 Good evening aspirants. I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Ayes Academy. Today we will be discussing articles from the newspapers dated 12th of March and 13th of March 2023. We have taken up eight articles. Go through it. Now we will start with the first article discussion. Now look at this article here. It talks about Adel Tree and the judgment in Joseph Schein versus Union of India case. This landmark judgment of the Supreme Court decriminalized Adel Tree. So in our discussion today we will understand about Adel Tree, the judgment that decriminalized Adel Tree and finally its implications on the armed forces. Before that the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go First of all what is Adel Tree? See according to IPC section 497, Adel Tree is defined like this. Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man without the consent or carnivance of that man such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape is guilty of the offence of Adel Tree. Difficult to understand right? That's because it is a legal definition. The simple layman definition is it is just the extra marital affairs. So Adel Tree means voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone who is not that person's partner or spouse. Here the married person might be a male or female. See if a married woman has voluntary sexual intercourse with a person who is not her husband then it is Adel Tree. Likewise if a married man has voluntary sexual intercourse with a person who is not his wife then that is also Adel Tree. So these are the two aspects of Adel Tree. With this understanding about Adel Tree let us see why the Supreme Court struck down section 497. As you all know IPC was enacted in the year 1860 meaning it is in the colonial era. The IPC criminalizes the act of Adel Tree. As you can see here section 497 does not punish the married woman who is involved in extra marital affairs. So section 497 criminalizes only one aspect of Adel Tree. We saw that there are two aspects of Adel Tree right. It involves both married man and women involving in extra marital affairs. But if you see section 497 it covers only one aspect which is when a married woman involves in a sexual relationship with the third person who is not her husband. So if a third person knows that the particular lady is wife of someone and still he has voluntary sexual intercourse with her then he is punishable under section 497. Here the married woman is not punishable. Sounds unfair right. It is unfair for two reasons. Section 497 gives the husband the exclusive right to prosecute the person with whom the wife has committed Adel Tree. The husband can file for a divorce against his Adel Tree as wife on grounds of Adel Tree. However a similar right was not conferred to the wife of an Adel Tree as man. Let us say person A is the husband and person B is the wife. Now person A that is the husband has committed Adel Tree with another woman yes. Then the wife B does not have any provision under which she can prosecute the women yes with whom her husband committed Adel Tree. This is the first reason for unfairness. Secondly, the married women are not punished. Only the third person with whom the married woman had sexual relationship is punished. But for this, Supreme Court in its judgment B Revathi vs Union of India 1988 case said that women are not prosecuted under this section and this is done to protect the sanity of a marriage. So it is like a shield rather than a sword. According to Supreme Court it will give the couples a chance to make up but then this is also unfair. Considering all this, Supreme Court in its Joseph Shine vs Union of India 2018 case struck down section 497. Supreme Court said that section 497 of IPC is unconstitutional. The court held that the section 497 was based on gender stereotypes and hence it violated Article 14 that is equal protection of law and Article 15 non-discrimination on grounds of 6th of the Indian Constitution. The court also observed that any provision asserting husband as a master of wife and treating women with inequality cannot be considered constitutional and from there on Adel Tree stands decriminalized. Now before concluding our discussion let us see about the implications of the judgment on armed forces. Recently the union government sought clarifications about the implications of Joseph Shine vs Union of India judgment on armed forces. See after the decriminalization of Adel Tree, the center was concerned about its implementation in the armed forces. We all know certain rights of armed forces are restricted or obligated to ensure proper discharge of duties and maintenance of discipline among them. So Article 33 of the constitution provides the parliament the power to restrict or abrogate the fundamental rights of certain categories of persons from armed forces. Like I said it is to ensure proper discharge of duties and maintenance of discipline. But this particular judgment makes the Adel Tree's act of armed persons not punishable. So the center said that Adel Tree's acts of certain persons should be allowed to be governed by the relevant sections of the Army Act, the Air Force Act and the Navy Act. This is done by virtue of Article 33 of the constitution. But now the court simply said that it did not approve Adel Tree. It just found Adel Tree as a moral wrong and not a criminal offence. So there is still no clarity whether Adel Tree's acts of armed forces or punishable or not. Because now the Supreme Court did not talk about the nuances of special legislation such as Army Act, Air Force Act or the Navy