 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hinder news analysis by Shankara Ace Academy for the date 1st of January 2020 On behalf of Shankara Ace Academy and the civil speeder team. I wish you all a very happy new year Today, we will be seeing news articles based on different areas such as geography history Polity international relations, etc. So for that these are the news articles that we have chosen today The link for the hundred and oz and the time stamping for the displayed articles are given in the description box And for the benefit of smartphone users the time stamping is also provided in the comment section Let's move on to our first news article analysis This discussion is based on this news article and this picture which is about the forest fires The syllabus that is relevant for this analysis is given here for your reference This picture depicts the bush fires at Sydney in Australia, which happened on Tuesday You would have heard in news that more than 200 forest fires are burning across the state of New South Wales And the state of Victoria in Australia. Not only this we have also seen a massive forest fire in the Amazon rainforest this year So throughout the year from Brazil to Australia and from California to Indonesia Massive wildfires have torn through vast areas of forest So in this way it becomes important for us to discuss about the forest fires The forest fires are also known as wildfires or bush fires It is defined as the uncontrolled fires which occur in fields, grass and bush as well as in the forest itself Based on its importance, even the recently released India State of Forest report of 2019 Also has a whole dedicated chapter to this problem of forest fires Yesterday we have covered about this report in detail. You can have a look at it for better understanding But today we will just focus on the chapter of forest fires from this report Now these forest fires are important because they are known as one of the important causes of loss of biodiversity The other causes are biotic pressure and climate change In addition to this, the forest fires are one of the major drivers of damage that is caused to forests in the country If the forest fires are uncontrolled then they can lead to significant losses of forests and ecosystem services And according to some scientific studies, climate change influences the forest fire frequency and intensity And this results in forests becoming increasingly inflammable See in this the increasing duration of forest fire season, their number of large fires Then frequency of severe fire years may be related to the climate change Now apart from the direct losses, foresters have to also deal with many side effects of forest fires Some side effects are increasing spread of weeds, then soil erosion, then loss of regeneration, then land slides, habitat degradation Then loss of forest produce, etc So this means there is a high need for reducing the forest fires to the minimum So for this we need forest fire management Now recognizing this need, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of our Government of India Came up with the National Action Plan on Forest Fires of 2018 One of the main objectives of this action plan is to reduce the incidences of fires by informing, by enabling and by empowering forest fringe communities And also by incentivizing them to work alongside with the state forest departments This plan also aims to reduce the vulnerability of forests against the fire hazards across the diverse forest ecosystems in the country And this will be done by enhancing the capabilities of institutions in fighting fires and by exhilarating the recovery after a fire incidence And this plan particularly proposes nine strategies to address the issue And one of these strategies is establishment of a center of excellence on forest fire management at the Forest Survey of India Then the national plan also acknowledges the role of Forest Survey of India in providing timely forest fire alerts to the state forest departments and to the communities Now these forest fire alerts are disseminated by the Forest Survey of India And this is based on the inputs from two collaborative arrangements between NASA, ISRO and ISRO FSI For providing the forest fire alerts, the fire hot spots are detected first For this purpose, two satellite systems are used. One is MODIS and the other is SNPP VIIRIS that is moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer and then SWAMI national polar orbiting partnership hyphen visible infrared imaging radiometer suite Now the comparison of these two satellite systems is provided here for your reference Now the fire hot spots which are detected by these two satellite systems are received at a Earth station of National Remote Sensing Center and then it is processed using NASA's algorithm And in this representation you can see how the forest fire alert system works Now based on this an analysis of fire prone forest areas was carried out by the FSI And the findings of this analysis has emerged from the forest fire points that were identified across the country from the year 2004 to 2017 And the forest fire points that were identified during this 13 year period adds up to more than 277,000 And further the findings of this study indicate that nearly 4 percentage of the country's forest cover is extremely prone to fire Whereas 6 percentage of the forest cover is found to be very highly fire prone And more than 36 percentage of the country's forest cover has been estimated prone to frequent forest fires And from this data we can say that about 21.40 percentage of the forest cover of the country is highly to extremely fire prone And if you look at this map it