 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankar IIS academy for the date 19th of july 2023 Displayed here are the list of news articles that we will be going through today Now without wasting time, let's start the discussion Look at this article here. The news is that there was discovery of prehistoric rock paintings from the mesolithic period And some artworks of Kakathya dynasty in Rudraagiri hills The site is in Guntu district of Andhra Pradesh This Rudraagiri is located in the eastern gods and it has five naturally occurring rock shelters These shelters were used during the mesolithic period around 5000 bc And these shelters have rock paintings from that era On the southern tip of the hill there are two natural caves that has murals associated with the Kakathya kingdom These paintings portray the scenes from Ramayana. This is all about the news article In this context let us see some points about the Kakathya dynasty See the Kakathya dynasty was a Telugu dynasty and they ruled most of the eastern Dekkan region between 12th and the 14th centuries Their territory comprised present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and parts of eastern Karnataka, northern Tamil Nadu and southern Odisha Their capital was Urgalu. Now it is called as Varangal It was Kakathya dynasty which mined the famous Kohinur diamond Italian traveler Marco Polo visited during the reign of Rudrama Devi Who was a female ruler of the Kakathya dynasty? She was known for her administrative capabilities and strong statusmanship With this information now we will see the architecture of the Kakathyas Most of the Kakathya architecture is influenced from Chalukkin architecture They followed the Visara style of architecture Basically it is a fusion of Dravidian architecture and Nagara style This visara school of architecture is mostly found in the southern part of Dekkan that is Karnataka Now we shall see some notable monuments built by the Kakathyas Firstly the Ramapad temple also known as the Rama Lingeshwara temple Located near Varangal in Telangana It is known for its beautiful intricate carvings An interesting thing here is that it is the only temple in our country Which has been named after its sculptor that is Rama Pa Note that this temple is designated as UNESCO heritage site in 2021 One of the important features of the Kakathya temples is that They use sand box technique for construction of upraised platforms The next important achievement is the Golkonda Fort which is located in Hyderabad It was built by the Kakathya ruler Pratparudra in the 11th century It later became the capital city of the Kutub Sahi dynasty in the 15th century They also built the Rudra Swami temple also known as the 1000 pillar temple in Telangana This is believed to be constructed during the period between 1175 BC to 1324 BC By the king named Rudra Deva It is dedicated to Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Surya Kakathyas were also known for construction of dams and reservoirs for irrigation and drinking water facility Recently the Telangana government also launched a mission titled Mission Kakathya for restoration of irrigation tanks and lakes in the states So that's all regarding this discussion In this discussion we saw some basic information about the Kakathya dynasty And also the architectural features of the buildings built during the Kakathya period Now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this article from the opinion page It talks about the role and the powers of the enforcement directorate in combating money laundering In this discussion we will try to understand the points given in this article in detail Before getting into the discussion I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion You can go through it See the enforcement directorate is an agency established under the prevention of money laundering act 2002 And this agency is responsible for preventing money laundering, attaching proceeds of crime and confiscating assets Besides prevention of money laundering act the enforcement directorate is also empowered to enforce several acts These acts include the foreign exchange management act, the fugitive economic offenders act, the foreign exchange regulation act And the conservation of foreign exchange and prevention of smuggling activities act Okay, here we will mainly focus on understanding the powers of the enforcement directorate under the prevention of money laundering act As it is much relevant for our discussion Firstly, what is money laundering? Money laundering refers to the process of making illicitly obtained money appear legitimate For example, a drug dealer wants to hide his illegal money He will do this by putting small amounts into different businesses He will then move the funds around different bank accounts This will make it harder to trace where the money has come from This is what we call money laundering See the PMLA 2002 is a legislation which is specifically designed to address money laundering associated with white collar crimes It defines money laundering as projecting or claiming the proceeds of crime as untrated money That is projecting illegal money as legal money As per section 48 and 49 of the PMLA the officers of the enforcement directorate have been given powers to investigate cases of money laundering They can start legal action to seize property and initiate prosecutions in the special court specifically designed for money laundering offenses In simple terms, they can investigate seize assets and take legal action against those involved in money laundering It is as simple as that See to charge someone with money laundering there must be a predicate offense Which is typically investigated and prosecuted by agencies like the CBA or the state police This