 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to Shankar's summary for UPSC problems 2023. These are the list of topics we will be going through today. The discussion today will be in a question and answer format and it will be very helpful for your UPSC problems examination. Before getting into the discussion I have an important announcement for you. Based on your continued request we are planning to resume the hindu news analysis from 15th May 2023 that is from next week's Monday. With this happy announcement now let's get into the discussion. Look at this question. The question here is about budget. See every year we take notes about the union budget before writing UPSC problems but at the same time we should also give equal importance to the basic facts about budget. In the past UPSC has asked many times about budget static portion. In 2014 a question was asked about the non-plan expenditure. In 2016 capital part of the budget was asked. In 2020 a question about documents presented along with budget was asked. So this year also we can expect a question about the basics of budget. This prompted me to ask this question. Look at this question. This is a three statement question and we have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. In 2017 the union budget was presented on February 1st for the first time and the railway budget was merged with the union budget. See this statement is correct. Since 1924 railway budget was presented separately. After 2014 a Nithiyog commission submitted a white paper recommending to do away with the practice of separate railway budget. The recommendation stated that the British started this practice in 1924 because a significant part of government revenue and the country's GDP was dependent on the railway revenues. But right now the times have changed and there is no need for the separate railway budget to be presented. So after the recommendation in 2017 Mr Arun Jaitley presented the first combined union budget. In the same year Mr Arun Jaitley presented the budget for the first time in February 1st. Before that the budget was presented every year at the end of February. As the budget was presented on the last date of February it was difficult to implement the provisions of the budget from the next financial year which begins on April 1st. So the date was changed to February 1st. So this is about the first statement and the first statement is correct. Moving on to the second statement. Budget is prepared by department of revenue under ministry of finance. See this statement is incorrect because the department of economic affairs only prepares the budget. Since statement 2 is incorrect we can eliminate option A and D and since statement 1 is correct we can arrive at the answer for this question without even going through the third statement. The correct answer for this question is option B. Even though also we will see about the third statement. What does the third statement says? The third statement says that the word budget is mentioned in article 112 of the Indian Constitution. This is a easy statement. We all know this statement here is incorrect. This is because the word budget is not mentioned in the Indian Constitution. Instead the word annual financial statement is given in article 112. Article 112 says that the president of India shall lay before the parliament the annual financial statement every financial year. Article 112 to article 117 deals with the procedures concerning the union budget. Revise all the articles it will be very helpful for your problems examination. That's all regarding this question discussion. Now let us take up the next question. This question here is about the tax regime in India. I have framed this question because since 2011 questions about tax has been asked in one way or another in the UPSC problems examination. This question in 2011 is about the value added tax and this question from 2018 is about the products exempted from GSD. Like I said in one way or other UPSC has been asking about tax. We all know our finance minister in 2023-24 union budget brought some changes to the tax regime. So this year UPSC might ask a question about the change in the tax regime. We have to be prepared for this. So this question about the new tax regime is important. Listen carefully. This is a two statement question and we have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. Union budget 2023-24 abolished the old tax regime and introduced a new tax regime and tax rates for the income tax payers. See this statement is incorrect because union budget 2023-24 did not abolish the old tax regime. It just introduced some changes to the new tax regime to make it more attractive among the tax payers. See in India there are two tax regimes. One is the old tax regime and the other one is the new tax regime. As you can see both the regimes have different tax rates. The change brought during the union budget is that persons who earn income up to 7 lakhs can claim a rebate from the government under the new tax regime. But the rebate limit remains at 5 lakhs for the individuals who choose to pay the tax under the old regime. So the statement saying old tax regime was abolished is incorrect. Even now two regimes are all. Both the old and the new tax regimes are present and operational. So statement one is incorrect. Moving on to the second statement. New tax regime has lower tax rates and exemptions compared to the old tax regime. This statement is correct. See new tax regime contains low tax rates compared to the old tax regime. If you take the slab of 6 to 9 lakhs in the new regime the tax payer has to pay tax only at 10 percentage. But in the old tax regime they have to pay 20 percentage. Secondly the new tax regime has less exemption compared to the old tax regime. See the old tax regime has exemptions under article 80c, 80ccc and 80d of the income tax act. Tax payers under the old regime can make use of these sections by making tax saying investment or by incurring eligible expenses which are exempted from the taxable income levels. But no such exceptions can be claimed by those who are apting for the new tax regime. So statement two is correct. Since statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct the correct answer for this question is option b 2 only. Moving on to the next question. This question here is about the vehicle scrapage policy in India. See so far questions about vehicle scrapping has not been asked in the UPSC films. So this year UPSC might ask a question about it. Also in union budget our finance minister has allocated more funds for the fast vehicle scrapping of older vehicles. This is because of environmental reasons. She said that old vehicles are polluting the environment more compared to the new ones. These are the reasons why I framed this question. Now let us try to solve this question. The question asks us to find the correct statements about the vehicle scrapping policy in India. The options are option a as per the policy personal vehicles which are over 15 years if found unfit will be deregistered. Option b as per the policy the state governments are advised to offer a road tax rebate of up to 15 percentage for personal vehicles. Option c as per the policy commercial vehicles which are over 15 years if found unfit will be deregistered and option d as per the policy the state governments are advised to offer road tax rebate of up to 25 percentage for commercial vehicles. Now before we approach the question let us see the vehicle scrapping policy in India. Firstly commercial vehicles will be deregistered after 15 years if they are found unfit. Secondly all vehicles of the central government state government municipal corporation panchayat state transport undertakings public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies with the union and the state governments will be deregistered and scrapped after 15 years from the date of registration. Thirdly private and personal vehicles will be deregistered after 20 years if it is found unfit or fail to renew registration certification. See the policy provides strong incentives to owners of old vehicles to scrap old and unfit vehicles through registered scrapping centers which will provide a scrapping certificate. This incentivizes the following. Scrap value of approximately 4 to 6 percentage of extra room price of a new vehicle advised to state government to offer a road tax rebate of up to 25 percentage for personal vehicles and 15 percentage for commercial vehicles advised to vehicle manufacturers to provide a discount of 5 percentage on purchase of new vehicles against scrapping certificate and finally waiver of registration fee for purchase of new vehicles against the scrapping certificate. So by providing these incentives that is by providing these four incentives government is pushing or nudging the commercial and the private old vehicle users to scrap their old vehicles and buy new vehicles. Now let us come back to the question from this discussion we know that the correct answer or the statement that is only correct here is option C the rest of the statements are incorrect so the correct answer here is option C. Now moving on to the next question look at this question this question is about India's health sector in general and the issue of out of pocket expenditure to be specific the statements given here are taken from the recent economic survey before we approach this question let us have a brief discussion about the issue of out of pocket expenditure for health in India. Firstly out of pocket expenditure for health is nothing but the money spent by an individual or a household in a hospital at the time of receiving health care. According to the economic survey this out of pocket expenditure in India is still high despite the contribution of the government to the health sector. See generally out of pocket expenditure for health increases in two cases. The first case is that when the services are not provided free of cost through a government health facility and the second case is that when an individual is not covered under any public or private insurance or social protection scheme. These are the two cases where the out of pocket expenditure for health increases but look at this graph the government contribution to health sector has significantly increased from 2013-14. At the same time the out of pocket expenditure has also continuously come down. In the fiscal year 2018-19 the gap between the government expenditure to health and out of pocket expenditure for health has reduced significantly. This is mainly because our government is providing the largest cashless health insurance scheme. It is none other than Ayushman Bharat Jan Aurogyo Yojana but despite all these measures out of pocket expenditure in India is still high. As you can see the government health expenditure for 2018-19 is 40.6 percentage of the total while the out of pocket expenditure remains marginally higher at 48.2 percentage. But what is the reason for this? The Ayushman Bharat Jan Aurogyo Yojana targeted approximately 50 crore beneficiaries but as per the recent economic survey only 1.9 crore beneficiaries have been verified including 3 crore beneficiaries verified by the state governments. This is the main reason for this. So health insurance scheme of the government should be promoted well and it should be taken to the nook and corner of the country. Secondly it has been recommended several times that the government health expenditure should be increased from the existing 1.2 percentage to 2.5 percentage of the GDP by the year 2025. If these two are followed one is promoting the government insurance scheme and other one is increasing the government health expenditure then the out of pocket expenditure for health in India can come down. With this discussion about the issue of out of pocket expenditure for health in India now let us take back the question. Look at the first statement government contribution to health sector has continuously increased from financial year 2013-14 to financial year 2018-19. This statement is correct. This we saw in the graph itself. Moving on to the second statement between financial year 2013-14 to financial year 2018-19 out of pocket health expenditure as a share of total health expenditure has continuously increased. This is incorrect. Between this time period