 Good evening aspirants meeting you all after a long time. I would like to start with an announcement It is regarding the next pre-storming batch of Shankarai's Academy As you know pre-storming is the most reliable problems test series offered by Shankarai's Academy and the next batch That is batch 4 has started already, but the first test in the series will commence next week So if you have not yet registered the link for registration is available in the description box of this video Now let us move on to the Hindi news analysis of Shankarai's Academy today I'll be covering the Hindi news edition dated 16th December 2022 and Here you can see the list of news articles today We will be covering RTI and the disease that affects trees and will also be covering certain schedule tribes Along with that at the end. I also have a quiz question for you So pay attention to the discussions Without wasting much time now, let us move on to the first news article discussion We're going to start our analysis with this opinion page article as its title says it talks about the right to information act of 2005 See this article is a discussion between two experts regarding the RTI act and they have highlighted certain issues surrounding this act and how such issues are weakening the purpose of the law So that means this discussion is going to be much relevant for us from both problems and mains perspective I've given the syllabus here. You can just go through it. What we are going to see in this discussion is we'll see the RTI act It's basic features and we'll see some of the major issues surrounding this act When was this right to information act was passed? It was in 2005 This act ensures that getting information is a right So for that it aims to give people access to the records of central government and state governments And this act did not result because of political will rather it was a result of a people's movement And even today this act is considered to be very empowering, but that's not the entire story We'll see what the issue is later first You have to know the basic object of this act it itself aims to empower the citizens and aims to promote Transparency and accountability in the working of the government through this the act aims to contain corruption and make our Democracy work for the people in real sense why because we as Informed citizens are better equipped to keep vigil on the instruments of governance. Am I right? For this purpose the government even launched the online portal called as RTI portal gateway This initiative is under the department of personal and training in this portal You can find information on the details of first appellate authorities public information officers, etc Along with this there are also certain basic features of this act as I said in the beginning as per this act Every citizen possesses the right to information and this right is derived from our fundamental right to freedom of Speech and expression that is provided under article 19 of the Constitution So that means right to information is also a fundamental right another important feature is here Information covers a wide mode of information like any document any form of record emails Circulars even election data is considered information under this act The most crucial feature of this act is you can obtain information within 30 days from the date of request This is in a normal case But if it is a matter of life or liberty of a person then the same information can be obtained even within 48 hours So remember if it's a matter of life or liberty you can obtain information within 48 hours under the right to information act Another feature is every public authority under this act is obligated to provide information Either on a return request or for request by electronic means and they need not even wait for a Request to give information because the act provides for so more to disclosure of information by each public authority This is as per section 4. So any basic details about their organization They have to disclose it by themselves But we also need mechanisms to address the issue where the information is not provided, right? For that the act provides for two bodies one is the Central Information Commission and the second is the State Information Commission the first one is constituted by the central government and the second one is constituted by each respective state governments and as a chairperson Information commissioners are appointed in these commissions. Another most important feature of this act is no court can entertain any suit Application or proceedings in respect of any orders made under this act because of these features RTI act has been used in the past several times for example in case of UPSC also That is an important case if you remember the case law UPSC versus Angesh Kumar case Some unsuccessful candidates approach the high court for a direction to the UPSC to disclose the details of their results in the exam Here the court cited the impracticality in disclosing the evaluated sheets But it directed the UPSC to disclose the raw marks of the candidates So like this on many instances applying an RTI has come in handy even the Article highlights that quite a large percentage of RTI applications are filed by the poorest and the most Marginalized sections they ask for basic information that relates to their very basic rights and entitlements like ration card details So all these information which we saw now is it making an impression that there are no flaws with this act? I didn't say so because no human law is perfect in its construction or execution This is where we are going to see how there are problems in the effective implementation of this act We'll see those problems that have been highlighted by the experts in the article one such major problem or issue is the Reluctance of the public information officers to provide the necessary information see the public information officers or in short PIOs they are the ones appointed in all administrative units or officers under the state government or union government and as per section 5 of RTI act the PIOs are mandated to provide information to persons who are requesting for the information under the act So if you want any information you'll address that request only to the PIO of that organization But the issue is the PIOs deny the information saying that their particular division does not have relevant information But this is not in consonance with the act Don't you think it is the liability of that PIO to find out which division would have the particular information and Direct the request to that department by themselves Unfortunately, that