shows the fire prone forest areas in the country under different categories That is under extreme fire prone very highly fire prone highly fire prone moderately fire prone less fire prone Now from this you can see that most of the fire prone forest areas are found in the northeastern region and the central part of the country And among the northeastern region mesorum is most extremely fire prone That is because about 30 percentage of total forest cover in mesorum are of extremely fire prone forest areas Even you can see this clearly in this map because you can see the dark red spots more in mesorum So what is the reason for these most forest fires in the northeastern region? According to a scientist of zoological survey of India, one of the major reasons for forest fires in the northeast is the slash and burn cultivation This slash and burn cultivation is commonly called as zoom cultivation or zoom cultivation In this zoom cultivation the jungle is cleared in the dry months before the monsoon starts Here the trees and the shrubs are cut and the entire plot with the trees and shrubs is allowed to dry for a month or so And before the rains the plot is set on fire and the ash covered burnt soil is thoroughly Hored and mixed with the ash and after this the cultivation is done And that is why we say it is a slash and burn cultivation Even some of the other reasons for forest fires are mostly man-made according to the scientists And this is most common where people visit forests and leave burning beady cigarette stubs and other inflamable materials Now you may have a question that whether all the reasons for these forest fires are man-made Actually, no there are many natural reasons also and one of the natural reason is thunderstorms Because we know that thunderstorm is a violent short-lived weather disturbance that is almost always associated with Lightning thunder dense clouds heavy rain and strong and gusty winds So in a thunderstorm there is lightning and this lightning sets the trees on fire And this leads to the forest fires in the forest areas So in this discussion we discussed about the forest fires and which are the areas in India which are prone to forest fires And what are the reasons behind these forest fires with this we come to the end of this discussion Moving on to the next discussion. This discussion is based on the Bhima-Koregaon battle The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference The news article mentions that today is the 202nd anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle Originally the battle was fought on 1st January 1818 This Bhima-Koregaon battle was a part of Anglo-Maratha Wars So in this context we will see about the Maratha Kingdom Then about the Anglo-Maratha Wars and the significance of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in the present context The Maratha Kingdom was founded by Chhatrapati Shivaji and at that time Rhaigarh was the capital of the Maratha Kingdom And Shivaji was a contemporary of Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb Chhatrapati Shivaji and the successors of the Maratha Kingdom expanded their territory because of their able administration And in their rule the Peshwas were known as the Prime Ministers The Peshwas ruled the Maratha Kingdom's expanded territory with their local chiefs And this expanded territory was known as Maratha Confederacy And by the end of 1760 the Maratha Kingdom emerged as one of the strongest Kingdom with Pune As it's capital as you can see in this map However in the third battle of Panipat which took place on 14 January 1761 The Marathas were defeated in the hands of Afghan invader Ahmad Shah Abdaali Then after the third battle of Panipat the influence of Maratha Kingdom started to decline During the last years of 18th century the influence of the Marathas further declined It is because of the race of British rule and also because of the defeat of the Marathas in the Anglo-Maratha Wars See there were three Anglo-Maratha Wars and they were fought between 1777 and 1818 These wars were fought between British East India Company and the Maratha Confederacy And the reason for these wars were growing interference of British in the internal matters of the Maratha Confederacy And one of the reason was the British greed for territorial expansion And another reason was to check the power of Marathas. These wars were fought And in this the first war that is the first Anglo-Maratha War was fought between 1775 and 1782 So it ended in 1782 with the Treaty of Salbi In this war there was no clear victory either for Marathas or British Then happened the second Anglo-Maratha War it happened in 1803 to 1805 In this war Marathas lost majority of their territory to British As a result of this British gained Orissa and the territories which were north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi After this came the third and the final Anglo-Maratha War The two main causes that led to the third and the final conflict between the British and the Marathas Were the growing desire of the Marathas to get back their lost territories There was one other reason also it was the excessive British control over the Maratha Chiefs So to tackle this situation the third and the final Anglo-Maratha War was fought in this final war The British East India Company emerged as victorious because of their superior military and the British East India Company crushed the rule of Marathas And as a result the Peshwa was removed and sent away to Bittur near Kanpur with a pension But our today's discussion is about the Bhima-Koregaon battle Now this battle was fought as a part of the third Anglo-Maratha War This battle was fought at the Bhima-Koregaon village