 Good evening viewers. Welcome to the Hindu Daily News Analysis for the day 28th of December 2022. Displayed here are the articles that we are going to discuss today. With this, let's start with our first article for the day. Take a look at this editorial article. It talks about the plight of Indian migrant workers. The conditions of the migrants has worsened even more during the pandemic and the subsequent period after it. The author, to substantiate his argument, quotes the example of 300 Indian engineers from the state of Tamil Nadu who were trafficked to Myanmar to work for a crypto scam. He says that they have migrated after a desperate post-COVID-19 job hunt. Before getting into the discussion of this issue, here I have shared the syllabus relevant to this discussion. Go through it. See, the author has shared some data points about the migrants. He says that according to the International Organization of Migrations, World Migration Report 2022, there were 281 million international migrants globally. In this 281 million international migrants, nearly two-thirds are labour migrants. Also, in this larger pool of labour migrants, South Asia's share nearly crosses 40%. Further note that the South Asia Gulf Migratory Corridor is known to be the world's largest migration corridor. Now, coming to the question, what has caused this sudden surge in migration? See, migration is not a new phenomenon. It has been there always. People move to different places in search of employment opportunities, livelihood, etc. However, now the trend has shifted more towards a stress-induced migration. The South Asia Gulf Migratory Corridor is one such example. The migration along this route is primarily due to the fact that India and the South Asian neighbours of it couldn't generate enough employment for the people who are living in this region. Because of this, they are forced to migrate to Gulf areas to find employment with good remuneration. Other than this, there are other migrations taking place around the world which are stress-induced. As you all know, there has been events such as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, worsening poverty in the sub-Saharan region, and also the climate change-induced migrations. These all issues combine together as resulted in large-scale migration. When people move from their home country due to reasons of war or poverty, they are unlikely to receive a warm welcome in the country to which they are migrating. This is all about a brief background about migration. Here, the author mainly focuses on the plight of labour migrants only. So, now we will see what are the problems faced by them one by one. See, India is the largest migrant sending and remittance receiving country. Despite this, the welfare of the Indian migrants abroad is hardly a priority for the government and its policy makers. The author says this because, there is no comprehensive migration policy in India to ensure a decent living or safe movement of migrants abroad. This is one of the main reasons for the poor conditions of Indian migrants working abroad. Secondly, India governs migration using the Immigration Act of 1983. In the last 40 years, migration has witnessed many changes. However, the act has not been updated with respect to the changing needs of the time. Also, the immigration bill 2021 which is envisaged to replace the 1983 act is still not passed by the parliament. Thirdly, the policies of the receiving countries seriously affect the conditions of migrants. Needless to say, they seek to exploit the labour migrants. For example, take the case of Kafala system, which is nothing but a sponsorship system that regulates the relationship between employers and migrant workers. See, under this system, a migrant worker's immigration status is legally bound to an individual employer or sponsor who is called as Kafil. So, basically during the contract period, the migrant worker cannot even switch to another job. Also note that he even cannot leave the country for any reason without first obtaining explicit written permission from the Kafil. See, this practice is totally exploitative. This is due to the fact because during the pandemic, the economic situation of all businesses were so down. The employers reduced the salaries of these migrant workers and made them work for low wages. And if the workers are not ready to work for it and chose to return to their home country, they are not allowed to do so. This is due to the fact that they have signed an agreement with the Kafil saying that during a proposed period of time, they will be working for the employer. Here note that no authorities are there to help them out during this situation. So, they are forced to stay back and work for the particular organization for which they have signed the agreement. Then comes the issue of wage theft. This denotes non-payment or reduction in wages. The pandemic has resulted in unemployment, under-employment, a reduction in salaries and more importantly in the non-payment of salaries, compensation and residual dues. So, this further worsens the condition of laborers. Then, with respect to social security, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries has been accused of not providing good healthcare services, employment, benefits and social security production for migrant workers. The recently held Qatar World Cup issued global attention for this particular issue. See, traditionally Qatar is not a footballing country but due to the fact that it got the ownership right at the 2022 World Cup. It was in a need to develop football infrastructure in a very quick time. The Qatar got the ownership right to host the Football