 Very good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Iyer's Academy. Here are the list of news articles for your reference and the video is timestamped for your convenience. Now let's move on to the first article. So let's take up this news article which talks about religious freedom. It talks about the recommendations of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom of the US government and which has put India on the list of countries of particular concern or CPC. And according to USCIRF that is US Commission on International Religious Freedom, India should be put under this list for the worst violations of religious freedoms in 2020. So today let us know about this report and its recommendations. CUSCIRF is an independent bipartisan US federal government commission. So it was created in 1998 by the International Religious Freedom Act which is abbreviated as IRFA and it monitors religious freedom violations globally. Yes, you heard me right. It monitors the religious freedom violations beyond its borders and the report also makes policy recommendations to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the State and the Congress. So know that it issues an annual report and the report assesses the US government's implementation of IRFA. Then it recommends countries that the Secretary of State should designate as countries of particular concern or CPC for engaging in or tolerating systemic, ongoing or shocking violations of religious freedom. Then it documents country conditions in around 30 countries around the world and reports on significant trends and it also has some recommendations to the US policies. But know that its recommendations are non-binding in nature even on the US Congress or the President and the previous Trump administration had rejected the report recommendation to designate India as a CPC last year. That is country of particular concern last year. Remember that in 2020 report it had downgraded India's ranking. It says India took a sharp downward turn in 2019 and the national government used its parliamentary majority to institute national level policies that violates religious freedom across India especially for a specific sect of religious minorities. And today's news says that the USCISRF again recommended that the US administration should impose targeted sanctions on specific Indian individuals and those entities for severe violation of religious freedom. Secondly it recommended the administration to promote interfaith dialogue and the right of all communities at bilateral and multilateral forums such as quad grouping so which says that the US should push India to have interfaith dialogue within India. So that is the recommendation all about. Another recommendation was to the US Congress and this was to raise the issue in the US India bilateral space such as by hosting hearings, writing letters and constituting congressional delegation etc. The previous recommendation was in some common grouping like quad but this one is in a bilateral dialogues. The key concerns raised in 2021 report was regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act, the national registry of citizens, the Hindu nationalism and attack on religious minorities etc. But one of the 10 USCISRF recommendation presented a dissenting note in the text of the report. So that note is really interesting. He stated that India is diversity personified and its religious life has been its greatest historical blessing. So in this regard he was against designating India as country of particular concern or CPC. So that brings us to the end of discussion on this news article. Our second discussion today will talk about this editorial. This editorial talks about the reforms needed in the process of appointing and removing police chiefs. See recently the Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambeer Singh was arbitrarily removed from his post without a proper satisfactory explanation. This controversial removal has again put the issue of police reforms in the spotlight. Let us discuss about it. Here is the syllabus for your reference students. See the state police are under the control of state government. It is a state subject. So the state government plays a major role in appointing and removing the police chiefs. But this process of appointment is plagued with issues and needs reform immediately. So let us see about the issues first. So firstly there has been no independent vetting process to assess the suitability of qualified candidates for the appointment of police chiefs. The vetting process currently followed lacks transparency and remains opaque. That is no one knows what are the criteria employed by the government in appointing or removing a police commissioner. The current mechanism of appointment and removal of police chiefs severely damages the spirit of transparency. So in this context let us see some vital reforms required in this area. Firstly the responsibility of appointment and removal of police chiefs should be given to a bipartisan independent oversight body. So what is a bipartisan body? A body which has members from both the ruling and the opposition party. So the state government can be a part of this body. See this suggestion is not new. The idea was first mooted in 1979 by the National Police Commission NPC. Later this idea was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of India in its judgement of the famed Prakash Singh case 2006. Also the Supreme Court entrusted the UPSC, the Union Public Service Commission with a role in shortlisting the candidates from which the state government should appoint the police chiefs. See the above