 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar A.S. Academy. Today's date is 17th of February 2023, displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. Today we have chosen 8 different news articles from the newspaper. So without much delay, let us get into the first news article discussion. Now let us take up this data point from yesterday's newspaper. This data point highlights the rising trend of off-budget borrowing by the states. So in our discussion today, we will see what are off-budget borrowings, the role of off-budget borrowings and we will see the important data mentioned in the news article. Now before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can pause the video and go through it. Now firstly, why does a government need to borrow money? See in a welfare state like India, it is not a surprise that our government expenditure is more than the government revenue. This difference between the government expenditure and revenue is called a deficit. To address this deficit, the government borrows money from the market. Now how does the government borrow money? See the union government borrows money from the market by issuing government securities and treasury bills. And the state government borrows money from the market by issuing state developmental loans. The amount of money that the government needs to borrow to address the deficit is equal to the fiscal deficit. For example, according to the 2023-24 union budget, the union government is expected to borrow around 17 lakh crores from the market. Like this, each state government will have a fiscal deficit and to address the fiscal deficit, the state government will resort to market borrowings. The fiscal deficit of the government is a very important metric. This is because the fiscal deficit shows the health of the government finances. If the fiscal deficit is very high, it shows that the government is resorting heavily to borrowing to fuel its expenditure. Also when the fiscal deficit is very high, the interest rate that the government must pay to borrow from the market also increases. So governments usually try to reduce their fiscal deficit. Here, the government can reduce the fiscal deficit by reducing government spending or by increasing government revenue or by increasing the total output, which is nothing but GDP. These are some reliable and sustainable ways to reduce the fiscal deficit. There is another unsustainable way to reduce the fiscal deficit of the government. In this way, the government instead of reducing its borrowing, transfers the borrowing responsibility to a PSU or a special purpose vehicle. This method of government borrowing is called off-budget borrowing. So basically, off-budget borrowings or loans obtained by government entities like PSUs or special purpose vehicles on behalf of the government to finance its expenditure. In case of off-budget borrowing, the market borrowing is not done by the government. It is done mostly by a PSU or a special purpose vehicle. But these PSU and PSVs are not borrowing for themselves but for the government. So it is the government who has to repay the loans. Now you may have a question. Anyway the money is ending up with the government and the government has to repay the loan, then why is the government resorting to off-budget borrowing and making the PSUs and SPVs borrow? This is because according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, these borrowings are not included while computing the debt and fiscal deficit of the government. So by using the off-budget mode of borrowing, the government can borrow more money from the market without an increase in fiscal deficit. More than the union government, it is the state governments that primarily resort to off-budget borrowing. If you are asking why, this is because in the case of state government, to ensure their financial stability, the union government places a limit on their market borrowing. For example, according to the 2023-24 budget, the market borrowing limit of the state government is 3% of their GSDP and this limit can be enhanced to 3.5% of GSDP when the state government takes up power sector reforms. So the state government has a constraint in their borrowing limit. Innovatively, the states resort to off-budget borrowing and shift the burden to a PSU or SPV. This is the main reason why the off-budget borrowing of state government is increasing. Now I hope you have a better understanding about off-budget borrowings and why state governments resort to them. So with this understanding, now let us see the data mentioned in the article. Now look at this graph. This graph shows the off-budget borrowing of state as of March 2021. From this graph, we can clearly see that it is the southern states who have used this mode of borrowing the most. According to CAG report, five southern states that is Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka accounted for 2.34 lakh crore rupees that is around 93% of the total off-budget liabilities of 11 major states analyzed. The CAG while presenting this data mentioned that resorting to off-budget borrowing might push the states into a debt trap. Here debt trap is a situation where a government is forced to take on new loans simply to repay existing ones. To put it in simple words, a debt trap occurs when a government's debt obligations exceed its loan repayment capacity. Then the article provides data regarding the debt to GSTP ratio of the states. To ensure a stable financial condition, the state have fixed themselves debt to