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Our experts will guide you through proven strategies to ace this section, plus get ready for personalized study plan designed to optimize your learning curve and understand the paramount importance of test series through pre-storming and pre-fit. Secure your spot for this intensive seven day workshop because limited offline seats are only available in Annanagar. So hurry up, register now and gear up to conquer UPSC Prelims 2024. I have attached the registration link in the description below. Don't miss this golden opportunity to set yourself on a path to success. Join us for UPSC Prelims 2023 workshop and let's crack it together. See you there. In this positive note, let us get into the news analysis for today. These are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Now let's start the discussion. Look at this news article. This article is taken from yesterday's newspaper. Recently, the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry released a report. The report is titled Logistics Ease Across Different States, that is LEADS 2023. This report provides data about logistics performance at the state and the UT level. Now in this discussion, let us understand about the LEADS report. Logistics Ease Across Different States is an annual report prepared and released by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. This report primarily measures the efficiency of logistical services at the state and the UT level. Now some of you may have a doubt. What is this logistics? Logistics is the process of planning and executing the efficient transportation and storage of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. To say it in simple words, logistics refers to the overall process of managing how goods are acquired, stored and transported to their final destination. Now I will explain you this concept with an example. Let us say a supermarket is in the United States and it places an order for a basmati rice and this basmati rice is produced in Punjab. In this process, firstly the rice is procured from the Punjab farmers, then the rice is packaged well and stored in a safe container. After that it will be loaded in the ship and it will be exported to the US. Finally it reaches the destination that is the supermarket in the United States. See the overall process involved in the export of basmati rice is what is termed as logistics. So Logistics refers to the movement of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption in an efficient manner. Only for any country, logistical services are very important to promote exports and economic growth. Because of this much importance only, the Indian government publishes the leads report. This report measures the efficiency of the logistical services at the state and the UT level. So the report indirectly encourages healthy competition between the states to improve their logistical services. The leads report is prepared on the lines of the Logistics Performance Index. Here note that the Logistics Performance Index is published by the World Bank. This index helps the world countries to identify the challenges and opportunities that they face in the logistical services. The index also suggests some solution to improve their logistical performance. Like the Logistics Performance Index, the Indian government releases the leads report. It will help the states and the union territories to identify challenges that they face in the logistical services. Apart from this, the report also empowers the state and the UT governments by providing region-specific insights. See this will help the state and the UT government to make informed decision on to achieve comprehensive growth in exports. In addition to this, the index also highlights the impacts of various reforms that are taken to improve the logistical services across the state and the UT. This helps to identify the best practices which can be used by other states and UT to improve their logistical services. This is the basic information about logistical ease across different states that is leads report. Now let us see some data from the 2023 Leads Report. The 2023 Leads Report is a fifth edition of such report. The 2023 report was prepared based on a pan-India survey taken across 36 states and UTs. The report provides data by splitting the states and the UTs into four groups namely coastal group, landlocked group, northeastern group and the union territories. Here the coastal group includes the states with coast, the landlocked group includes the states which are landlocked, the northeastern group consists of the northeastern states including Sikkim and the UT group consists of all the union territories. See each group is further divided into three categories based on the performance of the state and the UTs. They include achievers, fast movers and aspirers. As the name itself suggests, the achievers include the states and the union territories that are performing better in the logistical services. Then the category of fast movers include the states and the union territories that are working faster to achieve better logistical services. And the category of aspirers include the states and the union territories that are aspiring to provide better logistical services. Now coming to the data. Look at this table here. As many as 11 states and two union territories have been named as achievers. They include the coastal states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the landlocked states of Haryana, Punjab, Telangana, UP, then the northeastern states of Assam, Sikkim, Thirupura and the union territories of Chandigarh and Delhi. This is all about the achievers. The rest of the states and their position are given in the table here. You can go through it. To sum up the discussion, the logistical ease across different states report is an annual report released by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. This report measures the efficacy and the efficiency of the logistical services at the state and the UT level. And it encourages the healthy competition between the states to improve their logistical services. And that's all regarding this discussion. Now with this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This article is taken from the opinion page. This article talks about the dilution of