suggestions and judgements. Finally paved way for the Model Police Bill 2015. This bill places the responsibility of appointment and removal of police chiefs with a multi-party state police board. This board is also known as the State Security Commission. In short as SSCs we will be referring to state security commissions as SSC subsequently in the discussion. The SSCs is made up of government officials, the leader of opposition as well as independent members from civil societies. This board was seen as a paradigm shift in the appointment process because it provides the additional safeguard of civilian oversight over the appointment process. However, we have made little progress in constituting a truly independent state security commission. So let us see why. So far there has been only 26 states and the Union territories that have established a SSC either through police act or through amendment or through executive orders. But the SSCs formed so far do not adhere to the balanced composition suggested by the Supreme Court. For example, some SSCs do not include the leader of the opposition while others do not include independent members of the civil society. To put it simply, the SSCs are still dominated by the political executive which are in power. They do not yet experience the bipartisan and the independence envisaged by the Supreme Court in its judgment. Also, the SSCs do not meet on regular intervals. According to the RTI filed in 2019, only four SSCs have held meetings since 2014, which is a long gap. Without regular meetings, the SSCs cannot bring meaningful reforms, right? So in addition to that, in spite of SSC's establishment, many state governments still retain the sole discretion of appointing the police chiefs, except in the states of Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya and Mizoram, where the SSCs are given the responsibility of shortlisting the candidates, at least on paper. This is counterproductive to the establishment of SSCs. The second important police reform is the establishment of objective criteria for the appointment and removal of police chiefs. So this will help us to protect the operational autonomy of the police chief. See, currently the Supreme Court and the Model Police Act require the UPSC or the SSC to shortlist candidates on the basis of length of service and service record and range of experience and also the performance appraisal of the candidate over the past decade. However, there is no clear guidance when it comes to the explanation of these terms. For example, see, the criteria bluntly lists range of experience. It doesn't clearly convey what is a good range of experience. Such lack of clarity can lead to misuse. Similarly, when it comes to the removal of police chiefs, there is no scrutiny process. See, the NPC, the National Police Commission, requires the state governments to seek the approval of the State Security Commission before removing the police chief, before the end of his or her term. Even the Supreme Court in TP Sen Kumar versus Union of India case 2017 had emphasized the prima facie satisfaction of the government alone is not a sufficient ground to justify the removal of a police chief, which was the case in this removal. In addition to that, the Supreme Court also said that the rule of law requires such decisions to be based on compelling reasons and verifiable material that can be objectively tested. But most states do not follow these conditions during the removal of police chiefs. That is, it is largely arbitrary. Also, state governments are using broad terms like on administrative grounds, say, in public interest, in their police acts to justify the government's power to remove the police chief. Such broad terms can be easily misused or misinterpreted. Therefore, by bringing a set of objective criteria, clearly defined objective criteria, for appointing and removing police chiefs, we can overcome the above issues. In addition to the discussed reforms, this article also suggests the United Kingdom model for police chief appointment to bring additional transparency. So let us see what is this model. See the UK passed the Police Reforms and Social Responsibilities Act in 2011. This act was crucial because it introduced public confirmation hearings as an additional layer of check for the appointment of police chiefs. Now let us see how it works. See the proposed candidates, the list of proposed candidates for the police chiefs are required to participate in a hearing organized by the police and a crime panel. The crime panel is made up of representatives from local councils and independent members as well. And during this hearing, questions are posed about the candidate's ability to recognize and understand the separation of political and operational responsibilities in relation to the post, which is very important. Based on the result of this vetting process, the panel makes its recommendation on the suitability of the candidate. Also, these panels also have the power to veto by two-thirds majority, the proposed appointment as well. Even during the removals, the panels allow the police chief an opportunity to respond to the allegations on the basis of which their removal is being sought as a part of the scrutiny process. Therefore, by implementing the UK model in India, we will not only ensure fairness in administrative decisions, but also protect the political neutrality of the police. So this article concludes by stressing the importance of police reforms. It also wants that any further delay in implementing these reforms will continue to demoralize the police and cripple the rule of law. See, this article