GSTP ratio. Here debt to GSTP ratio as the name indicates the ratio between total debt of the state divided by the state's GSTP. So now look at this table, here focus on the data for Andhra Pradesh. AP's debt to GSTP ratio is 35.3, Andhra Pradesh target debt to GSTP is 35, so here the condition is not so bad right, you might think like that, but the condition is actually very bad in Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh debt to GSTP ratio without accounting for off-budget borrowing is 35.3. But if we include off-budget borrowing, Andhra Pradesh debt to GSTP ratio increases to 44. This is the cause of worry, and this is why the CAG has said off-budget borrowing might push the state into a debt trap. So these are all some of the important points they have to make note of from this news article discussion. You can make a note of all the important data given in this article and use it wherever it is necessary to substantiate your answer. So in this news article discussion, we saw in detail about what is off-budget borrowings. Off-budget borrowings are nothing but loans obtained by government entities like PSUs or special purpose vehicles on behalf of the government to finance its expenditure. Such borrowings are called off-budget borrowings. And this data point proves us off-budget borrowing is bad since it can lead to debt trap of states. According to the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, these borrowings are not included while computing the debt and the fiscal deficit of the government. So by using the off-budget mode of borrowing, the government can borrow more money from the market without an increase in fiscal deficit. This ultimately will result in debt trap of the state government. So that is what is given in this news article. So with these learnt points, let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this news article. It says that around 17 anti-retroviral therapy centres in Tamil Nadu lack doctors. Because of this, people living with HIV or AIDS are finding it difficult to find proper healthcare. The post of counsellors, nurses, pharmacists and community care coordinators were vacant in ART centres. Apart from this, many centres lacked drinking water facilities and toilets for HIV patients. The article also highlights other issues as well. The PLHA, that is people living with HIV or AIDS, have to undergo liver function test and renal function test every six months. However, these tests are done only at ART centres in government medical college hospitals. Thorough hospitals don't have these tests, which is an issue. Apart from this, there are no drugs available for opportunistic infections at any of the ART centres. So what are opportunistic infections? See they are illnesses that occur more frequently and are more severe in people with HIV. This is because they have damaged immune systems and they are prone to infections very easily than people without AIDS. Then one more issue is that many government hospitals are reluctant to perform surgeries on PLHAs. This may be due to the social stigma attached towards the HIV patients. So these are some of the important points highlighted in the news article. Now in this backdrop, let us learn a few facts about HIV and the antiretroviral therapy in detail. So first of all, you should be clear about the terms AIDS and HIV because often these words are used interchangeably. So HIV or human immunodeficiency virus is an infectious virus that affects the immune system. So what it will do is, it will weaken the immune function to fight against invading diseases. However AIDS that is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is the final stage of HIV infection where patients will have pneumonia, fatigue, weight loss and other complications. Clear? Also know that there are three stages in HIV, acute HIV, chronic HIV which is also known as clinical latency stage and AIDS. Okay? So how does HIV gets transmitted? Today HIV can be transmitted through cement, vaginal fluid during unprotected sex, blood or drug infusion, using unsterilized needles or instruments and breast milk or by mother to child infection during pregnancy. However, HIV can be treated if detected early and if the person receives the medication strictly and continuously. So how are they treated? It is using the antiretroviral therapy. So basically this antiretroviral therapy is the treatment of HIV patients using anti-HIV drugs. It uses a combination of drugs that will suppress HIV replication. These drugs are often called as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART. So this treatment reduces mortality and morbidity rates among HIV infected people and therefore it improves their quality of life. It prevents even the HIV transmission by suppressing HIV replication in persons living with the virus. Here regarding this therapy you should know about the concept of U is equal to U that is undetectable equals untransmittable. So what does this mean? See suppose a person A with HIV maintains an undetectable viral load that is very minimum amount of HIV in the blood because he is undertaking the antiretroviral therapy daily as prescribed. Now this person cannot sexually transmit the virus to others. This is because the therapy keeps their viral load very low. A lower viral load means healthier immune system. This will also prevent the person from progressing to AIDS that is the third stage of infection. So how does these HIV drugs work? See basically HIV attacks and destroys the infection fighting CD4 cells that is