 a very good evening aspirants welcome to the ninth part of target 2020 series by shankar is academy in the previous parts we have seen more than 400 topics of current affairs in the prelims perspective for the months of july 2019 to february 2020 and in this video we will discuss these 55 important topics belonging to the current affairs of march 2020 from prelims perspective and these topics have been sourced from hindu newspaper business standard live mint and also from the government sources like public information bureau etc and the content for these topics have been sourced from reliable government sources like ministry websites e-gazet public information bureau reports etc and the mcqs and their contents are provided as a pdf for the benefit of aspirants you can download the pdf from the link provided in the sessions description box and the comment section let us move on to the first question for this series now the first question for this series is based on namaste portal and always remember that if a new technology or an electronic portal of government of india is given in the question and if you know the full form of the acronym of the portal name then you can easily arrive at the correct answer the full form of namaste in this namaste portal is national ayush morbidity and standardized terminologies electronic portal if you look at the last option it mentions about ayurveda siddha and unani systems of medicine which is nothing but a part of ayush so this is the correct answer to this question it is a comprehensive web portal for standardized terminologies and national morbidity codes of ayurveda siddha and unani systems of medicine this portal is developed by the ministry of ayush to be specific it is developed by the central council for research in ayurvedic sciences which is an autonomous body of the ministry of ayush this portal mainly serves two things one is it provides standardized terminologies that are used in three disciplines or systems of medicine these three systems are ayurveda siddha and unani and secondly it provides national morbidity codes or we can say national disease codes in these three systems along with these it also provides terms and morbidity codes under the WHO international classification of diseases icd 10 and icd 11 now in the dashboard of this namaste portal we can also find statistics which is related to diseases in eight systems these systems are ayurveda unani siddha homeopathy yoga and naturopathy sova rigpa biomedicine and folk medicine now in this know that sova rigpa is a traditional medicinal system of the himalayan belt in india this medical system is popularly known as tibetan medicine or amchi medicine in india it has also been popularly practiced in sikkim arnachal pradesh then darjaling in west bangal then himachal pradesh and also in the unity of londak and outside india this medical system is practiced in tibet in some parts of china then in napal mangolia bhutan and even in few parts of formal soviet union and according to ministry of ayush majority of theory and practice of sova rigpa is similar to ayurveda and also know that in november 2019 the union cabinet approved establishment of a national institute for sova rigpa in leh district of ladakh but if you see leh in ladakh already has a national research institute for sova rigpa as well this research institute was established in 1976 and most probably this research institute will be merged into the national institute to function as the constituent unit of national institute now if you look at the other given options the first one mentions it is the centralised public grievance address and monitoring system this option talks about the cp grams portal of government of india this portal comes under department of administrative reforms and public grievances of ministry of personal public grievances and pensions and it is an internet based grievance address portal which was launched by the central government in june 2007 this portal is hailed because it facilitates bottom up address mechanism in this portal a citizen can lodge a grievance from anywhere and anytime and in addition to the submission of grievance this portal also facilitates the tracking of status and address a lot of grievances and as per the guidelines a grievance is required to be disposed of within a period of two months now the second option it talks about the anubhav portal of ministry of personal public grievances and pensions as it allows the retiring government officials to leave a record of their experiences while in government service it was launched in march 2015 now the idea behind this initiative is that it will help in good governance and it will also help in bringing administrative reforms in the future now the third option mentions it is the gateway for researchers to locate specific facilities they need for their rng work and identify the one that is either located closest to them or available the sonast now this option talks about the ice stem portal ice stem stands for indian science technology and engineering facilities map this portal helps the researchers to locate and identify the facilities for their research and development work and it also links the researchers and the research and development resources this portal is hosted by the office of the principal scientific advisor to the government of india now let us move on to the next question now this question is about world happiness report the question asks who releases this report the correct answer to this question is option c un sustainable development solutions network or in short un sdsn this organization releases this report annually for the last eight years and know that this un sdsn was set up in 2012 under the auspices of un secretary general this organization mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote the practical solutions for sustainable development and it also oversees the implementation of the sustainable development goals and the paris climate agreement this organization works closely with united nations agencies multilateral financing institutions the private sector and also the civil society now apart from this report this organization that is un sdsn also releases the sustainable development report of united nations and as we know this sustainable development report presents the sdg index now let us know some information about this world happiness report from examination point of view now this report ranks more than 150 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be and this 2020 report for the first time even ranks cities around the world by their subjective well-being it also focuses on how the social environment urban environment and the natural environment all combined together affects our happiness now as we know when we talk about a report or an index the most important factors either the dimensions or the indicators now this report has six variables they are income in terms of GDP per capita then healthy life expectancy at birth then social support freedom to make life choices generosity and then perceptions of corruption now according to the findings of 2020 report again Finland is the most happiest country in the world along with Finland Denmark and Switzerland are the happiest countries and if you see one of our neighbors has been ranked as the least happy countries in the world it is none other than Afghanistan along with Afghanistan South Sudan and Zimbabwe are found to be the least happy countries in the world so what about India this report ranks India at 144th position and if you see in 2018 India was ranked at 133rd position and in 2019 India was ranked at 140th position so you can see India's rank is declining and if you compare India with our neighbors except for Afghanistan you can see that India is the least happiest country because all other countries have been ranked better than India now as we saw already this 2020 report for the first time even ranks the cities around the world so out of the 186 cities ranked by this report Helsinki in Finland is ranked at first and Kabul in Afghanistan is ranked at the bottom and with respect to India Delhi has been ranked at 180th position so these are some of the extra information that you should know with respect to the world happiness report of 2020 well let us move on to the next question now this next question asks in India around 20 crore people depend upon spring water across the Himalayas, western guards, eastern guards and arvelies etc in this context consider the following statements if you see the statements these statements are based on the mountain springs now this topic was in news because a survey was conducted in the Himalayan region and that survey noted that there is increasing water crisis in the Himalayan region because of unplanned urbanization mismanagement of existing water resources etc and the places that were surveyed are extremely dependent on springs these mountain springs are the primary source of water for rural households especially in the Himalayan region and as we saw in the question around 20 crore Indians depend upon spring water across Himalayas western guards eastern guards arvelies and other such mountain ranges so what is a spring a spring is a place where water moving underground finds an opening to the land surface a spring is the result of an aquifer that is being filled to the point that the water overflows onto the land surface and these springs range in different sizes sometimes they are intermittent seeps or oozes which flow only after very much rain and sometimes they are huge pools that flows hundreds of millions of litres daily so in simple words we can say that a spring is a place where water from beneath the ground naturally flows out to the surface these springs are also known as Dhara, Mool, Kuang in central and eastern Himalayas and they are also given the name of Chashma and Nala in western Himalayas so that means statement one is correct it is the definition of a mountain spring a spring is a place where water moving underground finds an opening to the land surface mainly as a result of an aquifer getting filled now the second statement is springs are rich in minerals and are found only on earth's surface now this statement is incorrect because springs are not limited to the earth's surface recently scientists have discovered hot springs at a depth of up to 2.5 kilometers in the oceans and they have found these generally along the mid ocean rifts and these hot water which is over 300 degrees Celsius that is coming from these springs is also rich in minerals and sulphur and this results in a unique ecosystem where unusual and exotic sea life seems to thrive so statement two is incorrect and here if you see the question asks for the correct statements so if you eliminate option a c and d you can arrive at the correct answer which is option d one and three now the third statement is about thermal springs before that just know that these are the factors on which the amount of water that flows from springs actually depends on it depends on the size of caverns within the rocks it depends on the water pressure in the aquifer it depends on the size of the spring basin and it also depends on the amount of rainfall that is received and one another feature of spring is that usually water from springs is remarkably clear but however the water may also be colored this is because of the metals enrichment that is caused by groundwater which comes in contact with the naturally occurring minerals now this third statement mentions usually thermal springs occur in regions of recent volcanic activity so what are thermal springs first they are ordinary springs except that the water is warm and even sometimes hot thermal springs occur in regions of recent volcanic activity and they are fed by water which is heated by being contact with hot rocks which is far below the surface so that is why statement 3 is correct usually thermal springs occur in regions of recent volcanic activity but also know that even where there has been no recent volcanic action rocks become warmer with increasing depth and the water gets warmed as it descends through rocks deep in the earth now this water if it reaches a large crevice or crack which offers a path of less resistance then it may rise more quickly than it descended so in that scenario water does not have time to cool before it emerges on the surface and therefore it forms a thermal spring now whenever we discuss about springs there is one initiative that we should know in 2019 the ministry of Jalshakti has introduced a spring rejuvenation framework this ministry is the coordinating agency for this initiative as a part of this teamwork the ministry had proposed a pilot project for spring inventory and rejuvenation in the Teheri Gadwal district of Uttarakhand this framework calls for mapping of the spring shed identification of recharge areas it calls for pinpointing the sites for appropriate recharge structures and construction of recharge structures etc now let us take the next question now this question is about the office of the high commissioner for human rights now this office is a UN body or a UN entity it was in news because in march 2020 it had announced that it plans to file an application in the supreme court of India the application is for asking to be implanted in petitions challenging the citizenship amendment act of our country now here implanted means to take proceedings against something or someone so OHCHR wanted to take proceedings against the petitions that are challenging the citizenship amendment act now know that the office of high commissioner for human rights was established in the year 1993 by the UN member states it is a leading UN entity on human rights and as we know human rights are the rights which are inherent to all human beings without distinction to race color gender language religion national origin etc and know that OHCHR is a part of united nations secretariat as we know UN secretariat is a principal organ of UN and this office is headed by the high commissioner and the high commissioner is the principal human rights official of the united nations so that means second statement is incorrect because it mentions it is the leading UN entity on human rights headed by the secretary general it is incorrect because it is headed by the high commissioner now if you look at the functions of this office the UN general assembly has interested the office of high commissioner for human rights with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people so its mandate includes preventing human rights violation securing respect for all human rights promoting international cooperation to protect human rights coordinating related activities throughout the united nations and also strengthening and streamlining the united nations system in the field of human rights and this office plays a crucial role in safeguarding the integrity of three interconnected pillars of united nations which are peace and security then human rights and then development apart from this this office also provides assistance in the form of technical expertise and capacity development in order to support the implementation of international human rights standards now if you look at the first statement it mentions it is also known as united nations human rights council now this statement is incorrect because the office of high commissioner for human rights is also known as UN human rights not united nations human rights council both are different these two are completely distinct entity and this distinction originates from the separate mandates which they were given by the general assembly but still the office of high commissioner for human rights or UN human rights provides substantial support for the meetings of human rights council and this council was established in the year 2006 by the general assembly and it reports directly to the UN general assembly also know that this human rights council replaced the 60-year-old united nations commission on human rights as the key united nations in the governmental body responsible for human rights and this council consists of state representatives and it is primarily a political body with a comprehensive human rights mandate and it is a forum which is empowered to prevent abuses iniquity and discrimination it is empowered to protect the most vulnerable people and it is empowered to expose perpetrators and this council is made up of 47 united nations member states which are elected by the UN general assembly so first statement is also incorrect now the third statement mentions it is one of the main organs of the UN established in 1945 when the UN was founded now this statement is also incorrect because as we saw in the beginning OHCHR was established in 1993 whereas UN was established in 1945 itself and the main organs of UN which were established in 1945 are general assembly, UN security council, UN secretary etc so here all the three statements are incorrect now while marking the correct answer you should be very careful because two options mention one two and three option C is directly mentioning about one two and three and option D it mentions none of the above that means all the three options are either incorrect or correct based on the question which is asked now here the question asks for the incorrect statements so all these statements are incorrect so either the correct answer should be all of the above or one two and three so the correct answer is option C only not D if the question would have asked for the correct statements then the answer would have been option D now let us move on to the next question now this next question is based on Swathi weapon locating radar first know that a weapon locating radar is an electronically scanned phased array radar just know that explaining this is very complex which is not necessary for our examination so just to know it is an electronically scanned phased array radar now as the name indicates this radar provides fast automatic and accurate location of enemy weapons and this includes artillery motors and rocket launchers so this will enable effective counter action so that means first statement is correct it is an electronically scanned phased array radar which can provide fast automatic and accurate location of enemy weapons now these weapon locating radars or WLR can also track friendly fire for our own artillery this will help to locate the impact point of friendly artillery fire and thus it helps to adjust the weapon for better accuracy so we can say that WLR has two roles to perform one is a weapon location mode for enemy artillery and the second one is direction of own artillery fire mode for our own artillery now another important feature of this radar is its ability to locate multiple projectiles that is fired from different weapons at different locations this radar uses advanced signal processing techniques for detection and tracking the projectiles and this radar is designed for high mobility quick deployment and decamp and now if you see its physical profile it consists of a radar shelter antenna and cooling mechanisms and these are placed on a slewable platform that is a platform which has the ability to move suddenly so the purpose of such system is that it is designed to survive physical rigorous battlefield and soft hostile electronic warfare now if you look at the second statement it mentions it was designed by the defense research and development organization this statement is correct because it was designed by the electronics and radar development establishment which functions under the defense research and development organization that is DRTO and after that it was produced by Bharat electronics committed that is bail and according to some sources the SWATI WLR was handed over to the Indian army in 2018 and after that army deployed it along the line of control to detect incoming artillery fire from Pakistan now this system was in use recently because India had won a 40 million dollar deal from Armenia to supply four SWATI weapon locating radars now here if you see the question asks for the correct statements and both the statements are correct so the correct answer to this question is option C both 1 and 2 now this next question is about national water quality monitoring program this is sometime also mentioned as national water monitoring program only that is why it's short form is NWMP now know that the water quality and monitoring are mandated by water prevention and control of pollution act of 1974 which is also known as water act of 1974 so the central pollution control board has established a network of monitoring stations on aquatic resources across our country so that means the second statement in the question is incorrect because it mentions a network of monitoring stations have been established in the country by the central water commission no it is established central pollution control board that is CPCB now the first statement mentions under NWMP water quality of both surface and groundwater are being monitored now this statement is a correct statement both surface water and groundwater are being monitored under this program and presently this network comprises of more than 4000 stations in 28 states and 6 union territories in our country and these monitoring covers rivers lakes tanks ponds creeks marine area or sea or coastal area then it covers canals drains it covers groundwater and then sewage treatment plant that is STP and also water treatment plant and know that more than 2000 rivers are covered under this program currently and these monitoring stations assesses the water quality for various parameters like the assess for the presence of physiochemical substances bacteriological substances heavy metals pesticides etc and this process is being carried out by CPCB in association with the state pollution control boards or pollution control committees now according to this program it is reported that organic pollution is the predominant cause of water pollution the river stretches are polluted mainly due to discharge of untreated sewage or partially treated sewage and it is also polluted due to discharge of industrial wastewater now here the question asks for the correct statements and here statement one is the correct statement so the correct answer is option A one only and from examination point of view know that CPCB is a statutory organization which is constituted under the water prevention and control of pollution act of 1974 and one of the mandates of CPCB is to collect collate and disseminate the technical and statistical data relating to water pollution and that is why water quality monitoring and surveillance are of utmost importance for CPCB and along with this CPCB is also interested with the powers and functions under the air prevention and control of pollution act of 1981 and know that this organization functions under the ministry of environment forest and climate change now let us move on to the next question now this next question is about Carissa Carandas the question asks Carissa Carandas which was used in the Great Hedge of India refers to so let us first know about this Carissa Carandas and then we will add in this question know that this Carissa Carandas is a multi utility wild berry it has a thorny plant and its thorny plant was used by the British to build a barrier through India in the 1870s and this barrier is what is called as the Great Hedge of India and this is a thousand hundred mile barrier and this was built by British to enforce taxes and to stop the smuggling of salt in British India normally you'd have seen this berry in Hindi it is known as Karonda and in Tamil it is known as Kalakai in Bengali it is known as Kurumcha and in Assamese it is known as Karjatinga I hope I'm pronouncing it correct only so what is the use of this Carissa Carandas now this wild berry is used as a traditional herbal medicine for a number of ailments it is used for treating the ailments such as diarrhea, anemia, constipation, indigestion, skin infections and even urinary disorders and it is said that the leaves of this plant have been used as fodder for silk forms and even their roots are pounded into a paste which serves as a fly repellent so now if you look at the given options option A is a multi utility wild berry this could be our option the second one says great barrier of mangroves to protect coast from natural calamities no it is not a barrier of mangroves