Act. Here you should know about two important judgments. One is Rajasthan High Court Mahesh Chant Sharma vs State of Rajasthan and others 2019 case. In this case there was a departmental proceeding against an inspector in Rajasthan Police and his illicit relation with the women constable. Here the inspector served for 18 years in the Indian Air Force. The High Court held that no employer can be allowed to do moral policing on its employees. This is because moral policing goes beyond the domain of his public life. So the High Court said that personal choices cannot be a reason for departmental proceedings under the service conduct rules. The second one is the Mahesh by Bujji by Damor vs State of Gujarat and three others 2022 case. Here the case is about the illicit relation of an armed police constable with a widow. Because of this the constable was But the Gujarat High Court quashed the dismissal order. This is in the departmental inquiry. It was found that the relationship was voluntary and mutual. The court held that in order to prove misconduct allegations must have some direct or indirect connection with the duties to be performed by the government servant. But here the constable was dismissed for a private affair. The High Court said that this is an immoral act but it is not an act of misconduct as per conduct rules. This is because it doesn't have anything to do with the duties that were to be performed by the constable. Now these are the judgments that can be related with army also. So as of now we know that if the conduct interferes directly or indirectly with the honest discharge of duties such conduct may be considered as unbecoming of a government servant. This is only the intention of article 33 also. Therefore the author is saying that the right to privacy available to the members of armed forces cannot be taken away unless it has some connection with their duties. Here the author is quoting the example of consumption of alcohol by the armed force person. We know that no departmental actions will be initiated unless the drinking habits or any act of an officer affects the discharge of his duties or discipline of the force. So as per the author this can be followed in the case of adultery also. So in this particular discussion we saw what is adultery and we saw why supreme court struck down section 497 that criminalized adultery. Then we saw various judgments that were pronounced in relation to the act of adultery. So with the long points in mind now we will move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this editorial displayed here. It talks about the proposed provisions of Digital India Act. As you can see the title of the editorial talks about safe harbor clause which is nothing but a protective instrument given to the social media intermediary. So what is this safe harbor provision? See it is given to avoid any legal proceeding against any social media intermediary for anything that is posted in the platform by a user. See if an user yes posts content on Facebook. This content is misleading and it is promoting hatred against a section of society. Here Facebook is hosting the content but can Facebook be sued then? This is why we have a safe harbor provision. This provision gives legal immunity to Facebook. Now Facebook cannot be sued for a content that is posted by a user. This editorial says that the union government is now trying to revisit the safe harbor clause which is provided to the social media intermediaries. This is what is given in this editorial in this context. Let us learn the points discussed in this article. Let's first start with the term social media intermediary. See the term social media intermediary refers to an internet intermediary which primarily enables online interaction. It further allows users to create, upload, share, disseminate, modify or access information using its services. Take the case of Twitter. It allows its user to disseminate information to other users. It does this by connecting people watchfully in the online medium. So this is an example of social media intermediary. Now how are social media intermediaries regulated in India? See social media intermediaries are regulated in India through the IT Act of 2000. Since the Act was passed in the year 2000 it is very outdated with respect to the latest developments happening in the social media front. This is the reason why union government of India is now planning to bring in the Digital India Act. Here note that this Digital India Act will replace the IT Act of 2000. Now if we talk about the safe harbor provisions, the safe harbor provision is given under section 79 of the IT Act 2000. It states that an intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information, data or communication link made available or hosted by him. But there are conditions for safe harbor. See section 79 states that safe harbor wouldn't be given if the intermediary fails to expeditiously take down a post or remove a particular content even after the government flags that the information is being used to commit something unlawful. This means that the intermediaries must abide by the government and it should remove any content from the platform if the government directs it to do so. If it fails to follow the instructions of the government, the safe harbor provisions won't be given to that particular intermediary. As I already said in the newly proposed Digital India Act, the government is trying to rethink about the safe harbor clause. Because this clause gives immunity to the social media intermediaries for any punitive action with respect to user generated content. The government believes that there should be no free pass to social media companies and safe harbor cannot be used as an excuse to let harmful posts remain in the platform. Experts say that safe harbor has often led to many issues such as lack of content moderation, inadequate fact checking and content violation on platforms. So if the safe harbor clause is done away with, then the social media intermediaries are liable for punitive actions for any content posted by the user. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. In this discussion, we saw what is the safe harbor provision. Then we saw what are social media intermediaries. We saw that social media intermediaries are basically internet intermediaries which primarily enables online interaction between the users. Then we saw how the social media intermediaries are regulated in India. They are regulated using the IT Act of 2000 since this law is outdated. Now the government is attempting to bring in the new Digital India Act. With these learned points in mind, now we will move on to the next article discussion. This article from yesterday's newspaper primarily focuses on the ill effects of deforestation. The article here does not mention any new point about the ill effects of deforestation but this article is very important because when there is an article on the ill effects of deforestation, it provides some data supporting that. This kill is very important for your main examination. Say there is a question in GS paper 3 asking you to write about the deforestation and its ill effects. For this question, everyone can write an answer. Even someone who is not preparing for UPSA examination can write something about deforestation and its ill effects. But to make our answer more legitimate and unique, we must substantiate the points that we mention in our answer with data that support the answer. This is what is expected out of this. And this art of substantiating the points with data is the key difference between people who clear the main examination and people who do not clear the examination. Basically what I am trying to convey here is that although the points that we are about to see in the discussion might be repetitive, the data supporting the points are useful for our examination. Now let's start the discussion. Firstly, what is deforestation? See deforestation is the process of removing trees from a forest area. Due to deforestation, the forested landscape transforms into non-forested landscape. Deforestation occurs due to both natural and anthropogenic causes. The natural causes of deforestation includes wildfires, disease infestation and landslides. Currently, it is the anthropogenic reasons that is mainly driving deforestation. The anthropogenic causes of deforestation includes human activities like logging, farming, mining and urbanization. See, the World Health Organization estimates that since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest land has been lost due to anthropogenic activities. These activities include agriculture, industrial use and biofuels protection. WHO also mentioned that the effects of deforestation will be severe for tropical regions such as India, China and Africa. Since I mentioned India here, now we will see the status of forest cover in India and the extent of deforestation in India. According to the India State of Forest report 2021, the total forest cover in India is 24.56% of the country's total geographical area. The top three states with the largest forest cover are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Together, they account for about more than one third of the country's total forest cover. And compared to ISF report of 2019, India's forest cover has increased by 3976 square kilometers. Although the ISF report 2021 paints a very rosier picture, a study published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation in 2019 found that India has lost approximately 16% of its three cover between 1980 to 2014. The study also found that the remaining forests in India are becoming more fragmented and isolated, which can have negative impacts on wildlife and biodiversity. In addition to this, presently, our government is trying to develop Andaman and Nicobar Islands for augmenting India's naval presence near the Strait of Malacca. This will surely affect the pristine forests of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. And if you see the Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, our government has cleared large tracts of pristine forests. This is done in order to build underpass and overpass highways in these regions. All these activities are also affecting the quality of forest in India. So we can say that while the forest cover in India is increasing, the quality of forest is on decline due to deforestation. Moving forward, let's see what are the ill effects of deforestation. See, the first effect is global warming. When trees are cut down, it leads to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This results in global warming. According to FAO, deforestation accounts for 11% of global greenhouse emissions. The second effect of deforestation is the increase in infectious diseases. According to Harvard University Public Health Group, deforestation leads to an increase in infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue. This can also affect human beings very severely. The third effect is land degradation. See, deforestation and land degradation are closely related processes because deforestation often leads to land degradation. How does