World Cup in the year 2010 and the Football World Cup was to be held in the year 2022. So, there was only 12 years gap to develop all the critical football infrastructure facilities inside the country. So, Qatar turned to immigrant laborers to help complete the infrastructure work. According to the famous Guardian report, nearly 6,500 immigrant laborers died during these 12-year period but all these debts were reported as natural debts. Here, we can see that from this incident that there was not enough protection given to the migrant workers. Then, other issues that are highlighted in the article include irregular payment, poor-wound working condition, negation of labor rights, the absence of proper grievance redress mechanisms. Here, also note that access to a transparent judicial system is not available to the migrant laborers. Finally, the author talks about one more issue with respect to women migrant workers. The women migrant workforce is largely limited to Gulf Cooperation Council countries and OECD countries. Here, they are working as caregivers and nurses in the most volatile countries such as Iraq and Syria. With the absence of women-centric policies, there emerges a concern about these women workers. Here, note that most of the nurses working in the Gulf countries are from the state of Kerala. The points which we have seen till now are some of the issues faced by the migrant workers as put forward by the author in the editorial. In this context, you should know about a non-binding resolution of the United Nations. The resolution is titled as Global Compact for Safe, Orderly Migration and Regular Migration. It recognizes the challenges faced by migrants across the country. So now, it's with the government to revisit its policies in the post-pandemic era by engaging all stakeholders. The first step in the right direction would be that of passing the immigration bill 2021. We will see a little brief on the bill before concluding the discussion on this article. See, the immigration bill 2021 proposes a three-tier institutional framework. It launches a new immigration policy division which will be referred to as Central Immigration Management Authority. Then it proposes a Bureau of Immigration Policy and Planning and a Bureau of Immigration Administration to handle day-to-day operational matters and oversee the welfare of immigrants. And finally, Nodal agencies and their chief immigration officer to ensure the welfare and protection of migrants is also told to be put in force. These institutional frameworks, if operationalized would bring down the number of migrants who cross the borders with the aid of illegal agencies or unregistered brokers. It would ensure that all immigrants are registered thereby promoting their welfare. We will see more about the law once it passed. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we saw about the plight of migrant workers who are working in the foreign countries as laborers. And also, we saw about few points regarding the immigration bill 2021. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Now, let's move on to the next news article. Take a look at this article. According to it, Ariana Sugarcane Farmers are seeking hike in the minimum support price of sugarcane. For that, they are planned to protest. So, let us see few relevant points about sugarcane. See, sugarcane is one of the important crops grown in India as it is the main source of sugar, jaggery and molasses. It is a crop of tropical as well as sub-tropical areas. Here, note that it takes almost a year to grow. Further, it is a plantation crop. See, plantation crops are those which are cultivated on an extensive scale. Also, note that they are commercial crops of perennial nature. So, employment of labor in sugarcane fields is needed throughout the year. Another important fact is that it is a water-intensive crop. So, it requires an annual rainfall between 75 cm and 100 cm. Plus, it grows well in hot, sub-humid and humid climate with a temperature of about 21 degree Celsius to 27 degree Celsius. In such places, it is cultivated in rain-fed conditions. But note that this crop is also grown in areas of low rainfall. But in these areas, man-made irrigation facilities are used. Primarily, in India, sugarcane is largely cultivated in irrigated areas only. We have seen about the climatic conditions required for the growth of sugarcane. Now, let's move on to see about the soil conditions required. See, sugarcane can be grown on a variety of soils. In Northern India, it is cultivated largely on the loams, clay loams and other aloe vera. In Peninsular India, it is grown on black or reddish loams, laterites and black cotton soils. So, where is sugarcane cultivated in India? In Indo-Gangetic Plain, it is cultivated in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana. Mainly, its cultivation is largely concentrated in areas around Uttar Pradesh. Here, note that Uttar Pradesh alone produces about 40% of India's sugarcane. Now, coming to western India. See, in western India, it is cultivated in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. In southern India, it is cultivated in irrigated tracts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The leading sugarcane producing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. On a global scale, India is the second largest producer of sugarcane in the world after Brazil. Here, note that India is the largest consumer of sugar. As per government's data, India's sugar industry today as an annual output worth approximately Rs. 80,000 crores. Even with this level of production, price of sugarcane always remains an issue in India. Thus, determining