mentions the Prakash Singh case of 2006. This case is important because it gives seven points for police reforms. They are given below, as prints can go through it. These seven points are very important from Main's exam point of view. So now look at this news article. This news article is in reference to the World Press Freedom Index 2021. It was released recently. So let us know more about it. So know that the World Press Freedom Index is the annual ranking of about 180 countries based on the freedom available to the press, that is the journalists. This index is compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders, which is abbreviated as RSF because it was previously called as Reporters Sans Frontiers. And it is Paris-based international non-profit, non-governmental organization. So it conducts political advocacy on issues relating to freedom of information and freedom of press. Now talking about the methodologies used by it for its ranking, it is based on one that involves qualitative feedback and quantitative scores. What is this? The qualitative data generated is based on the feedback given by the questioner that is collected from media professionals, lawyers, sociologists of the countries that are being evaluated. And the quantitative scores are generated based on the data on abuses and acts of violence against journalists, which is nothing but the abuse scores, which is in the part of the report. Rank one is the highest rank and one IT is the lowest and the score of zero denotes the best and 100 denotes the worst score. So India's rank for the year 2020 was 142 and for 2019 it was 140 and 2018 138 and previously it was 136 and even before that it was 133. So as you can see, there has been a steady decline in India's ranking. So now in 2021 index, India has again ranked 142 like 2020 out of 180 countries. So this is despite the fact that for a year an index monitoring cell of Indian government has worked to improve the ranking. So we can see that India's rank has steadily climbed down to 142 in 2020 and India has retained it this year at 142. So the RSF reporter, reporter Sans Frontier report says India is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly. They are exposed to every kind of attack, even police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials according to this report. So that brings us to the discussion on World Press Freedom Index 2021. Look at this news article titled A Fresh Push for Green Hydrogen. In this context, let us discuss in brief about hydrogen fuel and then the important points given in the article. So as we know, hydrogen is the simplest element on earth as it consists of one proton and one electron only. Hydrogen can store and deliver usable energy but it doesn't typically exist by itself. That is, it doesn't exist in free state in nature and must be produced from compounds that contain it. See, hydrogen can be produced from diverse domestic sources. Currently, most hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, specifically natural gas. Electricity from the grid or from renewable sources such as biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy or wind energy is also currently being used to produce hydrogen. In the longer term, solar energy and biomass can also be used more directly to generate hydrogen. This is more commonly called as green hydrogen. So what exactly is this green hydrogen that is making a bus? See, hydrogen can be produced in a number of ways, as we just saw. One method includes using electrolysis with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. The electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar. Then it is termed as green or renewable hydrogen. Know that hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an energy source. And this can deliver or store a tremendous amount of energy. Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity or power and heat. Hydrogen is a clean fuel. That is, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water, electricity and heat. They have the potential for use in a broad range of applications such as transportation, commercial purposes, industrial purposes, residential purposes, etc. So due to their high efficiency and zero or near zero emission operations, hydrogen and fuel cells have the potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in many applications. So it can be said that it also holds the key to the green future. But the greatest challenge for hydrogen production, particularly from the renewable sources, that is the green hydrogen, is providing hydrogen at a very low cost. Now let us see the global trend. According to the International Energy Agency, global low-carbon hydrogen production has increased from just 0.04 million tonnes in 2010 to 0.36 million tonnes in 2019. And it is expected to reach 1.4 million tonnes in 2023. Coming to India, we currently consume around 5.5 million tonnes of hydrogen. And India's 2021-2022 budget had also announced the National Hydrogen Energy Mission. It aims to lay down India's vision for hydrogen energy, strategies and approaches for realizing the vision. So know that a pilot project for blending hydrogen with compressed natural gas for use as transportation fuel is running at Rajagat bus depot in Delhi. So finally, let us see some of the recommendations given by the author to scale operation of hydrogen in India. First of all, production of hydrogen requires electrolysis. We saw that earlier. Electrolysis in turn requires electricity. So author suggests to promote decentralized hydrogen production, that is at various public and private levels with unhindered access