this happen? Deforestation can lead to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and decreased water quality. All these can contribute to land degradation. A study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters in 2018 found that deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon basin were responsible for the increase in frequency and severity of droughts. The study also found that the resulting land degradation had negative impacts on the livelihood of local communities. The last major impact of deforestation is that it leads to decline in water availability. Just a 1% increase in deforestation can lead to 0.93% decrease in the availability of clean drinking water for the rural communities. This data is provided by Dr. S. B. Kadrakar of Environmental Society of India. In addition to this, trees release water into the atmosphere through a process. What is this process called? Tell me in the comments below what is this process. So this particular process helps in cloud formation which eventually leads to rain. So when trees are cut down, both rainwater and the surface water availability is reduced. These are some of the ill effects associated with deforestation. So with this, we conclude this discussion. In this discussion, we saw what is deforestation and we saw what are the ill effects of deforestation. We saw that deforestation will lead to global warming. It can lead to increase in infectious diseases and it will cause land degradation and it can also have an impact on the availability of water. So with these learnt points in mind, now we will move on to the next article discussion. Have a look at this FAQ page article which was taken from yesterday's newspaper. This news article reports about the regulation of the crypto market in our country. Recently, the union finance minister said that all virtual digital assets in India will come within the ambit of the PMLA Act, that is the prevention of money laundering act of 2002. This is to further tighten the crypto market which is loosely regulated. So in this discussion, we will learn the points provided in this FAQ article. Before that, the syllabus 11 to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. First, let's start with the prevention of money laundering act of 2002. See, the prevention of money laundering act is an anti-money laundering legislation in India. This act was passed in the year 2002 and it came into force on July 1, 2005. Now, what are the reasons behind the enactment of PMLA? See, the PMLA was enacted to showcase India's commitment to the Vienna Convention. So this Vienna Convention is related to three things. They are compacting money laundering, drug trafficking and to counter terror financing. Coming back to PMLA, see, if someone has secured illegal cash, maybe by bribing or corruption, what will they do? They'll try to convert that black money into legal cash. So basically, PMLA was aimed at curbing the process of converting illegally earned money into legal cash. Know that this act is empowering the enforcement directorate to control money laundering. So enforcement directorate can confiscate property and punish offenders. So we can say that ED is vested with the authority to deal with money laundering in India. See, recently, the Union Finance Ministry has issued a cassette notification. As I told you earlier, this notification brings cryptocurrency transactions within the ambit of PMLA. Now, what are the implications of bringing crypto assets within the ambit of PMLA? See, if the cryptocurrency transactions come within the ambit of PMLA, then the Indian crypto exchanges will have to report any suspicious activity related to buying or selling of cryptocurrency to the Financial Intelligence Unit of India. Know that the Financial Intelligence Unit of India is functioning under the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance. It is the central agency which is responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information related to any suspicious financial transactions. So, if the FIU India finds any mall practices, then it will report such suspicious transactions to the law enforcement agencies. If this suspicious crypto transaction was found to be transnational, that is, beyond the national boundary, then FIU India will report it to the overseas FIUs. Secondly, since the cryptocurrency transactions come within the ambit of PMLA, it now empowers the ED to deal with suspicious cryptocurrency transactions. So we can say that in India, enforcement directorate is a law enforcement agency that is responsible to deal with any mall practices in crypto transactions. Now coming back, see, if the FIU India finds any mall practices during its analysis, then it will alert the enforcement directorate about the suspicious crypto transactions. After getting the alert from the FIU, what will ED do? So, the enforcement directorate will conduct a search and it will seize the suspected property. It can do it without any judicial permission. These discretionary powers to the enforcement directorate are provided under Section 5 and Section 8 of the PMLA Act. So, this is all about the implications of bringing crypto assets within the ambit of PMLA. Now we will understand the reasons behind why the government suddenly tightens the legislations on the digital trade. See, earlier, cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens or other digital assets enjoyed a regulation-free market worldwide. But in the past couple of years, the use of digital assets has increased rampantly. So, the financial regulators have started