so you can eliminate this option then the third one says customs barrier built by the British across India primarily to collect the salt tax this is also not the correct answer if the question would have been about the Great Hedge of India then we could have considered this option C because the Great Hedge of India was built to enforce taxes and to stop the smuggling of salt in British India so option C is also not the correct answer option D mentions an invasive species which caused widespread destruction in western guards it is not an invasive species of western guards so it is not the correct answer so the correct answer is option A only a multi utility wild berry so why was this Carissa Carandas was in use it was not in use because of this wild berry rather it was in use because of its cousin which is called as Carissa Kopili see this Carissa Kopili is threatened by the very river after which it is named and the river is the river Kopili in central Assam and hydroelectric project is being constructed on this river in Assam and also the water of this river has turned acidic because of coal mining in Meghalaya so due to these reasons the very existence of this Carissa Kopili is now threatened and in this scenario only this Carissa Carandas was in use now from examination point of view also know that this Kopili river is a south bank tributary of Brahmaputra which originates in the mountains of Meghalaya and it enters Assam and joins the Brahmaputra river and also know that the basin of this river Kopili is bound by Jayantia Hills in the west and the south Kachar and Mikir Hills in the east now let us take the next question now this next question is a very interesting question which is based on two national funds the question asks what is or are common to the two funds known as prime ministers national relief fund and prime ministers citizen assistance and relief in emergency situations fund this question compares PMNRF and PM cares fund now these funds were in use because as you know PMNRF that is prime ministers national relief fund exists since 1948 itself but recently what happened was government created another fund that is this PM cares fund to accept donations during the COVID-19 crisis so because of this the opposition parties are questioning the motive of the government for creating PM cares fund when there is already a national fund like PMNRF so that is why these two funds are very important from examination point of view now in this the PMNRF was established with public contributions to assist the displaced persons from Pakistan in 1948 what happened was the then prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the citizens to donate to this fund to help the people who have returned from Pakistan and as of now the resources of this fund are utilized primarily to render immediate relief to families of those who have been killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones, earthquakes etc and this fund also helps the victims of major accidents and riots and sometimes assistance from this fund is also rendered to partially fund the expenses for medical treatments like heart surgeries kidney transplantation etc and most importantly this fund consists entirely of public contributions only and it does not get any budgetary support this fund accepts only voluntary contributions by individuals and institutions and even the contributions flowing out from the balance sheets of public sector undertakings that is PSUs are not accepted in this fund so that means the fact mentioned in statement one is true for PMNRF it accepts voluntary contributions by individuals and organizations only and it does not get any budgetary support now also know that the disbursements under this fund are made with the approval of prime minister and know that this fund has not been constituted by the parliament now if you see the contributions towards this fund are exempted from income tax under section 80 capital G of income tax act of 1961 so that means the fact mentioned in statement three is true for PMNRF contributions towards this fund is exempted from income tax and also know that prime minister is the chairman of this fund now the second statement mentions that it does not count donations by a company as corporate social responsibility expenditure under the companies act of 2013 that is this statement mentions that if any company makes donations to this PMNRF then it will not be counted as a CSR expenditure now this statement is incorrect in the context of PMNRF because such kind of donations are considered and counted as CSR expenditures only because according to the schedule seven of companies act of 2013 which mentions about the activities that may be included by companies in their CSR policy activities the eighth activity mentioned is contribution to the prime minister's national relief fund or any other fund set up by the central government for socioeconomic development and relief etc so that is why this statement is incorrect in the context of PMNRF so that means the facts mentioned in statement one and three are correct with respect to PMNRF but the fact mentioned in statement two is incorrect with respect to PMNRF so that means that whole statement should be incorrect only because it mentions both does not count so that means if this statement is false even in the context of one fund then the whole statement is incorrect so you can remove the options which contains statement two you can eliminate option C and D now let us see whether statement one and three are true for PM CARES fund well as we already saw in the question PM CARES stands for prime minister's citizen assistance and relief in emergency situations fund now similar to PMNRF prime minister is the ex of your chairman of this fund and the union ministers of defense home affairs and finance are the ex official trustees of this fund and also know that similar to PMNRF this fund also consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals and organizations and it does not get any budgetary support so that means the fact mentioned in statement one is also true for PM CARES fund and also the donations towards this fund are exempted from the income tax act so that means the fact in statement three is also true for PM CARES fund so the correct answer to this question is option B one and three so what about statement two now this fact is also incorrect for PM CARES fund because like PMNRF the contributions to PM CARES will also qualify to be counted as corporate social responsibility expenditure so from this question what you should know is when you see two similar topics you should know the comparison also now let us take the next question now this next question is about an organization known as international sugar organization three statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement so first let us see about this organization see this international sugar organization is the unique intergovernmental body this organization aims to ensure enhanced international cooperation in the world regarding the sugar matters by providing a forum for intergovernmental consultations in order to improve the conditions on the world sugar market and it also aims to facilitate trade by collecting and providing information on the world sugar and know that this organization has been established by the international sugar agreement of 1968 but remember that this agreement has expired in accordance with its provisions in 1973 itself so subsequently this agreement was succeeded by the international sugar agreements of 1973 then 1977 then 1984 and then 1987 I know that currently the international sugar agreement of 1992 exists and it was signed and it came into force in the year 1993 for a period of three years only but however the agreement is being extended continuously since then and India even has ratified this agreement in the year 1993 so this international sugar organization was established by the international sugar agreement of 1968 but after that by the subsequent agreements which succeeded this 1968 agreement they also provided for its existence and know that the 1968 agreement came into existence during the united nation's commodities conference which was held by united nation's conference on trade and development and this conference was held in new delhi in the year 1968 and therefore this united nation's commodities conference of 1968 is also known as new delhi conference now coming back to this international sugar organization know that it is based in london and it has 87 members as of 2019 now this organization is important because its member states represents 87 percentage of world sugar production and they represent 67 percentage of world sugar consumption also and its member states also represents 90 percentage of world exports not only that they also represent 35 percentage of world imports also so we can see that this organization is a major player in the sugar economy now this international sugar organization exists to administer the internationally negotiated 1992 international sugar agreement which is the existing agreement of international sugar agreements and the objectives of this international sugar agreement is to ensure enhanced international cooperation in connection with world sugar matters and its related issues and also to provide a forum for intergovernmental consultations on sugar and to provide a forum for consultations on ways to improve the world sugar economy and the agreements objective is also to facilitate trade by collecting and providing information on world sugar market and other sweeteners also and its objective is also to encourage increased demand for sugar particularly for non-traditional uses so these are the important objectives of this international sugar agreement now if you look at this question the first statement is it is an intergovernmental organization established by the international sugar agreement 1968 this statement is a correct statement it was established by the 1968 ISA agreement and it is an intergovernmental organization now the second statement is India is a member of this organization now we saw that India has ratified the international sugar agreement of 1992 in the year 1993 so those who have signed and ratified this agreement are members of this organization so India is a member of this organization now if you see the question asked for the correct statements and in the given option if you see statements one and two are present in only in option D so the correct answer is option D one two and three the third statement is also correct as we already saw its member states represent 90 percentage of world sugar exports now let us take the next question now this next question is based on a space mission known as psyche mission see this psyche mission is a journey of a spacecraft to a unique metal asteroid which is orbiting the sun and this asteroid is named as 16 psyche and know that this psyche mission is led by Arizona State University and it is a NASA mission because NASA's jet propulsion laboratory is responsible for this mission's management operations and navigation so what is special about this asteroid 16 psyche see it is a giant metal asteroid which orbits the sun between the orbits of mars and jupiter this asteroid is about three times farther away from the sun than the earth and this asteroid was discovered by an italian astronomer in 1852 itself now this asteroid is special because mostly asteroids are rocky bodies or icy bodies but with respect to this asteroid scientists think that this asteroid 16 psyche is comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel and that too similar to earth's core see here you should know that deep within rocky terrestrial planets even including earth scientists infer that there is a presence of metallic core but the core lies unreachably far below the planet's rocky mantles and crusts so that is why with respect to earth also we cannot see or measure earth's core directly and that is why this asteroid is important because it offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions that created terrestrial planets because this asteroid is supposedly comprised of the metallic iron and nickel similar to earth's core and scientists even have a doubt that whether psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that lost its rocky outer layers due to number of violent collisions which happened billions of years ago so the psyche mission will be the first mission to investigate a world of metal rather than a world of rock and ice and this mission is targeted to launch in august of 2022 and the psyche spacecraft is expected to arrive at the asteroid in early 2026 and this spacecraft will map and study 16 psyches properties so the objectives of this mission is to determine whether psyche is a core or if it is unmelted material and then it also aims to determine the relative ages of regions of psyche's surface and among others this mission also aims to characterize psyche's topography now this psyche mission was in use in march because nasa has contracted spacex to launch this psyche mission and psyche mission will use one of spacex falcon heavy rockets now let us come back to the question the question mentions with reference to psyche mission which among the following statements is or are incorrect first statement is the mission aims to explore a unique metal asteroid which orbits the sun between the orbits of mars and jupiter this is a correct statement about this mission so statement one is correct now the second statement is it is a joint mission of nasa japan aerospace exploration agency and isro now simply we can say it is a mission of nasa because nasa's jet propulsion laboratory is responsible for missions management operations and navigation but in this jacksa and isro are not involved so this statement is a incorrect statement so before marking the final answer be careful because here the question asks for the incorrect statements and statement two is the only incorrect statement so the correct answer is option b two only this next question is about national perspective plan for water resources development two statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement now know that to harness the water resources in india the then ministry of irrigation that is now it is ministry of jalshakti along with the central water commission formulated this npp for water resources development in the year 1980 and this plan envisaged inter basin transfer of water from surplus basins to the deficit ones and they planned this with a view to minimize the regional imbalances and to optimally utilize the available water resources so that means statement two is incorrect because it mentions it was prepared by nithya yog no it was prepared by the then ministry of irrigation or you can say the current ministry of jalshakti along with central water commission not nithya yog so statement two is incorrect and the second half of the first statement is correct it aims at inter basin transfer of water from surplus basins to deficit ones and the first half mentions it has two parts himalayan reverse development and peninsula reverse development this is correct and these are the two components so as a whole statement one is correct so the correct answer to this question is option a one only because the question asks for the correct statements now in this the himalayan reverse development envisages construction of storage reservoirs on the principal tributaries of ganga and brahmaputra rivers and as you can see in this map this is done along with interlinking of river systems to transfer surplus flows of the eastern tributaries of river ganga to its western tributaries it also envisages the linking of brahmaputra and its tributaries with ganga and then linking ganga with river mahanadi also now the second component is peninsula reverse development now this component is further divided into four major parts interlinking of mahanadi godavari krishna kaveri rivers and buildings storages at potential sites in these basins interlinking of west flowing rivers that are north of mumbai and south of tapi interlinking of kain and chambal rivers diversion of other west flowing rivers now when we talk about river linking projects you should know about the national water development agency that is nwda it is an autonomous society set up under the societies registration act of 8060 it was set up in the year 1982 and it comes under the ministry of jalshakti now this agency is important because it has been mandated to carry out detailed survey of possible reservoir sites and to carry out feasibility of interconnecting under the peninsula reverse development and himalayan reverse development components of npp and it has also been mandated to prepare detailed project report of river link proposals under npp and further it is to be noted that the center has also proposed to establish a body called as national interlinking of rivers authority or in short nira this proposed body is expected to take up both interstate projects and intra-state projects so still this authority is at the proposal stage only so not more information is available about this now let us move on to the next question now this next question asks which one of the following is not a sub-index of the UNDP's multi-dimensional gender social norms index now this question is with reference to a report released by UNDP in march 2020 and that report spoke about an index the report is titled as tackling social norms a game changer for gender inequalities and the index which is talked about is called as gender social norms index in this context it is important to know about this index then only we can answer this question first obviously this index is released by united nations development program or UNDP and also know that this index was earlier also mentioned in the human development report of 2019 originally this index was developed by the human development report office of UNDP along with the global network of social scientists who study how changing values impact on the social life and political life and this network is called as the world values survey which was started in the year 1981 now this question asks about the sub-index or the sub-indices for that you should know that this index covers four dimensions one is political integrity of women then educational integrity of women and then economic integrity of women and then physical integrity of women these dimensions are translated into these four sub-dimensional indices or simply sub-indices as you can see in this picture and all of them lead to multi-dimensional gender social norms index now in these the physical integrity indices might be quite tough to comprehend because of the indicators because as you can see the indicators are proxy for intimate partner violence and then proxy for reproductive rights and in the proxy for intimate partner violence questions will be asked whether men and women think that it is justifiable for a woman partner to be harmed or hurt by any means and then in the proxy for reproductive rights questions will be asked to study the bias in the thinking related to justifying abortion that is justifying abortion as a proxy for contraception so what is expected is that there should not be gender social norms bias among both men and women and if the share of women and men with no gender social norms bias fell then it means that bias against gender equality is increasing so from the given options you can say a b and c are sub-indices of this index but standard of living index is not a sub-index so the correct answer is option d now let us move on to the next question this next question is about epidemic diseases act of 1897 now this was a news because a meeting of high level group of ministers decided that all states and unitary should be advised to invoke the provisions of this act it is because WHO declared the COVID-19 disease as a pandemic on March 11th of 2020 at that time only invoking the provisions of this act was discussed and as you know according to WHO's definition a pandemic is an epidemic which crosses international boundaries by usually affecting a large number of people now this act provides for the better prevention of spread of dangerous epidemic diseases and particularly the section two of this act discusses about the powers of the center and the state governments to take special measures and prescribe regulations in order to prevent the spread of dangerous epidemic diseases so that means statement one is correct it empowers the center and the state governments to take special measures to prevent dangerous epidemic diseases particularly if you see section two mentions that if the state government is satisfied that if the ordinary rules and regulations are not sufficient to prevent the outbreak of any dangerous epidemic disease then the state government or any person who is empowered by the state government can take preventive measures and for this purpose the state government may prescribe temporary regulations in the form of public notice so invoking any of these provisions will make the advisories issued by the state or the central government enforceable and also as per section 2 subsection 2 clause b the state government may take measures and prescribe regulations for the inspection of suspected persons who are traveling by railway or otherwise and the government can segregate them in hospital in any temporary accommodation or anywhere and based on this only currently the central and state governments are acting and similarly such provision is given in this act for the central government in section 2 capital A this section is specific to the ships and vessels that leaves or arrives in Indian territories hence if persons who are intended to sail or arrive are suspected to have any epidemic disease then they can be put under detention by the central government but apart from this the recent worrying thing about this covid 19 pandemic start there have been many instances where the members of healthcare services are being targeted and attacked by miscreants the healthcare workforce is our frontline soldiers in battling this pandemic but they have unfortunately become the most vulnerable victims as they have been perceived by some as carriers of the covid 19 virus so this has led to cases of the stigmatization and ostracization and even sometimes worse there are even acts of unwarranted violence and harassment against the healthcare professionals and that is why several states have enacted special laws to offer protection to the doctors and other medical personnel in the past and in this context only recently the union cabinet in its meeting which was held in April 2020 has approved for the promulgation of an ordinance to amend the epidemic diseases act of 1897 this ordinance is to protect healthcare service personnel and their property including their living premises or working promises against the violence during the epidemics so that means statement two is correct and know that president has given his assent for promulgation of this ordinance and this ordinance provides for making such acts of violence against the healthcare workers as cognizable offenses and non-bailable offenses cognizable means perpetrators can be arrested without a warrant and this ordinance also enables for compensation for the injury to healthcare service personnel or for causing damage or loss to the property in which the healthcare service personnel may have a direct interest in relation to the epidemic and this ordinance has also provided for penalty for such acts because according to the ordinance the commission or abetment of such act shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of three months to five years and also with a fine of rupees 50,000 to rupees 2 lakhs and also the offender shall be liable to pay compensation to the victim under this ordinance now here the question asks for the incorrect statements so be careful before marking the final answer here statement one is correct and the statement two is also correct so both the statements are correct and none of the statements are incorrect so the correct answer is neither one nor two now this next question is based on important economic terms that is often seen in news related to the yes bank crisis the first statement mentions about the concepts such as authorized capital and paid up capital so let us see what are these first the authorized capital