 Good evening aspirants, I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankara AAS Academy for the newspaper dated 22nd January 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we will take up for discussion today. We will quickly get into the discussion. Before that, if you have not subscribed to our channel, kindly do it now so that you get instant updates. Now we will start with the first article discussion. This FAQ article is about the declining Chinese population. The article focuses on the reasons for current decline in Chinese population, the impacts of the declining population and the steps taken by the Chinese government to counter this trend. And finally, we will also see if there are any chance that these steps taken by the China would work. So this is the essence of the article. So in our discussion today, let us focus on demographic transition theory and then we will see the contents of this article in detail. So this discussion we are about to have falls under these parts of the syllabus. You can go through it. Now we will start by understanding what demographic transition theory is all about. So it is basically a population theory which focuses on the general relationship between birth rate, death rate and population growth rate as a country or a society moves from the pre-modern setup to a post-modern setup. So basically the theory focuses on the relationship between economic development of a country and the country's population. According to the demographic transition theory, there are basically four stages. The first stage is the high stationary stage. Most pre-developed countries are present in this stage. India in the early part of the 20th century was in the high stationary stage. In this stage, there will be high birth rates and high death rates. Both the birth rates and death rates of the population will be stable and there will be very slow growth. Countries in this stage are mostly agricultural in nature and they also follow primitive forms of agriculture. So basically people prefer to have more children as they see children as an additional source of labour in their farms. This is the reason for high birth rate. Also, there is high death rate. This is due to the lack of modern healthcare facilities. So the high birth rate is compensated by high death rate and hence the population will be stable. The second stage is called as the early expanding stage. In the early expanding stage, what happens is that the death rate starts falling but the birth rate reminds the same. Due to higher birth rate in this period and rapidly falling death rate, the population starts increasing rapidly. This stage is called as the population boom or population explosion. India was in the early expanding stage post independence. So in that period, with the expansion of modern medical facilities, the death rate declined rapidly. But since India was predominantly rural and mainly dependent on agricultural and also literacy was low, so there was high birth rate. Due to this, the population increased rapidly in India. Now the third stage is the late expanding stage. So in the late expanding stage, the death rate stabilizes and the birth rate starts falling but still the birth rate reminds higher than the death rate. Due to this, population will continue to increase but the rate at which the population grows slows down. The slowdown in the birth rate in this phase is due to increasing literacy rate, urbanization, people moving from agriculture, women empowerment and also because of the social engineering steps that are taken by the government. So now India is currently in the late expanding stage. Even though our population is growing, our population growth rate has slowed down. This is about the late expanding stage. The fourth stage is the low stationary stage. So in this stage, both the birth rate and the death rate will be low. Due to this, the population will be low and at the same time there will be a stable population. If you see the developed countries in the western Europe, they have entered into the fourth stage. Their population has stabilized as the birth rate has matched the death rate. The next stage is the stage of population decline. In this stage, the birth rate falls below the death rate. Due to this, the population starts declining. Japan has been facing the issue of falling population for quite some time. The recent addition here is China which is also experiencing a decline in population recently. So this is about the demographic transition theory. Now let us see the content of this article. According to the China's National Bureau of Statistics, compared to 2021, if we see China's population has declined by 850,000 in the year. This is significant because this is the first decline in the Chinese population since 1961. In 1961, China's population declined due to Mao Zedong's failed Great Leap Forward campaign. Now what is the main reason for the current decline in China's population? See, China implemented the one-child policy in the 1980s. China's one-child policy was very harsh. People were forced to have abortions. For people who had more than one child, the government imposed heavy penalties. Due to such strict implementation, China was able to prevent 400 million births. It is the main reason behind China's falling population. The Chinese government implemented this one-child policy to reduce the strain on limited natural resources and reduce government expenditure. They were quite successful in controlling the population, but this policy backfired. It resulted in reduction in population and now China is facing other problems. The first problem is a reduction in the working-age population. In 2011, China's labour force was around 925 million. But in 2022, this has declined to 875 million. This is a major concern for China. This is because, if you see at