means before accusing someone of money laundering there needs to be a proof of a related crime This is usually investigated by agencies like the police or the CBA For instance, if someone is suspected of drug trafficking The police should investigate the drug related offense first, which is the predicate offense Only then money laundering charges are considered With this basic understanding of the background, let us understand the argument of the author in this editorial The author says that there have been concerns that the enforcement directorate has been assuming the powers similar to the policing agencies He feels that the ED has been targeting political opponents of the union government The author says that even though the ED is empowered under the prevention of money laundering act, it is not a police agency Why does he say this? He says this because there is really a difference in however policing agency and a ED function We will understand this now See the ED's role should be primarily focused on conducting inquiries into the proceeds of the crime It should not be involved in investigating the predicate offense itself We earlier saw that the predicate offense should be investigated by the police or the CBA, right? See the police is required to file the first information report before initiating the investigation Then only the ED has to start with the search procedure and issue summons Which they usually do together evidence related to the proceeds of the crime Also the statements made to the ED hold admissible in the court unlike the statements made to the police That is when someone makes a statement to the enforcement directorate officials during the investigation process That statement can be used as a evidence in court However statements made by a accused to the police may not be admissible in the same way in the court of law Also the accused has access to the copy of the first investigation report But the enforcement case information report is not accessible to the accused Also note that the supreme court held the ED authorities are not police officers In the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary was union of India case 2022 The supreme court held that the process envisaged by section 50 of the PMLA is in nature of inquiry Against the proceeds of the crime and not to investigate in the strict sense of the terms of initiating prosecution This means that the section 50 of the PMLA does not involve full fledged investigation for prosecution Instead it is the process of inquiring into the proceeds of the crime Besides all this the author feels that the enforcement directorate has been assuming powers Similar to the policing agency and it is getting involved in the activities that are usually the domain of the police This is the first concern expressed by the author of this article The second concern is with respect to arrest and bails See under section 50 of the PMLA the enforcement directorate authorities possess the power to Summon individuals who are suspected of money laundering and record their statement Also under section 19 of the PMLA Enforcement directorate officers are authorized to arrest an individual if they have a Reason to believe that the person has committed the offense of money laundering This means that the officers must have credible information or evidence that the person is linked to the alleged Money laundering activities But the concern here is with respect to the stringent bail conditions under section 45 of the PMLA This makes it challenging to secure bail Also when the enforcement directorate arrests someone suspected of money laundering The court should check if there is a possible basis for the arrest However, sometimes the courts do not thoroughly assess this This leads to potential issues and raises concerns about the fairness of the process Finally, the article points out that the enforcement directorate has made high-profile arrest involving politicians This again raises the question about the focus and the purpose of the agency As we saw earlier the police should handle the Investigation of the predicate offense and the enforcement directorates Prem responsibility is the recovery of the proceeds of the crime And distributing the recovery to the victims However, the recent trends show that there is a significant emphasis only on the Pre-trail arrest and no focus is given on the recovery of the proceeds of the crime Also, the author highlights that 85% of the cases registered against politicians involve those from the opposition parties This again raises the concern of potential political bias The author concludes by saying that whether the enforcement directorate will continue its current practices or will change its emphasis Depends on the country's constitutional courts This is because the courts have the power to review and decide if the enforcement directorates action aligned with the law and the constitution That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the basics about enforcement directorate And we saw the concerns expressed by the author in regarding to the recent functioning of the enforcement directorate authorities With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Take a look at this editorial article. This article is speaking about the issues surrounding GM Busnet On October 25th last year, the genetic engineering appraisal committee under the union environment ministry had approved the environmental release of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH 11 Which is otherwise called the GM mustard for seed production and testing In response to this move, an activist and an NGO filed a petition in the supreme court The petition Seeked it to ban the GM mustard Then the supreme court in november ordered the union