doesn't happen in many scenarios the information is outrightly refused by the PIOs and the experts in the article call This as an illegal denial So not providing necessary information by the PIOs is the first major issue The second issue is with respect to the attempts that are made to dilute the efficacy of the law See no major changes have been made so far But certain proposed amendments have gone to the extent of excluding the political parties from the ambit of the law itself Even the amendments proposed by other laws are aiming to dilute this law. That is the RTI act Yes, here I'm talking about the digital data protection bill of 2022 as you know It proposes to amend the RTI act, especially the section 8 subsection 1 clause J This particular section and clause provides for exceptions where citizens cannot be provided information under the act So what this clause J says? See this J clause, you know Generally according to it any information which has no relation to the public interest or any information Which causes an unwarranted invasion of privacy of an individual shall not be disclosed But on the other hand if the central public information officer or the state public information officer or the appellate Authority under the act is satisfied that such information can be disclosed in the larger interest Then it can be done So so it leads it to the discretion of central public information officers State public information officers and the appellate authority now what the Amendment wants to do is it removes this provision totally which would mean that the central government is not obligated to give information Which relates to personal information? This is well and good if it pertains to a common man But the problem is this amendment will make it applicable to all the individuals So don't you think that this would in a way act as a protection for corrupted individuals also That is why we say such amendments are an issue. It weakens the purpose of the law itself, right? Now apart from all these issues in the act There are also issue regarding the enforcement of the act. See there are many vacancies in the information commissions This would mean that the appeals and complaints would remain pending. That's why I'm saying there is issue regarding Enforcing the act. Another major challenge is the lack of awareness about this law and lack of widespread adoption We know the beauty of this act is its simplicity But the same simplicity is also the issue because according to the act an RTI application should be within 150 words So some states are demanding that you can only file an RTI within these 150 words as a UPC aspirant When we are asked to write an answer for 150 words, we struggle a lot So think about those who have limited education for them condensing a question to this world limit will be a challenge So this discourages them from applying then another major issue the lack of data itself For example, the 2021 census has not happened yet and the government is saying that the census procedure has been Indefinitely postponed. So if the government doesn't collect data and it does not publish it Then how people can get information under this act and there is no information how they can get it So here their right to information becomes restricted. So according to the experts in the article They feel this leads to large-scale denial of information So these are some of the major issues with the act and surrounding it So as a conclusion, we can say that the information commissions should function in an effective manner to address many of these Challenges on the other hand the government should take necessary measures to not to dilute this law So that's all in this discussion. We had a comprehensive idea about the RTA act its basic features And we also saw the issues with this act with these information. We are moving to the next article discussion So let me take up this article from Hyderabad edition according to it A disease is affecting the trees across Telangana and also in other states It is called as the die-back disease or the twig blight disease See according to the news article now the neem tree is affected by this disease We know neem as a species for its antibacterial and antifungal properties It is also used widely in the field of medicine, but now the neem tree is a victim of this strange disease So that is why we are going to see some facts about this disease And we'll also see what can be done to manage this disease Let me start with the name itself die-back See this term refers to the progressive death of twigs and branches of a tree This disease can be seen in many trees and plants and one of the characteristics of this disease is The infection generally starts at the tips. Now, what kind of infection is this? It is a fungal infection and it is caused by a pathogen which is technically called Phomopsis azadiractae This azadiractae species is a fungal species that causes a serious twig blight disease on the azadiracta indica What is this azadiracta indica? It is nothing but the scientific nomenclature of neem tree So you can find the connection here Phomopsis azadiractae causes infection in azadiracta indica Now for the first time the occurrence of this disease in neem was reported in the 1980s from the new forests of Dharadun Now what are the symptoms of this disease? To know that you should first understand what is a blight? See when a plant or a part of a plant like leaf, flower or fruit when they rapidly collapse or die It is called as blight. Many bacteria, fungi and viruses they cause blights So commonly blight is a sudden severe and extensive spotting discoloration, whittling or destruction of leaves, flowers, stems, fruits or the anti-plant itself You can see these images right all these discolorations or these pottings everything are blight This blight is caused by fungus and it is transmitted through spores via wind, water etc And in our case that is in the diobag disease it leads to two kinds of blight One is the twig blight and the second one is inflorescence blight Since twig blight what happens is it attacks the tender new shoots and Terminal ends of the plants So basically the twigs and branches are affected by this and due to this only the disease is also called as twig blight disease Then the inflorescence blight, you know what is inflorescence? It refers to a cluster of flowers on a branch So inflorescence blight is the infection in flowers and the branches that has flowers In some cases inflorescent blight also results in drying off floral blanches and Final symptom of this disease is fruit rot It is said that the disease results in almost 100 percentage