 Welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar Ayesakarmi. The news articles along with the page numbers are displayed here for your reference. The PDF link of the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the news articles is given in the description box as well as in the comment section. Now let us start our today's news analysis. The news article is about the recent estimation of tiger deaths in India by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. So in this context we will be discussing about M-stripes, then about National Tiger Conservation Authority, that is its powers and functions, then about Project Tiger, then finally about IUCN status of Indian Tigers. Now if you look at the news article it says, for the first time in the past three years the number of tiger deaths in EO has been less than 100. And this number also includes the number of Caesars. Here Caesar is the cases where a tiger is pre-assumed dead on the basis of body parts seized by the authorities. The news article says that the number of tiger deaths in 2019 was about 95, which includes 84 cases of tiger deaths and 11 cases of Caesars. Now if you look at the table, it is clear that the total number of tiger deaths over the years are actually coming down and this should be seen in the background of the findings of all India Tiger Estimation 2018, which is also known as the Tiger Census 2018. The Tiger Census of 2018 estimated that India has about 2,967 Tigers, which indicates an increase of about 33% as compared to the previous 2014 Tiger Census. So the decreasing number of tiger deaths along with the increasing population of tiger shows that our tiger conservation efforts are going in the right direction. Now as per the news article, the reducing number of mortalities or because of surveillance using methods such as M-stripes, then good management of tiger reserves and increase in awareness and education programs on tiger conservation. Now we will see about M-stripes, which stands for Monitoring System for Tiger's Intensive Protection on Ecological Status. Finally notice that it is a software-based tiger monitoring system launched by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The National Tiger Conservation Authority or NTCA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. NTCA was constituted under the Prozins of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 for strengthening tiger conservation efforts in India. Now we will discuss the powers and functions of National Tiger Conservation Authority. This includes to approve the Tiger Conservation Plan prepared by the state governments, then to evaluate and assess various aspects of sustainable ecology and not to allow any ecological unsustainable land use such as mining, then such other industrial activities within the tiger reserves. Then other powers and functions of NTCA include to lay down normative standards for promotion of tourism activities, then preparing guidelines for Project Tiger from time to time for tiger conservation in the core and buffer areas of the tiger reserves. Then as per the Prozins of Wildlife Protection Act, the state government shall notify an area as tiger reserves based on the recommendations from National Tiger Conservation Authority. Now we will see the Project Tiger which is implemented by National Tiger Conservation Authority. The Project Tiger is a centrally sponsored scheme of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It was launched in 1973. The objective of the project is to protect tigers from extinction by ensuring a valuable population in their natural habitats. The project provides funding support to tiger range states, then for INSITU that is within conservation efforts of tigers in a designated tiger reserves. As per the Project Tiger, the tiger reserves are constituted based on core buffer strategy. Here the core area have the legal status such as National Park or a Sanctuary whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest lands mainly managed as a multiple use areas. The Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves with an inclusive participation of people in the buffer area. Now if you look at the news article that is as per 2018 Tiger Census, Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of tigers in the country with 526 number of tigers then it was followed by the state of Karnataka then Uttarakhand. Then in terms of recorded dates of tigers Madhya Pradesh has recorded the most number of tiger dates that is 31 in the year 2019 then it was followed by Maharashtra then Karnataka and Uttarakhand. The news article says that the total number of tiger mortality in 2019 also included about 22 cases of poaching and one case of tiger poisoning. Now if you look at these cases that is 16 out of 22 poaching incidents were reported outside tiger reserves. This shows that we need more tiger reserves. Can you notice that at present in India we have 50 tiger reserves which covers an area of about 73,000 square kilometers. Now let us conclude our analysis by discussing the status of tiger that is IUCN status of tiger which included under endangered category in the IUCN red list. It is also listed in Appendix 1 of sites that is convention on international trade in endangered species of flora fauna. It is also scheduled under schedule 1 of wildlife protection act of 1972. So to sum up this news article we have discussed about M stripes then about national tiger conservation authority then its pose and functions then about project tiger then the IUCN status of tiger. With this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of this session. Now let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This news article presents the statistics of sugar production in the country. So in this contest we will be discussing about agro climatic conditions that are suitable for sugar cane crop and then the present status of sugar production in the country. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. See sugar cane is a widely grown commercial crop in the country and is mainly grown in tropical to subtropical zones that is between the latitude 37 degrees north and 32 degrees south of the equator. So in India we have two agro climatic regions of sugar cane cultivation that is one is the tropical region and the other is the subtropical region. Sugar cane is a long duration annual crop with October to September as the sugar cane season in the country and it needs hot and humid climate with average temperature between 21 degrees to 27 degrees and it also requires average annual rainfall from 75 to 150 centimeters of average annual rainfall. Now if you look at the soil conditions for the growth of sugar cane crop that is in northern India sugar cane crop is cultivated largely on the loomy and clay loomy soils of gangetic plains but in case of peninsular India it is mainly grown on black and reddish soils. Even laterite soils are also suitable for cultivation of sugar cane crop. So we can say that the soils like alluvial soils then black and red soils and laterite soils are suitable for the cultivation of sugar cane crop. Now let us see the states that lead in the production of sugar cane crop that is as per the data from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Uttar Pradesh is the largest sugar cane producing state in the country which is followed by the states of Maharashtra, then Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Now we will see the various uses of sugar cane which is a rich source of food, fiber, fodder, fuel and for chemicals. From sugar cane we can produce sucrose that is sugar, then jaggery and sugar syrups. Even the green tops of the sugar cane crop and the bay gas which are the byproducts from sugar industry can be used as animal fodder. Then the bay gas and molasses from sugar industry are fermented to produce ethanol which is an alcohol. So sugar industry and its allied industries are one of the biggest sources of employment in the country. Therefore, like every other industry, sugar industry has its own set of problems because sugar industries do not function throughout the year. Therefore, the farmers do not get enough profits from the crop. So to support the farmers the central government fixes fair and remunerative prices for sugar cane farmers based on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. The central government also consults the state governments and other stakeholders before fixing the fair and remunerative prices for sugar cane crop. Also notice that sugar cane is not based on MSP that is minimum support prices. Therefore, we can say that fair and remunerative price is a benchmark guaranteed price of sugar cane below which no sugar mill can purchase sugar cane from cane growers. Therefore, as per the latest data, the fair and remunerative prices for the current sugar cane season is about 275 rupees per quintal. However, if you see the state governments of states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu, announces the state-advised prices and these prices are normally higher than the fair and remunerative price which is fixed by the central government. So these are some of the facts that you need to know about sugar cane production and sugar cane crop in the country. Now if you look at the news article which mentions the current status of sugar industry in the country which is based on the Indian Sugar Mills Association data. The news article tells that India's sugar production has fallen sharply by nearly 30 percent in the first three months of current marketing year. As we have discussed that the current marketing year for sugar is from October 2019 to September 2020. Now, if you look at this picture that is the graph in red color indicates sugar production in India from 2014 to 2018. Then the graph in blue line gives an idea of sugar cane output of India from 2014-15 to 2018-19. So from these graphs we can say that neither the sugar cane production nor the sugar production is steadily increased in the past five years. Usually UPSC asks questions on the trends of production on the major crops of India so try to know these trends with reference to major crops in the country. Now the Indian Sugar Mills Association has also predicted a drop in the sugar output in this marketing year when compared to the previous marketing year. The news article also tells that the sugar exports are happening at a good pace since there is a huge carry over stock of sugar which was produced in the previous year. Also there is excess production of sugar when compared with the amount of sugar that is required for the domestic consumption. So the central government has allocated mill wise maximum advisable export quantity that is MAEQ for sugar mills for exporting in the sugar season 2019-20. The news article also tells that the prices of sugar from mills which is called as the X mill prices have remained steady. This is because the central government has not increased the fair and remunerative price for the season 2019-20. The state governments like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab have also not