CD4T lymphocytes of the immune system. So this makes it harder for the body to fight off infections. So what the HIV medicines do is that they prevent HIV from multiplying that is making copy of itself. This reduces the amount of HIV in the body that is the viral load. This gives the immune system a chance to recover and produce more CD4 cells. Even though there would still be some HIV in the body the immune system is stronger enough to fight off infections. So note that once this virus enters the body it can never be removed completely. So that is all you have to note from this news article discussion. So proper treatment of HIV is the necessity here or it will keep on spreading. So when we have a solution why should we stick to a social stigma and leave the people untreated? This will in turn increase the spread or transmission of the disease. So an ethical aspect also is included here that is all you have to know from this news article discussion. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. This news article talks about a 4 day survey conducted jointly by bird watchers and the forest department in the Periyar Tihar reserve. During the survey the authorities have confirmed the presence of a migratory bird named Kashmir flycatcher for the first time inside the reserve. See this Kashmir flycatcher is an insectivorous species that breeds in the northwest Himalayas. Along with that the orange breasted green pgm which is displayed here it has also been spotted at the reserve after a gap of 100 years. Apart from this some of the major bird species spotted in the survey include the nail-giri wood pgm, chestnut winged cuckoo, large hawk cuckoo, malayan night heron, leggies hawk eagle, greater spotted eagle, lesser fish eagle, besra, pallet harir, shrillanka bay owl, great hornbill, white bellied, sholakili and palani chillapan. Other than this nearly 14 threatened and 20 endemic species of birds were spotted in the bird survey. Note that the Periyar Tihar reserve supports 20 out of 26 endemic bird species of the western cuts. So this is the cracks of the news article given here. In this context let us learn few facts about Periyar reserve in Prillam's perspective. Now I read all the birds name just to make you familiarize with the names of the birds because UPSC might ask a question based on the names of birds as well. So now moving on to Periyar Sanctuary. See Periyar Sanctuary is the oldest wildlife sanctuary in Kerala. It is also credited with having the largest protected area. You can note that Periyar Tiger reserve gets its name from the river Periyar which has its origin deep inside the reserve. Talking about its location it falls in the district of Idiqui and Patanamthitta in Kerala. It was declared as Sanctuary during 1950 and declared as Tiger reserve during 1978. Some of the major rivers that flow through the reserve includes Mullayar and Periyar. Here let's see a brief note about Periyar river. See this Periyar river arises from the Sivagiri peak of Sundaramala in Tamil Nadu. From here it moves towards the north where a westward flowing tributary Mullayar joins the river. Here note that it is one of the few west flowing river in our country. Now coming back to PTR. See the Sanctuary comprises tropical evergreen semi-evergreen moist deciduous forest and grasslands and about 1966 species of flowering plants grow in the Sanctuary. Of this about 516 are endemic to the western gods. The Sanctuary is also a repository of medicinal plants numbering to about 300. So this is about the flora part. Now coming to the fauna, the reserve supports mammals like tiger, elephant, lion-tailed macaque, neel-greetar and etc. Birds like daughters, cormorants, kingfishers, the great Malabar hornbill and racquet-tailed drongoes and reptiles like monitor lizards, python, king cobra etc are found in the reserve. Now talking about the tribals residing inside the reserve, see there are 6 tribal communities nested inside the reserve who include Manas, Palyans, Malayarayans, Mala Pandarams, Uralis and Uladans. So these are all some of the very important points that you have to note about Periyar tiger reserve. Making note of all these points you might get a preliminary question in this topic. So these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article it is related to a judgement which is reserved by the supreme court relating to anti-defection law. We will see the details of the article given here through this discussion. See we have discussed about the anti-defection law in detail in our 15th of February Hindu newspaper analysis. This discussion is a continuation of that discussion. So kindly watch that video first to get a complete understanding of this article which we are going to discuss now. See as per 10th schedule of our constitution MPs and enmilies who defect from their party after getting elected on the particular party symbol or prone to disqualify. Any question regarding the disqualification of the defector member is to be decided by the presiding officer of the house. This is as per the provisions of the 10th schedule. This particular clause has been a zone of contention because the presiding officer being a party member will act according to the needs of his party. The impartial nature of the decision making relating to anti-defection law is lost here due to the partition behaviour of the presiding officers. So this clause which allows the speaker to be the deciding officer with respect to the defection cases got challenged in the Nibam rabbi case in the year 