thinking about the regulatory framework for digital assets including crypto. Now, if we look at the data, according to the cryptocurrency price tracking site named coinmarketcap.com, as of January 3rd, 2023, the value of all existing cryptocurrencies in the world is about $804 billion. This is about twice the GDP of Singapore in 2021. Now, if we take India, according to a survey conducted by crypto exchange KuCoin, over 10 crore Indians have invested in cryptocurrencies. Then, according to a report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the illegal use of cryptocurrencies across the world hit a record of $20.1 billion last year. Some studies are also saying that illegal crypto transactions keep on increasing in India. So, these are the reasons behind Indian governments plan to tighten the legislations relating to digital trade. Now finally, let us see about the regulation on crypto assets in different countries. See, different countries are at different stages in drafting regulations on crypto assets. Most countries have already brought digital assets under their anti-money laundering laws. For example, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland and Malaysia have legislations on regulatory framework. Apart from this, the US, UK, Australia and Canada have initiated plans on regulating crypto assets. Then, the countries like China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have issued a blanket ban on cryptocurrency. Now, if we look at the European Union, the European Union is preparing a cross jurisdictional regulatory and supervisory framework for crypto assets. This framework seeks to provide legal clarity, consumer and investor protection while promoting innovation in digital assets. So, we have come to the end of this discussion. In this particular discussion, we saw that in a recent announcement, all virtual digital assets in India are brought under the Ambit of PMLA Act. Then, we saw about some significant provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002. We saw what are the implications of bringing crypto assets within the Ambit of PMLA. Then, we finally saw what are the regulations on crypto assets in different countries. So, with this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, look at this article here. It talks about the post-vaccination study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine. It says that after the administration of two doses of a live-attinated Japanese encephalitis vaccine, only low levels of neutralizing antibodies are seen. The study involved 266 children and the vaccine administered was SA 14142, which was made in China. In our discussion, we are not going to see about this study. Instead, we are going to see about Japanese encephalitis. First of all, know that Japanese encephalitis is a viral infection. The first case of this disease was documented in 1871 in Japan. Hence, the name Japanese encephalitis. The virus that causes this infection is a flavivirus. See, the flavivirus is nothing but a genus that comes under the family flaviviridae. The virus under this family are positive, single-stranded, enveloped RNA virus. They have otropods as their vectors. Even the Japanese encephalitis also have otropods as vectors. It is a mosquito-borne infection. It can affect both humans and animals. Now, with this information, let us see what are the symptoms of this infection? See, mostly people infected with Japanese encephalitis do not have symptoms or have only mild symptoms. However, a small percentage of infected people develop inflammation of the brain, that is, encephalitis. Know that the incubation period is about 4 to 14 days. In children, gastro-industrial pain and vomiting are the dominant initial symptoms. Severe disease is characterized by rapid onset of high fever, headache, neck stiffness, disorientation, coma, seizure, spastic paralysis and ultimately death. The case fatality rate can be as high as 30%. Now, let us see about the transmission. See, the virus that causes Japanese encephalitis is found in pigs and birds. Then, it is passed to mosquitoes when they bite the infected animals. Then, it is transmitted to humans and other animals when the mosquito with the virus bites them. Know that the virus is maintained in a cycle between mosquitoes and vertebrate hosts, primarily pigs and wading birds. Humans are incidental or didn't host the Japanese encephalitis virus. This is because humans usually do not develop enough concentrations of the virus in their bloodstream so that it will infect the feeding mosquito. Finally, know that as of now, there is no cure for this disease. Treatment involves supporting the functions of the body as it tries to fight off the infection. So, in this particular discussion, we saw about the disease Japanese encephalitis. We saw what are the symptoms of the disease and finally, we saw how it transmits. So, with a lot of points in mind, now we will move on to the next article discussion. Look at this data point provided here. It talks about their disputes related to the open defecation free or the ODF status. Recently, the multiple indicator survey was released. This survey questions the central government's climb on ODF status. In 2019, the central government claimed that all Indian villages are open defecation free. But, the recently released MIS has disputed the ODF status of most states. But, this is not the first survey that disputed the ODF status. There were also other three older surveys. They were the NSO survey of October 2018, the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey of 