for renewable energy to an electrolyzer. Government should pave the way for this. Secondly, we know that there is a problem of intermittency associated with renewables. That is, say for solar power, it will be available better during the daytime and wind energy will be available only during the windy season, etc. Such challenges need to be addressed in the production of green hydrogen. Then we must take steps also to blend green hydrogen in the existing process, especially in the industrial sector. So this will in turn improve the hydrogen production. The demand will increase, so the production would also increase. Besides this, the government should facilitate investment in research and development that is much needed to advance the technology for use in India. See, there has been a decline in the price of electrolyzers. And this also should be capitalized to push hydrogen manufacturing and use. Finally, India must focus on domestic manufacturing as well. This includes securing supplies of raw materials and developing electrolyzer and fuel cell technologies. And roping in institutions like BARC, CSAR, they all have the fuel cell technologies. And roping in them can prove beneficial in the long run. Currently, we rely on the performance-based incentive scheme for the electrolyzer manufacturing and all. So we need a greater push beyond this to propel green hydrogen. Finally, author concludes by saying a very catchy phrase, hydrogen may be lighter than air, but it will take some heavy lifting to get the ecosystem in place. Here, he just means the need of the government action to boost the consumption of hydrogen as a fuel. So look at this article in the Metropolis of Chennai edition. Let us use this article as an opportunity to learn about snow leopards. See, the snow leopard lives at high altitudes in the steep mountains of Central and Southern Asia. They live in extremely cold climates as they name those snow leopards. When it comes to India, the snow leopards inhabit the higher Himalayas and the trans-Himalian landscape of Javan Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. See, the snow leopards are very few in number. So they are given the highest conservation status both globally and in India. For example, the snow leopards are categorized as vulnerable by IUCN and are placed in Schedule 1 of Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972. They are also listed in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species sites and Convention on Migratory Species CMS. In addition to the above, India also launched various conservation efforts to protect snow leopards. Let us see them in brief. First is the Project Snow Leopard. Very similar to Project Tiger. See, the Project Snow Leopard promotes an inclusive and participatory approach for the conservation of snow leopards. It also fully involves the local communities in the conservation efforts. Next, let us see about Secure Himalaya initiative. See, the Secure Himalaya is a project launched for conservation of high altitude, biodiversity and reducing the dependency of local communities on the natural ecosystem. So, when we talk about conservation of high altitude biodiversity, it also includes the snow leopards. And the Global Environment Facility of United Nations Development Program funds this project. And Secure Himalaya is now operational in JNK, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. Next, let us see about Himal Sanrakshak. See, Himal Sanrakshak is a community volunteering program launched by India specifically for snow leopards. Now, let us see about the International Snow Leopard Day. The International Snow Leopard Day is observed on 23rd of October every year. And this day came into being since 2013 with the adoption of Bishkek declaration. What is this declaration? This Bishkek declaration is signed by 12 countries on the conservation of snow leopards only. The 12 countries include all the snow leopard range areas that is India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. So, these are the 12 countries. Please have a note of this. They are very important from the prelims point of view. Also, know that the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program was launched on the same day to address high mountain development issues using the Snow Leopard as a flagship species. So, this brings us to the end of discussion on Snow Leopard. Look at this news article. Now, this news article is with reference to a study which was released by UNICEF and Gina Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The study was titled Gender Bias and Inclusion in Advertising in India. So, it is an interesting topic. It is an analysis of gender representation in thousand most viewed advertisements in India on TV and YouTube during the year 2019. Let us see some of the important findings. See, the analysis shows that female characters are just as likely to appear in ads as much as male characters. That is, there is equality in representation in terms of gender. Girls and women have parity of representation in terms of screen and speaking time. So, look at this graph. But the data points that the portrayal of female characteristics is problematic as they further gender stereotypes. Let us see the statistics. Firstly, women are more likely to be shown as married than the male characters. And secondly, women are more likely to be depicted as cat takers and parents than men and less likely to be shown in paid occupation. Thirdly, women are more depicted as selling cleaning supplies and food and beauty products to women consumers. And fourthly, the male characters are more likely to be shown