which is situated on the banks of Bhima river in Pune district of Maharashtra The Bhima-Koregaon battle was fought between the forces of Peshwa and the British East India Company on 1st January 1818 In this battle the British army comprised primarily of Dalit soldiers and the Peshwa army had an upper caste domination But this battle was won by the Dalit dominated British troops as they defeated the Peshwa army Now to commemorate this battle a memorial pillar was erected by the British This memorial pillar is known as the Koregaon Runstam or the Vijay Runstam which translates to a victory pillar So after passing several years, particularly in the recent decades Bhima-Koregaon battle has assumed significance It has become a symbol in Maharashtra for celebrating Dalit pride As the Bhima-Koregaon battle was fought in 1818 2018 which was two years before marked the 200th anniversary of the victory of Bhima-Koregaon battle And this year marks the 200 second anniversary So to mark this occasion a large number of people from different states visit the Koregaon Runstam to pay homage And this is what the news article mentions So in this news article we discussed about the Bhima-Koregaon battle about the Maratha kingdom and about the three Anglo-Maratha wars And the significance of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in the present scenario With this we come to the end of this news article discussion The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session Moving on to the next discussion. This discussion is about the Swatch Surveillance League 2020 In this area there are different news articles in three editions today So in this discussion we will be seeing about Swatch Surveillance 2020 Then about the Swatch Surveillance League 2020 and the different categories of ranking for this Swatch Surveillance League 2020 The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference We know that the Swatch Bharat mission was launched in 2014 for a five year period And the objective of the Swatch Bharat mission was to achieve 100 percentage open defecation free status in India And it had two components. One is Swatch Bharat urban and then is Swatch Bharat gramming And in this our today's focus will be on Swatch Bharat urban The target of this Swatch Bharat urban is creating urban India open defecation free Which is clearly stated in its objective that the Swatch Bharat urban mission is to achieve 100 percent Open defecation free status and 100 percentage solid waste management in all urban local bodies And also as we know this is implemented by the union ministry of housing and urban affairs If you see in December 2019 the union ministry of housing and urban affairs has said that Swatch Bharat mission urban has achieved its target Of creating urban India ODF that is open defecation free It states that the urban areas of 35 states or union territories have become open defecation free Now to enhance this status and to make the cities to compete with each other in a positive spirit An innovative survey is being conducted every year since 2016 and it is conducted by the ministry of housing and urban affairs And obviously it is conducted under Swatch Bharat mission urban Now this survey is called as the Swatch Survection And in this we know Swatch means cleanliness and Survection means survey Now this survey focuses on different parameters every year and you can see these different parameters in this picture If you see in the last survey the focus was on sustainability and this year the objective of this Swatch Survection League 2020 is sustaining the on-ground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance in cleanliness So this year's focus is to institutionalize swachhita, which means to make cleanliness as a norm Here if you see we are using two different terms one is Swatch Survection 2020 and the other one is Swatch Survection League 2020 In this the Swatch Survection 2020 is the annual survey which is scheduled to happen from 4th January 2020 till 31st January 2020 And the Swatch Survection League is a part of this Swatch Survection 2020 If you see in this picture the Swatch Survection League 2020 carries only 25 percentage of weightage Apart from this equal weightage of 25 percentage each is given to citizens feedback direct observation and certification of cities So remember that Swatch Survection League 2020 is not a final ranking of the cities It is a part of Swatch Survection 2020 The main idea of having this Swatch Survection League is to continuously assess the service level progress of the cities So as to sustain the ODF status So now you may be thinking what is this league? See league literally means group Now until last year the survey was conducted once in a year But this year as part of this Swatch Survection 2020 continuous assessment was made with the help of Swatch Survection League 2020 and it was conducted in three quarters April to June 2019 July to September 2019 October to December 2019 So it was done in groups. That is the reason why it is called as Swatch Survection League 2020 Now in this league 2020 the entire focus is to assess the service level progress of solid waste management This includes various components that are involved in solid waste management like transportation and collection of solid waste Then processing and disposal of solid waste then sustainable sanitation then capacity building etc And in this the ranks for cities have been assigned in two categories One category is for the cities with population of 1 lakh and above and this category is further divided into two subcategories One is cities with 10 lakh population and above and then the cities with 1 to 10 lakh population Then the