increased the state advised prices. So the X mill prices of sugar remain stable and the mills are in a better position to pay cane prices to the farmers on time. The news article also discusses about the largest sugar producing states in the country. Maharashtra is the country's largest sugar producing state which is followed by the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Here you should not confuse between the largest producing states with reference to sugar production and sugar cane production. That is in case of largest sugar cane producing state here the Uttar Pradesh is the largest sugar cane producing state whereas Maharashtra is the country's largest sugar producing state. The news article also tells that even Maharashtra has produced less amount of sugar. This is because of the decline in the average sugar recovery which indicates the percentage of sucrose that is sugar that can be recovered from the sugar cane crop. Here the weather conditions highly influence the sugar recovery and also the productivity of the sugar cane crop. Therefore one of the main reasons that is why the sugar recovery drop in Maharashtra is because of the floods affected sugar cane crop. So there was a loss of sucrose content because of floods. Therefore to summarize this news article we have discussed about various facts on sugar cane production and sugar production and then we saw the status of sugar production in the country and also we discussed suitable agroclamatic conditions for sugar cane crop. Have a look at the practice question which will be discussed at the end of the session. Now we will proceed to the analysis of next news article. This editorial article is written by Dr. S. Y. Kureshi is a former chief election commissioner of India. In this article the author talks about some important loopholes and flaws in the present anti-defection law and as a part of analysis of this news article we will see the important grounds for disqualification under anti-defection law then we will critically examine some of the important pros and cons in the anti-defection law. Finally we will see certain solutions suggested by the former chief election commissioner. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now what do you mean by anti-defection law? When you say anti-defection law we are referring to the constitutional pros and cons in the schedule 10 of the Indian constitution. We know that article 102 of Indian constitution deals with the disqualification of membership of either house or parliament. Then class 2 of this article that is 102 article mentions that a person shall be disqualified for being a member of either house or parliament if he is disqualified under the 10th schedule. Here the disqualification refers disqualified being a member of the house. So in case of state legislatures as per article 191 of Indian constitution deals with the disqualification of membership from state legislative assembly and state legislative council. This article mentions that a person will be disqualified from the membership of state legislative assembly or state legislative council if the person is disqualified under the 10th schedule of the constitution. Now what do you mean by anti-defection and why the schedule 10 of Indian constitution is called as anti-defection law? In a simple language defection refers to a MP or an MLA or a member of legislative council switching their sides that is for example switching from one political party to another political party. In many cases defictions have led to loss of majority in the house for a ruling party or a coalition. As a result the elected governments were not stable due to the defictions. So to bring stability to the democratically elected government the anti-defection provisions were introduced as a separate schedule to the Indian constitution. So note that the provisions of anti-defection were not presented in the original constitution and that was adapted by India after the independence. Now we will see about constitutional amendment act that is 52nd amendment act of 1985. This constitutional amendment act introduced or incited the 10th schedule to the Indian constitution to deal with matters of defection. Since the provisions aim to disqualify a member based on their defection on certain grounds therefore this 10th schedule is called as anti-defection law. Now let us see the grounds of disqualification of a member who has defected. So in today's analysis we will restrict the grounds which pertain only to those members who got elected on a political party's ticket. That is those members who got elected by contesting as a candidate of a particular political party. One of the grounds of disqualification is that if the member has voluntarily given up their membership of the political party on whose ticket they won the election. Then the other grounds for disqualification is that going against the party whip. If the whip refers to an official or direct of a political party that is to maintain parliamentary discipline among the members of the party particularly in ensuring attendance and in voting. The ground of defection is that the member who has against any direction issued by the political party to which the member belongs. Even if the member abstains from voting that is if abstaining is against to any direction issued by the political party to which the member belongs. This is also ground of defection for which the member can be disqualified. Here if you note that the constitution in schedule 10 is silent about resignation of a member and they resulting disqualification. That