making decisions about their future than the female characters. But women are twice as likely to be shown making household decisions than the male characters. Now, let us see the gender representation by age, social class and skin tone. In age wise representation there are more boys than girls in ads. Then, female characters are more likely to be depicted in their 20s than male characters and most older characters are male. Now, taking on character gender by social class, we can see that male and female characters are about equally likely to be depicted in all classes in Indian advertisements. And talking about the character gender by skin tone, most characters in Indian advertising have lighter skin tones. And two-third of the female characters have light or medium light skin tones. And male characters are five times more likely to have a dark skin tone than female characters. It also says that the majority of characters with dark skin are presented as lower class. So, this means colorism is evident in Indian ads as well, apart from gender stereotypes. Now, the report talks about sexualization and stereotypes. So, know that female characters are nine times more likely to be shown as stunning or very attractive than male characters. And female characters are four times more likely to be depicted as very nude than male characters. And finally, for characters where intelligence is part of the character in the ad, male characters are more likely to be shown as smart than female characters, which again is a serious furthering of gender stereotype. And male characters are almost twice as likely to be shown as funny than female characters, which again is a gender stereotype. So, the report concludes that the presence of women in ads in India reinforces the traditional gender roles. Women are also marginalized by colorism, hyper sexualization and without career or aspirations outside of the home. So, that is how the ads, the Indian ads have been portraying women even in 2019, which is a serious area of concern with respect to genders. So, with the respect to this article, I advise the students to take few of the facts which can be used in their essay questions or some of the social issue questions in their main examination. So, that is how this article is important, apart from having an understanding on gender stereotypes in the advertisements. Consider this article. This article in essence talks about data forming the base of future power equations in international relations. This is the syllabus for your reference. As a recent trend, we see that there is a shift of global power from the Atlantic, that is from the west to the Indo-Pacific or Asia. This raises strategic question for India and author interprets it in the context of data. So, in the first half, he talks how data is an important part of international relations and in the second half, he talks about the China's advantage which was brought about by data and digital revolution. So, the industrial revolution restructured the global manufacturing order to Asia's disadvantage. That is, Asia which was the manufacturing hub before the industrial revolution was reduced to a market that will only buy goods from the west. But in the digital data revolution that we are experiencing right now, data determines the trajectory of a lot of things. Say for example like innovation, the nature of productivity growth, that is, what is being demanded in the market. So, depending on that, the production is also done and military power. Mobile digital payment which is also based on data impacts society and the international system as well. And this has three strategic implications according to the author. First, he talks about the security dimension. See, now data has become omnipresent. Being a part of everyday life, so cybersecurity forms an integral part of security paradigm. So, the conventional military and the civilian systems have become obsolete in the era of data. See, cybersecurity has thus become equivalent to national security. See, let us understand this better. See, there was a cyber attack in June 2010. Iran was the victim of the cyber attack where its nuclear facility in Nantes was infiltrated by the cyber worm Stuxnet. Reportedly, a combined effort by United States and Israel. Stuxnet destroyed over thousand nuclear centrifuges and according to sources the attack set Tehran's atomic program back by at least two years. So, this is a bloodless war as you can see, waged remotely by two different states on one particular state. So, this indicates the need for a new military doctrine and a diplomatic framework. Secondly, author talks about the pervasive nature of the data. That is the spread of data beyond waters. Let us understand this also. Data gets generated when a user enters their credentials. Say, if you are logging into Facebook, you will be entering your name, your age, your gender and that is data. Irrespective of the geographical location of the user, the data gets used in a different place. So, we enter data from India. Probably, our data is being processed in United States, right? So, the data that travels beyond borders cannot be subject to one country's rules or it can be difficult to subject it to one specific country's rules. So, the universal rules have now been changing to issue-based understanding. That is, the rules are emerging based on the issues arising out of the digital transaction or digital data usage for example, right? But the area of emergence of data has always had a better advantage. That is, the owner of the data is the producer of it. Say, if I enter my name it is my data. So, I have an advantage