second category is the cities with population of less than 1 lakh under this category The rankings are given zone wise and population wise There are five zones north east west south and northeast and the population categories are less than 25,000 Then 25,000 to 50,000 and then 50,000 to 1 lakh Apart from this rankings have also been given for the cantonment boards in India Now we know that cantonment board is a corporate body under the cantonment act of 2006 And as you have seen cantonment is a place where the soldiers and their families live So this cantonment board is a civic administration body So that is why they have also been included in this ranking And then finally an overall composite ranking is also provided Which includes all the categories including the cantonment boards So in this context the ministry of housing and urban affairs has released the results for the first two quarters That is for quarter one and quarter two As you can see in this table the urban local bodies from the states of gujarat and madhya pradesh Have dominated the rankings of both these quarter one and quarter two And among the cities with more than 10 lakh population Indoor city which is located in madhya pradesh has topped the list And the indoor city has topped both in quarter one and quarter two And under the category of cities with 1 to 10 lakh population the city of jamshedpur Which is located in jharkhand has been ranked the first Then in this news article it is mentioned that the bungalow urban local body has got a better ranking than 2018 And this was achieved by the various initiatives taken by the bungalow urban local body It had taken steps to treat the leachate Here leachate is a liquid that passes through a landfill and has extracted dissolved and suspended matters from it So they have taken steps to treat this leachate And they have introduced biometric attendance for all workers to ensure they work regularly and the cleanliness is ensured And they have also appointed marshals to check indiscriminate dumping of waste Then it has provided handheld machines to levy spot fines those who violate the rules And even some steps have been taken to set up a state of the art smart control room for solid waste management Even this news article mentions that this bungalow urban local body received the odf tag for the first time So this means the initiatives taken by the bungalow urban local body has been successful So it can be used by other cities and urban local bodies also So that is all about this discussion In this discussion we saw about switch survey action 2020 then about switch survey action leak 2020 And we also saw which city topped in the ranking of switch survey action leak 2020 With this we come to the end of this discussion The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session Moving on to the next news article discussion This discussion is based on a supreme code to verdict on transfer of community resources The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference We know that in order to enjoy life in its fullest sense Every person needs certain resources such as we need fresh air, clean water, clean environment, education, health, etc And among the resources the most important resources are the community resources These community resources are the resources that can improve the quality of life of an entire community in a particular area For example ponds, lakes, fresh air, clean environment, etc are community resources So it shall be the duty of every citizen as well as the duty of the state To protect, to preserve and to carefully use the community resources Now this was recognized by the lawmakers So they have inserted related provisions in the constitution for this purpose One of such provision is provided in the fundamental duties under article 51 capital A This article provides for certain moral obligations on the citizens of India Particularly article 51 capital A clause G says that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife And to have compassion for living creatures Based on this only we are saying it shall be the duty of every citizen to protect, preserve and carefully use the community resources Now we know that the fundamental duties are non-justiceable But even though we are under moral obligation to obey them Here non-justiceable means if these duties are violated then they cannot be taken to court for enforcement So in this sense always remember that fundamental rights are enforceable But fundamental duties and directive principles of state policies are non-enforceable Now the next such provision is article 48a This article comes under the directive principles of state policies This article states that the state shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country Hence by this we can say that the state is also under a moral obligation to preserve the environment So that it will result in the welfare of its citizens So these are the constitutional provisions that you should know with respect to the protecting, preserving and carefully using of community resources Now today's news is that the supreme court has given a verdict on transfer of community resources The supreme court verdict is based on a plea by an environmental activist The plea was against the transfer of certain village ponds and sites in the national capital region to some private industrialists This transfer was done by the greater noida industrial development authority So in this matter the supreme court has ordered the authorities and the industrialists to remove all obstructions And to restore the water bodies within three months Now this judgment and some of the observation made by the supreme court in this judgment