2016. Majority judgement of the supreme court in the Nibam rabbi case has held that a speaker or deputy speaker facing notice of removal cannot decide disqualification procedures against legislators. See this particular judgement has been frequently misused by the defecting legislators nowadays. They first pushed through a removal motion towards the speaker before defecting to the other party. This results in speaker losing the power to disqualify the defective legislators. In the meanwhile, the government of the day is toppled due to the passing of no confidence motion aided by the defecting MLA's and the opposition party. This particular issue which I narrated had happened a few months back in Maharashtra. A group of ruling MLA started to rebel against the party leadership. When the issue was brought to the speaker, the speaker tried to disqualify the rebel MLA's using anti-defection law. The rebel MLA's quickly passed a removal motion towards the office of speaker before the speaker could take a decision on their disqualification. Due to the removal motion of speaker which was passed, the speaker wasn't able to disqualify the rebel MLA's. This has substantially resulted in the government losing majority in the house. Finally, the rebel MLA's under the leadership of the rebel leader have now formed the government. A case relating to these events was filed in the Supreme Court asking for a larger constitution bench to relook the judgment given in the NABAM rabbi judgment. As per the article, Supreme Court has now reserved the judgment on whether a large constitution bench will relook the judgment of NABAM rabbi case or not. While hearing the case, CJI has opined that the case was a difficult one to adjudicate as it involves complex questions. Now before ending our discussion, let's look at the recommendations of the law commission with respect to this particular issue. See the law commission in the year 2015 noted that legal challenges against decision taken by speakers on disqualification erode the confidence placed in the office of speaker. The commission recommended that the power to decide on question of disqualification on the ground of defection should be vested with the president or the governor and this power should be exercised based on the advice of the election commission of India. By this way, partition behavior of the speaker can be avoided. So with this we came to the end of this news article discussion. In this news article discussion, we came to know about recent issue relating to anti-defection law on which Supreme Court has reserved its judgment. So with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. It talks about the recent changes introduced in the Kadavar organ donation policy by the Union Health Ministry. From now on, people above the age of 65 years who are in need of organ transplantation will be allowed to get it done. Note that persons above 65 years were until now not allowed to register to get organ transplantation done. But the government has now decided to do away with this particular clause in the national organ and tissue transplant organization guidelines. Apart from this, domicile rules which asked for domicile certificates to get registered for organ transplantation were also changed. So now anyone in India will be allowed to register to get organ transplantation done in any part of India irrespective of their domicile status. So this is the essence of the article given here. In this context, let us learn few facts about Kadavar organ transplantation and the rules regarding it in India. See the term Kadavar organ transplantation refers to the organs which are sourced from the brain dead people and transplanted to those persons who required them. Note that Kadavaric organ donors must be those who have suffered a sudden structural and irreversible damage of the brain. So this is about the term Kadavar organ donation. Now coming to the procedure to get organ transplantation done in our country. See Indian government in order to reduce illegal organ donation has made strict guidelines overseeing the organ transplantation market inside the country. The guidelines regarding organ transplantation are brought out by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization which is in short called as NOTO, N-O-T-T-O. It functions under the Ministry of Health. See this N-O-T-O is the apex body that coordinates with states on the procurement and distribution of organs in compliance with the transplantation of human organs at THOA. So this is about N-O-T-O. Now as I already said the news article which we are seeing right now is about the new change brought forward by N-O-T-O which is relating to organ transplantation. You note that Indians who are looking forward to organ transplantation are allowed to directly register for it with the private hospitals. Foreigners are only allowed to do so after first getting registered with the N-O-T-O. After this process only they are allowed to register with the respective private hospitals which are recognized to do organ transplant in our country. Now this procedure was established after few incidents reported in which the foreigners got the organs before the Indian nationals on the waiting list. Ok so that's all regarding this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw what is cadaver organ transplantation, it refers to the organs which are sourced from the brain dead people and transplanted to those people who required them. Previously people above the age of 65 years who are in need of organ transplantation were not allowed to get it done but from now onwards they are also allowed to get organ transplantation irrespective of their domicile status. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this editorial article as per the article Supreme Court has given permission to fishermen using per se fishing gear to fish beyond territorial waters but within the exclusive economic zone of Tamil Nadu. At the same time Supreme Court also observed certain restrictions. See the background is that Tamil Nadu government banned the per se fishing in February 2022 but in January 2023 Supreme Court issued an interim order against this ban. Now it has given permission to fish within exclusive economic zone using per se gear. So this is the crux of the news article given here. So in this discussion let us see about per se fishing, different conventions, regulations of fishing methods and some of the important points in the editorial. Before that the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here for your reference you can go through it. Let us start with per se fishing. See to understand this look at this image given here. Know that per se means large se which may be drawn into the shape of a back. In simple words it is a large wall of net deployed around an entire area or school of fish. The problem here is that unlike the traditional fish gear, per seigners tend to over fish. So this will endanger the marine biodiversity. If you want to know more about per se fishing watch our December 20th 2022 analysis. As of now know that per se fishing was banned for the reason of over fishing only. Here the author is of opinion that the ban is more concerned about the administrative and transparency aspect. Instead he said that the court should consider the conservation aspect as well. Now with this information let us see about the conventions for the conservation of marine resources and biodiversity which the author feels that the court should have looked into. Firstly we are going to see about the articles 561A and 561B of U1 clause. See these two articles say that coastal states have sovereign rights to ensure that the living and non-living resources of the exclusive economic zone are used, conserved and managed. At the same time they also have the right to make sure that these resources are not subject to over exploitation. Secondly according to articles 61 clause 1 and article 61 clause 2 of U1 clause it is the duty of coastal states to determine the total allowable catch in the exclusive economic zone based on the best scientific evidence available. Now what is the significance of this total allowable catch? 1. It will prevent over exploitation 2. It inculcates sustainability in the fishing practices 3. It maintains maximum sustainable yield. Now thoroughly the author is suggesting to see convention for the conservation of southern bluefin tuna 1993 which is in short called as SBT. See it is a regional fisheries management organization which has the purpose of managing the stocks of the critically endangered southern bluefin tuna. Know that it was signed by Australia, Japan and New Zealand in May 1993. According to the author this will give information about enabling recovery of depleted fishing stocks. Finally according to U1 clause access to exclusive economic zone for exploitation of resources by foreign fleets is solely within the coastal states discretion and also it is subjected to the laws and regulations of the coastal state. So exploitation by other states can also be addressed. And the author feels that these are the conventions that the court should relay on. Apart from this the author is saying that mere restriction on purse saner is not enough. He is suggesting to regulate the fishing methods. Know that now the court has restricted the purse saner to fish on two days Monday and Friday from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. According to the author this is not enough. Okay now think about this now. Majorly what is the concern regarding purse saner fishing? The huge size of the purse saner nets allows maximum catch for the purse saners. So what is the implication of this? It leaves behind insufficient catch for traditional fishermen. Additionally it threatens the biodiversity also right. So here author is quoting certain global measures for the conservation. Firstly he is talking about the 1989 Tarawa declaration of the South Pacific Forum. This declaration is one of the global measures that prohibit drift nets. Know that drift nets are very long nets that drift for hundreds of kilometers in the open sea. The danger in this method is that it entangles and kills everything that encounters the net. Look at this image for better understanding. Secondly he is quoting the 1989 convention for the prohibition of fishing with long drift nets in the South Pacific. This convention went far and restricted the port access for drift net fishing vessels. This was supported by the UNGA by passing resolutions as well. Know that these UNGA resolutions are applicable to the state parties in the high seas. Here high sea means the open ocean especially not within any country's jurisdiction. But it can be applied for preventing overfishing in general and for conservation of fishery management in the exclusive economic zone as well. Now finally before concluding the author is saying that the court should look into the dangers of non-selective fishing technology. Non-selective fishing means any species can be caught including non-target species. Sometimes the non-target species may include the endangered species also. So by saying this the author is asking the purse signer of Tamil Nadu to comply with the conservation measures. Also he is quoting the theory of Garrett Hardin the tragedy of the commons. See it refers to a situation in which individuals with access to a public resource act in their own interest and ultimately deplete the public resource. I hope you can understand what the author is trying to say here. He is saying that fisheries is a public resource and the freedom for the fishermen to access this resource should not be exploited until the depletion of the resource. So these are all some of the points that you have to note from this news article discussion. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now this tiny article says that the government is on its way to reach the target of 10 crore self-help group members by 2024. According to the union minister for rural development number of self-help group members was just 2.35 crore when the BJP government came to power in May 2014. But now it has touched 9 crore. This was said by him in an event where the government signed an agreement with Mishoe for the marketing of products of self-help group. So this is about the news article given here. In this context we are going to see about self-help groups in detail. See self-help group or informal groups of people who come together to address their common problems. So SHGs in India are referred to self-governed, peer-controlled and informal group of people with similar socioeconomic backgrounds who are having a desire for common good. Know that SHGs promote small savings among their members. The savings are kept with the bank. This is the common fund in the name of the self-help group. The self-help group gives small loans to its members from its common fund. Now how SHGs are formed? See an educated and helpful local person has to initially help the poor people to form groups. He or she tells them about the benefits of thrift and the advantages of forming groups. This person is called an animator or facilitator. Usually the animator is a person who is already known to the community. He or she helps the group members to hold one or two initial meetings. The group finds a group leader for holding meetings, keeping books etc. The animator guides and encourages the leader and the group member. So this is how SHGs are formed. So what are all the benefits of self-help groups? See firstly it inculcates the process of saving and banking habits among the members. So this will empower members financially, economically and socially. Thirdly it enhances the confidence along with the capabilities of women. So it inspires women to take up various social responsibilities mainly related to women's all-round development. Fifthly it acts as the forum for members to render space and support to one another. So it is an effective strategy for poverty, alleviation, human development and social empowerment. So that is all you have to know about this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw in detail about who are self-help groups, how they are formed and some of the benefits associated with self-help groups. We saw that SHGs are informal groups of people who come together to address their common problems. There will be an animator to guide and encourage the leader and the group members. And some of the benefits of SHGs includes inculcating the process of saving and banking habits among the members, empowering members financially, economically and socially, enhancing the confidence along with the capabilities of women, then inspiring women to take part in social responsibilities. And it is an effective strategy for poverty, alleviation. So with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. According to the news article, the Union Rural Development Minister mentioned the financial burden of MG Nareka must be shared by the states. He said, this will help the states become proactive and curb corruption. He also mentioned that MG Nareka is not a regular employment scheme. MG Nareka is only meant to be a fallback mechanism for those who could not find employment anywhere else. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us revise MG Nareka scheme. See, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 is the social security measure that aims to guarantee the right to work. It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. In addition to this, there is a provision for additional 50 days of unskilled wage employment in a financial year in drought or natural calamity notified rural areas. Know that Section 3, Clause 4 of the MG National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 allows the state government to make provisions for providing additional days beyond the period guaranteed under the Act. But it has to be done from the state government's own fund. Here note that this act is only limited to the rural hinterlands of our country and not to the urban areas. Now let's see the history behind the act. See, the act was first proposed in the year 1991 by the then Prime Minister of India P. V. Narasimha Rav. It was finally accepted in the parliament in the year 2006 and commenced implementation in 625 districts of India. Based on this pilot experience, N. Reka was scoped up to cover all the districts of India from 1st April 2008. The statute is hailed by the then government as the largest and most ambitious social security and public works program in the world. Even the World Bank in its World Development Report 