of a company is the maximum amount of share capital for which shares can be issued by a company the authorized capital can be increased by the company at any time with shareholders approval and it can be increased by paying additional fee to the registrar of companies now if you see the paid up capital or the paid up share capital of a company is the amount of money for which shares were issued to the shareholder and for these shares payment was made by the shareholder but remember that paid up capital will always be less than authorized capital as a company cannot issue shares above its authorized capital so that means statement one is incorrect because it mentions the paid up capital of a company will always be greater than or equal to its authorized capital it is wrong it is always less than the authorized capital now the second statement mentions about tier two capital so in this context you should know about the tier one capital and tier two capital then only you can answer this question now for that you should know that the basic requirement of capital adequacy is that a bank should have sufficient capital to absorb any losses arising from the risks in its business so for supervisory purposes capital is split into two categories they are tier one capital and tier two capital these categories represent different instruments quality as capital now in this the tier one capital consists mainly of share capital and disclosed reserves it is a bank's highest quality capital because it is fully available to cover the losses and also know that this tier one capital is also called as going concern capital and this capital can absorb losses without triggering bankruptcy of the bank and this tier one capital further has two sub components they are common equity tier one capital and then additional tier one capital you would have often heard this additional tier one capital in new you just know there are two sub components but here the statement is about tier two capital so first you know that tier two capital is called as gone concern capital so gone concern is the capital which will absorb losses only in a situation of liquidation of the bank now as we know liquidation follows bankruptcy so that means tier two capital does not absorb losses without triggering bankruptcy of the bank so statement two is incorrect actually statement two talks about tier one capital only because tier one capital is the bank's highest quality capital which can absorb losses without triggering bankruptcy of the bank now also know that tier two capital consists of certain reserves and certain types of subordinated debt and also know that the loss absorption capacity of tier two capital is lower than that of tier one capital now here be careful while marking the final answer because your question asks for the incorrect statements here both the statements are incorrect so the correct answer to this question is option C both one and two now this next question is about Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins three statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement see there are four recognized species of humpback dolphins and one among them is this Indo-Pacific species and the other three are Indian Ocean humpback dolphin Atlantic humpback dolphin and then the Australian humpback dolphin now the first statement given here is it is also known as Irrawaddy dolphin now this statement is incorrect because the Irrawaddy dolphins and the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins are two different species and as you know Irrawaddy dolphins are found in Chilika lake and thus the dolphin population in Chilika lake is considered as the largest lagoon supported dolphin population of the world so statement one is incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statement so if you know first statement is incorrect then you can easily avoid the correct answer which is option C two and three now before seeing the next statements know that this species is also called as Chinese white dolphin the dolphin has an enlarged dorsal hump at the mid-back on which a small hooked dorsal fin is present and the color of this dolphin has great variations depending on their geographical location it is said that their color changes with age new bonds are dark green color and their color changes to white or pink as they grow up as you can see in this picture now coming to the distribution of the species its total range is in the coastal waters from central China and moving southward throughout southeast Asia and westward to the Bay of Bengal so that means this species is native to Bangladesh Brunei Cambodia India Indonesia Malaysia Myanmar China Philippines Singapore Taiwan Thailand and Vietnam so you can see almost all of southeast Asia is covered now this species population is under threat and they are decreasing and one of the major threat is the fishing nets and fishing gears that are abandoned in the sea what happens is the dolphins get entangled in these net and gears and they get killed apart from this another threat is the loss of habitat due to human activities and coastal development and their population is also threatened by heavy marine traffic and marine pollution and then one more important threat is depleting fish stocks across the world because their diet mainly consists of small fishes only so that is why statement two is correct now these dolphins are important because like all other dolphins this species are also the top predators in the food chain they play a critical role in maintaining the balance of marine ecology by controlling the number of other marine lives such as fish and squids their population its distribution and survivorship also provide valuable insights into the impacts of human activities on the marine life and it provides insights on the threats brought out by the marine pollution and fishery achievements also now the third statement is correct because in India this species is protected under schedule one part one of wildlife protection act of 1972 and with respect to examination we also study about two other important dolphins one is ira vadi dolphin and the other is ganchitic dolphin as you know ganchitic dolphin is India's national aquatic animal and the conservation status of these three species is given here you can see that all these three species are protected under schedule one of wildlife protection act of 1972 and ira vadi dolphin and ganchitic dolphin are listed as endangered by IUCN whereas Indo-Pacific humback dolphin is listed as vulnerable and also the sites convention has listed all these three species under appendix one so these are some of the information that you should know from the examination point of view now let us take the next question now this next question is about a special program known as uvica program now I as always say if the program or the technology which is mentioned in the question has a name with acronym then if you know the acronym then most probably you can attend the question correctly now here in this uvica program uvica stands for uva vigyani karikram which means young scientist program and this program was launched by Indian space research organization this program is primarily aimed at imparting basic knowledge on space technology space science and space applications to the youngsters so that it will help to arouse the interest of youngsters in the emerging areas of space activities and this is why ISRO calls this program as catch them young now this program was started in 2019 itself and the second session of this program was scheduled to be held during the month of May 2020 but it has been postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis now under this program it is proposed to select three students each from each state or union territory to participate in this program every year covering CBC, ICAC and state syllabus so those who have finished 8th standard and those who are studying in 9th standard will be eligible for this program I know that this is a residential training program and it will be of around two weeks duration during the summer holidays and the schedule of the program will include invited talks experience sharing by the eminent scientists facility and lab visits then exclusive sessions for discussion with experts then there will also be practical sessions and feedback sessions so in this table you can see the eligibility criteria based on which the students will be selected so they will be selected on academic performance and their performance in extracurricular activities such as their performance in 8th standard examination their membership in science club or space club and whether they are winners of sports activities they are winners of individual extracurricular activities such as electrocution debate etc and in this you should note that students those who belong to rural areas have been given special weight age in the selection criteria and even the oca candidates across the country have also five additional reserved seats for them now the steveka program was in use in march because as we saw the second session of this program was scheduled to be held in may 2020 but it has been postponed but for this session in march isro has shortlisted 368 students from across india so now coming back to the question the question asks the yuvika program recently seen in news is a special program aimed at now if you look at the given options option b is the correct answer because this program is about imparting basic knowledge on space science space technology and space applications to the younger students and if you see the first option it mentions encouraging students to realize their full potential in science and arts now this statement mentions about another program of the government which is the pradhan mantri innovative learning program dhruv this dhruv program has been started by ministry of human resource development this program is to identify and encourage talented children to enrich their skills and knowledge so in centers of excellence across the country gifted children will be mentored and nurtured by renowned experts in different areas so that they can reach their full potential and the main objective of this dhruv program is to allow students to realize their complete potential and they can contribute to the society and this program aims to cover two areas they are science and arts and around 60 students are selected broadly from class 9 to class 12 all over the country and also know that the first batch of dhruv program was implemented during october 2019 so the uvca program is for the students who have completed class 8 and who are currently in class 9 but this dhruv program is for students from class 9 to class 12 now if you see the option c it mentions a new conversation mission to constantly engage youngsters across schools and colleges to capture their scientific temperament now this option talks about the samvath with students program now as a part of enhanced outreach program of isro a new platform named as samvath with students was launched in bungalow in 2019 and through this samvath with students initiative isro aims to constantly engage youngsters across india to capture their scientific temperament and if you see the last option it talks about the goal initiative goal is short form for going online as leaders it is a digitally enabled mentorship initiative of facebook this initiative is for empowering tribal youth to become leaders for tomorrow in their respective fields and it is especially aimed at inspiring guiding and encouraging tribal girls from across india to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities so this goal project is also aimed at identifying and mobilizing renowned people from industry such as policy makers and influencers who are known for their leadership skills or roles so that they can digitally empower and personally mentor the tribal youth from tribal communities across multiple locations of india so this initiative has been designed to identify and attach one mentor who is expert in their respective fields and that one mentor will be attached to four tribal youths who will be trained and mentored by that mentor apart from this this project also connects underprivileged young tribal women with senior expert mentors in the areas of business fashion and arts to learn digital skills and life skills and this program was launched in march 2019 and even facebook started a pilot project on its own in march 2019 in five states of india they are madhya pradesh jharkhand west pingol odisha and maharashtra and in these five states hundred tribal youths were identified and 25 mentors were also identified and further facebook also envisages to identify 5 000 more tribal youths from various fields to be mentored by more mentors in five years in a phased manner and also remember according to government sources this goal is a facebook initiative and ministry of tribal affairs was not associated with the pilot project implemented by the facebook so as a whole in this question we have discussed about four different programs which focuses on students and youngsters so these programs are important from examination point of view now let us take the next question now this next question mentions in the light of india-european union relations consider the following statements about india-eu summit two statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement see india-european union relations date to early 1960s and india is among one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the european economic community and as a part of this relation in 1994 a corporation agreement was signed between india and european union which took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation between the two entities and this gave birth to a multi-tiled institutional architecture of cooperation in the way of india-eu summit since the year 2000 see the first india-eu summit took place in lisbon in the year 2000 so that means first statement is incorrect because the first india-eu summit happened in 2000 itself it did not happen in 2020 and after this later in the year 2004 the relationship between india and eu was upgraded to a strategic partnership in the fifth india-eu summit and also know that the 14th india-eu summit that happened in the year 2017 was held in new delhi but this summit was recently news because the 15th india-eu summit was scheduled in this march 2020 but it was cancelled due to covid-19 outbreak now with respect to the india-european union relations you should know that european union is india's largest regional trading partner while india was european union's ninth largest trading partner in the year 2018 and in this table you can see the exports and imports that happen between india and european union and here you can see that there is a trade deficit that is exports is more than imports and thus the trade deficit is in favor of india and even european union continued to be the largest source of foreign direct investment for india from april 2000 to june 2018 it had investment inflows of 24.38 percentage of the total fdi of our country so this was the scenario until 2018 now the second statement mentions that to boost the bilateral trade the broad-based trade and investment agreement was signed in the summit this statement is also incorrect because since the year 2007 india and the european union are negotiating a bilateral broad-based trade and investment agreement but due to the difference of opinions among the two entities and also due to the brexit confusion this agreement is on hold now since brexit is closed both the parties are eager to close this agreement for mutual benefits so remember it has not yet been signed now here the question asks for the correct statements and both the statements are incorrect so the correct answer to this question is option d neither one nor two now this question is about the hydroxychloroquine that is often seen in news it is a drug which is considered to be effective in treating the covid-19 that is the new corona virus disease and that is where it was in news often now the first statement states it is an anti-malarial drug this is a correct statement because this drug is used in the treatment of malaria and even sometimes used to treat the autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and know that india is one of the world's largest producer of this drug and as we know this covid-19 outbreak has caused many deaths in many countries and so far there is no known treatment so that is why researchers and doctors across the world have experimented this drug while treating this covid-19 disease and even the initial results of the usage of this drug was encouraging so as a result of this many countries placed big orders for hydroxychloroquine from india but even our country is affected by covid-19 outbreak so we also need this drug and that is why to maintain enough quantities of this drug for domestic usage of a government placed restrictions on sale and export of hydroxychloroquine even the government took a step further by announcing the export ban of hydroxychloroquine on march 25th this was to ensure sufficient availability of the medicine in the domestic market and in the same time government also placed hydroxychloroquine in schedule h1 to the drugs and cosmetics rules of 1945 so that means first half of second statement is correct so what is this schedule h1 to this drugs and cosmetics rules of 1945 see this schedule is primarily intended to control the rampant use and the over the counter dispensing of antibiotics in the country so when a drug is listed under this schedule its sale is severely restricted the drug can be bought only with a prescription from a registered medical practitioner and if a drug is listed in the schedule then it places many restrictions and requirements from the side of manufacturer supplier as well as medicine seller that is the medical shops or pharmacies and the government is empowered to do this under section 26 capital b of drugs and cosmetics act of 1940 where the government is empowered to place a drug under this schedule h1 but if you see the second half of the statement it mentions for its easy availability during the covid 19 pandemic it is incorrect because this drug was placed in schedule h1 to restrict its rampant usage in the country and we saw that once a drug is listed in the schedule then its sale is severely restricted so that is why as a whole this statement is incorrect even though this drug has been placed in schedule h1 this is not the outcome of this move now here the question asks for the correct statement and here statement one is the correct statement so the correct answer is option a one only but also recently in april what happened was government released one more gas it notification on april 4th this notification completely banned the export of hydroxychloroquine see the previous notification that is the notification on march 25th had some exceptions like export on humanitarian grounds exports from special economic zones etc these exports were allowed but the fourth april notification had put a blanket ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine but this move was not welcomed by many countries so government diluted this ban immediately so currently export of this drug is allowed based on humanitarian grounds while maintaining sufficient quantities for the domestic usage now let us move on to the next question now this question is based on the right to information act and the recent rta amendment act of 2019 as you know the rta act was enacted in the year 2005 and this act signified the citizens right to information and it mandated the public officials for proactive sharing of information in the public platforms now here the first statement mentions provisions of the act are applicable to the whole of india except jammu and kashmir now this statement is incorrect because originally the 2005 act was extended to whole of india except the state of jammu and kashmir only but recently the jammu and kashmir reorganization act of 2019 extended this act even to the newly created unit territories of jammu and kashmir and ladakh so that is why this statement is incorrect in the current scenario so first statement is incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements so you can eliminate option a and c now from the given options you can easily say three is a correct statement now let us see about statement two it mentions the salary of chief information commissioner is same as that of the chief election commissioner now this statement would have been a correct statement before the 2019 amendment to the rta act because the right to information amendment act of 2019 has made many changes to the principal act currently the amendment act has empowered the central government to determine the term of chief information commissioner and the information commissioners at the central level originally the term was fixed for cic and ic's for a period of five years and this is even same for the state level chief information commissioner and information commissioners because previously they also had a fixed term of five years but now based on this recent amendment the term will be fixed by the central government only and other than this the amendment act also empowered the central government to determine salaries allowances and other terms and conditions of service of the chief information commissioner and information commissioners and previously the salary of cic and ic's will be equivalent to the salary paid to the chief election commissioner and the election commissioners respectively that is the salary of cic will be equal to the salary of chief election commissioner and the salary of information commissioners will be equal to election commissioners but now it is not so that is why this statement is incorrect. So the correct answer is option B 3 only. Now also know that similarly the salary of chief information commissioner and information commissioners at the state level was equivalent to the salary paid to the election commissioner and the chief secretary to the state government respectively. But this was also amended. Now the salaries of CICs and ICs at the state level are also determined by the central government. Now the third statement is it has overriding effect with respect to every other act in force including the official secrets act of 1923. Now this statement is correct because according to section 22 of RTA act the act has overriding effect with respect to any other act in force including this official secrets act. Even the section 8 clause 2 mentions that notwithstanding anything in this official secrets act information may be provided if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interest. But this particular section of 22 was in news because in a recent verdict the supreme court barred citizens from securing access to court records under the RTA act. Instead the court stated that such records can be accessed only through the rules laid down by each high court under article 225 of the constitution. But here the experts are of the opinion that this verdict goes against the overriding principle of RTA act of 2005 and at this section 22. So that is why this section is important to know. Now let us move on to the next question. Now this next question is based on Sir Creek issue. This topic was in news because a former Pakistan foreign minister told that in the year 2006 Pakistan had invited our former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to sign an agreement on this Sir Creek issue. So what is this Sir Creek issue? It is a border dispute between India and Pakistan. The issue is that both countries are unable to agree on the exact boundary of Sir Creek and this Sir Creek as you can see in this picture is a 60 mile or 96 kilometer long estuary in the marshes of runoff kutch. This creek opens up in the Arabian Sea and it roughly divides the kutch region of Gujarat in India from the Sindh province of Pakistan. So the dispute between India and Pakistan lies in the interpretation of the maritime boundary line between kutch and Sindh. See based on the maps from the early part of the century the two governments of India and Pakistan have differing viewpoints on where the actual border lies. This dispute impacts the demarcation of maritime border and also the demarcation of exclusive economic zones within the