is important for us The supreme court has noted that the transfer of invaluable community resources like village water ponds to a few powerful people and to industrialists for the commercialization of property are grossly illegal Now supreme court made this point on the basis that many areas of the country apparently face water crisis And they already have inadequate access to drinking water And if the water ponds are transferred to powerful people and industrialists for commercialization Then the water resources will deplete more The supreme court further observed that common areas or resources are the lifeline of village communities These common areas often sustain various chores and provide necessary resources for life They are also the life for local flora and fauna hence the protection of such village commons Is essential to safeguard the fundamental right guaranteed by article 21 of our constitution Now this point is based on the basis that water bodies are an important source of fishery And they are also needed to have portable water that is drinking water So the water bodies provide necessary resources to lead a life And even our article 21 declares that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty Except according to procedure established by law Now this right is available to both citizens and non-citizens that we know And in particular in the menaka gandhi versus union of india case of 1978 The supreme court had given a wider interpretation of article 21 It ruled that the right to life and personal liberty of a person can be deprived by a law Provided the procedure prescribed by that law is reasonable fair and just In other words the supreme court had introduced the concept of due process of law So the protection under article 21 is available against arbitrary legislative and executive actions And transferring of village ponds and sites to private industrialists is an arbitrary Executive action according to the supreme court That is why supreme court has said that it is against article 21 of our constitution The supreme court further observed that the state cannot deprive villagers of their existing source of water Even if it promises to provide them an alternative site where the water body can be replicated Now in this the supreme court noted that this particular attitude will display a mechanical application of environmental protection The supreme court noted this because it simply means that a water body is much more than a mere means for providing water A water body is a part of the life of people who are living nearby life of local flora and fauna etc So based on this the court observed that even if an alternate water body is formed There is no guarantee that the adverse effects of destroying the existing water body could be offset or it would be diminished And also if such an alternate water body is formed then it will compel the people to travel miles to access the alternative site So based on this supreme court noted that authorities and the powerful people should not encroach upon common lands for their personal aggrandizement That is they should not encroach upon common lands for the increase of their own power or wealth So these are the information that you should know from this news article With this we come to the end of this discussion The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session moving on to the next discussion This news article is related to the nadandai vari kaveri project The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference in this discussion We will discuss the objectives of this nadandai vari kaveri project and then we will discuss about the river kaveri This nadandai vari kaveri is a project of tamilado government Now in this nadandai vari kaveri means eternal kaveri This project aims to abate pollution It aims to conserve and rejuvenate kaveri and its main tributaries on the line of namami ganga program As we know this namami ganga program also aims to rejuvenate a river which is the river ganga So on the same lines this nadandai vari kaveri aims to conserve and rejuvenate river kaveri and its main tributaries The project includes riverfront development such as a forest station along the banks Developing recreational areas etc And it also includes building sewage treatment plants to augment the existing capacity and it also includes river surface cleaning According to this news article the estimated cost of this project is more than 11 000 crores So for this the state government was expecting central financial assistance So that the state government can successfully complete the project But according to this news article the center was appreciative of the idea of rejuvenating kaveri But it did not commit for financial assistance That is why the news article mentions that the center is unlikely to fund the kaveri project So that was about the news article Now in this context it becomes important to know the geographical aspects of this river kaveri Now know that the kaveri river is also known as ponni in tamil it originates in talakaviri Which is located in brahmagiri hills of western cards in the kolagu district of karnataka Then it flows into tamilladu and on its course it divides the states into north and south And finally it flows into the bay of bengal at poombuhaar in tamilladu or which is also known as kaveri poompattinam So from this you can easily say that kaveri is an interstate river with a total catchment area of more than 81 150 square kilometers is spread over the states of karnataka kerala and tamilladu and the union territory of puducheri Some of the important tributaries of this river kaveri are harangi, hemavati and arkavati They are the important left