of loss of fruit production So when this disease occurs it is more prominent during August to December It is said that the appearance of symptoms starts with the onset of the raining season and it becomes Severe in the later part of rainy season and in early winter also Now let us come to another important part of this discussion which is managing this infection According to experts management operations should start from the nursery itself That is when the plant is being raised in the nursery at that stage itself the management operations should start It is because the pathogen that is responsible for the infection is both seed-borne and also seed Transmitted so what they suggest is during sowing seed treatment with fungicides and Biocontrol agents will help in reducing the infection So for that at the seedling and sapling stages, they can spray some Preventive sprays of suitable fungicides like carbon-dism and they can also use biocontrol agents like trichoderma All this improves sapling health and these measures help to impart resistance against diseases So this is the preventive measure that can be taken But what can be done after the infection appears here pruning operations should be done So pruning is nothing but trimming so by trimming they can remove the diseased twigs and according to the suggestion Such diseased twigs after removal should be burnt so that it will stop further spread during next season So by carrying out these measures the infection can be managed So I hope you understood what is a twig blight disease or the diabetic disease now It is affecting the neem trees in Telangana. Okay with these points in mind now. Let us move on to the next article discussion Yesterday, if you remember we saw that a bill is under consideration to include two tribes in the schedule tribes list We saw the procedure behind this and now the news is reporting that Lok Sabha has passed that bill that is the constitution Scheduled tribes order second amendment bill of 2022 has been passed by Lok Sabha This bill aims to include two tribes in the schedule tribes list of Tamil Nadu There is the Narikurava and Kuruvi current tribes They will be included in the ST list once the bill becomes an act Similarly, if you look at this another article it talks about a community called Hathi or Hathi community Because a similar bill is under consideration in the Lok Sabha to include this community to the schedule tribes list of Himachal Pradesh This bill is the constitution schedule tribes order third amendment bill of 2022 Now yesterday we already covered what is the procedure to include new communities in the schedule tribes list So today we'll see few facts relevant for examination about these tribes Let me begin with Narikurava and Kuruvi current tribes see here in the Narikurava name Nari means Jackal in Tamil and Kuruvar means men these people are called Narikurava because men of this community were skilled in trapping the jackal And we know jackal is supposed to be the most cunning animal. So trapping it required a specific skill What the Narikurava men used to do was they would sit inside a net like contraption and they howl like a jackal Tricked by this the jackal would get trapped in the net Okay, now the other tribe Kuruvi Karan here also if you split the name Kuruvi means bird in Tamil and Karan means man Again this term denotes the skillful hunting method of this community Some sources say that Narikurava and Kuruvi Karan tribes are both same and they are semi-nomadic tribe Which means they are not settled in a place and they move from one place to another like gypsies So what about the origin of Narikurava tribe? Interestingly this tribes history can be traced back to North India According to the tribes oral history it is said that Narikurava tribe migrated from North India to South India about a half a millennium ago and Presently majority of this tribal community reside in Tamil Nadu Now due to their gypsy like lifestyle the Narikurava have similar roots and culture as other Romani communities when we use the term Romani or Roma communities We are referring to the Indo-Aryan nomadic tribes of Europe. Okay, so what you have to remember is even though Narikurava is Reside in Tamil Nadu Ethnically they are of Indo-Aryan origin So what about their language? It is called as Vagriboli and it is a mixture of three languages Marathi Telugu and Tamil it is said that this language doesn't have a script And it is classified as a Indo-Aryan language when we talk about tribes, you know We also need to know about their social life and their economic life Already as I said they are skillful hunters. They hunt fox and birds But since hunting of foxes jackals are outlawed in India now the group's main occupation has changed They started selling homemade beaded jewelry traditional toys and even plastic products See these tribes face the issue of poverty, discrimination and illiteracy The Narikuravas also face institutional marginalization and historically they were placed under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 by the British government, but they were denotified in 1952 Another important fact to know is these tribes were earlier classified under the most backward class category Which is a subdivision under the backward classes category and now only if the bill is passed They will be placed under the Scheduled Tribes list of Tamil Nadu. Okay, then what about their social life here? We can talk about their important cultural practice called as Samimutai It means God's bundle here What they do is they dip clothes in blood of animals which were sacrificed by the Narikuravas and then those clothes are made into a bundle This bundle is considered sacred and it is said that the eldest son inherits the bundle after father's death So the man who has the oldest bundle is considered the most prestigious man in this society an unusual practice, right? So these are a few facts you need to know about the Narikurava allies Kuruvi current tribes of Tamil Nadu Let me come to the Hatti or Hatti tribes Here the term heart means shop and this community got this name Because of their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables crops meat and wool In their hearts that is in their shops This community mainly dwells in Himachal Uttarakhand border It falls in the river basin of Giri river and Thones river Remember that both Giri and Thones are tributaries of Yamuna among these two river tones forms a border between Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh So in Himachal Pradesh the Hattis live in Transgiri region Whereas in Uttarakhand they live in Johnson Bawar It is said