ocean. So currently the maritime border in this region is undefined. So what are the two maps on which the two governments have differing viewpoints? See this Sir Creek dispute stems from maps drawn in 1914 and in 1925 that trace different boundaries which was present between the then British India and princely states and thus now the dispute is between India and Pakistan. The earlier map depicts the boundary on the east bank of the creek that is the 1914 map depicts the boundary on the east bank of the creek but the later 1925 map depicts the boundary along the midpoint of the creek. So here Pakistan claims the entire creek based on the 1914 agreement signed between government of Sindh and the rulers of kutch and India claims that the boundary lies mid channel of the creek as it was depicted in the map in 1925 and India also claims that the boundary is implemented with pillars that is placed to mark the boundary. Now here you should note that the official Indian government position is that the boundary is along the midpoint of the creek that means when the creek meanders then the boundary shifts. So as you can see in this map the red line represents the boundary claimed by India but it is disputed by Pakistan but what the Pakistani officials are interpreting is that the boundary is along the east bank of the creek and thus it is geographically fixed it will not be shifting and in this map you can see the green line which represents the boundary claimed by Pakistan and this boundary is disputed by India. So from Pakistani perspective even though Sir Creek has migrated over time still the border remains fixed as it was marked on the vintage 1914 maps. So here the problem is if one country agrees to the others traditional position then the other country will end up losing a vast amount of exclusive economic zone because if the boundary is fixed in the midpoint of the creek then India will have more space but if the boundary is fixed at the east bank then Pakistan will have more space. So this will provide more exclusive economic zone to that particular country and this exclusive economic zone is important because it is said that this region is rich with gas, oil and mineral deposits and as we know that a country has special rights to the exclusive economic zone under the UN clause that is United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. So the country on whose favor the boundary will be fixed will have the rights of exploration and use of resources there and this also includes deep sea mining. So that is why even still today there is a dispute in agreeing to an exact boundary of Sir Creek. Now apart from this economic advantage there are also other factors which makes the marking of boundary very important because this Sir Creek area is also a great fishing destination for thousands of fishermen from both India and Pakistan. So in the desperation for a great catch of fish many of fishermen's boat from each side drift across the perceived boundaries and sometimes they even end up being arrested by the other side's government. So this disputed water is a cause for fishermen's misery in the region along with this this disputed water also gives rise to terrorist designs and global drugs indicate interest according to the government. So here the question asks the term Sir Creek is sometimes mentioned in the news in the context of boundary dispute between option C India and Pakistan. It is the correct answer. Now let us take the next question. This next question asks recently the term bone ossification test was in news it is related to four options are given diagnosis of cancer technique to form pictures of anatomy estimation of age a sub method of paternity test. Now the correct answer is option C estimation of age because ossification of bones provides a very useful method of estimation of age in the living beings. See most bones develop either from cartilage or they develop from fibro membranous structures and different bones begin and complete their ossification at different time but at almost fixed periods of life and these changes can be studied by X-rays and thus it is a very strong tool to assess the age of a person but know that according to forensic experts ossification takes place slightly earlier in females than in males. Now this bone ossification test was in news because as you know Indian laws have special safeguard for minors. So when no document is available to prove the age of the accused person then this bone ossification test is carried out and this test gives a rough estimate of age of the accused person or even sometimes the age of the victims. Now this bone ossification test was in news because recently courts have allowed polis to conduct ossification tests for accused in violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. So just know that this test is related to the estimation of age. Now let us take the next question. Now this next question asks the inaugural world climate and security report of 2020 is the product of the expert group of four entities are given and we have to choose the correct answer. Now know that this report is released for the first time by an expert group of the International Military Council on Climate Change and Security or in short IMCCS. So the correct answer is option D. This IMCCS is a recent international initiative. It is a group of senior military leaders, security experts and security institutions across the globe. This council is dedicated to study the security risks of climate change or in other words this council works on anticipating analyzing and addressing the security risks of a changing climate and in the recent years there were demand from military professionals and they demanded to share information and best practices on how to address these security dimension and military dimension of climate change. Therefore the launch of this council was announced in February 2019. Now this council was founded and administered by the Center for Climate and Security in partnership with three other institutes. The three other institutes are the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs then the Hague Center for Strategic Studies and then the Planetary Security Initiative of Netherlands Institute of International Relations. So to be very specific the main functions of this council is performed by the Center for Climate and Security and in February 2020 this council has released its inaugural report which is titled as the World Climate and Security Report of 2020. This report has highlighted many facts. It mentioned that the impact of climate change on water will increase the global security risk in the next decade. The report also highlighted that forced displacement will increase by the year 2040 and even the scale of natural disasters will increase by the year 2040 and then the report has projected that these forced displacements and natural disasters will result into conflicts within the nations and further the report also noted that in the future the stresses of climate change will increase disputes which can turn dams and canals into sources of conflict among countries and subnational entities. So these are some of the observations made by this report. Now let us move on to the next question. Now this next question is about major non-nato ally status or ensured MNNA. See this status is a designation under US law. This designation or this status provides foreign partners of USA with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation. So this status is a powerful symbol of the close relationship which the United States shares with friendly countries and currently if you see US has designated 17 countries as major non-nato ally of USA and this includes Afghanistan, Israel, Japan, South Korea, even Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand etc. But India is not a major non-nato ally of USA and this MNNA was a news because recently as you know the Taliban peace deal was signed by USA and Taliban and at that time this MNNA was discussed. Now when we discuss about major non-nato ally status we should also know about NATO as you know NATO is the acronym of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an intergovernmental military alliance and it was formed in the year 1949. It is a group of 30 countries from Europe and North America and this organization exists to protect the people and territory of its members. Now this alliance founded on the principle of collective defense that means if one NATO ally is attacked then all NATO allies are attacked. For example when the 9-11 attack happened in USA all NATO allies stood with America as though they had also been attacked. Now from examination point of view also know that the 30th member of this organization is North Macedonia which joined in 2020 only. So here you should be clear that Pakistan is a NATO partner country and not a NATO member state because it is neither in Europe nor in North America and even the countries like Afghanistan, Japan, South Korea and Pakistan are considered as partners across the globe of NATO only not member states of NATO. So you should be clear with this differentiation and with respect to India India is neither a NATO member nor a NATO partner. So now coming back to the question the question asks consider the following statements with reference to the major non-NATO ally status. First statement is it is a designation under US law that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation. Yes this statement is correct it is a designation under US law and it provides these benefits. The second statement is recently India has been designated as MNNA. No this statement is incorrect because India has not been designated as a major non-NATO ally by USA. So keep this in mind and here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option A1 only. Now this next question is about Mahakoshal region. The question asks it is associated with which among these following. Now this region was in news in March 2020 because geologists detected gold deposits in a part of this region. The detection of gold was made in Sonobhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. Now this district of Uttar Pradesh is reported as the second largest district of UP and Sonobhadra is also the only district in India which borders four states. It has borders with Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. So now coming to this region. So this region includes Uttar Pradesh. Apart from this it also includes parts of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand as well and this region is lithospherically known for its mineral richness. So while attending this question you have to choose the best suited answer which is saw that this region includes parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. So that means northeast India can be eliminated and southern India and you can also eliminate Bay of Bengal because none of these states are associated with any of these regions. So the best suited answer for this question is option C central India. So the correct answer is option C. Now in this context also know some few information about geological survey of India from examination point of view. It was set up in 1851. It was set up primarily to find coal deposits for the railways and at present the main functions of geological survey of India are creation and abdication of national geoscientific information and carrying out mineral resource assessment. These objectives are to be achieved through ground surveys, airborne and marine surveys, mineral prospecting and investigations and also by use of other multidisciplinary researchers and experts. And presently geological survey of India is an attached office to the Ministry of Mines and know that the headquarters of geological survey of India is in Kolkata. Now let us move on to the next question. Now this next question is based on a digital platform known as Deeksha. So first let us know the full form of this acronym. It stands for Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing. This platform serves as a national digital infrastructure for teachers. This platform was launched in 2017 for providing digital platform to teachers and for giving them an opportunity to learn and train themselves. Now this initiative has been taken forward to enhance the coverage and to improve the quality of e-content for teachers. So a mobile app known as Deeksha app is also launched for teachers, parents and students and this app already provides access to ncrt books and lessons following the regular school curriculum. And in this platform states schools and even private organizations can create content for common use. And as of now the app is available in 12 languages and also know this platform and app were launched by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. Along with this during this lockdown period the ministry under Deeksha has launched a national program known as Vidya Dan 2.0 and this Vidya Dan is a common national program to develop and contribute e-learning content. As you know Vidya means education and here Dan could mean contribution or donation and in this context it is the contributing for e-learning content. So this Vidya Dan is a program to enable contributions to improve teaching and learning and it is an effort to encourage the sharing of high quality curated relevant and curriculum linked digital content and also the teaching and learning content which is available in Vidya Dan have been contributed by teachers and schools across India. So this program attempts to synergize country-wide developments in the field of education by providing schools all over India from metro cities to small villages with a good quality e-content that can be used by them anytime anywhere at no cost. So in short the aim of this program is to empower each school teacher and student and to improve learning. So thus we can say that this program will help millions of children across the country to continue their learning anytime and anywhere. Now if you look at the question it mentions consider the following statements with reference to a digital platform Deeksha sometimes seen in news and the first statement is it is a capacity building program for improving quality of school education through integrated teacher training. Now this statement is incorrect because Deeksha is for providing digital platform to teachers and giving them an opportunity to learn and train themselves and it is an initiative to enhance the coverage and improve the quality of e-content for teachers. But here this statement mentions about another program of Ministry of Human Resource Development. It is the NISTA program. We covered this program in the Target 2020 series for the month of February 2020. Now this program NISTA stands for National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement. It is a capacity building program for improving quality of school education through integrated teacher training. It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage. So that means the first statement is incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements. So you can eliminate option A and B. Now from the remaining options you can say statement 2 is correct. Yes it is launched by Ministry of Human Resource Development. Now the third statement mentions recently a national program Vidya Dhan 2.0 has been launched under Deeksha to develop and contribute e-learning content and the statement is also correct. So the correct answer to this question is option C 2 and 3. Now successfully we have completed 25 questions and 30 more questions to go. Now this question is about South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network or in short SAVEN. See it is an inter-governmental wildlife law enforcement support body of South Asian countries. So the members of this body are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Now the objective of this SAVEN is to strengthen promote and coordinate regional cooperation for curbing illegal wildlife trade which threatens the wild flora and fauna of South Asia. And this wildlife enforcement network was officially launched in January 2011 in Bhutan and it is an outcome of several workshops which were held before that. So these are the workshops based on which this South Asian wildlife enforcement network was launched. So what this wildlife enforcement network does is that to promote the regional cooperation it focuses on policy harmonization, it focuses on institutional capacity strengthening through knowledge and intelligence sharing in the region, then it also helped in the strengthening of wildlife law enforcement to combat wildlife crime through communication, coordination, collaboration, capacity building and cooperation. And further know that as you already saw it was launched in Bhutan but its secretariat is in Kathmandu of Nepal. Now if you come to this question, this question asks which of the following countries are members of South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network. Five countries are given India, Nepal, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Maldives. Now as you know India is a member so one should be in the answer and as its secretariat is in Nepal so it is also a member so two should be also in answer. So the final answer should be either C or D only and in both of these if you see Myanmar is missing that is three is missing and both the options has five that is Maldives. Now just we have to see whether Afghanistan is a member or not. Yes Afghanistan is a member so the correct answer is option D 1, 2, 4 and 5 only. Myanmar is not a member of this South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network. Now when we talk about wildlife enforcement network you should remember that there is another wildlife enforcement network in Asia which is the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network or in short ASEAN WEN. Now this ASEAN WEN was officially launched by the ASEAN ministers who are responsible for the implementation of sites. So it was officially launched in 2005. Now it was launched following the adoption and endorsement of ASEAN Regional Action Plan on Trade in Wild Fauna in Flora 2005 to 2010. After this action plan only this enforcement network was launched by ASEAN and in particular it was launched to fulfill the second objective of this action plan. This objective aims to promote networking amongst several law enforcement authorities in ASEAN countries to curb illegal trade in wild fauna in flora and also know that previously this ASEAN WEN was referred to as the ASEAN Sites Enforcement Task Force in this action plan. So this organization aims to address illegal exploitation and trade in sites listed species within the ASEAN region and it addresses this by creating an integrated network under this ASEAN WEN among the law enforcement agencies and it also involves the sites authorities, customs, polis, prosecutors, specialized governmental wildlife law enforcement organizations etc. And these are the tasks which is done by ASEAN WEN you can take note of it. So remember there are two important wildlife enforcement networks in Asia. One is ASEAN WEN and the other one is SAWEN. Now let us move on to the next question. Now this next question is about New Delhi International Arbitration Center Act of 2019. Now know that this act was enacted with the view to provide for the establishment and incorporation of the New Delhi International Arbitration Center or in short NDIAC and the purpose of this NDIAC is to make it as an independent and autonomous regime for institutionalized arbitration and to make it as a hub for institutional arbitration and this act is also to declare the NDIAC as an institution of national importance for its overall development as a major arbitration hub and this will be done by promoting quick and effective dispute resolution mechanism. Apart from this, this act also provides for the acquisition and transfer of the undertakings of International Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution and this act provides to waste such undertakings in this New Delhi International Arbitration Center and this is done for better management of arbitration. So that means already there is a Center for Dispute Resolution and this International Center for Dispute Resolution was set up in the year 1995 under the Ages of Central Government and it was registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 and this Center was set up with the objective of promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism and for providing facilities for the same and currently know that this ICADR works under the Ages of Supreme Court and its headquarter is in New Delhi and it has regional centers present at Hyderabad and Bengaluru also. So we already have an International Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution. So why there is a need for a new center? It is because the studies conducted by the high level committee which is appointed by the Central Government indicated that this already existing ICADR has failed to keep pace with the dynamic nature of arbitration even though it has eminent lawyers and judges on its governing council and it was also indicated that the body has been unable to actively embrace the developments in arbitration ecosystem and that is why there is a need for this New Delhi International Arbitration Center. Now the key objectives of this NDIC are to promote research to provide training and organizing conferences and seminars in Alternative Dispute Resolution matters then to provide facilities and administrative assistance for the conduct of arbitration, mediation and conciliation proceedings then also for maintaining a panel of accredited professionals to conduct arbitration, mediation and conciliation proceedings. Now coming to the composition of this NDIC, as per Section 5 of the NDIC Act, this center will be headed by a chairperson who has been a judge of the Supreme Court or a judge of High Court or even an eminent person who is having special knowledge and experience in the conduct or administration of arbitration law or management and the chairperson for this NDIC will be appointed by the Central Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. Apart from the chairperson, NDIC will also have two full-time members and part-time members who will be selected amongst the eminent persons having substantial knowledge and experience in institutional arbitration both domestic arbitration and international arbitration. And in addition to this, there will be one representative of recognized body of commerce and industry who shall be appointed on a rotational basis as a part-time member to this NDIC. And then there will be three ex-officer members, they are the Secretary of Department of Legal Affairs, then the financial advisor who will be nominated by the Department of Expenditure under Ministry of Finance and then the Chief Executive Officer of NDIC. Now know that this Chief Executive Officer will be appointed as per section 21 of this Act and this CEO will be responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Center. So these are some of the informations that you should know with respect to the NDIC Act of 2019. Now coming to the question, here the question asks with reference to New Daily International Arbitration Center Act of 2019, which of the following statements is or are incorrect. The first statement mentions its objective is to provide for the establishment and incorporation of New Daily International Arbitration Center. This statement is correct, this is the main objective of the Act. And the second statement is NDIC replaces the International Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution. Now this statement is incorrect because the Act clearly mentions that the NDIC will take over the undertakings of International Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution including its regional offices. But this will be done without interfering with its activities and without adversely affecting the ICADR's character as a society. So that means both the centers will exist. This new center has been created to decrease the workload of ICADR. So that is why this statement is incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option B, 2 only because the question asks for the incorrect statement. So be careful while marking the correct answer. Now let us take the next question. Now this next