bank tributaries. Then important right bank tributaries are kabini, bhavani, laxmantirtha, noel and amravati And also know that two important waterfalls are located in this river kaveri They are sivasamudram falls and hogenical waterfalls And in this sivasamudram falls is located in karnataka and hogenical waterfalls is located in tamilladu Then there are also some important dams over kaveri. They are krishna rajasagar dam, then metu dam, then the grand anikat dam Which is also known as kallanai dam Now in this you should note that the kallanai dam is originally constructed by the chola king karigalan Or karigala cholan and it was constructed in the second century ad So these are the important geographical aspects that you should know about this kaveri river Whether this we come to the end of this discussion, the split practice question will be discussed in the last session Moving on to the last discussion for the day, which is based on this editorial This editorial talks about the terrorist attacks in the country of Somalia The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference There was a recent terrorist attack in Somalia, which happened on December 28, 2019 It happened in the Somalia's capital Mogadishu And this terrorist attack killed at least 79 people and it injured 149 people And this incident indicates the increasing terrorist threats in Somalia And this attack was carried out by the terrorist organization Al Shabab. Al Shabab is the Al Kaida linked terrorist group This group was driven out from Mogadishu in 2011 by international forces We will see how later in this discussion Even before this attack, already in 2017 a similar attack happened and that attack was considered to be the deadliest attack in the country of Somalia Now this organization Al Shabab carries out such attacks to undermine the government of Somalia It is because the government of Somalia is backed by the United Nations and African Union troops So in this context, let us see about the brief history of Somalia and Al Shabab Which is discussed throughout this editorial and we'll discuss about the rise and influence of Al Shabab over the African country Somalia See Somalia is ethnically, religiously and linguistically homogeneous country But the country's population is divided into clans They have a ISAC clan in northwestern Somalia, Havye clan in central Somalia, Ogaden clansmen in south Somalia So in simple words, we can say that Somalia is ethnically homogeneous, but it is a clan fractured country And before 1950 during the colonial period when Somalia was under Italy and Great Britain The clans of Somalia became a central feature of the state administration and political competition And then Somalia gained independence around 1950 in which the southern regions of Somalia were under different colonial powers After the independence the northern Somali land and the southern regions were united under multiparty democracy And this lasted from 1960 to 1969 What happened in 1969 was a bloodless rebellion This bloodless rebellion resulted in the installment of President Mohammed Sayed Berry So from 1969 to 1978 the Berry regime enjoyed relative popularity and financial support From both the Soviet Union and also from the western institutions But the Berry regime became increasingly oppressive and violent in the late 1970s and also in 1980s So these instances triggered the withdrawal of vital US support for the Berry regime This US support came into Somalia by 1992 We will see about this later in this discussion And the violent and oppressive instances also attracted the sympathy from neighboring countries Towards the Somalis So all this together threatened Berry's regime So as Berry's regime was weakening a number of clan based militias arose to secure control over their respective areas of the country The Berry regime continued to launch targeted attacks against the civilian population throughout 1990 This resulted in the government to lose the ground and eventually the government retained control over only some 10 to 15 percent of the state territory So due to this by january 1991 Berry fled the capital after the flight of Berry the inter clan fighting was More intensified in the same year the former british protectorate of Somali land declared Unilateral independence that is they self declared their independence The Somali land lies in northwestern Somalia on the southern coast of gulf of Aden In addition to this the inter clan fighting caused disruptions of the livelihood of agro-pastoral communities So these incidents all together resulted in a famine in Somalia that began in 1992 The famine in Somalia paved the way for an international military and humanitarian intervention in Somalia So a joint u.s. United Nations forces entered Somalia under the united task force banner in december 1992 After this already continuing fight of inter clan militia also continued during this period now because of these International interventions new casualties arose due to the fighting between international forces and Somali militias And in a black hawk dawn incident 18 american soldiers were killed after this incident us troops gradually withdrew from Somalia in 1994 and 1995 And during this period was the first time where al-shabaab rose from anarchy That is they rose by exploiting the chaos and lawlessness that prevailed over the country and al-shabaab Spread its influence quite fast across Somalia. It even captured mogadishu, which is the Somali capital After this incident the us and african union troops which were backing the federal government of Somalia removed al-shabaab So it created a new conflict between the al-shabaab and the internationally backed federal