in the Pampur district of the Kashmir valley. The site is situated on the banks of river Vatista. Saffron is well known for its medicinal values and the rich cultural heritage of Kashmir. The Pampur in Kashmir has earned the title of Kashmir saffron town for growing the best quality saffron. The Kashmiri village women contribute to this agricultural heritage system through traditional tilling and flower picking. That's all. With this information let us move on to next question. In this question four statements are given and all these statements describes a particular place. We have to identify which place is mentioned in these statements. This all four statement represent the Babur region so the correct answer is option A. As a part of this question discussion let us see some facts about this region. Let us start with Babur. As you see the image it is located adjacent to the foothills of Sivaliks. Rivers descending from the Himalayas deposit their load along the foothills in the form of alluvial fans. These alluvial fans have merged together to build up the Babur belt. One of the unique features of this region is its high porosity. Due to its high porosity the rivers disappears in this region. Due to its high porosity this region is not suitable for agriculture. The next one is Terai region. These are flat marshy regions that lie parallel to the Babur region. This is the widest along Bihar and eastern UP and the narrowest in the east. The rivers that disappear in the Babur region reappear in the Terai region. This region is densely forested but presently these areas are deforested for agriculture. The next one is Bangar. Bangar is the older alluvium along the riverbeds. It extends over the whole Gangetic plain. It has conquer deposits which are fragments of limestone. The last one is Khadar region. Khadar is composed of new year alluvium and forms of floodplains along the river banks. A new layer of alluvium is deposited by the river floods almost every year. This makes them the most fertile soils of the Ganges. That's all regarding this discussion. Our next question is about Grievance Appellate Committee that is GAC. But before we approaching this question let us see some basic information about GAC. The information technology rules 2021 mandated the social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to appoint India based resident grievance officers. These officers are responsible for overseeing the grievance redressal mechanism of complaints from the people who use the service of the social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. What this means is that if a user has an issue with an account or a piece of content on a social media platform they can complain about it to the company's grievance officer. It is the duty of the grievance officer to act and dispose the complaint within 15 days. But what if the decision of the grievance officer is not satisfactory to the user? Can the user appeal against the decision of the grievance officer? See earlier the user can appeal against the decision of the grievance officer in the court. Since our courts are already overburdened the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently amended the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code rules 2021 to aid in the establishment of Grievance Appellate Committee. So basically Grievance Appellate Committee is set up to provide an alternative to a user to file an appeal against the decision of the grievance officer rather than directly going to the court of law. See each GAC will have a chairperson and two whole time members appointed by the union government. If a user is not satisfied with the ruling of the grievance officer he can appeal to the GAC within a period of 30 days. The GAC for their part should resolve the appeal made by the user within 30 days. To arrive at a decision GAC can take the assistance from the people with necessary qualifications and experience on the subject matter. The dispute resolution adopted by the GAC will be digital in nature. So the appeal against the order of grievance officer can be made online and the order issued by the GAC will also be made available online. The social media intermediaries must comply with the orders of GAC and a report highlighting the steps taken with the social media intermediaries should be updated in their website. This is about the grievance officers and GAC. Now coming back to question from the discussion that we just had we can say that statement one two are correct and statement three is incorrect. Why because the appeal against the order of grievance can be made only on online mode and not on offline mode. So the correct answer is option A one and two only. Look at this question here description of a lake is given and we have to find out which lake it is. The question says that it is the largest tropical freshwater lake in the world. It serves as an inland water transport linkage for three east African states. The only outlet from this lake is White Nile River which lake is referred here. Yes the correct answer is option A Lake Victoria. I have framed this question about Lake Victoria because in the month of November plane crash occurred in Lake Victoria in Tanzania. So UPSC might ask question about Lake Victoria. Now let us see some facts about the lake. Lake Victoria was named after the queen Victoria of England by an European explorer John Hanning Speck. It is also known as Victoria Nyanza. It is one among the African Great Lakes. It is the continent's largest lake then the largest tropical lake in the world. It is also the second largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of surface area. Find out which is the first one. It is the source of longest branch of Nile River the White Nile and know that this White Nile is the only outlet from the Lake Victoria. Now know about the location of the lake. It lies mainly in Tanzania and Uganda but borders Kenya. The lake also an inland water transport linkage for three east African states that is Ganda, Tanzania and Kenya. And this lake serves as a major reservoir and source of water for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes. But the lake Victoria is facing many threats. They are overfishing ecological damage caused from pollution and invasive species and finally eutrophication. These are some of the information that you should know about Lake Victoria. Apart from this know about other lakes also okay. In this image try arranging the lakes in north south direction or south north direction. It will be useful for you in problems. In this question here the statements are given about the national population register. I have framed this question because in the month of November the home ministry reports said that there is a need to update the NPR. Now with this understanding let us solve the question. First statement says that NPR is the register containing the list of Indian citizens in the state of Assam. This statement is incorrect because national register for citizens that is NRC only contains the list of Indian citizens. As of now only Assam has NRC. NPR is a register of usual residence of the country. Here usual residence is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more. Even a foreigner can be declared as a usual resident so they can be registered under NPR but they cannot be included in NRC. Second statement says that as per Citizenship Act 1955 it is compulsory for the residents to register under the national population register. This is true as per the section 14A of the Citizenship Act 1955 it is compulsory for every citizen of the country to register in the national register of Indian citizens NRC. So the first and foremost step towards the preparation of NRC is the creation of national population register that is NPR. As registering in NRC is compulsory it implicitly says that it is also compulsory for the residents to register under NPR. Third statement says that national population register is maintained by register general of India. This is also correct the NPR is maintained by the register general and the census commissioner of India who works under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Also know that NPR is being prepared at the local level that is in the village or sub-town level then on the sub-district level district level state and national level. It is prepared under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the citizenship registration of citizens and issue of national identity card rules of 2003. So the correct answer to the question is option D2 and 3 only. Moving on to next question this question is about SAROG AC regulation at 2021. I have framed this question about the Act because in November eligibility provisions of the Act were challenged in Delhi High Court so UPSC might ask a question about it. Anyways it is good for us to prepare right with that note let us solve the question. First statement says that an eligible woman cannot be a surrogate mother for more than once in her lifetime. This is actually correct. See there are some conditions for a surrogate mother as per the SAROG AC regulation at 2021. Firstly surrogate mother should be genetically related to the intending couple or intending women. Secondly she should not provide her own gametes. Thirdly she should be a married woman having a child of her own and between the age of 25 to 35 years on the day of implantation. Fourthly she should not be a surrogate mother for more than once in her lifetime. Here know that the number of attempts for surrogacy procedures on the surrogate mother are given in a surrogacy rules 2022. Second statement says that a video woman can avail the option of surrogacy. This is also correct. As per the Act intending couple or intending women can avail the option of surrogacy. First of all intending women means an Indian woman who is a widow or divorcee between the age of 35 to 45 years and who intends to avail the surrogacy. Secondly intending couple means a couple who have medical indication necessitating the