the price is an important feature of Indian sugar policy. The objective here is for the price to be sufficiently attractive to motivate the farmers to grow sugarcane and ensure that the sugar mills will have sufficient sugarcane to crush. Hence in India, the process of establishing a price for sugarcane is organized through a dual price scheme. One is fair and renumerative price and the other is state advised price. Here, note that FRP is notified by the central government and SAP is recommended by the state government. Here, some states declare SAP over and above the FRP. Now, the issue given in the newspaper is that Haryana farmers are demanding a rise in SAP only. The newspaper wrongly mentions it as MSP. With this, we have come to the end of our discussion. Through this discussion, we have seen about the climatic and soil conditions required for the growth of sugarcane and also saw about leading sugarcane producing states in India and India's sugarcane production in comparison with the global production. And finally, we saw about FRP and SAP with these learned points. Now, let's move on to the next news article. Take a look at this news article. It mentions that India aims to boost the green hydrogen industry and for this, a $2 billion or Rs. 180 billion initiative program is being planned. Through this initiative, India aims to achieve a twin objective of cutting emissions and becoming a major exporter of green hydrogen. You may wonder why such importance is given to hydrogen. Let us understand that by first seeing some basics about hydrogen. See, hydrogen is a clean fuel which provides a high energy yield. Hence, hydrogen is one of the most promising alternative fuels to the tough fossil fuels. It is produced from a variety of resources such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass and renewable power like solar and wind. These qualities make it an attractive fuel option for transportation and electricity generation applications. So, it can be used as a fuel in cars, in houses for generating electricity and in many other areas. Here, note one important fact. Hydrogen is not an energy source but an energy carrier. This is due to the fact that to produce hydrogen we need some sort of already produced energy. Now, coming back. See, hydrogen can deliver or store a tremendous amount of energy. Thus, hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity or power and heat. Now, coming to the different types of hydrogen. See, there are majorly three types of hydrogen namely, grey, blue and green. Grey hydrogen denotes the hydrogen which are produced by fossil fuel sources. When hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, they generate significant carbon emissions. Hence, they are called as grey hydrogen. Now, coming to the blue hydrogen. Here, note that blue hydrogen is same as the tough grey hydrogen. But the carbon dioxide emissions while producing blue hydrogen are captured during production itself. So, they are kept out of the atmosphere. See, this is a minor difference between grey hydrogen and blue hydrogen. While the CO2 emissions during the production of grey hydrogen is not captured, in the blue hydrogen it is captured. So, blue hydrogen is much more greener than grey hydrogen. Now, coming to the term green hydrogen. See, it is one of the cleanest sources of hydrogen. Hence, the name green is given to it. It is generated by renewable energy sources without producing carbon dioxide emissions in the first place. Normally, green hydrogen is produced by solar power or wind power. I hope by now you got the minor differences between the three types of hydrogen. Based on the importance of hydrogen fuel India launched the national hydrogen mission. National hydrogen mission lays down the vision, intent and direction for a harnessing hydrogen energy by the government of India. The mission's aim is to develop India as a global hub for manufacturing of hydrogen and fuel cells technology across the blockchain. By doing this, the mission aims to aid the government in meeting its climate target. Particularly, the mission aims to make India a green hydrogen hub. To achieve this, a target is set under the mission. The target is to produce 5 million tons of green hydrogen by the year 2030. This is all about the aim of national hydrogen mission. Following this, India even launched a green hydrogen and green ammonia policy. The policy defines green hydrogen as the hydrogen produced by way of electrolysis of water using renewable energy. As I said earlier, green hydrogen can be produced from renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy. And here note that it can also be produced using geothermal and nuclear energy also. Now let us see briefly about the green hydrogen produced from biomass. See, biomass is organic as it is made of material that comes from living organisms. It includes plants, waste, wood and animal waste. In the process of producing hydrogen from biomass, microbes such as bacteria and microalgae are involved. The production process can be done using two ways. One is called microbial biomass conversion process. Here the microorganisms consume and digest biomass and release hydrogen. Other one is the photo-biological process. Here the microbes use sunlight as the energy source to release hydrogen. This is all about how hydrogen can be produced from biomass. Now let us see the advantages associated with green hydrogen. First and foremost advantage is that it does not emit polluting gases either during combustion or during production. By doing this it reduces emissions and thereby helps in addressing the climate change threats. Through this particular capacity, green hydrogen provides the capability to decarbonize the entire value chain. This is about the advantage of green hydrogen. Now coming to the issues present in it. As I said earlier green hydrogen is not a source of energy but only a carrier. To produce green hydrogen itself, we need energy from solar, wind power or nuclear energy or biomass energy. So the entire process makes the green hydrogen costlier. The next issue is that green hydrogen is a highly volatile and flammable element. So transferring it over long distances will be difficult. These are some of the disadvantages associated with green hydrogen. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we have seen about the different types of hydrogen and we also saw about green hydrogen some of its advantages and some of its disadvantages. With this let us move on to the next news article. Now for our next discussion let us take this article. It says that the election commission would begin the delimitation exercise of constituencies in Assam. It is said that the delimitation exercise would be carried out as per the section 8a of the representation of people act 1950. And as mandated under article 170 of the Indian constitution 2001 census will be used for this particular readjustment. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us understand about delimitation and also about the statutory and constitutional provisions mentioned in this article. But before that the syllabus required for this discussion is highlighted here. Interested aspirants can go through it. Firstly let us start with the question what is meant by the term delimitation. See delimitation is defined as the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country which is having a legislative body. To understand this definition better you should know what is meant by a constituency. See a constituency is a geographically defined area in which voters elect a representative to a legislative body to represent their will. As you all know in our country we have both central and state legislatures. The territorial constituencies for both these legislatures will differ. Let us take the case of Assam itself. Assam as a state assembly which has 126 seats in it. And the state also has 14 loks above seats allotted to it. Now look at this image here. This map shows the territorial constituency of Assam for the 14 loks above seats. And note that these 14 geographical areas are only called as territorial constituencies for loks above. I hope now you got an idea about what is meant by constituency. Here the yellow region indicates the territorial constituency reserved for SCs. It means that only SC candidates can contest in that region. The peach color indicates the territorial constituencies reserved for schedule tribes. Now have a look at this image here. I said Assam as 126 assembly seats right. And this map indicates that 126 territorial constituencies for the Assam assembly seats. This is all about the term territorial constituencies. Now let us move on to the delimitation exercise. The act of drawing the boundary of each territorial constituency is only called as delimitation. Now you may ask why should we redraw the boundaries? See it is to represent changes in population over time. What is the significance of this? See the boundaries of the territorial constituencies are drawn on the basis of population. So if the population of the state increases then it will increase the proportion of seats allotted for that state. And this is why the act of delimitation is done. We have finished seeing about delimitation. Let us see about the provisions mentioned in the article. First of all let us see about article 170 of the Indian constitution. The article said that the 2001 census will be used for the delimitation purpose. You may have wondered why 2001 census will be used for the delimitation purpose when there is a newer census which was taken in the year 2011. This is due to the fact that article 170 of the constitution says that 2001 census should only be used for the readjustment of territorial constituencies. Clause 2 of article 170 says that until census is taken after the year 2026, 2001 census should only be used for readjustment. This is why we are using 2001 census and not 2011 census. This is about the constitutional provision mentioned in the article regarding delimitation. The next provision mentioned in the article regarding delimitation is section 8A of the representation of people in 1950. C. Section 8A of representation of people in 1950 concerns with the delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur or Nagaland. It says that if the president feels that the conditions in these states are conducive for the conduct of delimitation exercise, then he can issue an order to the election commission to conduct the delimitation exercise. Now the election commission only will determine the constituencies for the purpose of elections to legislative assemblies. Election commission also determine the extent of constituencies and the number of seats to be reserved for S.C. and S.T. and the proposal for change will be published in the official gasset for feedback. After receiving the gasset, election commission will consider all the objections and suggestions and it will create an order and this order will be published in the official gasset again. This final order will then be laid before each house of the parliament and legislative assembly of the state concerned. And this is how delimitation is done. Through this discussion, we have seen about the term delimitation, what is meant by territorial constituencies and also about the constitutional and statutory provisions about delimitation mentioned in today's article. With these learnt points, now let's move on to the next news article. Let's take up this opinion page article for our discussion. Just look at the title of the article. It says that focus on Africa, the heart of the global south. Yes this article talks about Africa and its engagement with US and China. So in this news article discussion, let us first understand about Africa's engagement with US and China to have a holistic idea and then we will see about India's ties with Africa. So this is how the article discussion is going to be. Now before getting into the article discussion, the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here. Now let's begin with Africa US engagement. See the article mentions about the outcomes of the recently concluded second US Africa summit. The summit was held from December 13th to December 15th in Washington. The leaders of 49 countries and the chair of the African Union participated from the African side. While the US President Joe Biden hosted the meeting, several important decisions were taken in the summit. Now let us look at some of the decisions one by one. Firstly the United States expressed its support for the African Union to become a permanent member of the G20 grouping. Here the African Union is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The article says that the US assurance to include African Union in the G20 can only happen if US and India overcome the resistance from the Asian and European Union to include AU in the G20 forum. Here note that G20 forum is a forum consisting of the 19 world leading economies and one regional grouping of European Union. Now coming back. Secondly the US expressed its full support for reforming the UN Security Council to include permanent representation for Africa. According to the author of this article in reality this UN reform include a representative from Africa into its Security Council will be a hard one. He further says that it won't happen until a very long time from now. Thirdly the President and Vice President of USA promised to visit Africa next year. The author says that it will be a welcome change because no US president has visited Africa since the year 2015. Apart from these promises the US has also announced new investments and initiatives. This includes offering 21 billion dollars to the International Monetary Fund to provide access to necessary financing for low and middle income countries. As many of the countries present in Africa are low and middle income countries this funding provided to the IMF will be helpful to them. Apart from this US also pledged to provide 10 million dollars for a pilot program to boost the security capacity of its African partners. These are some of the outcomes of the Second US Africa Summit. Here note that not only US through its consistent diplomacy and extensive economic support has engaged with Africa, China has also risen to become African continent's largest trading partner and fourth largest investor even suppressing the United States. Yes while trade between the United States and Africa was 45 billion dollars in 2021, trade between China and Africa was about 40 billion dollars. Just look at the numbers. China Africa trade is nearly 6 times more than that of the US Africa trade. Last year the United States invested 30 billion dollars in sub-Saharan Africa while China's total investment in Africa is about 43 billion dollars for the same period. From this we can see that China is becoming a more potent force in the international arena. Here the US and even India can learn from the forum on China-African cooperation. See it was established in the year 2000. The forum is composed of ministers and leaders from Africa and China. They meet once in 3 years alternatively in Beijing and an African capital. The Chinese president participates in deliberations in person or digitally. China even has full-fledged inter-ministerial mechanism to ensure the timely implementation of the decisions made on the forum on China-Africa cooperation. Last meeting was held in the city of Dakar Senegal in the year 2021. In this meeting, Africa expressed support for the Chinese initiatives like Global Development Initiative and the Belt and Road Initiative. This is all about China's engagement in the continent of Africa. Till now I discussed about both the US and China's engagement with Africa. This was done to make you aware of how other countries are dealing with Africa and where India is still lagging. See, India-Africa ties are very important for your main examination. Recently also we had a question in the year 2021 in the main examination. The question is displayed here. Pause the video and go through the question. See to answer questions of this sort reading articles like that of what we are discussing today becomes important. Not only reading but also making note of all the important points discussed in today's article will be very helpful. Coming back now we are going to briefly discuss about India-Africa ties. See India has numerous ties with Africa in relation to trade, security, capacity building, maritime cooperation and food security. We will see them one by one. Firstly, we will see about political engagement. In the last few years Africa has been the focus of India's development assistance and also diplomatic outreach. For example India is now planning to open 18 new embassies in different parts of Africa. Secondly, talking about economic engagement see India's duty free tariff preferential scheme for least developmental nations launched in the year 2008. This particular scheme has benefited nearly 33 African states. Here note that India was the