government to hold the release of GM mustard And now the supreme court is hearing the case and it is yet to pronounce the judgment on GM mustard Because of this only the GM mustard topic appeared in news today In this discussion today, we will understand about the GM crops Then we will see about the positives and the negatives associated with GM crops And finally we will see about GM mustard Before that the syllabus regarding this discussion is displayed here. You can go through it Now let's start the discussion. Let us start with GM crops Genetically modified crops or GM crops refer to the crops or plants whose genetic material have been modified using genetic engineering This genetic material of the crops has been modified to include certain desirable properties into the plants Like increased yield, pest resistance, weed resistance, herbicide tolerance and so on For example, let us take the BT cotton Earlier the cotton plant in India were often attacked by bullworm and some other pest So the farmers had to use a large amount of insecticides to kill the pest So in order to reduce the use of insecticide, BT cotton was introduced into India in 2002 Here the BT cotton refers to basillus thuringiensis cotton See the genetic material of the cotton was altered using the gene of a bacterium called basillus thuringiensis Why did the scientists chose basillus thuringiensis? This is because the strains of basillus thuringiensis produce over hundreds of different BT toxins Which are harmful to different insects most importantly The BT toxins are harmful to larvae of moth, butterfly, beetles, cotton, bullworm and flies But they are harmless to other forms of life So the genes of BT toxin has been taken from the basillus thuringiensis bacterium and it is inserted into cotton And the resultant cotton developed has greater pest resistance particularly to bullworm This in turn reduced to the use of insecticide And this is an apt example of the application of genetic engineering to make GM crops Now moving on we will see the positives and the negatives associated with GM crops First let us start with the positives Here firstly the GM crops have greater pest resistance As we saw just now the genetically modified crops or BT cotton has greater pest resistance These pest are insect resistance properties will reduce the use of insecticide by farmers This in turn reduces the cost borne by farmers for insecticide Secondly GM crops have greater resistance to viruses and other diseases With the help of genetic engineering the strains of the crops can be altered to develop resistance against viruses This would help to reduce food wastage and increase food security Thirdly the GM crops have tolerance to harsh climate For example the genes of the crops can be altered to develop the ability to thrive in harsh climate Such as extreme heat or cold or to grow even in salty condition This will ensure food security in rod-brown regions Fourthly the GM crops can have longer shelf life enhanced flavor and increased nutritional value See the shelf life flavor and nutritional value of a particular crop can be enhanced with the help of genetic engineering This would help us to reduce the food wastage and it will also help us to boost the health of the people who have limited access to food And finally the GM crops can have greater herbicide resistance For example let us take GM mustard GM mustard has herbicide tolerance properties See usually in our land many unwanted weeds grow along with our plant of interest The unwanted plants consume the fertilizer and water that we use to grow the crops Apart from this it will also damage the crops by blocking sunlight or attracting insects So we have to eliminate such unwanted plants right? For that purpose only herbicides are used See if we spray herbicide it will also damage our crops So if we develop a GM crop with herbicide resistance property Then we can easily eliminate unwanted plants without damaging the crops of our interest See the GM mustard crop has such properties of herbicide resistance The GM mustard has been altered to withstand the broad spectrum herbicide called Glufosynate So the greater herbicide resistance is another advantage of the GM crops Having seen the positives now we will see the negatives associated with GM crops As we saw just now the GM crops have greater herbicide resistance This will encourage the farmers to use more herbicide On one hand it will increase the cost of the farmers in buying herbicides And on the other hand it will cause health related impacts to humans Some sources are saying that repeated herbicide usage can cause cancer to humans Apart from this the herbicide can also damage the pollinators like bees butterflies and so on So the GM crops threaten long-term food security This is the first and the foremost concern of the opponents of genetically modified crops Secondly the food produced using GM crops can cause allergic reaction in humans and other organisms See the GM food crop is relatively a new practice Which means the long-term effects on safety are not yet clear So there is a potential that the GM crops can cause significant impacts to human Then the third concern is anti-microbial resistance As we saw earlier the crops can be genetically modified to develop resistance against viruses bacteria or even other microorganisms See if we frequently consume such GM food then the microbes in our body may also develop resistance against antibiotics As the world is still struggling to combat anti-microbial resistance The GM food crops can add additional burden And the final concern is the damages to human organs See researchers said that the GM foods have the potential to alter our human DNA Apart from this it will also damage various organs in our body like the kidney, pancreas, liver and even the reproductive system Okay, these are some of the negatives associated with GM crops. Now moving on. Let us see about the GM mustard See the transgenic mustard hybrid or the DMH 11 Which is commonly called the GM mustard is a transgenic mustard variety, which is developed by the deli university The GM mustard is a herbicide tolerant mustard variety that has undergone genetic modification The GM mustard has been altered to withstand the broad-spectrum herbicide called glufosinate It has two alien genes called barnas and barster Which are obtained from soil bacterium called bacillus amylor liquefaciens This GM mustard variety will help to increase the yield of mustard crops Now why GM mustard is needed? See India's edible oil import is rising continuously to meet the growing domestic demand If you look at the data during 2021-22, India registered a growth of 34.18% in its edible oil import bill And in 2021-22, India spent around 1.57 lakh crore in imports of 14.1 million metric tons of edible oil So we need to attain self-sufficiency in edible oil to reduce the drain of foreign exchange In India, mustard is an important oil seed It is grown on 9.17 million hectares with the total production of 11.75 million metric tons However, this crop suffers from low productivity If we look at the data the mustard productivity in India is about 1-2-8-1 that is 1281 kilogram per hectare, but the global average is 2041 kilogram per hectare So we need some other technological solution for enhancing the productivity of oil seed crops, particularly Indian mustard Here is where the GM mustard comes into picture as we saw just now GM mustard would help to increase the yield of mustard crops This in turn would increase the edible oil availability in India and decrease the Dependence on edible oil imports up to a certain extent Apart from this the GM mustard will also increase the income of the farmers Which in turn will help the government to achieve the goal of enhancing farmer income Because of all these facts the GM mustard is needed in India But there are some issues that should be sorted out or so See there is no clarity regarding the long-term biosafety environmental risk and socioeconomic impacts associated with GM mustard Some scientists have warned that GM mustard can cause severe damage to human health Apart from this some researchers have found that herbicide tolerant crops like GM mustard Are completely unsuitable in the Indian context They have warned the government about the serious harms to the environment, rural livelihood and sustainable agriculture That can be resulted from the use of GM mustard In addition to this allowing the cultivation of GM mustard will increase the cost of seeds Traditionally the farmers in India are using the seeds that are being cultivated in their farmland itself But if GM mustard comes into cultivation the farmers must rely on big technology companies to obtain seeds This in turn increase the cost of the farmers to obtain seeds and reduce the overall profit margin of the farmers So to conclude the government should consider all the stakeholders and it should look into all the sides Before the introduction of any GM crops in the future. That's all regarding this discussion I think in this discussion we have covered almost all the basic points regarding GM crops Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Take a look at this news article It says that the Tamil national alliance rejected the proposal of the Sri lankan president Ranil Vikram Singh's offer The offer is regarding the implementation of the 13th amendment without police powers The Tamil national alliance said that this implementation of 13th amendment is another hollow promise This is about the news article the news is significant because president vikram singe is scheduled to visit India on July 21st So in this context, let us discuss about the 13th amendment and we will see the issues surrounding it Okay, see this 13th amendment is a 30 year old Sri lankan legislation on the devolution of powers to the Nine provinces of Sri Lanka. It is an outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 which was signed by the prime minister Raju Gandhi and president J. R. Jaivardhan This is done in the hope of resolving the ethnic conflict and the civil war But this 13th amendment has never been fully implemented by the Sri lankan government Note that the 13th amendment led to the creation of the provincial councils and Assured self-government to all the nine provinces in the country as per this amendment the subjects such as health education agriculture land and police are to be devolved to the provinces But note that the provisions relating to police and land were never fully implemented till now This is the main point of contention between the Tamil nationalist and the Sri lankan government Also, there were restrictions on financial powers and overriding powers given to the Sri lankan president This is also the issue between the two parties See this recent offer by Mr. Vikram Singh has no significance in ensuring the autonomy of the provinces According to the Tamil national alliance, the government is lacking political will to fully implement the 13th amendment And meaningfully devolve the power to the provinces Also, know that India has consistently emphasized on the full implementation of the 13th amendment in Sri Lanka If it can be implemented properly, it will fulfill the Sri lankan Tamil's historic demand for right to self-determination Also, note that this 13th amendment not only grants autonomy to the Tamil majority province But also for the singhala majority province also Next, if you see the news article also says that the Sri Lanka president is discussing with the Tamil national