gestational surrogacy and who intend to become parents through surrogacy. As far as the intending couple is concerned there are two conditions. They should be married and wife should be between the age of 23 to 50 years and husband should be between 26 to 55 years on the day of certification. Second condition is that intending couple should not have any surviving child biologically or through adoption or through surrogacy earlier. So the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. This question asks for the best explanation of the term mission praram. Mission praram refers to India's first privately developed rocket. The answer for this question is option D. Now let us briefly see about mission praram. India's first privately developed rocket Vikram-S lifted off from the ISRO's launchpad in Sriharikota on 18 November 2022. This mission was named praram which means the beginning. Under the mission praram, Vikram-S rocket carried three payloads including one satellite named FUNSAT. FUNSAT was developed by SpaceKits India a Chennai based Aero startup. Know that the parts of FUNSAT were developed by school students. The Vikram-S rocket has been developed by Hyderabad based Skyroot Aerospace a private company that was started in 2018. Here the rockets was developed with the support from Indian Space Research Organization ISRO and Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center that is in space. The Vikram-S rocket is named after Vikram Sarabhai who is the founder of Indian Space program. The Vikram-S is a single stage solid-fueled sub-orbital launch vehicle. The Vikram-S launch vehicle is powered by Kalam-ET propulsion system. The engine is named after our former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Skyroot has been developing three variants of Vikram rocket. The first one is Vikram-1. It can carry 480 kg of payload to low inclination orbit and it can carry 290 kg of payload to SSPO that is Sunsynchronous Polar Orbit. The second one is Vikram-2. It can carry 595 kg of payload to low inclination orbit and 400 kg of payload to Sunsynchronous Polar Orbit. Finally, Vikram-3. It can carry 815 kg of payload to low inclination orbit and 560 kg of payload to Sunsynchronous Polar Orbit. That's it about the mission program. Let us move on to the next question. This question is about Green Finance and Working Committee. Two statements have been given and we are asked to choose the correct statements. First statement says that Green Finance and Working Committee is chaired by the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This statement is wrong because it is chaired by the Chief Economic Advisor of India and not by the Minister of Environment. Let us move on to the next statement. It tells that GFWC is established to validate key decisions on the issuance of sovereign green bonds. This particular statement is correct. If you aren't aware of sovereign green bonds, no issues. Let us briefly look above the sovereign green bonds. The issuance of sovereign green bonds was announced with the Union Budget 2022-23. The proceeds from these bonds will be used in environment friendly public sector projects which will in turn help in decreasing the carbon intensity of the economy. Sovereign green bonds amounting Rs. 16,000 crore is proposed to be issued in the current financial year for mobilizing resources for the green infrastructure projects. Rs. 8,000 crore has already been raised in the first tranche of sovereign green bonds. These green bonds will also help in attaining ambitious targets decided by the government. For example, achieving 175 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022 and net zero carbon emissions by 2070. Now, let us go back to green finance and working committee. The green finance working committee was constituted by the Ministry of Finance with the representation from relevant line ministries. It will meet at least twice a year to support the Ministry of Finance with the selection and evaluation of projects and other relevant work related to the framework. Initial evaluation of the project will be the responsibility of the concerned ministry department in consultation with the experts. Take note that the question asks for the correct statements. Hence the answer is option B2 only. Let us move on to the next question. This particular question is about biodiversity heritage sites in India. Biodiversity heritage sites are given on one side and the states are given on the other side. And we are asked to choose the not correctly matched paths. Before getting into this question, let us discuss about biodiversity heritage site, how it is designated and its significance. Biodiversity heritage sites are well defined, unique, ecologically fragile areas. It may be a terrestrial, coastal, inland waters and marine area. Biodiversity heritage sites are rich in biodiversity. Hence they have the presence of rare and threatened species, keystone species and species of evolutionary significance etc. These sites have high endomism. Here endomism means that a plant or animal lives only in a particular location. These sites have a significant cultural, ethical or aesthetic values. It may be an important place for maintenance of cultural diversity. Now let us see who declare a site as a biodiversity heritage site. The state biodiversity boards will invite suggestions for declaration of BHS. It may also consider suggestions from communities. All this happens through Biodiversity Management Committees. It may also happen through other relevant community institutions including Gramsabas, Panchayats, Urban Watts, Forest Protection Committees, Tribal Councils etc. Then after the scrutiny, the State Biodiversity Board issues a preliminary notification to specify the boundaries of the Biodiversity Heritage Site. After 30 days of draft notification, there will be a public hearing. Then finally the announcement of the establishment of BHS will be done. Please take a note that India has 37 Biodiversity Heritage Sites and few important sites are given in this question. Nallur Turmeric Grove is the first Biodiversity Heritage Site of India and Gandhamaradan Hill of Odisha is the last added site in the list. Okay now let us solve a prelims practice question. Nallur Turmeric Grove is in Karnataka and not in Andhra Pradesh. Varamura Water Falls is in Tripura. Amar Contact is in Madhya Pradesh and Aritapatti is in Tamil Nadu. Take a note that Aritapatti is the first Biodiversity Heritage Site of Tamil Nadu. First and second pairs are not correct and since the question asks for the incorrect pairs, the answer is option B only two pairs. This question is about ASEAN. In this question, two statements are given and we have to choose the correct options. Before solving this question, we will quickly revise few important points about ASEAN. ASEAN is expanded as Association of Southeast ASEAN Nations. It was established on 8th August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was established with the signing of ASEAN declaration that is Bangkok Declaration. Now coming to its member. See it is a regional organisation of 10 Southeast Asian and Pacific Rim countries. It includes Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. Now coming to its fundamental purpose. See ASEAN has some aims and purposes as per the ASEAN declaration. I have given here those aims past the video and go through it. See the ASEAN Summit is the highest policy making body in ASEAN. It comprises of the heads of the state or government of ASEAN member states. The ASEAN Summit meetings are held twice annually at a time to be determined by chair of the ASEAN Summit. The first ASEAN Summit was held in Bali, Indonesia on 23rd and 24th of February in 1976. Now read the question. Statement one says that the ASEAN plus three cooperation includes India. This is incorrect. APT includes ASEAN plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea that is South Korea. This cooperation process began in December 1997. But India is a part of ASEAN plus six. ASEAN plus six is a grouping of 16 countries comprising 10 ASEAN member countries and the six other countries outside the ASEAN. This includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. Statement two says the headquarters of ASEAN is located in Jakarta, Indonesia. This is correct. So the correct answer is option B2 only. Look at this question here. This question is about the Battle of Nalapani. We have to find the two parties those who are involved in this battle. Option A, Sanyasis and the British. Option B, the Paharis and the Jats. Option C, the Gorkas and the British. And finally the option D, the Gujaras and Boteas. Here the correct answer is option C, the Gorkas and the British. Yes, the Battle of Nalapani was fought between the Gorkas and the British. Now let us learn some points about the Battle of Nalapani. See, the Battle of Nalapani happened in the year 1814. It took place in the outskirts of the present day Deradun Uttarakhand. The battle is also known by the name Anglo-Nepalese war or Anglo-Gurkawar or simply Gurkawar as it was fought between the Gorka army of Nepal kingdom and the British. During 1814 the British army marched towards Deradun to occupy the Nepali territory. The territory was situated in the Garwal and Khamon region. It was between the two major rivers such as Ganga and Yamuna. And the territory was occupied by the Nepali forces. During the battle, the Gorka soldiers defended the Kalanga Fort of Nepal kingdom for over six weeks without food or water. Despite such strong retaliation, the Gorkas lost the battle. However, the bravery of Gorkas surprised the British. So to acknowledge the bravery, the British themselves built the memorial. The memorial is known as Kalanga War Memorial or Kalanga War Memorial. It is considered the world's first memorial erected by the British army for their opponent. Apart from this, British even raised the Gorka regiments in British army to recognize the bravery of Gorkas. And these regiments are still a part of the