is as per the present pros and if the member resins as a member of the house the person just resins and may not be disqualified because of the defection. For example if you have observed the 15th Karnataka state legislative assembly in this case the members did not give up their membership of the political party rather they submitted resignations to the presiding officer who is the speaker. The idea was that if the resignations are accepted then they are not disqualified and they can immediately contest for by-election on another party's ticket and also can become member of the same undissolved legislative assembly. So by this way they also attempted to change the leadership of the government and eventually they also succeeded. So in the case of Karnataka the speaker did not accept the resignations rather he disqualified them and even mentioned that they cannot contest elections till the expiry of the term of the house that is till 2023. So what is the role of speaker in the matters of defection and anti-defection? Therefore if there is any question that is whether a member of a house has become subject to disqualification under the 10th schedule the question shall be referred for the decision of the presiding officer or the speaker of the house. Here the constitution clearly mentions that the decision of the presiding officer shall be final. If you look at the class 7 of the 10th schedule that is no court shall have any jurisdiction in respect of any matter connected with the disqualification of a member of a house under this schedule. But note that in the case of Kihito Hollan v. Jachulu and others in 1992, Supreme court has said that in these matters a speaker functions as any other tribunal which comes under the jurisdiction of the high courts and Supreme court. The Supreme court also failed the speaker's discretionary power but made decision subjected to judicial review. And one important point to be noted is that the speaker does not have a time limit under the anti-defection law to decide on complaints or questions of defection of a member. So what is the period of disqualification that is if you see that even after coming into the force of the 10th schedule by March 1985 even now there are still lot of room for confusions and there is still no clarity what is exactly the meaning of disqualification. Here there are two interpretations possible. One is that the person is disqualified till the dissolving of particular house. This means that the disqualified person can contest in the next general election only but not in any by elections. Then the next interpretation is that based on the recent verdict given by the Supreme court in the matter of disqualification of Karnataka MLA's this verdict was given in November 2019 that is in the case law of Srimanth Balasaheb Patil versus Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly and others. In this verdict the Supreme court upheld the disqualification of petitioners and at the same time the Supreme court also set aside the speaker's orders on the duration of disqualification. The speaker ruled that the disqualified MLA's cannot contest elections for the house during the remaining term of the undissolved house. This means that the Supreme court has allowed the disqualified MLA's to contest for by elections for the same undissolved 15th Legislative Assembly of Karnataka. So this is the meaning of disqualification as per the recent order of the Supreme court. So in this context the author is saying that the stand of the Supreme court will not stop defections in future. So by this recent verdict of Supreme court many defections can happen and these disqualified persons can be re-elected in the by elections has happened in the Karnataka. So based on these points the author is giving some important suggestions with reference to anti-defection. One is that resignation has to be introduced as a ground for defection. If not the members will simply resign their membership. They may not say anything in public then after resigning they will join another political party and contest by elections and these by elections are for the vacated seats that arose because of their resignation. So by adapting this approach the legislators avoid the tag of disqualification under 10th schedule. The criticism is that the elected member cheats the electorate that elected him using this loophole of options of resignation as a ground for defection. This is because the electorate initially elected the candidate thinking that the person belongs to a political party that is particular political party and he belongs to the ideology of that political party. Now we will see the second and the most important suggestion given by the author. That is as per the author the defictions can only be stopped by having a fixed period for disqualification. And the author is suggesting that this period shall be at least 6 years from the day of disqualification. Here the definition of disqualification should be fixed so that disqualification from re-contesting and disqualification from appointment to chairmen ships or ministries for at least 6 years. In the minimum period of 6 years is needed to ensure that the defectors are not allowed to enter the election for at least one election cycle which is 5 years for Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. Then the another reasonable suggestion given by the author is that a reasonable time limit can be fixed for the presiding officer of the House to decide on the complaint or the question of defiction of a member. These suggestions are very important to uphold stability of democratically elected government and to prevent host trading of MLA's and MP's. So in this contest we have discussed important loopholes and flaws in the present anti-defiction law and as part of our analysis we have discussed important grounds for disqualification under anti-defection law then we have examined some of the pros and cons in the anti-defection law and also we discussed some of the suggestions suggested by the former chief election commissioner. With this we have come to the end of analysis of this editorial. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article mentions the statements made by Ministry of External Affairs. The ministry said that Nepal and India will resolve the Kalapani border issue through dialogue. It was said by the ministry when Nepal raised an issue over Kalapani region of Uttarakhand. The ministry also said that the latest political map of India reflects the sovereign territory of India and the new map of India in no manner revised or boundary with Nepal. So in this contest we will be discussing about Kalapani dispute between India and Nepal that is the geographical and historical aspects of Kalapani region and dispute. We will also discuss the possible solutions to resolve the border disputes between the two countries. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now if you look at the dispute which surfaced once again because both the countries claiming the said territory as their sovereign territory. Nepal claims Kalapani to be a part of its darshala district within Nepal territory. Whereas India claims the historic region of Kalapani to be a part of the state of Uttarakhand that is as a part of Uttarakhand's Pythorgad district. Now if you look at the geographical border between India and Nepal. Nepal shares a border of about 1850 kilometers with the five Indian states that is state of Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Now if you look at the disputes that is Kalapani and Sustha disputes as shown in the map Kalapani is the trisinction point of India, China and Nepal borders. And Kalapani is located at the western border of Nepal. So for today's analysis we will be discussing in detail with reference to Kalapani dispute that is a brief history over the Kalapani dispute. In 1816 the British East India Company and Nepal signed the Treaty of Sagauli and this treaty marks the Nepal's western border. The treaty defined the river Mahakali which is known as river Kali as the western border of Nepal. And this river Mahakali flows through Kalapani which is situated on the eastern bank of the river. Then the subsequent maps drawn by British show that the source of the boundary river at different places and this discrepancy in locating the source of the river led to boundary disputes between India and Nepal. This is because Nepal claims the river Mahakali that is Kalapani's west is the main Kali and thus Nepal has territorial rights to it. Whereas India holds that a ridge line to Kalapani's east is its border. Therefore Kalapani falls within India's territory. So the source of river Mahakali is at the heart of the dispute between the two countries. To substantiate claims of India, India presents administrative and tax records getting back to 1830s to show that Kalapani section as part of India. But Nepal points that other maps and documents to support their claims. Then a joint technical level boundary committee was formed in 1981 to resolve the border dispute and to complete the demarcation of Indo-Napal border. Then both the countries constituted the joint working group in 1994 and this group was mandated to examine the relevant facts regarding the western sector including the Kalapani issue. Therefore the joint working group was successful in demarcating 98% of the border between the two countries and there was no final settlement on the mentioned two disputes that is Kalapani dispute and Sustha dispute. After this the issue was referred to the foreign secretaries of the two countries and they have been trying to find a resolution to these disputes. Know that despite these border disputes India and Nepal have a longstanding cordial bilateral relations in terms of economy, in terms of defense cooperation and diplomatic and social aspects. So considering the unique relations the ties between India and Nepal had been further strengthened by their shared commitment to resolve the border disputes through the political lilac. So to conclude this news article we have discussed about Kalapani dispute between India and Nepal then the geographical and historical aspects of the Kalapani region and the present context of the dispute and also the possible solution to resolve the border dispute between the two countries. With this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. Now let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This news article is related to the manufacturing purchasing managers index released by IHS Markit for the month of December 2019. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. So in this contest let us discuss in brief about purchasing managers index which is a survey based economic indicator designed to provide a timely insight into business and industry conditions. The PMI is widely used to anticipate changing economic trends in official data such as GDP or sometimes as an alternative measure of economic performance and business conditions. This PMI is produced globally by IHS Markit which is a London based global data and information provider. Know that PMI data is useful for the business decision makers and purchasing professionals to plan their purchase orders as per the data of PMI. Therefore purchasing managers index acts as an indicator of business activity then economic health and investor sentiments. Know that IHS Markit releases two types of PMI in India that is for one for manufacturing sector and the other is for service sector on monthly basis. Know that purchasing PMI is a survey based economic indicator designed to provide a timely insight into changing business conditions in the goods producing sector. The variables surveyed are based on new orders then based on output then based on employment and inventories. Now let us understand the services PMI. We know that in several economies that is including India the service sector accounts for larger proportion of GDP than manufacturing. Therefore for PMI services the variables tracked are output, new orders, employment, price and expectations of activity. Therefore we can say that PMI index for services covers financial services, consumer services and all other business services. Kindly know that PMI has a baseline of 50 points that is if PMI is greater than 50 then it denotes an expansion in the economy or an increasing rate of growth. And if the values are less than 50 then it denotes a contraction in the economy that is a decreasing rate of growth. Now if you look at the news article which says that India's manufacturing sector activity improved in the month of December. This is because PMI increased it to 52.7 in the month of December as compared to 51.2 in the month of November. Which indicates improvement in the manufacturing sector. The article also says that the increase in manufacturing activities is mainly due to an increase in demand. And this resulted in new orders for the companies and therefore an increasing manufacturing index based on PMI. The news article also mentions that despite this improvement in manufacturing sector companies are cautious regarding economic growth in 2020 mainly because of impact on job creation and investment. So in this contest we have discussed Purchasing Managers Index which is a survey based economic indicator which is released by IHS market. With this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now let us start our practice questions session. Now look at this question. The question says the term M stripes is sometimes seen in the news is in the context of they have given four options and you have to choose the correct option. Option A says captive breeding of wild fauna. Then B says maintenance of tiger resource. Then option C says indigenous satellite navigation system. Then option B says security of national highways. So for this question kindly notice that M stripes stands for monitoring system for tigers intensive protection and ecological status. It is a software based tiger monitoring system which was launched by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. So for this question option B is the correct option. Now consider this question. They have given three statements and we have to choose the correct statements. Statement one says that Animal Welfare Board of India is established under Environment Protection Act of 1986. Then second statement says National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body. Then third statement says National Ganga River Basin Authority is chaired by the Prime Minister. This question was asked in UPC Plins 2014 examination. So for this question that is Animal Welfare Board of India is a statutory advisory body on animal welfare laws and to promote animal welfare in the country. This board was established in 1962 under section four of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. So we can say that Animal Welfare Board of India was constituted under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act but not Environment Protection Act of 1986. So given first statement is incorrect statement. Now second statement says that National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body. This statement is correct statement because NTCA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It was constituted under the Provisions of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 for strengthening Tiger Conservation in India. Now, if you look at the third statement which says that National Ganga River Basin Authority is chaired by the Prime Minister. This statement is correct because this was constituted under the Provisions of the Environment Protection Act of 1986 with the Prime Minister of India as its chaired person. Currently notice that the National Ganga River Basin Authority dissolved on 7th October 2016. Now it is replaced with National Council for Resonation, Protection and Management of River Ganga which is also known as National Ganga Council. This National Ganga Council is also headed by Prime Minister of India. So for this question, option B that is two on three only is the correct option. Now, consider this question. They have given two statements and we have to choose the correct statements. Statement one says that if the Purchasing Managers Index is greater than 50, then it denotes an expansion in the economy. And second statement says that Purchasing Managers Index is released by the Central Statistics Organization. So for this question, we should know about PMI which is a survey-based economic indicator designed to provide a timely insight into business and industry conditions. The PMI is widely used to anticipate changing economic trends in official data such as GDP or sometimes