that people living on both sides of the river have similar traditions But they have rigid caste system Now regarding their social life, we need to know about two important facts One is the traditional council of Hattis. It is called Kumbli This traditional council is similar to Carps of Haryana The kumblis take decisions on important community matters And even after the establishment of Panchayat Raj system The kumblis continue to have power and legitimacy among this community Next I'm going to talk about an important festival of this community. It is called Budi Diwali. Some even say it is called as Budi Diwali festival This is a three day long festival celebrated exactly a month after Diwali Maybe that is why it is also called as Budi Diwali In this festival people celebrate the triumph of divine over darkness Especially villages perform a special dance called as Hathi Naaj Or elephant dance Here the dancers would take cover under a large cloth canopy Which is designed to look like an elephant and the dance in unison So this dance imitates a warrior sitting on the elephant Okay, so these are the information that you should know about Hathi community Now the government is currently considering the inclusion of Hattis Scheduled tribes list of Himachal Pradesh Then what about Uttarakhand? The Hathi community in the Jhansar region have been already given the tribal status in that state Okay So in this discussion we saw about three tribes the Narikurava allies Kuruvi Karan tribes and then the Hathi tribe We saw where they are from their important traditional practices Important festivals etc With these points in mind, let us move on to the next news article discussion Let us see what this article says It mentions that a rite has been filed against the Tamil Nadu governor R. N. Ravi See a co-quarantor rite has been filed against him We'll know about the rite shortly, but before that we need to understand why this rite has been filed See this issue has arised because Mr R. N. Ravi was appointed as a chairman of the governing board of Auroville foundation I think many of you would have heard about Auroville township It is situated in Tamil Nadu and this office of Auroville foundation It comes under the control of ministry of education It undertakes research education and service activities which are aimed at making Auroville a self-supporting township So for maintaining this foundation, there are three authorities One among them is the governing body and for this governing body The governor of Tamil Nadu has been appointed as the chairman Now the petitioner who has filed the rite argues that the position of being chairman of this foundation is an office of profit When a position brings some financial gains or financial advantage or benefit to the office holder, then we call it as an office of profit So the petitioner is arguing that this is an office of profit and thereby the governor cannot hold this office This argument is based on constitution See constitutionally the governor cannot hold any other office of profit and this is as per article 158 clause 2 Article 158 deals with the conditions of governor's office And the second main condition is the governor shall not hold any other office of profit So here can you name who all cannot hold any other office of profit under the constitution? Pause the answer to this question in the comment section So by stating this that it has been filed But now you have to remember that governor enjoys certain immunity under article 361 This article provides protection to the president and the governors Then how it can be filed against a governor? Here the petitioner argues that the governor is made as a respondent by name and not by office And hence this article will not come into picture So now it is up to the high court to decide on the maintainability of this writ That is the high court will decide whether this writ will hold or not I hope the issue is clear Now let us come to the writ What is the writ? It is basically a written order from the supreme court or high court Such a writ commands constitutional remedies for Indian citizens Against the violation of their fundamental rights We all know that article 32 is relevant here because it is the one that deals with the constitutional remedies in case of violation of a fundamental right And thereby this article gives the supreme court the power to issue rits Yes, I am saying rits because there are five rits that can be filed based on this article They are the habeas corpus, mandamus writ, prohibition writ, cesiorari writ and the covariant writ Even the high court enjoys the same power under article 226 And that is why the co-quarantor writ has been filed in the high court in the Auroville case So what this co-quarantor writ means? It literally means by what authority or warrant That is this writ requires a person to show by what warrant they are holding that office Supreme court or high court issues this writ to prevent illegal Of a public office by a person So basically here the court inquires the legality of a claim of a person to a public office So that means now the high court will inquire the legality of the governor of Tamil Nadu being the chairman of governing board of Auroville foundation Is that clear? Now, let us see there are other conditions related to this writ First of all, it cannot be issued against a private office or a ministerial office This also means that this writ can only be issued if an office of substantive nature is involved What do you mean by substantive? It means having a separate or independent existence So if our office is independent in title, then only a co-quarantor writ can be issued And this is as per a 1963 case law university of Mysore versus cd govindrao Another important fact about this writ is it can be sought by any interested person. You need not be the aggrieved person here Okay, I hope you understood. What do we mean by co-quarantor? It inquires the legality of a claim to a public office by a person And it is issued by the supreme court under article 32 And the same is issued by high court under article 226 of Indian constitution Then with respect to governor, we saw two main constitutional articles. One is 158 clause 2 It says that governor cannot hold any other office of profit We also saw that governor enjoys protection under article 361. Okay We'll know more about the Auroville issue once the high court decides on it So with this information, I'm ending this discussion and we are going to move to the next news article discussion Our next discussion is going to be based on this news article which talks about the extraction of gold from old mines The news