leaders for development projects such as Palal airport and the Kankesenturai harbor in jaffana This harbor is to be established to establish a very connectivity between South India and the Northern Sri Lanka Recently, the Tamil nationalists urged the Indian prime minister to discuss with the president of Sri Lanka to fulfill the commitment made to India with regard to sharing of powers to provinces based on the 13th amendment So, the upcoming visit by Sri lankan president, Ranil Vikram Singh will heat up the arguments surrounding the 13th amendment Let us wait and watch how the bilateral meeting concludes So, that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion We saw some basic points about the 13th amendment and also the issues surrounding the 13th amendment Now with this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article Look at this text and context article. This article talks about two memorandum of understanding signed between the reserve bank of India and its counterpart the central bank of UAE This was signed during our prime minister's visit to UAE While the first MOU established a framework to promote the use of local currencies for cross-border transaction The other was for the interlinking of payment system. This is about the article given here In this context, let us quickly go through some of the important points mentioned in the article Before that, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it Now let's start First, we will see about the MOU which establishes a framework to promote use of local currencies in cross-border transaction See this framework is known as local currency settlement system It covers all current and permitted capital account transaction For those who don't know, the current and capital accounts represent two halves of the nation's balance of payment While the current account represents the country's net income over a period of time The capital account records the net change in assets and liabilities during a particular year In economic terms, the current account deals with the receipt and payment in cash as well as non-capital items While the capital account reflects the sources and utilization of the capital The sum of the capital account and the current account reflects in the balance of payment And it will be always be zero Any surplus or deficit in the current account is matched and cancelled out by equal surplus or deficit in the capital account Here the current account is the most important part because the current account include visible trade that is export and import of goods Invisible trade that is export and import of services Unilateral transfers that is one way direction transfers like remittance donation, etc And investment income that is income from factors like land foreign shares, etc The credit and debit of foreign exchange from these transactions are also recorded in the balance of current account The resulting balance of current account is approximated as the sum of total of the balance of trade This is why I said current account is important Since the LCSS that is the local currency settlement system covers all current and permitted capital account transaction exporters and importers in India and UAE can now send invoices and pay directly in their respective domestic currencies This in turn would help the development of the rupee dirham foreign exchange market The mechanism also helps to promote investments and remittances between the two countries Broadly the arrangement would help optimize the transaction cost and settlement time for transactions Including remittance from indians residing in UAE Now we will see the advantage of the first MOU See this mechanism aids exporters the most For example, denominating export contracts and invoices in the local currency helps avoid exchange rate risk Mainly it helps to reduce the dependence on a third country's currency like the US dollar For settlement of transaction and it also helps in the avoidance of exchange rate risk associated with it This further facilitates the scope of discovery of competitive pricing mechanism Okay, further the framework leads to enhanced avenue for cooperation among the banking system of the two countries This leads to expansion of economy and trade activities between the both countries Okay, now coming to the second MOU. This MOU links India's UPA with the UAE counterpart That is the instant payment platform This includes linking of card switches that is rupee switch and the UAE switch And these two switches would be linked here card switch is nothing but a software system that facilitate communication and transaction between Two different payment service providers The linking of card switches will facilitate mutual acceptance of domestic cards and processing of card transaction Hope you could understand Along with this the payment messaging system of the two countries will also be linked Due to this linkage users in either country can now make fast convenient safe and cost effective cross border fund transfers This is relevant mainly to the 3.5 million resident Indians living in UAE as migrant workers Now we will see the advantage of the second MOU One of the several issues with sending remittance back home mainly by low wage earner is the high cost of transaction The fees and the exchange rate margins mark remittance very expensive And due to this only these workers resort to illegal and informal alternatives So the UPA and the IPP linkage will try to address this issue in the real time This is the advantage of the second MOU So that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion We saw the two MOUs signed between the Reserve Bank of India and the counterpart in UAE We also saw some of the advantage associated with the each