vote value. It also explains the constitutional safeguards available against the dilution of vote value. So in this discussion, we will understand these points in detail. We will approach this discussion through mains answer rating approach. First let us look at the question. The question is, can the vote value of the electors in a liberal democracy like India be diluted? What are the constitutional safeguards available in India to prevent dilution of vote value? See this question can be asked in GS paper 2 under the topics given here. This is about the syllabus. Now coming to the question. Here the question demands us to write two things. First, we have to write whether the vote value of an Indian elector can be diluted or not. Second, we have to write about the constitutional safeguards available against the dilution of vote. Having decoded the question, let us straight away get into the introduction. In the introduction itself, you can address whether the vote value of the Indian electors can be diluted or not. According to some legal experts, the vote value of Indian voters can be diluted. It can be diluted either qualitatively or quantitatively by redrawing the boundaries of the constituency. Now what does the term dilution of vote means? See the dilution of vote can happen when an election system or any other policies deny voters an equal opportunity to elect a candidate. This means the voters can cast ballots but their votes do not have equal power to elect candidates. For example, let us assume a constituency named X. And it has several communities like A, B, C, D and E and so on. Let us say constituency X has over 70% of the voters belonging to community A. So when it comes to election, community A has more say than other communities. As India follows the first past the post-voting system, the candidates who secure most votes in the constituency will be declared elected. In our example, community A has over 70% of the voters. So it is enough for the political parties to convince community A to get their candidates elected. Where the voters belonging to communities other than A do not have equal opportunity to elect the candidates. This is what this term does, dilution of vote. I hope you understand the term dilution of vote. As I said earlier, the value of Indian voters can be diluted either quantitatively or qualitatively by redrawing the boundaries of the constituency. Now let us see briefly about the terms qualitative and quantitative dilution of votes. Let us first take qualitative dilution of votes. See the qualitative dilution happens when a voter's chance of electing a representative of their choice is reduced due to garrimandering. Here the term garrimandering refers to redrawing the boundaries to favour a political party or candidate. For example, let us take the same constituency X. Let us say in the constituency X, there is a huge competition between two political parties A and B. So assume that political party A is in power in the centre. Now let us assume that the boundary of constituency X is going to be redrawn. So let us say the political party A which is in power in the centre managed to manipulate the delimitation commission. As a result, constituency X has been redrawn to favour political party A. This means constituency X has redrawn in the sense that it contains more voters who favour political party A. This process is what is termed as garrimandering. So after the delimitation or redrawing the boundaries, the political party A will probably win in constituency X. This is because now constituency X has more number of voters who favour political party A. And other voters don't have equal power to elect candidates in constituency X. This is called as qualitative dilution of votes. In India, there is qualitative dilution of votes due to improper delimitation. Now coming to quantitative dilution. Quantitative dilution happens when the voters receive unequal weightage due to huge deviations in population among the constituencies. For example, let us assume two constituencies here, constituency X and constituency Y. Constituency X has a population of 5 lakhs and constituency Y has a population of 10 lakhs. In such a scenario, there is one elector legislator, either MP or MLA, for 5 lakh people in constituency X. And there is one elector legislator MP or MLA for 10 lakh people in constituency Y. In such a case, the value of vote of an elector in constituency Y is quantitatively lower than the value of vote of an elector in constituency X. This is called as quantitative dilution of votes. As we froze the population figures to 1971 census in our delimitation exercise, there is quantitative dilution of votes in India. The value of vote of an elector in southern states of India that controlled population is higher than the value of vote of electors in more populous North Indian states like Bihar and UP. So, in essence, in India, there is a possibility of both qualitative and quantitative dilution of votes. This is all about the introduction part. See, the introduction might seem to be very lengthy, but note that I have given an example for your understanding only. In your answer, you can just mention that there is a possibility of both qualitative and quantitative dilution of votes in India and you can explain the terms qualitative and quantitative dilution of votes in two or three lines in simple words. This will be enough for your introduction. Having done with the introduction, now let us come to the body of the answer. In the body part, we have to write about the constitutional safeguards available against dilution of votes. Only to avoid qualitative and quantitative dilution of votes, our constitution makers incorporated various safeguards to ensure equal political rights for all citizens of India. Now let us see them one by one. First let us take article 81 of the constitution. Article 81 deals with the composition of the house of people that is the Lok Sabha. It states that each state shall be divided into territorial constituencies in such a manner that the ratio between the population of each constituency and the number of seeds allotted to it shall be same as far as possible. This means if we take any particular state, the population of each constituency of Lok Sabha shall be almost same. So this article ensures equal representation of all Lok Sabha constituencies in a state and avoids quantitative dilution of votes. Then let us take article 170. It deals with composition of legislative assembly. Like article 81, article 170 states that the ratio of population for a state legislative assembly constituency shall be same as far as possible. This ensures the equal representation of all state legislative assembly constituencies in a state and avoid quantitative dilution of votes. Thirdly, let us take article 327. Article 327 empowers the parliament to make laws related to delimitation of constituencies. Based on this provision, the government forms an independent delimitation commission. The commission would be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge. As the commission is independent from the government, there may not be any favor to a particular political party when it comes to redrawing the boundaries. This avoids qualitative dilution of votes. Fourthly, let us take article 330 and 332. These articles guarantees reservation for seats for SC and ST community in parliament and state legislative assembly respectively. These provisions need to be kept in mind during the delimitation process. For example, if a constituency has a significant SC or ST population, it should be reserved for SC or ST people. This ensures equitable representation of such an underprivileged community in the parliament and in the state legislative assembly. And it avoids dilution of votes. And finally, let us take article 82. Article 82 states that delimitation of constituencies need to be carried out regularly upon the completion of each census. After each census, the parliament enacts the delimitation act and after the commencement of the delimitation act, the central government constitutes the delimitation commission. This commission is involved in delimitation of the constituencies based on recent census. This helps to maintain equality of vote values as far as possible. This in turn avoids dilution of votes. This is all about the constitutional safeguards available against dilution of votes. Having covered the body of the answer, let us move on to the conclusion part. In the conclusion, we can provide brief way forward to prevent dilution of votes. In the conclusion, you can write that some constitutional provisions are acting as safeguards against dilution of votes. But there are some issues that need to be addressed. Despite the delimitation commission being an independent commission, there is a chance that the ruling party will nominate a person who favours them. This may sometime result in redrawing of the boundaries that favours the ruling party. Apart from this, there is also a delay in the delimitation process. For instance, the central government is currently delaying the census process itself. See the census had to be conducted and published in 2021 itself, but after 3 years there is still no signs of conducting a census. This also affects the equal representation and the voting rights of the people. So these issues have to be addressed in order to prevent dilution of votes. This could be your conclusion. And that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw what is dilution of votes. Then we saw the two types of dilution that is quantitative and qualitative dilution of votes. Then we saw the constitutional safeguards against dilution of votes. And finally, we saw the steps that can be taken to address the issue. That is all regarding this discussion. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this FAQ article. This article asks us an important question. And this question decides the fate of our world. The question is whether the world is closer to facing out fossil fuel usage from its energy mix. The answer to this can be inferred slightly from the important takeaways of the COP28. In the COP, nearly 198 signatory countries agreed that the world must do a transition away from the fossil fuel in a just orderly and an equitable manner. Maybe by achieving this transition, can the world achieve the net zero emission by 2050? But is it that easy to shift from fossil fuels to renewables? The answer is, the shift is like a two kilometer dialogue in Deeran movie. For people from other states, Deeran is an awesome Tamil film based on the operation Bavaria. Okay? No coming back. Is the shift possible? No. The shift from fossil fuel is far from reality. In fact, in this Dubai consensus only, the world leaders have acknowledged that emissions from fossil fuels are the main culprits of global warming. Moreover, the article here gives us a variety of reasons for our inability to face out fossil fuels. See, these points are less relevant for Plym's examination, but more important for your main segregation. So make note of it. Now let's start the discussion and look at the points that is the difficulties in facing out fossil fuels. See, in COP26, the world countries committed to face down coal, which is an important component of the fossil fuels. But this move was vehemently opposed by the developing countries like India and China. They protested because they felt that coal was being singled out among the fossil fuels. See, use of all fossil fuels causes global warming. The question of India and China was why was coal being singled out? India and China also argued that they have a duty of lifting their masses out of poverty. To lift their people out of poverty, access to cheap energy must be ensured. And use of coal to produce electricity is the cheapest option. So India and China argued against the facing out of coal in COP26. This episode shows that there is a mismatch of vested interest between the countries to eliminate fossil fuel. For example, the United States is a strong advocate to face out coal, but never voiced for eliminating oil and natural gas because the United States is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas for its power production. The next point is, there is the issue of reliability. See, unlike the power from fossil fuels, the power from renewable sources of power like solar and wind are not readily available and they are not really reliable. For example, the solar energy is unavailable at night and wind energy is highly seasonal. Next we have the transmission issues. Currently, the world has enough of the power transmission lines and the oil and natural gas pipeline to connect the area of origin to the area of consumption. The power transmission line from area of renewable energy production must be newly constructed. In addition to this, energy storage infrastructure for renewable energy must also be constructed. This will take a lot of time and money. This is the next issue. Now moving on to the last issue. This issue is nothing but the aspirations of the developing countries. India for example, in the National Electricity Plan 2022-27 plans to add nearly 87,000 mehawars in the form of fresh coal powered capacity. So getting consensus of developing countries like India to face out fossil fuel will be an uphill task. So these are some of the reasons why transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy will not be a very easy task. All these points can be used in your main sensor and the question will probably be from GS Paper 3. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw why a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies is a difficult task. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The fourth unit of Kakarapur atomic power project in Gujarat started the process of controlled fission chain reaction. Moreover, it has attained criticality on Sunday. Here criticality is a state of the nuclear reactor when it can control a sustained fission chain reaction and start generating nuclear power. See the Kakarapur atomic power project houses three Indian pressurized heavy water reactors. Two reactors are of capacity 220 mehawars and the last reactor that became critical on Sunday is of 700 mehawar capacity. The Indian pressurized heavy water reactor are indigenously developed and built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. That is NPCAL. Here NPCAL is a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy. This is the background of the article. Now in our analysis, let us discuss about India's three stage nuclear program from a prelims perspective. See the first stage of India's nuclear three stage program is the stage of pressurized heavy water reactors. This stage uses natural uranium that contains 99.3% uranium-238 and 0.7% uranium-235 as a fuel. In this process, plutonium will be the byproduct. A unique aspect of this stage is that here natural uranium is used and there is no need for any enrichment. In India, pressurized heavy water reactor is located in Kakarapur atomic power station Gujarat. Now moving on to the second stage. The second stage is about the fast breeder reactors. Fast breeder reactors uses a mixture of plutonium and reprocessed spent uranium from the first stage as fuel. This will produce both electricity and more plutonium as a product. This is because the uranium will get converted into plutonium in the fast breeder reactor. An interesting feature of this stage is that the fast breeder reactor does not use any moderators. See, in a nuclear reactor, the moderator helps to slow down the neutron thereby ensuring the sustainability of the fission reaction. But in case of fast breeder reactors, there is no need to slow down the neutrons because the fast neutrons are more efficient in transmuting the uranium-238 to plutonium-239. See the uranium-233 is the final product of the second stage that is the fast breeder reactor and this uranium-233 will be used as a fuel in the third stage of our nuclear program. India has a prototype fast breeder reactor in Madras atomic power station in Kalpakam near Chennai. Now moving on to the third stage. In the third stage, there is the use of advanced heavy water reactor. The advanced heavy water reactor uses thorium-232 mixed with uranium-233 produced in the second stage in a form of mixed oxide as a fuel. The overall design of the advanced heavy water reactor is to utilize the large amount of thorium resource that are found in India in the form of the monosite sand. So through these three stages, India aims to become self-sufficient in nuclear energy. Right now, the first stage and in the second stage are in the operational phase and the third stage is still being experimented. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the three stage nuclear program of India. Now with this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. According to this news article, School of Happiness or Happy School will be set up in Bodo Land Territorial Region of Assam in 2024. See it is a first of its kind school for imparting lessons on humanity and societal happiness. Government also plans to use this initiative to curb insurgency in the region. This is all about the article. In this context, in our discussion today, let us see the steps taken by the Indian government to curb insurgency in the northeastern states. First of all, the northeastern region of India comprises of eight states, namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mahalaya, Mizoram, Nahaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Each of the eight states have their own distinct history and identity. The region shares its border with Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. So this region is strategically important for our national security. Since independence, the history of this region has been marred with insurgency and underdevelopment. So the present government has taken various steps which could be broadly divided into two. First is the steps taken to prevent the spread of insurgency in the region, second are the steps that are taken to ensure that development activities reach the region. According to the government, these two steps should reinforce each other for a comprehensive development of the region. So first let us look at the steps that are taken by the government to prevent the spread of insurgency in the region. Indian Army conducted various successful military operations against insurgent organizations in the northeast. For example, in 2015, Indian Army conducted a surgical strike in Sidnyanmar and killed Naga insurgents who were residing there after conducting an attack in India. Moreover, operation All Clear in 2019 targeted the National Democratic Front of Boroland in Assam. Indian Army also took up Operation Sun Race, which is a coordinated anti-incumbency operation by both India and Myanmar. India successfully engaged with various insurgent factions of the northeast and completed various peace accords, namely the Assam Accord of 1985, Bodo Peace Accord of 2020, Bru Accord of 2020, Khabri Anglong Peace Accord of 2021, and finally the UN LF Peace Accord of 2023. Also India's rollback of the contentious AFSPA from the northeastern state is a positive development in the region. The AFSPA has been removed from Mahalaya and Trupura and in other states, the area under AFSPA has been potentially reduced. These are some of the steps taken by the government to prevent the growth of insurgency in the region. In addition to this, as we already saw, the government has been taking various developmental measures in this region to address the issue of underdevelopment in the northeast. Now let us see some of the steps taken by the government in this regard. The Actist policy was a major policy followed by India by having the northeastern state as a epicenter for development. The objective of this policy is to promote economic cooperation, cultural ties, and developmental strategic relationship with the Asia Pacific region. See, this policy made a significant change in the potential role of the northeastern region. India is keen to develop various infrastructure projects in the region like the India-Myan Mar Thailand Highway. India has also completed the Kaladan multi-border project establishing connection to the northeastern states. India has also created a rail line between Agartala in Trupura and Bangladesh, which is the first train to run from the northeastern region to Bangladesh. Then with respect to improving the internal infrastructure of the northeast, India is developing 4000 km of road, 20 railway projects, and 15 air connectivity projects in the region. With respect to water connectivity, India is developing the National Waterway like the National Waterway 1 on Ganges, National Waterway 2 on Brahmaputra, and the National Waterway 6 on Barak River respectively. Finally, various schemes like Border Area Development Project, Hill Area Development Program, and the recently launched Prathana Mantri Development Initiative for Northeastern region are working to improve the economic and social infrastructure in the northeastern states. These are some of the steps taken by the government to ensure that the development activities reach the northeastern states. So by curbing insurgency on one hand and ensuring that the development reaches the northeastern states, the government is planning to ensure that the northeastern states develop a rapid phase so that it can achieve the strategic goal of the national security. So that's all regarding this discussion. With this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now let us take up the practice problems questions. We have four practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Look at the first question, which of the following organization publishes the Logistics Performance Index? From our discussion, we know that the correct answer here is option B, World Bank. The Logistic Performance Index is published by the World Bank. In the 2023 Logistics Performance Index, India was ranked 38th out of the 139 countries surveyed. And this is a significant improvement from the previous year's ranking. Okay, note this point also. Now moving on to the second question. Here are three statements about methane are given, we have to find how many of the statements given here are correct. Look at the first statement, methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas next only to carbon dioxide. This statement is correct. Moving on to the second statement, it is responsible for creating ground-level ozone which is a dangerous air pollutant. This statement is also correct. Okay, moving on to the third statement, the global methane pledge is a binding agreement among the countries to reduce methane emissions. This statement is actually incorrect because the global methane pledge was launched at COP26 at the Glasgow Climate Conference. In this, nearly 100 countries had come together in a voluntary pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 from the 2020 level. It is a voluntary pledge and it is not mandatory. So statement 3 is incorrect. Here statement 1 and statement 2 are correct and statement 3 is incorrect. So the correct answer is option B only 2. Moving on to the third question, here three statements about the India's nuclear program is given, we have to find how many of the statements given here are correct. Look at the first statement, in the pressurized heavy water stage, natural uranium is used as fuel. From our discussion, we know the statement is correct. Okay, moving on to the second statement, in the fast breeder reactor, the usage of moderate is paramount and it will slow down the neutrons. This statement is incorrect because in our discussion, we saw that the fast breeder reactors, there is no moderator. Here, instead of a moderator, the fast moving neutrons from the nuclear reactor is used to transmute the natural uranium that is uranium-238 into productive plutonium-239. Since fast breeder reactor produces more fuel than it consumes, it is actually named as fast breeder. Okay, moving on to the third statement, it is often envisioned that the third stage reactor will ensure India's energy security are met locally. This statement is correct. The overall stage of the three-stage nuclear program of India is to utilize the large amount of thorium resource found in India in the form of monosite sand and become energy self-dependent. So statement 3 is correct. In this question, statement 1 and statement 3 are correct and statement 2 is incorrect. So the correct answer here is option B only 2. Moving on to the last question, here three statement describing a particular regional connectivity project is given. We have to find what is the connectivity project that the three statements is talking about. Now let us look at the statement. It seeks to develop connectivity through water between ASEAN and India. It will enable an alternate transit route to India's northeastern region by passing Bangladesh. It connects Kolkata in India to Sitve and Pletva in Myanmar. See these statement actually represent Kalladan Multimodal Transit Transport project. So the correct answer for this question is option D. Now with this, we have come to the end of the news analysis session. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.