is India is planning to invite bids to extract gold And this extraction is planned from the 50 million tons of processed ore Which is found in a cluster of colonial era mines in karnataka We know that the kolar fields of karnataka are among the country's oldest gold mines I think many of you would have watched kgf film. It happens in the kolar gold fields only It is estimated that the value of gold deposits in kolar gold fields is about 2.1 billion dollars But it has been closed for more than 20 years now So now the government is planning to extract gold from such old mines using some new technology Okay In this regard, let us know about the gold deposits in India and the locations of the gold mines As you know gold in its purest form is a metal that looks bright It often occurs in free elemental form It will be as nuggets or grains and appears in rocks in veins and in alluvial deposits But still gold is relatively scarce metal in the world and also scarce commodity in India Which is why the domestic demand in India for gold is mainly met through imports So does that mean India doesn't have any gold deposits? It is not so as I said kolar gold field is an example So if you look at the total reserves or resources of gold ore in the country It has been estimated by the government that there are around 501 million tons of gold in the country This estimation is as per the national mineral inventory of 2015 Out of this 501 million tons only 17.22 million tons of gold ore have been classified as reserves While the remaining has been classified as resources See here reserve is a subgroup of our resource and the reserves can be discovered with a measurable size Hence it can be extracted at a profit So where we can find gold in India? The largest reserves of gold ores are located in Bihar, Rajasthan, Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand All these account for 98 percentage of gold reserves and the remaining two percent is found in five states Namely Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu Now among these states you should note that Bihar has the highest reserves of gold ores Then what about gold mines? Where is it located? We'll see some of the important ones today. For example, if you take the Hatti gold mines It is located in Raichu district of Karnataka It is the only public sector company producing gold in the country This is perhaps one of the world's oldest metal mines It is said that this mine dates back to pre Ashokan times Another important gold mine is the Bharat gold mines limited It was an erstwhile public sector undertaking which was incorporated in 1972 Its office is at Kolar gold fields. See this company was engaged in mining and production of gold Mainly in the KGF and it also undertook smaller operations in Andhra Pradesh But when the operations in this mine became economically unviable, it was closed Another important gold field that you should know is Ramgiri gold field in Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh It consists of Yappamana and Gantalappa mines The powerhouse mine and the South Djiboutal mine The extraction in these mines is done by Deccan gold mines limited So through this discussion, we saw where in India we can find gold deposits And we also saw some of the important gold mines and their locations Now with this information, let us move on to the next news article discussion This next news article reports about a new Supreme Court observation In a significant decision yesterday, the Supreme Court of India ruled that It is not necessary to have direct evidence to convict a public servant in a bribery case Here the Supreme Court has held that public servants can be found guilty of graft Even based on circumstantial proof This decision was made on a case that was dealing with two important provisions Of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 So to understand this article, first we need to know the difference between Direct and circumstantial evidence And then we will also see the provisions that is mentioned in the news article Before that, note down the syllabus that is given here First of all, what is an evidence? It includes all the statements made by a witness in front of a court relating to any matter These statements will be called oral evidence Other than that, all documents such as electronic records are also called as evidence And these will be called documentary evidence Now we call evidence as direct evidence When the facts said or given are beyond doubt And such a fact should link the accused with the said crime directly So in this type of evidence, there is no need for the judge to involve their inference The evidence itself is of self-satisfying nature But on the other hand, there is another kind of evidence called as circumstantial evidence These are the ones in which the evidence tends to connect the suspect and the crime scene So it requires an indirect inference to be made by the judge Unlike the direct evidence So here the inference of the judge is involved So in such kinds of evidence, a single piece of evidence is not considered enough We require multiple pieces of evidence to prove the guilt of the accused And the judge will use the multiple pieces of evidence to link All the events and facts that is collected against the accused And then a conclusion is reached Whether the accused can be convicted or not Now since it is based on inferences There are also possibilities of one or more explanations or conclusions In this kind of circumstantial evidence Let me explain with an example now Assume that a robbery is taking place in a bank Here let us take two sets of scenarios In one scenario, the robber's image is captured by the CCTV camera Which is inside the bank So that means the CCTV camera has recorded the act of robbery conducted by that person So this will come under the electronic evidence And since the act of robbery is directly visible in that CCTV camera This is a direct evidence So there is no doubt on whether that accused person is the perpetrator or not Now let me take the case two A robbery has happened in a bank But assume that the CCTV in the bank was malfunctioning But while searching for evidences The police found that in a CCTV outside an ATM There is a recording which shows that a person is carrying a bag full of money Just after five minutes of that robbery taking place There is no evidence that that person has actually robbed the bank But since within five minutes of the robbery A person nearby that bank itself carrying a bag full of money This will be considered as circumstantial evidence Here the evidence is not direct Rather it needs to be corroborated with other