fourth largest import partner and fifth largest export destination for South Africa. Indian African synergies can even be used for expanding sectors like tourism, banking, telecommunications, manufacturing and agriculture. Thirdly, talking about the grants in aid. After South Asia Africa is the second largest recipient of Indian overseas assistance with lines of credit worth billions of dollars. Fourthly, talking about capacity building assistance. Through the Indian technical and economic cooperation, India is providing more than one billion dollars in technical assistance and training to personal under the program. Now coming to security cooperation, see approximately 6000 Indian soldiers are deployed in UN peacekeeping missions in conflict areas in Africa. Finally, talking about medical diplomacy, during the outbreak of COVID-19, India shared exclusive management strategies for training healthcare professionals from Africa. Indian vaccines also were exported to some deserving African countries. So, these are all some of the points that you have to remember with respect to the Indian African ties. India still has a chance to lead development in Africa. This can be done through India's G20 presidency. See, India have to look at the G20 presidency as an opportunity to ensure that African Union becomes a permanent member of this grouping. The author also suggests that fourth India Africa forum summit should be held early in the year 2024. He says that the third summit was held in 2015 and there was no summit after that. Finally, the author concludes by saying that if India should be remembered as the voice of the global south during its G20 presidency it must first understand the mood and changes in Africa. With this, we have come to the end of our discussion. Through this discussion, we saw about US and China's relation with the continent of Africa and also we saw about India's ties with Africa. With these learned points now let's move on to the next news article. Take a look at this text and context article. It talks in detail about the city of Agra and the Kohinoor diamond. We in this discussion are only going to see about the Kohinoor diamond part of this article. The term Kohinoor means mountain of light. This priceless diamond now forms part of the British crown jewels displayed in the tower of London. The timeless beauty that rocked so many monarchs across countries in the past many centuries is now displayed for the viewers to sit back and enjoy in the city of London. Have you ever heard about the timeline of the possession of this diamond? Let us see about this in today's discussion. See, the Kohinoor is a large colorless diamond which was found close to the city of present day Guntur. During the initial periods, it weighed around 793 carats uncut and it was owned by the Kakkadian dynasty. Yes, the Kakkadian kings with their capital at Warangal ruled over most parts of Andhra during 1083 A.D. to 1323 A.D. King Prataparudra and Queen Rudramadhevi had possession of this diamond. During the subsequent years of Kakkadian empire, the kingdom was attacked by the invading forces. In the early 14th century, Allah within Khilji's military general Malik Kafur attacked Warangal. It is said to be the raid by Malik Kafur on the Kakkadian empire was said to be successful and the possession of diamonds changed hands. It remained within the Khilji family line and later paused to the succeeding dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate. Finally, in the 16th century, it came under the possession of Babar. Here note that in the 17th century, Sajagan the 5th Mughal emperor at the stone placed into his ornate Pilkothron. After him his son Aurangazeb had control of the diamond. Aurangazeb ordered the diamond to be cut by Hortense Borgia, a Venetian Lapidari. Lapidiri means a person who cuts, polices or engraves gems. During the process of cutting, the weight of the stone was reduced from 793 carats to 186 carats. For this carelessness, Borgia was admonished and punished. Finally, in the year 1739 Afghan ruler Nadir Shah invaded Delhi. After the ride on the way back home, he took the Kohino diamond with him. In the 18th century after the assassination of Nadir Shah and the collapse of his empire the stone came into the hands of one of his generals, Agmat Shah Durrani. This Durrani became the next Amir of Islamic State of Afghanistan. In 19th century after Agmat Shah, the diamond came into the possession of Agmat Shah Durrani's descendant Sa Suja. Sa Suja brought back the Kohino diamond to India in the year 1830. He gave the diamond to Ranjit Singh, who was also the founding father of the Sikh Empire. In exchange, Ranjit Singh helped Sa Suja retreat through the throne of Islamic State of Afghanistan. Finally, on 29 March 1849, following the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Sikh War the Dominion of Punjab was formally annexed to British India and this is the year in which Treaty of Lagur was also signed. The Kohinoor was given to the Empress and the King's other assets were formally taken over by the company. So this is how the priceless diamond which left the shores of India in the year 1850 now forms part of the British crown jewels displayed in the Tower of London. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we have seen about the timeline of possession of Kohinoor diamond. With this, let's move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this snippet here. It says that the Armenian leadership has raised questions about the role of Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Korobog region. Although the content of the snippet is not much relevant for our discussion, it's important to understand the location of the places given in the article. So we are going to see about the location of Nagorno-Korobog and also about the Lachin corridor present adjacent to it. Before getting into our discussion, let us see about the country's Armenian Azerbaijan. See, Armenia is a country with majority Christian population while Azerbaijan is a country with majority Muslim population lying adjacent to it. The said Nagorno-Korobog territory is present inside the Azerbaijan. This particular territory even though lying within the borders of Azerbaijan has ethnically Armenian population. This difference in culture between the Nagorno-Korobog people and the people of Azerbaijan has led to conflict. This conflict has further got developed into a separatist movement which wants to change the nationhood of this territory from Azerbaijan to Armenia. This separatist movement is gaining support from the Armenian government which is not liked by the Azerbaijan. This has led to violent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan military. This is the brief background of Nagorno-Korobog region. Let me say it once again. Nagorno-Korobog region is a territory located inside Azerbaijan with primarily Armenian ethnic people. Now coming to the Lachin Corridor. See Lachin Corridor links Armenia to Nagorno-Korobog. Being the only road present between Armenia and Nagorno-Korobog it has been often described as the lifeline for the residents of Nagorno-Korobog. This is all about the Nagorno-Korobog and the Lachin Corridor. Now let us briefly see about the borders of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Firstly let us see about the borders of Azerbaijan. See it is a country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the East, Russia to the North, Georgia to the Northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the West, Iran to the South. The capital of Azerbaijan is Baku. Now coming to Armenia. In the North and East Armenia is bounded by Georgia and Azerbaijan, while its immediate neighbors to the South, East and West are respectively Iran and Turkey. The capital of Armenia is Yerevan. This is all with respect to the boundaries of both Azerbaijan and Armenia. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion we have seen about a little brief about Nagorno-Korobog and the Lachin Corridor which connects Nagorno-Korobog with Armenia. Also we have seen about the borders surrounding both the countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan. With this let us move on to the next part of our Hindu daily news analysis which is nothing but the Pralams practice question discussion. Today I have taken four different questions for our discussion. Three will be discussed by me and one will be the first question for you. Now let us get into the first question discussion. See this is a previous year question. Let me read out the question first. Among the following which one is the least water efficient crop? See you have to note the word least. This question asks for the crop which is not so water efficient. The correct answer for this question is option A sugarcane. See paddy and sugarcane, both water-guzzling crops take away almost 60% of India's irrigation water. It takes about 2-10 liters of water to produce 1 kg of sugarcane. Water footprint of sunflower is only 7 to 9 liter per kg. Millets are sown in dry areas with very minimal irrigation. Red gram requires 35 to 40 centimeter water only. As red gram is a rain-fret crop grown in assured rainfall areas usually it does not need any irrigation. So the correct answer for this question is option A sugarcane. Now coming to the second question. See this question is relating to hydrogen. Let me read out the question first. Consider the following statements. Statement 1. Hydrogen cannot be extracted using biological processes. See this statement is incorrect. We saw that hydrogen can be extracted using biomass. So statement 1 is incorrect. Now coming to the second statement. The green hydrogen policy waives interstate transmission charges for a period of 25 years to the producer of green hydrogen. See the statement is correct. Interstate transmission charges are waived for a period of 25 years to the producer of green hydrogen and green ammonia for the projects commissioned before 30th of June 2025. See it is a government intervention on the supply side to reduce the cost of green hydrogen produced in India. So the statement is correct. The question asks for the incorrect statement. So the correct answer for this question is option A1 only. Now coming to the third question. See this question is regarding corridors of the world and the areas which they connect. Let's first see the second pair. Lachin corridor connects Armenia and Russia. From our discussion itself we know that this pair is wrong. So we can eliminate the options B and D. We are only left with A and C. Now let's see the Kartarpur corridor. See Kartarpur corridor is a corridor connecting the state of Punjab with the Kartarpur which is present inside the Pakistan. This corridor was operationalized to allow the Sikh people who are living in India to visit the holy site of Kartarpur which is in Pakistan. So statement 3 is correct. The correct answer for this question is option C 1 and 3 only. Displayed here is the quiz question for you. Interested aspirants can post the correct answer in the comment section. Main's practice question is displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this we have come to the end of our discussion. If you have liked our video, please hit the like button, do comment and share it with your friends. Thank you for listening.