 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 5th of September 2019, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions, the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our discussion. This news article discusses about Azhar Afiz and Dawood being designated as terrorists. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of the news article is given here for your reference. Under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967, certain persons have been declared as terrorists. We know that recently this act was amended by the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act of 2019. So the principal act is Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967. A bill was introduced in the parliament and it was passed and the assent was given by the president. So once the president assent is given, amendment has been made to the principal act and the amendment act is called as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act of 2019. This amendment act inserted new schedule to the principal act. The new schedule is the fourth schedule. It was inserted to list individuals as terrorists under section 35 of the principal act. If you refer the principal act, it would state an act to provide for the more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations and for dealing with terrorist activities and for matters connected therewith. So the principal act always had the notion to curb the unlawful activities by any association and even by the individuals. But only by the recent amendment it became possible to list individuals as terrorists. So this is the difference that you need to know. Now as per the recent amendment, even individuals can be listed as terrorists. So what is an unlawful activity? According to the act, unlawful activity means any action taken by an individual or association to do the following. Firstly, when the action is intended or when it supports any claim to bring the session of a part of the territory of India or the cessation of a part of the territory of India from the union. When we tell union, it is an Indian union and even the action that is any action which incites any individual or group of individuals to bring about such session or cessation can be declared as an unlawful activity. Here session means transferring a territory of our country to another country and cessation means the act of becoming an independent territory by leaving the union. Here the Indian union. Secondly, the action which disclaims questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India is also an unlawful activity. Thirdly, any action which causes or when it is intended to cause disaffection against India, then it also amounts to unlawful activity. In this context, let us also know the other three schedules to this unlawful activities prevention act of 1967. So there are three schedules. The first schedule consists of the name of the terrorist organizations. Currently, if you see, there are 42 terrorist organizations that are listed in this schedule. Additionally, the name of organizations that are listed in the schedule to the UN prevention and suppression of terrorism, implementation of Security Council resolutions order 2007 also come under this particular schedule. The second schedule contains the international conventions and international protocols and international treaties. Currently, if you see, there are nine such conventions and protocols. This is included because all these conventions and protocols define offenses that constitute terrorist acts and the unlawful activities prevention act of 1967 includes all these terrorist acts. Next, the third schedule. The third schedule contains security FIHs to define high-quality counterfeit Indian currency notes. Some of the security FIHs include watermark in the notes, etc. Now, with this background knowledge, let us discuss the news article. Based on the recent amendments made to the unlawful activities prevention act of 1967, the central government has decided to declare certain individuals as terrorists. The central government has also decided to add the names of those individuals to schedule four of this act. They are declared as terrorists by the Ministry of Home Affairs through a Gasset notification and they are declared as terrorists under section 35, subsection 1, clause A of this principal act, nothing but the unlawful activities prevention act of 1967. This section empowers the central government to add any organization to the first schedule or the name of an individual in the fourth schedule by a notification in the official Gasset. So, who are these individuals who have been added as terrorists? First one is Maulana Mazood Asar is the Chief Founder and Key Leader of Jaisi Muhammad or JEM. Remember that Jaisi Muhammad is listed as a terrorist organization under Schedule 1 of the principal act. The second person is Hafiz Muhammad is the Chief Founder and Key Leader of Lashkari Taiba or Jamaatud Daba and Lashkari Taiba is also listed as a terrorist organization under Schedule 1 of the principal act. The third person is Zakir Rahman Lakwi is the Chief Operation Commander of Lashkari Taiba and one of its founder members. The fourth person is Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. He runs an international underworld criminal syndicate and he is involved in perpetrating acts of terror that is spreading acts of terror. All of these individuals are involved in terrorist attacks in India. Also know that these individuals have been designated as global terrorists under United Nations. Earlier when the terrorist organizations were banned these individuals associated with those terrorist organizations will just simply change their names and they continue to carry out terrorist activities. But now since they will also be listed in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act after the amendment it will be easy to take actions against these terrorist individuals. So know that as per the recent amendment made to this Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 the central government is empowered to designate individuals as terrorists. So the government can act strongly against terrorists. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. The next news article which we are going to see is regarding the gold reserves which appears in the business column in all the editions. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First let us try to understand the balance of payments. This balance of payments comes under India's external sector. When we tell external sector it deals with exports of goods and services and financial capital between nations and the term balance of payments is nothing but a systemic record of the country's all economic transactions that a particular country has with the outside world. So in our case it is India and India's economic transactions that it has with the outside world and all those transactions for a particular year will be recorded and know that these transactions include the transactions of the government as well as the transactions of the private. So this is the format which is used in the economic service of the finance ministry which is tabled in Indian parliament before the budget session of every financial year. So under balance of payments you have all this and this data is compiled from the Reserve Bank of India's balance of payment sheet which is released by the Reserve Bank of India for every quarter in a financial year. Every quarter means once in three months. So this particular table was presented in the economic survey of the financial year 2018-19. You can find this table in volume 2 of economic survey in page number 160. So we can see different subjects like the current account, capital account, errors and omission, overall balance and reserves change. Now let us focus on this reserves change because this is relevant to our topic. The reserves change in general denote the monetary movements in and out of India. They are the foreign exchange reserves. I know that the balance of payment is the sum of the current account balance and the capital account balance and also know that when the balance of payment is surplus, the balance is added to the foreign exchange reserve and when the balance of payment is in deficit, then the balance is deducted from the foreign exchange reserve. It means the payment is made out of the old balance of the foreign exchange reserve. This foreign exchange reserve consists of foreign currency assets, then the gold reserves of the Reserve Bank of India, then the special drawing rights that is SDR Holdings of the Indian Government with the International Monetary Fund that is IMF and the Reserve Trance. Now let us focus on the gold reserves or the gold stock of the Reserve Bank of India. So these gold reserves are maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. It is used as a backup to issue currency and it is also utilized when an unexpected problem in the balance of payment happens in any financial year. So when there is a huge deficit for an example, then whatever gold reserves that we have will be utilized for the payments. So this is the primary use of the gold reserve and know that the value of these gold reserves is expressed either in US dollars or in Indian national rupee nothing but Indian currency. If you see today's news article, it tells that India is the 10th largest country in the world with gold reserves and this news article also tells that it is based on the July 2019 data. So as of July 2019, India has gold reserves worth 618.2 tons and if you see in March 2019, India had 607 tons and in the first quarter of 2000 that is before 19 years, India had a gold reserve of 357.8 tons. So you can see that approximately there is an 80% increase in the gold reserves in these 19 years and know that this data also includes the International Monetary Fund because International Monetary Fund also holds some of the gold reserves. So the data that has been released by the World Gold Council IMF stands third. So it has the third largest gold reserves. Also know that United States has the largest amount of gold reserves which is followed by Germany. So Germany is the second largest and the news article also tells that if IMF is left, then India is the ninth largest country with gold reserves and we saw that the gold reserve data is released by the World Gold Council. So let us see in brief about this World Gold Council. It is a market development organization for the gold industry which works across the entire supply chain of gold industry that is starting from mining till where the gold is marketed and it is head quartered at London and United Kingdom. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is about India and climate change. How India is vulnerable to climate change and India's resilience to climate change. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Throughout this editorial, the author has discussed about the report released by HSBC Bank in 2018. HSBC stands for Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. So this bank has released a global report on climate risk after studying 67 countries and this report focused on vulnerability to climate change risks, their impacts, then transition to low carbon economies and the availability of funds to respond to climate change. This report said that India is the country which is most vulnerable to climate change. So remember this fact. Let us see more about the methodology of the report and about the outcomes of this report at the end of our editorial analysis. Now let us see what the author tells in this editorial. First, the author is telling that despite the scientific warnings, carbon emissions continue to rise in countries like China, United States and India. And apart from this is the recent incident which is happening in Brazil where there is forest fires which is happening in Amazon forests. The author is telling that Brazil is encouraging unprecedented deforestation in Amazon forests under a false pretext. That is Brazil wants to promote economic growth. So it is going for deforestation and hence it is encouraging forest fires. So the author is telling that rise in carbon emissions and unprecedented deforestation along with this forest fires will worsen global warming. So this will result into more severe floods, storms, heat waves and droughts throughout the world. The author is telling that the most hit country by this global warming would be India. So we can see the trend of easing in the environmental norms or the environmental regulations. The author is telling that Brazil is not the only country that slashes environmental regulations in the name of promoting economic growth. But also countries like United States, India and even some other countries use the same method but in varying degrees. That is they have different approaches. So the author is telling that if the environmental norms are relaxed, there will be a boost in the investment. So there will be a boost in the short-term economic growth of that particular country and it will also benefit the interest groups like the industries or the MNCs that is the multinational corporations who wish to invest in that particular country. But the author is telling that it will cause a permanent damage to the already fragile ecology. That is already for us a shrinking in many of the countries but now if incidents like forest fires that is happening in Amazon, if it is going to continue in other countries also, the entire ecology will suffer permanent damage. So this will have an impact in the long-term growth of whichever country which is involving in such an activity and ultimately that is finally it will affect the overall well-being of the entire world population. So the author is trying to tell that though there might be short-term gains, but there will be long-term losses in the future. Next the author is telling that most of the climate risk surveys consider three important factors. The first factor is the exposure or sensitivity of countries to the climate impacts. The second factor is the ability of countries to cope up with the climate impacts that is in terms of money and technology. And the third factor is the intensity of the climate hazards. The author is telling that in all the three factors, India's performance is worsening each year. Next the author has mentioned some reasons why India is becoming more vulnerable to climate hazards. One reason is the vast coastline of India because we know that India is open to Arabian Sea to its west, where Bengal to its east and Indian Ocean in the south. So this makes all the coastal states vulnerable to climate hazards like the rising sea levels, then the storms, then the frequent cyclones, then also because of floods. The second reason which is mentioned is the high population density. Because of high population density, whenever there is a climate hazard, there are more chances of loss of lives and also loss of property. So this makes India more vulnerable to climate hazards. To substantiate this, the author has mentioned few examples. Like for example, the author is telling that a number of Indian states have experienced extreme heat waves in the past three years. So a heat wave is a period of unusually hot weather that typically lasts for two or more days. And to be considered a heat wave, the temperatures have to be outside the historical averages for a given area. Recently, if you see Delhi recorded a temperature of 48 degrees celsius, which was the hottest day of Delhi in 21 years. And more frequently, we can see heat waves in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra. The next recent event is the floods and landslides that happened in the state of Kerala. If you see 2018 also, Kerala was affected by the worst floods. And this year also, Kerala was affected by the floods and landslides. Then the author is telling that the increasing temperatures and changing seasonal rainfall patterns have aggravated, that is they have increased the droughts in many parts of the country. So it has ultimately hurt at the agriculture sector across the country because majority of agriculture depends upon the monsoons and they have least access to irrigation. So they are more vulnerable to climate change. Next, the author has also mentioned that extreme storms like the one that hit Odisha during summer this year and also the 2015 Chennai floods are becoming the new normal. That is we cannot tell anymore that these are once in a lifetime events but every year some part of the country is facing worst climate crisis. So the author is telling that these events will become even more damaging if the infrastructure is not resilient. So the term resilient means the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. Say if an area is affected by flood, how soon is that area able to recover from that flood and come back to a normal condition. So we need to have proper infrastructure in order to have resilience. So the author is stressing this fact is telling that the most important solution is to build resilience to the