2019-20 and the National Family Health Survey of 2019-21. See, all these surveys have disputed the ODF status of most states. Apart from this, the surveys also showed persisting levels of poor sanitation in many of the Indian states. Now, we will understand the contradiction between various data. According to the data from the Swash Bharat Mission Gram & Portal, the villages in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were declared as 100% ODF free by October 2018. However, according to the NSO data, in October 2018, only 71% of rural households in Madhya Pradesh and 62.8% of rural households in Tamil Nadu had access to some sort of toilet, which could be owned or shared or public. The data appears to be more contradictory, right? Here is another data. The SBMG data climbed that, in 24 states or union territories, over 99% of rural households had individual household toilets. This is as of March 2019. However, the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey which was released in September 2019 showed that, in 24 states or union territories, only around 90% of rural households had access to their own toilets. Here also, we witness a contradiction. Now, we will take another data. According to SBMG data, around 99% of rural households in Gujarat had individual toilets as of March 2019. However, according to the data from National Family Health Survey 5, only 63.3% of population in rural households in Gujarat used individual toilets. Now, if we take the recently released multiple indicator survey, it says that 21.3% of rural households had no access to any type of toilet. The recent MIS was conducted between January 2020 and August 2021. This multiple indicator survey is the fourth in the last five years to debunk the central government's ODF climb. Now, we will see some data on toilets and ODF status. Now, look at this map here. This map shows the percentage of rural households that reported access to some type of toilet. This data is taken from the recent multiple indicator survey. The data shows that in Kerala, 100% of rural households had access to toilet. Whereas, in Uttar Pradesh, only 74.2% had access to the toilet. This data is more contradictory to the central government's climb. Now, look at this map here. In the financial year 2020-21, the government unveiled the Swach Bharat Graman Phase 2. This phase extended toilet coverage to schools or Anganwadis. Apart from this, Phase 2 was also aimed to establish solid or liquid waste management systems in all villages. The villages which met these criteria were named as ODF plus villages. Here, this map shows the share of ODF plus villages as of April 1, 2022. Only 8% of villages attained ODF plus status. The share of Tamil Nadu was very high and it was reported that over 91% of villages in Tamil Nadu attained the ODF plus status. But according to the recent MIS survey, only 72.4% of rural households in Tamil Nadu had access to some form of toilet. Here also, there is a contradiction. Now, look at this map here. This map shows the share of ODF plus villages. Here, we could witness that the share of ODF plus villages in India improved to 34% as of now. However, some states are lagging behind. Now, look at this map. This map shows the percentage of households that had access to toilets. This data is taken from the Swach Sarvekshan Graman survey that was conducted between December 2021 to April 2022. The survey concluded that in 28 states, the share of households that had access to toilets had crossed 90% and the India's average was 95%. This data is also contradictory. So, to conclude, the article says that the central government should take enough steps to ensure the access to toilets in rural areas rather than rushing towards climbing the ODF status. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. So, with the learned points in mind, now we will move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this small snippet displayed here. It reports about the newly signed High Seas Treaty by the UN member states. The article says that this UN Treaty on High Seas has been finally signed after nearly 20 years of negotiations. This is what is given in this small snippet. In this context, let us understand about this new treaty. See, previously, United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, that is, UN clause, was signed in the year 1982. This convention dealt with the economic rights of the countries with coastline. The jurisdiction of the UN clause covered up to maximum distance of 200 nautical miles from the coastline. The seas, which are outside of these 200 nautical miles, are only called as the High Seas. So, in this High Seas, no single country can make a territorial climb and the resources available here are open to every country of the world. Also, note that no country is responsible for the management and protection of resources on the High Seas. The High Seas Treaty, which this article talks about, is going to cover this large, unregulated area of open sea only. See, High Seas account for more than 60% of the world's ocean area and cover about half of the Earth's surface. Since previously, there has been no international treaty or convention that regulates the High Seas, this particular UN Treaty on High Seas has gained prominence across the world. Here you should note one important point. The UN High Seas Treaty deals with only the top layer of the High Seas. The bottom layer, that is, the sea beds are protected by a different international body called the International Sea Bed Authority. We have covered about this International Sea