as an alternative measure of economic performance and business conditions in the country. Currently notice that PMI is produced globally by IHS Market which is a London-based global data and information provider. The PMI data is useful for the business decision makers and purchasing professionals to plan their purchase orders based on PMI data. Before Purchasing Managers Index acts as an indicator of business activity then economic health and investor sentiments. Kindly notice that IHS Market releases two types of PMI in India that is for the manufacturing sector and the other is for the service sector. The PMI has a baseline of 50 points that is if PMI is greater than 50 then it denotes an expansion in the economy or an increasing rate of growth. If the values are less than 50 then it denotes a contraction in the economy which is a decreasing rate of growth. So for this question we can say statement one is correct statement and second statement is incorrect statement because PMI is not released by Central Statistics Organization. So for this question option A one only is the correct option. Now look at this question which was asked in UPSC Pulleams 2016 examination. Here they have given three statements and you have to choose correct statements. This question is based on byproducts of sugar industry. Statement one says that begas can be used as biomass fuel for the generation of energy. Then second statement says molasses can be used as one of the feedstocks for the production of synthetic chemical fertilizers. Then third statement says molasses can be used for the production of ethanol. So for this question you should know about sugarcane and the byproducts of sugar industry. Kindly notice that sugarcane is a rich source of food fiber, fodder, fuel and chemicals. The important byproducts of sugar industry are begas and molasses. These byproducts from sugar industry can be used as that is begas can be used as biofuel for the generation of energy. Then molasses can be used for the production of ethanol. These are organic byproducts but the second statement says that molasses can be used as one of the feedstocks for the production of synthetic chemical fertilizers. So we can say begas and molasses are organic byproducts but they are given in the production of synthetic chemical fertilizers. So second statement is incorrect statement. Therefore for this question, option C that is one and three only is the correct option. Consider this question, they have given two statements and you have to choose the incorrect statements. Statement one says that for every sugarcane season the central government fixes the minimum support price based on the recommendations of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. Second statement says that sugarcane output has steadily increased in the past five years. So for this question, the given first statement is incorrect because the central government fixes fair and remunerative prices for the sugarcane based on the recommendations of Commission for Agriculture Cost and Prices which is under Ministry of Agriculture on former's welfare. Therefore, first statement is incorrect statement. If you look at the second statement which says that sugarcane output has steadily increased in the past five years. Now, if you look at this diagram which clearly indicates that neither sugar production nor sugarcane output has not steadily increased in the last five years. So for this question, we can say option C that is both one and two is the correct option. Now, consider this question, they have given two statements and you have to choose the correct statements. First statement says, a member of state legislative assembly can be disqualified under the 10th schedule of Indian Constitution on the ground of resignation of the member. Then second statement says that the Constitution that is 52nd Amendment Act of 1985 added 10th schedule to the Indian Constitution. So for this question, kindly notice that the resignation is not a ground for disqualification of a member with respect to defiction under 10th schedule. Some of the grounds are that is for a member of house belonging to a political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the house if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party. That is, if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party. Then other grounds are if he votes or abstains from voting in such house contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs. So with reference to first statement, kindly notice that the resignation of the member to the respective state legislative assemblies is not a valid ground but resignation of the member to a political party is a valid ground for disqualification. So first statement is incorrect statement. Then second statement is correct because as per the 52nd Amendment Act of 1985 it added 10th schedule to deal with defection. So for this question option B that is two only is the correct option. Now look at this practice mains question. The question says that anti-defection law as in 10th schedule of Indian constitution has not put to rest the trend of defections. Discuss this question in 150 words and it is a 10 marks question. For this question you can post your written answer in the comment section. Your posted answers would be evaluated and suitable feedback will be given to the posted answers. With this we have come to end of today's Hindu News Analysis. If you like the video, please do like, share, comment and subscribe Shankarai's Academy YouTube channel for more updates. Thank you.