 A very good evening aspirants, I have a very good announcement for you, see there is a very famous quote by Abraham Lincoln which says, if I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I would spend 6 hours sharpening my axe. Similarly, to successfully clear problems, you have to give a lot of mock test as much as possible. And just to help you towards your goal, Shankarayas Academy is conducting all India preliminary mock test. See, you really don't have to pay for this test because this test is free. You can use this test to sharpen your strategy. The mock test will be conducted across 13 centres in both online and offline modes and it will be held on 3 different dates. The first test will be starting on 15th of May 2022. So don't forget to register for the examination. The registration link is in the description and in a one click away, you can register for the examination and just prepare for your mock test. Make use of this opportunity and with this positive note, let us move on to the news article discussion. See today we have 4 different news articles. In this first news article discussion, we will be discussing about whistle blowers. We will be seeing about their significance and issues faced by them and some of the legal protections provided by government to the whistle blowers. So following that, our second news article discussion will be about swapping policy for electric vehicles. Then we will be seeing a news article discussion regarding mangrove forest. And finally, we will end our discussion by discussing about Chola Dynacity. So now without wasting much time, let us get into the news article discussion. Today let us start our discussion with this news article discussion. Look at this article. This article talks about Ms. Sophie Zhang, who is a data scientist and a whistle blower. She worked at Facebook between 2018 and 2020. She worked in Site Integrity Fake Engagement Team, which was created to deal with boat accounts. While investigating these fake accounts, Ms. Zhang, she uncovered abusive political manipulation and opposition harassment networks in 25 countries, including India. She was about to depose before the Standing Committee on Communication and Information and Technology. So here deposition is a formal written statement made by a witness, which can be used in a court of law if the witness cannot be present. But the parliamentary rules require speakers' consent for witnesses to participate in meetings through videoconference from abroad. So the permission was sought from the speaker to allow Ms. Zhang's deposition. The speaker is yet to take the decision and this is the news here. So with this as the background, we will learn about whistleblowers today, their importance, issues faced by them, and legal protection given by government for whistleblowers. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Just go through it. First of all, who is a whistleblower? See whistleblowers reports illegal activities within an organization. A whistleblower is a person who could be an employee of a company or a government agency who disclose information to the public or some higher authority about any wrongdoings which could be in the form of fraud, corruption, etc. A whistleblower could be an employee, contractor or a supplier who becomes aware of any illegal activities. So have this basic understanding. There are two types of whistleblowers. They are internal whistleblowers and external whistleblowers. Internal whistleblowers are those who report the misconduct, fraud or indiscipline to senior officers of the organization such as head human resource or CEO. Internal whistleblowing is a term used when whistleblowers report the wrongdoings to people outside the organization such as the media, higher government officials or police. Now what is the significance of whistleblowing? Is it right to do it? See whistleblowing is one of the most effective way to detect and prevent corruption and other mall practices. Whistleblowers, disclosures have exposed wrongdoings and fraud helped to save millions in public funds, avoid disasters for health, environment, etc. Whistleblowers' important role in safeguarding the public good is repeatedly proved by the scandals they uncover such as industry scale tax avoidance like Panama Papers and money laundering like Dunscape Bank scandal, many like that. Many more cases of wrongdoings could have been prevented if more people had come forward to expose problems to their organizations, the authorities or the media. Unfortunately reporting often comes at a high price. Whistleblowers risk their career, their livelihood and sometimes their personal safety to expose wrongdoings that threatens the public interest. They may be fired, sued, blacklisted, arrested, threatened or in extreme cases even assaulted or killed. And in some societies whistleblowing carries concussions of betrayal rather than being seen as a benefit to the public. The three main reasons people give for not reporting corruption are firstly fear of consequences like legal, financial and reputational consequences, secondly the belief that nothing will be done that it will not make any difference, thirdly