Indian army. And know that every Kalanga Mela is organized at the Kalanga War Memorial. It is to celebrate the bravery of Gorka warriors who fought against the British in battle of Nalapani. That's all. Let us move on to the next question. In this question, four statements are given and these statement describe a particular animal. We have to find which among these animals perfectly matches the profile given here. Here statement 2 is very important because it's a unique feature. Actually, the animal that has the special property is binturang which is also called a beer cat. Binturang's pee smells like a hot buttered popcorn. Using this unique smell, it lays the boundaries on branches and foliage. So the correct answer is option C. As a part of this discussion, let us see a few important points about the animal. First look at this image. By looking at this image, you can understand why it is called a beer cat. This animal looks like a pot beer and pot cat. Binturang is an arboreal mammal. That is, they live in the trees. And it is an omnivore of the civet family. And this binturang is principally nocturnal. That is, it is awake and active at night while it sleeps during the day. And it is found most often among the trees. While doing so, it uses its prehensile tail as an aid in climbing. Here the prehensile tail means it is capable of gripping things. Some days ago, in the October 2022 compilation, Gauri Mam might have mentioned about slender lorries. This slender lorries has a vestigial tail, meaning its tail is merely a ornamental and useless. But the prehensile tail of the beer cat is used for gripping and climbing. Now coming to its food habits. It feeds mainly on fruit such as figs. But it also eats eggs and small animals. That is why we term it as omnivore. What about its habitat and distribution? Binturangs live in the rainforest of South East Asia. Just look at this map here. The yellow shaded region shows the place where binturangs live. From this map itself, you can see it is also found in India. Coming to the conservation status, it is classified as vulnerable in the IUCN red list. Also, it is listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection at 1972. That's all regarding this discussion. Let's move on to our next question. This question talks about black corals. So, first we'll learn few points about black coral and then we'll get back to the question. See, black corals are a group of corals that belongs to the order Antipateria. And they are found all over the world and at all depths. They are known as deep sea corals and can be abundant in certain areas. Know that black corals are rarely black. Yes, they vary in color from white to red, green, yellow or brown. Then why they are known as black corals then? This is because black corals have chitinous black skeletons. They also range in shape from small bushes to bottle brushes to fans to single stalks. And these black corals differ greatly from stony corals. This is in terms of their skeletons. See, all black corals have a skeleton made of protein and chitin. This is same as an insect skeleton. In addition to this, black corals do not have symbiotic algae associated with them. So, they do not require light. Thus, they are found in depths where light is not present. Okay. Then how do they get nourished? See, the black corals are filter feeders and eat tiny zooplankton that are abundant in deep waters. What about their distribution? See, black corals are found across the globe in oceans from the Arctic to the Antarctic. And they are particularly common in tropical and subtropical regions at depths below 50 meter. And these black corals are generally found in areas with hot substrates, low light and strong currents. Okay. Is it so significant? Yes. Black corals are significant because their skeleton composition provides a snapshot of the environmental conditions of the past. See, just like trees, rings are formed in the skeleton of these corals. As they grow and these rings capture chemical signature of the environment. So, this allows scientists to learn about the past oceanic environments. Now, read the question. Here, all the statements are correct. So, the answer is option B. Now, let us move on to our next question. See, this question is about contents of parties. First, we will revise some facts about contents of parties before solving the question. Firstly, what is COP of UNFCC? The contents of parties is the apex decision making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UNFCC was formed in 1994 to stabilize the greenhouse gas emissions and to protect the earth from the threat of climate change. The first conference was held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany. Then another important COP is the COP-3, where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. In Kyoto Protocol, parties in annexure-1 agreed to reduce their overall emissions of 6 greenhouse gases by at least 5% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The protocol also established emission trading, joint implementation between the developed countries, and a clean development mechanism to encourage joint emission reduction projects between developed and developing nations. Then we have the COP-8, which took place in New Delhi in 2002. It adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that called for the efforts by the developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries. Then another important COP is the COP-14. Major highlight here is the launching of the Adoption Fund under Kyoto Protocol. COP-14 took place in December 2008 in Poznan, Poland. Then in COP-16R, the Cancun Summit in 2010, parties established Green Climate Fund and designated it as an operating entity of the financial mechanism in 2011. Then the COP-18 happened in Doha in 2012. Here, the Doha amendment took the Kyoto Protocol was adopted for a second commitment period starting in 2013 and lasting till 2020. Then the COP-21 was held in Paris in 2015. This is when the famous Paris Agreement was adopted. Each country that ratified this agreement was required to set a target for emission reduction called the nationally determined contribution. Then we have the COP-26 held in Glasgow. Here, India announced the net zero targets for 2070, which is a part of Punjab. Then the most recent one is COP-27 held in Egypt. One of the major outcome is the loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries. The parties signed an agreement to provide loss and damage funding to the vulnerable countries. With this knowledge, we will take up the question. Option A says that the first COP meeting took place in Germany in 1995. This is correct. Option B says that the latest COP-27 edition was convened in Glasgow. No, it is wrong. COP-27 was held in Egypt and COP-26 was held in Glasgow. And option C tells that the Paris Agreement introduced the concept of nationally determined contribution. This is correct. And the option D says that the Kyoto Protocol does not set reduction targets for developing countries. This is also correct. So, the incorrect statement is option B. COP-27 took place in Shamil Sheikh in Egypt. Now, let us move on to our next question. This question asks for the best description about the term CE-20, which is recently seen in news. The correct answer for the question is option B. CE-20 is an indigenously developed cryogenic engine used in LMV Mark III. LMV Mark III is nothing but GSLV Mark III. CE-20 engine recently made news because a successful hot test was conducted for the engine. Here, what is a hot test? And how hot test is different from the cold test? Hot tests are done on engines to check all the engine parameters like wear and tear, temperature, etc. As they would function in real time. The main difference between these two methods is that hot test, the engine is loaded with fuel and the engine performs combustion. While in cold test, there is no need for combustion. Since CE-20 made in news, we can expect a question about this in prelims examination. So, we will see some important points about CE-20. CE-20 is an indigenously developed cryogenic engine used in LMV Mark III. We know that LMV III has three stages. There is the solid first stage, a liquid second stage and a cryogenic third stage. So, the CE-20 cryogenic engine is used in the upper stage of LMV Mark III. But what is this cryogenic engine? Cryogenic engine uses the liquid hydrogen as the propellant and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. Oxygen liquefies at minus 183 degree centigrade while hydrogen exist in liquid form below minus 253 degree centigrade. Since these engines deal with various operation at such low temperatures, they are called as cryogenic engines. This is because cryogenics is the science of extremely low temperature. Although the operation of the engine is very complex, let me explain to you a highly simplified version of the working. Look at this schematic diagram. In the blue tank, liquid hydrogen is stored and in the same tank, liquid oxygen is stored. These two mix in the combustion chamber where the combustion takes place. In combustion chamber, hydrogen reacts explosively with oxygen to produce water vapor and energy. The hydrogen-oxygen reaction generates tremendous heat causing the water vapor to expand and it exits the engine nozzles at the speed of 10,000 miles per hour. This fast-moving steam creates the thrust that propels the rocket from the earth according to Newton's third law. One of the biggest advantages of the cryogenic engine is it is eco-friendly. This is because as we saw the exhaust from the cryogenic engine is mainly water vapor. This is about the working of the cryogenic engines. Now let us conclude this question discussion and take up the next question. Now this question here is about the codes. Some statements are given about the codes and we have to find out which is the incorrect one. First we'll try to solve the question then I will tell you why I have framed this question. Statement 1 says that codes are predominantly