MOUs Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Now take a look at this news article Yesterday in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, BJP which is the principal opposition party in Karnataka Express the concern over the impact of deficient monsoon on agriculture The BJP member said that there was more rain in some part of Karnataka But the majority of northern Karnataka was still facing prolonged dry period So they urged the state government to declare the state as draught hit At least for agricultural purposes This is about the news So in our discussion today we will understand the types of draughts And we will also see how draught is declared in India First let us see what is draught Draught is generally defined as a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time Which results in water shortage To put it simply, when a area or region experience below normal precipitation over an extended period of time Then the area is said to be suffering from draught Now what are the damages that will be caused by draught See the lack of adequate precipitation Either rain or snow can cause a variety of damages These include reduced soil moisture, reduced groundwater table, diminished stream flow and crop damages In general the draught causes water shortage Now moving forward let us see the types of draught Generally the draught is classified into four types They are meteorological draught, hydrological draught, agricultural draught and socio-economic draught See the meteorological draught happens when dry weather patterns dominate in an area over a period of time Then the hydrological draught occurs when there is a low water supply in streams, rivers, reservoirs and ground water table And the agricultural draught happens when the crops are affected due to water shortage And finally the socio-economic draught This occurs when there is a mismatch in the demand and supply of various commodities due to draught These are all the types of draughts Now we will understand how draught is declared in India Usually the state government has the power to declare draught See there are a set of guidelines that should be followed by the state government by declaring a draught The guidelines are provided by the union ministry of agriculture In 2016 the ministry published a manual which suggested a three-step approach to declare draught in a state Now we will see the steps one by one The first step is that the state government should look into two mandatory indicators such as rainfall deviation and dry spell Depending on the extent of the deviation of rainfall and the dry spell the state can declare a draught If the deviation of rainfall is abnormal and there is an increased dry spell Then the state government can declare draught in a state This is the first step Then the second step is that the state government should look for four impact indicators such as agriculture Vegetation indices soil moisture and hydrology Here each impact indicator can be assessed on the basis of various indices At a time the state may consider three of the four impact indicators for assessment of draught See if all the three chosen indicators are in the severe category it amounts to severe draught And if two of the three chosen impact indicators are in the moderate or severe category Then it amounts to moderate draught. This is the second step And finally let us see this third step The third steps comes in when the previous two steps have been set off In that situation the state will conduct a sample survey for ground reality This is in order to make a final determination of draught If it is found that the impact was severe during the sample survey Then only the state government may declare a draught This is the three-step approach that is followed by the states to declare draught And note that once draught is determined the state government needs to issue a notification specifying the geographical extent of the area that comes under draught heat region Here the notification is valid for six months until and unless determined earlier by the states That is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the types of draught And also we saw how draught is declared in our country Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this news article it says that the plan of the congress government in karnataka to amend The apmc act was stalled in the legislative council due to lack of support In this context let us learn about the model apmc act See the apmc act stands for agricultural produce market committee act The act was introduced in 2003 by the union government to improve the marketing of agricultural produce The key features of as follows the acts allow for the introduction of new markets by legal persons Grovers and local authorities it allows for the freedom of the farmers to sell outside the apmc market It also has provisions for special market for specific community Or it also has provisions for contract farming also And finally there is also provision in the apmc act for direct marketing That is directly farmers selling from their farm to the consumers These are some of the key features of the apmc act But later in 2017 the model agricultural produce and livestock marketing act was introduced as a replacement of the apmc act 2003 Now let us understand the key features of this act Firstly the apmc act removes the concept of notified market area and treats the Entire state or the union territory as a single market This helps in reducing the market fragmentation within the region Then it expands the scope of trade See while the older apmc act mainly covers cereals pulses and oil seeds The new act allows for geographically unrestricted trade in various agricultural produce like cotton Horticulture crops livestock fisheries and poultry