over that particular data and Asia has a huge demograph as we know. So, there will be huge volume of data that is being generated. So, it stands at a clear advantage with respect to data. Just because we have huge volumes of it which can be put to use, right? Thirdly, he talks about data streams. See, what are these data streams? Data streams are nothing but information, okay? So, information is now at the center of the global trade and countries economic and national power. How? Say, E-commerce entity recognizes that a country's users favor buying one particular product. The business strategy is based based on that. That is, more of that particular product is being made and marketed, okay? So, we know India has massive data in its hand and India also has a robust IT infrastructure. So, author believes that India thus has the capacity to negotiate new rules with respect to data as an equal with US and China. Nextly, author has continued to talk about the rise of China with data to aid in its rise. So, he believes the right use of data power has contributed to the rise of China as a near equal of the US. Even US has acknowledged this. So, the national security strategy of the US, that is the United States puts more emphasis on diplomacy rather than military power to resolve conflicts with China. And this is also partly because the allies of US or the US itself has a very complicated relationship with China and a large part of it is now digitally driven. But the author notes that China's technology has weakness at two levels. One is China is generations behind a semiconductor technology and hence it's dependent on other countries for technology and imports of semiconductors. We know semiconductors are an important raw materials for computers and phones, right? And the second weakness is it's powerlessness against US sanctions on banks or 5G and the crowd computing companies that are working in the west. So, we know about the D-10 alliances and all, right? To counter China's 5G prowess, right? So, in order to overcome this, China's 14th 5-year plan, China's 14th 5-year plan emphasizes a 1.4 trillion strategy for the development of science and technology in this field. So, we can see that China's digital technology led capitalism is moving very fast and it is trying to utilize the economic potential of data pushing the recently launched EUA, that is China's digital currency and shaking the dollar-based settlement for global trade. We know that the entire global trade is driven by US dollars, right? And another strength of China with respect to data is that China has about 53 trillion mobile payment market and it controls over 50 percentage of the global market value and India is not doing bad at all. India's UPI volume is expected to cross about 1 trillion by 2025. But in sharp contrast, US lags behind with only 30 percentage of consumers using digital means and with the total volume of mobile payments less than 100 billion. So, you can see that US lags behind in data strength because a lot of its consumers do not use digital transactions. An author also notes that the global strategic balance will depend on new data standards. That is, how their countries use the digital infrastructure in their favor. Earlier this year, China formed a joint venture with across borders payment and suggested foundational principles for interoperability between the central bank digital currencies and the banks of international settlement which is BIS. The US is far behind in mobile payments also and is falling back on data alliances as well and sanctions to maintain its global position. And India's goal is to become a 5 trillion economy by 2025 on the other hand. While the country is fast-tracking digital rupee and everything, the challenge is promoting engagement with the major powers. Just saw that China has engaged with major powers and it is utilizing the infrastructure of Swift to promote its digital currency to challenge the dollars, but India is not doing so. So, that is a major drawback with respect to India while it is not utilizing its data prowess. And major powers apart from that, see value in relationship with New Delhi. India fits into the US frame of wide leverage and China also wants India as its ally not as a rival with respect to the digital realm. And China remains the largest trading partner of both the US and India despite sanctions and border skirmishes. The recent developments are a strong pointer towards the shifting balance in favor of Asia. And India should be quick to take a stand in power with US and China in the changing global dynamics taking advantage of data. So, indeed data is the new oil and India needs to wake up to its potential. So, that brings us to the end of discussion on this particular editorial. So, this brings us to the practice question session. We have two problems questions from the previous years for your attention before we go into the other practice questions. Okay? So, the first question is from the problems 2012. So, consider the following. Black naked crane, cheetah, flying squirrel, snow leopard. Which of the above are naturally found in India? So, this is the question. So, consider cheetah. Okay? Cheetahs became locally extinct from India 70 years ago. Prior to that, they roamed across much of India. They were also found across the Middle Eastern region as well. But today, the entire Asian cheetah population is confined to just a few dozen animals in Iran. So, that is why at times we may be hearing about news about translocation of cheetahs from Iran to India. So, if you eliminate cheetah from the answer options, you will arrive at the correct answer