Shia Muslims who are indigenous people of Middle East. This is incorrect. This is because first of the statement is incorrect. Codes are primarily Sunni Muslims. It is said that even codes other to different religions creeds, majority of them are Sunni Muslims. Now the second part of the statement is correct. Codes are one of the indigenous people of the Middle East and then region's fourth largest ethnic group. They speak Kurdish and Indo-European language. They have a distinct culture, traditional dress and holidays. Know that Kurdish nationalism emerged during the 20th century following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of new nation state across the Middle East. Second statement says that codes primarily reside in the mountainous regions of Turkey and Syria only. This is also incorrect because codes are one of the indigenous people of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands. They are spread as minorities in the southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and the southwestern Armenia. An estimated amount of 30 million codes reside primarily in the mountainous regions of the present day Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. And they remain one of the world's largest people without a sovereign state. Know that codes have a long history of marginalization and persecution. But in Iraq and Turkey, they have repeatedly fought for greater autonomy or complete independence. So the correct answer to this question is Option D, neither one nor two. See, I have framed this question because in the month of November, Iran launched a wave of cross-border missile and drone strikes against Kurdish opposition groups based in northern Iraq. So UPSC might ask question about codes. And if you want to know more about the codes on Kurdish region, then watch our November 15, 2022 analysis. Look at this question here. Which of the following best defines the term LT-LEDS that is sometimes seen in news? Here the correct answer is Option B. It is a strategy formulated by the state parties of the UN FCC to limit the greenhouse gas emissions. Now let us learn some points about LT-LEDS. First of all, know that LT-LEDS is expanded as Long-term Low Emission Development Strategy. It is nothing but the long-term strategy that aims to limit the greenhouse gas emissions and strives for the low emissions. This strategy was initiated in 2015 at the COP21 of the UN FCC held at Paris. The 2015 Paris Agreement invited the parties of UN FCC to formulate long-term low development strategies and to submit them by 2020. Many countries have submitted their strategies by 2020 but due to COVID pandemic, some countries including India weren't able to submit their strategy. Subsequently, the time was extended. And finally, India announced its LT-LEDS in last November during COP27 held in Egypt. See, the LT-LEDS are qualitative in nature. Through this long-term strategy, the countries must explain how they will transition their economies beyond achieving their near-term targets to reduce emissions. And the strategy should be formulated based on countries' various responsibilities and capabilities as per the different national level circumstances. Now, coming to India's long-term strategy, India said that it is going to undertake the transitions from the fossil fuel to green fuel in a just, smooth, sustainable and all-inclusive manner. Then, India is also going to increase the use of biofuels, electric vehicle penetration and the use of green hydrogen fuel. These efforts help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. Apart from this, India is also going to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector by enhancing material efficiency and recycling. That's all. Now, let us move on to the next question. Look at this question. Here, five pollutants are given. And we have to find which of the pollutants are monitored by both NAAQS and SUFFER. Before we approach this question, let us see some points about NAAQS and SUFFER. National ambient air quality standards are the standards for ambient air quality set by the Central Pollution Control Board. These standards are applicable nationwide. The CPCB has been conferred this power by the Air Prevention and Control of Pollution at 1981. The current national ambient air quality standards were notified on 18 November 2009 by the Central Pollution Control Board. It consists of 12 pollutants, namely PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, carbon monoxide, ozone, ammonia, lead, benzene, benzopyrin, arsenic and nickel. Moving on to SUFFER. These are standards set by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. SUFFER was developed indigenously by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and operationalised by the Indian Meteorological Department. In addition to regular air quality parameters like PM2.5, PM10, sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, the system also monitors the existence of benzene, toluene and xylene. It also measures the sun's UV index and mercury levels. SUFFER also monitors weather parameters like temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind directions. Now coming back to question. Based on the discussion, we know that carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and benzene are monitored by both NAAQS and SUFFER. Benzopyrin is monitored by only NAAQS and the toluene is monitored only by SUFFER. So the correct answer is option A, 1, 2 and 3 only. With this, let us move on to our next question. This question is about new pension scheme. I have framed this question because every now and then protests are happening because of the new pension scheme. People want the government to implement the old pension scheme. Since it is in news often, there is a chance of UPSC asking about new pension scheme. Now let us try to solve the question. First statement says that it is mandatory for all the central government employees. This is correct. It is mandatory for all the central government employees, but voluntary for other people. It is voluntary and long term contribution based on retirement saving scheme for private sector and even unorganized sectors. This scheme aims to provide old age security to citizens of India by providing regular income to senior citizens after their retirement. This scheme was started in 2004 and initially it focused all government employees. Then in 2009, the scheme was made open to all citizens. But know that the armed forces personnel are exempted and they are still covered under old pension scheme. It is regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority and the central government. Second statement says that applicants should be between the age of 18 and 40 years. This is incorrect because the eligible age for joining NPS is between 18 and 65. The other eligibility criteria include the applicant should be an Indian citizen. There should be KYC complaint that is know your customer complaints and must not have any pre-existing NPS account. So the correct answer is option A only. Other facts that you should know about the NPS is that NPS is market linked and return based. The pension fund collected will be given to the pension fund managers who in turn will invest the funding different market instruments like stocks, mutual funds, government bonds etc. The employees are required to deposit 10% of their basic pay of their salary. That's all. Now we will move on to our next question about tribal festivals. This is a pair based question. On the one side, the tribal festivals are given and on the other side, the tribes are given. We have to find how many pairs are correctly matched. 1. Vijipandam Koya. 2. Lancône Festival Tiva. 3. Varlangyatra Kotiakond. 4. Baiko Festival Rabba. Here, all the given pairs are correct. So the correct answer is option D. All 4 pass. Now let us learn some points about the tribes and festivals given here. First, let us take Koya tribes. Koya tribe is the largest Adivasi tribe of Telangana and they are listed as Scheduled tribe in Telangana. The community spread the grass Telangu speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. See, Koya are mainly settled cultivators. Their main festivals are Vijipandam and Kundala Koluppu. See, Vijipandam is a seed charming festival and Kundala Koluppu is a festival to appease hill deities. Koyas also perform a robust colorful dance called Permakok Atta. That is Baizenhorn Dance during festivals and married ceremonies. Apart from this, the Koya tribes also celebrate Medaram Jatara, which is the second largest fair of India after the Kumbh Mela and it is celebrated for four days. Now moving on to see about the Tiva tribes. Tivas who are also known as Lalang is an indigenous tribal community living in the states of Assam and Meghalaya. They are also found in some parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagalan. In terms of language, they belong to Thibhattavarman linguistic group with an inclination towards the Bodo Naga tribes. They are recognized as a Scheduled tribe within the state of Assam. The main festivals of the Tiva tribes are Tri Bihu, Borath Utsav, Sogra Pooja, Vanchua, Joan Bill Mela, Kabla, Lankon Pooja and Yangli Pooja. Now we will move on to see about Kutia Kondh tribes. See Kutia Kondhs are particularly vulnerable tribal groups that is PVTGs residing in the Kalahandi district of Odisha. Kutia Kondh is one of the primitive sections of the Kondha tribe. The Kondhas who live in hilltops and valleys are known as Kutia Kondha. Then Kondhas who live in highland near the stream are called Dongria Kondha. And the Kondhas who are residing in the plain area are known as Desia Kondh. The Kondhas worship nature like many other tribal groups in the country. The members of the community protect forest and wildlife and they also prevent illegal trading of trees. The traditional annual festival of the Kutia Kondh tribe is called Barlang Yatra. In this festival women of the community worship and exchange seeds through a celebratory mode of