evidences Then only a conclusion can be made I hope you can understand the difference here So what now the Supreme Court has said is In cases of bribery where a public servant is involved There is no need for direct proof Even a circumstantial proof is enough For example, there is no need for anyone to witness that bribery act But based on evidences which are circumstantial That public servant can be found guilty For example, assume that a public servant has granted a tender To a particular company Now after granting a tender within a week If that public servant has bought a house And along with that if other evidences are showing That the money with which the house was bought Is linked to this tender only Then that public servant can be found guilty So here there is no need for anyone to directly witness That bribery has taken place When we talk about corruption by public servants Two sections are important Which I mentioned in the news article itself One is the section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 This one deals with the gratification taken by the public servant Against any official act That is if a public servant for doing any official act Accepts or obtains or even agrees to accept Any gratification for himself or for any other person Then that public servant is liable for punishment under this section Here the public servant should not have received any gratification Other than the legal remuneration So if they are found guilty under this section The punishment could be a minimum of 3 years imprisonment to A maximum of 7 years imprisonment plus fine Another section relevant here is Section 13 This section mentions the actions by a public servant Which will come under the category of criminal misconduct Here if you see the subsection 1 clause D According to it If any public servant obtains any valuable thing or any pecuniary advantage By corrupt or illegal means Then that will be termed as a criminal conduct Or if the same valuable thing or pecuniary advantage is obtained By abusing the public servant's position Then also it will be a criminal misconduct Such kinds of criminal misconduct Will attract punishment of 4 years to 10 years imprisonment Along with fine So now the Supreme Court has said that Regarding these two sections Circumstantial evidences can be used by prosecution To prove the cases of bribery So the takeaway from this discussion is There are two types of main evidences One is the direct evidence and then the circumstantial evidence And as per the Supreme Court's recent verdict Circumstantial evidence can be used To prove a criminal misconduct by a public servant And also to prove that the public servant Has taken illegal gratification So if there is a question and problem saying that Bribery charges against a public servant Cannot be proven with circumstantial evidence Then this statement will be wrong Because from now on Circumstantial evidence can also be used under these sections So with these points in mind Let us move on to the next article discussion now Look at this snippet article It says India test-fired Agni 5 missile From the APJ Abdul Kalam island Which is off the coast of Odisha So what we are going to see in this discussion is About the features of this missile Agni 5 See it is an indigenously built missile It is an advanced three-stage missile And it is solid fueled More importantly, note that This missile is developed under the Integrated guided missile development program But what kind of missile is it? It is a surface-to-surface Ballistic missile Do you know what is a ballistic missile? See such missiles work on the same principle As throwing a stone at a target What happens when we throw a stone We exert some force on the stone The stone continues to rise against gravity Until it has some residual force in it Now once the force is exhausted It falls down due to gravity Accelerating along the way The same thing happens in the ballistic missiles also Take Agni 5 for example As I said it has three-stage Solid fuel engine When Agni is launched from a canister The engine ignites So within few minutes All the three stages of Agni 5 Will burn up And in that process It will take the missile to a height of Around 250 kilometers Now this phase of taking it to You know 250 kilometers Is called as the booster phase Now at the end of the booster phase All the fuel in the missile's engine Will be exhausted And the missile will be placed At a height of 250 kilometers After this only the ballistic phase begins In this phase The nuclear warhead Which is in the missile It continues to move up Due to the momentum And it will follow a parabolic path So after reaching a height of around 600 kilometers The momentum will be exhausted And the nuclear warhead Will start moving towards earth Due to the influence of gravity Now during this time Course corrections are made To increase the accuracy of the warhead And finally the warhead reaches The designated area And causes maximum impact This is how a ballistic missile works Okay Now if we take the Agni 5 It is important for us Due to its capabilities This Agni 5 is capable of Striking targets At a range of up to 5000 kilometers And that too with a very high degree of accuracy And this missile is nuclear capable So it carries a nuclear warhead Of about 1.5 tons If you look at this map It depicts the range of Agni 5 missiles Its range covers almost all of China As you can see So that means Now we have a nuclear capable missile That covers entire China And thereby This is in line with India's policy Of nuclear deterrence If you look closely Even some parts of African Europe Can be targeted using this missile So by using this missile We can target other continents also That is why we call Agni 5 As not only the ballistic missile But it is an intercontinental ballistic missile So India has an intercontinental ballistic missile In short, ICBM Along with India, Russia, United States, China, North Korea Are the only countries Which is currently known to possess Land based ICBMs It is said that See even Israel tested ICBMs But currently it is not open About actual deployment Other than the land based ICBMs There are also submarine launched ICBMs Which is possessed by China, France, India, Russia, UK and USA Okay In this discussion We saw in brief about Agni 5 And its capabilities We also saw how a ballistic missile works Now we are going to the next article discussion So our last discussion for today Is going to be based on this news article Which talks about a report released by World Bank This report has made many observations Regarding air pollution in India The report is titled as Striving for clean