2014 termed it a stellar example of rural development. See, there are all certain conditions for providing employment under the act. The conditions or that employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant's residence and minimum wage or to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance. This makes employment under M. G. Narega a legal entitlement. Okay, M. G. Narega is implemented mainly by grand panchayats of the areas across which the work is allotted. Here the involvement of contractors is completely banned. Labour intensive tasks like creating infrastructure for water harvesting, drought relief and flood control are the preferred mode of providing employment under the M. G. Narega. The nodal ministry which is tasked with the implementation of the scheme is the Ministry of Rural Development. Now, let us see some of the outcomes of the implementation of M. G. Narega. See, M. G. Narega helps in providing economic security and creating rural assets. Apart from this, N. Reka can help in protecting the environment, empowering rural women and fostering social equality. M. G. Narega also has the potential to reduce the migration of labour from rural to urban areas. So, this is all you have to know about M. G. Narega scheme. So, with these learned points, now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Now, look at this first question. With reference to Periyar River, consider the following statements. Statement 1, it is the one of the three west flowing rivers in the state of Kerala. Statement 2, Muly Periyar Dam which is built across the river even though locator inside the border of Tamil Nadu is administered by the Kerala government. So, of the statements given above, is or or correct? Option A, one only. Option B, two only. Option C, both one and two. And option D, neither one nor two. See, the correct answer for the question is option D, neither one nor two. Statement 1 is incorrect because most of the rivers flowing in the state of Kerala originate in hills of western Ghats and flow towards west before meeting the Arabian Sea. So, the total west flowing rivers in Kerala exceed the number three. So, the first statement is incorrect. Statement 2 is also incorrect because Muly Periyar Dam is located within the territorial boundary of Kerala but it is administered and operated by the state of Tamil Nadu. So, this statement is also incorrect. So, the correct answer for the question is option D, neither one nor two. Now, moving on, this question is about self-help groups. Statement 1, an animator is an educator local person who initially helps the poor people to form groups and women cannot be animators. See, the first part of the statement is the definition of animator but the second part is incorrect. Woman can also be animators. In fact, human animators can play more effective role in organizing women self-help groups. So, this statement is incorrect. Second statement, an unemployed educator local person who is having an inclination to help others can be a successful animator. See, this statement is actually correct. The person can be a retired school teacher or a retired government servant who is well known locally. He can be a health worker or a field officer or a staff of development agency or department of the state government. He or she can be a field officer or a staff member of a commercial bank or regional rural bank or a field staff from the local cooperative banks of society. The person can be a field level functionary of an NGO and the person can be a member or participant in the Vikas Volunteer Vahini program of Nabhat. So, this statement is actually correct. So, the correct answer for the question is option B2 only. Now, moving on, this question is about anti-defection law. Statement 1, it was introduced into the constitution through the 61st Constitutional Amendment Act. Actually, this statement is incorrect because it was introduced through the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act during the Prime Minister's ship of Rajiv Gandhi. Second statement, according to the Act, any legislator voting against the directions given by the whip of his party is prone to disqualification. See, this statement is actually correct. Members of a political party can be disqualified if they vote against the direction given by the whip of his or her party according to the provisions of anti-defection law. So, the correct answer for this question is option B2 only. Now, this question is about MG Nareka Act. You have to find who are eligible to benefit from the Act. Option A, adult members of only the scheduled cast and scheduled tribe households. Absolutely, this will not come. Option B, adult members of below poverty line households. Option C, adult members of households of all backward communities. And option D, adult members of any rural household. See, the correct answer is option D. We saw that in the discussion itself. Any adult member of any rural household can be an eligible person to get benefited under MG Nareka Act. Now, the question displayed here is the prelims quiz question for you today. Just go through the question. It is a very easy question. Try to answer it in the comment section. Following that, displayed here is the main practice questions for you today. Just go through the questions, try to write an answer and post that also in the comment section. So, with this, we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, hit like, do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy. Now, thank you for listening.