songs and dances. Now finally let us see some points about Rabba tribes. See Rabba is one of the most popular and indigenous tribes of Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. In India they are present in the states of Assam, Mehalaya and West Bengal. The Rabbas belong to the Indo-Mangalite group of people. The language spoken by this community is mainly Rabba language. Know that Baiko is the principal deity of the Rabbas which is associated with the crops. Baiko is worshipped only once in a year with great ceremonies during the month of April and May. The worshipping ceremony is celebrated as a festival which is called Baiko festival. During this festival tribes will pray for rains, abundant crops and health for the community. That's all we will move on to the next question. This question here is about Udan scheme. I have framed this question because in November union government announced that airlines will have to pay regional connectivity scheme levy per departure of rupees 10,000 instead of the current 5000 rupees. This is from January 1st to March 31st 2023 and this will be further revised to 15,000 from 1st of April 2023 to 30th of April 2027. So there has been a change in the levy. So it is important for us to know about the basics of the schemes also. Now let us solve the question. First statement says that Udan scheme is a self-financing scheme with the development of regional connectivity fund. This is true. See regional connectivity scheme Udan that is Uday Deshka Amnagrik is the Ministry of Civil Aviation's flagship program. The first flight was launched by Prime Minister on 27th April 2017. The scheme was initiated on 21st October 2016. Its main objective is to fulfill the aspirations of the common citizen by following the vision of Uday Deshka Amnagrik with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Know that RCS Udan was formulated based on the review of the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016. It was planned to remain in a force for a period of 10 years. It has a self-financing mechanism with the development of regional connectivity fund. The fund is created by a levy on certain domestic flights. This way funds generated from the sector itself will stimulate the growth and development of the sector. Second statement says that lifeline Krishi and international Udan are components of Udan scheme. This is also correct. See Udan created a framework based on the need and it led to formation of lifeline Udan which is for the transportation of medical cargo during pandemic. Krishi Udan which is for value realization of agricultural products especially in northeastern region and tribal districts. International Udan routes for northeastern region to explore international connectivity from to Gaukati and Impal. So the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. In this question description of a particular river is given and we have to find which is that river. The correct answer for this question is option D Nipper. Even if you could not find the answer using the facts given here if you know whether the given rivers flow through Ukraine or not you can easily find the answer. Here the only river in the option which flows through Ukraine is river Nipper. Ukraine was frequently news that is why I chose this question. Now we shall quickly see some facts about Ukraine. See Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. Ukraine shares borders with Belarus to the north, Russia to the east, Sea of Azov and Black Sea to the south in the far south only. Ukraine is separated from Russia by Kerch Strait. This Strait connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. Moldova and Romania to the south west, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to the west. The most notable rivers of the Ukraine includes Nipper, Nista, Sadanbo and Sivaskiy Donuts. Most of the rivers of Ukraine drain into the Black Sea and Azov Sea that belong to the bigger Mediterranean basin. Capital is Kyiv, located on the Nipper River. The important cities include Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odisha, Donbas region, Nikolai, Mariapul, Simferopul etc. Just have a look at them. Now talking about the landscape, Ukraine occupies the southwestern portion of the Russian Plain. Now talking about the landscape, Ukraine occupies the southwestern portion of the Russian Plain known as the East European Plain. Ukraine possesses around 5% of the world natural resources. Now talking about the climate, know that Ukraine lies in temperate climatic zone, influenced by moderately warm, humid air from the Atlantic Ocean. The winters in the west are considerably milder than those in the east. In summer on the other hand, east often experiences higher temperature than the west. Precipitation is uneven. Maximum precipitation generally occurs in June and July, while the minimum falls in February. Snow falls mainly in late November and early December. Now talking about the vegetation, three main zones of natural vegetation exist, from north to south, they are Polizia, they are Woodland and Marsh, the Forest epi and West epi. During the Soviet period, rapid industrialization and intensive farming resulted in destruction of forest. Also, the 1986 accident of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant created a severe environmental problems in the northwestern Ukraine. Vast areas of the land are contaminated by the dangerous, short and long-lived radioactive isotopes notably Strontium-90. That's all. This question asked for which of the following statement is not true regarding the concept of carbon border adjustment mechanism? Now, before answering this question, let us quickly go through what is carbon adjustment mechanism? See, carbon adjustment mechanism is a climate measure that is trying to prevent the risk of carbon leakage. It is an initiative of European Union. Its aim is to help slash the European Union's overall greenhouse gas emissions, that is 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. This will help European Union to become a climate neutral continent by 2050. So, how does this CBAM works? Here, European Union importers will purchase a carbon certificates equal to the carbon price that would have been paid if the goods had been produced in accordance with the European Union's carbon pricing rules. In contrast, if a non-EU producer can prove that they have already paid a price for the carbon used in the production of imported goods in a third country, the corresponding cost for the European Union importer can be fully detected. The CBAM will help reduce the risk of carbon leakage by encouraging non-EU producers to green their manufacturing processes. So, basically, CBAM is a penalty tax to discourage the import of carbon-intensive goods like steel, aluminium, cement, fertilizers, and electricity into the European Union. It primarily discourages environment unfriendly production and consumer practices by making polluting sources costlier. Though this move can act as an incentive for consumers and producers in the European Union to shift to more energy efficient sources and products, it can severely affect the developing countries like India, which is one of the major steel producing countries, and it is completely against the CBDRRC. So, the options A, B, and C are correct, but option D is wrong. So, the correct answer is option D. With this, let us move on to our next question. This question is about the 110th Constitutional Amendment Act and three rights are given, which of these rights are violated by 103rd Constitutional Amendment. That is the question. Before answering this question, first we shall discuss about the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act. See, the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act provides for 10% reservation in the government jobs and educational institutions for the economically weaker section in the unreserved category. The Act amends Article 15 and 16 to provide reservation based on economic backwardness. The 10% ceiling is independent of ceilings on existing reservations. The new Class 6 to Article 15 allows the government to carve reservation for the economically weaker sections of the society in higher educational institutions, including private ones. Whether they are aided or not aided by the state, minority educational institutions are exempted. Likewise, the new Class 6 to Article 16 provides for a quota for economically deprived sections in the initial appointment in government services. It provides reservations for people who have an annual income of less than rupees 8 lakh or people who have less than 5 acres of farmland or people who have a house less than 1000 square feet in a town or 1000 square yards in a notified municipal area. More than 20 petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the 103rd Amendment. They argue that the amendment violates the basic features of the Constitution and violates the fundamental right to equality under Article 14. See, in Indraasani case, the Supreme Court held that economic backwardness cannot be the sole criterion for identifying the backward class. But the amendment did exactly that only. Because of this reason, the petitioners called the amendment an attack on constitutional vision of social justice and contended that the amendment if upheld will be the end of equality of opportunity. It was also argued that it violates the basic structure of the Constitution and breaches the 50% ceiling for reservation fixed by the Supreme Court ruling in the Mandel Commission case. Even private and unedited educational institutions have argued that their fundamental right to practice a trade profession is violated when the state compels them to implement its reservation policy. In contrast to all these petitions, the Supreme Court of India in a majority judgment upheld the validity of the Constitution's 103rd Amendment Act 2019 and observed that the amendment does not violate the essential features of the Constitution. So here the correct