Then the act promotes direct interaction between farmers exporters processors retailers and consumers So it reduces the involvement of middlemen and streamline the food supply chain Okay, then the act encourages the establishment of private wholesale market yards and former consumer market yards This is to increase competition and improve the market efficiency It also allows for the designation of warehouses silos cold storages and other structures as market sub yards See market sub yards are designed Facilities are designated facilities within the agricultural market area that provides additional infrastructure for marketing agriculture produce Imagine a rural area where farmers grow a variety of agriculture produce such as wheat, rice and vegetable But the nearest apmc market is located at a distance of 50 kilometers from this area So transporting the agriculture produce to the main apmc market can be time consuming and it will be costly for the farmers also So to address this issue and improve market efficiency The government designates warehouses or silos as market sub yards Now a farmer growing tomatoes can store his fresh produce in the cold storage facility of the market sub yard This will ensure that the tomatoes stay fresh for a longer time Later a bulk buyer or processor from nearby cities can visit the sub yard Purchase the tomatoes directly from the market and transport them to the city market Then the act also gives farmers the freedom to sell their produce to buyers at the preferred location and time See in addition to all this the act also encourages the use of electronic trading platform to enhance transparency in the trading operation and to promote market integration across the region Finally to simplify transaction The act proposes a single point of levy of market fee across the state and a unified trading license Then there are provisions for interstate trading license grade standardization and quality certification The aim is to create a national market for agricultural produce The act also aims to reduce market fees and commission charges to benefit farmers and reduce their financial burden In essence the model ap lm act of 2017 aims to empower the farmers and improve market efficiency So that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion We saw some of the major provisions of the agricultural produce and livestock marketing promotion and facilitation act 2017 With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Now for our next discussion let us take up this article The article says that Vijay Sampla who was the chairman of the national commission for scheduled cast Have resigned from his post. He might contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha election from his state of Punjab This is all about the news article. So in our discussion today, we will understand some basic points about the national commission for scheduled cast See the national commission for scheduled cast that is the NCSC is a constitutional body That is created to safeguard the interest of scheduled cast in our country Article 338 of the constitution of India deals with this commission Here you have to know that originally there was only a single commission called the national commission for SC and SD And it was replaced by two separate commissions only in 2004 After the 89th constitutional amendment act Now let us see the composition of this commission the commission consists of a chairman Vice chairman and three members and they are appointed by the president The condition of their tenure and services are also determined by the president now moving forward. Let us see the functions of the commission As per the article 338 the duties of this commission are to investigate and monitor All matters relating to safeguard provided for scheduled cast under the constitution It also inquires into the complaints relating to the rights and safeguards of the scheduled cast Also note that it advises the central and the state government with respect to Planning of the socioeconomic development of the scheduled cast Besides these the commission regularly reports the president on the matters of implementation of these safeguards Another significant function of this commission is recommending steps to be taken to further the socioeconomic development And other welfare functions of the scheduled cast The commission also deals with any other function relating to the welfare protection development and advancement of the ac community Important thing that you have to note here is that the commission also discharges the similar function with regard to the Anglo-Indian community as it does with the scheduled cast With this information, let us see some of the issues related to the role of the commission First its recommendations are not binding on the government Even though it has power to inquire and investigate in the matters of atrocities committed against the scheduled cast Next there is delay in conducting inquiries and delivering judgments by the commission Another important issue is regarding the reports of the commission The commission has to submit annual report to the president for its presentation to the parliament But the reports are often table two or more years after they have been submitted to the president Even when the reports are tabled in the parliament, they are very frequently not discussed Okay, so these are some of the issues with the national commission for scheduled cast So that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion We have seen some points about the composition function and some issues relating to the NCSC that is the national commission for scheduled cast Now with this we have come to the end of the news article discussion session And now let us take up the practice