air, air pollution And public health in South Asia Now as per this report India has six large airships And thereby talks about the importance of Airship management in South Asia For reducing air pollution The report also analyzes Varying degrees of policy implementation And cooperation among countries For reducing air pollution So by taking this opportunity We'll first understand what is an airshed We'll see why its management is important And also And also the suggestions by the report Here I have given the syllabus That is relevant to this discussion Airshed See it literally means a region Sharing a common flow of air Which may become uniformly polluted And stagnant According to World Bank's definition Airshed refers to a common geographic area Where pollutants get trapped And creates similar air quality for everyone See I said that airshed indicates a region Having common flow of air So if one place emits green hose gases Then the air quality of other places Will also be affected If they are under the same airshed It may be a little bit confusing now But after knowing the six airsheds In South Asian region You'll have a clarity See these six major airsheds Have been identified by the report And these airsheds Are in South Asia Where spatial interdependence In air quality is high The first major airshed is West Central Indo-Gangetic Plain This airshed includes Punjabs in both India and Pakistan Then Haryana Parts of Rajasthan Chandigarh Delhi and Uttar Pradesh The second major airshed is Central or Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain This one includes Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bangladesh And the third one is Middle India Part 1 It includes Odisha and Chhattisgarh And the fourth one is Middle India Part 2 It includes Eastern Gujarat And Western Maharashtra Fifth one is Northern or Central Indus River Plain This one includes Pakistan And also parts of Afghanistan And the final one Is Southern Indus Plain And further west This sixth major airshed includes South Pakistan, Western Afghanistan Extending into the Eastern Iran So these are the six major airsheds In South Asia Now since airsheds means There are similar air quality for everyone This also means that Air pollution travels long distance Within South Asia Because of these airsheds Because that is Existence of common flow of air in the region And that is why air pollution crosses Municipal boundaries, State boundaries And National boundaries For example, as per the report Nearly 25% of fine particulate matter pollution Or exposure to partner residents Has its origin in neighbouring state So 25% of fine particulate matter pollution In partner, it's due to its neighbouring state This is because they are under an airshed Which aids in travelling of air pollutants also Another important finding made by the reporters In many cities Only one third of air pollution originates within the city For example, in cities like Dhaka, Kathmandu and Colombo Air pollution that originates within the city Is only one third The remaining two thirds is due to the neighbouring places So you can see how airsheds have a role in air pollution That is why its management is important And the report suggests a model in this regard This model is called Gaines model Which stands for greenhouse gas and air pollution interactions and synergies This model is a detailed geospatial model It is used to quantify particulate matter emissions And also to understand How these emissions disperse in the atmosphere So majorly this model will compute The exposure of PM 2.5 To the residents of every state or province of South Asia It will also compute PM 2.5 exposure at the city level And then it will determine the place and sector of origin Of ambient air pollution in each region and city So once the origin is identified Then measures can be easily taken To reduce air pollution from that particular region And thereby the airshed of that region Will remain free of exposure to air pollutants So that means these steps come under the diagnosis Or identification of the main problem And that is why once this is done Management of airshed can be done easily Again if you have a doubt of why is it necessary To manage airsheds Let me take the example of NCR to simplify NCR that is a national capital region As you know has a deteriorating air quality Especially in the winter Even Supreme Court has given many directions Regarding improving the air quality of NCR So government is taking many efforts in this regard But still reports show that Even if the current policy measures are implemented fully The reduction of PM 2.5 concentrations across South India Will only be partial That is the PM 2.5 concentrations Will only be partially reduced Even if all the policy measures are fully implemented And this is because of the spatial interdependence of air quality Based on this the report also notes that South Asia will not be able to meet the WHO interim target On their own by 2030 So now we need certain measures to address this problem Right? So for that only the report has analyzed Four alternative pathways for reducing air pollution In South Asia Not only in India but in South Asia And they call these pathways as scenarios So according to the report Any one of these scenarios can be implemented To manage airsheds to reduce the pollution Let me tell you briefly what these scenarios are The first scenario includes Scaling up of measures That are currently taken in parts of South Asia To all its regions This whatever measures are taken in a part of South Asia It can be implemented in all the regions If this is done The report estimates that it will help in reducing The average PM 2.5 exposure in South Asia To about 37 microgram per cubic meter And this can be achieved by 2030 according to the report So that means this scenario wants all regions To undertake a common set of pollution control measures Okay? Now come to the second scenario It includes full implementation of All the technically feasible emission controls Everywhere across South Asia And this scenario estimates that It could reduce the average PM 2.5 exposure To 17 microgram per meter cube by the year 2030 Now this scenario aims to provide the biggest reduction In exposure to PM 2.5 among all the four scenarios But at the same time The scenario is also the most expensive one See as I said It aims to implement all technically feasible emission controls That too everywhere So you have to employ all the feasible measures Regardless of their cost And according to the estimation provided by the report This scenario will approximately Have an annual cost of 2.6 billion US dollars For reduced