answer for the question is option D none of the above. Now let us take our next question. This question is about National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. Three statements are given and we have to choose the correct statements. All the statements given here are correct. So the correct answer for the question is option C 1, 2 and 3 only. Now let us quickly go through what is NIIF. NIIF was created in 2015 with an initial funding of Rs 40,000 crore from Government of India. The Indian Government has 49% holding in this and the rest of the capital is raised from third party investors, either foreign or domestic investors. Since the Indian Government holds 49% holding in NIIF, it is also termed as a quasi sovereign wealth fund. But what is a sovereign wealth fund? Sometimes the national governments generate excess income right? This surplus revenue is maintained as a separate fund. If this excess amount lies ideal it will not generate any income right? So what the governments will do is they will invest this amount in low risk areas to generate revenue. This fund is called sovereign wealth fund. As we saw Indian Government has 49% investment in the NIIF. Then who are the rest of the investors? Look at this image. These institutions are the major investors in NIIF. Using this fund, the NIIF invests in commercially viable greenfield, brownfield and stalled infrastructure projects. It mainly focuses on energy, transportation, housing, water and waste management sectors. So basically NIIF achieves two things. One, by investing in commercially viable projects, it provides commercial return to its investor. And two, it provides the much needed funding for the investment stalled India's infrastructure sector. So NIIF kills two birds with one stone. Another important point about NIIF is that it is registered as a category two alternative investment fund with SEBI. The NIIF maintains three funds. First is the master fund. It is NIIF's core infrastructure fund. This fund is primarily used for investing in infrastructure projects like roads, ports, airports, power generation etc. Second is the fund of funds. This fund is maintained by third party well-renowned fund managers. These fund managers can use this fund and other private funds to invest in equity, that is the share market. Fund of funds main role is to earn returns to the investors of NIIF. The third one is the strategic opportunities fund. SOF has been established with the objective to provide long-term capital to the high growth future ready businesses in India. The main advantage of NIIF is that since the risk is divided among the three funds, even if one fund is loss making, the other two can cover for that. In the amount provided by the investor is secure. This will attract the investor confidence. That is why many investors are planning to provide funding to NIIF. So the correct answer here is option C. Now let us take our next question. In this question, seven states are given and we have to choose which of the following states share their border with Bangladesh. I have framed this question because in the month of November, India sent an invitation to Bangladesh to be a guest in G20. The important fact here is that out of all neighbors, India invited only Bangladesh as one of the 10 guest countries. This shows the significance of Bangladesh-India relationship. So we have to revise all facts about Bangladesh. In this question, we will cover the map aspect of Bangladesh. To know more about the economic ties of India and Bangladesh, watch our 28th November 2022 analysis. Now let us solve the question. So we have to find out what all the states in India that share a border with Bangladesh. In this map here, border area between India and Bangladesh is given. If you notice carefully, you can easily find out the states that have border with Bangladesh. In the west, West Bengal only shares border with Bangladesh. In the north, Assam and Meghalaya shares border with Bangladesh. In the east, Tripura and Mizoram shares border. In south, there is Bay of Bengal. So totally only five Indian states have border with Bangladesh. Remember three northeastern states do not share border with Bangladesh. They are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagalan and Manipur. So in this question, if we leave out Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, that is if we eliminate three and five, we have the option C12467 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Digilocker. Two statements are given and we have to choose the correct ones. See Digilocker is a cloud wallet where you can store all your important documents and also use them for verification purposes. So no more carrying around multiple physical IDs or digital IDs across different apps. One login for Digilockers and everything is shared. So what kinds of documents you can store in Digilocker? Well, pretty much everything from your PAN card, driving license, Aadhar card, insurance papers and even your personal health records. So remember Digilocker can be used for storing personal records under Aishman Bharath Reddy. This feature was launched in June 2022. Digilocker allows the government agencies to verify the data directly from the issuers in real time after obtaining users concerned. Now let me tell you how you can start using Digilocker. First, you need to apply for a Digilocker wallet using your mobile number and Aadhar number on its website. Once you have filled in all details, you need to create a security pin and enter your email ID. Then create a username and password and while you have created your own Digilocker account. So now you can enjoy faster benefits and services with regard to government schemes, employment, education, health, etc. Plus the traffic police can access your driving license stored in your Digilocker wallet to verify your credentials. So this is about the Digilocker. Now read the question. Statement one tells that Digilocker can be used for storing and accessing health records. This is correct. And the second statement tells that documents in Digilocker are legally at par with original. This second statement is also correct. So the answer for this question is option C. Now let us move on to our next question. This question talks about Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services. That is INCISE. First, we'll quickly revise few points about INCISE and then we'll get back to the question. INCISE is an autonomous organization which is functioning under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It was established in 1999 and the organization is located in Hyderabad. Know that INCISE is a unit of Earth System Science Organization, ESSO, which is based in New Delhi. INCISE is mandated to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community. Now let us see some of the major functions of INCISE one by one. See, they are like the superheroes of the ocean world. They provide round the clock monitoring and warning services for tsunamis, storm surges and high waves. INCISE also helps out the Fisher folks by providing daily advisories on where to find the best catch. They provide advisories on the potential fishing zones and they make sure to let the fishermen know in Hindi, English and eight other languages. They can receive these advisories through SMS, local radio or even TV. Then INCISE deploys and maintains a suite of ocean observing systems to collect data on various oceanic parameters. They try to understand the processes in the ocean and predict any changes. They also provide short term ocean state forecast for the next 3 to 7 days. This information is invaluable for the fishers, shipping industry, navy, coast guard and anyone else planning for activities in sea. Then INCISE achieves all observational, satellite and other oceanic data at the INCISE data center and get this they make it available to students, researchers and anyone who needs it. Now read the question. Statement one is incorrect. Why? Because it is not Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change but it is Ministry of Earth Sciences. Statement two is correct. INCISE gives potential fishing advisories. Statement three is also correct. Tsunami warning is also provided by INCISE. So the correct answer is option C, two and three only. Now let us move on to our next question. This question here is about the location of Indonesia. I have framed this question because in November, Indonesia's main island of Java witnessed a shallow 5.6 magnitude earthquake. So UPSC might ask about Indonesia's location. With this understanding, let us solve the question. The country is given are Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, East Temo, Papua New Guinea and Philippines. See, Indonesia is a country located off the coast of mainland Southeast Asia in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Look at this map. See, these are the parts of Indonesia. Its islands can be grouped into the Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Lezhar Sunda Islands of Bali, Maluku and Papua. And the countries that have land border with Indonesia include Malaysia, East Temo, Papua New Guinea. Brunei does not share border with Indonesia because it is enclosed by Malaysia. So the correct answer is option B, two, four and five only. See the neighbors of Indonesia include Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and the union territory of Andamanicobar Islands in India. Now before moving to next question, let us see why Indonesia is prone to earthquakes. Firstly, it is one of the equatorial countries which is located in the Pacific ring of fire. For those who are not aware, the part located at the rim of Pacific Ocean which is characterized by active volcanoes and earthquake is called ring of fire. Secondly, Indonesia is at the meeting point of three major continental plates, the Pacific, the Eurasian and the Indo-Australian plates and the much smaller Philippine plate also. That's all with this. Let us move on to our next question. Look at this