government Since then the group has been attacking the government and also attacking the people residing in the government controlled areas Through guerrilla warfare and and terror strikes Not only this al-shabaab terrorist organization even other militant groups including Islamic state faction are also on the rise in the Somalia country Then after al-shabaab was removed by the federal government with the help of international backing by 1998 The punthland region which lies in the northeastern Somalia declared itself as autonomous state The region declared it to avoid the clan warfare that was engulfing the southern Somalia But internationally punthland is still recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia only Then after this by 2007 african union troops landed in Somalia's capital mogadishu Against the battles between islamist insurgents and the government forces which were backed by Ethiopian troops At the same time the un security council authorized six months peacekeeping mission So by 2009 Ethiopia withdrew its troops completely And currently if you see security of Somalia is largely taken care of by african union mission The african union mission has stated that it is preparing for condition based handover of national security responsibility to the Somali government But in reality if you see the security situation is so fragile in the country That it is doubtful whether the Somali government could hold itself together if the international troops pull out of the country So this was about the political history of Somalia now to understand the problems that are engulfing Somalia We should first know about the present Somalian government If you see the type of government in Somalia, it is federal in structure The federal government of Somalia was established in august 2012 and it was established under the federal constitution So there are six federal member states and a banadir regional administration, which is the mogadishu municipality The six plus one form the federal government The six federal members are Somaliland, punchland, galmadug, heshabel, southwest state, jubaland You can see these states in this map clearly Then in 2017 Muhammad Abdullahi Firmaho, who is known as Firmaho was elected as the president of Somalia with the support of african union mission And Firmaho also promised to restore Somalia's dignity and to bring peace and reconciliation to the country during his four year tenure So this is about the present Somali government Now let us discuss the internal and the external problems that are engulfing Somalia First is that the Firmaho's federal government and the governments of Somalia's six federal states have been unable to overcome their disagreements Over the division of power and resources among them Then the second problem is that the islamist al-shabaab insurgency has proved resilient And they could not be wiped out completely even today And the third problem is that a standoff between semi-autonomous federal state of punchland and the self-declared republic of Somaliland threatens to escalate into an open war And then final problem is that there is a sharp deterioration of Somali government's relations with the united arab Emirates It is because UAE perceives the Somalian government as too close to Qatar And we know that in july 2017 gulf crisis the gulf countries imposed an economic blockade to Qatar So it is like whoever the Qatar supports UAE will not support And this perception of UAE is true. The Somali government has backing from Qatar and also from turkey So because of this the other gulf countries including the UAE supports and funds the Somalias federal states They do not support the Somalian government So it is expected that the gulf crisis will further deepen the Somalias already divided politics And it will further aggravate the tensions between the Mogadishu and the Somali regions So this was about the brief history and politics of the country Somalia, which was discussed in the editorial Now let us discuss about the geography of Somalia from prelims point of view The country of Somalia is located in the horn of Africa It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west the Gulf of Aden to the north and Kenya to the southwest And even the country claims a border with Djibouti through the disputed territory of Somaliland So how Somalia is important? It is strategically important for international trade as it lies along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean Even the foreign navies including those of US and China have a strong presence in this region The US also has a huge military base in neighboring Djibouti And US is using this military base to carry out air strikes on militants in Somalia And also the gulf nations have had trade and religious ties with Somalia for centuries And today they are fighting over Somalia with the desire to control the horn of Africa and its waters Because it is close to vital oil routes and its ports could serve the landlocked Ethiopia, which has a population of 100 million So these are the strategic importance of Somalia In this discussion, we discussed about the politics of Somalia, history of Somalia, the geographical aspects of Somalia And the strategic importance of Somalia With this we come to the end of news article discussion sessions The displayed practice question will be discussed in the next session, which is the practice questions discussion session This question is based on Anglo-Maratha wars. We have to choose the incorrect statement The first statement states Chhatrapati Shivaji led Maratha forces in the first Anglo-Maratha war This statement is wrong because Shivaji lived from 1627 to 1680 And as we know he was the