which is 1, 3 and 4. Black naked crane, flying squirrel and snow leopard are naturally found in our habitat. So, this is a reminder of the snow leopard article that we discussed in the discussion today. So, the next question is from the preliminary examination of 2011. So, which is the difference between asteroids and comets? So, the first statement is asteroids are small rocky planetoids while comets are formed of frozen gases held together by rocky and metallic material. And the second statement is asteroids are found mostly between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars while the comets are found mostly between Venus and Mercury. And third statement is comets show a perceptible, lowing tail while asteroids do not. So, the correct option is option 1 and 3 and so the option will be option B. Okay? So, that said, let us consider why is option 2 wrong. Okay? So, while first part of the second statement is correct the second part is incorrect. This is because, yeah majority of the known asteroids orbit within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Generally, asteroids do not have very elongated orbits but if you take the comets most comets come from beyond the orbit of Pluto. They come from a region of the solar system called the OOT cloud and the comets tend to have much more elongated orbits than the asteroids. Because the orbits of long period comets are so extremely long that the scientists suspect that the OOT cloud is the source of the comets. Therefore, OOT cloud is also called as home of comets by the NASA. So, we have discussed this question primarily because there was an article on Lyrid Meteor Showers on the Hindu edition of Chennai Metro Plus. So, what are these Lyrid Meteor Showers? These Lyrid Meteor Showers are nothing but Earth Day Meteor Showers that attains its peaking on the April 22nd every year. And it also continues to April 23rd. Now, let us move on to the other practice questions. So, consider this question. Consider the following statements with reference to the term country of particular concern CPC recently seen in use. We saw this in discussion if you remember. So, it is a designation of a nation which is engaged in severe violation of religious freedom. This statement is correct and it is maintained by the United Nations Security Council says the second statement but this statement is incorrect because it is not maintained by UNSE but it is designation by the US Secretary of State of a nation engaged in severe violation of the religious freedom under its legislation IRFA International Religious Freedoms Act right? So, the correct answer would be option A, one only. Let us go on to the next question. Consider the following statement with reference to World Press Freedom Index. We discussed the World Press Freedom Index and again in today's discussion. So, this index is compiled and published by the International Press Institute, a global network of directors, media executives and leading journalist. So, the question asks which of the above statement is correct. First statement is incorrect because the World Press Freedom Index is compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders which is previously called as Reporters and Frontiers and it is a Paris based international non-profit, non-governmental organization and India's rank in the World Press Freedom Index has steadily declined from 2016 to 2020. This is a factual question and so this statement is correct. So, the correct option will be option B two only. Consider the next question with reference to fuel cells consider the following statement. See, we came across fuel cells in a discussion based on green hydrogen if you remember. So, first statement is says fuel cells work like batteries but they do not run down or they do not read recharging. This statement is correct. Consider the second statement. If hydrogen is the fuel well electricity, water and heat are the only byproducts. See, the correct option is both the statements are correct. A fuel cell uses the chemical energy of hydrogen or another fuel to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity. If hydrogen is the fuel well electricity, water and heat are the only byproducts. As you can see there is no toxic byproduct associated with this fuel cell and fuel cells literally work like batteries but they do not run down or they do not need recharging at all. This is a very important part about fuel cells and they produce electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied. So, consider this question which of the following published the report called gender buyers and inclusion in advertising in India. We saw a brief discussion on this in today's discussion. The correct answer is UNICEF option D. Consider the following statement. The snow leopards are categorized as endangered by IUCN. That is the first statement and consider the second statement. Himal San Rakshak is a community volunteering program launched by India to protect snow leopard. See, the first statement is incorrect because we saw that snow leopards are vulnerable under the IUCN classification. But the second statement is correct. So, the correct option will be answer is option B2 only. So, that brings us to the end of the discussion on practice questions. With that, we are at the fag end of today's discussion. Write the answers for the mains question in the comments section and post it below for a peer review. Writing one or two questions every day would give you an edge in the mains preparation. If you like the video like, share and subscribe and we bring you the analysis every evening. Stay safe, prepare well, good day.