question is based on cod blood. Now this term cod blood is often seen in news with reference to the cod blood banking. So what is this cod blood? Cod blood is the blood which is contained in the placental blood vessels and umbilical cord. Or in simple terms we can say that cod blood is the blood from the baby that is left in the umbilical cord and placenta after the birth of the baby. Now this cod blood is important because it is a vast source of hematopoietic stem cells or progenitor cells. So after the birth of the child the cod blood is collected and it is safely stored. And this storage of collecting and storing is what is known as the cod blood banking. So we saw that it is a vast source of hematopoietic stem cells. See stem cells are the cells which have the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body. And also in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system by dividing without limiting to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. So when a stem cell divides there are two possibilities. Either each new cell has a potential to remain a stem cell or it can become another type of cell with a more specialized function such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell or a brain cell. Now in this particularly the hematopoietic stem cells are the immature cell that can develop into all types of blood cells such as white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. And these hematopoietic stem cells or HSC are found in the peripheral blood. They are found with the bone marrow and also in the cod blood. And because of its important function only it is also known as blood stem cell. Now the hematopoietic stem cells are important because they are routinely used to treat patients with cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma and even to treat other disorders of blood and immune systems. So these are the reasons behind storing the cod blood. Now with respect to India if you see the cod blood banking or the umbilical cod blood banks are regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Drugs and Cosmetic Rules of 1945. And these umbilical cod blood banks are permitted only under license and they are monitored by the Central Drug Standards Controlling Organization. So the cod blood banks have to comply with the drugs and cosmetic rules for collection, for processing or and for testing, for storage, for banking and for the release of the stored units of cod blood. So now if you look at this question the first statement mentions cod blood is a vast source of hematopoietic stem cells which can develop into different types of blood cells. This is a correct statement. Now the second statement is in India cod blood banks have to comply with drugs and cosmetics rules for collection, processing, testing, storage, banking and release of stored units. This is also correct. So here both the statements are correct and the question also asks for the correct statements only. So the correct answer is option C both one and two. Now since this topic is related to stem cells you should know one another recent important current affairs topic which is Merkel cell carcinoma. So recently a team of researchers developed a diagnostic system to detect the presence of Merkel cell polyoma virus in Merkel cell carcinoma tumors. Now this Merkel cell carcinoma is a very rare disease in which cancer cells form in the skin. So the researchers have developed a test using a technology known as CRASPR Cas12 technology to identify the virus in the tumor. Now also know that this Merkel cell carcinoma is associated with old age it is associated with excessive exposure to ultraviolet light and even it is associated with a weak immune system. So just know that this Merkel cell carcinoma is a very rare disease. Now let us move on to the next question. Now this next question is about the Tejas SP21 aircraft. Now this is an important topic from Prelims perspective because whenever there is a new technology which is designed and developed indigenously one or two questions appear in the Prelims examination. So you have to focus a bit more on such current affairs. Now this Tejas SP21 aircraft was a news because its maiden flight happened in March 2020. Now this Tejas SP21 aircraft is India's first light combat aircraft Tejas of FOSI version. FOSI means final operational clearance certification which is given by DRDO. Now this Tejas SP21 aircraft is a 4.5 generation single-seat single-engine multi-role fighter aircraft and it is the smallest and lightest supersonic aircraft in its class and here supersonic means it can fly faster than the speed of sound. So as the name suggests this aircraft is a variant of Tejas and Tejas is an indigenous aircraft which is designed and developed in our country and Tejas maximum speed can go up to Mach 1.8. And the Tejas light combat aircrafts are developed by the state owned Hindustan Aeronautical Limited that is HAL and by Aeronautical Development Agency. Now this Aeronautical Development Agency is an autonomous organization under the Department of Defense Research and Development which functions under Ministry of Defense and this Aeronautical Development Agency is interested with the design and development of both the Air Force and Naval versions of light combat aircraft. And these light combat aircrafts and even the Tejas SP21 aircraft was developed as a part of light combat aircraft program to meet the diverse needs of Indian Air Force and Indian Navy. And this LCA program had started around the 1980s to replace the MIG-21 aircraft. So since then lot of variants of Tejas starting from Tejas TD-1, TD-2 and even the recent Tejas MK-1, MK-2 is developed under this program. But this SP21 is special because it is the first variant to get the final operation clearance certification given by DRTO. And one of the key features of this new Tejas variant is that it has the capacity of air-to-air fueling probe. So this feature will give it an edge during the enduring missions. And apart from this, this new variant will be able to fly non-stop for over 8 hours with this air-to-air refueling support. So this new aircraft gives a fillet to the Indian Air Force operations. And these are the other key features of this SPTejas 21. Now if you look at this question, it mentions with reference to Tejas SP21 aircraft, consider the following statements. First one is, it is the smallest and lightest supersonic aircraft in its class. It is a correct statement, it is a supersonic aircraft only, and it is the smallest and lightest. Now the second statement is, it is jointly developed by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Russia's state-owned company Almas Ante. Now this is an incorrect statement because these Tejas light combat aircrafts and even these Tejas SP21 are developed indigenously. So it is not a joint development of India and Russia. And here the question asks for the correct statement. So the correct answer is option A1 only. Now let us take the next question. Now this next question is about National Ayush Mission or in short NAM. Now this mission was in use because the Union Cabinet which was chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the inclusion of Ayush Health and Wellness Centre component of Ayushman Bharat in the National Ayush Mission. See as you know Ayush is the acronym for medical systems that are being practiced in India such as Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Junani, Siddha and Homeopathy. Now this National Ayush Mission was launched by the Department of Ayush under the Ministry of Health and Family Well-Pair in the year 2014. But know that currently this department has been made into a ministry which is the Ministry of Ayush and it was formed in 2014. And this mission aims for the development of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Junani, Siddha and Homeopathy that is Ayush medical systems in the country and it is a centrally sponsored scheme. And the basic objective of this scheme is to promote Ayush medical systems through cost-effective Ayush services and also strengthening of educational systems then to facilitate the enforcement of quality control of Ayurveda, Siddha and Junani and Homeopathy drugs and also to facilitate the sustainable availability of Ayurveda, Siddha, Junani and Homeopathy raw materials. Apart from this this mission also aims to support cultivation of medicinal plants by adopting good agricultural practices so as to provide the sustainable supply of quality raw materials. So what are the components of this mission? There are two types of components one is the mandatory component and the next one is the flexible components. And this mandatory components are the Ayush educational institutions, Ayush services and quality control of Ayush, Siddha, Junani and Homeopathy drugs then medicinal plants. Now in this know that Ayush services aims to enhance the coverage of healthcare system through cost-effective Ayush services by focusing on core competency areas of Ayush through upgrading Ayush hospitals and dispensaries and by providing co-location of Ayush facilities at primary health centers, at community health centers, at district hospitals etc. Now the next set of components is the flexible components. Now know that out of the total state envelope which is available 20 percentage of funds will be earmarked for the flexible funds and this funds can be spent on any of the items which is mentioned here. If you look at the question the question asks the centrally sponsored scheme of national Ayush mission has been launched for the development of Ayurveda yoga and naturopathy, Yunani, Siddha and Homeopathy in the country which among the following are the mandatory components of NAM. Just now we saw that there are two types of components mandatory components and then flexible components. Now we saw that there are four mandatory components and Ayush wellness centers including yoga and naturopathy is not a mandatory component it is a flexible component. So three should not be in the answer hence the correct answer is option C 1, 2, 4 and 5 only. Now let us take the next question. Now this next question is based on an organization known as Indian Ocean Commission or in short IOC but sometimes in news you would have seen that the short form of it it is mentioned as COI because of its French name which is commission de l'ouche en d'un. Now these kinds of international organizations which we often see in news especially which are related to India are very important from prelims perspective. So this Indian Ocean Commission topic is also very important. Now this Indian Ocean Commission or IOC is an intergovernmental organization. It was created in the year 1982 by the Port Louis declaration. Remember that Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius. Now this organization was created by the ministers of foreign affairs of Madagascar, Mauritius and Sicilis but in 1984 only this organization was institutionalized. It was institutionalized in Sicilis by a general cooperation agreement known as Victoria Agreement. Now here pay attention that Victoria is the capital of Sicilis and after that Comoros and French Union subsequently joined this commission in the year 1986. So this Indian Ocean Commission is an intergovernmental organization of five members in the western Indian Ocean or African Indian Ocean and these five nations are Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sicilis and French Union. Now with respect to these islands it is said that this organization is the only African regional organization which is composed entirely of islands and also know that at some point in history all these islands were ruled by France and apart from this these five islands also share geographic proximity, they share historical and demographic relationship, they share natural resources and common development issues also and from examination point of view also remember that these five island nations are part of Vanilla Islands Group. Now we have discussed about this Vanilla Islands Group in our Target 2020 series for the month of January 2020 and as you know this Vanilla Islands Group consists of six islands Sicilis, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, French Mayot and French Reunion. Now in this the Sicilis, Mauritius, Madagascar and Comoros which are also a part of IOC, they are members of African Union also, they are members of Indian Ocean Rehabilitation also and they are also members of International Solar Alliance. Now coming back to Indian Ocean Commission the objective of this organization is to strengthen the links among the people of Southwest Indian Ocean. It aims to strengthen their quality of life by developing cooperation in all sectors particularly diplomatic, economic, development, social, cultural and technical cooperation. Now this organization was in news because recently in March 2020 India has been approved as an observer state into this commission along with India even Japan and United Nations are made observers in Indian Ocean Commission. So currently the observer states or organizations in this IOC are United Nations, European Union, Malta, China, India, Japan, International Organization of Francophonie. Now this International Organization of Francophonie is an international institution of 54 members and it was formed in 1970. It aims at strengthening and promoting French language and universal values and know that India is not a member of this organization. So now India has been approved as an observer in IOC. So what is the significance of this move? First of all it will help India to strengthen its security ties with these countries in the Indian Ocean region. As you know the Mozambique channel is also known as the key choke point in the Indian Ocean and we also hear about another choke point in news often which is in our neighborhood and it is the Strait of Hormu. This Strait of Hormu is located between Persian Gulf and Gulf of Hormon. Now the problem with these Maritime Choke Points is that these are the regions of huge trade and if someone takes control of these choke points then the global trade can be disrupted and as we know China's influence in the Indian Ocean region is increasing every day. So by becoming an observer state in IOC now we can increase our naval presence in the region. So these are some of the information that you should know with respect to Indian Ocean Commission. Now let us take the question. Consider the following statements with reference to Indian Ocean Commission. First statement is it is an intergovernmental organization of United Nations. It is an incorrect statement because even though it is an intergovernmental organization it is not an organization of UN. Rather just now only UN has been made an observer in this commission. So statement one is incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements so you can eliminate option A and B. Now the second statement is all the islands part of Vanilla Islands group are its members. Now be careful while attending this statement because we saw that the member nations of IOC are part of Vanilla Islands group but whether all the islands part of Vanilla Islands group are its members no because the French Mayotte is not a member of Indian Ocean Commission but it is a member of Vanilla Islands. So this statement is incorrect. Now since second statement is incorrect you can arrive at the correct answer which is option D three only. It correctly mentions that recently India joined IOC as an observer state. Now before moving on to the next question don't confuse this Indian Ocean Commission with Indian Ocean Dream Association or in short IORA because IORA has 22 member states and nine dialogue partners and we discussed about IORA in our target 2020 series for the month of December 2019 and also remember India is a member of IORA and there might arise one another confusion because there is also one another organization which is in short known as IOC. It is the UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. This commission promotes international cooperation and it coordinates programs in marine research services observation systems has that mitigation and capacity development and this is done in order to understand and also to effectively manage the resources of the ocean and coastal areas. So don't confuse the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission is different from Indian Ocean Commission. Now let us take the next question. Now this next question is a report based question and this question talks about freedom in the world report. Now know that in March 2020 the freedom in the world 2020 report was released and it was released by Freedom House which is a US based NGO and this report of 2020 was titled as leader less struggle for democracy. So from examination point of view let us see some of the findings of this report. Now first know that this report is mainly based on two indicators one is political rights and then second one is civil liberties. So always remember with respect to a report its indicators or dimensions are very important. Now based on these core obtained in these indicators the countries are divided into free countries partly free countries and not free countries and this report assesses 210 countries and territories across the world and it was found that out of 210 countries and territories only 84 countries and territories are free and 67 are partly free and 59 countries and territories are not free and among the top performing countries that is which are in the free category all of them are from Europe and these countries are Finland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and Luxembourg and one important point about this report was this report was fiercely critical about world's two largest democracies one was USA and the other was India. Now according to this report India enjoys free status that is India is kept in the free status but the report says that India's commitment to pluralism and individual rights are under threat under the present government. So this is the score of India and this is the reason why India is one among the bottom five countries in the free category even though we are in the free category we are in the bottom five only and with respect to our neighbours Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in partly free category and then China, Myanmar and Afghanistan are in not free category then you can also see that among BRICS nations China and Russia are under not free category and then Brazil and South Africa are under free category and here we have also given you the region wise analysis which is given by this report. Now this question asks the freedom in the world report is released by so the correct answer is option C freedom house so that is all about this question now let us take the next question. Now this next question is about a fund which has been established to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. See we know that the world is facing an unprecedented challenge with communities and economies everywhere as they are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic so everyone is coming together to combat this pandemic and thus governments organizations from across industries every sector and even individuals together are helping to respond to this global outbreak. So in this context two important funds have been established internationally to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and one of them is coronavirus emergency fund or we can say SARC coronavirus emergency fund. See on March 15th of this year during a video conference of the SARC heads of state and government the Indian prime minister had proposed a coronavirus emergency fund this emergency fund was set up in response to this global coronavirus pandemic at that time itself and this initiative seeks to migrate the risks which is associated with the coronavirus pandemic in the South Asian region and since this fund was proposed by Indian prime minister India was the first one to announce a commitment of 10 million dollars to launch this fund and after that all member countries of SARC have made voluntary contributions to emergency fund and even Sri Lanka has donated around five million dollars for the SARC coronavirus emergency fund. So from examination point of view remember there are eight member states of SARC they are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. So this was about the SARC coronavirus emergency fund. Now the next fund is COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Now this fund is open for donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and other organizations around the world to directly support the work of world health organization and its partners so that it can help countries to prevent, detect and respond to this COVID-19 pandemic and all that this fund was created at the request of world health organization and it was created by United Nations Foundation in partnership with Swiss Philanthropy Foundation and this solidarity response fund has been set up to facilitate an unprecedented global response by supporting the WHO, strategic preparedness and response plan. So as a part of the agreement and initial portion of the money from the fund it is said that currently this fund stands at more than 127 million dollars. So an initial portion from this fund is given to UNICEF for its work with vulnerable children and communities all over the world and the money which will be collected through this solidarity response fund will be used also to train and equip communities and healthcare workers so that they can prevent, detect and treat this COVID-19 virus. So that means this fund will help countries to expand their healthcare capacity and it will help them to mitigate the social impact which is caused by this pandemic especially the social impact on women, children and vulnerable social groups and not only that this fund will help to accelerate the research and development of treatments and preventive vaccines for this kind of pandemic. So these are two important funds that you should know with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now if you look at this question this question asks about the second fund which we discussed the COVID-19 solidarity response fund often in news is an initiative of it is not an initiative of SARC so you can eliminate option A option B is United Nations Foundation C is European Union D Shanghai Corporation Organization so C and D also we have to eliminate the correct answer is United Nations Foundation but it has created this fund in partnership with Swiss Philanthropy Foundation don't forget that so that is all about this question now let us take the next question. This next question asks the term ICONSAT 2020 was recently seen in news it is related to I know that this ICONSAT is nothing but the international conference on nano science and nano technology this conference was held in Kolkata in the first week of March 2020 and this conference is supported by the nano mission of department of science and technology this nano mission is nothing but the mission on nano science and nano technology it was launched by government of India in May 2007 and with respect to this nano mission the department of science and technology is the nodal agency for its implementation so the correct answer to this question is option D international conference on nano science and nano technology now since ICONSAT has the word SAT don't think it is related with satellites that is why option C is given to confuse you if you see the first option India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory this statement is about the astrosat mission of ISRO which was launched in 2015 and the option B mentions a flagship project under the ministry of human resource and development to facilitate and encourage the global student community to study in India now this option talks about study in India program this program was launched in April 2018 and this program helps the global student community to study in globally recognized premier institutes across India this program provides scholarships for more than 2000 students and each are valued at 3500 US dollars each per annum for military students that is for military students from abroad each year around 250,000 rupees is given a scholarship for studying in India and for getting this scholarship the aspirants have to give a standardized online test