exposure per microgram per meter cube The cost is in billions Then what about the third one This one includes focusing on hot spots See it mainly concentrates on compliance with WHO interim target 1 What are these interim targets? Let us revise it See the interim targets are nothing but the Targets which are given for countries to pursue To meet the WHO guidelines For PM 2.5 the first annual interim target is 35 microgram per meter cube That is followed by 25, 15 and 10 microgram per meter cube See these interim targets are aimed at promoting A gradual shift from higher concentrations To lower concentrations So from this it is understood that the first Interim target is 35 microgram per meter cube And the third scenario aims to work on achieving this only And it is said that the scenario reduces costs significantly Because it aims to substitute excessively costly measures At hot spots by more cost effective measures in other areas And the estimated cost for the scenario Is of 780 million US dollars Let me come to the fourth and final scenario It aims to cut exposure towards the next lower WHO interim target In each region that with full coordination across regions What is the next lower interim target? We saw the first one was 35 microgram per meter cube It is followed by 25 microgram per meter cube So the fourth scenario focuses on achieving this target And it is said that taking measures to achieve this target Will at least lead to decline in mean exposure And in South Asia to 30 microgram per meter cube And there is a main advantage in this scenario It is said to be cost effective Because it employs the least cost combination of measures within airsheds It is estimated to cost around 278 million US dollars So these are the four scenarios analyzed in this report We also saw how much the mean exposure will be reduced If we implement each scenarios So it is up to the government to decide which scenario They are going to implement But whatever they do they should do it collectively Because according to the report only collective measures Can reduce air pollution in South Asia And thereby reducing air pollution in India also So in this discussion you would have understood The meaning of airsheds What role it plays in air pollution We also saw why managing it is important And then we saw the scenarios or the suggestions By the World Bank report You can use these points in your main answer writing Because normally we only talk about India But this provides a collective scenario for whole of South Asia So if you use any of these points It will take your answer to the next level So that's all Now we are moving to the next session Which is the practice question discussion session So let me take the first question It is a pair based question The question asks us to find the correctly matched pairs On one side tribes are given And on the other side the state which they belong to is given First pair is Narikuravar Kerala This pair is incorrect Today only in the discussion we saw Narikuravars are Indo-Aryan tribe from Tamil Nadu The moment you know first pair is incorrect You can arrive at the correct answer Which is option B 2, 3 and 4 only See Benjiyas are a tribe from Chathisgarh They were recently added in the ST list of Chathisgarh And then Betta Kurba They belong to Karnataka only Here Betta means hills and Kurba means shepherds They follow pastoralism And in some cases they also take up weaving They were also recently added in the ST list of Karnataka And then Kartanayakan Tamil Nadu Here you should know that They are a particularly vulnerable tribal group from Tamil Nadu Okay So in this question we use the elimination technique To arrive at the correct answer Now let me take the second question Which among the following represent the gold mines in India Hatti, Kolar, Enel, CIL, Ramgiri We know Kolar is a gold mine So 2 should be in the answer We can eliminate option D The other 2 Hatti and Ramgiri also we saw in the discussion So 1, 2 and 4 should be in the answer And it is present only in one option Which is option C See at the Enel CIL Which is mentioned is the Naveli Lignite Corporation of India Limited It is a central public sector undertaking Under the administrative control of ministry of coal So it mines coal for the purpose of power production In this map you can find the other coal fields and coal mines in India So the correct answer here is option C Now come to the next question See again I have a pair based question There is also one more pair based question today This question is framed based on the recent format Followed by the UPSC It asks how many pairs given below are correctly matched Okay on one side ICBM is given And the country of origin is given on the other side First pair is Horsong 13 China Second pair is Minutemen 3 USA Third pair Dongfang North Korea Fourth pair Sarmat France See here the Minutemen 3 USA is the correct pair The other pairs are incorrectly matched Horsong 13 belongs to North Korea Dongfang belongs to China And Sarmat belongs to Russia So since we have to count the number of correctly matched pair The correct answer is option A Only one pair As I said this is another pair based question One side disease And on the other side causative agent is given Sandalwood spike disease The causative agent mentioned as fungus This is incorrect Because this disease is a severe threat to commercial cultivation of sandalwood And it is an infectious disease caused by a bacterial parasite It is called the phytoplasma This is transmitted by insect vectors And plant to plant transmission is also possible here The first pair is incorrect You can eliminate options A and D Second pair Dibag disease bacteria This is also incorrect Because today only we saw It is caused by a fungus called Phomopsis azadirectae So you can eliminate option B also The correct answer is option C Rice blast disease fungus This disease is caused by a fungus named Pyrecularia or rhizae And this disease is seen in rice seeds And they infect the rice stubble Okay So with this question We have come to the end of Prelims questions discussion session Now it is time for the quiz This is the quiz It is based on RITS Read the question carefully And try to pose the answer in the comment section I'll tell you whether your answer is right or not Along with this I also have two main question for you Interested aspirants can write answer to this question And also pose the answer in the comment section If you like this video Don't forget to like, comment and share And also subscribe to Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel For further updates regarding civil services preparation Thank you