the out of pocket health expenditure actually came down. It did not increase. So statement 2 is incorrect. Moving on to the third statement as of financial year 2018-19 the out of pocket health expenditure is marginally higher than the government health expenditure. This is also correct. This we saw in the graph itself. Since statement 1 and statement 3 are correct the correct answer here is option C. Moving on to the next question this question is also about the data from the recent Economic Survey. Four statements about Indian economy are given. We have to find the incorrect statements. Look at the first statement for the past four financial years India's CPA has been higher than India's WPA. For this look at this graph for the past couple of years both CPA and WPA have remained high and the interesting fact here is that between 2021 and 2022 the WPA has remained higher than the retail inflation which is CPA. This makes statement 1 incorrect. Moving on to the second statement Indian economy witnessed positive GDP growth for the past five years. This statement is also incorrect. Actually this is an easy statement because we all know that during the COVID induced lockdown Indian economy contracted. At that time period India did not witness positive GDP growth rate. So this makes statement 2 incorrect. Moving on to the third statement while the industrial and the service sector maintained positive growth rate during COVID induced lockdowns the agriculture and allied sector contracted. This statement is also incorrect. This is because the agriculture and the allied sector was the only sector that remained immune to the COVID induced lockdown and witnessed a positive growth rate. The industrial and the service sector actually contracted due to the COVID induced lockdowns. Moving on to the last statement during the COVID induced lockdown India's forex reserve witnessed a decline. This statement is also incorrect. During the COVID induced lockdown India's forex reserve actually witnessed a growth. This is mainly due to our country's decreased fuel import bill. Since all the statements given here are incorrect and the question is asking us to find the incorrect statement the correct answer here is option D 1 2 3 and 4. Moving on to the next question. This question is about the criteria for an entity to be classified as a startup in India. Before we approach this question let us see a few points. As per the economic survey India has emerged as one of the most vibrant destination for startup ecosystem. The country now has more than 84,000 recognized startups. So this year we can expect a question about startups. These are the conditions that need to be fulfilled for an entity to be considered as a startup in India. The first condition is that the entity should be incorporated as a private limited company or registered as a partnership firm or as a limited liability partnership. Secondly, it should not have been completed 10 years from the date of registration. The third condition is that the turnover of the entity should not exceed 100 crores for any of the financial years since registration. The fourth condition is that entity should be working towards innovation, development or improvement of product or process or service. And the last one is that the entity should not be formed by splitting up or reconstruction of a existing business. If an entity satisfies all these conditions then it can be recognized as a startup in India and it is eligible for receiving benefits that is provided to the startups under the startup India scheme. If an entity is recognized as a startup by the department of promotion of industry and industrial trade then it is eligible for various government initiatives like relaxed norms, tax benefits, easier compliance, access to funding, IPR tracking and easy exit policy. This is about the startups in India. Now coming back to the question. From the discussion that we just had, we know that statement one and statement two are incorrect and statement three and statement four are correct. So the correct answer here is option C, three and four only. Look at this question. This question is about Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana. Three statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Before we approach this question let us see some points about this scheme. Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana is a housing scheme launched by the union government in the year 2015. The scheme was launched with an objective of providing housing for all. Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana as a scheme is divided into two. One is Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban while the other one is Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Gramin. Nodal ministry for the Arban component is the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and for the Gramin component the Nodal ministry is the Ministry of Rural Development. The aim of the Gramin component is to provide PAKKA houses that is the permanent houses with basic amenities to rural families who are homeless or living in temporary houses. The target was to accomplish this by the end of March 2022. The scheme primarily assists the people below the poverty line. How? By providing financial grants for constructing new houses or upgrading existing unserviceable kucha houses that is temporary houses. Also the cost of the unit assistance is shared between the central and the state governments. In the plain areas the sharing is 60 is to 40 between center and state and in the north eastern and the hilly states the sharing is 90 is to 10. So far the Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Gramin has made significant progress. The initial target was to complete 2.5 crore houses and as of now 1.8 crore houses has been constructed which is around 67.72% of the target. Moving on to the Arban component it was launched on 25th June 2015 with the aim of providing housing for all in the Arban areas by the year 2022. The Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban focuses on addressing the housing shortage among Arban poor including slum dwellers by ensuring that Arban poor individuals receive paka house. The scheme covers various urban areas including statutory towns, notified planning area and development authorities. All houses constructed under the Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban comes with basic amenities like toilets, water supply, electricity and kitchen. The scheme also promotes women empowerment by providing house ownership in the name of the female members or in joint names. As far as achievements of Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban is concerned the initial target was to construct 1.2 crore homes. However according to the latest data from the Union Arban Development Ministry only 60 lakh units have been completed so far. Now coming back to the question let us take up the first statement The nodal ministry for Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban and Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Gramin is the ministry of housing and urban affairs. This statement is incorrect. The nodal ministry for Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban is ministry of housing and urban affairs and for Gramin the nodal ministry is ministry of rural development. Moving on to statement 2 under Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban house ownership is provided in the name of the female members. This statement is correct. Moving on to statement 3. All houses constructed under Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana Arban comes with water supply and electricity. This statement is also correct. So the correct answer here is option C 2 and 3 only. Moving on to the next question. This is a two statement question about family courts. Two statements are given and you have to find the correct statements. Before we approach this question let us see some points about the family courts. Family courts are specialized to courts that were established under the family courts act 1984. It was established with the view to promote conciliation and secure speedy settlement of disputes relating to marriage family affairs and for related matters. Its primary goal is to preserve the welfare of the family by using a multi-disciplinary strategy to resolve family issues within the framework of the law. Secondly it was established to remove family and marital disputes from overburdening the traditional courts of law by providing a simpler court in which even a lay person can understand the working procedure. So the two pillars upon which the entire structure of family court is built are counseling and conciliation. Moving on to the appointment of judges for family court. The state government may with the concurrence of the high court appoint one or more persons to be judge or judges of family courts. Now remember these courts work in a pattern where on one hand individuals legal rights are protected. On the other hand they serve as a guide helper and counselor to help families deal with problems and restore family harmony. Now let us see some of the unique features of the family court. Firstly the family courts are free to evolve their own rules and procedure that is it can override the rules of procedures contemplated under the code of civil procedure. Secondly the cases are kept away from the former legal system which can be very traumatic experience for the families. Third important feature in this method of working is that the actual proceedings before the family court are first referred to conciliation and only when the conciliation proceeding fail to resolve the issue the matter is taken for trial by the court. Finally once the final order is passed the agreed party has an option to file a appeal before the high court. These are some important points about the family courts. Now let us take back the question. Look at the first statement the rules of procedure can be evolved by the family courts on their own. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. Moving on to the second statement the family courts act 1984 provides for the establishment of family courts by the union government. See this statement is wrong because it is the state government that has to establish the family courts in the important cities and towns under the family courts act 1984 not the union government. So statement two is wrong. So the correct answer here is option A one only. Moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This question is in reference to India's pharma industry. Three statements are given. We have to find the correct statements. Look at the first statement despite covid related supply chain disruption. India's pharma exports increased. This statement is correct. Look at this graph. This graph is taken from this year's economic survey. Based on this graph you can easily infer that India's pharma critical exports continue to increase despite the supply chain disruption caused by covid. So statement one is correct. Moving on to statement two. Currently India is the largest producer of pharma products by volume in the world. This statement is incorrect because currently India ranked third worldwide in the production of pharma products by volume and 14th by value. So statement two is incorrect. Actually India is the largest provider of generic medicines globally. Okay India currently occupies 20 percent share in global generic medicine market. Okay moving on to the third statement. FDA inflows in the sector have increased fourfold over five years until September 2022. This statement is also correct. FDA inflows have increased fourfold over five years until September 2022. As of September 2022 the pharma sector of India attracted FDA worth 699 million dollars. This is supported by investor friendly policies and positive feedback of the industry in India. Okay you can also refer to these graphs for the information related to pharma industries in India. All these graphs are taken from this year's economic survey. It will be very useful for your plumes examination. Okay now coming back to the question since statement one and statement three are correct the correct answer here is option c. Now moving on to the next question. This is a pair based question about some of the schemes mentioned in