called as indian scholastic assessment indian scholastic assessment is shortly called as IND SAT and this test is almost like stage one banking exam which papers such as verbal reasoning quantitative aptitude and logical reasoning so this is another initiative which has the word SAT now let us move on to the next question now this question is about the modified electronics manufacturing clusters scheme or the emc 2.0 scheme now this scheme was in news because recently the union cabinet has approved financial assistance to this modified electronics manufacturing cluster scheme so before knowing about this emc 2.0 just know that there was a previous scheme known as electronics manufacturing cluster scheme or in short emc scheme it was notified in 2012 and this emc scheme was launched to make india a global player in the field of electronics manufacturing and also to offset the disabilities faced by the industries for reliable infrastructure and this scheme was launched by ministry of electronics and information technology and the objective of the scheme was to provide support for creation of world-class infrastructure for attracting investments in the electronic systems design and manufacturing sector so the scheme provided for grant assistance for setting up of both greenfield emcs and brownfield emcs across the country just know that according to the emc scheme greenfield emc is an undeveloped or underdeveloped geographical area where the focus is on development of basic infrastructure amenities and other common facilities which is needed for the electronic systems design and manufacturing units and then the brownfield emc would be a geographical area where a significant number of existing electronic systems design and manufacturing units are already located and thus the focus will be on upgrading the existing infrastructure and providing common facilities for those units and know that so far under the emc scheme 20 greenfield emcs and three common facility centers have been approved in 15 states across the country but there was a need for emc 2.0 to further strengthen the infrastructure base for the electronics industry in the country and also for deepening the electronics value chain and that is why emc 2.0 was approved and likewise this scheme was also launched by ministry of electronics and information technology now under this scheme electronics manufacturing clusters would be established to create infrastructure with common facilities and amenities in emc projects and then there will also be upgradation of the infrastructure in industrial estates parks areas as common facility centers and this will be done for attracting investment in the electronics manufacturing like the previous scheme so know that this scheme provides financial assistance for setting up of the emc projects and also common facility centers so remember greenfield emc and brownfield emcs are with respect to the emc scheme but the emc projects and common facility centers are with respect to the emc 2.0 so for the purpose of this emc 2.0 scheme emc project will be set up in an undeveloped or underdeveloped geographical area where they focus on development of basic infrastructure amenities and other common facilities for the esdm units that is the electronic system design and manufacturing units and then for the common facility center there should be a significant number of existing esdm units that should be located in the area and the focus will be on upgrading the common technical infrastructure and providing common facilities for the esdm units in such already existing emcs industrial areas or parks or industrial corridors so this scheme will create a robust infrastructure base for an electronic industry to attract flow of investment in the esdm sector and it will also lead to a greater employment opportunities and know that this emc 2.0 scheme will be open for the seat of applications for a period of three years only from the data notification and the dispossessments of funds for the approved projects a further period of five years is given under the scheme apart from this mate that is ministry of electronics and information technology will periodically monitor and review the progress of the scheme and also the projects under this scheme so who is the implementing agency of the scheme see according to the notification of the scheme the scheme will be implemented through an agency in the form of an autonomous body under the ministry of electronics and information technology and these are the expected outcomes of the scheme so take a note of it so that is all about the scheme now let us look at the question the question asks consider the following statements with reference to modified electronics manufacturing cluster scheme common facility center under the scheme would be set up in an undeveloped or underdeveloped geographical area where the focus is on development of basic infrastructure amenities for the electronic system design and manufacturing units this is an incorrect statement because the emc project will be set up in the undeveloped or underdeveloped area rather the cfc or the common facility centers will be set up in the existing esgm units and in a cfc the already existing infrastructure will be upgraded but in a emc project the basic infrastructure will be then only developed so that is why this statement is incorrect now the second statement is it was launched by the ministry of science and technology it is incorrect because it is launched by the ministry of electronics and information technology so both these statements are incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements so the correct answer is option d neither one nor two now this next question is about kishori health card and first to know that kishori in hindi means a teenage girl or a adolescent girl so you can easily say that this health card is related to adolescent girls now this kishori health card is implemented by the ministry of women and child development and it is a program intervention to record and track the details of achievements or outcomes which are made under the scheme for adolescent girls or in short the esg scheme and remember this scheme for adolescent girls was earlier named as rajiv ghandi scheme for empowerment of adolescent girls and this scheme for adolescent girls was devised because a special intervention for adolescent girls was needed and it was devised in the year 2010 using the integrated child development services infrastructure and this esg scheme focuses on the out of school adolescent girls who are in the age group of 11 to 14 years and this scheme is implemented using the platform of anganwadi services of the umbrella scheme of icd scheme and especially it is implemented through the anganwadi centers and the key objective of the scheme is to facilitate educate and empower the adolescent girls so as to enable them to become self-reliant and aware citizens so based on this key objective these are the objectives under the scheme as you can see it involves improving their nutrition and health status it involves upgrading their home based skills and life skills and it also involves providing information or guidance about existing public services such as primary health centers rural hospitals etc and as you know these are very much important objectives for the development of adolescent girls in our country and this scheme particularly has two components one is nutrition component and the other is non-nutrition component and funding patent for both the components is different and based on these components under the scheme a packet of services is given to the adolescent girls and these are the packages which is given and if you see the first one the nutrition provision is under the nutrition component and the remaining six are under the non-nutrition component and the kishori health cards or the kishori cards which we are discussing today comes under the health checkup and referral services of non-nutrition component and this kishori cards for every girl will be prepared and it will be maintained by marking major milestones so simply just know that the kishori health cards are for adolescent girls and it will record the information about the weight, height, body mass index, ifa supplement that is the iron and folic acid supplement de-warming then referral services and immunization along with the other services which are provided under the scheme so all these information will be recorded in this health card and these cards will be maintained at the Anganwadi centers only so we saw that these cards will carry important milestones of adolescent girls life it includes the milestones like mainstreaming them into the schools for all these important informations will be recorded in the health cards now if you look at the question the question asks the kishori health card is for adolescent girls to record and track the details of achievements or outcomes made under the scheme for adolescent girls which among the following information are recorded in the kishori health card weight, height, body mass index, iron and folic acid supplementation de-warming see normally if you attend this question you think de-warming information would not be available in this card so you could incorrectly attend this question and mark c as the correct answer no this card has mostly all the information which is needed to know about the nutritional health and non-nutritional health of the adolescent girls so de-warming information is also recorded in this card if you remember we also discussed about the national de-warming initiative or the national de-warming day in the target 2020 series for the month of february 2020 so hence the correct answer to this question is option d 1 2 3 4 and 5 because kishori health card will record all these information so that is all about this question now let us move on to the next question now this next question is about the prestigious abel price recently this price has been given and that is why it was in news see this abel price was established by the norwegian government in the year 2002 it was established on the occasion of 200th anniversary of niels hendrik abel's birth niels hendrik abel is a norwegian mathematician who is a pioneer in development of several branches of modern mathematics so this abel price recognizes the contributions to the field of mathematics that are of extraordinary depth and influence and this abel price is awarded by the norwegian academy of science and letters and it is awarded based on a recommendation from the abel committee so this price carries a cash award of 7.5 million norwegian crone and it has been awarded annually since the year 2003 and this abel price also contributes towards the raising the status of mathematics in society and stimulating the interest of children and young people in mathematics and know that this price is important because it is considered as an equivalent to the noble price but in the field of mathematics and for this year that is year 2020 the price has been awarded to hillel furschenberg and gregarie margulis just know this it could also help you in the state level examinations now we saw that this price is considered as equivalent to noble price it is because noble price is not given to the field of mathematics rather it is given to the people of outstanding abilities in the field of physics chemistry medicine literature even peace and economic sciences so this is an important fact that you have to remember now if you look at the question the question asks the prestigious abel price recently seen in news was established by and the correct answer is norway because it was established by the norwegian government now let us move on to the next question now this next question is about wheat cultivation and the question talks about the best suitable soil textures for wheat cultivation so first let us see about wheat cultivation and the information related to soil textures then we will attend this question and this topic is important because there was widespread rain hill strong and strong winds in the panjab region which affected the wheat crop cultivation in march 2020 and as we know panjab is known as the wheat bowl of india so in this context it is important to know some facts about wheat cultivation as you know it is the second most important cereal crop and it is the main food crop in the north part of the country and also in the northwestern part of the country and wheat is a rubby crop which grows in the winter season in india because it is primarily a crop of a temperate zone and it requires an annual rainfall of 50 to 75 centimeter which has to be evenly distributed over the growing season so wheat requires moderate temperature and rainfall during growing season and it requires bright sunshine at the time of harvest i know that wheat thrives best in the well-drained loamy soil apart from this wheat is also grown in variety of soils of india and the soils with clay loam or loam texture which has good structure and moderate water holding capacity are ideal for wheat cultivation so now if you look at the question four characteristics of soil is given and the question asks which of the above soil textures are best suitable for wheat cultivation and the first one is soils with clay loam or loam texture it is a best suitable soil texture because these types of soils have good structure and moderate water holding capacity which is required for wheat cultivation so one should be in the final answer now the second one is very porous and excessively drained soil now these kinds of soil are not suitable for wheat cultivation and this sentence could also have been mentioned as high porosity and inadequate moisture which is also not suitable for wheat cultivation because just now we saw that soil with moderate water holding capacity is ideal for wheat cultivation so that means statement two is incorrect it is not a best suitable soil texture for wheat cultivation so two should not be in the answer so you can eliminate option c and d so that means now you have to see whether four is correct or not now if you see the statements three and four talks about heavy soils and lighter soils see first know that soil texture refers to the proportion of sand silt and clay sized particles that make up the mineral fraction of the soil and in this light soil refers to a soil which is high in sand related to clay while the heavy soils are made up largely of clay so we can say heavy soil is tightly packed soil and light soil is loosely packed soil so is heavy soil with poor drainage is suitable for wheat cultivation no heavy soil with good drainage is suitable for wheat cultivation under dry conditions and these soils absorb and retain rain water well now the heavy soils with poor structure and poor drainage are not suitable because wheat is sensitive to water logging so good drainage is required so that is why three is not the correct option and if you come to four it mentions lighter soils with adequate nutrient content and water holding capacity now this is an ideal soil texture for wheat cultivation so so this is a correct statement so the correct answer to this question is option b one and four only now from examination point of view know that the major wheat growing states are Punjab Uttar Pradesh Haryana Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan Bihar and Gujarat so that is all about this question now let us take the next question now this next question is about Poseidon 8i aircraft see know that the Indian government and the Boeing company which manufactures this aircraft concluded a $2.1 billion contract for the purchase of eight P8I Poseidon aircraft in the year 2009 and they were delivered by the year 2015 so it made India the first international customer of Boeing for the maritime patrol aircraft and in the year 2016 again India placed an order for four additional P8Is and its delivery was to begin this year so that is why this Poseidon 8i was in news often now know that this Poseidon or we can say Boeing P8 Poseidon is a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft and the P8I which we are discussing is one of the variant of Boeing P8 Poseidon so first let us know about P8 Poseidon this P8 excels at anti-submarine warfare it excels at anti-surface warfare in intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance and then also in search and rescue and it is said that the P8 can fly higher up to 41,000 feet and it can get to the fight faster even though it can fly higher P8 is also designed for low altitude missions and it has already proven its abilities by supporting humanitarian missions and search and rescue missions then anti-piracy operations and by supporting operations of other arms of military so one of its variant is P8I and this variant is flown by Indian Navy and in this P8I I stands for India and it has another variant also which is P8A Poseidon and this variant is flown by US Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force so remember there are two variants of P8 one is P8I and then next one is P8A now the Indian Navy has been using the P8I to keep watch over the Indian Ocean I know that Indian Navy's P8 fleet is the second largest in the world because we have already received eight out of the 12 ordered P8 aircrafts now if you take this question the question asks consider the following statements about Poseidon 8i often seen in news first statement is it is a long range anti-submarine anti-surface warfare aircraft it is a correct statement and the second one is it is indigenously designed and built for Indian Navy this is incorrect because it is not designed indigenously or built indigenously this Poseidon 8i aircraft is designed and built by Boeing which is an American multinational company that designs manufacturers and sells airplanes rockets satellites and so on now here the question asks correct statements so the correct answer is option A one only now if you look at this next question the first statement is about UN woman and the second statement talks about the Beijing declaration and platform for action of 1995 so first let us see about these two topics then we will attend the question you first know that these two topics were in use because a report was released by UN women and the report is titled as a new era for girls taking stock of 25 years of progress and this report actually reviews the achievements in gender equality after almost 25 years of adoption of Beijing declaration and platform for action of 1995 that is why these two topics are important from the current affairs perspective now know that UN women is a united nations organization which is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women and UN women supports UN member states and the civil society to design laws to design policies programs and services so as to implement certain standards to achieve the gender equality and for that it focuses on five priority areas and these are the five priority areas and one of the most important development for women was this Beijing declaration which was adopted in 1995 it was adopted by the United Nations fourth world conference on women this declaration has adopted a set of principles to ensure gender equality and empowerment of women everywhere and then the Beijing platform for action it is an agenda for women's empowerment it was also adopted along with the Beijing declaration only now this platform for action aims at removing all the obstacles to women's active participation in all spheres of public life and private life through a full and equal share in economic social cultural and political decision making so as a whole this Beijing declaration and platform for action of 1995 is a visionary agenda for the empowerment of women it still remains even today the most comprehensive global policy framework and a blueprint for action and it is a current source of guidance and inspiration to realize gender equality and the human rights of women and girls everywhere now if you look at this question the second statement mentions the Beijing declaration and platform for action of 1995 is a visionary agenda for empowerment of women this is a correct statement now the first statement mentions recently UN women has been declared as a principal organ of united nations now this statement is incorrect because UN women is an organization of united nations but it is not a principal or main organ of UN there are six principal organs of UN and all were established in 1945 when the UN was founded and these six are united nations general assembly united nations security council the economic and social council and the trusteeship council then the international court of justice and then finally the UN secret aid so that is why the statement is incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements so the correct answer is option b 2 only now this next question asks which one of the following statements is not correct if you see the given options they talk about hantavirus so first let us see about hantavirus now this hantavirus was a news because in china this hantavirus caused a death of a person so amid this covid 19 pandemic a new virus has caused a death of a person so that is where this topic is important these hantviruses are a family of viruses which are spread mainly by rodents and they can cause very diseased symptoms in people worldwide so infection with any hantavirus can produce hantavirus disease in people and know that hantviruses in the americas are known as new world hantviruses and they may cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and the other hantviruses are known as old world hantviruses and they are found mostly in europe and asia and they may cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome now in this know that each hantavirus hero type has a specific rodent host species and it is spread to people via aerosolized virus that is shed in the urine feces and saliva and even from the bite of an infected host and the most important hantavirus in the united states that can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is the synnombray virus and this synnombray virus is spread by the dear mouse so now if you look at the given options the first one mentions hantavirus is spread mainly by rodents this is correct second one is new world hantviruses found in america may cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome this is also correct now option d mentions old world hantviruses found mostly in europe and asia may cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome that is hfrs this is also correct so the correct answer to this question is option c it is the incorrect statement about hantavirus it mentions hantavirus belongs to a large family of viruses of corona virus no it does not belong to the corona virus family so that is why this statement is incorrect and it is the correct answer to this question now let us move on to the next question now this next question is about land ports authority of india now recently it was in use because the land ports authority of india or lpa i celebrated its eighth foundation day in march and this land ports authority of india is involved in the development of land ports which is also known as integrated checkpoints and these land ports or integrated checkpoints maintain regional connectivity across the international borders of india see india has over 15 000 kilometers long international land border and as you know this land border is shared with afghanistan pakistan china nepal bhutan bangladesh and miamir and there are also several designated entry points and exit points for cross border movements of persons goods and vehicles but the existing infrastructure for discharge of a various sovereign functions at these points is not adequate and it is also not coordinated well so because of the unavailability of adequate infrastructure for cross border movement of persons vehicles and goods the committee of secretaries in the year 2003 recommended the setting up of integrated checkpoints at major entry points on india's land borders and these integrated checkpoints or icps were planned to house all the regulatory agencies like immigration customs border security etc and these regulatory agencies together will be housed with the support facilities in a single complex to serve as a single window facility like we can see in an airport or seaport so now this is where the landports authority of india comes into