problems questions of the day We have five practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question See this question is a pre-acr question that appeared in 2022 problems Six statements are given here We have to find which among the following are considered as public investment in agriculture First, let me give you a definition of public investment in agriculture Actually public investment in agriculture means Investments made by government to create capital or social assets to improve agricultural productivity So based on this definition, let us see what among the six falls under the category Okay, let us take the first one fixing minimum support price for agricultural produce of all crops See fixing MSP gives farmers the remuneration price without creating any durable infrastructure So this is not a public investment in agriculture. Okay, moving on to the second statement Computation of primary agriculture credit society. This statement is correct Actually computerization of agri credit society improves the productivity by digitizing their functioning So two ways correct moving on to the third one social capital development. This is also correct social capital development Like agri education improves the knowledge base of the farmers which results in improved productivity. Okay Now let us take statement four and five statement four says about free electricity supplies to farmer and statement five deals with waiver of agricultural loans by the banking system Both these does not result in increase in agricultural productivity Nor it does result in creation of stable durable asset So both are moving on to the six to one setting up of cold storages facilities by the government This statement is correct because the cold storage infrastructure Reduced the post harvest losses thereby creating durable asset and increasing agricultural productivity So the correct answer here is option c 2 3 and 6 only Moving on to the second question Here three statements regarding india shilanka relations are given. We have to find which among these statements are correct Let us take up the first statement Mitra sati is the annual naval exercise between india and shilanka This statement is correct. Although mitra sati is an exercise between india and shilanka It is a military exercise not a naval exercise. Okay, moving on to the second statement Bilateral trade between india and shilanka gradually decreased in the last decade due to china's influence on shilanka's economy This statement is incorrect because over the past 10 years the india shilanka trade have increased gradually So this statement is incorrect. Okay Moving on to the third statement the hambandotta port in shilanka has been strategically developed by india to counter China's expansion in indian ocean This statement is also incorrect because the hambandotta port is developed by china not india Since all the three statements given here are incorrect. The correct answer is option d none of the above Moving on to the next question This question is based on our kakathya dynasty discussion. Three statements are given. We have to find the correct statements Let us take up the first statement kakathyas were contemporaries of sattvahanas. This statement is incorrect Because the sattvahanas ruled over the andras during the first century edi But the kakathyas they were influential during the twelfth and the 14th century edi So there is a huge time gap between them the contemporaries of kakathyas include cholas hoysalas gangas and chandelas. Okay, they are the contemporaries Moving on to the second statement Golkonda fort was built during the kakathya rule. This statement is correct. This we saw in our discussion Now moving on to the third statement I whole inscription speaks about the conquest of kakathya queen rudra ma devi. This statement is incorrect because we know that I whole inscription is related to Pulikation to not rudra ma devi. So here statement one is incorrect statement three is incorrect and only statement two is correct So the correct answer here is option b only two Moving on to the next question Here three statements about draught is given. We have to find how many of these statements are correct Let us take up the first statement in india draught is declared by the respective state governments by taking into account Rainfall situation crop growth and so on this statement is correct As we saw in our discussion in india the state government is empowered to declare a draught Okay, moving on to the second statement the notification declaring the draught in a state is valid for one year from the date of notification This is incorrect as you saw in our discussion. This is valid for only six months not one year Okay Moving on to the third statement the condition of draught would fall within the definition of disaster as defined under Section 2d of disaster management act 2005 This statement is correct. The supreme court of india in its verdict in the Matter of swaraj abhyan west union of india case stated that draught would completely fall within the definition of disaster As defined under section 2d of the disaster management act 2005 So here statement one and statement three is correct and statement two is incorrect So the correct answer here is option b only two. Okay Now moving on to the next question See this is the quiz question for you today Interested aspirants can write the answer for this question in the comment section The main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here Interested aspirants can write the answers and post them in the comment section If you like today's video like comment and share it with your friends for more updates regarding UPC preparation subscribe to shankarae s academy's youtube channel Thank you for listening