the Chinese growth story, the main reason why China became the global manufacturing hub is because of the availability of cheap and abundant labour force. But right now, the labour force is contracting and at the same time, the wage rate is also increasing. Due to this, many MNCs are shifting their base to countries like India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. This is affecting China's economic growth. The second major problem is increasing welfare-related expenses for the Chinese government. Due to the declining population, the Chinese population is rapidly aging. By 2050, the Chinese government estimates the above 60 population will account for as much as 35% of the total population. According to China's National Working Commission on Aging, healthcare spending on this group will rise to 26% of the GDP by 2050. This will put additional strain on Chinese expenditure. This is also a major worry for China. So in order to address these issues, China started taking efforts from 2016. So what they did was that in 2016, they abandoned the one-child policy. But the population still continued to decline. This is because the people themselves did not wish to have more children. Because now it has become costlier to raise children due to increasing health care and education expenses. So again, in 2021, the Chinese government introduced the three-child policy. It even announced incentive policies such as issuing subsidies to families with second or third child. To address the economic factors such as healthcare costs and education expenses, the Chinese government has started taking many steps. For example, the Chinese government has recently started to crack down on the expensive private education companies. But even then, the population has not picked up. This is because globally itself, there is a trend of personal preferences for smaller families. So according to this article, the only solution at hand is rising the retirement age from the current 64 men and 55 for women. These are the lessons that India should learn from the most populous country because soon India will overtake China in terms of population. So in this discussion, we saw about the demographic transition theory, then the reasons for the current decline in Chinese population, the impacts of the declining population and finally, we saw some steps that were taken by the Chinese government to counter this trend. With these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Look at this article from the FAQ page. It is talking about India's plan to eradicate missiles and rubella. We know that India has set a target to eliminate missiles and rubella by 2023. India has earlier missed the deadline of 2020 due to a variety of reasons that was also aggravated by the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that also, the 2015 target was missed. When the government anticipated that the 2020 goal could not be reached, in 2019, a goal to eliminate missiles and rubella by 2023 was adopted. So for achieving this target, the Indian government has devised some plans and this article provides us with the details of India's plan to eradicate those diseases. So in this discussion, we will learn about missiles and rubella and we will also try to understand the points provided in the article. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. Have a look at it. First, we will understand about missiles. So missiles is an airborne disease caused by a virus called paramixovirus. It's a highly contagious virus. So by the term highly contagious virus, I mean that the infection can spread from one person to another very easily. Therefore, human to human transmission of missiles infection is possible. Now how is it transmitted? See, missiles can be transmitted through the droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of the infected person to a healthy individual. These droplets can spread the disease even when they are released in the air. It can spread by the injection of the virus into the environment by seizing or coughing. So, missiles can be termed as a communicable disease. Now, what are the symptoms of missiles? Some of the symptoms of missiles include fever, cough and common cold. Missiles can also lead to serious health complications such as blindness, encephalitis, diarrhea, your infection or even some severe respiratory infection such as pneumonia. Severe missiles most likely occurs among poorly nourished young children especially those with insufficient vitamin A. Severe missiles was also noted among children whose immune systems have been weakened by HIV or AIDS or any other disease. This is why WHO calls this disease as a killer childhood disease. Now we will understand about the next disease which is rubella. Rubella is caused by the rubella virus. It is also a contagious infection and it is spread through air by droplets from infected person to uninfected person. Note that humans are the only known host to rubella virus. Now, talking about the symptoms of rubella, rubella is said to be a mild infection. So, the symptoms includes rashes, low fever and nausea. In adults, if you see, women are getting affected more commonly. They develop arthritis and painful joints. When a woman is infected with the rubella virus early in pregnancy, she has a 90% chance of passing the virus on to her fetus. So, this can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or severe birth defects. And this is called as the congenital rubella syndrome. So, know that this congenital rubella syndrome is an illness in infants that result from maternal infection with rubella during pregnancy. So, with these basics, now we will try to understand the points provided in this news article. First, let us have an idea on why this 2023 target is crucial. According to WHO, the measles virus is one of the world's most contagious human virus. It has killed more than 1 lakh children every year globally. Also, WHO says that rubella is a leading cause of birth defects and this can be preventable by vaccine. Therefore, we can say that both rubella and measles can be prevented by just two doses of safe and effective vaccines. As per the WHO statistics, if we see, over the past two decades, the measles vaccine is estimated to have averted more than 30 million deaths globally. That's why India is targeting to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023 and it is considered to be very crucial. Because under this target, India is planning to boost the vaccination drive and it will help to eliminate both the diseases. Now, we will understand what are the efforts that are taken so far to achieve the target. A research paper titled Progress Towards Measles and Rubella Elimination India 2005-2021, which was published on the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention website, explains the path that India has taken so far. The paper says, during 2010-2013, India has conducted a phased measles catch-up immunization for children aged 9 months to 10 years. So, this drive was conducted in 14 states and it had approximately vaccinated 119 million children. Then, India has another program which is Mission Indra Dhanush. This mission was launched in 2014 to ramp up the vaccination program for the unvaccinated population. Then, during 2017-2021, India adopted a national strategic plan for measles and rubella elimination. India introduced a rubella-containing vaccine into the routine immunization program. India also transitioned from outbreak-based surveillance to case-based acute fever and rash surveillance. India has also doubled the number of laboratories to test the measles and rubella. These are some of the efforts that India has taken so far, but are these efforts only sufficient to contain the disease of measles and rubella? Or simply to say, is the target to eliminate measles and rubella achievable? For this question, some experts and officials have provided some information. Now, we will try to understand them one by one. Firstly, the insight was given by Dr. Jacob John. He is a noted virologist and is currently heading the India experts advisory group for eliminating measles and rubella. He says India's target to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023 is achievable. He noted that the main concern is the under-1 year population. But he also hopes that if India is able to keep up the tempo of 2 dosage coverage at 95% then it will be possible to achieve the target. He also pointed out that besides testing for measles and rubella, each district in India should be given a target to achieve the required rate of immunization then to conduct a robust fever and rash surveillance program. He said that this move will help to achieve the target. Secondly, the insight was given by CS Rick Sergunam. He is the president of Tamil Nadu Health Development Association. He says that it is very important to provide full support to the ground level staff because they are the people who implement the vaccination program. Here, the ground level staffs might include the village health nurses, Asha workers, Anganwadi workers and also the integrated child development service workers. He advocates that the government should improve the service condition of the staffs and the salaries must also be given without any delay. He further says the target will be easier to achieve in states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala because such states are having robust immunization infrastructure. Therefore, to achieve targets in other states, additional efforts should be taken. Finally, we will also see what the WHO has to say regarding India's target. The WHO has expressed its hope that India could indeed reach the target but the WHO pointed out that India should strengthen its surveillance by finding, investigating, collecting and testing samples of suspected cases in each and every district, every state and union territory. So this would help to understand the extent of the disease and for effective vaccination. So in this discussion, we first saw that we have set a target for 2023 to eradicate measles and rubella. We saw in detail what are the symptoms of measles and rubella, how it is transmitted. We also saw what are the actions or efforts that are taken so far. Then we also saw some way forward to eliminate the diseases. With these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Have a look at this science page article. It talks about the reasons for abnormally low temperatures which is now being reported in Utti. See, Utti is a hilly district in Tamil Nadu and it has experienced a steep fall in mercury this month. In the article reports, scientists have linked the fall in temperature with Laanina conditions in the Pacific Ocean. So in this discussion, we will see about how Laanina has caused a temperature dip in the southern part of Indian Peninsula. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. Have a look at it. See, there are three phases of variation of ocean temperatures in the southern tropical part of the Pacific Ocean. The first phase is called a neutral while the other two phases are called El Nino and Laanina. Firstly, let's see about the neutral phase of Pacific Ocean. So in this phase, there is an accumulation of warm water in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. So this is due to the trade winds in the tropical region. As we all know, the trade winds flow from east to west. The flow of this easterly winds result in the accumulation of warm water in the eastern Australian coast while cold water is accumulated near South America. This is what happens to the sea surface temperature in Pacific Ocean during normal or a neutral condition. Now we will move on to see about El Nino. See, El Nino is a condition in which easterly trade winds which flow from the east to west in the tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean becomes weak. Due to this, what happens is that the warm water starts to accumulate in the western margins of the South America. At the same time, the eastern Australian coast comes into contact with low temperature water. Here you should note one important point. Warm coastal water causes rain while cold coastal water causes flood. So this El Nino condition that we are discussing about results in drought in the eastern Australia while there is excess rainfall in the regions of western South America. This is about El Nino. The opposite of this phenomenon is Laanina. In the Laanina year, the trade winds are usually stronger which helps in accumulating the warm sea water in the eastern coast of Australia. This in turn results in the cold water accumulation in the western South America near the Peruvian coast. Normally Laanina brings excess rainfall to Australia. This is because of the excess accumulation of warm water near the coast. This transforms Laanina and El Nino strictly deals with the temperature difference in the ocean waters in the Pacific Ocean. So this is about Laanina. Now we should also know about a complementary phenomenon to the El Nino which is shortly known as ENSO which means El Nino Southern Oscillation. Southern Oscillation is an atmospheric condition in which high pressure is reported in Australia while low pressure is reported in South America. As I said earlier, this phenomenon results in droughts in Australia while it causes flooding in the Peruvian coast. So we can say that El Nino and Laanina are phenomenon which are linked to the sea surface temperature only. While El Nino Southern Oscillation is a phenomenon that is linked to both atmosphere and sea surface temperature. Before seeing what this news article says, you should know that this year is a Laanina year. So this article says that due to this Laanina phenomenon only, Ooty has been experiencing a below average temperature. The article says that Laanina event this year has caused the Siberian cold air mass to enter India and caused an extreme cold weather event in Ooty. Here, note that the Siberian High is responsible for the bitter cold of the Tundra and has been known to affect the weather from Europe to Southeast Asia. This time, Laanina has helped this dry cold air mass to enter the southern peninsula of India and thereby causing a temperature fall in Ooty. The article further says that the Laanina winter plus a very strong Siberian high conspired to create a cooler than normal winter in South India. This has been further amplified by the withdrawal of the northeast monsoon from January 12. This has allowed the cooler dry land wind to strengthen in the southern part of our country. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we came to know about the sea surface temperature phenomena of El Nino and Laanina. We also learnt the reason behind the mercury dip in the district of Ooty in Tamil Nadu. With these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Look at this news article. It is about the Ayushman Bharat school wellness program. So this article focuses on the difficulty in implementing the program. In this discussion, let us first see about the Ayushman Bharat scheme and then we will focus on the content of this article. See, Ayushman Bharat literally means healthy India. It is a national initiative launched as part of the national health policy of 2017. It was launched to achieve the vision of universal health coverage. So this initiative has been designed on the lines of Sustainable Development Goal No. 3. So this STG Goal No. 3 is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages. Its vision is to provide a comprehensive, need-based healthcare service. So it aims to undertake interventions to holistically address the health at primary, secondary and also at the tertiary level. Hence it covers prevention, promotion and ambulatory care or outpatient care on these levels. It comprises of two interrelated components. The first component is establishment of health and wellness centers. In this, 1.5 lakh health and wellness centers will be established and this will bring healthcare closer to the homes of the people. These centers will provide comprehensive primary healthcare and cover both maternal and child health services and also for non-communicable diseases. It also includes providing free essential drugs and diagnostic services. The second component is the Pradhan Mandiri Jan Arogya Yojna or the National Health Protection Scheme. See, it is a public health insurance or assurance scheme. Basically it aims to provide health protection cover to poor and vulnerable families. So PMJ provides financial protection by offering an insurance benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. In short, it aims to reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure. Note that for availing the benefits of PMJ, there is no cap on family size and age. This in turn ensures that nobody is left out of the mission. This financial protection is provided to more than 10 crore families who are poor, who belong to deprived rural families and to identified occupational categories of urban workers as per the latest socio-economic caste census data. These are some basic facts about the Aishman Bharat mission. Now let us come to what this news article says. As I already mentioned, the news article talks about Aishman Bharat's school wellness program. As we all know, schools play a critical role in helping students establish lifelong healthy habits. Due to its importance, school-based health promotion activities has also been incorporated as a part of the health and wellness component of the Aishman Bharat program. So, the Aishman Bharat wellness program was launched in 2020 to be implemented in government and government-aided schools. In this program, two teachers, preferably one male and another female, in every school are designated as health and wellness ambassadors. These teachers are then provided training in health promotion and disease prevention on certain thematic areas. The areas include emotional well-being, interpersonal relationships, responsible citizenship, gender equality, reproductive health, HIV prevention, safety and security against violence and also promotion of safe use of internet. After getting trained, these teachers then pass on the information to the school children in the form of interesting, joyful, interactive activities. For this purpose, one hour is allocated every week. The initiative is also linked with other government initiatives such as Fit India Movement, Etherite Campaign, Potion Abhyan for all-round and holistic development model of health for the school children. The students, after receiving training in these areas, later act as the health and wellness ambassadors for the society. So, overall, this scheme looks very well-rounded in the paper. But still, even after three years since it is launched, there is only 50 percentage take-up and so far only 15 states have started the weekly 40-minute classroom session with students. The article highlights the reason behind this low penetration. The first major reason is teachers at government school are overworked. The second reason is not all states have allocated a weekly time slot in the classroom schedule to conduct these programs. And the third main reason is that there is no formal reporting structure or accountability mechanism. So, there is no way to ensure that the syllabus is implemented in schools. The last reason is that in most schools, the teachers who are at the verge of their retirement are appointed as health and wellness ambassadors. Due to this, it is difficult to train the ambassadors. So, with these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, look at this article here. It says that there could be an alternative to the Franklin Rod. The alternative is a powerful laser aimed at the sky. Now, it is believed that the laser can create a virtual lightning rod and divert the path of lightning strikes. The significance of this alternative is that it could pave the way for better lightning protection methods for critical infrastructure. So, this is about the news article given here. In this discussion, we will see what is the Franklin Rod and we will try to understand its working. See, Franklin Rod is nothing but the lightning rod. You would have seen it on the top of large buildings which generally protects the building from lightning. So, it is an external terminal installed in a building or structure and the very purpose of this rod is to attract the lightning to have a controlled point of impact. By doing this, the rod basically prevents the lightning from striking unwanted area or people. Now, let us see why the lightning rod is called as Franklin Rod. It got its name from the famous scientist Benjamin Franklin. He is widely recognized for his groundbreaking exploration of electricity. One of the famous experiment is his kite experiment. He assumed that clouds have electric charge and lightning was just a scaled up version of sparks. And to prove this, he blew a metal frame kite tied to a silk cord to which he had previously inserted a metal key. And when the lightning struck, he was able to observe that through the silk thread, the electricity reached the key and electric sparks flew. So, he discovered that if the lightning strike found a metal conduct on its way to earth, then it would stay there and dissipate. Through this experiment, he discovered the Franklin Rod. Now, in order to understand the working of the Franklin Rod, you must first understand how a lightning occurs. See, when a strong cloud develops in the sky, strong winds move upwards through the cloud and make the water drops present in the cloud to rub against one another. So, when the water drops rub against one another, the electric charge is produced due to the friction. Small water drops occur positive charge and since they are lighter, they move to the upper part of the cloud. On the other hand, large water drops occur negative charge and since these drops are larger in size, they come down in the lower part of the cloud. Now, because of this, the top of the cloud becomes positively charged whereas the bottom of the cloud becomes negatively charged. When they accumulate enough charge, it starts to flow with high speed through the air between them. When the positive and negative charges of the cloud meet, they produce an intense spark of electricity between the clouds in the sky. This is what we call as a lightning. Lightning usually occurs within a cloud in the sky. It is called sheet lightning. Lightning also occurs between a cloud and earth. This is called fork lightning. Now, if a strong cloud having negative charge at its bottom passes over a tall building, then it induces positive charges on the roof of the building. When the electric charge on the bottom of the cloud becomes extremely large, then these tremendous electric charges present on the bottom of the charged cloud suddenly flow to the roof of the building and because of this, we see a flash of lightning coming towards the building. When lightning strikes a building, its tremendous electric energy can set the building on fire or it can cause serious damage to the structure. So, for protecting the buildings from lightning, we use the lightning rod. What the lightning rod does is that it is basically connected to the ground through a wire. The electric charge from the lightning strikes the rod and the charge is conducted harmlessly into the ground. This protects the houses from burning down and people from electrocution. So, in this news article discussion, we learnt what is Franklin Rod. We saw how a lightning occurs and we also saw the working of the Franklin Rod. That's all I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. Look at this article here. It says that the Enforcement Directorate has arrested the Trinamol Congress Youth Leader Kuntal Ghosh in connection with the West Bengal Recruitment Scam. Here, we are not going to discuss about this issue. Instead, we will revise some facts about the Enforcement Directorate. The Directorate of Enforcement or the EED is a multidisciplinary organisation with investigation of economic crimes and violation of foreign exchange laws. So, it was established on 1st of May 1956, but initially it was not called the EED. It was formed as an enforcement unit under the Department of Economic Affairs. It was formed for handling exchange control laws violation under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1947. But in the year 1957, this unit was renamed as Enforcement Directorate. And in 1960, the administrative control of the Directorate was transferred from the Department of Economic Affairs to the Department of Revenue. So, as I said earlier, it investigates economic crimes and the violation of foreign exchange laws. The statutory functions of Directorate include enforcement of the following acts. First, Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002, then Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999, then Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 and finally Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1973. And these are some of the functions of EED. It collects, develops and disseminates intelligence relating to the violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999. Then, it functions to investigate the suspected violations of the provisions of FEMA 1999 relating to activities such as Habala Foreign Exchange Tracketoring, Non-Realization of Export Proceeds, Non-Reparation of Foreign Exchange and other forms of violation under FEMA 1999. And it also adjudicates cases of violation of the erstwhile Ferrar 1973 and FEMA 1999. It also realizes penalties imposed on conclusion of adjudication proceedings. It can handle adjudication appeals and prosecution cases under the erstwhile Ferrar 1973. It also functions to process and recommend cases for preventive detention under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Muggling Act. It undertakes survey, search, seizure, arrest, prosecution actions, etc. against the offenders of Prevention of Money Laundering Act offence. It not only provides but it can also seek assistance from the contracting states in respect of confiscation of proceeds of the crime and it can also ask for the transfer of accused person under the PMLA Act. So, in this discussion, we revised a few points regarding the enforcement directory. So, with these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, look at this dazzling picture here. The animal we see here is the Sambar deer. It was spotted in the Amrabat Tiger Reserve. So, this Amrabat Tiger Reserve is present in the Nalla Mela Hills which is located in Telangana. From January 26, this reserve will be opened for the tourists under the eco-tourism packages announced by the Forest Department of Telangana. So, this is the crux of the news article. Now, in this discussion, we will understand about the Sambar deer. The scientific name of Sambar deer is Rusa Unicolor. Sambar deer is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent, southern China and southeast Asia. Note one important factor. Sambar deer is the state animal of Odisha. Now, we will understand its food habits. See, Sambar deer feeds on a wide variety of vegetation including grasses, fruit and water plants. But this depends on the local habitat in which it is surviving. They also consume a wide variety of shrubs and trees. Now, we will see where they are distributed. Sambar deer are distributed in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, the Philippines, southern China, Taiwan, Borneo, Malaysia, Sumatra and Java. They inhabit both gentle slopes and steeper parts of forested hillsides. Sambar deer prefers to live in tropical dry forests, open scrubs, tropical seasonal forests, mountain forests, broadleaf deciduous and evergreen forests. They seldom move far from water resources. These deer can also be found near cultivated areas like garden and plantation where they come to find food. Sambar deer faces certain threats. The first and foremost threat is hunting. Sambar deer is hunted for sports, food, medicinal products and also for many other purposes. Then other threats include local insurgency, land fragmentation, degradation of forest lands which are caused by industrial exploitation of habitat and also deforestation. And now finally, let us see about the conservation status of Sambar deer. See, Sambar deer is listed as a vulnerable species under the IUCN Red List of 300 species. In India, Sambar deer is protected under the Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. With these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, look at this front page article. It says that the centre has decided to nominate Assam's Chardo Moidams for the UNESCO World Heritage Site status this year. It is basically the Ahom equivalent of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Moidams represent the late medieval Mount Baryal tradition of the Thai Ahom community in Assam. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us understand about the Ahom dynasty. The Ahom dynasty was a medieval kingdom in the Brahmabutra valley in Assam. It lasts from 1228 to 1826 and it is called as the Kingdom of Assam in medieval times. Also, note that this kingdom successfully resisted the Mughal expansion in north-eastern India. As far as the establishment is concerned, Ahom was established by Suhafa, a Thai prince from Mo Mau. Suhafa occupied a depopulated region near the Burhidehing river in the north. The Dihawa river in the south and the Padhae mountains in the east. He befriended the local groups, the Barahi and Marans and finally settled his capital at Charidio. Now in this map, you can see the extent of the Ahom kingdom. However, this kingdom became weaker with the rise of the Moa Mario Rebellion. And subsequently, it fell to the succession of Burmese invasions. The Burmese were defeated by English in the First Anglo-Burnese War. As per the Treaty of Endabo, in 1826, the control of the kingdom passed into the British East India Company's hand. Now we will see some highlights of this empire. The Ahoms brought with them the technology of wet rice cultivation that they shared with other groups. Then they followed a system called as the Paika system. It was a compulsory labour service system introduced by the Momai Tamuli Barbarua under the patronage of Pradap Singh. Though it came to be called as the Ahom kingdom, it was largely multi-ethnic. The kingdom had only 10% of ethnic Ahom people population towards the end. Then, the Ahom called their kingdom as Mongdun Shunham. It means the casket of gold, but others called it Azam. The king under the Ahom kingdom is called Swargadeva. He should be a descendant of the first king Suhafa. Later, Pradap Singh added two offices, Barbarua and Barfukan. The Barbarua is the military as well as the judicial head, whereas Barfukan is military and civil command. Five positions of importance constituted the council of ministers. They were known as the Patramandris. These mandiris advised the kings on important matters of the state. So this is in brief about the Ahom kingdom. Now we will move on to the next part of our discussion which is practice questions. For the prelims practice questions, we have five questions. Four will be discussed by me and one will be the quiz question for the day. Question number one. Which among the following are the means of protecting critical infrastructure and human beings? One, Franklin lightning rod. Two, early streamer emission system. Three, charge transfer systems. Which of the given statements are correct? See, Franklin rod is not the only way to protect against the lightning strikes. There are other systems such as early streamer emission systems, charge transfer systems. Early streamer emission systems closely resembles a lightning rod and works in much the same way. But the charge transfer system prevents the lightning from forming within the area of protection. So the correct answer to this question is option D, 1, 2 and 3. Question number 2. With reference to the sambar deer, consider the following statements. Statement number 1. It is native to Indian subcontinent. Statement number 2. It is a state animal of Andhra Pradesh. Statement number 3. It is characterized as endangered in the IUCN red list of 300 species. Which of the statements given above is RR incorrect? See, sambar deer is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent, southern China and southeast Asia as we saw in the discussion. Here, statement number 2 is incorrect. Sambar deer is the state animal of Odisha and also know that black book is the state animal of Andhra Pradesh. Statement number 3 is also incorrect. It is listed as vulnerable in the IUCN red list and not endangered. Here, the question is asking for the incorrect statement. So the correct answer for this question is option B, 2 and 3 only. Question number 3. Consider the following statements regarding Ahum dynasty. Statement number 1. The first capital of Ahum dynasty is Charaidio and the last and final capital of Ahum dynasty is Gargaon. Statement number 2. The battle of Sarraigad was fought between the Ahums and the British. Which of the above statements is RR correct? See here, the statement number 1 is incorrect. The first Ahum king, Sugafa established Charaidio in the year 1253 AD. After him, the later Ahum kings established another four capital cities. One at Charagua, then at Gargaon and then at Rangpur and finally at Jurgat. So, the last capital is Jurgat and not Gargaon. Here, the statement number 2 is again incorrect. Because the battle of Sarraigad was a naval battle between the Mughals and Ahums. Although weaker, the Ahum army tried and defeated the Mughal army by brilliant use of terrain and clever diplomatic negotiations to buy time. They also used guerrilla tactics and psychological warfare. So, the correct answer here is option D neither 1 nor 2. Question number 4. Consider the following statements regarding the enforcement directorate. Statement number 1. Directorate of enforcement functions under the Ministry of Finance. Statement number 2. The headquarters of the directorate of enforcement is at Delhi and it has five regional offices. Which of the above statements is RR correct? Here, the first statement is correct. In 1950, the administrative control of the directorate was transferred from the Department of Economic Affairs to the Department of Revenue. Now, this Department of Revenue is under the Ministry of Finance. Statement number 2. This is also correct. The directorate of enforcement with its headquarters at New Delhi is headed by director of enforcement. There are five regional offices, one at Mumbai, then at Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Delhi. And they are headed by special directors of enforcement. So, here the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. Question number 5. This is the quiz question for you. Read it carefully. Interested aspirants can post the answer in the comment box below. Displayed here are the main questions for your practice. 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