play it was established as a statutory body under the landports authority of india act of 2010 now the provisions of the act came into force in march 2012 only and particularly the section 11 of this act empowers lpa i to develop sanitize and manage the facilities for cross border movement of passengers and goods at designated points along the international borders of india and it also intends to provide safe secure and systematic facilities for movement of cargo along with passengers at the icps and further it also plans constructs and maintains the roads terminals and ancillary buildings other than the national highways state highways and railways at an icp then lpa i also establishes and maintains warehouses container depots and cargo complexes for the storage or processing of goods along with the establishment of hotels restaurants and restrooms at the icp so these are the some of the information about landports authority of india and its functions now if you look at the question the question asks recently the landports authority of india celebrated its eighth foundation day in this context consider the following statements about lpa i first statement is it is a statutory body this statement is correct because lpa i has been established under the landports authority of india act of 2010 so statement one is correct now the second statement is it functions under the ministry of road transport and highways now this statement is incorrect because keep in mind landports authority of india functions under the ministry of home affairs not road transport and highways so since second statement is incorrect and the question asks for the correct statements if you eliminate option a b and d you can arrive at the correct answer which is option c 1 and 3 only third statement mentions it develops sanitizers and manages the facilities for cross border movement of passengers and goods at designated points along the international borders of india this is one of the functions of lpa i so that is all about this question now let us move on to the next question now this next question is about an act which is the essential commodities act of 1955 now this act was in news because due to the ongoing outbreak of covid 19 there was a panic buying of surgical masks n95 masks and hand sanitizers at many places around the world even including india and these products were either not available with most of the vendors in the market or they were available with great difficulty at exorbitant prices so the government of india had notified an order under the essential commodities act to declare these items that is the surgical masks n95 masks and hand sanitizers as essential commodities up to 30th june of 2020 and this was done by amending the schedule to the essential commodities act of 1955 so the significance of this notification is that this decision would empower the government and the states and union territories to regulate the production quality distribution etc of these products and thus it will smoothen the sale and availability of these items and it also enables the government to carry out operations against those who violate this order and those who are involved in overpricing black marketing etc and therefore it will enhance the availability of these items to the general people at reasonable prices or under the MRP now as you know not only these products but even normally certain products in our market economy are priced higher and these prices are seemingly decided by demand and supply so to intervene with these kinds of price hikes only the central government has been empowered to protect the consumers interest and for such purpose only one of the key laws is this essential commodities act of 1955 and this act is administered by the department of consumer affairs under the ministry of consumer affairs this act was enacted to ensure the easy availability of essential commodities to consumers and also to protect them from the exploitation by unscrupulous traders so the act is used by the government to regulate the production supply and distribution of a variety of commodities which is declared as essential so that it is available to the customers at fair prices so know that a commodity to be an essential commodity it has to be specified in the schedule to this 1955 act and at present know that there are seven commodities scheduled under this act and these are the seven commodities and now as an eighth commodity masks such as surgical masks n95 masks and then hand sanitizers have been added as essential commodities and remember this commodity is declared as essential commodity until 30th June 2020 only after that if government extends this time period then it will still be an essential commodity otherwise it will cease to be an essential commodity so here just know that the center can include new commodities as and when the need arises and the center is also empowered to take these commodities out of the list once the situation improves so how this works is if the center finds that a commodity is in short supply and its price is hiking then the center can notify certain stock holding limits for that commodity for a specified period and then the states act on this notification to specify limits and they take up steps to ensure that those limits are properly adhered so that means the enforcement or implementation of the provisions of the essential commodities act of 1955 lies with the state governments and the union territory administrations so anybody who is trading or dealing in a commodity whether they can be a wholesaler retailer or even importers they are prevented from stockpiling that commodity beyond a certain quantity so this improves the supply and it brings down the prices and it also helps to crack down on the holders and black marketeers of such commodities and not only this this act also provides for finality for such offenders an offender under this act may be punished with an imprisonment up to seven years or fine or both so here you can see that there is only thin line between adequate buildup of stocks and holding so for the purpose of terming a stock as holding the state government has to issue stock limits order under the essential commodities act of 1955 so any quantity of a commodity covered in the order and if it's the quantity exceeds the amount mentioned in the order then it will termed as holding otherwise it will be taken as adequate buildup of stocks only so this is the background that you should know with respect to essential commodities act and what are essential commodities and what is the difference between adequate building up of stocks and holding now if you see the question asks which of the following statements is or are correct with reference to essential commodities act of 1955 the first statement is the act provides for the regulation and control of production distribution pricing of commodities which are declared as essential this is a correct statement now the second statement is central government can add any commodity as essential commodity but only parliament has the authority to remove a commodity from the list of essential commodities now we saw that the list of essential commodities is nothing but the schedule to the essential commodities act of 1955 but here the statement mentions central government does not have any authority to remove a commodity from this list it is incorrect central government has the authority to add or remove any commodity from the schedule to this act or from the list of essential commodities so this statement is incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements. So, you can eliminate option A and B and already we saw that statement one is correct and from the remaining options you can easily say statement three is correct. So, the correct answer is option D one and three only because statement three mentions recently N95 masks and hand sanitizers have been declared as essential commodities. Yes, recently they have been declared as essential commodities, but be careful while you are attending this statement because after June 30th of 2020 these products or commodities may be termed as essential commodities or they may be removed from the list of essential commodities. So, pay attention when you are attending this question. Now, let us move on to the next question. Now, this question is based on quantum technology. See this quantum technology is based on the new physics called as quantum physics and this quantum physics deals with the tiny energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles and you would have heard about the word quantum being used in a number of different ways like in quantum mechanics, quantum technology, quantum communications, quantum computing, quantum sensing, etc, etc, etc. So, in this context even the government of India has announced a mission on quantum technologies and the mission is the national mission on quantum technologies and applications. It was announced in the Union budget of 2020 and know that the budget for this mission is 8000 crore rupees and it is for a period of five years and this mission will be implemented by the Department of Science and Technology. Now, government is focusing on quantum technology because quantum technology is opening up new frontiers in computing, communications, cybersecurity and it has other widespread applications also. So, it is expected that lots of commercial applications would emerge from theoretical constructs which are developing in this particular area and even globally this field is rapidly developing with huge potential. So, it is expected that this mission will give an impetus or boost to the next generation transformative technologies like quantum computers and computing, then quantum communication, quantum key distribution, encryption, crypt analysis, quantum devices, quantum sensing, quantum materials, quantum clock and so on. So, based on this only the area of focus for this mission will be in fundamental science, translation, technology development, human and infrastructural resource generation, innovation and also it will focus on startups to address issues concerning national priorities. So, what are the applications which will receive boost under this mission? The applications such as aerospace engineering, numerical weather prediction, simulations, securing the communications and financial transactions, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, etc. etc. will be boosted because of this mission and remember so far this mission hasn't been rolled out that is it has not been launched yet. It has only been announced in the Union budget of 2020. Now, if you look at the first statement it mentions quantum technology is based on the physics dealing with the tiny energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles. This statement is a correct statement. Then the second statement is recently government has announced national mission on quantum technologies and applications. This statement is also correct. This is a very simple question if you actually know about quantum technology and this national mission and here the question asks for the correct statement and the correct answer to this question is option C both one and two. Now, this next question asks the term flattening the curve often in news is related to. So, as you know in this COVID-19 outbreak we are often hearing this term flattening the curve and you may have seen a graph on social media called as flattening the curve also and that graph shows a tall narrow curve and a short and wide curve also. So, what this actually means see in epidemiology the idea of slowing a viruses spread so that fewer people need to seek treatment at any given time is what is known as flattening the curve and this is the reason why so many countries are implementing social distancing guidelines including the lockdown order which is effective in India currently even though in some places the COVID-19 outbreaks may not seem severe. So, what does the curve actually represent the curve which the researchers are talking about refers to the projected number of people who will contract COVID-19 disease over a period of time. So, to be clear this is not a hard prediction of how many people will definitely be affected but it is just a theoretical number which is used to model the viruses spread and this is one of the example what this graph actually looks like and here you can see that the curve takes on different shapes depending on the virus's infection rate. It could be a steep curve in which the virus spreads exponentially that is the case counts keep doubling at a consistent rate and in this time the total number of cases skyrockets to its peak within a few week itself. Now, in this you can see the infection curves with a steep rise can also have a steep fall. It is said that after the virus infects pretty much everyone who can be infected then case numbers begin to drop exponentially that is the rate at which it increased at the same rate it will decrease also but the faster the infection curve rises the quicker it makes the health care system to get overloaded because they will be beyond their capacity to treat people and we are also hearing news like in Maharashtra or in Ahmedabad more and more new patients are forced to go without ICU beds and more and more hospitals are running out of basic supplies which they need to respond to this COVID-19 outbreak so that is why this steep curve will not help the health care facilities but if you see the flatter curve on the other hand it assumes the same number of people ultimately who will be get infected by the disease but they will be infected over a long period of time so that means there is a slow infection rate so it means it will be a less stress on the health care system so only fewer people will visit the hospital on a given day and only fewer people will be turned away by not getting treatment now this is important because in every country there are limited number of hospitals nurses and doctors so the capacity of health system will be exceeded if too many people seek health care at the same time and that is what is represented by the red curve so the more flatter the curve the more likely is that hospitals can continue to deliver care to the people who need it and this is represented by the blue curve and it is said that the way to flatten the curve is by slowing down the transmission of COVID-19 so now if you look at this question the question asks the term flattening the curve is related to first one lowering the inflation by tight fiscal policy to lower growth and less demand for inflation no it is incorrect second one is also related to the global slowdown it is also incorrect option c talks about reducing the global warming by reducing the dependence on positive fuels it is also incorrect so the correct answer is option d which mentions the idea of slowing down the COVID-19 virus is spread so that fewer people need to seek treatment at any given time this is the correct interpretation of the term flattening the curve now let us move on to the next question now this next question asks Ryder X recently seen in news is related to see as I always say if you know the full form of the acronym of any technology or platform which is given in the question then you can easily arrive at the correct answer now here Ryder X is the acronym for rapid identification detector of explosives it is a new explosive detection device which has the capability to detect explosives from a standoff distance and a data library can be built in the system to expand its capability to detect a number of explosives in its pure form as well as with contaminants and this device can also detect bulk explosive in concealed condition I know that this device has been co-developed by high energy materials research laboratory of Pune and by Indian Institute of Science of Bangalore and this laboratory is a premier laboratory of DRDO it provides a platform to scientists technocrats and users to share their knowledge experience and updated information on the technological advancements which were made in the recent past now this topic was in use because this device was unveiled during the March 2020 national workshop on explosive detection so now there may be a question how this device works see this device uses laser rays to detect anything from a distance of only two meters itself so when the laser is put on the object that has to be detected it uses the scattered light around it and it reflects in the same path to enter the spectrometer now once the reading is received it is compared with the spectral readings from various dangerous objects and it is compared by a computer program I know that this device thus works on the principle of Raman spectroscopy see Raman spectroscopy is an analytical technique where scattered light is used to measure the vibrational energy modes of a given sample now this system has multiple stored spectrums of various explosives and chemical contents and pharmaceuticals so it is a kind of database which is used to analyze the sample or the object which is detected and the sample is then analyzed with the database through our machine learning algorithm to see what the sample is actually made of so this database is a library which have multiple libraries available worldwide that consist of various chemicals as well as information about those chemicals and since it is a library one can store as many chemicals as they want in this library and the team which created this device has kept more than 20 explosives and 60 chemical samples in their library for this Ryder X device so from the given options of this question you can say the correct answer is option C Ryder X is an explosive detection device let us move on to the next question this next question is about national mission on biodiversity and human well-being see the framework for this mission has been prepared by a group of scientists from several institutions and this mission aims to bring biodiversity and conservation to the forefront of Indian science policy and society's attention and this mission has been visualized to be as inclusive as possible with the components involving scientific institutions government agencies non-governmental organizations at the national state and local limits so the mission therefore will include scientists farmers industrialists students policy makers and citizens from all spheres of life and know that this mission is supported by the office of principal scientific advisor to the government of India and this mission will be hosted by the ministry of environment forest and climate change and the nodal agency for this mission is the national biodiversity authority now here you have to be careful because this mission has been only given in principle approval only the mission is yet to be launched by the government formally so once it is launched this mission will have two components the first component is titled as cataloging and mapping life of India program this program will focus on building an inventory of India's biodiversity so biodiversity will be mapped with people cultures and management regimes along with this this program will also assess and monitor changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services and it will also link biodiversity knowledge with social benefits so this is the first component now the second component is divided into six programs which will focus on biodiversity with regard to these six areas which contains ecosystem services agriculture bioeconomy etc so overall the mission will help in utilizing biodiversity to ensure the well-being and prosperity of human beings so that is why it has been named as national mission on biodiversity and human well-being now if you look at the question the first statement is it is launched by Forest Service of India now be careful this mission has not been launched yet and so far there is no involvement of Forest Service of India in this mission as we already saw the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change is involved and the National Biodiversity Authority is involved so this statement is incorrect so the second statement is one of its component cataloging and mapping life of India program will focus on building an inventory of India's biodiversity and will use digital tools to map this biodiversity with people cultures and management regimes this is the correct explanation of this component cataloging and mapping life of India so the statement is correct and here the question asks for the correct statements so the correct answer to this question is option B to only now this question is about the convention on supplementary compensation for nuclear damage it is in short known as the CSC convention now it is an important multilateral treaty relating to the liability and compensation for the damage which is caused by a nuclear incident this convention aims at building an effective worldwide liability regime and it aims to enhance the supply of the compensation which is available to the victims of nuclear accidents and thus it aims to establish a minimum national compensation amount and further the convention also aims at increasing the amount of compensation available in the event of a nuclear incident through public funds which is to be made available by the contracting parties of this convention and this will be done on the basis of their installed nuclear capacity and UN rate of assessment now this convention was adopted by a diplomatic conference which was convened by the international atomic energy agency and it was adopted in the year 1997 but it entered into force in 2015 only now the convention is open to the states which are party to either the Vienna convention on civil liberty for nuclear damage or the states which are party to the Paris convention on third party liability in the field of nuclear energy and further it is also open to other states provided that their national legislation is consistent with uniform rules on civil liability which is laid down in the annex of this convention and know that the international atomic energy agency is the depository for this convention apart from that we also know that IAEA serves as depository for several international legal instruments on civil liability for nuclear damage and these instruments aim to ensure that compensation is available for damage including the transboundary damage and this damage could be caused by a nuclear accident or incident at a nuclear installation or it could even been caused in the course of transport of nuclear material to and from the installation so the damage caused in any way by a nuclear incident will be covered by the convention so now with respect to India just know that India signed this convention in 2010 and India has ratified this convention in February 2016 so this convention is important for India because it gives India access to international funding to pay for the damages in the event of a nuclear accident now if you look at the question the first statement mentions India has ratified to convention on supplementary compensation for nuclear damage of IAEA this statement is correct because India has ratified in February 2016 now the second statement mentions CSE aims at establishing a minimum national compensation amount to compensate the damage caused by a nuclear incident now this statement is also correct this is one of the objectives of this convention now the third statement is CSE came into force in January 2020 now this statement is incorrect because it came into force in 2015 itself now you may think whether statements based on when a convention or treaty came into force will be asked in UPSC yes it will be asked even in problems 2017 there was a question on trade facilitation agreement of WTO and a statement was framed based on this fact only like you can see here so now coming back to this CSE convention here the question asks for the correct statements and statement three is incorrect so the correct statement is option A one and two only now if you see this next question one statement talks about institutions of national importance and the other statement talks about institutions of eminence so what are these see as you know I present the main categories of institutions which India has are university or university level institutions and one such university level institution is the institution of national importance they are institutions that are established by an act