the union budget. On one side the schemes are given and on the other side the objectives are given. We have to find how many of these pairs are correctly matched. Before solving this question we will see some points about the union budget. The union budget is mentioned as annual financial statement in the constitution of India under article 122. It is the statement of estimated receipts and expenditure of the government. Department of economic affairs under the ministry of finance is the nodal body responsible for preparing the annual financial statement. Now we will discuss about the importance of the recent budget that is the 2023-24 budget. This is the first budget in Amrithkal which is the road map for next 25 years. India's vision for Amrithkal includes three elements they are opportunities for citizens with focus on youth growth and job creation and finally strong and stable macroeconomic environment. This budget concentrates on seven priority areas known as Saptarishi. They include development, reaching the last mail, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector. Moving forward we will see four schemes related to environment that is mentioned in this year's budget. First is MISTI. MISTI stands for macro initiative for shoreline habitat and tangible income. It will facilitate mangrove plantation along India's coastline and on salt pan lands. The second one is PM Pranam which stands for Prime Minister's Program for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth. This program will seek to incentivize states and union territories for promoting alternative fertilizers and for balanced use of chemical fertilizer. This is about PM Pranam. The next one is Bharatiya Prakriti Kethi Bio-Input Resource Centers. These bio-input resource centers will be established to facilitate adoption of natural farming. Ten thousand bio-input resource centers will be set up creating a national level distributed micro fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network. The last one is Amrit Darohar. This scheme will be implemented over the next three years to encourage optimal use of wetlands and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, ecotourism and income generation for local communities. Now coming back to the question. From the discussion that we just had we know that the first two pairs given here are correctly matched whereas the objectives of the third and the fourth schemes are interchanged. So the correct answer for this question is option B only two pairs. This is regarding this question. I suggest the aspirants to watch the daily news analysis stated 2nd February 2023 to have a in-depth understanding about this year's union budget. Okay that's all regarding this question discussion. Now moving on to the next question. This is a pair-based question. On one side some rice varieties with GA tag are given and on the other side the states are given. We have to find which of the pairs are correctly matched. In this question all the four products and the places are correctly matched. So the correct answer for this question is option D all four pairs. See I have framed this question because in the month of February Tamil Nadu government has applied for GA tag for three of its products. So we can expect a question about GA tag in our examination. So now we will see some of the few points about GA tag. Firstly what is a GA tag. GA tag is a indication used on products that are specific geographical origin and possess qualities or reputation that are due to that geographical origin. The GA tag will preserve the qualities and reputation of a product from that defined geographical locality. In India the geographical indication of goods registration and protection act 1999 provides for the registration and protection of geographical indication. The tags in India are issued by the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks. It comes under the department for the promotion of industry internal trade which is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. At the international level geographical integrations are covered as a component of the intellectual property rights which is under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property. GA is also governed by the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement. The registration of GA is valid for 10 years and it can be renewed from time to time for further period of 10 years each. Moving forward we will see the significance of GA tag. Firstly the GA tag ensures quality and distinctiveness which is essential related to the place of the product's origin. Secondly once the GA protection is granted no other producer can misuse the name to market similar products. It also provides comfort for the consumer about the authenticity of the product. These are some points about GA tag with this. Now let us conclude this question discussion and take up the next question. See this is a three statement question. Three statements about all India's survey on higher education is given. We have to find which of these statements are incorrect okay. Let us take up the first statement. It is a web-based annual survey conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. This statement is wrong because this survey is conducted by the Ministry of Education. Okay now moving on to the second statement. Gross enrollment ratio for 2020 to 2021 was calculated based on population projections made in 2001 census. Before we see whether this statement is correct or not we will first understand what is gross enrollment ratio. Gross enrollment ratio is calculated as a percentage of the total number of enrollments in higher education courses against the total projected population in the 18 to 23 age group. The GER calculated until 2019-20 was based on population projections made in 2001 census. It has been revised in accordance with the 2011 census in 2020-21 report. Now coming back to the statement. The statement 2 is incorrect okay. Moving on to the third statement. As per the survey the highest number of foreign students in India are from Nepal. See this statement is correct. Among the foreign students Nepal contributes 28.25 percentage. Afghanistan contributes 8.4 percentage. Then comes Bangladesh at 5.7 percentage and then US at 5.1 percentage. So statement 3 is correct. Here statement 1 and statement 2 are incorrect and statement 3 is correct. But since they are asking for the incorrect statements here the correct answer here is option A 1 and 2 only. Now moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This question asks us to find what is CA-RT therapy. CA have framed this question because in prelims UPSC has asked many times about the recent developments in the medical field. One such example is this question asked in prelims 2019. It is about Cas9 protein okay. Now let us come back to this question. The correct answer for this question is option B. It is a systematic therapy used for the treatment of cancer. See there are three types of treatments to treat cancer. The first and the famous one is the surgery. Normally surgery is done on the malignant tumor to remove it from our body. The second type of treatment is the radiotherapy. In this type external radiation is applied on the tumor. Radiation therapy uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumor. Finally comes the treatment of systemic therapy. This popular treatment involves administering specific medicines which acts only on the tumors. Some of the systemic therapies presently used to treat cancer includes chemotherapy, immunotherapy etc. Note that CA-RT therapy is a type of systemic therapy. The expansion of CA-RT therapy is chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. This particular type of systemic cell therapy uses patients' own T-cells to treat cancer. The main difference between the other forms of systemic therapy and this CA-RT therapy is that other therapies uses external mass produced injectable or oral medication. While CA-RT therapy uses the patients' own T-cells. See these T-cells are modified in the laboratory to enable them to find and attack cancerous tumors. These modified cells are then infused back into the patient's bloodstream. As these cells are more specific they end up directly activating the patient's immune system against cancer. This makes the treatment of CA-RT therapy more clinically effective and more focused. This is why they are called living drugs. That's all about CA-RT therapy on this question discussion. Now let us take up the next question. This question here is about methane hydrates. I have framed this question about methane hydrates because UPSC has already asked a question about methane hydrates in 2019 but currently this methane hydrates is also gaining more prominence. Okay apart from this in February 2023 oil and natural gas corporation of India said that it has invested around 3.5 billion dollars in the next 3 to 4 years to boost output from the Krishna-Godawari basins in regards to methane hydrates. So in 2023 plumes you may expect a question about the methane hydrates. As you can see in this 2019 plumes question the statements given here are very general and global. So I have framed the question which is specific and India related. Let us take up the first statement. Methane hydrates stay stable at high temperature and high pressure conditions. See this statement may seem correct but it is incorrect actually. The favorable conditions for the formation of methane hydrates is high pressure and low temperature not high temperature. If you can use common sense here you can easily find the answer for this question. The name is methane hydrate. So it has to do something with ice or water. So high temperature is not a favorable condition. So this makes statement 1 incorrect. Moving on to the second statement. Methane hydrates is a crystalline solid consisting of methane molecules surrounded by a cage of interlocking water molecules. This statement is correct. This statement clearly explains what methane hydrate is. This is why methane hydrate is called fire ice. Also know that methane hydrate is formed when hydrogen bounded water and methane gas comes in contact with high pressure and low temperature. Moving on to the third statement. In India methane hydrates are present only in Krishna Godavari basin. This statement is incorrect. An Indo-Uber scientific joint venture in 2006 explored different areas in India. The research analysis is that methane hydrates in India are found in Krishna Godavari basin near the coast of Andaman and in the Mahanadi basin. Also Anath, four environments having significant temperature and pressure conditions that are suitable for the methane hydrates. The four environments are sediment and sedimentary rocks below the Arctic permafrost. The second one is the sedimentary deposits along continental margin. The third one is the deep water sediments of inland lakes and seas and finally under Antarctic ice. These four areas are potential areas that can contain methane hydrates. So coming back statement three is also wrong. Since statement one is wrong and statement three is wrong the correct answer for this question is option C 2 only. Moving on to the next question. This question here is about NRE and NRO accounts. I have framed this question because in February RBI has decided to provide UPI access to non-resident Indians who have international mobile numbers linked to their NRE or NRO accounts. Since it is in use UPSE might ask a question about it. Now let us try to solve the question. Let us take up statement one NRE that is non-resident external account is an account to transfer earnings from India to foreign countries. This statement is incorrect because the non-residential external account is an account of an NRE to transfer his foreign earnings to India. The principle and the interest from the NRE account is not taxed. Think about it. If a foreign currency is coming to India then it will increase our forex reserves. This is why the NRE account is not taxed. Also know that NRE account is prone to exchange rate risk. Let me explain with an example. Person A is an NRE and he is depositing 100 dollars. Suppose if the current exchange rate is 1 dollar equal to 72 rupees then the NRE account will contain 7200 rupees. Let us say person A wants to withdraw this amount due to some personal