question. This is a two statement question about loss and damage fund. We have to find the correct statements. Before answering the question, let us learn some points about loss and damage fund. The loss and damage fund was announced during the recent United Nations Climate Conference. That is during the COP 27 of the UNFCC which was held at Shram El Sheikh, Egypt last November. The loss and damage fund aims to provide financial assistance to the developing nations that are most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change. Now talking about the phrase loss and damage, the loss and damage refers to the cost that are already being incurred from the climate field, extreme weather events like rising sea levels, droughts, etc. To put it simply, loss and damage refers to economic loss that cost due to the climate change induced disasters. Now coming back to the loss and damage fund. See the developed countries will be going to contribute to the fund whereas the developing nations that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change will receive the fund. But note that there is no agreement yet over what should count as loss and damage caused by climate change. However, initial reports suggest that loss and damage fund could include damaged infrastructures, properties, natural ecosystems and cultural assets. And know that the terms and conditions of the fund are going to be decided by a special committee. The committee will submit its report at next year's COP28 which is going to be held in UAE. See this loss and damage fund was opposed by the developed nations particularly the USA. The rationale behind this opposition was that the LND fund would hold developed nations legally liable for massive damages caused by climate change. But due to constant pressure from the developing nations finally the European Union and the US accepted the decision to create a loss and damage fund. We have to wait and see what is going to happen in the upcoming days. With this information let us approach the next question. Look at the question here. The names Shakti, Divyadrishti, Samyukta and Sangraha are related to which of the following defence technologies of India. Option A, long range cruise missiles. Option B, advanced torpedo defence systems. Option C, electronic warfare systems. And option D, submarine launched ballistic missile. The correct answer for this question is Option C, electronic warfare systems. Now let us learn some points about electronic warfare systems. Electronic warfare system is nothing but the warfare system that uses various parts of electromagnetic signals such as radio, infrared or radar signals to detect, track and monitor objects of interest in air, ground or sea. Apart from this, electronic warfare systems also involve the use of various electronic devices and techniques to jam, intercept, detect and deceive enemy electronic signals and communications. So we can say that electronic warfare systems can be used to carry out military and intelligence missions. Now coming to the applications of electronic warfare systems. C, EWS can be used for threat detection, threat suppression and threat neutralization. In case of threat detection, electronic warfare system helps us to identify the enemy signals. Here, radars are used to detect the location of the enemy. Whereas in case of threat suppression, the electronic warfare systems use to jam the enemy signals and to prevent and mitigate the damage caused by the enemy signals. And finally, in case of threat neutralization, electronic warfare system is used to neutralize the enemy threat. This means that the electronic warfare system is used to destroy the enemy country's electronic warfare system. Now let us see the electronic warfare systems that are in use in India. The latest electronic warfare system that was in news was the Shakti electronic warfare system. Shakti is an advanced electronic warfare system developed for the Indian Navy. It was developed by the Defense Electronics Research Laboratory Hyderabad. It aims to provide an electronic layer of defense against modern radars and anti-ship missiles to various ships of the Indian Navy. Currently, the Shakti system is installed in INS Vikrant and INS Vishakhapatnam. Another important electronic warfare system used by Indian Navy is Sangraha. Know that Sangraha is a joint program of DRDO and Indian Navy. The next major electronic warfare system is the Samyuktha, which is being employed by the Indian Army. It was developed jointly by DRDO and Bharat Electronics Corporation of India Limited and COPSOF Signals of the Indian Army. This system is fully mobile and it is meant for tactical battlefield use. And finally Divyadristi. Divyadristi is another electronic warfare system developed by the DRDO and Signal Intelligence Directorate. The system provides real-time situational awareness about adversary flying activities, where it provides real-time awareness about the enemy aircrafts. These are some of the electronic warfare systems employed in India. That's all. Let us move on to the next question. This question is about Himalayan grey langurs. Three statements are given and we have to find the correct statements. But before answering this question, let us see some points about Himalayan grey langurs. Himalayan grey langur is a long-tailed monkey and it is also known as Kashmir grey langur. Its scientific name is Semnopithecus Ajax. These species can be easily identified by its larger size and the silvery dark colored hair in the outer sides of both the fore and hind limbs. Now let us see the habitat of these species. Himalayan grey langur inhabit an area between 2200 to 4000 meters above mean sea level in sub-tropical forest, then tropical moist temperate forest, alpine forest, then coniferous and broad lived forest. And they are also found in scrub lands. They change their locality during different seasons depending upon the availability of food and environmental conditions. In India, earlier their distribution was reported from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. But now Himalayan grey langur are confined to the Chamba valley of the western Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh. They are also reported to be found in Nepal and Pakistan. Now coming to its food habits. The Himalayan grey langur is basically folivorous. That is, they are basically leaf eaters. But they also feed on a combination of fruits, leaves, stems, barks, roots and flowers. Sometime they also absorb feeding on insects. These langurs come to agricultural fields during the harvesting of crops and move to the deep forest during the other periods of the year. The raiding of crops by the langur causes huge economic losses to farmers. The man-animal conflict between langur and humans is mainly due to the destruction of langur's natural habitat and reduction in the natural food resources of this species in the forest. Now let us see the major threats to langurs. The major threat is habitat loss. The expansion of human population and developmental work leads to the habitat loss. Then the other threats include land degradation, land fragmentation, overgrazing, forest fire, deforestation etc. See these are all the threats that endangers the survival of Himalayan grey langur. Finally, let us see the conservation status. They are placed in endangered category under the IUCN red list of the endangered species. Now coming back to the question. Based on our discussion that we just had, we can identify that statements 1 and 3 are incorrect and only statement 2 is correct. So, the correct answer is option B2 only. This question is about the Pratamantri Aadarsh Gram Yojana. It is also known as Prime Minister's model village scheme. I have framed this question because in November a review meeting was conducted for this scheme. Since it was in use, we may expect a question about this scheme. With this understanding, let us solve the question. First statement says that the scheme provides access to basic services to all the villages in the country. This is incorrect. Actually, Pratamantri Aadarsh Gram Yojana provides for an Aadarsh Gram where the village people are provided with access to various basic services. These basic services are planned to be provided so that the minimum needs of all those who are living in these villages are fully met. This will help in reducing the disparities to a minimum. This will ultimately result in creating an environment in which everyone is unable to utilize their potential to the fullest. But there is a condition for selection of villages for this particular scheme. The scheme aims at the integrated development of villages in which the population of scheduled cast is above 50%. So, a village must consist of a population of scheduled cast which is more than 50% of the total population of the village to be eligible for inclusion under the scheme. In the first statement, it is given that all villages will be provided with basic services so it is incorrect. The second statement says that the scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development. This is also incorrect because the scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and not by the Ministry of Rural Development. So, the correct answer is Option D neither one nor two. Apart from this, know that the scheme tries to develop 10 different domains at village level. These 10 domains are drinking water and sanitation, education, health and nutrition, social security, rural roads and housing, electricity and clean fuel, agricultural practices, financial inclusion, digitization, livelihood and skill development. With this, let us move on to our next question. In this question, four statements are given and we have to find which among the following are commonality between Munda and Santel rebellion. Statement one is correct. This is because the policies of British government led to non-tribals settling in tribal areas. The British policies also led tribals losing their control over land and their old tribal systems