of parliament in which certain institutions are declared as institution of national importance and know that at present there are 95 institutions of national importance in India and among them are the IITs IAMs NITs etc and more importantly the institution of national importance is a subject under the union list of seventh schedule to the Indian constitution it comes under subject 64 of union list it mentions that institutions for scientific or technical education financed by the government of India either wholly or in part and declared by parliament by law to be institutions of national importance now this was in news because Lok Sabha passed a bill named as Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws Amendment Bill of 2020 this bill aims to add five more IIITs into the list of institution of national importance IIITs are the Indian Institutes of Information Technology and further this bill aims to amend two laws one is the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Act of 2014 and then Indian Institutes of Information Technology Public-Private Partnership Act of 2017 and these are the five institutions which are to be declared as institutions of national importance according to this bill and just know that all these institutions are registered as societies under the Society's Registration Act of 1860 now the importance of such a status that is the institutions of national importance status is important because it helps to attract more students to the institutes which is required to develop a strong research base in information technology so this was about the institutes of national importance now the second one is institutions of eminence now these institutions are eminence are established or granted under the institutions of eminence scheme now as you know eminence means greatness and prestige now this scheme was launched in order to implement the commitment of the government to empower the higher education institutions and to help them to become a world-class teaching and research institutions so under this scheme 10 public and 10 private institutions are to be identified which will emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions and this is to enhance the affordable access to high quality education for ordinary Indians now the aim of this scheme is to bring higher educational institutions which are selected as IOEs that is institutions of eminence to the top 500 of world ranking and this has to happen in the next 10 years then after that the aim will be raised to bringing these institutions to top 100 of world ranking and know that the Ministry of Human Resource Development grants the Institute of Eminence status so as we saw 10 public and 10 private institutions will be granted the status and these are the 10 institutions which has been chosen and granted the status of IOE now the advantage to these institutions is that the public institutions will be eligible for a government grant of thousand crore rupees and for the private institutions which are given the IOE tag they will not be subject to UGC inspections that is University Grants Commission inspections and they are also free to set their own courses and curriculum fee structure and merit based admission systems apart from this they will also have complete academic administrative and financial autonomy also so these are the advantages to the private institutions which are given the IOE tag that is institutions of eminence tag now if you look at the question the first statement mentions the institutions of national importance are established by Ministry of Human Resource Development through a notification now this statement is incorrect because we saw that the institutions of national importance are established through an act of parliament not by a ministry so first statement is incorrect now the second statement mentions the institutions of eminence are established through an act of parliament now this statement is also incorrect because just now we saw that institutions of eminence are established by ministry of human resource development under the institutions of eminence scheme so here it should be the other way around the first statement should have had through an act of parliament and the second statement should have had established by ministry of human resource development then both of the statements would have been correct statements but now both are incorrect and here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer to this question is neither one nor two. Now this next question is about press council of India. Now this topic was in use because in March one of the member of parliaments during the zero hour in Rajasabha raised a question where he noted that India is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and he mentioned this based on the 2015 report of press council of India where it was found that since the year 1990 about 80 journalists had been killed therefore he called for effective legislation to protect the journalists. So at that time press council of India was discussed. Know that the press council of India or PCI was first set up in the year 1966 on the recommendations of first press commission. It was set up with the objective of preserving the freedom of the press and also with the aim of maintaining and improving the standards of press in India and know that the present council functions under the press council act of 1978. So press council of India is a statutory body and it is also a quasi-judicial authority which is functioning as a watchdog of the press for the press and by the press and this council adjudicates the complaints against the violation of ethics by the press and it also adjudicates the complaints by the press for the violation of freedom of press. So thus the press council of India has twin fold functions one is preserving the freedom of press and the second one is maintaining and improving the standards of press as we already saw and to discharge its responsibilities press council of India acts as a quasi-judicial authority with the same powers of a civil court and it has also advisory role and it guides the press as well as the authorities on any matter that may have a bearing on the freedom of press or on the preservation of press. I know that the press council is headed by a chairman and it is a convention that either the sitting judge of supreme court of India or a retired judge of supreme court of India has been appointed as the chairman of press council of India. Now remember this is by convention and it is not mentioned in the act. Apart from the chairman the council also consists of 28 other members and these members are from press they are from the two houses of parliament and they are also from cultural field literary and legal fields and these members are nominated by the Sahitya academy for the cultural field and then by UGC for the literary field and by the bar council of India for the legal field. I know that these members serve on the council for a term of three years and they are eligible for renomination but they are eligible for renomination for only one term. So this is the background about press council of India. Now if you look at the question first statement is it is a statutory quasi judicial body functioning as a watchdog of press. This is a correct statement and if you know first statement is correct and here the question asks for the incorrect statements then you can easily avoid the correct answer because the final answer should not have statement one. So the correct answer is option C 2 and 3 only. Now the second statement mentions its chairman shall be a judge of supreme court. Now as we saw that by convention either the sitting judge or a retired judge of supreme court of India has been the chairman of press council of India but the act does not mention that the judge of supreme court shall only be the chairperson of press council of India. Here the word which you have to focus is shall. Now the third statement is it over views the functioning of both print and electronic media. Now this is incorrect because PCI only over views the functioning of print media and it can enforce the standards upon newspapers journals magazines and other forms of print media only but it does not have the power to review the functioning of electronic media like radio television and internet media. So that is why the statement is incorrect and thus our answer is option C 2 and 3 only. Finally we have arrived at the 51st question so five more questions only to go. Now this question asks in the light of recent COVID-19 crisis consider the following statements. If you see the first statement it talks about convalescent plasma therapy. See for many weeks we have been hearing that doctors and scientists are experimenting the convalescent plasma therapy or the CPT on the virus affected patients. What is done is that the people who have recovered from the COVID-19 disease have antibodies to the disease in their blood and doctors call this as the convalescent plasma and if you see the actual literal meaning of convalescent it means recovering from an illness or medical treatment. So that is why this therapy has been named like this. Now these antibodies which are developed in a patient as a part of body's natural immune response to fight a foreign pathogen is used in this therapy and in our case the foreign pathogen is the novel coronavirus. Now these antibodies are highly specific to the invading pathogen and so they work to eliminate the novel coronavirus from the patient's body. So once the patient has recovered they donate their blood so that their antibodies can be used to treat other patients. The blood is then taken through a process to extract the plasma which is the liquid part of the blood which contains the antibodies. Now this antibody rich plasma once it is extracted it is then ingested into the body of a patient who is under treatment and by this researchers hope that the convalescent plasma can be given to people with severe COVID-19 disease so that they can boost the patient's ability to fight the virus. So now if you look at the first statement it mentions in convalescent plasma therapy the antigens from the blood of a recovered COVID-19 patient are used to treat those critically affected by the virus. Now to know whether this statement is correct or incorrect you should know some basic signs like the difference between an antigen and a antibody. See antigen is any substance that causes our immune system to produce the antibodies against it. So antigen is the foreign body here and antibody is the one which helps to fight this antigen. So that means this statement is incorrect because the antigens are not used. The antibody of the recovered patients are used. Now if you look at the second statement it mentions in India the central drugs standard control organization holds the authority to approve new drugs and clinical trials. Now this statement is correct because the central drug standard control organization or CDSCO is the central drug authority for discharging functions which has been assigned to it by the central government under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. So it has regulatory control over the import of drugs and also on approval of new drugs and clinical trials etc. And that is why this statement is correct and also remember CDSCO functions under directorate general of health services under the ministry of health and family welfare. Now here CDSCO is important because in April 2020 CDSCO gave approval for ICMR to conduct clinical trials for the usage of convalescent plasma therapy in battling the COVID-19 disease. Now don't confuse CDSCO with ICMR because ICMR is the apex body in India for the formulation coordination and promotion of biomedical research but the permission for such kind of research is given by CDSCO only. Now here the question asks for the correct statements and statement two is the correct statement so the correct answer is option B2 only. Now this next question is about a scheme which is the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. Now in this Garib means poor people in Hindi and Kalyan means welfare. So by the name don't get carried away because this scheme is totally about something else. Let us see what it is but before that know that this scheme was in use because recently the union finance minister has announced rupees 1.7 lakh crore relief package under this scheme and this relief package is for the poor so that it will help them to fight the battle against this coronavirus disease and as a part of it only government had decided to transfer rupees 500 per month for three months to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society whose livelihood has been impacted due to the national lockdown. Now this scheme that is the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme was notified by the government in December 16 2016 and it came into effect the next day under the ministry of finance. Now this scheme provides an opportunity to persons having undisclosed income in the form of cash or deposit which is maintained in an account with a specified entity such as banks post office etc and the opportunity is for the person to declare such income that is the undisclosed income and then they have to pay tax surcharge and penalty which in all equals to 50 percentage of the declared income. Now in this 50 percentage 30 percentage is for tax then the 10 percentage will be penalty on the declared income and then the 33 percentage will be the ses on the tax and this ses is known as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ses and apart from this the scheme also provides that a mandatory deposit of not less than 25 percentage of such income that is the declared income or undisclosed income shall be made in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan deposit scheme of 2016 and this deposit scheme was separately notified by the department of economic affairs and know that this scheme commenced on 17th December 2016 and it was open till 30th April 2017 to make the tax payment and to make the mandatory deposit. Now the question actually asks which of the following best describes Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yuchana and the correct answer is option B because it provides an opportunity to persons having undisclosed income in the form of cash or deposit in an account maintained with a specified entity to declare such income and to pay tax surcharge and penalty this is the correct answer and if you see the first option this option mentions about the Pradhan Mantri Ganesh Shetra Kalyan Yuchana we discussed about this scheme in the target 2020 series for the month of February 2020 and the option C talks about the Ujwala Yuchana because it talks about LPG connections and then option D talks about the Jan Dhan Yuchana so that is all about this question now let us take the next question. Now this next question is a pair based question on one side dams in Africa are given and on the other side the countries which they belong to is given and we have to choose the incorrectly matched pair and as you know the dam given in the first pair Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is often in use because there is an ongoing dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam because this dam is under construction on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia so before going into the question let us first see about Nile River because all these dams are constructed on the Nile River and its tributaries as you know Nile River is the longest river in the world its length is about 6,670 kilometers and its important tributaries are Blue Nile and White Nile now this Blue Nile and White Nile merge in South Sudan and they pass through Egypt and finally empties into Mediterranean Sea as you can see in this map now since it is the longest river in the world you can assume that it will have one of the largest river basins it is correct because the Nile basin river system flows through 11 countries in Africa and these countries are Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda and among these countries the Nile basin is lifeline of the riparian states like Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt etc riparian states are nothing but the states which are situated on the bank of a river now if you come to the first pair it mentions Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Eritrea now just now in the beginning we saw that the dispute is between Egypt and Ethiopia and this dam is under construction on the Blue Nile river in Ethiopia so it is an incorrect pair see the construction of this dam started in 2011 and it is expected to be completed soon and once it is completed then it will be the Africa's biggest hydroelectric power plant and from the given options also you can easily assume first pair is incorrectly matched because first pair is mentioned in all the options now the second pair is Senna Dam Ethiopia now this pair is also incorrect because you can see in this map Senna Dam is on the Blue Nile and it is in Sudan and third pair is Aswan Dam Egypt now this is correctly matched like you can see in this map Aswan Dam is on the Nile river in Egypt and here the question asks for the incorrectly matched pair so the correct answer to this question is option B one and two only now let us take the next question now we have come to the second last question of this series this question is about life mission so as always let us first see the full form of this life the full form is livelihood inclusion and financial empowerment mission now this life mission is a project implemented by the state government of Kerala and this mission was launched in November 2016 it is a massive housing campaign to build houses for families who are without land or housing and in this mission the emphasis will be on financial empowerment and providing means of livelihood and the aim of this mission is to provide safe and decent housing within five years for beneficiaries under this mission to live on their own to be a part of the community and to benefit from social welfare schemes so the homeless people will be provided with modern housing complexes with provisions for various social services including primary health care geriatric supports skill development and provision for financial services inclusion is will also be given so on a whole we can say that the purpose of this mission is to provide the benefit of all the social welfare schemes including financial services and to provide safe and affordable housing for the beneficiaries now here the question asks life mission sometimes seen in news is related to and the correct answer is option D because it is a comprehensive housing security scheme of kerala to provide safe and decent housing for all if you look at the first option a scheme by union ministry of science and technology to promote maternal and child health and develop prediction tools for preterm birth now this statement talks about the mission known as garbini or we can say garbini and this mission is to promote the maternal and child health and also to develop prediction tools for preterm birth now let us move on to the last question for this series now this last question is based on Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojna now this scheme was in news because an interministerial approval committee had sanctioned 10 food processing projects worth more than 300 crore rupees and these projects were sanctioned under the agro processing cluster scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojna and that is why this topic is important from the prelims perspective see as I always say if you know the full form of the word Sampada then you can assume what type of scheme is this the full form of Sampada is scheme for agro marine processing and development of agro processing clusters see initially this scheme was known as Sampada only but now it has been renamed as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojna I know that it is implemented by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and it is a central sector scheme which was launched in the year 2017 and it is launched for the period 2016 to 2020 only so what is this scheme is about it is a comprehensive package which aims to create modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to the retail outlet so based on this only the objective of the scheme is to supplement agriculture to modernize processing and to decrease agri waste so thus it aims to create modern infrastructure for food processing such as creating mega food parts or clusters and individual units it also aims to create effective backward and forward linkages by linking the farmers processors and market see in this backward linkage is a term which is used to indicate the kind of interdependency of a particular industry with the upstream sectors from which it purchases its intermediate inputs either directly or indirectly and then the word forward linkage is used to indicate the kind of interdependency of a particular industry with the downstream sectors to which it sells its intermediate inputs either directly or indirectly and this scheme aims to create an effective backward and forward linkages apart from this it also aims to create a robust supply chain infrastructure for the perishable products so this type of scheme provides a big boost to the growth of food processing sector in the country and it also helps in providing better returns to the farmers and it is said that this scheme is a big step towards doubling farmers income and since it wants to create mega food parks and all it also creates huge employment opportunities especially in the rural areas and not only that it increases the processing level and it also enhances the export of processed foods so based on the objectives of this scheme this scheme has been made as an umbrella scheme because it incorporates other schemes of the ministry of food processing industries like it incorporates the mega food park scheme integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure scheme food safety and quality assurance infrastructure scheme then human resources and institutions is also added then in addition to this some new schemes like infrastructure for agro processing clusters then creation of forward and backward linkages then creation or expansion of food processing and preservation capacities were also added to this scheme as you can see in this depiction so this is the background that you should know about this Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampradayojna now if you look at the question the first statement mentions it is implemented by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare now since this scheme is related to reducing agri waste and related to food don't immediately think it is related to ministry of agriculture because there is also one another ministry which is related to food industry which is the ministry of food processing industries and it is the correct answer to this question so that is why this statement is incorrect and if you see here the question asks for the correct statements so you can eliminate option b now the second statement mentions it is a centrally sponsored scheme aimed to create modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet now in this the second half of this statement talks about the objective of the scheme it is correct but whether it is a centrally sponsored scheme no it is a central sector scheme so that is why this statement is incorrect and the moment you know that this statement is incorrect you can easily arrive at the correct answer which is option c three only because from the remaining options you can eliminate a and d and the third statement is correct because it mentions it is an umbrella scheme incorporating other schemes like mega food parks integrated coal chain and value addition infrastructure etc and just now we saw that these are some of the schemes which are incorporated in this umbrella scheme so that is why this statement is correct and which makes the correct answer to this question as option c three only so that is all about this question with this we have come to the end of target 2020 series for the month of march 2020 if you like the video like comment and do share and also subscribe to shankar ias academy's youtube channel for more updates and content related to civil service examination