climate change hazards. So he has listed down some measures. Let us see one by one now. First, the author has told that India should focus more to boost its inland and coastal defences. For example, like building seawalls wherever required, then protecting mangroves, then building floodgates, then replenishing the beaches, then protecting the wetlands, then constructing buildings above the flood level and also modifying the necessary infrastructure in order to reduce the impacts because of natural events. Then the author suggests to build resilience in different agricultural sectors. Then the author also suggests the need to build resilience in fisheries, manufacturing, energy sector, transport, health and education. So when a country becomes resilient to climate change risks, the extremity of events are going to come down. So the author is suggesting that both the central government and also the state governments have to spend more or put their priority more towards spending for the disaster management. So there should be an increasing spending on disaster management and adequate resources must be allocated for implementing the climate action plans which has been prepared by many of the states. Then the author is telling that India should in fact be alarmed at the destruction that is happening in Amazon that is the deforestation and the forest fires which is happening in Amazon. Since India is most vulnerable to climate change, the author is suggesting that India should lead in pressing the global community to take effective climate actions. Finally, the author is also telling that India should replace urgently its energy needs. Right now if we see India is more dependent on generating energy from fossil fuels, but the author is suggesting that India should shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. So these are some of the measures that has been suggested by the author in order to build resilience towards climate change. Now let us see in brief about this report that has been released by HSBC Bank in 2018. This report is titled as fragile planet scoring climate risks around the world. The methodology used for calculating climate vulnerability included the following. First is it included the potential of the countries to respond to climate risks that is the financial resources that particular country had and also the national governance. The second factor was the energy transition risks like the use of fossil fuel in that particular country. And the third parameter was sensitivity to extreme events like the number of deaths and the damage caused to that particular country because of the natural event that happened in that country. And finally the physical climate impacts like the average temperature, the water availability and also the extreme weather events. So based on this the report has concluded that the most vulnerable countries to climate change are India, Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh. And the least vulnerable countries to climate change are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and New Zealand. So just try to know about the methodology based on which the report has been prepared. It will be helpful in your exam. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article discusses about the Megalithics vote which was discovered in Kannur in the state of Kerala. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. This news article states that the state archaeology department in Kauriko, Kerala has unearthed an iron sword and it has also unearthed chisel and a few decorated pot trees. The state archaeology department says that these equipment are from Megalithic era. They have got these equipment from a rocket cave at Poduva Chheri which is located in Kannur district of Kerala state. And this rocket cave is a semi-spherical shaped cave with a diameter of around 2.5 meter and a height of 90 centimeter. Rocket caves are unique laterite monuments found on the west coast of India. These caves may have single or multiple chambers. Stone benches are sometimes carved into the sides of the monument and the burial goods are placed either on them or under them. And the iron sword which they have found is of 105 centimeter length and it is believed that this sword is 2500 years old. As we saw the news article mentions that the equipment and the artifacts were found in the Megalithic era. Now the term Megalith means big stones. Mega means big, lith means stones. Like the ones you can see in this picture. These big stone boulders were carefully arranged by people and they were used to mark burial sites in those times. Now in those times means according to NCRT this practice of placing Megaliths began about 3000 years ago. So it has been practiced by people who lived before 3000 years. And if you see this practice was prevalent throughout the Deccan region of India then in southern region of India and also in the north eastern region of present day India and also in Kashmir. Some of the important Megalithic sites are shown in this map. For example you can see Adichanallur which is located in present day Tamil Nadu and Brahmagiri which is a Megalithic site which is located in the present day Karnataka. And you can also see some other Paleolithic sites, Neolithic sites in this map for your reference. Now some Megaliths can be seen on the surface whereas some other Megalithic burials are often underground and sometimes archaeologists find a circle of stone boulders or sometimes even a single large stone which is standing on the ground. So these might be indications that there are burials beneath and which have to be discovered. All these burials have some common features. Generally if you see the dead people were buried with distinctive colored pots. Now they are called as blackware or redware. Sometimes other things are also found in the burials like tools and weapons of iron and sometimes you can even find the skeletons of horses then horse equipments and sometimes even ornaments made out of stone or made out of gold are also found in these burials. So these are some of the common features of these Megalithic burials. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article speaks about Sardar Sarovar Dam. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Know that Sardar Sarovar project is on river Narmada. First let us see about Narmada river. It originates from Amerkantak plateau in the state of Madhya Pradesh and it travels through the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and it drains at Gulf of Cambay which is located in Arabian Sea. So the mouth of this river is located in Gujarat and Sardar Sarovar Dam is a concrete gravity dam which has been built across river Narmada. Coming to the news article, this news article tells that the rising water levels in Narmada has submerged the village of Nazirpur in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The news article tells that the plan to fill this Sardar Sarovar Dam was done at a menacing speed that is at an alarming speed by the Gujarat government. See the full reservoir level of the Sardar Sarovar Dam is fixed at 138.68 meters. So it was planned to store water till its full capacity by mid of October and till the end of September it was planned to store water up to 135 meters. So this is the usual schedule that was planned but now itself the water level of Narmada has risen to 135.6 meters. So we can see that this was not done according to the schedule. Because of this the villages that are located along the banks of river Narmada which is upstream to this Sardar Sarovar Dam has been flooded and those people who were living in these villages have been hugely affected because the rehabilitation measures was not taken in advance. The news article says that the affected families have been shifted to the relief camps which has been set up by Narmada Valley Development Authority and those people who were forced to migrate await rehabilitation. But the worrying factor is that even the rehabilitation claims of people who were affected by this project itself is yet to get complete. The reason given by Gujarat government to increase the level of water across river Narmada is that it needed to test the integrity of the construction joints of this dam by filling the water till its full reservoir level. But we saw that the level that has to be reached by the end of September has been reached now only. So it has affected the people those who lived upstream. Now let us see in brief about Narmada Valley Development Authority. This authority was formed by the government of Madhya Pradesh and its motto is to exploit the enormous water resources in Narmada river. This authority basically oversees all the major development projects in the Narmada basin and this body also ensures that the proper rehabilitation is provided to the displaced people that is those people who are moved out of their original places where some projects needed to be constructed. And this authority also ensures that the negative impacts on environment are minimized by taking appropriate measures. This Sardar Sarovar Dam was associated with several controversies if you see. This project was stalled for some time by the Supreme Court due to complaints over the displacements of the people especially the tribal people who lived along this river and this movement was spearheaded by Narmada Bachav Andolan. Now know that the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan receive water and they also get electricity from this project. So this project also plays a critical role in irrigating the most drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra in the state of Gujarat. Now let us see in brief about this Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal. Under the Interstate Water Disputes Act of 1956 the central government constituted Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal in the year 1969. So basically this tribunal adjudicates the sharing of Narmada waters between four states which are the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. During the start of this discussion we saw that Narmada flows only across three states that is the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat but know that the Narmada waters are shared by four states including Rajasthan and also know that Narmada control authority has been set up under the final orders of this Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal as a machinery for implementation of its direction and decision. So this authority started functioning from 1980 onwards and this authority has representatives from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and also one representative from the government of India that is the central government. The secretary of water resources government of India is the ex official chairman of this authority. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the global livability index of 2019. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Know that global livability index is released by the Economist Intelligence Unit or in short the EIU. The EIU is the Research and Analysis Division of the Economist Group. This is a sister company to the newspaper which is named the Economist. This index assesses the concept of livability. It assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. So why there is a need for such an index? It is because assessing livability has a broad range of uses like it helps in benchmarking or it provides basis for perceptions of development levels in that particular city and also it helps to assign a hardship allowance as a part of expatriate relocation packages. Now the term hardship allowance means the extra amount of money which someone is paid with for working in difficult conditions and expatriate means a person who lives outside their native country. So assessing the livability will help to assign the extra amount of money for those people who are in a foreign country and those who are working under difficult conditions. In other words, companies pay a premium to employees who move to cities where living conditions are particularly difficult and where there is an excessive physical hardship or a notably unhealthy environment. So this index suggests the hardship allowance corresponding to the rating. So this is the purpose of this index. The livability rating quantifies the challenges that an individual may face in any given location. Every city taken for assessment is assigned a rating for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors and the factors are across five broad categories which are stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. The stability factor includes prevalence of petty crimes, violent crimes, threat of terror in that city, then threat of military conflict in that city and the threat of civil unrest or civil conflict in that city. And the healthcare factor includes the availability of private and public healthcare, then the quality of the private and public healthcare that is available in that city and also the availability of over the counter drugs in that city. Next is the culture and environment factor. This includes humidity or temperature rating of the city, then the average weather conditions of the city, then the discomfort of climate to the travelers, then the level of corruption in the city, then the social or religious restrictions in the city and also the consumer goods and services that are available in that particular city. Next is the infrastructure factor. This includes quality of the road networks in that city, then the quality of public transport that is available in that city and also the quality of water provisions. So, each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable and the scores are then compiled to provide a score of 1 to 100 where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal or perfect and this index has surveyed 140 cities from India, New Delhi was included in this survey. So, New Delhi is a only city from India which has represented this survey. Now, let us see the outcomes of this index. This index has ranked the city of Vienna as the most livable of the 140 cities which were taken for the survey. Know that Vienna is the capital of Austria. Last year that is in 2018 Melbourne city from Australia was in the top spot but this year Vienna has attained the top spot, Vienna scored 99.1 out of 100 and Melbourne has scored 98.4 out of 100. Two other Australian cities also feature in the top 10 ranking which are the cities of Sydney and Adelaide and one more city from the continent of Europe has scored among the best. It is the city of Copenhagen in Denmark and it has scored the ninth rank. The other top ranked cities are from Japan and Canada. Now, large number of cities have scored low mainly because of the exposure to the effects of climate change in that city. These cities include New Delhi as well. If you see the ranking of New Delhi is 118 out of the 140 cities assessed in the survey and New Delhi has dropped 6 ranks when compared to last year. Why New Delhi has scored low is because it suffers from terrible air quality and other cities which have been ranked low include the Cairo city from Egypt and Dhaka from Bangladesh. In both these cities as well air quality is a major issue. Apart from this, New Delhi has also scored low scores in culture and environment due to undesirable average temperatures in the city and also due to inadequate water provision in the city. Then it has also scored low instability due to rising crime rates in the capital. So, these are some of the reasons why the ranking of New Delhi in this year's survey has reduced. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is consider the following statements with reference to unlawful activities prevention act of 1967 and they have given three statements and they have asked you to choose the correct statements. The first statement tells that individuals can be listed as terrorists under section 35 of this act. The first statement is correct. Individuals can be listed as terrorists under section 35 of this act. So, this was added by the unlawful activities prevention amendment act of 2019. This amendment act amended the principal act which is the unlawful activities prevention act of 1967. And under this amendment act, fourth schedule was also added to the principal act that is the unlawful activities prevention act of 1967. So, it is not the third schedule it is the fourth schedule. So, the second statement goes wrong here. The third statement it tells that the first schedule consists of the name of organizations that are listed in the schedule to the human prevention and suppression of terrorism implementation of security council relations order 2007. This statement is correct because schedule one not only contains the names of organizations listed as terrorist organization by the ministry of home affairs or the government of India, but it also contains the names of the organizations that are listed in the schedule to the human prevention and suppression of terrorism implementation of security council resolutions