reasons. But the current exchange rate knows 100 rupees is equal to 1 dollar. Then person A can only withdraw 72 dollars. This is because of the exchange rate fluctuation and it is the only issue associated with NRE accounts. Now moving on to statement two. Non-resident ordinary account is an account to transfer foreign earnings to India. This statement is also incorrect because non-resident ordinary account is an account of an NRE to manage his or her income that is earned in India. Let us say an NRE has a property in India and he is earning some income from that property. This income that is earned in India is deposited in the NRO account. So unlike the NRE account where the deposit is made in dollars the deposit in the NRO account is made in rupees. This is why both the principal and the interest earned from the NRO account are taxed. Since the deposit is made in rupees it is not vulnerable to exchange rate risk. See here both the statements that statement one and statement two are wrong. So the correct answer for this question is option D neither one nor two. I hope you understood the difference between NRE and NRO account clearly here. So with this now let us conclude this and take up the next question. Look at this question here. Here four wildlife santeries which are located in Kerala are given. We have to arrange them in the north to south direction. The santeries given here are Vayanad wildlife sanctuary, Parambikulam wildlife sanctuary, Shendurne wildlife sanctuary and Niyar wildlife sanctuary. To answer this question look at this map here. From this map you can know that Vayanad wildlife sanctuary is located in the northernmost part of Kerala. It is followed by Parambikulam which is located in the middle of Kerala and finally comes to Shendurne and Niyar wildlife sanctuary in the southernmost part of Kerala. Together the order given in the question exactly follows the north to south direction. So the correct answer for this question is option B one two three and four. See we have framed this question because last February the 12th annual survey of fauna was conducted in the Shendurne wildlife sanctuary. The survey documented nearly 450 species of birds, odonates, butterflies, arachnids and mammals. Some important butterflies that were spotted are listed here. These species got mentioned in the Hindu newspaper. So just pause the video and go through it. UPSC might give these pieces and tell you to identify what kind of species is these. At these times you should be able to answer such question. So just have a glance at the butterfly species that are listed here. Okay moving forward since I mentioned about the Shendurne wildlife sanctuary now let us see few points about the sanctuary. The Shendurne wildlife sanctuary is a protected area located in the western guards. It was established as a wildlife sanctuary in 1984. It is located in Kollam district of Kerala and it comes under the Agastiyamalai biosphere reserve. The sanctuary got its name from the endemic species Gupta Trivancorica which is locally known as Chengurunji. The Shendurne wildlife sanctuary lies on the either side of the Shendurne river. The sanctuary has an artificial lake and it is also surrounded by the reservoir of Thinmaladam. Now moving forward we'll see the floor on Fauna that is found in this wildlife sanctuary. This wildlife sanctuary is a biodiversity hotspot. It has 1257 species of flowering plants with 309 species being unique to the western guards. The sanctuary is also home to 267 species of birds which include many migratory, endemic and endangered species. Also the majority of the sanctuary is covered in tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forest. Apart from this the sanctuary is known to have a population of highly endangered lion-tailed mecca. Other common mammals of this wildlife sanctuary include elephant, gar, sambar deer, wild beer, malabar jain squirrel and neel giri langu. That is all about Shendurne wildlife sanctuary. Now let us move on to the next question. Look at this question. This question is about the defense technology and trade initiative. In short DTTI. See last February this initiative appeared in the news. This is why I framed this question. Now before answering this question let us first learn about the defense technology and trade initiative. The DTTI is the defense mechanism between India and the United States. It was launched in 2012. Remember DTTI is neither a treaty nor a law. Whereas it is a flexible mechanism that engages senior leaders from India and US to strengthen the opportunities in the field of defense. What are the reasons behind the creation of DTTI? Before the creation of DTTI the scope of cooperation and defense technology between India and the United States was very narrow. This was due to the presence of differing bureaucratic procedures and legal requirements. So DTTI was created to bring sustained leadership focus to the bilateral defense trade relationship and to expedite the cooperation of defense technology between India and the United States. Now we will see the aim of this initiative. The first and foremost aim is to focus on the sustained bilateral defense trade relationship between India and the United States. Secondly this initiative aims to create opportunities for co-production and co-development of defense equipments. And finally this initiative helps in exploring new areas of technological development and also expanding US-India business ties. Now moving forward we will see the projects that are underway under this new initiative. The projects under this initiative can be classified as near-medium and long-term projects. The near-term projects include air-launched small unmanned system, lightweight small arms technology and intelligence surveillance and target acquisition and reconnaissance technology. Whereas the medium-term projects include maritime domain awareness solution and virtual augmented mixed reality for aircraft maintenance. And finally the long-term projects include terrain shaping obstacle and counter-UES rocket artillery and motor system. That is all about this project. And to execute the project under the DTTI four joint working groups that focused on land naval and air aircraft carrier technology have been established jointly by India and the United States. These groups promote mutually agreed projects within their domain. Under this joint working group of DTTA India and US are currently developing an air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle. The project agreement for AL UAV was signed between Indian Defense Ministry and the US Department of Defense on July 30, 2021. Recently there was news that this AL UAV is going to be tested latest this year. That is all about DTTA. Now coming back to the question. Let us take up the first statement. It is a flexible defense mechanism between India and the US which aims to bring sustained leadership focus on the bilateral defense trade relationship. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion. Moving on to the second statement. This initiative aims to create opportunities for co-production and co-development of defense equipment. This statement is also correct. Moving on to the third statement. Under this initiative India and the US signed the project agreement to develop air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle. This is also correct. Since all the three statements are correct, the correct answer here is option D1213. Moving on to the next question. This question is about the E codes projects. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. No before answering the question. Let us learn some points about E codes project. E codes or ritual codes is a concept that aims to limit the physical presence of people in the court. In case of E code, the filing of cases and adjudication process takes place over the internet. The E codes project is being implemented India in a faced manner and it is a pan India project. It is being monitored and funded by the Department of Justice which is functioning under the Ministry of Law and Justice. The Indian E codes project was conceptualized on the basis of the national policy and action plan for implementation of information and communication technology in the Indian judiciary 2005 report. This report was submitted to the government by the E committee of the Supreme Court. So based on this report only the E code project was started. The project aims to transform the Indian judiciary by inducting information and communication technology. So the ultimate aim of the E code project is to limit the physical presence of people and advocates in the courts. Now let us see the advantages associated with the E codes project. Firstly, the E code project will bring improved accessibility by incorporating better scheduling mechanism and allowing for online digital filing. Secondly, it will bring down the cost of justice. As we saw earlier, the E codes project allow for E filing and virtual hearing. So this will reduce the paper and the travel cost thereby reducing the cost of accessing justice. Thirdly, the E codes project will increase transparency by allowing live streaming of cases and by providing open data. Finally, the E codes project will help in delivery of help in efficient delivery of justice. Seamless integration of judicial system with the police prison and prosecution etc. will improve the speed of information sharing and makes the judicial process more efficient. Now these are some important points that you have to know about the E codes project. Now coming back to the question, let us take up the first statement. It aims to provide efficient and time-bound citizen centric services delivery by facilitating both E filing and virtual hearing of cases. This statement is correct. This is one of the main aim of the E codes project. Okay, moving on to the second statement. It is a pan India project funded and monitored by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. This is wrong. This pan India project is monitored and funded by the Ministry of Law and Justice. Okay, so statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer is option A one only. Now moving on to the next question. Look at this question. Let me read out the question. Recently two persons named Mr. Madhiveluk Gopal and Mr. Masi Sadeyan belonging to a particularly vulnerable tribal group were awarded the Padmashtri for social work. Which of the following community do they belong to? The correct answer for this question is option C, Irula. Vadivaluk Gopal and Masi Sadeyan both were snake catchers of Tamil Nadu. They are also members of the Girula Snake Catchers Cooperative Society in Chennai and catch a snake for antivenom extraction. They are also involved in international awareness and advocacy on snake human conflicts. Now based on this question, let us see few facts about the Irula tribe. Let us start with the location. Irula people reside in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu and in some parts of Kerala. They are semi-nomadic tribes and they have their origin from the ethnic groups of South Asia and Australia. They speak Irula language that is closely related to the Dravidian language like Kannada and Tamil and they are among the particularly vulnerable tribal groups. Here PVTGs are the marginalized sections of the scheduled tribes of India and are relatively isolated. They are both educationally and socio-economically backward in nature living in the habitat far away from the human settlement. Apart from this, Irula tribe are part of the denotified tribe. The members of the denotified tribe were once considered as habitual offenders during the colonial era. Now moving on to the occupation. Traditionally the main occupation of the Irula was snake catching, rat catching and honey collection. They also work as laborers in the fields of landlars during sowing and harvesting season. Fishing and cattle farming are also their major occupation. Women of the Irula tribe are very knowledgeable with regard to plant species, particularly the medicinal varieties. This knowledge of the Irula women has been passed on from many generations and some women are termed as Vaidyas or traditional doctors. Moving on let us see about the food habits of the Irula tribe. The people of the Irula tribe refrain from eating rice and they mainly consume millets. This is because the miller-based food are ideal for the climate and best fit for the rigorous lifestyle of the Irula tribe people. Then we will see about the lifestyle of the tribe. A typical Irula house is made entirely of stone and mud. Among the Irula tribe men and women are allowed to marry according to their wish and marrying more than one man or woman was not considered as a crime. The marriage is fixed for girls within the age limit of 12 to 18 whereas boys age is from 14 to 24. People from the same clan within the Irula tribe do not intermarry. Finally, let us see the dance of Irula. The traditional dance of the Irula tribe is the Irula dance. These are some points about the Irula tribe which can be asked in the UPSA problems examination. Now moving on to the next question. It is a three statement question about red sandals. Let us take up the first statement. It is a flora species that is endemic to the distinct tract of forest in the eastern gods region of Andhra Pradesh. This statement is correct. This species is endemic to the forest of the southern eastern gods. The red sandals is prominent in the Secha Chalam Hills in Andhra Pradesh. Apart from this, some patches of red sandals are found in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Moving on to the second statement. The export of red sandals from India is prohibited as per the foreign trade policy. This statement is incorrect because earlier there was a ban placed on the export of red sandals from India. But what happened is that this ban resulted in the underground black market trade of red sandals from India. So in 2019 the government removed the ban. What the government did is that the government allowed the export of red sandals from India only if they are cultivated from an agricultural land. The wild red sandals were not allowed to be cut down. Only if they are cultivated from an agricultural land, the red sandals were allowed to be exported from India. So this makes statement 2 incorrect. Moving on to the third statement. It falls under the endangered list in the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list. This statement is correct. It is placed under the endangered list of IUCN red list and it is also placed in the appendix 2 of sites. Here statement 1 and statement 3 are correct. So the correct answer is option C 1 and 3 only. Moving on to the next question. Let me read out the question with reference to river loony which of the following statements is correct? Here the correct answer is option D river loony is lost in the marshy lands of runoff kutcher. See river loony originates in the Pushkar valley of Aravali range near Ajmir and it ends in the marshy lands of runoff kutcher in Gujarat. It is first known as Sagarmati then after passing Govindgad it meets its tributary Saraswati which originates in the Pushkar lake and only then it gets the name loony. Okay this is about the river loony but our focus of discussion now is on runoff kutcher. This is because runoff kutcher recently made news. The first tourism working group meeting of G20 nation was held at the runoff kutcher in Gujarat. This is mainly done to showcase the success stories of rural and archaeological tourism. Okay now we will focus mainly on the important points of runoff kutcher. Runoff kutcher is a salty marshland in the tar desert in the kutcher district of western Gujarat. It lies between Gujarat in India and Sindh province in Pakistan. The runoff kutcher is known to be the largest salt desert in the world. The Hindi word run means desert. This run extends about 300 kilometers from east to west and 150 kilometers from north to south. The runoff kutcher comprises a unique example of Holosine sedimentation. The runoff kutcher is connected to the Arabian sea through the Cori creek in the west and the Gulf of Kutcher in the east. So what is this Gulf of Kutcher? We all know Gulf is a portion of the ocean that penetrates inside the land. So basically Gulf of Kutcher is an inlet of the Arabian sea along the western coast of India. It divides the kutcher and kathiyar peninsula of Gujarat as you can see in this image. This region actually comprises of three landscapes. They are the greater runoff kutcher, the little runoff kutcher and the Bani grassland. The greater run is in the north and the little run is in the southeast as you can see in the image. These two are separated by the highlands of the kutcher region. Then the Bani grassland is there. This grassland in Gujarat's Kutcher district is one of the largest grasslands in the Indian subcontinent. The Bani grasslands are declared as a protected forest in 1955 under the Indian Forest Act 1927. There has been numerous natural wetlands in Bani and the largest one is known as Chari Dand, which was recently declared as a conservation reserve. The run has been populated since the Bronze Age. We all know about the Indus Valley civilization right? The people of the Indus Valley civilization had many settlements in the runoff kutcher region. Dholavira is the largest Indus Valley site in this region. Now finally let us see about the ecology of the region. The runoff kutcher region is also home to a range of wildlife such as flamingos and wildas. It also make up part of the sanctuaries such as the Indian wildas sanctuary, kutch desert wildlife sanctuary etc. Spiny tailed lizard, hyenas and antelopes species such as neel guy and chinkarar found in the kutch desert wildlife sanctuary. These are some important points about runoff kutch. See as I already mentioned recently runoff kutch made news so you can easily expect a map based question or a geography related question about runoff kutch in this year's prelims examination. So revise the points that we saw in the discussion it will be very helpful for your examination. Okay no moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This question is about the government of national capital territory of Delhi amendment act 2021. Before solving this question we will quickly have a discussion on the administration of Delhi. We will start with the governance modern of New Delhi. Now Delhi is no ordinary place in India. It enjoys a special status as the national capital territory. Back in 1991 the national capital territory of Delhi Act was created giving Delhi the features of both the state and a union territory. This special status was granted through the 69th amendment of the constitution in 1991. They added new articles to the constitution namely article 239 AA and 239 AB. Now let's break it down a bit. Article 239 deals with the administration of union territories and has two important provisions. First a union territory is administered by the president through an appointed administrator except as otherwise provided by the parliament. Second the president can appoint the governor of a state as the administrator of an adjoining union territory and this governor turned the administrator operates independently of their council of ministers. Now article 239 AA is where the things get interesting for Delhi. The national capital territory of Delhi came into existence and the lieutenant governor became the administrator of the NCT. A legislative assembly was set up giving it the power to make laws on matters in the state list and the concurrent list of the constitution. However there were a few limitations. The legislative assembly couldn't make law regarding public order, the police and the land. To aid and advise the lieutenant governor on matter within its jurisdiction a council of minister headed by the chief minister were also established. But in case of difference of opinion the lieutenant governor could refer it to the president for a discussion. Now let's fast forward to the government of national capital territory of Delhi Act 2021. This act made some changes to the existing governance model. It amended various sections of the government of national capital territory of Delhi Act 1991. One significant change was the term government. Mentioned in any law made by the legislative assembly would no refer to the lieutenant governor. This gave the lieutenant governor more prominence in the decision making process. The act also made it necessary for the Delhi government to obtain the opinion of the lieutenant governor before taking any executive action also. Additionally the amendment act restricted the assembly and its committee from making rules regarding the date today administration or conducting inquiries related to administrative decisions. These matters were now outside the purview of the assembly. These are some points that you have to know about the recent amendment made to the act in 2021. Now let's take back the question. Let us take up the first statement. The government in the national capital territory of Delhi meant lieutenant governor of Delhi. This is correct. This is according to the recent amendment made in 2021. This we saw just now. So statement one is correct. Moving on to the second statement. The act bars the assembly from making rules to take up matters concerning date today administration. This is also correct. This also we saw just now. Since both the statements are correct. The correct answer here is option C both one and two. Moving on to the next question. This question is about the applications of graphene. Before we approach this question. Let us see some points about graphene. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms and these atoms are tightly bound in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Graphene is an allotrop of carbon and it is the building block of graphite. That is the layers of graphene are piled on top of each other to form graphite. Graphene is the best conductor of heat at room temperature and also the best conductor of electricity at room temperature. Graphene is also flexible, transparent and incredibly strong. It is said that graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and 1000 times lighter than paper and 98 percent transparent. In addition to this graphene is also very thin. Graphene is also known as the wonder material because of its vast potential in energy and medical world. This year we can expect a question about graphene. This is because last year that is in 2022 the Kerala government announced to set up India Innovation Center for Graphene. It is the country's first graphene innovation center which is being constructed in Thirussur Kerala. It is a joint venture of Digital University of Kerala Center for Material for Electronic Technology and Tata Steel Limited. Now coming back to the question. See even if you don't know the answer for this question you can easily eliminate the fifth application given here which is electrical insulation. If you even have a little bit knowledge about graphene you would be knowing that graphene is the most electrically and thermally conductive material in the world at room temperature. So graphene's high electrical conductivity makes it unsuitable for application that requires electrical insulation. Using this information alone we can eliminate option C and D. Since graphene is used in sensors and solar cells the correct answer for this question is option B. Okay now moving on to the next question. See here a description about a scheme that was recently launched in this year's budget is given. We have to find the correct scheme. This scheme is designed to undertake mangrove plantation in coastal regions and saltpans. This initiative involves convergence of the Mandrega scheme and the Kampa fund. The correct answer for this question or the paragraph describes the MISTI scheme. So the correct answer is option A. Okay now as a part of this question discussion we will see about this MISTI scheme. As I already said it is a new scheme that was announced in the union budget 2023-24. Under the scheme mangrove plantation will be taken up in coastal areas and in saltpans. The plantation rave will be carried out through a convergence between Mandrega scheme and Kampa fund. Once implemented this scheme will help increase the mangrove forest cover in India. But the issue with this scheme is that it is just a mangrove tree plantation rave. The survival rate of mangrove tree plantation is just 50 percent and the survival rate of mangrove sapling is about 60 percent. It takes three years for a new mangrove plant to stabilize. So a contract-based one-time plantation under Mandrega and Kampa may not work. As the seeds and saplings might get destroyed due to lack of attention. The efforts under MISTI will not turn fruitful until the government educates a local community about the importance of mangroves. This will encourage the local community to take ownership of the local mangrove forest and this will help increase the mangrove cover in the long run. These are some important points you have to know about the MISTI scheme. Now let us conclude this and take up the next question. I look at this question. This question is about the animal welfare board of India. Three statements are given and we have to find the correct statements. Before we solve this question let us see a few points about the animal welfare board of India. This board is a statutory advisory body on animal welfare laws. It promotes animal welfare in our country. It was established in 1962 under the section 4 of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. Srimati Rukmati Devi Arundel pioneered the setting up of this board with its headquarters in Chennai. Ms Arundel guided the activities of the board for nearly 20 years till her demise in 1986. Now coming to the composition of this body. The board consists of 28 members. It includes eight members of parliament, two from Rajasabha and four from Lokshabha. The term of office of these members is for a period of three years. I have displayed here the important functions performed by the Animal Welfare Board of India. Just pass the video and go through it. With this basic introduction, now let us try to solve this question. Look at the first statement. It is the statutory body established under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. This statement is correct. This we saw just now. Moving on to the second statement. The term of office of members is for a period of three years. This statement is also correct. Moving on to the third statement. It can provide financial assistance to the recognized Animal Welfare Organization. See this statement is also correct. It is one of the major functions of the Animal Welfare Board of India. Since all the three statements are correct, the correct answer is option D 1, 2 and 3. Moving on to the next question. The next question is based on National Disaster Management Authority. Three statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement. Look at the first statement. It is a statutory body. This statement is correct. The National Disaster Management Authority is a statutory body which is established under the Disaster Management Act 2005. Okay. Moving on to the second statement. Union Home Minister is the chairperson of National Disaster Management Authority. This statement is incorrect because the National Disaster Management Authority is headed by the Prime Minister, not the Home Minister. In the national level, we have the NDMA, National Disaster Management Authority. And in the state level, we have the State Disaster Management Authority which is headed by the respective Chief Minister. And then the district level, we have the DDMA or the District Disaster Management Authority. And they are headed by the District Collector. Okay. Moving on to the third statement. It provides support to other countries affected by major disaster. See the National Disaster Management Authority has various functions. It lays down policies on disasters. It approves the National Plan on Disaster Management. It prepares plan for ministries and departments of Government of India in accordance to the National Plan. It coordinates enforcement and implementation of the policy. It provides and recommends funds for the purpose of mitigation of disasters. It provides support to other countries affected by major disaster. See look at this. This is a major function of the National Disaster Management Authority. So this makes statement three correct. Okay. Here statement one is correct and statement three is correct. So the correct answer here is option B one and three only. Okay. Moving on to the next question. This question is about the small satellite launch vehicle. See I have framed this question because the SSLV was recently successfully launched and this SSLV placed three different payloads at the low earth orbit on February 2023. So we can expect a question about SSLV in this year's prelims examination. But before solving this question let us see some important points about the SSLV. The SSLV is a three stage launch vehicle configured with three solid propulsion stages. It has a liquid propulsion velocity trimming module. Here the velocity trimming module is used to insert satellite into the intended orbit. The SSLV is manufactured by the New Space India Limited along with Indian Industry Parts. Here New Space India Limited deals with capacity building of local industries for space manufacturing. We also have another associated body of ISRO which is the Antrix Corporation. The Antrix Corporation handles the ISRO's commercial deals for satellites and launch vehicle with foreign consumers. Okay. Now let us see the payload capacity of SSLV. The total weight of SSLV is around 120 tons. It is capable of launching mini micro and nano satellites within the weight range of 10 to 500 kilogram into the 500 kilometer planar orbit. Now coming to the significance of SSLV. SSLV is mainly developed to undertake cost effective satellite launching. The infrastructure needed for SSLV launch is very minimal when compared with GSLV or PSLV launch system. The SSLV can aid India in providing private satellite developers in India a low cost access to space. So this SSLV is one such strategy brought about by the Indian government to further its goal. Apart from this SSLV also offers low turnaround time and flexibility in accommodating multiple small satellites. Now coming back to the question. Look at the first statement. It has three solid propulsion stages. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion. Look at the second statement. Manufacturing of SSLV through Indian industry partners will be the responsibility of Antrix Corporation. This statement is incorrect because it is the new space India limited that oversees the manufacturing of SSLV with Indian industry partners. Okay. Statement 2 is incorrect. Moving on to statement 3. It is capable of launching mini micro and nano satellites in the 5 kilometer orbit. This statement is correct. Since one and three are correct. The correct answer here is option B one and three only. Okay. Moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This is a map based question. Until and unless you know the facts you cannot answer this question. I have framed this question about a particular country because in the month of February it was in use because of the problem happening in that region. And you also know as far as UPC concerned map based questions are very important. Now let's try to solve this question. Look at the first statement. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in Africa. This statement is correct. Burkina Faso is located in the West African region and it is a landlocked country. Okay. Moving on to the second statement. Burkina Faso is surrounded by coastal countries on all sides. See this statement is actually incorrect. As you can see all the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso are not coastal countries. First of all let us see the countries that have borders with Burkina Faso. They are Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger. Out of these countries only four countries are coastal countries. So this makes statement two incorrect. Moving on to the third statement. Burkina Faso is located in the Sahel region of Africa. See this statement is correct. Many countries are located in the Sahel region. Sahel region is a strip of semi arid land near the Sahara desert. It separates the Sahara desert to the north and tropical savanna to the south. The Sahel stretches from Senegal on the Atlantic coast through parts of Murchwana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Sudan to Eritrea on the Red Sea coast. So statement three is correct. Since statement one and statement three are correct, the correct answer here is option A, one and three only. Moving on to the next question. This question here is about the Kajraho group of temples. We have to find out which style these group of temples belong to. I have framed this question because in 2012 UPSC prelims examination, different styles of temple architecture was asked. So it is important to know about the temples which were built in these styles. So what is the correct answer for this question? The correct answer for this question is option A, Nagara style. The Kajraho group of temple comes under the Nagara style of architecture. See Nagara style itself has three sub types. They are Kajraho style, Odisha style and Solanki style of simple architecture. Revise about the Nagara style and its sub types before you approach your plans. Now let us focus on the Kajraho temple. Kajraho group of monuments is a group of Hindu and Jain temples located in the district of Chattarpur which is present in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Most Kajraho temples were built during the 11th century AD by the Chandela dynasty. Historical records of this period says that the Kajraho temple site had 85 temples by 12th century, but presently only 25 temples have survived. Of the surviving temples, the Kandariya Mahadeva temple is the most famous one. It is known for its intricate details, symbolism and expressiveness. This temple is famous for its curvilinear architecture. The temples of this tale have their tower structure slightly curved inwards as we go towards the top. Apart from this, this temple is famous for its erotic carvings made on the walls. Sculptures of women with broad hips and heavy breasts and open eyes are commonly found in the Kandariya Mahadeva and the Vishwanath temple. These sculptures are believed to reflect the idea of female beauty and female fertility. The scenes depicted on the walls of the temple signifies how sexual procreation and karma are an essential aspect of human life. So that's all regarding this question discussion. Now let's move on to the next question. Look at this question. This question here is about parliamentary privileges. I have framed this question because recently there was a tussle between the ruling party and the apportion in the parliament. The tussle is regarding the expunged parts of apportion MP speeches in the discussion of president's address. So UPSC might ask the question about freedom of speech of members of parliament or the parliamentary privileges. With this understanding, let us try to solve this question. Let us check out the first statement. The members of the parliament only enjoy the privileges and the immunities guaranteed in the Indian constitution. This statement is incorrect. To know about this, first of all, you should know about Article 105. Article 105 only talks about the powers and privileges of the members of the parliament to freely express their views in the parliament. As per the article, the members are not answerable to the courts in respect to anything said or any vote given by them in the parliament or any committee. And as per the article, this privilege is applicable to all persons who have right to speak in and take part in the proceedings of the parliament. So it does not just include the members of the parliament. See, president has the right to speak in the parliament. Is he a member of the parliament? No, but president also enjoyed this privilege while he is speaking in the parliament. So this makes statement one incorrect. The powers and privileges are not restricted to the members of the parliament only. Moving on to the second statement. As per the Indian constitution, parliament has the power to make laws to define the powers, privileges, and immunities enjoyed by the members of the parliament. This statement is correct. As per article 105 class 3, parliament has the power to make laws regarding powers, privileges, and immunities enjoyed by the members of the parliament. But you have to know here that parliament till now has not enacted any law regarding this. This is why there is a tussle between the ruling party and the opposition party happening all the time. Keep this in mind, okay? Because in the problems that might be a statement saying that parliament has enacted a law for the parliamentary privileges, then the statement is incorrect, okay? So here the statement is correct. Since statement two is only correct, the correct answer here is option B2 only. Moving on to the next question. This question is about earthquakes. Here statement one talks about earth's rebound theory and statement two talks about plate tectonic theory. Before we address this question, we will try to understand these two theories. See, the earth's rebound theory is based on the understanding that prior to an earthquake, stress accumulates in rocks on either sides of the fault. This is due to the movement of the tectonic plates. The stress arises from the gradual displacement of these plates, and this results in the deformation of the rocks. However, this stress to deform the rock is counteracted by the presence of frictional force. As long as the frictional force surpasses the pressure in the rock, no significant movement occurs along the fault. The stress continues to accumulate gradually over time. Eventually, a critical point is reached where the accumulated stress exceeds the threshold of the frictional force. Then what happens? It finally leads to rupture and subsequent displacement of the rocks. This sudden release of accumulated stress generates seismic waves resulting in an earthquake. So in essence, it explains how energy is stored in the rocks. Now let us take back statement one. Statement one says that the earth's rebound theory explains how energy is spread during earthquakes. So this makes statement one correct. Now moving on, we will see about the plate tectonic theory. According to this theory, earth's lithosphere is fragmented into approximately a dozen major plates and several minor plates. These plates are constantly in motion. This is because they are driven by convective currents in the underlying astronosphere. The plates interact along their boundaries in three main ways. They move along at the divergent boundaries. This is when new crusts mainly at the ridges are formed. They collide sometime. This is when they form mountain ranges or trenches at the convergent boundaries and they slide past each other at the transform boundaries causing earthquakes. The plate tectonic theory provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the distribution of continents, the formation of mountain ranges, the occurrence of earthquakes and volcanic activities and the evolution of earth's surveys over geological time. Now let us take back statement two. The plate tectonic theory explains how major landforms are created as a result of earth's subterrain movements. So statement two is also correct. Here, since both the statements are correct, the correct answer here is option C both one and two. See, I framed this question because of the recent earthquake in Turkey. You can expect a question either about the map location of Turkey or the basics of earthquake in this year's plans. So revise all the points we discussed. Now moving on to the next question. See, this is a pair based question. On one side, projects initiated by India are given and on the other side, the countries in which the projects are implemented are given. We have to find which of these pairs are correctly matched. Let us take up the first project. The project is Moti Hari Amleganj Oil Pipeline. This oil pipeline would be South Asia's first cross-border petroleum products pipeline between Moti Hari in India and Amleganj in Nepal. So the first pair is correctly matched. Moving on to the second pair. The second project is Kaladan Multimodal Transit Project. The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Project connects Kolkata Port to Myanmar's Sittvi Port by sea, Sittvi to Palatwa via river Kaladan, Palatwa to border of India through roads and further ahead to Laugatlai in Mizoram again by road. So here it is said that Kaladan Multimodal project is located in Bangladesh, which is wrong. Kaladan Multimodal project is located in Myanmar. So the pair number two is incorrect. Moving on to the third project, which is Maitri said to bridge. See this bridge has been built toward the Feniri River, which flows between Indian boundary in Tirupura state and Bangladesh. This bridge, which is 1.9 kilometer long, joins sub room in Tirupura with Ramgad in Bangladesh. Here it says that this bridge is located in Sri Lanka, which is wrong. Actually it is located in Bangladesh. Here only the first pair is correctly matched. So the correct answer is option A only one pair. Now moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This question is about the National Land Monetization Corporation. Three statements are given and we have to find the correct statements. Before solving this question, let us discuss about the National Land Monetization in Prelims perspective. For better understanding, let us first know what is land monetization. The term land monetization refers to the process of turning a non-revenue generating land into a income generating land. Land monetization helps to generate revenue from the land without losing the ownership of the land. For example, the bear and government land can be leased to some private company for carrying out their function. This will provide some income to the government without losing ownership of the land. Now we will see about the National Land Monetization Corporation. The creation of land monetization corporation was announced in the Union budget 2021-22. On March 9, 2022, the union cabinet approved the creation of the corporation. The National Land Monetization Corporation is fully owned by the central government. It falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the department of public enterprises which comes under the Ministry of Finance. The National Land Monetization Corporation was being set up to carry out the monetization of government and public sector assets in our country. Now we will see the functions of the corporation. The NLMC strives to monetize underutilized and unutilized land of the central public sector enterprises. Apart from this, it will also facilitate the monetization of assets belonging to public sector undertakings that have ceased operation. Secondly, the NLMC advices and supports other government entities in identifying their surplus non-core assets and monetizing them in a professional and efficient manner. Thirdly, the NLMC will act as a repository of best practices in land monetization. This is done by providing technical advice to the government in implementation of asset monetization programs. Finally, to carry out monetization plans, the NLMC will hire professionals from private sector which is similar to other specialized government companies like the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, Invest India etc. With this knowledge, let us try to solve this question. Let us take out the first statement. It is fully owned by the central government. This statement is correct. Let us take out the second statement. It comes under the administrative jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance. This also we saw just now. Second statement is also correct. Look at the third statement. It can monetize the assets of the PSUs which are in line for strategic disinvestment. This statement is also correct. Since all the statements are correct, the correct answer here is option D, 1, 2 and 3. Moving on to the next question. In this question, two statements about off-budget borrowing is given. We have to choose the correct statements. Before solving this question, let us discuss about off-budget borrowing so that we can understand about this concept. Basically, off-budget borrowings are loan obtained by government entities such as PSUs or Special Purpose Vehicle on behalf of the government to finance its expenditure. Now you may have a question. Anyway, the money is ending up with the government and the government has to repay the loan. Then why is the government resorting to off-budget borrowing and making the PSUs and SPVs borrow? This is because, according to the controller and auditor general of India, these borrowings are not included while calculating the depth and the fiscal deficit of the government. So, by using the off-budget mode of borrowing, the government can borrow more money from the market without an increase in fiscal deficit. More than the union government, it is the state governments that primarily resort to off-budget borrowing. Why? This is because in the case of state government, to ensure their fiscal stability, the union government places a limit on their market borrowing. For example, according to the 2023-24 union budget, the market borrowing limit of state government is 3% of their GSDP and this limit can be extended to 3.5% of their GSDP when a particular state takes up power sector reforms. So, the state government has a constraint in their borrowing limit. So, innovatively, the state government resort to off-budget borrowing and shift the burden to the PSUs and SPVs. This is the main reason why off-budget borrowing of state government is increasing. According to a recent CAGE report, five southern states that is Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka account for 2.34 lakh crore that is around 93% of the total off-budget liabilities of 11 major states analyzed. With this understanding about off-budget borrowing, now let us try to solve the question. Look at the first statement. In this method, loans are obtained by the PSUs and SPVs on pick-off of the government. This statement is correct. This statement clearly explains what off-budget borrowing is. Moving on to the second statement. Off-budget borrowing will result in increased fiscal deficit. This statement is incorrect because as we saw in the discussion, the state governments mainly resort to off-budget borrowing so that their physical deficit will not increase. So, this makes statement to incorrect. Since statement 1 is only correct, the correct answer here is option A only. Moving on to the next question. This question is about sealed cover jurisprudence. Before we approach this question, let us discuss about sealed cover jurisprudence. Sealed cover jurisprudence is a special option available to the government to present its argument in an opaque manner to the courts present in our country. This is a special power granted to the government to safeguard the interest of the public. When the government uses the sealed cover jurisprudence, the content present by it cannot be retrieved by the party which is opposite to the government. This is a serious issue when the party opposite to the government does not know about the arguments of the government. It becomes difficult for them to defend themselves against the government. There is no explicit provisions regarding sealed cover jurisprudence in any major laws present in our country. But the rule 7 of order 13 of Supreme Court rules 2013 allows for any documents submitted before the courts to be kept confidential in a sealed cover. This rule is placed under the prerogative of the chief justice of the court. Only after obtaining the special permission of the chief justice of the concerned court, the government can make use of this special rule. Other than this particular rule, section 123 of the Evidence Act of 1872 provides that government should give prior permission to a person who wants to present evidence before a court, which is derived from any unpublished official records. Now coming to the observation of the Supreme Court relating to sealed cover jurisprudence. Recently, the Supreme Court held that the government should prove that how sharing some particular records in an open forum would prove detrimental to national security and public order. In recent time, the Supreme Court of India is trying to bring in necessary transparency in its functioning by ensuring that sealed cover jurisprudence is not misused frequently under the garb of national security. With this knowledge of sealed cover jurisprudence, now let us approach the question. Look at the first statement. Special permission from the chief justice of a court is mandatory for the use of special rule. This statement is correct. Moving on to the second statement. There is no explicit provision in any major laws regarding sealed cover jurisprudence. This also we saw