and political structures that had continued for generations came to an end. This is one of the main causes of both Munda and Santel rebellion. Statement two is only partially correct. Yes, both the rebellions were very aggressive in nature and they mainly attacked the symbols of authority like police stations. They also attacked symbols of exploitation like houses of moneylenders and zaminthas. But the attack on the church was specific only to Munda rebellion. It was not witnessed in Santel rebellion. See, one of the main causes of the Munda rebellion was the activities by the Christian missionaries. This is why during the Munda rebellion, the tribes attacked the church and take a note that the outsiders of the tribal land were known as Dikus. This includes British, moneylenders, Hindu landlords and churches. Statement three is correct. The government reacted to both these rebellions brutally. In case of Santel rebellion, the British troops killed and estimated of 15,000 Santel villages including Siddhu and Kannu Murmu and destroyed villages. In case of Munda rebellion, after a severe repression, 350 Mundas were put on trial and of them three were hanged and 44 were transported to the Andaman cellular jail for life. Statement four is also correct. The British government passed the Santel's Parganas Tenancy Act in 1876 which offered some protection for tribals against exploitation. And in the case of Munda rebellion, the British enacted the Chotanakpur Tenancy Act 1908 which restricted the transfer of tribal land to non-tribal people. Here the statements one, three and four are correct. So the correct answer is option C, one, three and four only. In this question, three statements about the national monetization pipeline are given. We have to find which of these statements are not correct about the national monetization pipeline. Now, before answering the question, let us learn some points about the national monetization pipeline. See, the initiative of NMP was announced by our Union Finance Minister in the 2021-22 budget. Subsequently, on 23 August 2021, the central government launched the national monetization pipeline. The NMP has been developed by the Nitya Yoke in consultation with some of the infrastructure line ministries like Ministry of Highways, Railways, Shipping etc. Through this national monetization pipeline initiative, the central government strives to monetize the brownfield assets of the central ministries and public sector entities. Know that the NMP is being carried out for a period of four years from financial year 2022 to financial year 2025. It is estimated that the government is going to earn around Rs 6 lakh crores through monetization of brownfield assets of the central government. Now, what does the terms monetization and brownfield assets mean? First, let us take monetization. Monetization literally means to convert something into money. So, in practice monetization means turning idle assets into revenue generating ones. Now, coming to the term brownfield assets. The term brownfield assets refers to the assets that are already in a developed stage. So, the revenue generation can be done easily from such brownfield assets. The opposite to that of brownfield assets is greenfield assets. In greenfield type, the assets are not developed. So, the stakeholder has to spend a certain amount of money and time to generate revenue from such greenfield assets. Now, coming back to NMP. As I said earlier, through NMP initiative, central government aims to monetize the brownfield assets of the central ministries and public sector entities. Here note that Indian government is trying to only monetize brownfield assets of it and not the greenfield ones. Also note that in case of NMP, the term monetization only means leasing out the assets and not the outright selling of the assets. This means that the government is not transferring the ownership rights to the private. So, from these points, we can say that our central government is planning to monetize its unutilized and underutilized brownfield assets. By doing this, the government will generate money which can be used for funding infrastructure projects in the country. Now, coming to the objectives of the national monetization pipeline. The NMP aims to fulfill the government's goal of providing universal access to high quality and affordable infrastructure to its citizens. Apart from this, NMP also aims to unlock the potential value of brownfield assets by engaging the private sector. Once again, note that under the NMP initiative, the government is transferring only the revenue rights to the private sector and not the ownership rights. With this information, let us approach the question. Look at the statement one. It says that NMP aims to provide universal access to high quality and affordable infrastructure to Indian citizens. This statement is correct. This is one of the objectives of NMP. And second statement says that under this initiative, central government aims to monetize both of its brownfield and greenfield assets. This statement is incorrect. Under NMP initiative, the central government aims to only monetize brownfield assets and not the greenfield assets. So, the statement two is not correct. The third statement says that through this initiative, the ownership right of the government asset will be transferred to the private to create high quality infrastructure. This statement is also incorrect. Under NMP, only the revenue rights of the central government assets are transferred to the private sector and not the ownership rights. So, statement three is not correct. Look carefully. The question asks for incorrect statements. So, the correct answer is option B, two and three only. With this, let us move on to our next question. In this question, set of statements are given and they describe a particular government scheme. And we have to find out which option is the correct one. The description of the scheme are, it is an income support scheme for the farmers. It is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. This scheme promises a cash benefit of Rs. 6000 per annum, payable in three installments. Which of the following scheme best matches the description given here? Pratan Mantri Krishi Sanchay Yojana Pratan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana Pratan Mantri Kisan Mandan Yojana Pratan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. The answer for this question is option D. Now, we will quickly revise some points about this scheme. See, the PM Kisan scheme was launched by Prime Minister in February 2019. Remember that the scheme is an income support scheme for the farmers. It is 100% funded by the Centre and is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. This scheme promises a cash benefit of Rs. 6000 per annum, payable in three installments. That is Rs. 2000 each installments through DBT mode. DBT stands for Direct Benefit Transfer. And see, the PM Kisan scheme is aimed at providing income support to the small and marginal farmer families who have combined landholding or ownership of up to 2 hectares. 2 hectares is approximately 5 acres. Here, one should keep in mind that, according to RBS definition, marginal farmer means a farmer cultivating an agricultural land as owner or tenant or as a sharecropper up to 1 hectare. That is 2.5 acres. And small farmer means a farmer cultivating an agricultural land as owner or tenant or as a sharecropper of more than 1 hectare and up to 2 hectares that is 5 acres of land. But according to the scheme, a small and marginal farmer means a farmer who holds a land of up to 2 hectares and has ownership of it. Note this carefully. The scheme does not include the tenants or sharecroppers. It is only for small landowners. This is a critical shortcoming of the scheme actually. And the term families in the scheme means family which comprises of husband wife and minor children. Another important feature of the scheme is that the fund will be transferred directly to the bank account of the beneficiaries with a direct benefit transfer, DBT method. Also, the beneficiaries will be identified by the respective state and administration of union territories. So, this is about the PM Kisan scheme. Let us move on to the final question. This question is a pair based question. On one side, military exercise is given. And on the other side, participating nations are given. We have to find which of the pairs are correctly matched. Here, first, third and fourth pair are correctly matched. So, the correct answer is option C. Only three pairs. Actually, C. Vigil is a national level coastal defense exercise conducted by India. Recently, the third edition of this exercise was conducted in November 2022. Due to time constraints, we will only cover C. Vigil in this discussion. The exercise was conceptualized in 2018. It is a biennial pan-India coastal defense exercise. This exercise will be undertaken along the entire 7,516 kilometer coastline and exclusive economic zone of India. The exercise is being conducted by the Indian Navy in coordination with the Coast Guard and the other important maritime stakeholders like coastal states and union territories and even the fishing and coastal communities. Now, let us see the major objective of the exercise. The first and the major objective is to enhance maritime security. The second objective is to assess the overarching coastal defense mechanism. And then the exercise also assesses the oaking of the technical surveillance infrastructure called national command control communication intelligence that is NC3A network. These are some of the objective of the exercise. That is all regarding this question in discussion. With this, we have come to end of our discussion. I hope this session is useful for you. If you found this video useful, hit the like button, do comment and share it with fellow aspirants. And do not forget to subscribe Shankar IS Academy's YouTube channel for more content about UPSC preparations. Thank you for listening patiently. Have a nice day.