uncertainty about how, where and to whom to report. See protecting whistleblowers from unfair treatment including retaliation, discrimination or disadvantage can give courage to people to report wrongdoings. So companies, public bodies and non-profit organizations should introduce mechanisms for internal reporting. See a protective environment for whistleblowers is crucial to allow them to report instances of malpractices without having to face the dilemma of doing the right thing and risking one's career or remaining silent at the expense of the public good. In India, whistleblowers were protected by the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2014. See the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2014 enables any person that is a whistleblower to report an act of corruption, willful misuse of power or discretion or criminal offence by a public servant. This includes all public servants including ministers, members of parliament, the lower judiciary, regulatory authorities, central and state government employees etc. Such disclosures are made to a specified competent authority who must conduct a discrete inquiry and conceal the identity of the complainant and public servant. That is the act specifies the competent authority for each category of public servant. For example it would be the prime minister for a union minister, speaker or chairman for members of parliament, the chief justice of the High Court for district court judges, the central or state vigilance commission for government servants and remember competent authority has the power to issue appropriate direction to the concerned government authorities including police which should take necessary steps to protect such complainant or public servant or persons concerned. The competent authority has also had a responsibility to protect the identity of the complainant and documents or information furnished by him. The competent authority also prepares a consolidated annual report of the performance of its activities and submit it to the central or state government that will be further laid before each house of parliament or state legislature. Remember the act prohibits two categories of information from being disclosed. This included information related to sovereignty, strategy, scientific or economic interest of India, foreign relations or the incitement of an offence and secondly proceedings of the council of ministers. The act is not applicable to the special protection group or SPG personal and officers constituted under the special protection group act 1988. Remember this fact. Note that any person who reveals the identity of a complainant will be punishable with imprisonment for a term extending up to three years and a fine which may extend up to 50,000 rupees. See strengthening of the whistleblower protection mechanism will help in ensuring that the integrity of democracy is protected, cherished and upheld. So that's all about this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw about whistleblowers, we saw who is the whistleblower in that we saw two types of whistleblowers namely the internal whistleblower and the external whistleblower then we saw the significance of whistleblowing and finally we saw some of the features of the whistleblowing protection act 2014. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now let us see this article that was in the business page. See this article is about the draft battery swapping policy released by Nithya Yoke. See the policy is targeted at electric two and three wheelers as the government think tank aims to expedite large scale adoption of electric vehicles. So this is the cracks of the news article given here. In this context let us learn more about the battery swapping policy. See we all know India has committed to achieve net zero emissions by 2070 at the 26th conference of parties or COP26 in November 2021 right. This will require clear pathways to decorbonise high gritos gas or GHG intensive sectors such as transport and energy. So to decorbonise transport the transition to clean mobility led by electric vehicles or EVs is very important. So that is why electric vehicles are given more importance and with this commitment now let us see about the electronic vehicles. See electric vehicles are traditionally purchased with fixed batteries which can only be charged using the power supply while housed within the electric vehicle. Like petrol diesel fueling stations for internal combustion engines vehicles are required affordable accessible and reliable charging networks or a prerequisite for mass electric vehicle adoption efforts or underway in India to boost the availability of charging infrastructure but the problem here is charging takes significantly longer than refuelling an internal combustion engine and this is where battery swapping becomes relevant and it is seen as an alternative to charging the electric vehicles. See battery swapping means exchanging discharged batteries for charged ones and providing flexibility to charge them separately. So this de-links charging and battery usage and keeps the vehicle in operational mode with negligible downtime. See this battery swapping is generally used for small vehicles such as two-wheelers and three-wheelers with smaller batteries that are easy to swap compared to four-wheelers and e-buses. So here battery swapping offers three key advantages related to charging. The first one is time, next is space because there will be no need for multiple charging stations and thirdly it is cost efficient provided each swappable battery is actively used and with this understanding now let us see about the other features of the policy. See battery swapping falls under the broader umbrella of battery as a service business models which involve users purchasing an electric vehicle without the battery which significantly lowers upfront cost and paying a regular subscription fee like daily, weekly or monthly etc. See this fee is to the service providers for battery services throughout the vehicle lifetime and the policy stipulates the minimum technical and operational requirements that battery swapping ecosystems would need to fulfil. And this is to enable effective, efficient, reliable, safe and customer friendly implementation of battery swapping infrastructure. And the policy also highlights the possible ways in which various national and subnational government agencies and public sector enterprises or PSCs may provide direct and indirect financial support to battery providers for the cost of the batteries and electric vehicle users for the upfront cost of purchasing electric vehicles with the aim of driving electric vehicle adoption by lowering the cost of electric vehicles for users relatively to internal combustion engine vehicles. Apart from this the policy emphasises enabling innovation in adoption of possible business models and de-risking the investment in required infrastructure to encourage private sector participation and attract affordable financing. And more importantly the policy underlines the importance of reuse of end of first life swappable batteries and recycling of end of life batteries. And the policy also lays the groundwork to create unique battery codes for ACC batteries falling under this policy. Finally, this policy lays down an institutional framework to facilitate on-ground implementation of the required battery swapping infrastructure and to realise the stated policy objectives. And that is all about the overview of the policy. In this news article discussion we saw why this draft battery swapping policy is necessary. Then we saw about battery swapping. We saw what actually battery swapping means. Battery swapping is nothing but exchanging discharged batteries for charged ones and providing flexibility to charge them separately. So this process actually delinks charging and battery usage and keeps the vehicle in operational mode with negligible downtime. Then we saw some of the advantages of battery swapping. Then we finally saw about some of the important features of the draft policy. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it is about the Pichawaram mangroves. See Pichawaram mangrove forest in the coastal Kadaloo district is a storehouse of biodiversity and it is considered the second largest in the country after West Bengal's Sundabans. See at present on both the sides of the Velar and Kholeron rivers it is a unique ecosystem spread over 1000 hectares. But however Pichawaram has not found the place it deserves on the tourism map of India and this is the essence of the article given here. In this context let us learn about mangroves and the points that are mentioned in the article regarding Pichawaram. First of all what are mangroves? See mangroves are diverse group of salt tolerant plant communities. They commonly occur in tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world that is between latitude 24 degree north and 38 degree south. Interestingly they exhibit varied morphological and physiological evolutionary adaptations to survive. See mangroves can be seen in intertidal region. So the challenging factor like lack of oxygen, high salinity and diurnal tidal inundation all will be present in order to overcome these plant adopt to some kind of adaptation. For example succulent leaves, sunken, stomata, aerial breathing roots called nematopores, vibipary, stilt roots, patruses etc or some of the adoptations exhibited by mangroves. And the specific regions where these plants occur or termed as mangrove ecosystem they are highly productive but extremely sensitive and fragile. Remember these facts and with this basic understanding about the mangroves now let us see about the distribution of mangroves in India. See the distribution of mangrove ecosystem on Indian coastlines indicates that the Sundarman mangrove Hockupai very large area followed by Andaman Nicobar Islands and Gulf of Kachin, Gujarat. Rest of the mangrove ecosystem is comparatively smaller. Here is the list of states which have mangroves just go through it. Very important fact that you have to remember with respect to problems. Now coming to Pichawaram mangroves. As we already saw this mangrove is actually sandwiched between two primitive estuaries, the Velar estuary in the north and Kolarun estuary in the south. The Velar Kolarun estuary complex forms the Kili backwater and Pichawaram mangroves. The source of freshwater to this mangrove is from both the estuaries and that of sea water in Bay of Bengal. Very very important fact make note of them. According to the article it is said that the tourism potential of the place has not been fully realized. This is because at most the visitors are taken on a boat ride through the numerous creeks in the ecosystem. See at present Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation or TTDC operates a boathouse and according to forest department eco-friendly cottages and dormitories were damaged during the 2004 tsunami. Since then no efforts were taken by the government to restore the damage caused by the tsunami. The revenue from the boat rides goes to Irular community, the rest is spent on the welfare of tribal families in traditional settlements in the area. See the ecosystem should be protected because mangroves are the first line of defense for coastal communities and play a major role in minimizing the impacts of natural disasters like tsunami, floods and cyclones. According to the article the biggest threat in the area is the proliferation of shrimp farms. See the farms are illegally drawing water from the natural creeks in the mangrove ecosystem apart from this irresponsible visitors littering sensitive areas are also a cause for concern. Owing to this reason government planned a master plan for the development of Pichawaram with help of locals. The proposal included development of eco-friendly stays for visitors and other service infrastructure. The idea is to involve the local communities in the activities and generate revenue for them. This is a step in promoting sustainable community based tourism. This is crucial because the local communities that is Irulas and their knowledge of ecosystem and its biodiversity is a great asset. So that's all you have to know about from this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw about mangroves, we saw some of its unique features then we saw the distribution of mangrove ecosystem in India and finally we saw in brief about Pichawaram mangroves and some of the issues with respect to the ecosystem. So with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it is about the temple in Kone Rajapuram. See it was constructed by Sembian Mahadevi as per the inscriptions and the hymns of Saivite saints Tirunavakarasar and Tiranyana Samandar. See the temple is also where the tallest bronze Nairaja idol of the Chola period is located and this is the essence of the article given here. In this context let us learn about the Chola empire from Pram's point of view. See as you know powerful kingdoms had risen in southern India during the sixth and eighth centuries among them Pallavas and Pandyas dominated Tamil Nadu and the Cheras dominated the modern Kerala and the Chalukyas dominated the Deccan area. See the Chola empire rose in the ninth century which dominated a large part of the Peninsula. With this basic info let us see some of the important facts of the Chola empire. See the empire is found by Vijayalaya he was a feudatory of Pallavas. He captured Tanjur in 850 AD at the end of ninth century Chola defeated Pallavas of Kanji and weakened Pandyas. This brought the entire south Tamil region under their control. Now we will see some of the important Chola rulers. The greatest Chola ruler were Raja Raja and his son Rajendra I. See Raja Raja destroyed the Chera navy at Trivandrum and attacked Quilon. He conquered Madurai and captured Pandya king. He also invaded Sri Lanka and annexed its northern part to the Chola empire. One of his naval exploits include the conquest of Maldives and he annexed the north western parts of the Ganga kingdom in Karnataka and Rajendra I he carried forward the annexationist policy of his father Raja Raja. Rajendra completely overran Pandya and Chera kingdoms. He also fully annexed Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka was not able to free Hursal from the Chola empire for another 50 years. One of the most remarkable exploits is the march across Kalinga to Bengal in which the Chola armies crossed Ganga river and defeated two local kings. To commemorate this occasion Rajendra I assumes the title of Gangaikonda Chola that is the Chola who conquered the Ganga. He built a new capital in the mouth of Kaveri river and called it as Gangaikonda Cholapuram. So in this map you can see the extent of the Chola empire. See the Chola sent naval expeditions to Sri Vijaya empire which includes Malaya Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and neighboring islands and the Vijaya empire controlled trade route to China. In order to remove obstacles to Indian traders and to expand trade with China Chola conquests Kadaram and a number of other places in Malaya Peninsula and Sumatra. The Chola navy was the strongest and for some period the Bay of Bengal was called the Chola lake. See the Chola empire continued to flourish till 13th century after that Chola was taken down by the Pandyas and Hursalyas. So with these basic understanding now let us see the characteristics of the empire. See the king was the important person in the Chola administration. Chola's authority rested with him and he had a council of ministers to advise him. Cholas maintained a large army consisting of elephant, cavalry, infantry. They are called the three limbs of the army. The Cholas also had a strong navy which dominated Malabar and Coromandel coast and for some time the entire Bay of Bengal. The Chola state included area of central control. The basic unit of administration is called Nado which consisted a number of villages having a close kinship. Nado's were grouped into Bala Nado's and the entire Chola state were divided into four mandalams or provinces. Sometimes princes of the royal family were appointed as the governors of the provinces. See make note of these words. There might be a question in the preliminary examination. Apart from this the Cholas built a network of roads which were used for trade and the movement of the army. The Chola also paid attention to irrigation. Many tanks for irrigation were built. Water from cavalry and other rivers were used for the purpose. Now coming to revenue the Cholas drew income from land tax, toll on trade, tax on professions and also from the plunder of the neighboring countries. Coming to the cultural part see the temple architecture in the south attained its climax under the Cholas. The style of architecture that was prevalent during this period was Dravidian style of architecture. The main feature of the style is building many storey above the Garbaghraha. This is the innermost chamber where the chief deity resides. And the number of storeys above came to be called as Vimana. We know that right. A pillard hall called Mandaba with carved structures and flat roof were generally placed in front of the Santam. It acted as an audience hall and a place for ceremonial dances performed by Devadasis. An example for such an architecture include Brahadishwara temple in Tanjur built by Raja Raja I. So that's all you have to know about Chola Empire. In this news article discussion we in briefly saw about Chola dynasty. So with these learn points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice questions. Now look at this first question. Consider the following statements with reference to mangroves in India. Statement 1. In India mangroves can be only seen in Vispingal and Andaman and Nicobar islands. Statement 2. Mangroves are tropical and salt tolerant plants. Which of the above statements is or are correct. Option A 1 only. Option B 2 only. Option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither 1 nor 2. See the correct answer for the question is option B 2 only. First statement is incorrect. See in the discussion itself we saw a map regarding this right. The distribution of mangrove ecosystem on Indian coastlines indicates that the Sundarband mangroves occupy very large area followed by Andaman Nicobar islands and Gulf of Kachin, Gujarat. Rest of the mangrove ecosystems is comparatively smaller. 10 coastal states in India have mangrove distribution in different amounts. So statement 1 is incorrect here. Now moving on to statement 2. Statement 2 is correct because as we saw in the discussion mangroves or diverse group of salt tolerant plant communities they commonly occur in tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world. That is between latitude 24 degree north and 38 degree south. And also they exhibit varied morphological and physiological evolutionary adaptations to survive. We saw that right. So second statement is correct here. So the correct answer for the question is option B 2 only. Now moving on. Now look at this second question. This question is about Chola Empire. Consider the following statements with reference to the Chola Empire. 1. The founder of Chola dynasty was Rajaraja Chola. Statement 2. Chola Empire had army with elephants, cavalry and infantry but they did not have any naval force. Which of the above statements is or are correct? Option A 1 only, option B 2 only, option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither 1 nor 2. See the correct answer for the question is option D neither 1 nor 2. See statement 1 is incorrect. Because the Chola dynasty was founded by Vijayalaya Chola in 850 A.D. So the founder is not Rajaraja Chola. It is Vijayalaya. He was a feudatory of Pallavas. Now moving on to second statement. Second statement is also incorrect. Because see in our discussion we saw that Chola Empire had army with elephants, cavalry and infantry. This part is correct. But the second part is incorrect. Because in the discussion itself we saw that the Chola navy is the strongest one in the area. So the second part of this statement is incorrect. We saw that it annexed Sri Lanka, held expeditions to Malaya Peninsula, Sumatra and Java right and even where Bengal is called Chola lake. So this statement is incorrect. Now the correct answer for this question is option D neither 1 nor 2. Displayed here are the main questions for today's discussion. Just go through the questions write an answer and post it in the comment section. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, hit like, do comment and share and don't forget to subscribe Shankarai's Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.