Bed Authority in our Hindu News Analysis dated 6th of March, 2023. Kindly watch that video to get an understanding about the International Sea Bed Authority. Now, coming to the High Seas Treaty. The treaty basically governs the conduct of countries in the open seas. That is, the treaty deals with biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. It is also referred to as the Paris Agreement for the Ocean. See, this UN Treaty on High Seas is gaining prominence because it is helping us to achieve the 30 x 30 pledge. For those who don't know what is the 30 x 30 pledge, see, this pledge was adopted in COP 15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This conference was held in Montreal, Canada in the December month of 2022. In this conference, only the 30 x 30 pledge was adopted. Now, let's see what is this 30 x 30 pledge. This pledge basically tries to protect the biodiversity of 30% of Earth's land and sea area. This is the reason why it is called the 30 x 30 pledge. The UN Treaty on High Seas, which we saw earlier, deals with the protection of biodiversity of high seas. By protecting the biodiversity of high seas, the UN High Seas Treaty will help in achieving the 30 x 30 pledge. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. In this particular discussion, we saw about the UN High Seas Treaty. We saw that this particular treaty governs the conduct of countries in the open sea and preserves the biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. So, with these learnt points in mind, now we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, have a look at this article taken from yesterday's newspaper. It reports about the demand made by some state governments to notify the incidents of lightning as a natural disaster. According to the Director General of Indian Meteorological Department, there are nearly 2500 deaths that were caused by lightning each year in India. So, this is the crux of the article given here. In this context, let us learn about the disasters which are covered under the National and State Disaster Response Funds. But before seeing that, we will learn about the Disaster Management Act 2005. See, the Disaster Management Act of 2005 is a union legislation which provides for the effective management of disasters inside the country. Section 2 of the Act defines disaster as a catastrophe which can arise from either natural or man-made causes. Here, note that Disaster Management Act 2005 is the Act which establishes the National and State Disaster Management Authorities and also the National Disaster Response Force. If you can recollect during the recently concluded Operation DOS, this National Disaster Response Force only helped the Turkey earthquake victims along with the Indian Armed Forces. The Disaster Management Act also establishes the District Disaster Management Authority which is headed by the District Collector. Here, note that the NDMA is assisted by National Executive Council. So, this National Executive Council consists of secretary-level offices of various union ministries. This is all about the various bodies that are constituted by the National Disaster Management Act 2005. Now, let's see about the National and State Disaster Response Funds. See, the Disaster Management Act of 2005 constitutes two separate disaster funds, one at the central level and other at the state level. Here, note that the NDRF Fund constituted under section 46 of the Disaster Management Act sublimates the SDRF of a state in case of a disaster of severe nature. Here, the SDRF are separately constituted under the section 481A of the Act. Now, coming to the funding mechanism of these two funds, the union government contributes entirely to the NDRF while the state and the union share the funding of SDRF. This is done in the ratio of 75 to 25 for general category states and 90 is to 10 for northeastern and the Himalayan states. Disasters such as cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, fire, flood, tsunamis, hailstorms, landslides, avalanches, cloudbursts, pest attacks and frost and cold waves, all these are considered for the utilization of SDRF. If you can remember the article reports about the various state governments propose well to include lightning under the definition of disaster under the Disaster Management Act. If lightning is included under the definition of disaster, then the damages caused by it can be rectified using the funds withdrawn from the SDRF. Now, you may ask, when will the fund under NDRF be utilized? See, to withdraw funds from the NDRF, the disaster must be of severe nature for which the funds which are present in SDRF must be inadequate. This particular provision is as per the guidelines on the constitution and administration of state and national disaster response funds. So, for a small scale disaster, there cannot be utilization of funds from the NDRF. With this, we conclude this discussion. In this discussion, we saw that there is a demand by various state governments to notify the incidents of lightning as a natural disaster. Then we saw some important provisions of the Disaster Management Act of 2005. Then finally, we saw about the national and state disaster response funds and the funding mechanism of these two funds. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Now, we will move on to the next part of our analysis, which is practice questions. First, we will start with a prelims question. Question number one, with respect to Japanese encephalitis, consider the following statements. Statement number one, Japanese encephalitis belongs to the same genus as dengue, yellow fever and vest nile virus. Statement number two, Japanese encephalitis infections are mainly found in North American and African region. Statement number three, Japanese encephalitis cannot be spread by humans from one person to the another. Which of the above statements is rare correct? See here, statement number one is correct. Members of Flaviviridae family belong to a single genus Flavivirus. These members cause widespread morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Some of the mosquito transmitted viruses include yellow fever, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, vest nile viruses and Sika virus. Here statement number two is incorrect. Look at this map. From this you can see the distribution of the Japanese encephalitis cases. So, it is mainly found in Asia and the western Pacific region. Here statement number three is correct. This is because humans are considered dead hosts of Japanese encephalitis. So, you cannot catch this disease from an infected person like you catch cold. So, the correct answer for this question is option D, one and three only. Question number two, consider the following statements about India's state of forest report 2021. Statement number one, the mangrove cover in the country has increased by 0.34 percentage as compared to the previous assessment. Statement number two, Arunachal Pradesh is the state with maximum babu bearing area. Statement number three, Madhya Pradesh witnessed the maximum increase in forest cover. Select the correct code from the codes given below. Here statement number one is correct. Compared to the previous assessment, the mangrove cover in the country has increased by 0.34 percentage. Here statement number two is incorrect. Misoram is the state with the maximum babu bearing area. Then statement number three is also incorrect. Andhra Pradesh witnessed the maximum increase in forest cover. So, the correct answer for this question is option C, one only. Question number three, with reference to the Swesh Bharat mission phase two, consider the following statements. Statement number one, this mission is fully funded by the central government. Statement number two, this mission comes under the Ministry of Rural Development Government of India. Statement number three, it focuses on open defecation free plus, which includes solid and liquid-based management. Which of the statements given above is incorrect. Here statement number one is incorrect. Swesh Bharat Mission Gramin phase two is not fully funded by the central government. The fund sharing pattern between center and states will be 90 is to 10 for the northeastern states, Himalayan states, union territories of Jammu and Kashmir. 60 is to 40 for other states and 100 is to 0 for other union territories. That is for union territories other than Jammu and Kashmir, the fund is totally provided by the center. Statement number two is incorrect. The mission comes under the Ministry of Jail Shakti. Here statement number three is correct. This is one of the objective of the Swesh Bharat Gramin mission. Here the question is asking for incorrect statement. So the correct answer for this question is option A one and two only. Question number four, with reference to international seabed authority, consider the following statements. Statement number one, it is established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Statement number two, its headquarters is located in New York. Which of the statements given above is correct? Here statement number one is correct. International seabed authority is established according to the article 156 of UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Statement number two is incorrect. This is because international seabed authority's headquarters is located in Kingston, Jamaica. So the correct answer for this question is option A one only. Question number five, consider the following statements with respect to national disaster response fund. Statement number one, NDRF was constituted under the Disaster Management Act 2005 for a specialized response to national disasters only. Statement number two, NDRF battalions have regional units located in all states across India. Which of the statements given above is RR correct? Here statement number one is incorrect. The NDRF was constituted under Disaster Management Act of 2005 for a specialized response to both natural and man-made disasters. Here statement number two is again incorrect. This is because the battalions of NDRF are located only in 11 states and not in all states. The states include Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. Note that these battalions have been trained and equipped to response to all man-made and natural disasters. So the correct answer for this question is option D neither one nor two. In addition to this you should also know that every state government are required to rise their own state disaster response force for quickly responding to disasters. These forces are placed strategically at suitable locations well connected to the airport railheads and routes for their immediate deployment at the disaster sites. Now we will move on to the sixth question. This is the quiz question for the day. I hope you can easily answer it from the discussion that we had today. Interested aspirants can post the answer in the comment box. Displayed here are the main questions for your practice. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment box below. If you have found our video to be useful like the video share it with your friends subscribe to the channel. Happy learning!