in the discussion. This statement is also correct. But here they have asked for the incorrect statements. Since both the statements are correct here, the correct answer here is option D neither one nor two. Now moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This map based question is about Turkey. Here some countries are given. We have to find which of these countries share a border with Turkey. To answer this question, look at this map here. The country Turkey shares its border with Bulgaria to the northwest, Greece to the west, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, Georgia to the northeast, Syria to the south and Iraq to the southeast. So all the given countries here share border with Turkey. So the correct answer here is option D one, two, three, four and five. Also know that Turkey opens to Black Sea in the north and Mediterranean Sea to the west and south. We have framed this question because recently Turkey was hit by a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.8. Around 50,000 people have perished and nearly 3000 buildings have collapsed because of this disaster. So we might expect a map based question regarding Turkey and the surrounding areas in the upcoming prelims examination. So that's all regarding this. Now moving on to the next question. This question is about the term Dickinsonia. Four options are given. We have to find which of the following options correctly describe the term Dickinsonia. The correct answer for this question is option C. Dickinsonia is an extinct primitive marine animal that lived 600 to 500 million years ago during the late Ereda-Syrian geological period. See two years ago the discovery of a rare fossil of Dickinsonia was reported from the Bimbetka rock shelters near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. After the reports of the discovery, a team of researchers from the University of Florida visited the spot to conduct a follow-up study. And recently the researchers have found that the fossil was an imprint of a recently decayed behave and not the fossil of Dickinsonia. This is why Dickinsonia recently appeared in news. Now let us learn in detail about Dickinsonia and about the Bimbetka rock shelters. Let us first start with Dickinsonia. Dickinsonia is said to be an extinct primitive marine animal that lived 600 to 500 million years ago. The fossils of Dickinsonia were first discovered in 1947 in Flinders ranges of southern Australia. Subsequently the fossils have been discovered in Ukraine, Russia and China. It is also said that Dickinsonia lived during the late Ereda-Syrian period in the geological area which is now divided into Australia, Russia, China and Ukraine. Dickinsonia was classified as an animal after the discovery of the cholesterol molecule in the fossil. Dickinsonia is believed to be one of the earliest marine animals to have existed on earth. That is all about Dickinsonia. Now moving on to Bimbetka rock shelters. The Bimbetka rock shelters is an archaeological site located in the Vindhya hills in Bimbetka in Madhya Pradesh. The Bimbetka rock shelters were discovered in 1957 by the eminent Indian archaeologist Dr Vishnu Vakankar. There are around 800 rock shelters in Bimbetka which spans across 10 kilometers squares. Among these 800 rock shelters, nearly 500 rock shelters bear paintings both from Paleolithic and Mesolithic period. Bimbetka caves contain the oldest rock paintings in the world in which some paintings date back to 10,000 years. Now moving on to the paintings in Bimbetka. The themes of the paintings found in Bimbetka are of great variety. It ranges from events of daily life in those times to sacred and royal images. The images include hunting, dancing, music, horse, elephant riders, animals fighting, honey collection, decoration of bodies and other household scenes. Moving to its historical significance, the Bimbetka rock shelters have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. So that's all regarding this question discussion. Now moving on to the next question. This question is about the term bio-meaning. Four options. Describing the term is given, we have to find which of the options correctly describe the term bio-meaning. The correct answer for this question is option B. Bio-meaning refers to an environment friendly technique of extracting metals from solid waste materials using microorganisms. I have framed this question because recently a bio-product named bio-ammonment from bio-mining soil was developed by the Center for Environmental Studies of Ananya University, Chennai. This bio-product is obtained from the legacy waste by the process of bio-meaning and bio-ammonment. Now what does the term legacy waste mean? Legacy waste is a mixture of partially and completely decomposed biodegradable waste or plastic waste or any other waste that are dumped in the landfills. In simpler terms, the legacy waste refers to municipal solid waste that are collected and kept for years on a barren land or dedicated landfill. Now coming to bio-meaning. The bio-meaning techniques are used to clean up the landfill sites that have been polluted with metals. It uses microorganisms to extract metals of economic interest from legacy waste. During the segregation of legacy waste by means of bio-meaning, we get coarse grained soil particles called bio-earth. For every 10 of legacy waste, we get around 30 to 35 percent of bio-earth. This bio-earth that is the coarse grained soil particle obtained from the legacy waste are usually considered unfit for growing trees or plants. Here comes another term, bio-ammonment. Bio-ammonment refers to adding some biological agents to the soil that is in this case bio-earth to improve its physical properties. This process improves water retention capacity, permeability, water infiltration, drainage, aeration and structure of the soil. The bio-ammonment process provides a better environment for the plant and the trees to grow on bio-earth. This process is what is carried out by the Center for Environmental Studies of the University. They have converted the unfit bio-earth into useful soil by bio-ammoning the soil and they term the product as bio-ammonment from bio-meaning soil. So that's all regarding this question discussion. Here in this discussion we saw about important terms like legacy waste, bio-meaning, bio-earth and bio-ammonment. Now with this let us conclude this question discussion and take up the next question. Look at this question. Here four statements are given, we have to find which of the following is the vision of KLO India. The correct answer is option B to infuse sports culture and achieve sports excellence in the country. Now as a part of this discussion we will see some points about the KLO India games. The KLO India scheme is the flagship central sector scheme of the ministry of youth affairs and sports. It is a platform for talent spotting and providing development path for gifted and talented children to achieve excellence. So basically it is a platform to showcase sporting talents. For this sake the following national level competitions are conducted annually. The events include KLO India, Youth Games, KLO India University Games and KLO India Winter Games. The third edition of the KLO India Winter Games was held in the town of Gulmarg in Jammuun Kashmir from February 10th to February 14th. This is why KLO India was in news recently. The KLO India Winter Games 2023 was jointly organized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Jammuun Kashmir Sports Council and the Winter Games Association of Jammuun Kashmir. And this is the third edition which means the games have been conducted twice that is this is the third time the winter games are conducted. More than 1500 participants from 29 states and union territories of India are competing in the nine winter games events. The games held are skiing, figure skating, snowshoe running, ice stalk sports, Nordic skiing, ice hockey, speed skating, mountaineering, snow rugby etc. The top winners of the games are given here for the reference you can go through it. The games conducted at the events are so mentioned here you can go through it. So that's all regarding this discussion. Moving on to the last question for our discussion today. Okay this question is about the new start treaty. We have to find the incorrect statements given here. Let us take up the first statement. It is a bilateral strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty between US and the Russian Federation. This statement is correct. It covers strategic offensive arms exclusively. This is also correct. Moving on to the third. It requires both parties to send notification within five days even if missiles are being moved to a new base. This is also correct. Moving on to the last statement. US officially suspended the treaty. This statement is incorrect. Since they are asking for the incorrect statements here the correct answer is option D. US officially suspended the treaty. Then who suspended the treaty? Actually recently Russia suspended the treaty. This is why the new start treaty recently made news. Now as a part of this discussion let us see a few facts about the new start treaty. The names start come from the original strategic arms reduction treaty known as start one which was signed between the US and the USSR in 1991 and this came into force in 1994. Here the strategic offensive arms applies to nuclear warheads deployed by strategic nuclear delivery vehicles. SNDV includes intercontinental ballistic missiles with range exceeding 5,500 kilometers strategic bombers warships and cruise missiles including air and sea launched cruise missiles. Start one lapsed in 2009 and it was replaced by SART which is also known as Treaty of Moscow and then it was replaced by the new start treaty. This new start treaty was signed in 2010 by former US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Mendov. It came into force in February 2011. When the current US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 the treaty was extended for another five years that is until 2026. Now let us see a few facts about the new start treaty. Firstly under the treaty America Russia cannot deploy more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads. Also they cannot deploy more than 700 long-range missiles and bombers. Apart from this the treaty also limits each country to deploy 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers and delivery vehicles. The treaty allows each side to carry up to 18 short notice on-site inspection of strategic nuclear weapons sites annually. This provision is to ensure that the other country has not crossed the limits of the treaty. Thirdly under the treaty Russia and the US exchange data twice a year on the ballistic missiles and on bombers, test sites, nuclear bases etc. Fourthly the treaty mandates the two parties to send notification within five days if they change or update something in their stockpile. This includes example like moving missiles to a new base or deploying a new warhead on the system. Fifthly the treaty gave US and Russia 7 years to reduce their stockpile after coming into effect. This include nuclear warheads that are launched using long-range missiles, submarines and bombers. And in the year 2018 both nations met the arms limit prescribed by the fact. We saw that the treaty came into effect in 2011 right and the limits were met by 2018 which is within the time given in the treaty. Remember this the New START treaty is the last remaining nuclear weapons control agreement between the two powers who hold more than 90% of the world's nuclear arsenal. We just now saw the inspection are allowed as per the treaty right but for the past three years the inspection were not conducted mainly it was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the year 2022 US discussed about restarting the inspection but it was postponed by Mr. Putin. Now Russia has suspended the treaty altogether. Again the reason behind the suspension of the treaty by Russia was mainly due to NATO and the Ukraine Russia war. This is all regarding the New START treaty. With this let us conclude the Shankar summary discussion for the month of February 2023. If you like today's video like comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation subscribe to Shankar IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.