founder of Maratha Kingdom And he was a contemporary of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb that is they both existed in the same period But if you see the Anglo-Maratha wars, they were fought between 1777 to 1818 And these wars were fought between British East India Company and the Maratha Confederacy So this statement is wrong. So the final answer should contain statement one So you can eliminate option A and option C Now the next statement states one of the reasons for Anglo-Maratha wars Is the growing influence of the British East India Company in the internal affairs of the Maratha Confederacy This statement is correct because it was one of the reasons And along with this there were other reasons also such as the British greed for territorial expansion And also to check the power of Marathas, the wars were fought So the second statement is correct, which means it should not be in the final answer So we can eliminate option D also. So the correct answer to this question is option B one and three only Now let us see why third option is incorrect Bhima-Koregaon battle was part of the third battle of Panipat in which Maratha forces were defeated Now remember that the third battle of Panipat happened in 1761 But this Bhima-Koregaon battle happened in 1818 So if you know the years you can simply say this is a wrong statement Or else you can easily remember that Bhima-Koregaon battle was a part of third Anglo-Maratha war and not the third battle of Panipat And also remember that in this Bhima-Koregaon battle the Dalit dominated British troops defeated the Peshwa army And to commemorate this victory day the British built a memorial pillar also Which is known as Koregaon runs Thumb or Vijay Stump Now this next question is based on river Kaveri The first statement states it originates in the Brahmagiri hills in the western gods and it is an intrastate river Now the first half of this statement is correct It originates in the Brahmagiri hills of western gods only which is situated in Kodugge district of Karnataka But it is not an intrastate river. It is an interstate river Intrastate means it flows within the state itself But Kaveri flows from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu So it is an interstate river and not an intrastate river. So this statement is wrong Here the question asks for the correct statement So you can eliminate option A and C because it contains statement one Then the second statement states the grand anecdote located in Kaveri Was originally built by Chola king Karegaon Now even if you don't know whether this is correct or not looking at the options you can say it is correct Because the remaining options V and D both contain two. So this is a correct statement The third statement states Arcavati Bhavani and Noyil are its tributaries This statement is also correct Arcavati is an important left bank tributary of Kaveri and Bhavani and Noyil are right bank tributaries So the final correct answer to this question is option B, 2 and 3 only Now this next question is based on Swachh survey The first statement states it is a nationwide survey to rank cities And villages based on various sanitation and cleanliness parameters Now this statement is wrong because it is a nationwide survey to rank cities only not villages Here the question asks for the incorrect statement Here first statement is incorrect So you can eliminate option C because it does not contain statement one And you can also eliminate option D because it mentions none of the above That means all the above statements are correct This is also wrong because statement one is wrong Now coming to the second statement it is conducted by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under Government of India This statement is a correct statement By looking at the option you can easily say the correct answer to this question is option A, 1 only And the third statement is correct because the concept of continuous survey has been introduced in Swachh survey in 2020 only Now this next question is based on geography It asks Somalia has common borders with Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan Now if you see all these countries are situated in the east part of African continent And from this map you can easily say that Eritrea does not share borders with Somalia and so does South Sudan and Uganda So the correct answer is Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya Now let us see one main question based on GS paper 2 Not just the government but each and every one of us are under constitutional and moral obligation to preserve community resources elaborate Now to answer this question first you can define what do we mean by community resources Then you can talk about the constitutional provisions Which mentions that it is a moral obligation for the government and for the people to preserve community resources So you can mention about article 51 capital A clause G Then you can mention about article 48a which discusses about the duty of the government in this regard Then you can talk about the fundamental right of article 21 which is about right to life So it encompasses right to decent environment including pollution free water and air right to livelihood etc And you can also mention about the recent supreme court judgment which we discussed today in which the supreme court has Stressed the fact that it is necessary to preserve community resources for the overall welfare of the community Especially for the welfare of the poor With this we have come to the end of news article discussion sessions and the practice questions discussion session If you like the video, don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation