 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 30th April 2019. The list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Tiruvananthapuram Medicines are provided here. The handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping have been provided in the description box and for the benefit of smartphone users the time stamping has also been provided in the comments section. Now moving on to the first article for the day which is about the National Clean Air Program. This article appears on page 7 of Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru editions. The information under this discussion will be relevant in the preliminary examination in the areas current events of national importance and general issues on environmental ecology and climate change and also in the main syllabus in the GS paper 3 under the area conservation environmental pollution and degradation environmental impact assessment. Stepping into the main discussion the National Clean Air Program or in short NCAP is a Pollution Control Initiative that was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change with the intention to cut the concentration of course and find particles of particulate matter in the atmosphere. The goal of the NCAP is to meet the prescribed annual average ambient air quality standards at all locations in the country in a stipulated time frame. The standards were decided after taking into account the available international experiences and national studies which is a tentative national level target of 20% to 30% reduction of particulate matter 2.5 and particulate matter 10 concentration in the atmosphere by the year 2024 and this will be calculated with 2017 as the base year for the comparison of the concentration. The objective of the program is to ensure stringent implementation of mitigation measures or reduction measures for prevention control and abatement of air pollution. Here abatement means decreasing and then to augment and evolve effective and proficient ambient air quality monitoring network across the country for ensuring a comprehensive and reliable database and finally to augment public awareness and capacity building measures encompassing data dissemination and public outreach programs for inclusive public participation and for ensuring trained manpower infrastructure on air pollution. This program will be a mid-term five-year action plan which will begin with 2019 as the base year. However, the international experiences and national studies indicate that significant outcome in terms of air pollution initiatives are visible only in the long term and hence the program may be further extended to 20 to 25 years in the long term after a mid-term review of the outcomes of this program. The plan includes 102 non-attainment cities for intervention. The CPCB has identified a list of polluted cities in which the prescribed national ambient air quality standards are violated. These cities have been identified based on the ambient air quality data obtained in 2011 to 2015 under national ambient air quality monitoring program, in short NAMP. In addition to this, in April 2018 the WHO has updated the fourth ambient air quality database on the basis of PM 2.5 data. So, after integrating the top 10 cities from the WHO list there are 102 non-attainment cities from 23 states and union territories in which Maharashtra tops the list with 17 cities in the list. Meanwhile, no cities from Manipur, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, Kerala, Goa and Haryana are present in the list. The approach for implementing the program will be collaborative multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between the relevant central ministries, state governments and local bodies. The ministry has listed some action plans under this program which are a three-tire system that includes real-time physical data collection, data archiving and data analytics infrastructure and action trigger system to be created under this program. This three-tire system will work independently under the supervision of a single authority and there will be an air quality monitoring network stations which has to be increased to 1500 stations from the existing 703 stations and also to use the smart cities framework to launch NCAP in the 43 smart cities which also falls in the list of 102 non-attainment cities. Then, plantation initiatives under NCAP and pollution hotspots in the cities or towns to be undertaken under Green India mission and the next action plan is linking the nationally determined contribution to NCAP which India pledged under the Paris Agreement that is a target to achieve an additional forest and tree cover of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030. Under this, there needs to be more focus on the western regions of India that is Rajasthan and Gujarat for enhanced tree cover because it will reduce wind-blown dust within the country and will also act as a barrier for trans-boundary dust. And the plan also includes a stringent implementation of DS6 norms all over India by April 2020 and then a stringent implementation of national biofuel policy with respect to ethanol and biodiesel blending target of 20 percent and 5 percent respectively by 2030. The action plan includes building a comprehensive national emission inventory which is still lacking in the country. An emission inventory is an accounting of the amount of pollutants discharged into the atmosphere. An emission inventory usually contains the total emissions for one or more specific air pollutants originating from all source categories in a certain geographical area and within a specified time span which is usually a specific year. Now the Union Environment Ministry has constituted a committee to implement the National Clean Air Program. This committee will be chaired by the Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. In the context of this article, let us also know about the particulate matter. PM stands for particulate matter and it is also called as particle pollution. It is a term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles such as dust, dirt, soot or smoke are large and or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye. Others are so small they can only be detected using an electron microscope and they are the particulate matters. It includes PM10 which are inhalable particles with diameters that are generally 10 micrometers and smaller and PM2.5 which are fine inhalable particles with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and smaller. Now a question may arise how small is 2.5 micrometers? The average human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter so a hair strand is 30 times larger than the largest of fine particulate matter. These particles come in many sizes and shapes and can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals. Some are emitted directly from a source such as construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, smokestacks or fires. But most particles form in the atmosphere as a result of complex reactions of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which are pollutants emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles. When inhaled PM can cause a wide range of respiratory disorders and a continuous exposure to PM can also cause asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and any type of bronchitis because PM can penetrate deep inside the lungs and damage the lungs. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed prelims question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is an editorial on the trade across the line of control. This article appears on page 8 in all the editions. The aspect of this editorial will be helpful in your prelims preparation under the area, current events of national importance and economic and social development and in main syllabus in GS paper 3 under the areas India and its neighborhood relations and in bilateral agreements involving India and affecting India's interests and also in GS paper 3 under the area Indian economy and the current news can be linked to the inclusive growth also about how far the population of German Kashmir are included in the development process and then it can be linked to the role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security and challenges to internal security through communication networks and also security challenges and their management in border areas. The article is in use because of the April 18 announcement of the government of India to suspend the trade across the line of control between Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan occupied Kashmir by expressing concerns over illegal inflows of weapons narcotics and currency through the trade. The authors of this editorial talks about the cross LOC trade which has the potential for social and economic development for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the editorial also discusses about the operational and policy level deficiencies and the solution to streamline the LOC trade. Stepping into the main discussion the authors highlight the initiation of two confidence building measures one on line of control travel and the other on the line of control trade between India and Pakistan. Today our focus will be on line of control trade. Confidence building measures or CBMS are bilateral efforts taken by two countries having disputes with each other where the efforts are aimed at avoiding conflicts creating environment of confidence for initiation of dispute resolution or dispute management. The CBMS include non-military spheres of interstate relations such as economic cultural technical and social relationships which aims at the prevention of escalation of tensions between two sides. The cross LOC trade and cross LOC travel were representative of a constructive bilateral engagement process between India and Pakistan amid some political disruptions. While cross LOC travel will connect divided families cross LOC trade would improve economic ties between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir both aiding in attaining the ultimate benefit of peace. The cross LOC trade was started on 21st October 2008 and is conducted through a standard operating procedure that is SOP which was mutually agreed by both countries. It was meant to facilitate exchange of goods of common use between local populations across the LOC in Jammu and Kashmir through a barter system. Barter system involves trading goods for other goods in return without the use of money. The SOP lists 21 categories of items to be traded on zero tariffs that is on zero duty basis. The trade in and trade out goods must be balanced to zero for each trading firm within a period of three months that is if a trading firm A from Jammu and Kashmir and trading firm B in POK agree to exchange certain number of medicinal herbs from A to B and certain amount of honey in return from B to A both of these should happen within three months of first exchange. The authors shows the data figures that indicates the potential of this trade for social and economic development within Jammu and Kashmir. One there is approximately 600 registered traders at two trade facilitation centers in India one is in Salamabad and other is in Chakandabad. These two are the trade facilitation centers in the side of Jammu and Kashmir for India. Secondly the average year-on-year growth since 2008 is around 19% with a cumulative value of over 6,500 crores. Thirdly it has generated more than 1.6 lakh job days. Fourthly more than 1 lakh trucks with goods have been exchanged till now. These are some of the indicators that this route of trade holds for the economic and social development of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. There are some misconceptions and malpractices seen in this trade and this is because of the operational and the policy level deficiencies despite the visible economic benefits. These are there is a lack of clarity in the standard operating procedure in matters relating to rule of origin of goods, taxation, list of items etc and then misuse of the trade is seen in the form of trade number selling. Let us take one example to understand this point. Think that trading from A is given a registration number to carry out the trade. This trading firm sells this registration or token number to another trading firm B for some money or other benefits. As the registration number is now with the trading firm B the firm B now is involving in cross LOC trade rather than firm A. This is how misuse is happening by the practice of trade number selling and then another malpractice is illegitimate involvement of seasonal traders is also a problem because this leads to negative balance in the barter arrangement. This may happen when a seasonal trader buys an item but fails to balance by returning agreed goods and then there are also infrastructural issues such as non-functional way bridge, lack of CCTV cameras and truck scanners and absence of regular communication channels and moreover the announcement of suspension of trade was given in the evening of April 18 saying that from the start of the immediate next day that is April 19 from 12 a.m the cross LOC trade will be suspended. Many traders from JNK would have been waiting for goods to be returned to them for the exchanges done earlier. The sudden suspension has thus incurred heavy losses and thus led to negative trade balance for the genuine trading firms. The authors implicitly note this as the biggest disadvantage as a result of sudden and unexpected suspension. As a way out or as a solution the author suggests that both infrastructure and policy level interventions are required to streamline cross LOC trade. Firstly a revision in standard operating procedure is required wherein trade re-registration has to be carried out. To bring clarity on rule of origin and about tradable commodities that benefits the local economy of people of Jammu and Kashmir and to use 8 digit harmonized system code for commodities to save time in verification and also to ease the business because it is easy for regulation in a harmonized system of description and trading system. Secondly digitization of the trade facilitation centers or TFCs must take place to make the process of record keeping easy, transparent and accessible. Thirdly the digitized TFCs should be enabled with a trader notification system to send timely reminders to achieve zero barter balance for continuation of trade and timely exchange and then a strict trader delisting policy in case of non-compliance has to be instituted in place. Thereby any trader with a negative balance in barter for more than the designated time period can be suspended from conducting trade and also regular meetings must be held between the trade facilitation officers of both sides of the LOC that is between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir to ensure coordination and exchange of the list of suspended or banned traders. Finally infrastructure upgradation has to be done such as installation of truck scanners, functional CCTV cameras for security and calibration of way bridges which are essential to check the inflow of banned items, narcotics and weapons. As a conclusion the authors state that the gains achieved by way of cross LOC trade has resulted in a way for recent talks regarding Sharda Peeth corridor. The corridor if finalized will make way for Hindu pilgrims from India to visit the Sharda Peeth in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Now after a decade of economic success the line of control is being called as line of commerce and confidence and the sustenance or the sustainability of this achievement requires regular operational level and policy level interventions. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed main question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is about the identification of new chickpea genes. The article has appeared on page 18 of Chennai and Delhi edition and on page 16 of Bangalore and Tirunandhapuram editions. The information in the article will be useful for preliminary examination under current events of national and international importance and also in general issues or environment and ecology, biodiversity and climate change. Stepping into the main discussion the article is about the new genes which has been identified in chickpeas which are resistant to rising temperature and climate fluctuations. The new gene is identified by the International Crop Research Institute for the semi arid areas. In short ICRI sat. The ICRI sat is a non-profit organization which is headquartered at Hyderabad in the state of Telangana. Now let us see why there is a need for finding a new gene in chickpea. Firstly due to an increase in temperature and drought there is a loss of 70 percent of the total crop yield in the total cultivation of chickpea. Secondly the chickpea is a cool season crop and when there is an increase in temperature it will result in low yield and then 90 percent of global cultivation happens in South Asia which highlights the necessity for new gene crop especially in the context of India who is the largest producer of chickpea in the world and also India witnesses the fluctuation in weather conditions and changes in the raining pattern which has created an utmost need for a new gene crop to fight against the drought and rising temperature. Now let us see the advantages of identifying a new gene crop. This identification of chickpea variety will help to increase the tolerance of crop of up to 38 degrees and further this helps in increasing the crop yield and has a better resistance to pests and diseases. In the context of India chickpea is sown in the month of September to October and harvested in the month of January to February and with this new gene identification farmers can go for a second round of cropping which will help them to yield more profit. Finally let us see about the method of developing a new gene chickpea which is resistant to drought and high temperature. The new variety of chickpea has been developed through the method of genome sequencing of 429 chickpeas gene lines from 45 countries. Genome sequencing is the method of figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides or bases in a genome that is the order of A's, C's, G's and T's that make up an organism's DNA. Then the gene line which is resistant to drought and temperature will be identified through genetic markers method. Genetic markers are used to identify different features in DNA sequence that can be used to differentiate between individuals in a population or to classify individuals between different varieties within a species. In this context of chickpea we look for the drought and climate change resistant gene in the chickpea. Now with that new gene the existing variety will be crossed and a new chickpea variety will be developed. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed prelims question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is about the requirements for achieving malnutrition free India. This article appeared on page 9 in all the editions. The information under this discussion will be relevant in the preliminary examination in the areas current events of national importance and in economic and social development under poverty and social sector initiatives and in the main syllabus in the GS paper 2 under the areas government policies and interventions in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation and also in issues relating to development and management of social sector services relating to health education human resources etc. and also in issues relating to poverty and hunger and then in GS paper 3 under the area Indian economy and issues relating to development and inclusive growth. Before getting into the discussion about the article let us first know about malnutrition. According to World Health Organization malnutrition refers to deficiencies that is excesses or imbalances in the persons intake of energy or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers two broad groups of conditions. One is under nutrition which includes stunting which means a low height for age and then wasting which means low weight for height and then under weight which means low weight for age and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies that is a lack of important vitamins and minerals. The other is overweight, obesity and diet related non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. One of the goals of the national nutrition strategy which was published by Niti Ayog of government of India in 2017 which is titled as nourishing India is to prevent and reduce under nutrition in children between 0 to 3 years by 3 percentage points per annum from NFHS 4 levels by 2022 and to achieve a one-third reduction in anemia in children, adolescents and women of reproductive age by 2022. India has made program commitments to improve the lives of children since 1975 such as creating integrated child development services and national coverage of the midday meal scheme etc. The author notes that despite these efforts India continues to battle with a high rate of under nutrition. The editorial article mainly focuses on stunting aspect of malnutrition. Coming to the prevalence in 2016 about 38.4% of Indian children had stunted growth and India has more stunted children in rural areas as compared to urban areas because of low economic status in rural areas. With reference to mothers with and without schooling it is found that almost double the prevalence of stunting is found in children born to mothers with no schooling as compared to mothers with 12 or more years of schooling. In terms of geographical regions Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand have very high rates of stunting while states with the low rates of stunting include the states of Kerala and Goa. The highest decadal decline in stunting can be seen in Chhattisgarh whereas least progress is seen in Tamil Nadu. Stunting prevalence also varies across districts. We can see a district with 12.4% stunting at the same time we can also see another district with 65.1% stunting and almost 40% of districts in India have stunting levels of above 40%. Now let us see the author's opinion on consequences of stunting with respect to economic development. Stunting has lifelong consequences on human capital, poverty and equity. Stunting leads to less potential in education and fewer professional opportunities. World Bank states that one percent loss in adult height due to childhood stunting is associated with a 1.4% loss in economic productivity. In the report titled measuring human capital a systematic analysis of 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016 which was prepared by and published by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the request of World Bank. In this India ranks 158 in expected human capital among 195 countries globally. Lack of investment in health and education leads to slower economic growth. The bottom line is that the lack of investment to address stunting will lead to slower economic growth and may lead to loss in economic productivity. Stunting is also said to have permanent or lasting effects on future generations. In addition to the stunting around 53% of women were anemic in 2015 to 16. This accentuates the lasting effects on future pregnancies and children. The author also pinpoints where our future programs should concentrate to address stunting. In India only 41.6% children are breastfed with one hour of the birth and only 54.9% of children are exclusively breastfed for six months and only 42.7% of children are provided timely complementary foods and only 9.6% children below two years receive an adequate diet. Further about 40% of children don't get full immunization and vitamin A supplementation to carry out disease prevention. Note that vitamin A deficiency can increase infections like measles and diarrheal diseases. Hence the programs should concentrate on timely nutritional interventions of breastfeeding, age-appropriate complementary feeding, full immunization and vitamin A supplementation. In order to achieve the targets under national nutrition strategy given by Niti Ayog in 2017, the biggest challenge is improving nutrition and managing stunting which can be addressed only with an intersectoral strategy. By this the author means serious alignment among working ministries and convergence of nutrition programs. And then the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition is to be tackled with effective pre and post pregnancy interventions for both the mother and the child. And then an effective stringent monitoring of the progress made in achieving these goals is required. And also an efficient implementation of programs is required for the country to achieve the goals by 2022. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next article which is based on the PM Kisan scheme. This article appears on page 2 of Chennai edition only. The information in the article will be useful for the preliminary examination under current events of national importance and also under economic and social development including poverty, inclusion and social sector initiatives. And this article is also relevant in main syllabus under GS paper 2. In the areas welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections of the population by the centre and the states and the performance of the schemes and issues relating to poverty. Stepping into the main discussion, the news article is about the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Niti scheme in the city of Chennai. The data provided in the article is irrelevant in the examination point of view but the scheme holds a remarkable importance in the examination. So, let us now know about the scheme. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Niti or in short PM Kisan scheme here means Pradhan Mantri as we know it means Prime Minister, Kisan means farmer, Samman means respectful or dignified and Niti means fund. So, in short it is a scheme for farmers providing a dignified fund for their welfare. The scheme is an income support scheme for the farmers which was launched by the Prime Minister in February 2019. It is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme which is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and it will incur an annual expenditure of Rs 75,000 crore to the government. The PM Kisan scheme is aimed at providing income support to the small and marginal farmer families who have combined land holding or ownership of up to 2 hectares that is approximately 5 acres. The income of Rs 6000 per year will be given to the farmer families in 3 installments that is Rs 2000 per installment. Here one should keep in mind that according to the RBA's definition, marginal farmer means a farmer cultivating an agricultural land as owner or tenant or as a sharecropper of 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. This definition was based on RBA's guideline but according to this scheme, a small and marginal farmer means a farmer who holds a land of up to 2 hectares and has ownership of it. This scheme does not include the tenants and the term families in the scheme means a family which comprises of husband, wife and minor children. Under this scheme, the fund will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by the direct benefit transfer method. Next, the beneficiaries will be identified by the respective state and union territories. The benefits of the scheme are it ensures an assured supplemented income to the vulnerable farmer families. Secondly, it aims to fulfill the emergent needs of farmers before the harvest season because before the harvest season, the farmers need money for employing laborers etc which compels them to borrow money from the local money lenders which in turn pushes them into an debt trap. Thirdly, it paves the way for farmers to earn and to lead a respectable living in the society and then it covers almost 12 crore small and marginal farmer families who are large in scale and under PM Kisan scheme, the fund is transferred directly to the beneficiary account which avoids leakages and ensures timely delivery of fund. It also helps in recovery of poor farmer families from the distress due to poverty. Now let us see who all are excluded from this benefit. All institutional land holders, former and present holders of constitutional post, former and present ministers, state ministers and former or present members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state legislative assemblies, state legislative councils and former and present mayors, municipal corporations, former and present chairpersons of district panchayats and all serving or retired officers and employees of central or state government ministries, officers, departments and even regular employees of the local bodies are excluded and all retired pensioners whose monthly pension is rupees 10,000 or more and all persons who paid income tax in the last assessment year are also excluded along with the professionals like doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants, etc. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed prelims question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the last discussion for the day which is based on the data point on forest lump. This data point enlists the major findings of global forest watch report and this data point appears on page 9 in all the editions. This article will be helpful in your prelims examination under current events of national and international importance and also under general issues on environmental ecology. You can quote some of the statistics mentioned in the report as a reference in your main examination under general studies, paper 3 under the area conservation environmental pollution and degradation environmental impact assessment. Stepping into the main discussion, global forest watch report is prepared and published by World Resources Institute. World Resources Institute is a non-profit organization based in USA. Just know who releases this particular global forest watch report from prelims exam point of view. Let us now see more about the report. The data from the report which is mentioned in the news article discusses about the statewide tree cover loss in India. The time period covered under this report is from 2001 to 2018. 2001 is taken as the base year for calculation. As per the report, tree cover is defined as all vegetation that is taller than 5 meters. Tree cover loss is calculated as the complete removal of tree cover canopy in an area of 30 by 30 meters. Let us now see the findings of the report that is mentioned in the news article. Huge loss of tree cover has been recorded in the years 2016 and 2017. In the year 2018, a significant decrease in the deforestation has been recorded. The loss of tree cover is very high in the northeastern states, especially in the states of Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya. All these states are also the states with the high tree cover in India as well. We saw that in 2016 and 17, there was a huge loss of tree cover. This has happened especially in the states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Kerala. And next, Telangana is the state with the least loss in forest cover. If you see the data which covers a time period of 18 years from 2001 to 2018, 2008 has been a year of anomaly that is abnormality where several states of India have recorded the highest loss of tree cover in this particular year. These are some of the findings of the report mentioned in the article. You should note that the findings of the Global Forest Watch report will vary with the findings of the biennial reports released by the Forest Survey of India. This is because of the difference in the methodology carried out in both the reports. The biennial report of Forest Survey of India is nothing but the state of forest report. The state of forest report is released once in every two years since 1987. The latest report available is state of forest report of 2017. This report assesses the country's forest resources. We should also note that Forest Survey of India which is an institution, it comes under Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. With this, we come to the end of today's article discussion session. The displayed problems question will be discussed in the next session. Now, let us move on to the last session for the day which is practice question discussion session. The first question is consider the following statements with reference to the National Clean Air Program. First statement, it aims to achieve a national level target of 20 to 30 percent reduction of particulate matter 2.5 and particulate matter 10 concentration by 2024. Second statement, 150 non-attainment cities have been chosen for intervention under this program. Third statement, it was launched by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation which among the above statements is our correct. Keep in mind, we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement is correct as we already discussed in the analysis that the National Clean Air Program aims to achieve a national level target of 20 to 30 percent reduction of PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentration by 2024. The second statement is wrong as only 102 non-attainment cities have been chosen for intervention under this program and not 150 city. The third statement is also wrong as this program is launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and not by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. So, the correct answer for this question is option one only. The next question is with reference to International Crop Research Institute for the semi-arid areas which of the following statements is or are correct. First statement, it is an organization under Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Second, its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Choose the correct answer from the options given below. Keep in mind, we have to choose the correct statement from the above. So, here the statement one is wrong because ICRA-SAT is a non-profit organization and it does not come under Indian Council of Agricultural Research. But statement two is correct as ICRA-SAT's mission is to reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition and also environmental degradation in the dry land tropics. Hence, the correct answer to this question is option B, two only. The next question is with reference to PM Kisan scheme which of the following statements is or are correct. First statement, it aims to provide agricultural loans to all farmers. Second statement, it is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme. Third statement, it is implemented by NABARD. Choose the correct answer from the options given below. Here the statement one is wrong because the PM Kisan is providing income support to farmers and that too for small and marginal farmers, not for all farmers. Keep in mind, the statement two is correct as it is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme which means it is also a central sector scheme. Statement three is wrong because the scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and not by NABARD. So, the correct option for this question is option B, two only. The next question is Global Forest Watch Report is released by which of the following. Option A, Forest Survey of India. Option B, World Resources Institute. Option C, the United Nations Forum on Forests. Option D, UN Environment. This is a very direct question. So, the correct answer here is option B, World Resources Institute, as we saw during our analysis session. Forest Survey of India releases State of Forest Report, which is a report released once in every two years since 1987. Now, let us see one main question that is bring out the circumstances that led to the sudden suspension of trade across line of control. Suggest the measures to streamline cross LOC trade to realize the line of control as line of commerce and confidence. For answering the first part of this question, you have to state reasons why the government has decided to suspend the trade such as illegal inflow of weapons, narcotics and fake currency notes etc. You can shed more light on this by viewing the discussion on the article Traders and Politicians Slam Government for Suspension of Cross LOC Trade on 20th April 2019 and on another article discussion on editorial title, Line of Caution on 23rd April 2019. Links for the above discussion have been provided in the description. For the second part, suggest the measures that we discussed today to streamline the LOC trade and link them with confidence building measure of cross LOC trade to realize the line of control as line of confidence and commerce and also state that these will significantly improve the economic ties between the regions across LOC. 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