 Greetings dear aspirants, as a part of target UPSC prelims 2020 series, this video consists of a set of 55 important topics which are sourced from various sources like the Hindu, the business standard, life meant, and from various government sources like the Press Information Bureau, Neethi Aayu, from Ministry websites, E-Gazer, etc. These are the list of 55 topics chosen for the month of October 2019. We have chosen these 55 topics and have presented an MCQ format along with necessary information that is required to be known from UPSC prelims exam perspective. The PDF link of this discussion is given in the description box in the best interest of the viewers. Now let us begin with the session. The first question is related to fast tax. See generally in UPSC if you see you can find questions in science and technology that are related to the latest technologies which are recently thriving that is successful in the market. For example, if you see Reliance Geo disrupted the telecommunications sector in the past two or three years and if you see there was a question in 2019 trillions over the differences between voice over LTE technology that is long term evolution technology which is used by Geo versus the normal LTE technology. If you see one such trending current affairs is fast tax. Now let us see what is fast tax and the technology behind this fast tax. See fast tax is a simple to use reloadable tax that is affixed on the vehicle's win screen. It enables automatic deduction of toll charges and it lets the vehicle pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction. See fast tax is linked to a prepaid account from which the applicable toll amount is deducted. If you see this fast tax employs radio frequency identification technology. The fast tax is done by the tag reader at the plaza and the toll amount is deducted automatically when the vehicle approaches the toll plaza. So the vehicle with fast tax does not need to stop at the toll plaza for every cash transaction. So this is the technology behind fast tax. Additionally know that the National Highways Authority of India's role this fast tax program for electronic toll collection on toll plazas on national highways. Indian National Management Company Limited which is a company incorporated by National Highways Authority of India and National Payment Corporation of India are implementing this program with the help from toll plaza concessioners, then fast tax issuer agencies and toll transaction acquirers that is the select banks. So what is this RFID technology? It is an automatic recognition technology that uses wireless communication. In general terms any system or a part of the system that uses IC tax that is integrated circuit tax to identify or control various items via a wireless communication is called as RFID. As the name indicates it uses radio frequency waves for communication. Now know that there are two major types of RFID technology. One is active RFID technology and the other is passive RFID technology. In active RFID technology the active RFID tag has an onboard power source that is an internal power source. It usually has battery and an active transmitter. The tag uses the battery to power its integrated circuit and transmitter. Here the advantage is that the integrated circuit of this tag may contain more processing power to implement additional functions like data manipulation. And if you see this active RFID tag as a longer read range that is the operation range is higher. The read range depends on the battery power and the type of transmitter on the tag. If you see active RFID tags are often used by real-time location systems and they are costlier. So this is all about active RFID tech. Now if you look at passive RFID technology the passive RFID tag does not have its own power source that is it has no battery onboard. The tag obtains power from the radio waves that are received from the interrogator. The amount of power thus received is very small it is just enough to energize its integrated circuit. And the integrated circuit will communicate with the interrogator. Therefore the passive tag functions are quite limited and they have lower range of operation. If you see in RFID applications passive RFID tags are used often they are often embedded into adhesive labels which are easy and quick to attach. Now if you see this fast tag uses this passive RFID technology. As we saw earlier fast tags are affixed on the vehicle's windscreen. This fast tag is read by the tag reader which is the interrogator at the toll plaza and the toll amount is detected automatically when the vehicle approaches the toll plaza. So this is the technology behind this fast tag and how this fast tag works. So always whenever you come across such successful technologies know the basic science behind that technology. So with this information in mind let us look at this question. First time if you read an UPC question that to a science and technology based question which is related to recent technologies you will most likely feel completely blank. If you read one more time it will make a little sense but if you know the basic science behind that particular question you can easily crack the question. Now look at this question it is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now look at the first statement it tells that passive RFID technology uses wired communications whereas active RFID technology uses wireless communications. First time you will have no idea about this statement but here the basic science is about RFID and we saw that RFID technology uses wireless communications. It basically uses radio waves for communication. If you know this basic science fact you can tell that the first statement is wrong. So RFID is basically a wireless near field communication technology. Now look at the second statement it tells that an active RFID technology has an internal power source whereas a passive RFID technology has no power source. This statement is correct active as an internal power source whereas passive RFID does not have any power source. So here the correct answer is option B two only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. So watch out for this RFID technology you can expect a question on this RFID technology in this year's prelims or in the future year's prelims exam. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about 10 year rural sanitation strategy. See the department of drinking water and sanitation which comes under the Ministry of Jail Shakti has launched the 10 year rural sanitation strategy. For the period 2019 to 2029 the title of the strategy is from ODF that is open defecation free to ODF plus rural sanitation strategy 2019-2029. Know that the same department that is the department of drinking water and sanitation is the nodal department for implementing this 10 year strategy. See we know that Swachh Bharat mission was launched on 2nd October 2014 to eradicate the practice of open defecation across India. The rural component of this mission was Swachh Bharat mission Graman. As of September 2019 all the states and union territories had reported that their rural areas are open defecation free. This was reported before the deadline which was fixed in the year 2014. The deadline was 2nd October 2019 which is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. So now India's achieved open defecation free status in the rural areas under this Swachh Bharat Graman mission. Now this 10 year rural sanitation strategy is a framework to sustain the efforts of the sanitation behavior change that has been achieved under this Swachh Bharat Mission Graman. So the vision of this strategy is ODF plus. So what is this ODF plus that is open defecation free plus it includes sustaining the usage of safe sanitation facilities by all that is the newly constructed toilets. This includes all the new households and even some of the households that might have been left. So sustaining the usage of sanitation facilities as well as effective disposal of solid and liquid wastes. If you see this strategy is aligned to sustainable development goal number six which is clean water and sanitation. So one of the goal under this 10 year strategy is to sustain the gains that are made under Swachh Bharat Mission Graman and the next goal is to achieve a clean living environment with solid and liquid waste management. So there will be outcome based interventions which are planned under this strategy. Two outcomes have been focused under the strategy one is ODF sustainability and the second is solid and liquid waste management in rural areas. Under ODF sustainability you have these subcomponents and under solid and liquid waste management you have these four subcomponents which are biodegradable waste management, plastic waste management, grey water management and fecal sludge management. So wherever required necessary interventions will be made under this strategy. So all these subcomponents are supported by key cross-sectional interventions such as information, education and communication then through decentralized governance so that action can be taken even at the panchayat level and through capacity strengthening. So this is in brief about this 10 year rural sanitation strategy of the ministry of Jalshakti. So try to remember who will implement this strategy and about the vision and goals of this strategy that we saw. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. The question is the 10 year rural sanitation strategy 2019-2029 focuses on sustaining the sanitation behavior change that has been achieved under the Swachh Bharat Mission Graman which of the following ministries is the nodal ministry for implementing this strategy. Now you can easily get confused between option C and D here, Ministry of Jalshakti, Ministry of Rural Development. The common guess would be if you are not aware of who has released and who will implement this strategy you would go for option D which is Ministry of Rural Development but know that the answer here is option C, Ministry of Jalshakti. Now one small trick to remember this is we saw that the nodal department is the department of drinking water and sanitation and this strategy is about sanitation. Now don't go by rural, go by the keyword sanitation. So you can arrive at the correct answer which is option C, Ministry of Jalshakti. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about India tuberculosis report 2019 in short India TB report 2019. See India has set an ambitious target of eliminating tuberculosis by 2025 according to World Health Organization elimination of tuberculosis means there should be less than one case of tuberculosis for a population of 10 lakh barrier 2025. Even if you see the WHO's N TB strategy targets for elimination of tuberculosis barrier 2050 but if you see India aims to end tuberculosis by 2025 which is five years ahead of UN's SDG target of eliminating TB by the year 2030. So if India needs to achieve the target to end tuberculosis by 2025 then it requires the rate of decline of incidence of tuberculosis to be more than 10 to 15 percent every year. If you see this target was set in the year 2017. Now let us understand in brief about tuberculosis. Tuberculosis or TB is caused by the bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis. It most often affects the lungs. Know that tuberculosis is curable and preventable and if you see tuberculosis spreads from person to person through the air. Now let us look at this India TB report 2019. It was released by the Central Tuberculosis Division which comes under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. See as per this report India accounts for a quarter of the global tuberculosis burden in the year 2018. There are an estimated 27 lakh cases. If you see this is a 16 percentage increase when compared to 2017 and it is the highest so far. Now let us see the major outcomes of the report. First let us see the characteristics of the tuberculosis affected population. See tuberculosis largely found among the working age group. 89 percentage of cases come from the age group of 15 to 69 years and about two-thirds of the tuberculosis cases are males. Now let us see the major findings of this report. The state of Uttar Pradesh is the largest contributor of tuberculosis cases. It is followed by the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The contribution is mentioned here in the brackets. Next if you see tuberculosis is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among the people living with HIV. This report tells that nearly 25 percentage of all deaths among people living with HIV are estimated to be due to tuberculosis. The highest percentage of patients who tested positive for tuberculosis and were also infected with HIV came from the state of Nagaland followed by Karnataka, Chandigarh and Manipur. So we can see that co-morbidities exist in case of tuberculosis. Not only tuberculosis, HIV, co-morbidity exist. But if you see there are also more than 5,000 cases of tuberculosis which are attributed to diabetes. And also 8 percentage of the total tuberculosis cases can be attributable to tobacco usage. Then if you see India has roughly around 27,000 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients, which is the highest in the world. See the bacteria that cause tuberculosis can develop resistance to the antimicrobial drugs which are used to cure tuberculosis. Here multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a condition where the tuberculosis does not respond to at least two most powerful anti-tuberculosis drugs which are isoniazid and rifampicin. So this is what we call it as multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. And as per this report India has the highest number of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients in the world. So this is in brief about the findings of this India TB report 2019. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that this report is released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This statement is correct. It is released by the Central TB Division which comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Now look at the second statement. It tells that there is significant decrease in the number of tuberculosis cases compared to 2017. This statement is incorrect because we saw that there was an increase in the number of tuberculosis cases when compared to 2017 as per this report. Because if you see this report assessed for the year 2018 where there were 27 lakh cases this was a 16% increase when compared to 2017. So the second statement goes wrong. Now if the second statement is wrong you can eliminate options B and D. Now we need to know if the third statement is correct or not. The third statement tells that TB is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV. This statement is correct as we saw during our discussion. So here the correct answer is option C 1 and 3. So try to know the important findings of this India tuberculosis report from prelims point of view. Additionally just have an idea about the revised national tuberculosis control program. It is a centrally sponsored scheme which is implemented under the ages of national health mission. So India is taking great steps to eliminate tuberculosis by the year 2025 with the help of this RNTCP program. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about transgender persons Protection of Rights Act of 2019. First let us look at this act then we will look at the question. See the bill for this act was passed in both the houses of the parliament and the president gave his assent on 5th of December 2019. This transgender persons Protection of Rights Act 2019 provides for the protection of the rights of transgender persons and their welfare and other related matters. From this act what you need to know is have an idea about the definition of who is a transgender person. See a transgender person means a person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth and it includes the following categories of persons. Trans man or trans women, then persons with intersex variations, then gender queer persons and then persons who are having some socio-cultural identities like Kinna, Hijra, etc. So this is the definition of a transgender person. See this act prohibits discrimination against a transgender person on matters of educational services, then on matters of employment or occupation and then on matters of health care services, then on matters of access to goods and services and then if you see on the right of movement, right to property, etc. Now let us see some other important provisions of this act. This act recognizes the identity of transgender persons and it confers them a particular right. The right is a person can self-identify themselves if they are transgender person or not. Next if you see this act provides for the right of residence with parents and immediate family members to a transgender person. And next if you see this act provides for formulation of welfare schemes and programs for the education, social security and the health of transgender persons. And then if you see this act also provides for forming a national council for transgender persons. This national council shall advise, monitor and evaluate measures for the protection of the rights of the transgender persons. So these are some of the other important provisions of this Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act 2019. So we can expect that this act will make all the stakeholders responsive and accountable for upholding the principles that are underlying this act. And then it will also bring greater accountability on the part of the central government and the state governments and union territories administrations for issues concerning transgender persons. So these are some of the important points which you need to know from this act from Prillam's point of view. To know more about this act we request the viewers to have a look at 12 January 2020 the Hindu News Analysis. Now let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement. The first statement is the definition of a transgender person. It tells that this act defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender that was assigned at birth. Yes, this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this act aims for the establishment for national council for transgender persons to advise, monitor and evaluate measures for the protection of their rights. Yes, this statement is also correct. Now look at the third statement. It tells that this act also provides mandatory reservations for transgender persons in public educational institutions and public employment. This statement is wrong. Nowhere in the act the reservations related to transgender persons have been discussed. This act has in fact discussed only related to the welfare schemes and programs with regards to education and employment for the transgender persons. There is no mention of reservations. So the third statement goes wrong. Now we need to choose the correct statements. So the correct answer here is option A 1 and 2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about global tiger forum. This will check your knowledge about international conservation organizations. Now let us look in brief about this forum. See this global tiger forum is an intergovernmental body which was formed in the year 1993 based on the recommendations from an international symposium on tiger conservation which was held at New Delhi. Know that India is a founding member of this forum. This forum was established with members from willing countries who wish to embark on a global campaign to protect the tigers. The focus of this global tiger forum is to save the remaining five subspecies of tigers that are distributed over 13 tiger range countries of the world. See tiger range countries are those countries where the tiger can be found in wild that is not just in the protected areas. These countries include Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Bhutan, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, China, Malaysia, Russia, Nepal and Myanmar. So this is in brief about this global tiger forum. Now whenever you are studying global tiger forum don't confuse it with global tiger initiative. We saw that global tiger forum is an intergovernmental body whereas if you see this global tiger initiative is a global alliance of governments, international organizations, civil society, conservation and scientific communities and even the private sector. So this is the difference between global tiger forum and global tiger initiative. Now the aim of this global tiger initiative is to work together to save wild tigers from extinction. So initially the focus was on wild tigers. Later the scope was broadened to include snow leopards as well. This happened in the year 2013. The founding partners of this global tiger initiative include the World Bank then the global environment facility etc. And this global tiger initiative is led by the 13 tiger range countries which we just saw. So don't confuse the global tiger forum with global tiger initiative. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that global tiger forum is a global alliance of governments, international organizations, civil society, the conservation and scientific communities and the private sector to save wild tigers and snow leopards from extinction. This statement is incorrect as we just saw. This is about global tiger initiative not about global tiger forum because global tiger forum is an intergovernmental body. Now look at the second statement. It tells that India is a founding member of global tiger forum. Yes this statement is correct. So the correct answer to this question is option V2 only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now that we have seen about both these conservation organizations. Let us also look at one more conservation organization which is conservation assured tiger standards. See this conservation assured tiger standards is an accreditation scheme which encourages the tiger conservation areas to meet a set of standards and criteria which has been created by an international group of experts and protected area managers. This standards will basically assure effective and long-term tiger conservation. So the mission of this conservation assured tiger standards is to secure safe havens for wild tigers. The support group of this conservation assured tiger standards include your global tiger forum IUCN then the worldwide fund for nature UNDP and certain other environmental organizations. So basically these standards are a set of criteria which will allow the tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation. Currently if you see there are three sites which are conservation assured tiger standards approved. One is located in India. It is landstone forest division in the state of Uttarakhand. Apart from this there are two more sites in the world which are approved by this conservation assured tiger standards. One is Chitwan national park which is located in Nepal. And the third one is Sikotalan nature reserve which is located in Russia. Also know that this conservation assured tiger standards is an important part of T cross 2 which is the global goal to double the wild tiger numbers by the year 2022. So this is all about conservation assured tiger standards. If you see there was question in 2017 problems related to conservation of tigers the question was about M stripes which is related to maintenance of tiger reserves. So sometimes you will get questions about conservation and conservation related organizations. So the correct answer to this question is option B2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the global snow leopard and ecosystem protection program. First let us see in brief about snow leopard. See snow leopards live in the mountainous regions of central and southern Asia. In India if you see they are found in the large part of the western Himalayas. You can find them in the union territory of Ladakh then in the states of Himachal Pradesh Uttarakhand Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas. In Ladakh you can find in Hemis national park. In Himachal Pradesh you can find in the great Himalayan national park and you can find in Gangotri national park in Uttarakhand and then in Sikkim you can find at Kanchansonga national park and in Arunachal Pradesh you can find the snow leopards in Namdafa national park. See snow leopards are listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of threatened species and in sites it comes under appendix one and it is listed under schedule one of the wildlife protection act of 1972. So this is in brief about snow leopard. Now let us come to this GS LEP program that is the global snow leopard and ecosystem protection program. See this program seeks to address high mountain development issues using the conservation of the endangered snow leopard. See the snow leopard is a flagship species of the high mountain ecosystem. It is a good indicator species as it quickly reacts to habitat disturbance. So that is why it is called as flagship species. The successful conservation of the snow leopard requires sustainable long-term systemic solutions to the threats that are impacting the quality of the habitats. See this GS LEP is a range wide effort that unites range country governments non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations then local communities and the private sector. So all these different stakeholders will come together to conserve the snow leopards and their valuable high mountain ecosystems. See there are 12 snow leopard range countries which are members of this GS LEP. They are Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia and Russia. So all these countries are working together to identify and secure at least 20 snow leopard landscapes across the range of snow leopards by the year 2020. This initiative is called as Secure 20 by 2020. Here I have an idea that secure snow leopard landscapes are defined as those that contain at least 100 breeding age snow leopards conserved with the involvement of local communities and these landscapes should support adequate prey populations and these landscapes should also have functional connectivity to other snow leopard landscapes where some of the landscapes might even cross international boundaries. So such landscapes are called as secure snow leopard landscapes. Here another important fact that you need to know is the Bishkek declaration. See this declaration was adopted by all these 12 snow leopard range countries at Bishkek which is the capital of Kyrgyz Republic in the year 2013. This declaration acknowledged that the snow leopard is an irreplaceable symbol of the nation's cultural and natural heritage and an indicator of the health and sustainability of mountain ecosystems because we saw that the snow leopard is the flagship species. So all these 12 countries pledged to ensure that snow leopards and the people who live among them thrive in healthy ecosystems. So all these initiatives will contribute to the prosperity and well-being of all the 12 countries and the earth overall. Now let us come to India specific factors. See as back as in 2009 India had launched project snow leopard to arrest the decline of snow leopard in Indian high altitudes through conservation based on sound scientific plants in local support. And then if you see in 2019 the fourth session of the Steering Committee of the Range Countries of the GSLEP was held in New Delhi and apart from this if you see in 2019 India launched its first national protocol to count India's snow leopard population. So these are some of the India specific initiatives with regards to conserving snow leopard. If you remember in the previous question we just saw that under global tiger initiative one of the aim was also to conserve the snow leopards that is to save the snow leopards from extinction. So when you are studying about a particular animal which is of conservation importance try to know the relevant initiatives that are taken by governments or other public-private coalitions. So always try to relate and study the topics. This is in brief about this global snow leopard and ecosystem protection program. Now let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement it tells that the goal of this global snow leopard and ecosystem protection program is to secure the long term survival of the snow leopard in its natural ecosystem. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that India is a member of this program. This statement is also correct as we saw India is one of the 12 snow leopard range countries which is a member of this program. Now look at the third statement it tells that snow leopard is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List. This statement is incorrect because we saw that it is listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. So here the correct answer is option B1 and 2 only. Now it is not possible for you to remember the conservation status of all the animals. Try to list out the important animals like the big cats and other important animals of conservation importance like olive ridley turtles, rhinoceros etc. And try to know the assessment status under this IUCN Red List. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Gemini device. See this Gemini device was launched by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. See India already does weather forecast and issues weather advisories to fishermen but if you see they are disseminated through multiple communication modes and none of them could provide information like the disaster warnings. So there are some limitations in communicating disaster warnings and this limitation was particularly felt during the Okhi cyclone in the year 2017. The fisherman went out for deep sea fishing before the onset of the cyclone and they could not be informed about the developing cyclone and they were largely affected during this Okhi cyclone. So to overcome this difficulty the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services in short INCOIS collaborated with airport's authority of India to utilize Gagan Satellite System to transmit the disaster warnings to fishermen. See Gagan Satellite System is the acronym for GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation Satellite System. This system consists of three geosynchronous satellites which are GSAT 8, GSAT 10 and GSAT 15 and this satellite system covers the entire Indian Ocean 24x7. Now in order to receive messages that are transmitted through the Gagan Satellites, INCOIS and airport's authority of India have together developed this Gagan System Enabled Gemini. So this is in brief about this Gemini device. See this Gemini is the acronym for Gagan Enabled Mariner's Instrument for Navigation and Information. It is a portable receiver that is linked to Gagan Satellites as we saw. It is basically a box shaped receiver which will have an antenna and an inbuilt battery. The Gemini device receives and transfers the data that is received from Gagan Satellites to a mobile through Bluetooth communication. So for this purpose a mobile application has been developed by INCOIS. This mobile application will decode and display the information in nine regional languages. Now let us see the important purpose of using this Gemini. One is that it will provide seamless and effective dissemination of emergency information and communication on disaster warnings. And then if you see it will also provide information on potential phishing zones and then it will also provide ocean states forecasting which is nothing but the weather forecasting. It will provide the accurate state of the oceans. This includes forecasts on winds, waves, ocean currents, water temperature etc. So these are some of the important purpose of using Gemini. So this is all that you need to know about Gemini device. Now let us look in brief about this INCOIS. See INCOIS is also called SOINCOIS. It was established as an autonomous boarding year 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is a unit of the earth system science organization. And that is why it is called SOINCOIS. The mandate of this INCOIS is to provide the ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and also to the scientific community. The information is provided based on continuous observations of the ocean. So this is in brief about INCOIS. Now with this information in mind, let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the statements which are correct. Now look at the first statement. It tells that this Gemini device is a low cost device for ocean states forecast and mapping potential fishing zones. Yes, this statement is correct. One is weather forecasting and the next is mapping potential fishing zones and apart from this it will also be used for disseminating the emergency information and communication on disaster warnings. Now look at the second statement. It tells that it uses the Gagan satellite system to transmit disaster warnings to fishermen. Yes, this statement is also correct. The full form of Gemini is Gagan enabled Mariners instrument for navigation and information. So it will basically receive the information from Gagan satellite to transmit disaster warnings to fishermen. Now you can easily get confused when you see the first and the second statement. You will think that either one of the statement is correct because in the first statement we have told that ocean states forecast and mapping potential fishing zones. This statement is correct. The second statement is also correct. Why this system was developed was mainly to transmit the disaster warnings and apart from this it also does these two activities. So both the statements are correct here. Now look at the third statement. It tells that Gemini device is developed by the ministry of science and technology. This statement is wrong. This device has been jointly developed by the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services that is Inquoise and the airport's authority of India and it was launched by the ministry of earth sciences and this Inquoise functions under the ministry of earth sciences. So here the correct answer is option B1 and 2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Cape Town Agreement. It is related to fishing. See fishing at sea remains a hazardous occupation and this sector experiences a large number of fatalities every year. So the safety of fishermen and fishing vessels is very important and for protecting the maritime interests we have the international maritime organization. One of the mandates of this international maritime organization is the safety of fishermen and the fishing vessels. See in 1977 delegates from this international maritime organization adopted the first international treaty. This treaty was basically to address the safety of fishing vessels. So the delegates met at a place called Torremolinos in Spain and they came up with a follow-up protocol. This protocol was adopted in the year 1993. But if you see this 1993 Torremolinos protocol did not come into force due to a variety of technical and legal obstacles. Later if you see in 2012 Cape Town Agreement was adopted at Cape Town in South Africa. This Cape Town Agreement updates and amends a number of provisions of this 1993 Torremolinos protocol. See this Cape Town Agreement features mandatory safety measures for fishing vessels which are 24 meters in length and longer. So this agreement is seen as a key tool for combating illegal unreported and unregulated fishing. If this agreement enters into force then it is expected to improve the safety of life at sea for the fishers worldwide. Because if you see they are currently not covered by any global mandatory regime and so is the fishing vessels. So both the fishers and the fishing vessels safety are at stake. As of now there are international treaties for cargo and passenger ships only. But there is no global treaty for fishers and their fishing vessels. See it was agreed that this Cape Town Agreement will enter into force once a minimum of 22 states ratify the agreement. These states must have an aggregate of 3600 fishing vessels that are 24 meters in length and longer and which are operating on the high seas. But if you see as on 3rd April 2020 as per international maritime organization only 14 states have ratified so far. Now why this Cape Town Agreement was in use is because a three day ministerial conference which was co-hosted by the international maritime organization was held at Torremolinos in Spain. Now the main aim of this particular conference was to gather support to push forward the ratification and the subsequent entry into force of this Cape Town Agreement. And in this conference around 48 states committed to ratify this 2012 Cape Town Agreement. So now it is expected that this Cape Town Agreement will enter into force by 2022. Now always when you are studying about such agreements try to know if India is a signatory or if it has ratified that particular agreements or conventions. Now if you look at this Cape Town Agreement India is still not ratified as on 3rd April 2020. Now that we have seen about this international maritime organization know that this organization is the United Nations Specialized Agency which is responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships. So this is in brief about this Cape Town Agreement. Now remember this Cape Town Agreement with fishers and fishing vessels. So here the correct answer is option B to improve the safety of life at sea for fishers and fishing vessels worldwide. Now that we have seen about fishers and fishing vessels something related to fisheries also have an idea that in early 2019 a new department called as Department of Fisheries was created and this department comes under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Aspentry and Daring which is itself a newly formed ministry. So always try to know the relevant current affairs whenever you are studying about a particular keyword. Here the keyword is related to fisheries. So we saw Cape Town Agreement and we also saw the newly created department and ministry related to fisheries. So the correct answer here is option B. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about seagrass. First let us look at about seagrass. See seagrasses are marine flowering plants that resemble grass in appearance. They have leaves, flowers, roots like how a normal plant has. See they are often confused with seaweeds. Seaweeds are macroscopic algae but if you see the seagrasses are different from macroscopic algae as you can see in this picture. Sea grasses are the only group of higher plants that are adapted to life in the salt water. Sea grasses grow in salty and brackish waters around the world typically along gently sloping protected coastlines. Because they depend on light for photosynthesis the seagrasses are most commonly found in shallow depths where light levels are high. See seagrasses provide shelter and food to diverse group of animals from tiny invertebrates to large fish, crabs, turtles, marine mammals and birds. Usually if you see seagrasses are found in patches when they expand they are called as seagrass beds or seagrass meadows. Now let us look where seagrasses are found. They are found across the world from the tropics to the arctic except the continent of Antarctica. While most coastal regions are dominated by one or a few seagrass species the regions in the tropical waters of the Indian and western pacific oceans have the highest seagrass diversity. If you see as many as 14 species grow together in these regions as you can see in this picture. And if you take the case of India India has recorded 14 species of seagrass along its coasts. You can find seagrass beds along the western and eastern coasts of India and also in Lakshwadeep and Andaman and Nicobar islands. In Gulf of Manar along Tamil Nadu coast and in Lakshwadeep islands you can find the rich growth of seagrass beds. So this is all about seagrass that you need to know from exam point of view. Now let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the incorrect statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that seagrass grows along the shallow coastal waters only. Yes, this statement is correct. Whenever you get superlatives like only again reread the statement and make sure if it is correct or not because UPS is known for confusing the aspirants. Sometimes you do get statements like this where the superlative only is present and the statement is also correct. So reread the statement and make sure if it is correct or not. In this case it is a correct statement. Now look at the second statement. It tells that seagrass is present in tropical areas only. We just saw that seagrass is formed from tropical areas till Arctic except Antarctica continent. So the second statement goes wrong. Now look at the third statement. It tells that seagrass has a symbiotic relationship with coral polyps. This statement is incorrect because if you see coral polyps has symbiotic relationship with zoos anthillae. Corals are living animals whereas zoos anthillae are microscopic algae. So here the coral polyps does not have any kind of symbiotic relationship with the seagrass instead with zoos anthillae. So here the third statement is incorrect. Now you need to choose the incorrect statements. The correct answer here is option C 2 and 3 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Asian Regional Forum. See Asian Regional Forum is a group of 27 members. It includes 10 countries of Asian that is the countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, Lavo and Vietnam. So it includes these 10 Asian countries plus 17 other countries Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, North Korea, European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and the United States. Here out of these 17 members European Union is a regional grouping. Know that this Asian Regional Forum was formed in the year 1993 and one more thing to note here is that North Korea is also a part of this Asian Regional Forum. Now let us look at the objectives of this Asian Regional Forum. One objective is to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern between the member nations. And the next objective is to make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence building and preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region. So these are the objectives of Asian Regional Forum. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that the objective of Asian Regional Forum is to make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence building and preventive diplomacy in Asia-Pacific region. Yes, this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that it is a group of 16 countries which is also called as Asian plus six. This statement is wrong as we just saw. Asian Regional Forum is a group of 27 members. So here the correct answer is option A one only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now let us look also about some other Asian-led regional forums. First let us look at East Asia Summit. See it is a forum of 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It was formed to further the objectives of regional peace, security and prosperity. If you see this East Asia Summit was established in the year 2005 the membership consists of 10 Asian member states plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and USA. So Asian plus 8 countries. Know that this East Asia Summit is an initiative of Asian and it is based on the premise of the centrality of Asian. To know more about Asian we request the viewers to have a look at our 29th February the Hindu News Analysis. Now let us look at one more forum which is Asian plus 3. See it is a forum of 13 countries. As it indicates Asian 10 countries plus 3 more countries which are China, Japan and South Korea. This Asian plus 3 forum was launched in the year 1997. Then apart from this there is also Asian plus 6 group which comprises of this Asian plus 3 forum plus 3 more countries which are the countries of Australia, India and New Zealand. So remember the other Asian led regional forums as well in this context. Now what we have done is we have given you a table so that it will be easy for you to compare between these different Asian led regional forums. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Yam Harayali app. The question is Yam Harayali app recently launched by the government of India is related to. See four options are given. Let us look at each option one by one. Look at the first option it tells that this app is related to file compliance by the people regarding the issues they face in the railway. This is not the purpose of this Yam Harayali app. This option corresponds to Sahayatri app of Indian railways. It was launched by Indian railways. Now look at option B. This speaks about Himmat plus app. This app was launched to ensure the safety and security of people who are traveling in the caps in Delhi. This was launched by the Delhi police. Now look at option C. This option defines money app that is mobile aided note identifier app which was launched by the Reserve Bank of India. The purpose is to identify the denomination of the currency notes for visually impact people. So here the correct answer option D to encourage public engagement in planting trees in other such green drives. See this app was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Elevation. As we saw the aim of this app is to encourage public engagement in planting trees in other such related green drives. So what this app provides for the users. See people can now upload information or photos of any plantation that was done by them using this application. And this will be displayed on the official government website. If you see this app also provides for automatic geotagging of plants. Here try to know the term geotagging. It refers to the attaching of geographic coordinate information to images, video or other media recorded by smartphones or GPS enabled electronic devices. If you see geotagging is most commonly used for photographs and it can help people get a lot of specific information about where the picture was taken or the exact location of a friend who logged on to a service. Here for this purpose this geotagging will also enable nodal offices to periodically monitor the plantation. So this app is user friendly and it works on any android mobile phones. So this is the purpose of this M Harayali app. See in the Harayali means greenery. So you can also remember this way this app is related to encourage public in planting trees and related green drives. So the correct answer here is option why this app was in use is because this app was launched in the month of October 2019. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about two international initiatives. Let us see one by one now. First let us see about green growth knowledge platforms which is the first statement of this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now let us look in brief about this green growth knowledge platform. See for the past 250 years economic growth has come largely at the expense of the environment. The damage has reached a scale that it has started to threaten human welfare and the prospects for future growth and despite impressive gains that have been made in the past two decades to restore the environment still many basic needs remain unmet. Now this green growth knowledge platform is a global network of international organizations research institutes think tanks and experts which identifies and addresses major knowledge gaps in green growth theory and practice. So what is this green growth? It means fostering economic growth and development at the same time ensuring that the natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which the human's well-being relies. Simply to say it aims for sustainable development. So this green growth knowledge platform is basically to foster sustainable development. See it was established in January 2012 by the Global Green Growth Institute the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that is OECD and then the United Nations Environment Program and the World Bank. So this platform encourages widespread collaboration and world-class research to support the transition into a green economy. So green economy aims for an economy that would be low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive economy. So this is in brief about this green growth knowledge platform. In connection with this let us also look at one more international initiative which is United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative. See in 1992 when the Earth Summit happened at Rio de Janeiro a group of leaders envisaged that transforming private finance would be the key to achieving sustainable development. And this is how United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative in short UNEPFI came into being. See this Finance Initiative is a partnership between United Nations Environment Program and the global financial sector which consists of more than 300 members that include banks, insurers, investors and other supporting institutions. So all these members will tie up with United Nations Environment Program to mobilize private sector finance for sustainable development. It aims to help create a financial sector which will serve people and planet while delivering positive impacts. So the financial institutions will help in improving the people's quality of life without compromising that of the future generations. So by leveraging the UN's role this UNEPFI Initiative accelerates sustainable finance. Here know that Yes Bank from India which was recently in crisis is the only member from India in this UNEP Finance Initiative. Now with this information in mind look at this question look at the first statement it tells that the Green Growth Knowledge Platform aims for a green economy that would be low carbon resource efficient and socially inclusive. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative aims to transform private finance to achieve sustainable development. This statement is also correct so the correct answer here is option C both one and two. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about goal initiative. So what is this goal initiative? Goal stands for going online as leaders. Know that initially goal was started as a digitally enabled mentorship initiative of Facebook. The purpose was to empower the tribal youth of India especially the tribal girls to become leaders for tomorrow in their respective fields. So the aim of this goal project was identifying and mobilizing renowned people from industry such as policymakers and influencers who are known for their leadership skills or roles and these people will personally mentor the tribal youth from the tribal communities across multiple locations of India and digitally empowered them. So this is the main aim of this goal project. See this goal initiative has been designed to identify and attach at least one mentor who is expert in their respective fields to four tribal youth who will be trained and mentored by this mentor. Know that Facebook had started a pilot project on its own in the month of March 2019 across five states of India the states were Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra and at that point of time the Ministry of Tribal Affairs was not associated with the pilot project which was implemented by Facebook. Recently if you see the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs announced the second face of this goal initiative. So the aim of this second face of goal initiative is to inspire, guide and encourage the tribal girls from across India to become village level digital young leaders for their communities and the second face of the program will digitally mentor 5,000 young women in India's tribal dominated districts. For the second face the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has partnered with Niti Ayogan Facebook. So the second face of this program will include weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions that are focused on a range of skills such as digital literacy entrepreneurship and online safety. So in total that will be more than 2 lakh hearts of guidance which will be provided using Facebook family of applications including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. And following the program the participants will graduate to the goal alumni and they will continue to receive support and guidance from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Facebook. And for this program the Ministry of Tribal Affairs will also work with the district administration and other government agencies to help secure qualified participants with a fellowship so that they can put their newly learned skills to work. So this is in brief about this goal initiative. So remember it is basically a mentoring initiative by the union ministry of tribal affairs in partnership with Facebook and Niti Ayogan. With this background information in mind let us look at this question which is on goal initiative. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the statements that are not correct. Now look at the first statement it tells that this goal initiative aims at inspiring guiding and encouraging tribal girls from across India to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities. Yes, this statement is correct. Goal stands for going online as leaders. It is basically a mentoring program for the tribal girls across India which was initially started by Facebook and now it is being coordinated by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in association with Facebook and Niti Ayogan. So here the second statement goes wrong because it is not an initiative of the Ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship. Now we need to choose the statements that are not correct. The correct answer here is option B2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Amazon fund. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. First let us look at about this Amazon fund. Now why this question has been framed is to check your understanding about the climate change initiatives and the knowledge of the relevant current affairs. See this Amazon fund is a part of a Red Plus mechanism. This fund was created to raise donations to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. And if you see it also promotes the preservation and sustainable use in the Brazilian Amazon. If you see this Amazon fund is managed by the Brazilian Development Bank. So this is all about Amazon fund. Now look at this question. Look at the first statement. It tells that Amazon fund is created to raise donations for the efforts to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation. So yes, this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that Amazon fund is an UN managed fund under Red Plus mechanism. This statement is wrong as we just saw this fund is being managed by the Brazilian Development Bank. So here the correct answer is option A one only. Now that we have seen this Amazon fund is a part of Red Plus mechanism. Let us see in brief about Red and Red Plus initiatives. First let us look at about Red. See Red stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It is a global mechanism. This red mechanism incentivizes developing countries for protecting and preserving their forest reserves. Thereby it contributes to the global fight against climate change. In simpler terms the developing countries are given some benefits for protecting their forests. So by keeping the forests intact the carbon in the trees won't get released into atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and by doing this the climate change can be controlled. So this is about Red Initiative. Next if you look at Red Plus initiative it is a step ahead of this Red Initiative. While the Red Initiative incentivizes for protecting the existing forests the Red Plus initiative incentivizes for conservation and enhancement of forest reserves. See it is estimated that globally deforestation and forest degradation account for around 11 percentage of carbon dioxide emissions. So through this Red Plus initiative the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is removed and it is stored in biomass and soils and therefore it enhances the forests. See the Food and Agricultural Organization supports the developing countries in their Red Plus initiatives. See the following five Red Plus activities contribute to mitigation actions in the forest sector. One is reducing emissions from deforestation next reducing emissions from forest degradation next conservation of forest carbon stocks and then enhancement of forest carbon stocks and finally sustainable management of forests. So this is in brief about Red and Red Plus mechanism. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the global partnership on forest and landscape restoration. This topic was in news because the government has launched a flagship project on enhancing the capacity on forest landscape restoration. See the global partnership on forest and landscape restoration is a global network that unites governments organizations academic institutes research institutes communities and individuals. The goal is to restore the world's lost and degraded forests and their surrounding landscapes. See this global partnership responds directly to the bond challenge. Know that bond challenges a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land across the world into restoration by the year 2020 and around 350 million hectares by the year 2030. The bond challenge was launched in 2011 by Germany and IUCN that is the International Union for Conservation of Nature and then if you see it was later endorsed and extended to 2030 by the New York declaration on forests of the 2014 U1 Climate Summit. Whereas if you see this global partnership on forest and landscape restoration was initiated in 2003 and is spearheaded by IUCN. So in line with this the Indian government has launched a flagship project to enhance capacity on forest landscape restoration and bond challenge in India. See the project in pilot phase is implemented in the states of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Karnataka. Here the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the International Union for Conservation of Nature are working together on this project. If you see during the 2015 Paris Climate Summit India joined the voluntary bond challenge. At that time it pledged to bring into restoration 21 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by the year 2030. Later if you see at COP 14 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Decertification which was held at New Delhi the Prime Minister of India announced that it will restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by the year 2030. So now the goal is increased from 21 million hectares to 26 million hectares. To know more about this news we request the viewers to have a look at 10th September analysis. And to know more about the United Nations Convention to Combat Decertification we request the viewers to have a look at our 28th August 2019 the Hindu news analysis. So this is in brief about this global partnership on forest and landscape restoration. Now look at this question which of the following correctly describes the global partnership on forest and landscape restoration. Here the correct answer is option D a global network of governments, organizations academic research institutes communities and individuals to restore degraded forests. So know that it is a global network and is a public-private initiative. So try to remember this topic in this manner. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Angria Bank. See this topic was in news because it was found that coral reefs of India which are found in Gulf of Kutch, Lakshwadi, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman Islands as well as Angria Bank are under threat. Also if you see in December 2019 Wildlife Conservation Society, India and the Center for Marine Living Resources and Ecology surveyed this Angria Bank region. See Angria Bank is a submerged plateau which is situated around 105 kilometer offshore from the southern coast of Maharashtra. This Angria Bank supports a large extent of coral reefs and algal habitats and therefore it harbors a high diversity of associated flora and fauna. This unique ecosystem makes it among the last areas where there is marine diversity in the northern Indian ocean and know that coral reefs are listed under schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. So this is all that you need to know about Angria Bank. Here I just have an idea that Wildlife Conservation Society is an international NGO which is working for the conservation of wildlife and the Center for Marine Living Resources and Ecology is located at Kutchin. It functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. This center has been organizing, coordinating and promoting ocean development activities in India. So both these organizations surveyed this Angria Bank region in the month of December 2019. So this is all about Angria Bank. Now look at this question. The question is Angria Bank is a submerged plateau situated 105 kilometer offshore from the Indian coast. Which of the following coastal cities lie close to this Angria Bank? We saw that it is located near to the coast of Maharashtra. So here the ideal answer is Option D, Mumbai. Because if you see Tiruvannanda Puram is located down south on the western coast and Vishaka Patnam is located on the eastern coast of India and Port Blair is located in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. So here the correct answer is Option D, Mumbai. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the ocean cleanup. See the ocean cleanup is a non-profit NGO which was founded in the year 2013. It is headquartered at Rotterdam in Netherlands. See this NGO is developing advanced technologies to get rid of the world's oceans out of plastic. So this NGO is basically designing and developing cleanup systems to clean up what is already polluting our oceans and to intercept plastic on its way to ocean via rivers. So what this NGO does is that it will create new cleanup prototypes. Now why this NGO was in news in the month of October but because the latest ocean cleanup prototype system of this NGO which is named as System 001B is successfully capturing and collecting plastic debris from the Great Pacific garbage patch. Now we need to know how plastic in ocean waters is dangerous. When plastics enter a gyre they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller micro plastics. Now if you see the marine organisms mistake these micro plastics as their food and when these marine organisms consume these micro plastics bio accumulation happens within the body of marine organisms and later bio magnification happens. So through bio accumulation and bio magnification the plastics enter marine organisms lives and it causes different diseases in them. So this is how plastic in ocean waters is dangerous to the life of marine organisms. So this initiative by the ocean cleanup will help in getting rid of the plastics from the oceans. Now we saw that it was in news because a new prototype is running successfully in the Great Pacific garbage patch. Now if you see this Great Pacific garbage patch is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world's oceans. This patch is located between Hawaii and California. See it is a gyre that is a spiral or a vortex of marine debris particles in the North Central Pacific Ocean. Gyre is basically any large system of circulating ocean currents particularly those involved with large wind movements. So the ocean cleanup is working to clean this Great Pacific garbage patch. So this is all about the ocean cleanup and its initiative to clean the oceans. Now look at this question it is a two statement question and you need to choose the statements which are not correct. Now look at the first statement it tells that the objective of this ocean cleanup is to develop advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that ocean cleanup is an intergovernmental body formed under the auspices of the international maritime organization. This statement is wrong as we saw this ocean cleanup is a non-profit NGO which is based out of Netherlands. Now we need to choose those statements which are not correct. So the correct answer to this question is option B 2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about CERN. Now why this topic was in news because the large Hadron Collider of CERN was in recent news. Now what is this CERN? It is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Currently if you see CERN has 23 member states seven countries including India and Pakistan are associate members. See the physicists and the engineers at CERN use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter which are the fundamental particles. The subatomic particles are made to collide together close to the speed of light and this process will give us clues about how the particles interact and it will also provide insights into the fundamental loss of nature. See some of the instruments used at CERN are purpose-built particle accelerators and detectors. What accelerators do is that they boost beams of particles to high energies before the beams are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. And there will be detectors which will observe and record the results of these collisions. So the accelerators and detectors have been built for this purpose. As told earlier this CERN has large headron collider. This large headron collider is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator which is located at France, Switzerland border. This collider uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles. To nearly the speed of light and to contain them in well-defined beams. The particles are then made to collide and the observations are made. So the aim of the large headron collider of this CERN is to study particle physics and to understand the fundamental materials or the fundamental elements of the universe. In recent years if you see CERN announced the discovery of Higgs bosons this was a major achievement of CERN. But if you see the capabilities of this large headron collider is very limited. So an upgrade was proposed to increase the luminosity of this large headron collider. Here luminosity means the rate of emission of radiation. See this luminosity is an important indicator of the performance of this accelerator LHC. The higher the luminosity more data can be gathered from the experiments. So this will give an opportunity to observe the rare processes more frequently. So this upgrade is of quite significance. So this project is called as high-lumine project or high luminosity large headron collider project. The aim of this project is to increase the performance of this large headron collider. Now from this timeline you can see that the installation will start around 2025 and it is expected to be commissioned by the year 2027. This is in brief about this high-lumine or the high-luminosity large headron collider. Now with this information in mind about CERN on high-lumine let us look at this question. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now look at the first statement it tells that CERN is an European Nuclear Research Organization which operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that recently the CERN's large headron collider has been upgraded to high-lumine. This statement is wrong because it is still under process it is expected to be commissioned that is upgraded by the year 2027. Now look at the third statement it tells that India is a founding member of CERN. This statement is also wrong. India is not a founding member it is in fact not even a full member just an associate member. So remember this fact. Now we need to choose the correct statement or statements from this question. The correct answer here is option A 1 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about particularly vulnerable tribal groups. Now why we have chosen this topic is because Monkey Deer tribes which are a particularly vulnerable tribal group were denied habitat rights in Simli Pearl Tiger Reserve in the state of Odisha. So in this context let us look in brief about this particularly vulnerable tribal group. See particularly vulnerable tribal groups are the tribal groups which are primitive, underdeveloped and vulnerable. There is a criteria to identify particularly vulnerable tribal groups amongst the tribal groups of India. There are four criteria one is that that particular tribal group should have a pre-agricultural level of technology that is primitive agricultural technology and then they should have a low level of literacy and then there should be economic backwardness amongst the community and then there shall be a declining or stagnant population. So if all these criteria are met then a particular tribal group will be listed as a particularly vulnerable tribal group by the Ministry of Home Affairs. So so far if you see the Ministry of Home Affairs as categorized 75 tribal groups as particularly vulnerable tribal groups these 75 tribal groups are present in 18 states and in one union territory which is Andaman and Nicobar islands. So how this particularly vulnerable tribal group classification came up? In 1973 Debar commission created primitive tribal groups as a separate category who are less developed among the tribal groups. Later it was renamed as particularly vulnerable tribal groups. See these particularly vulnerable tribal groups have some basic characteristics as we saw they are mostly homogenous with a small population then they are relatively physically isolated and then the social institutes are cast in a simple mold and there is an absence of written language there is relatively simple technology and a slower rate of change and such other characteristics. Now if you see out of the 75 tribal groups 13 tribal groups are located in the state of Odisha this is followed by the combined states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where 12 particularly vulnerable tribal groups reside. Now recently if you see Monkidia which is a particularly vulnerable tribal group in Odisha has been denied habitat rights in Simli Pearl Tiger Reserve. Generally under forest rights act of 2006 the tribes are given land rights in forests and protected areas but due to objections from the forest department of Odisha the Monkidia tribes were denied the land rights. So this is the news about Monkidia tribes see it is difficult as an aspirant to remember all the names of particularly vulnerable tribal groups. Now what we recommend is that try to have an idea about those particularly vulnerable tribal groups which are seen in news or those tribal groups which frequently appear in the news. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement it tells that Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of particularly vulnerable tribal groups. This statement is incorrect. Now look at the second statement it tells that Monkidia tribe is a particularly vulnerable tribal group in Odisha. Yes this statement is correct. So here you need to choose the correct statement or statements. The correct answer here is option B only the second statement is correct here. If you see in 2019 UPSC prelims there was a question on particularly vulnerable tribal groups. Always do not have an idea that if a question has been asked in a particular prelims exam it won't appear in the subsequent exams. Some potential topics reappear in some other format. Now from this topic try to have an idea about Monkidia tribes. Now let us move on to the next question. See this question is about Paris climate agreement and Talanova dialogue. In this topic you'll get to know about one of the climate change convention which is an important convention and the associated current affairs. See Paris agreement or the 2015 Paris climate agreement is a landmark agreement to combat climate change. This agreement aims to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments that are needed for a sustainable low carbon future. So it brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change. The central aim of this agreement is to limit the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degree Celsius. Now one important fact to remember in this 2015 Paris climate agreement is that the nationally determined contributions. This agreement requires all the member parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions. It also proposes to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. If you see this agreement also includes requirements that all parties shall report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts. See this agreement was signed in the 21st Conference of Parties that is COP 21 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in short UNFCCC. See this convention was adopted in Earth Summit which was held in the year 1992. It is the first multilateral legal instrument on climate change. This convention entered into force in the year 1994. Today if you see it as near universal membership 197 countries have ratified this convention. So all these countries are parties to the convention. The ultimate aim of this convention is preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system. See we saw that this UNFCCC was adopted at Earth Summit which was held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the year 1992. So it is also called as Rio Convention. The sister Rio conventions are UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Decertification in short UNCCD. If you remember we have covered this convention on biological diversity in short CBD in our August 2019 series. So this is in brief about the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the related UNFCCC convention. Now let us see about Talanova Dialogue. See this Talanova Dialogue came up in the 23rd Conference of Parties that is COP 23 in the year 2017. See Talanova is a traditional word which is used in Fiji and across the Pacific to reflect the process of inclusive participatory and transparent dialogue. Basically it is to facilitate dialogue. So this Talanova Dialogue is a process that has been designed to help countries implement and enhance their nationally determined contributions. This process will involve sharing of ideas, skills and experience through storytelling. See this Talanova Dialogue began in January 2018 shortly after the 2017 COP and it concluded in the 2018 COP which was held at Katowice in Poland. If you see the president of COP 23 was Fiji. So at the end of the Talanova Dialogue the presidents of COP 23 and COP 24 called for action to all the parties to increase their climate pledges fivefold. But if you see this was not accepted in the end. The final text simply invited the countries to consider the outcomes of Talanova Dialogue. So we can tell that this Talanova Dialogue was not much of a success. Now this is in brief about the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and about Talanova Dialogue. Now look at this question which is on Paris Climate Agreement. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement. It speaks about the objective of this agreement. This statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the participating countries accepted to achieve the emission limits put forward by G20. This statement is wrong because Paris Climate Agreement is related to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which has a near universal membership. So this statement goes wrong. Now look at the third statement. It tells that Talanova Dialogue is related to this agreement. Yes this statement is correct. Now we need to choose the correct statements. Here the correct answer is option C 1 and 3 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the program Forest Plus version 2. We will see in brief about this program before we look at this question. If you see one in four people in India depend directly on forests for their sustenance. However more than 40% of India's forests are degraded and this impacts the flow of forest goods and services that are critical for the inclusive economic growth of the people. Despite the importance of these ecosystems India's forests are still managed primarily for timber in order to improve the management of forests and other landscapes to strengthen their ecological health and to improve the livelihoods of the forest dependent populations in India. The Union Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change has tied up with USAID that is the United States Agency for International Development and certain civil society organizations. So together the Union Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change and this USAID launched forest plus version 1 program in 2012. If you see this version 1 program focused on capacity building to help India participate in the Red Plus initiative nothing but reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. So this version 1 program of forest plus included four pilot projects in four different states in the state of Sikkim then in the state of Himachal Pradesh at Trampur then in Karnataka Chivamoga and then in the state of Madhya Pradesh at Hoshanga Bath. So this version 1 program happened for five years from 2012 to 2017. Now our topic today the forest plus version 2 is the second set of pilot projects which is to be built on the success of the forest plus version 1 program. Now this version 2 program is also a five year program which was initiated in December 2018 but if you see it was officially launched in the month of September 2019 and that is why this program has appeared in news articles. So this forest plus version 2 forest for water and prosperity has been jointly launched by USAID and the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. Now see under this joint program USAID will provide technical assistance to Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change to improve the management of forested landscapes across three different states which we will see later. So this program will focus on developing tools and techniques to strengthen ecosystem based management and the inclusion of ecosystem services in forest landscape management and also this program will focus to enhance the inclusive economic opportunities that emerge from improved landscape management. So this is the main focus of this forest plus version 2 program as we just saw this program comprises pilot project in three different landscapes across three different states. One landscape is Gaya which is located in the state of Bihar this Gaya is a forest deficit area whereas if you see the second one is Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala this area is rich in biodiversity and the third landscape is Medak in the state of Telangana if you see Telangana is a relatively drier area where there is ample scope for community livelihood enhancement. So for this version 2 project three different landscapes from three different states have been chosen. So this is in brief about this forest plus version 2 which has been jointly launched by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change along with USAID nothing but the United States Agency for International Development. So now you yourself can answer this question the correct answer here is option B USAID that is the US Agency for International Development. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the next generation gene sequencing techniques whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing. Today there are two most modern methods which uses the latest technologies for rapid sequencing of large amounts of DNA. They are whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing. These approaches are known as next generation sequencing and they are widely used in healthcare and research to identify genetic variations. Know that genome of a person is nothing but the complete set of genes. Genes of an organism is made up of DNAs that is deoxyribonucleic acids and genome sequencing is figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides or the basis in a genome that is the order of adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine which makes up the organisms DNA. So it can determine variations in any part of the genome. When this genome of an individual is studied and arranged in a sequential order it is called as whole genome sequencing. Now let us understand an exome. Know that several pieces of an individual's DNA provide instructions for making proteins. These pieces are called as exons. Together they make up just one percent of a person's genome. Together all the exons in a genome is known as the exome and the method of sequencing them is known as whole exome sequencing. Now various research studies say that most known mutations that cause disease occur in exons. So whole exome sequencing allows us to identify the variations in the protein coding regions or exons. Hence whole exome sequencing is an efficient method to identify possible disease causing mutations. But if you see there are limitations to this because researchers have found that DNA variations outside the exons can also affect gene activity and protein production and this can also lead to genetic disorders. So whole exome sequencing which focuses only on exons would miss this. Hence ideally to know which genes of a person's DNA are mutated that is those genes which cause diseases the genome has to be mapped in its entirety. So whole genome sequencing is the actual key. So this is in brief about the two next generation gene sequencing techniques whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing. Now with this information in mind look at this question. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that an exome collectively represents an individual's DNA which provides instructions for making proteins. Yes, this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that whole exome sequencing is capable to identify the disease causing mutations that occur outside exons. See we saw that whole exome sequencing is the method of sequencing the exomes. Exomes are nothing but all the exons in a genome. The exons make up just one percentage of a person's genome and this whole exome sequencing will focus only on sequencing the exomes. That is it can identify the disease causing mutations that occur in exons only not outside exons. So the second statement goes wrong. Now you need to choose the correct statement or statements. The correct answer here is option A one only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about genome India project. Now let us look in brief about this project. See it is a gene mapping project which has been launched by Department of Biotechnology which comes under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The aim of this project is to build a grid of the Indian reference genome. This reference genome helps to understand the type of nature of diseases that are normally caused in India. So how this reference genome would be built is by doing whole genome sequencing. So what is a genome? It is nothing but all the genetic matter that is present in an organism. It is an organism's complete set of DNA including all its genes. In humans a copy of the entire genome contains more than 3 billion DNA base pairs. When this genome of an individual is studied and arranged in a sequential order it is called as whole genome sequencing. Now the aim of this genome India project is to perform whole genome sequencing for 10,000 individuals who represent India's diverse population. So this is in brief about this genome India project. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. Genome India project recently seen news is here the correct answer is option B, a gene mapping project recently launched by Department of Biotechnology to build a grid of the Indian reference genome. Now you can look at option A a part of international human genome project. Now let us look at this human genome project in brief. See it is an international program that led to decoding of the entire human genome. It was the first time a whole human genome sequencing was done anywhere in the world. See it was a 13-year project which happened from 1990 till 2003 and it was coordinated by U.S., Japan, France, Germany and China. The goal of this human genome project was complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings. However if you see this human genome project had a major drawback because most of the genomes that were sourced were from urban middle class. So it failed to form a global reference genome. So this is in brief about international human genome project. Now look at option C. This project is nothing but the indigent project which we discussed in our September month current affairs. We request our viewers to have a look at our September month current affairs where we have discussed about this indigent project or indigent program in detail which was initiated by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Now look at option D. India's component of larger genome Asia 100K project. See this genome Asia 100K is a non-profit consortium. It is collaborating to sequence and analyze one lakh Asian individuals genomes. This helps to accelerate Asian population specific medical advances in precision medicine. So the target here is the Asian population and the data from this genome Asia 100K will be made available to public. The first stage aims to sequence 10,000 Asian individuals for ethnic stratification and this would be followed by sequencing an additional 90,000 individuals in the later stages. So this is in brief about genome Asia 100K project. So here the correct answer is option B a gene mapping project recently launched by Department of Biotechnology to build a grid of the Indian reference genome. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management. See this declaration is an outcome of the two-day event which was hosted by Sri Lanka in October 2019. So this is the reason why we are seeing this topic now. During this two-day event which was hosted by Sri Lanka with support from the United Nations Environment Program, the Colombo Declaration was adopted. The aim of this declaration is to halve nitrogen waste by the year 2030. As a part of this declaration, the environment ministers and officials representing the governments of more than 30 countries endorse the United Nations plan for a campaign on sustainable nitrogen management called nitrogen for life. See this plan stems from the Sustainable Nitrogen Management Resolution which was adopted during the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly which was held at the headquarters of United Nations Environment Program Nairobi, Kenya in the year 2019. Note that this Colombo Declaration has been developed with the technical support of the International Nitrogen Management System. It is a joint activity of the United Nations Environment Program and the International Nitrogen Initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility. See this declaration calls upon the United Nations agencies, other international organizations, then development partners, philanthropic agencies, then academic and civil society organizations to support its implementation. And if you see it also urges countries to conduct a comprehensive assessment on nitrogen cycling covering policy, its implementation, regulations and the scientific aspects at a national level. And then this declaration also urges to sensitize the citizens to understand the natural nitrogen cycle and how human impacts alter the balance of this natural nitrogen cycle. So what is nitrogen pollution? We know that nitrogen is essential to all life on earth because it forms an important component of lifebuilding and propagating biochemical molecules like proteins. But if you see over usage of nitrogen and agriculture in the form of fertilizers and other fields have made this important element more unfriendly rather than being friendly. See a 2019 report which was released by the United Nations Environment Assembly highlights that the growing demand on the livestock, agriculture, transport, industry and energy sector has led to a sharp growth of the levels of reactive nitrogen that is ammonia, nitrate, nitric oxide, nitrous oxide in our ecosystems. Some of these forms of nitrogen like the nitrous oxide can have far reaching impacts for humanity because if you see the nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas when compared to carbon dioxide. And certain other reports claim that the total annual cost of nitrogen pollution to the ecosystem on the healthcare services in the world is approximately around $340 billion. So you can see that nitrogen pollution is affecting the world and it is also a reason for climate change. So this Colombo declaration will focus on sustainable nitrogen management. So this is in brief about this Colombo declaration. Now look at this question. You can arrive at the answer which is option B, sustainable nitrogen management by having nitrogen waste by the year 2030. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the faith for earth initiative. See mobilizing partnerships is an important means for the implementation of 2030 sustainable development goals. This can only be achieved by engaging and partnering with various stakeholders from all walks of life. And these stakeholders build on the cultural diversity which is the fourth dimension of sustainable development apart from the other three dimensions environmental, economical and institutional aspects. Now when we tell cultural diversity it also includes various faiths and the organizations associated with various faiths. So what can faith organizations do that others cannot? Can these faith organizations that is the institutions of the world's religions make any difference? Just think about it. For example if your community or your political representative suggested about planting a tree. At the same time the leader of whichever faith you follow is suggesting some other thing. So which one would you more likely follow? The answer is yours. We are not here for a debate just to give an idea what majority of the population will think. Now if you see for more than 80 percentage of the people living on earth their spiritual values have been driving their behaviors. This is a fact and one more fact is that there are an estimated 37 million churches around 3.6 million mosques and around 20,000 synagogues and countless other temples and houses of worship across the world. So engagement with religious leaders and spiritual leaders and institutions have an enormous impact from the level of local communities to the global level. So what United Nations environment program did was it launched the faith for earth initiative in November 2017. See the aim of this initiative is to strategically engage with faith-based organizations and partner with them to collectively achieve the sustainable development goals and to fulfill the objectives of the 2030 agenda. So here you can link the sustainable development goal number 17 partnerships for the goals which is very much relevant related to this faith for earth initiative. See this initiative has three main goals first is to inspire and empower faith organizations and their leaders to advocate for protecting the environment. The second goal is to invest and promote green faith-based organizations operations and assets to support the implementation of sustainable development goals and the third goal is to provide these faith-based organizations with knowledge and networks to enable their leaders to effectively communicate with the decision makers and the public. So some of the other relevant sustainable development goals to which this initiative can be linked is given you for your reference. Now again why these faith-based organizations have been focused by the United Nations environment program is because their reach is massive especially at the local levels. So it is easy to engage with the people and have an organizational drive to contribute towards protecting the environment. So this is the reason why the United Nations environment program has launched this initiative. Now with this information in mind you can easily arrive at the answer for this question which is option A United Nations Environment Program. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the reports and the organizations publishing those reports. You need to choose the correctly matched pair or pairs here. First let us look at the first pair the State of the World Children World Health Organization. This pair is wrong because know that the State of the World Children is an annual report which is published by the United Nations Children's Fund. It is the flagship publication of this organization. See this report is UNICEF's most comprehensive report on children food and nutrition in 20 years. This report analyzes the global state of children's health with regard to malnutrition, obesity, anemia and other health issues. Now let us see some of the key findings of this report. It says that at global level one in three children under the age of five years is malnourished that is stunted, wasted or overweight. So this puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and in many cases death. So the triple burden of malnutrition that is under nutrition, hidden anger and overweight threatens the survival, growth and development of children, the young people, economies and nations. For example, iron deficiency which is a form of hidden anger reduces children's ability to learn and it increases women's risk of death during or shortly after childbirth. Then if you see this report also says that in India every second child is affected by some form of malnutrition. Around 35% of Indian children suffer from stunting due to lack of nutrition. 17% suffer from wasting, 33% are underweight and 2% are overweight. Stunting means low height for their age and wasting means low weight for height. If you see among the countries in South Asia, India fares the worst because around 54% age of children who are under 5 are either stunted, wasted or overweight. And then this report also adds that poverty, urbanization as well as climate change are some of the factors that are driving poor diet in children. So these are some of the major findings of this report. Know that the state of world's children is released by UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund. Now look at the second pair, Global Hunger Index, United Nations Children's Fund. This pair is wrong. Know that Global Hunger Index is an annual publication that is jointly prepared by Concern Worldwide which is an Irish agency and by Welthunger Life which is a German organization. This report is based on four indicators which are undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Now let us see some key findings with respect to India. If you see India was ranked at 102nd position out of 117 countries. India's child wasting rate was extremely high at 20.8% which is the highest for any country. The share of wasting among children in India increased from the time period 2008-12 to the time period 2014-18 from 16.5% to 20.8%. If you see India has shown an improvement in other indicators which includes under five mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children and the prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food. So these are some of the key findings of this Global Hunger Index. So here the second pair is wrong. It is not UNICEF but by concern worldwide and World Hunger Life. Now look at the third pair Global Nutrition Report Food and Agriculture Organization. If you remember in our September 2019 problem series discussion we have discussed this. This report is produced by an independent expert group of the Global Nutrition Report and World Health Organization. And the World Health Organization is a Global Nutrition Report partner. So it is not Food and Agriculture Organization so all the three pairs are incorrect here. Now you need to choose the pairs that are correctly matched so the correct answer here is option D, none of the above. So through this question we have seen three reports and the organizations which publishes those reports. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Nobel Prize. The question is the Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 has been awarded to which of the following discoveries or inventions theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology, development of lithium ion batteries, discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar type star, groundbreaking inventions in a field of laser physics. Here you can eliminate development of lithium ion batteries it is related to chemistry. So here you can eliminate option D. Know that the Nobel Prize for Physics 2019 has been awarded to cosmology and exoplanet researchers. The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded annually by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. See the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Canadian American cosmologist James Peebles and to two of Swiss scientists Michael Mayeron Didier Quellos. James Peebles received the Nobel Prize for revealing the wonder of the evolution of the universe whereas the Swiss scientists received Nobel for discovering planets that are orbiting distant suns. So this year's Nobel Prize rewards new understanding of the universe's structure and history and the first discovery of a planet that is orbiting a solar type star outside a solar system. Now let us see in brief about these two discoveries. First let us see about James Peebles discovery which is the theoretical discovery in physical cosmology. See James Peebles developed a theoretical framework about the cosmos and its billions of galaxies and galaxy clusters since mid 1960s. He tells that the universe was in a hot and dense state and 14 million years ago there was a big bang and then it started expanding and cooling down. Four lakh years later the first rays of light traveled through space. These rays still exist in the cosmos. James Peebles interpreted the first rays and showed that in universe just five percentage of the content is known matter that is the matter which constitutes stars, planets, trees and us that is the human beings. The rest 95% is unknown dark matter and dark energy. So his insights has turned cosmology from speculation to a science sparking for the research in the future. Know that the dark matter is the force that holds together galaxies. It helps the universe is increasingly rapid and constant expansion. Next let us see the discovery of the two Swiss scientists Michael Mayeron, Didier Kallos which is the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar type star. They discovered 51 Pegasi B in October 1995. See it was the first discovery of an exoplanet. When we tell exoplanet it means the planet outside our solar system which is orbiting a solar type star in our home galaxy the Milky Way. Now the discovery of this exoplanet 51 Pegasi B started a revolution in astronomy. It is a gaseous ball as big as Jupiter. So far 4000 exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way Galaxy. So these are the two discoveries which were awarded Nobel prize for physics in 2019. So here the correct answer is option B1 and 3 only. The groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics received Nobel prize for physics in 2018. So 4 can be eliminated here and we have already eliminated 2. So the correct answer is 1 and 3 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the schedule casts and schedule tribes prevention of atrocities act 1989. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. See the schedule casts and the schedule tribes are the most marginalized sections of Indian society. Many atrocities have been committed against them for a long time and after independence there was a strong resolve to abolish the practice of untouchability and so we have article 17 of Indian constitution which abolishes the practice of untouchability. But if you see there was still a lot of ineffectiveness in implementing this constitutional mandate and so the schedule cast and schedule tribe prevention of atrocities act of 1989 came into existence. Now if you see major verdict was passed on this act in the month of March 2018. In this verdict the supreme court placed certain guidelines to prevent the misuse of this act. It prevented the automatic arrest on the complaint filed under the act. Now why supreme court gave such a judgment was it told that the innocence cannot be terrorized by the provisions of this act and their fundamental rights need to be protected and the court also said that the public servants could be arrested only with the written permission of their appointing authority while in case of private employees the senior superintendent of police concern should allow it. But if you see this judgment led to political uproar among most of the schedule cast and schedule tribe outfits they alleged that it did not defend their rights. So the central government moved a petition in the supreme court seeking a review of its 2018 judgment telling that forbidding an arrest without prior permission is against the spirit of the constitution. The government also stated that there had been no decrease in the atrocities committed on SCST people despite laws that are present and which are meant to protect their civil rights. So what central government did was it subsequently amended the 1989 act back to its original form. So what are those amendments made by the 2018 act to the original act? See it inserted three new clauses under section 18A of the 1989 act. The first amendment is that a preliminary inquiry shall not be required for the registration of a first information report against any person. The second amendment which was made was that the arrest of a person accused of having committed an offense under the act would not require any approval. And the third amendment says that the provisions of section 438 of the criminal procedure court which deals with anticipatory bail shall not apply to a case under this act notwithstanding any judgment or any order of any court. So these are the three major amendments made in 2018 to this 1989 act. Now with this information let us look at this question. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Here all the three statements are correct. There would be an immediate arrest on any complaint filed under this law. The investigating officer shall not require the approval of any authority for the arrest of an accused and there is no anticipatory bail which could be granted to the accused in offense lodged under this law. So the correct answer to this question is option D 1, 2 and 3. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about graded response action plan. The question is the graded response action plan which was recently news is closely associated with. Here the correct answer is option C controlling the air pollution in Delhi. See the air quality situation in the national capital territory of Delhi in winter deteriorates mainly due to adverse meteorological conditions like low wind speed and because of stubble burning which is happening in the neighboring states. So all these events lead to the spike in air pollution in Delhi. Here know that the graded response action plan was notified on 12th of January 2017. The aim is to prevent control and obey the air pollution in Delhi and in the national capital region. Know that this graded response action plan in short GRAP is an emergency plan. This plan was formulated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2016 and it was approved by the Supreme Court in 2016 itself. Later if you see it was notified in 2017 by the Central Government. So under this GRAP various measures depending on the pollution level will be taken by the competent authorities. As you can see in this table if the pollution level is either moderate or poor certain set of actions will be taken and when it goes to very poor some other actions will be taken like stopping the use of diesel generator sets enhancing parking fees etc. For severe you have certain action plans and for emergency category you have certain other action plans. So this is what is meant by graded response action plan based on the category or the grade the action plans will be taken by the competent authorities. This is the crux of this graded response action plan. When you are studying about graded response action plan also know about National Air Quality Indexing Brief know that it has been developed by the Central Pollution Control Board to inform people about the level of eight pollutants in their cities. The eight pollutants are particulate matter 2.5 particulate matter 10 ammonia lead nitrogen oxides sulphur dioxide ozone and carbon monoxide. So this is all that you need to know about this graded response action plan in brief. So the correct answer to this question is option C controlling the air pollution in Delhi. Now let us move on to the next question. See this question is about Suman scheme Surakshit Mathritva Ashwasan. Surakshit means safety Mathritva is related to maternity and Ashwasan means assurance. So try to remember the meanings of the names of the schemes in English so that it will be easy for you to relate with its objective. See this scheme is basically to provide quality health care at zero cost to pregnant women new mothers and newborns. It aims to provide dignified and quality health care at no cost to every woman and newborn visiting a public health facility. Know that this scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Under this scheme the beneficiaries visiting the public health facilities are entitled to several free services. These include at least four antenatal checkups that also include one checkup during the first trimester. Then at least one checkup under Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Mathritva Abhyan then iron folic acid supplementation then tetanus diphtheria injection. So who are eligible under this Suman scheme? All pregnant women, newborns and mothers up to six months of delivery will be able to avail several free health care services under this scheme. Now let us see some of the important provisions of the scheme. The scheme will enable zero expense access to the identification and management of complications during and after the pregnancy. Then the government will also provide free transport to pregnant women from home to the health facility and drop back after discharge. Then the scheme will also ensure that there is zero tolerance for denial of health care services to such patients. Now this scheme aims to bring down the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate in India and to stop all preventable maternal and newborn deaths. If you see as of time period 2015-17 the maternal mortality rate in India stands at 122 per 1 lakh life births. See the national health policy of 2017 aims to bring this maternal mortality rate to 100 per 1 lakh life births and the sustainable development goal target for maternal mortality rate is less than 70 per 1 lakh life births. So this scheme aims to bring down the maternal mortality rate. So this is in brief about this scheme. Now look at this question. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that under the Suman scheme that is Surakshit Matrithwa Ashvasan pregnant women mothers up to six months after delivery and all sick new bonds will be able to avail free health care benefits. This statement is correct. Look at the second statement. It tells that this scheme has been launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This statement is also correct. So the correct answer to this question is option C both 1 and 2. This question is about Serengeti National Park. Now let us look at about this national park. Know that this national park is not located in India but it is located in the country of Tanzania in African continent. This national park consists of more than 1.5 million hectares of Savannah. This park is world famous for the annual migration of 2 million wild beasts plus hundreds and thousands of gassels and zebras. If you see these animals migrate annually in search of pasture and water and the biological diversity of this national park is very high. It is home to at least four globally threatened or endangered animal species like black rhinoceros, elephant, wild dog and cheetah. And this park is also included in UNESCO's World Natural Heritage Sites list. As you can see in this map this national park is located close to Lake Victoria. This Lake Victoria spreads across three countries Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. Now with this information in mind you can easily answer this question. Look at the question. This national park located close to Lake Victoria and Africa mainly comprises of Savannah grasslands. It is home to black rhinoceros. This national park is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO which of the following national park is being described in the above passage. Four national parks are given. You know the answer. The correct answer here is option D, Serengeti National Park. Now it is not possible for you to remember all the national parks across the world or for that sake even across India but try to know some of the important national parks. Here you can see Yellowstone National Park is located in USA whereas Jim Corbett is located in India and Valley of Flowers is also located in the state of Uttarakhand in India. If you see there was a question on this Valley of Flowers National Park in 2019 UPSC prelims. So try to have an idea about the important national parks as and when you come across in the newspapers. So here the correct answer is option D, Serengeti National Park. Now we saw that this national park consists of more than 1.5 million hectares of Savannah. Let us look at this Savannah climate now. See Savannah or Sudan climate is a transitional type of climate found between the equatorial forests and the trade wind hot deserts. It is one of the 11 climate types across the world. This climate type is confined within the tropics and if you see it is mostly developed in Sudan hence the other name Sudan climate. This Savannah or Sudan climate belt includes West African Sudan then East Africa and Southern Africa north of the tropic of Capricorn as you can see in this picture. In the continent of South America if you see there are two distinct Savannah regions called as Lannos and Campos and then if you see you also have Savannah in Australian continent which is located west to east north of tropic of Capricorn. See this Savannah type of climate is characterized by hot rainy season and cool dry season. The vegetation usually is tall grass and short trees. Trees are present with heavy growth of tall grass and if you see this Savannah climate is home to many wild animals like lion, tiger, leopard, panther, etc. So the correct answer to this question is option D, Serengeti National Park. Dear aspirants, in this regard just kindly go through the 11 climate types of the world. For this we recommend you to look at Certificate Physical and Human Geography book written by G.C. Leong. You can expect related questions in geography in UPSC problems. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Green Mahanadi Mission. See Green Mahanadi Mission is a plantation drive along Mahanadi River Basin. The aim is to protect the Mahanadi river and keep it alive. So as a part of this mission around 2 crore plant saplings will be planted along Mahanadi and its tribute trees tell an ep. The main objective of this mission is to stop soil erosion on the river banks and recharge the ground water reserves. So the plantation drive here will be within 1 kilometer radius on both sides of the river and this would primarily include planting fruit bearing trees like mango, jackfruit, jamun, etc. Know that this mission was launched by the state government of Odisha. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose those statements which are not correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that the objective of Green Mahanadi Mission is to prevent soil erosion and to recharge ground water levels on the banks of Mahanadi river. Yes, this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the mission was launched by Ministry of Gel Shakti in association with National Mission for Clean Ganga. This statement is incorrect. See this National Mission for Clean Ganga is purely associated with Ganga River only. The main aim of this mission is to prevent the environmental pollution that is happening in river Ganga. There are no other missions that are currently being undertaken in association with National Mission for Clean Ganga. As we saw this Green Mahanadi Mission is an initiative by the state government of Odisha. So the second statement here is wrong. Now we need to choose the incorrect statement or statements. Since the second statement is wrong here, the correct answer is option B2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the Dhruv program. The question is the Dhruv program which aims to encourage talented students across science and performing arts is launched by. Here the correct answer is option C, Ministry of Human Resource Development. See the Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched this unique initiative. The Pradhan Mantri innovative learning program named Dhruv. This initiative was launched in October 2019 from ISRO headquarters at Bengaluru. Now this program is named Dhruv after the poll start with the same name. This program aims to encourage the talented students to realize their full potential and contribute to the society. See this covers two areas. One is science and the other is performing arts. As you can see in the question there will be 60 students in all 30 from the field of science and 30 from the field of performing arts. The students will be broadly from classes 9th to 12th from all the schools including government and private. This is only the first phase of this program which will be expanded gradually to other fields like creative writing etc. See every student selected under this program will be called as Dhruv Tara. The selected students will be mentored and nurtured by renowned experts in different areas and thus the students will both shine through their achievements and light a path for others to follow. So it is expected from this program that many of the students who have been selected will reach the highest levels in their chosen fields and bring laurels to their community, state and nation. So this is in brief about this Dhruv program. Now you can see that this program sounds somewhat similar to going online as Leaders Initiative which we saw earlier. Similarly if you see ISTO has launched some initiatives for students such as UVCAT 2019 on the month of May 2019 and one more program Samvath with Students on January 2019. If you see this UVCAT is a young scientist program which is primarily aimed at imparting basic knowledge on space technology, space science and space applications to the younger students with the intent of arousing their interest in the emerging areas of space activities. Whereas if you see Samvath with students is basically a platform which aims to engage the youngsters across India constantly to capture their scientific temperament. This is a new conversation mission the aim is to inspire students across all schools and colleges. So these are some of the initiatives which was launched by ISRO apart from Dhruv program which was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. So here option C is the correct answer. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about compact 2025 initiative. Two statements are given and you need to choose the statements which are correct. See eliminating hunger and under nutrition is key to end extreme poverty which is one of the sustainable development goal. This compact 2025 is an initiative for ending hunger and under nutrition by the year 2025. That is why it is named as compact 2025. See this compact 2025 is initiated and facilitated by International Food Policy Research Institute in short IFPRA. But if you see it will also include a range of partners who are working together leaders from international organizations like International Fund for Agricultural Development which is a specialized agency of United Nations then World Food Program and then if you see countries and regions like Ethiopia, Malawi, African Union and then private sectors other research organizations like MS Waminathan Research Foundation from India and other non-governmental organizations like Helen Keller International are among those who are closely working with this compact 2025 initiative. We saw that it is initiated and facilitated by IFPRA Not for Profit International Agricultural Research Center which was established in the year 1975. This IFPRA provides research based solutions to sustainably reduced poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Now coming back to this compact 2025 initiative see this acts as a knowledge and innovation hub that guides countries in developing and implementing strategic actions for food security and nutrition. So it helps the countries to develop, scale up and communicate policies and programs so that progress is made towards ending hunger and under nutrition. So what is under nutrition? See the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines food deprivation or undernourishment as the consumption of fewer than about 1800 kilocalories a day which is the minimum that most people require to live a healthy and productive life. So taking this definition of food and agriculture organization this compact 2025 aims to end hunger and under nutrition particularly in the forms of child stunting and wasting and micronutrient deficiencies in all individuals. See this compact 2025 was initiated in 2015 the initial focus is on four countries which are Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi and Rwanda and in future it will be scaled up to include additional countries as well. So as of now there are only four countries which are focused under this compact 2025. Now what you need to know is that India is not a focused country under this compact 2025. So remember this this is one point the second point is this compact 2025 is an initiative to end hunger and under nutrition only by the year 2025. If you see across the world there are also issues of overweight and obesity which is important for human well-being but if you see this overweight and obesity is outside the present scope of compact 2025. So at present the scope is limited only to hunger and under nutrition. Now from this fact you can eliminate statement two of this question it tells that it aims to eliminate hunger under nutrition and overweight which hampers a human well-being. This statement is incorrect whereas the first statement is correct it is initiated and facilitated by International Food Policy Research Institute. So the correct answer to this question is option A one only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. So this is in brief about this compact 2025 initiative. Here know the scope of this initiative then know which are the focused countries under this initiative. Now let us move on to the next question this question is about living planet report. This question will basically check your knowledge about certain important non-governmental organizations that are operating across the world with respect to environment that is about NGOs which are working for mankind and wildlife nature. See this living planet report is published by the Worldwide Fund for Nature. This was formerly called as World Wildlife Fund. This living planet report is a comprehensive study about the trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. This report documents the state of biodiversity ecosystems and demand on natural resources and what it means for humans and wildlife. See this report is published by Worldwide Fund for Nature every two years. It means it is a biennial report. So this report brings together a variety of research to provide a comprehensive view of the health of the earth. See Worldwide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization which is headquartered at Glandans with Jalan. This NGO works for the conservation of nature. So this is all that you need to know about this report in brief. Usually if you see in UPSC problems you will get question about reports every year. The question format will be like this report is released by which of the following organizations. So that is the general format which we usually have. Now this question has been framed basically to test your knowledge about the report. Whenever you are studying any report try to know the basic aim and objective of that particular report and who releases it and try to know if it is an annual report or a biennial report. Now this report is important under environment topic. So this is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement it tells that this living planet report is a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that this living planet report is a biennial report released by the worldwide fund for nature. This statement is also correct. So the correct answer to this question is option C both one and two. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about sustainable energy for all. See it is an international organization which is working with leaders in government the private sector and civil society. This organization aims to drive further and faster action towards the achievement of sustainable development goal number seven and the Paris agreement goals. See this sustainable development goal number seven calls for universal access to sustainable energy by the year 2030. And if you see this Paris climate agreement the crux is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate warming to below two degree Celsius. See this organization states that around 840 million people in the world have no access to electricity and roughly three times this 840 million people that is approximately around 2.5 billion people use dirty cooking fuels that is cheap grades of fossil fuels coal etc. So this sustainable development goal number seven sets out to change these numbers. It calls for affordable reliable sustainable and modern energy for all by the year 2030. So you can remember this goal number seven and make use of it in your main senses. Now according to this organization Sustainable Energy for All to achieve these goals it will require a radical rethink of the way we produce, distribute and consume energy. So the heart of this foundational shift to ensure that no one is left behind is this organization Sustainable Energy for All. See former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched this initiative in the year 2011. Now it is an independent organization. It maintains close links with United Nations through a relationship agreement and it also has partnerships with UN agencies. The CEO of this organization acts as UN Secretary General's special representative for Sustainable Energy for All and he also acts as the co-chair of UN Energy. So this is in brief about Sustainable Energy for All. Now look at this question which of the following correctly describes Sustainable Energy for All. Here the correct answer is Option C and International Organization working towards achievement of universal access to Sustainable Energy. It is not Option D or B. It is not an intergovernmental organization or it is not a global program that has been initiated by International Energy Agency and it is also not an OECD initiative. You just remember India is not a member of OECD. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about World Sustainable Development Summit. The question is World Sustainable Development Summit 2020. Recently seen in news is organized by which of the following. Now let us look at this World Sustainable Development Summit 2020. See this World Sustainable Development Summit is the annual flagship event of the Energy and Resources Institute. In short, Terry. See it is a common platform to deliberate on issues related to sustainable development. And if you see it also provides a stage to discuss and deliberate over climatic issues of universal importance. See broadly it is an international platform to discuss and deliberate on the sustainable development and climate change. See this summit was started in the year 2001 and the recent summit was held in the month of January 2020 and the theme of this 2020 summit is towards 2030 goals making the decade count. So this is also a potential problems topic under environment. If you see even in the previous year there was a question on Bombay Natural History Society. So sometimes you do get the relevant topics related to environment. Now coming back to this World Sustainable Development Summit. See this summit brings together the Nobel laureates, political leaders, decision makers from bilateral and multilateral institutions, then the business leaders, then high level functionaries from the diplomatic cops, then the scientists and researchers, then the media personnel and even the members of civil society on a common platform. And it provides them an opportunity to deliberate on sustainable development and climate change. So this is all about this World Sustainable Development Summit. Now let us look in brief about this Terry, the Energy and Resources Institute. See it is an independent multi-dimensional organization which works in the field of energy, environment, climate change and sustainability development. It was established in the year 1974 as the Tata Energy Research Institute. Later it was renamed as the Energy and Resources Institute. If you see in the year 2017 this Terry was ranked second among the top think tanks in the world by the International Center for Climate Governments. So this is all about this topic. Now you can easily answer the question by yourself. The correct answer here is option A, the Energy and Resources Institute. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-2017. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Know that this survey is conducted by NABAR that is the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. So from this fact you can eliminate the second statement. It tells that the survey was conducted by NSSO but it is actually NABAR. Now coming back to the survey the sample size of the survey was 40,327 rural households. The survey was conducted in a draw tier. Here just know the definition of agricultural households. They were defined as those where at least one member was self-employed in agriculture in the past year and he or she must have derived at least 5000 rupees from agricultural produce. Now let us see some of the highlights of the survey. There are many categories which have been discussed under this survey. Land and assets, income level, incidence of indebtedness and borrowings, then insurance and pension coverage and then savings and investment etc. Now if you look at land and assets it tells that only 48% of the surveyed households are agricultural households. So the remaining are classified as non-agricultural households. So this reveals that the share of agriculture is actually reducing. The average land that is processed by the agricultural households is 1.1 hectares. So from this fact you can tell that the first statement is incorrect because as per the survey more than 50% of rural households are agricultural households is what is mentioned in the first statement. This statement is incorrect because it is just about 48%. So the correct answer to this question is option D neither one nor two since both the statements are incorrect. Now these are some of the other highlights under various heads. Just have a look at it for your reference. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about global soil biodiversity atlas. First let us look at this atlas. See this atlas is the first synthesis of global soil biodiversity research and its importance to our living world. It is a joint venture of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative and the European Commission Joint Research Center. Here note that this Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative is a global collaboration of scientists in order to create a platform for the current and future sustainability of soils. So what do we mean by soil biodiversity? See it is the total community which is present in the soil from genes to species and this varies depending on the environment. There are millions of microbial and animal species which live and make up soils from bacteria and fungi to mites, beetles and earthworms. So this immense diversity in the soil allows for a greater variety of ecosystem services that benefit the species that inhabit the soil and also the species including humans that use it and its surrounding environment. So this is what we mean by soil biodiversity. So know that this Atlas is a joint venture of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative and the European Commission Joint Research Center. Now look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas is the first synthesis of Global Soil Biodiversity Research and its importance to our living world. Yes, this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this Atlas has been published by UN Habitat Association with Worldwide Fund for Nature. This statement is wrong. We saw that this Atlas is a joint venture of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative and the European Commission Joint Research Center. So the correct answer here is option A one only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about climate and cleaner coalition. Now why this topic was in news recently because India recently joined this coalition. So it was often in news in the month of October. Now let us look at this coalition. See this climate and cleaner coalition is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, scientific institutions and civil society organizations. This coalition is committed to improving the air quality and protecting the climate in the next few decades. See this coalition wants to improve the air quality. How? By reducing short-lived climate pollutants. So this coalition's initial focus is on the short-lived climate pollutants like methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons. Because these short-lived climate pollutants are powerful climate forces because as their name indicates they are short-lived but they create a huge impact on the climate. See India joined this climate and cleaner coalition in July 2019. It became the 65th country to join this coalition. Now India plans to work with this climate and cleaner coalition on the best practices and experiences for the effective implementation of India's national cleaner program. Now let us look at this national cleaner program in brief. It is a comprehensive strategy to prevent, control and reduce air pollution in India. And as a part of this program air quality monitoring will be improved across India. The aim of this program is to reduce particulate matter 2.5 and particulate matter 10 air pollution by 20 to 30% by the year 2024. Know that this national cleaner program was launched by India in January 2019. To know more about national cleaner program we request our viewers to watch our 6th November the Hindu news analysis. Now with this background information in mind let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that climate and cleaner coalition is committed to improving air quality and protecting the climate by reducing short-lived climate pollutants. Yes, this statement is correct. Always link this climate and cleaner coalition with short-lived climate pollutants. Now look at the second statement. It tells that India is a founding member to this coalition. This statement is wrong because India recently joined this coalition in the month of July 2019. But if you see this climate and cleaner coalition was launched in 2012. So the second statement goes wrong. Now we need to choose the correct statement or statements from this question. The correct answer is option A, 1-1-B. Now that you have seen about climate and cleaner coalition there is one more initiative which was announced by climate and cleaner coalition along with the United Nations World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. Together all these four institutions have announced cleaner initiative. This initiative invites the national and the subnational governments to commit to achieving air quality which is safe for citizens in order to align climate change and air pollution policies by the year 2030. So this initiative basically seeks to simultaneously mitigate climate change, reduce air pollution and promote health in a comprehensive manner. So all these things will go together. So whenever you are studying about climate and cleaner coalition also have an idea about this cleaner initiative. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about INF Treaty which is nothing but Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. First let us look at this treaty in brief. This question will check your knowledge about the current events of international importance. See this INF Treaty is basically an arms control treaty which was signed in 1987 by the then United Soviet Socialist Republic and the United States of America. So this was a Cold War era treaty to control arms race. If you see this treaty mandated both the parties to eliminate their ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles that could travel between 500 and 5500 kilometers. We know that in 1991 USSR or Soviet Union got dissolved. After the dissolution this INF Treaty continued between six out of the 12 disintegrated states which formed the part of Soviet Union. These six states have the Intermediate Range Nuclear Facilities. They are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. So this INF Treaty continued between USA and these six countries. In the recent years if you see the United States kept on alleging Russia that it is breaching the treaty. In February 2019 the United States announced that it would suspend its obligations under the INF Treaty and it issued a six month notice of its intent to withdraw from the treaty. And after this this INF Treaty stopped to exist after six months that is after August 2019. So this is all that you need to know about this INF Treaty from exam point of view. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement it tells that this treaty mandates both the parties to eliminate all their ballistic and cruise missiles that could travel between 500 and 5500 kilometers. This statement is incorrect because we saw that this treaty aimed to eliminate the ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles that could travel between 500 and 5500 kilometers. Usually if you see as an aspirant generally you would overlook the key words in the statement. Here the key word in this statement is all. We saw that the treaty bans only the ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles but we also have the air-borne missiles and some ship-borne missiles which are not restricted under this treaty. So this makes the first statement as an incorrect statement. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this treaty was signed between NATO and the erstwhile USSR. This statement is also incorrect because we saw that this treaty was signed between United States of America and the erstwhile USSR. So the correct answer to this question is optionally neither one nor two since you need to choose the correct statements. But here both the statements are incorrect. Here know that NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is basically an alliance that consists of 30 independent member countries and United States is one of the member countries of NATO. Now that we have seen this INF treaty we will also see some other treaties that are existing between United States and Russia. They include START and the new START treaties. First let us look at about START treaty to be specific about START 1 treaty. START is the abbreviation for strategic arms reduction treaty. See it was the first treaty to provide for deep reductions of United States and the Soviet or the Russian strategic nuclear weapons. This treaty entered into force in the year 1994 and it expired in 2009. The START 1 treaty limited the delivery vehicles to 1600 and warheads to 6000 for each party. And in later years if you see START 2 was signed but this treaty did not come into force. After expiry of START 1 a new START was signed. This new START came into force in the year 2011 and these are the proposed limits under this new START treaty which both the parties have to follow. So just have an idea about the other treaties that are existing between United States and Russia. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about 20th livestock census. The question is who has released the 20th livestock census. Know that in October 2019 the Department of Animal Aspentry and Dining under the Ministry of Fisheries Animal Aspentry and Dining has released this 20th livestock census. So here option A is the correct answer. See livestock census in India has been conducted periodically since 1919-1920 which is almost a century old. It is usually conducted once in every five years and it covers all domesticated animals. So the headcounts of the domesticated animals will be carried out during a specified time period. So far 19 such census have been conducted in participation with state governments and the administrations of the union territories. See there are various species of animals like cattle, buffalo, metu, nyak, sheep, goat, pig, horse and various paltry birds like fowl, duck, emu, turkeys, quail and other paltry birds that are possessed by the household enterprises, non-household enterprises and institutions. All these are countered at their site. So this counting will give vital information for determining the threatened indigenous breeds and to take initiatives accordingly for their conservation and it will also be helpful for framing policies or programs for breed improvement. So this livestock census is very crucial to take policy level decisions. These are some of the key findings of this 20th livestock census. Here one thing to be noted is that India's indigenous cattle numbers continue to decline despite government's efforts to promote the conservation of desi breeds through rastri vocal mission. See there was a decline of 6 percentage in the total indigenous cattle population. However if you see the pace of decline of the indigenous non-descript cattle population during 2012 to 2019 is much lesser when compared to 2007-2012 period which was about 9 percentage. So this is in brief about this 20th livestock census. Just have a look at the findings of this census. So here the correct answer is option A, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal husbandry and dating. As we saw earlier, this was a newly created ministry in 2019. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the G20 global smart cities alliance on technology governance. First let us look at this alliance. See it is an initiative of the G20 for the successful management of the urbanizing world. See this alliance was established in June 2019. The aim of this alliance is that it will advance the responsible use of data and digital technologies in urban environments. By using the right technologies cities can be effectively governed which will in turn solve the problems in energy, transportation, healthcare, education and natural disaster response and it will make the communities across the cities more inclusive, resilient and sustainable. So the objective is to unite the municipal, regional and national governments and then the private sector partners and the residents of the respective cities around a shared set of principles which we saw the responsible and the ethical use of smart city technologies. This alliance would establish an advance global policy standards and these global policy standards will help accelerate the best practices and mitigate potential risks and foster greater openness and public trust. Know that the World Economic Forum which is the international organization for public-private cooperation serves as the secretariat for this alliance. See the alliance partners with leading international organizations and city networks to source tried and tested policy approaches and these approaches will help in governing the use of smart city technologies. Its institutional partners represent more than two like cities and local governments then leading companies, startups, research institutions and civil society communities across the world. Here you need to know that though the alliance was established in partnership with G20 the stakeholders from the non-G20 countries are also welcome to join and contribute to this alliance. The news was that India had recently joined this alliance. Now let us see some of the founding institutional partners of this global smart cities alliance. The first two are the presidents and the host nations of G20 grouping in the years 2019 and 2020 that is the countries of Japan and Saudi Arabia. And then if you see the smart cities mission of India is also a founding institutional partner of this global smart cities alliance. Also the World Economic Forum then Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network are all some of the founding institutional partners of this G20 global smart cities alliance on technology governance. So this is all about this alliance. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. From the options given here you can tell that the first statement is correct. The first statement speaks about the aim of this alliance which is to advance the responsible use of data and digital technologies in urban environments. Now look at the second statement it tells that the alliance is open to G20 countries only. We just saw that even though this alliance has been initiated by G20 grouping even the non G20 countries can also be a part of this alliance. So the second statement goes wrong. If the second statement is wrong you can eliminate options B and D. Now you need to check if the third statement is correct or not. The third statement is smart cities mission of India is one of the founding institutional partners of this alliance. Yes this statement is correct. So the correct answer to this question is option C1 and 3 1B. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the global mobility report. Know that this report covers all modes of transport which includes road, air, waterborne and rail transport. See this report is the first ever study to assess the global performance of the transport sector and the progress made towards four main objectives universal access, efficiency, safety and green mobility. See this report is released by Sustainable Mobility for All which is in short known as some for all. According to this report the world is not on track to achieving sustainable mobility. See transport sector is still inaccessible to many of the world's most vulnerable people and apart from this if you see the transport sector today is also facing many issues like high fossil fuel use, rising greenhouse gas emissions then add a noise pollution because of the usage of vehicles and an alarming number of road fatalities and a reluctance to embrace digitalization. So these are some of the issues faced by the transport sector across the world. Now let us look in brief about sustainable mobility for all. See it is the most important platform for international cooperation on issues related to transport and sustainable mobility. It was established in the year 2017. It is basically global coalition of 55 influential public organizations and private companies who have a shared ambition to implement the sustainable development goals and to transform the future of mobility know that this sustainable mobility for all is hosted by the world bank. Now the partners of this some for all believe that accessible, efficient, safe and green mobility which are the four objectives are essential to achieve the sustainable development goals and to address 21st century global challenges like climate change, global development, poverty reduction and peace. See this sum for all focuses on three main things. One is advocacy next is action and the third is financing. Advocacy means aiming to provide thought leadership to influence global and country decision makers on transport sector. Action means it is aiming at prioritizing the right policies and investments and financing focuses on creating and mobilizing finance to achieve sustainable mobility around the globe. So this is in brief about global mobility report and about sustainable mobility for all which releases this report. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. It is a straightforward question. The global mobility report is released by four options are given G20 sustainable mobility for all U1 sustainable development solutions network world economic forum. Sometimes you do get questions about reports released by non-U1 organizations or some global level coalitions. So always have an idea about such reports. This is one such report. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the data security council of India. See this data security council of India is a not for profit industry body on data protection in India. It was set up by NASCOM that is the national association of software and services companies. Know that the main purpose of setting up this data security council of India is to make the cyberspace safe secure and trusted how by establishing best practices standards and initiatives in areas of cyber security and privacy. So what this data security council of India does is that it engages with the governments and their agencies then with the regulators then with industry sectors industry associations and think tanks for policy advocacy thought leadership capacity building and outreach activities. So in order to strengthen the thought leadership in areas of cyber security and privacy the data security council of India develops best practices and frameworks then it publishes studies surveys and papers on cyber security and privacy. So it conducts training on certification program for the personnel and law enforcement agencies in order to build capacity in cyber security privacy and cyber forensics. So in a way this data security council of India will help in increasing India share in the global security product and services market through global trade development initiatives. So overall the aim is to strengthen the cyber security and cyber privacy culture in India. Note that the data security council of India in partnership with the national cyber security coordinators office introduced a new platform which is called as Tech Sagar. This Tech Sagar is India's consolidator and comprehensive cyber tech repository. So these are some of the aims of Tech Sagar. This Tech Sagar aims to provide a map of critical technological capabilities that are existing in India. Then it also aims to provide the details of individuals entities and intuitions that are engaged in critical technological capabilities. And it will also provide ways for searching, querying, filtering and analyzing the capabilities for various purposes. And then if you see this Tech Sagar also aims to endless businesses and research entities that are working across 25 areas. For example like Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning and then blockchain technology etc. So all this will facilitate new opportunities for the businesses and the academic section to collaborate, connect and innovate in the future. So these are some of the aims of Tech Sagar which is India's consolidator and comprehensive cyber tech repository. So this is in brief about the data security council of India and its initiative Tech Sagar. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It is given Data Security Council of India is an organization committed to make the cyberspace safe, secure and trusted by establishing best practices, standards and initiatives in cyber security and privacy. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this Data Security Council of India functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs. This statement is wrong because we saw that this Data Security Council of India is a not-for-profit industry body which is working on data protection and it has been set up by NASCARM. So this statement is incorrect. Now we need to choose the correct statement or statements. The correct answer here is option A one only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Youth Collab. Now let us look at this topic in brief. Know that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the important role of young people across the world in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. So the Sustainable Development Goals calls for action against the challenges faced by young people that limit their economics, social and political inclusion. So this Youth Collab is one such step in this direction that calls for participation of young people. See this Youth Collab was co-created in the year 2017 by United Nations Development Program and the City Foundation. The aim of this program is to establish a common agenda for the countries in the Asia-Pacific region to empower and invest in youth so that youth can accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship. So the aim is to make the youth economically, socially and politically inclusive. In India if you see this Youth Collab initiative has been launched as a joint endeavour between UNDP India and Atal Innovation Mission of Neeti Ayok. So the aim is to support young people with emphasis on the following priorities. Catalyzing youth innovation then empowering youth through technology then fostering youth inclusion and then promoting youth leadership and also promoting social entrepreneurship. So all the three aspects are taken care of economic, social and political. So for this purpose Youth Collab will convene social innovation challenges at the national level and at the subnational level. It would invite young people in the age group of 18 to 29 years and it would also invite startups to showcase their proposed ideas and solutions to tackle some of the biggest social challenges that are being phased in India. See the first phase of this Youth Collab will focus on six sustainable development goals. One is Sustainable Development goal number five which is on gender equality. Then the goal number six on clean water and sanitation. Then the goal number seven on affordable and clean energy. Then the goal number eight on decent work on economic growth. And then goal number 12 on sustainable consumption and production. And finally goal number 13 which is on climate action. So these are the six sustainable development goals which will be focused in the first phase of Youth Collab. So this is in brief about this Youth Collab. Now with this information in mind let us look at this question. Here two statements are given and you need to choose the statements that are correct. The question is about Youth Collab. Look at the first statement it speaks about the agenda of this Youth Collab. It is a correct statement. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the Youth Collab initiative in India has been launched by United Nations Development Program India and Neethi Aayog. Yes this statement is correct because Airtel Innovation mission is an initiative of Neethi Aayog. So here the correct answer is option C both one and two. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on C40 Cleaner Cities Declaration. Know that C40 is a network of the world's mega cities that are committed to address climate change issues. Around the world C40 cities connect 94 of the world's greatest cities. So all these cities will take bold climate action and they will lead the way towards a healthier and more sustainable future. If you see all these 94 cities represent 700 plus million citizens and one quarter of the global economy. So the mayors of all these C40 cities are committed to deliver the most ambitious goals of the Paris Climate Agreement at the local level. See in 2019 the C40 Cleaner Cities Declaration was unveiled at the C40 World Mayor Summit which was held at Copenhagen in Denmark. This summit happened in the month of October and that is why it is in the news. During this summit mayors from 35 C40 cities signed this C40 Cleaner Cities Declaration. By signing this declaration they recognized that breathing clean air is a human right. Some of the important signatory cities are Barcelona from Spain, Berlin from Germany, then Jakarta from Indonesia and then Los Angeles from US and Stockholm from Sweden. And if you see two Indian cities also signed this declaration which are Bengaluru and Delhi. So the signatories of this declaration pledged to set ambitious pollution reduction targets within two years that meet or exceed their respective national commitments and to implement substantive clean air policies by 2025 that address the unique causes of pollution in their cities. And then they will also publicly report the progress on achieving these goals. So all these initiatives would help these cities to meet the World Health Organization's Air Quality Guidelines by the year 2030. See during the same Copenhagen Summit 14 global cities committed to C40 Good Food Cities Declaration. So through this declaration the mayors of these 14 global cities will work to achieve a planetary health diet by the year 2030. So this diet will have balanced a nutritious food which is reflecting the culture geography and demography of the citizens. Here note that there is no Indian city which is a part of this C40 Good Food Cities Declaration. So remember the difference between both the declaration and in which declaration Indian cities are apart. Now with this information in mind look at this question it is a two-statement question on C40 Cleaner Cities Declaration. Look at the first statement it tells that the signatories recognize that breathing clean air is a human right and they pledge to implement substantive cleaner policies by the year 2025. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that no Indian cities have signed the declaration. This statement is wrong because we saw that the cities of Bengaluru and Delhi have signed this C40 Cleaner Cities Declaration whereas no Indian cities have signed the C40 Good Food Cities Declaration. So remember this difference. Now the correct answer to this question is option A one only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about India Justice Report. See India Justice Report 2019 was released by the Tata Trusts in collaboration with various NGOs. This report ranks the states based on their score out of 10 in their capacity to deliver justice. Note that the report measures capacity to justice delivery based on four pillars. One is police, the second pillar is judiciary, the third pillar is prisons and the fourth pillar is legal aid. So what this report has done is that it has classified Indian states into two categories large medium states and small states. There are 18 large medium states and seven small states. If you see a few states like Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur and Agalan were not covered under this report. Among the large medium states Maharashtra topped the list. Other best performing states are Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. In this category Uttar Pradesh was scored at the bottom. Some other low performing states include Bihar and Jharkhand. And among the smaller states if you see Govas at the top and Tripura came at the bottom. Now we have given you the data related to the performance of the states across four individual pillars for your reference. You can use any of this data in your main section. Next if you see this report also gives insights into the data on pending court cases. This report tells that there are 2.8 crore cases pending in Indian subordinate courts and among this 24 percentage cases have been pending for more than five years and almost 23 lakh cases are pending for more than 10 years. So this is some data related to the pending court cases. This is in brief about this India justice report. Now look at this question. It is a one line question. The India justice report is released by here the correct answer is option C Tata trusts. The 2019 report was released by the Tata trusts in collaboration with various NGOs. Sometimes you do get such questions on reports like this because if you see in 2018 prelims there was a question on who releases rule of law index. The answer was world justice project. So try to have an idea about the reports that you come casually across the news. Just know who releases that report and one or two important outcomes of the report. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on certain benchmark interest rates which are often seen in news. Know that a benchmark is the standard rate that is used widely for settling financial obligations. Benchmark interest rate means the rate that is used as a standard or base to pay the interest rate for deposits and loans. Now let us see one of the important benchmark interest rate which is LIBOR that is the London Interbank Offered Rate. It was the most widely used benchmark interest rate across the globe. See it is the rate at which the major global banks lend to one another in the international interbank market for short-term loans. But if you see its use has been on the decline since the 2008 global financial crisis. So over time several alternative interest rates have developed. Now this table will give you an idea about the alternative benchmark interest rates that are existing at present across the world and who administers them. You can have a look at it for your reference. Now with this information look at this question. You need to choose the correctly matched pairs of benchmark interest rates and who administers them. Here all the given pairs are correct. So the correct answer here is option D 1, 2 and 3. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Prakash Portal. See the government of India has launched a web portal called Prakash. This stands for Power Rail Coila Availability Through Supply Harmony. See this web portal has been launched with an aim to improve the coordination between the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Railways to ensure coal supplies to the power plants. This is an important step in ensuring adequate availability and optimum utilization of coal at the thermal power plants across India. Know that this web portal has been developed by NTPC. NTPC is India's largest power generator. It is a Maharatna company since 2010. Now this Prakash portal will source data from various stakeholders like the Central Electricity Authority which comes under the Ministry of Power then the Center for Railway Information System and from different coal companies. So this portal will help in monitoring the coal supplies through the entire coal supply chain starting from coal stock at the supply end that is the mines then about the coal quantities and the rakes that are planned and the coal quantity in transit up to the coal availability at power generating stations. Know that this portal is not accessible to public. So this is in brief about this Prakash portal. Now look at this question. The question is the web portal Prakash launched recently by the government of India is related to. Here the correct answer is option B to improve coordination in coal supplies to power plants. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Salicornia. Now let us look in brief about Salicornia. See Salicornia plants are halophytes. When we tell halophytes it refers to those salt tolerant plants that grow in waters with high saline conditions than normal. See Salicornia plant grows in the salty marshes in the mangrove wetlands. When we tell mangroves it is near the coastlines. Know that Salicornia species are native to North America, Europe, South Africa and South Asia. Across India the major species of Salicornia which is found are Salicornia brachiata. Now from the seed of these Salicornia plants edible oil is extracted. After extracting oil we have the deflated seed meal. This deflated seed meal is rich in protein so it is used as a feed in poultry. Now one more special feature with respect to these Salicornia plants is that they accumulate salt and the accumulated salt has low sodium content. So these salts are used as a substitute for regular salts that are available. Since it has low sodium content it is also preferred by the patients who are suffering from hypertension, diabetes, gastric related ailments and various lifestyle diseases. If you see in India the state of Gujarat is known for the production of the salt substitute from Salicornia. But due to the scarcity of Salicornia the production of this salt substitute has come down. Now due to the growing demand in the Indian cities due to the lifestyle disorders which we saw this Salicornia is now being imported from countries like Israel and other Scandinavian countries. And if you see in the month of July 2018 the state government of Andhra Pradesh initiated plants to extract this salt substitute from Salicornia plant. So this is all about Salicornia that you need to know from exam point of view. Now let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the incorrect statement or statements. Now look at the first statement. It tells that Salicornia plant grows in the tropical wet evergreen forests of South India. But if you remember we saw that the Salicornia plant grows in the salty marshes in the mangrove wetlands and their halophates. So the first statement here is wrong. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the Salicornia plant can be used as a substitute for salt with low sodium content. Yes this statement is correct. Now we need to choose the incorrect statement or statements. Here the correct answer is option A1 only since only the first statement is incorrect. Now let us move on to the next question. See this question is about 6 x 6 x 6 strategy. The question is the 6 x 6 x 6 strategy which was recently news is associated with. Here the correct answer is anemia testing and treatment. See this strategy comes under anemia moot strategy which was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family welfare in March 2018. This anemia moot strategy comes under Prime Minister's scheme for holistic nourishment which is Poshan Abiyan. If you see for a period of 10 years from 2005 to 2015 there was a slow progress that is less than 1 percentage per annum in reduction of anemia. So under this anemia moot Bharat strategy the target has been set to reduce anemia by 3 percentage per year. So what is this 6 x 6 x 6 strategy. It implies 6 age groups, 6 interventions and 6 institutional mechanisms. The strategy focuses on ensuring supply chain, demand generation and strong monitoring using the dashboard for addressing anemia both due to nutritional and non-nutritional causes. The 6 population groups are children between the age of 6 to 59 months. The 2nd category children were aged between 5 to 9 years. The 3rd category is adults and girls and boys. The 4th category being pregnant women. 5th lactating women and 6th women of reproductive age between 15 to 49 years. So the 6 interventions are prophylactic ion and folic acid supplementation, de-warming, intensified year-on-behavior change communication campaign and delayed cot clamping and 3 more interventions. And these are the 6 institutional mechanisms. See anemia is nothing but a condition where you lack enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to your blood tissues. So it is basically ion deficiency which causes anemia. It will make you feel tired and weak. And this is especially seen among women population and in children. So that is why this program was launched and this 6x6x6 strategy was placed under this anemia-mukth Bharat. So here the correct answer is option C anemia testing and treatment. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Swach Rail, Swach Bharat 2019 ranking. The question is this ranking has been released by whom? Here the correct answer is option C Ministry of Railways in partnership with Quality Council of India. Know that this ranking is part of Swach Bharat Abhyan. This ranking is compiled by the Quality Council of India based on these 4 important parameters which are process evaluation, direct observation, citizen feedback and interview of station manager. Know that there is an equal weightage of 33.33% each for process evaluation, direct observation and citizen feedback. But if you see the 4th parameter which is interview of station manager is purely qualitative in nature and there is no weightage in the ranking. Now this image will give you an idea about the ranking of the 16 Indian Railway Zones which have been considered under this ranking. Here Northwestern Railway Zone is ranked first and North Central Railway Zone is ranked last. From Prelims perspective also have an idea about Quality Council of India. Know that it is a non-profit society registered under Society's Registration Act of 1860. It is an autonomous body which is functioning under the department for promotion of industry and internal trade which comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. See this Quality Council of India was established by the Government of India in partnership with Indian Industry which is represented by Confederation of Indian Industry, then Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and ASSOCHAM which is Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry. See it is headed by a Chairman who is appointed by the Prime Minister on the recommendation of the Industry to the Government. Know that this Quality Council of India is an Accreditation Authority in India. The vision is to establish an Accreditation Structure in Country and to spread the Quality movement in India by undertaking a National Quality Campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to educate both suppliers and consumers on modern concepts of Quality. So this is in brief about Quality Council of India. So the correct answer to this question is Option C, Ministry of Railways in partnership with Quality Council of India releases this SWACH Rail, SWACH Bharat 2019 ranking. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Fame to Scheme. Know that Fame stands for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India. See the Fame India Scheme is a part of National Electric Mobility Mission Plan. It is the National Mission Document that provides the vision and roadmap for the faster adoption of Electric Vehicles and their Manufacturing in India. So as a part of this the Department of Heavy Industries which comes under the Ministry of Heavy Industries in Public Enterprises launched Fame India 1 Scheme in the year 2015 then came Phase 2 that is the Fame 2 Scheme in 2019. This Scheme has a total fund outlay of 10,000 crores which will be given over 3 years from 2019-20 to 2021-2022. Know that the Allocated Fund will support manufacturing all these categories of Electric Vehicles. Now let us see some of the important objectives of this Scheme. First, this Scheme will support the Electric Vehicle industry with incentives or subsidy benefits to promote their manufacturing and sales. The main criterion for subsidy allocation in this Fame India 2 Scheme is that the vehicles must use lithium ion batteries or any new technology batteries. The second objective of this Scheme is to establish a charging infrastructure in major cities of the country. This includes metros, other million plus cities, smart cities, cities of hilly states across India. So there will be an availability of at least one charging station in a grid of 3 cross 3 kilometer. The next objective is to establish charging stations on major highways that are connecting the major city clusters. On such highways charging stations will be established on both the sides of the road at an interval of about 25 kilometer each. If you see out of the total allocation for this Scheme 1000 crore rupees has been allocated for setting up charging stations for Electric Vehicles. So these are some of the objectives of this Scheme. With this information let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It is one of the objectives of this Fame India 2 Scheme. It is correct. Now the second statement is wrong because we saw that Fame Scheme is being implemented by the department of heavy industries which comes under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. So the second statement is wrong. The correct answer to this question is option A one only. Now let us move on to the next question. We have come to the final topic of this series which is about National Health Profile. Know that National Health Profile is published by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence. This Central Bureau of Health Intelligence functions under the Directorate General of Health Services which comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. See this National Health Profile is released every year since 2005. This is the 14th edition. It provides vital information on all major health sector related indicators. It also includes demographic, socio-economic and then the usual health-related indicators like health status, health finance, health infrastructure and human resources. See all these data are essential for health system policy development and implementation. Also, if you see this National Health Profile is a major source of information on various communicable and non-communicable diseases that are not covered under any other major programs. And these are some of the key findings of this National Health Profile 2019. You can find indicators like sex ratio, birth rate, death rate, about national growth, then about total fertility rate and also about literacy rate because we saw that the socio-economic indicators are also covered under this National Health Profile. So have a look at it for your reference. Now, if you look at this question, it is a straightforward question. In India, National Health Profile is released by here the correct answer is Option B, Central Bureau of Health Intelligence. Know that the other three organizations, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India that is FSSAI and then the Central Medical Services Society and Indian Pharmacopia Commission are all autonomous bodies that are functioning under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So remember this fact as well. With this, we come to the end of October 2019 analysis of Target UPSC Prilams 2020 series. We have given you an overall analysis of each and every topic. Try to get the important points from each topic in Prilam's perspective. If you like this video, press the like button, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.