order of 2007. So, the third statement is correct. Now, the question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option B 1 and 3. Moving on to the next question, the question is the Brahmagiri Megalithic site is situated in which state they have given four states Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. During our discussion, we saw that Brahmagiri Megalithic site is located in the state of Karnataka. So, the correct answer is option D Karnataka. We also saw one more Megalithic site which is Adhichan Allur site which is located in the present day Tamil Nadu. Moving on to the next question, which among the following sites is our Megalithic sites? They have given three sites Bhimbetka, Adhichan Allur, Brahmagiri and they have asked you to select the correct answer. So, we just saw that Adhichan Allur and Brahmagiri are Megalithic sites. We need to confirm if Bhimbetka is Megalithic site or not. Know that Bhimbetka site is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is a magnificent repository of rock paintings within natural rock shelters. And this site has archaeological evidences of habitation that is people have lived in this site and also the lithic industry from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. And even NCERT has listed Bhimbetka under the Paleolithic site as you can see in this map. So, it is not a Megalithic site. So, one is not there. You can easily eliminate three options here. If you go by the elimination technique, options A, B and D can be eliminated. So, the correct answer is option C, 2 and 3. But we also saw that Adhichan Allur and Brahmagiri are Megalithic sites. So, the correct answer is option C, 2 and 3. Moving on to the next question, consider the following statements. They have given two statements which is regarding Narmada river and they have asked you to choose the correct statements. The first statement tells that Sardar Sarovar Dam is located in Narmada river. This statement is correct. We saw during our discussion that Sardar Sarovar Dam is located across Narmada river. The second statement tells that Narmada water dispute tribunal was formed to adjudicate upon the sharing of Narmada waters between the three states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. During our discussion, we highlighted that Narmada river flows across three states which are the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. But the waters of Narmada are shared between four states. Apart from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, Rajasthan also shares the Narmada waters. So, it is four states, not three states. So, the second statement goes wrong here. The questioner has asked you to choose the correct statements. So, the correct answer is option A, 1 only. Moving on to the next question. The question is the global livability index is released by which among the following organizations? World Bank, Transparency International, the Economist's Intelligence Unit, International Monetary Fund. As we saw during our discussion, the correct answer is option C, the Economist's Intelligence Unit. So, do not confuse this index with the Ease of Living Index. The Ease of Living Index is released by World Bank. But global livability index is released by the Economist's Intelligence Unit. And know that Transparency International releases Global Corruption Report and Corruption Perception Index. And International Monetary Fund releases Global Financial Stability Report and World Economic Outlook. So, the correct answer here is option C, the Economist's Intelligence Unit. Moving on to the main question. The question is, recurring climate change hazards like floods, storms and heat waves have become the new normal in India. Can we say that India is the most vulnerable country to climate change? What all can be done to improve India's resilience to climate change hazards? Now, the first statement tells that recurring climate change hazards like floods, storms and heat waves have become the new normal in India. During our discussion, we saw that there are frequent heat waves which has happened for the past three years. Then the state of Kerala is affected by floods. And there are also some storms and cyclones happening in India. So, you can just mention that. And the second statement is, can we say that India is the most vulnerable country to climate change? So, it is a question. So, you have to take a stand. From the examples that we have given, we can come to a conclusion that India is the most vulnerable country to climate change. You can also add on the 2018 HSBC Global Report that we saw during our discussion and tell that India is the most vulnerable country to climate change. The final part of the question asks, what all can be done to improve India's resilience to climate change hazards? So, in our discussion, we listed some measures where India can build up on its resilience to climate change hazards. So, you can list out the measures like focusing more on boosting the inland and coastal defenses of India, then building resilience in different sectors of agriculture, then building resilience in fisheries, manufacturing, energy, transport, health and education, then increasing the spending for disaster management at national level and also at the state level. Then also focusing more on adequate allocation of resources for tackling climate change, then the need for shifting towards renewable energy. So, these are some of the measures that we saw. If you have some other measures that can be written for this question, you can include them, but make sure it is relevant. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. 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