 by Shankar IA's Academy. These are the list of news articles that we will be discussing today. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions. Now look at this news article. This article titled in India looking beyond the binary to a spectrum. See this editorial section is about the rights of LGBT, QIA plus community and in this discussion the author has analyzed the evolution of their rights and the role of judiciary in it. And adding to this the recent case judgments of Indian judiciary are also referred here to substantiate the opinion of the author. The syllabus covered by this editorial article is given below for your reference. Now coming to the discussion, firstly let us know why this topic is in news. See last month the case dealing with the legal status for same-sex marriage came up before the High Court of Delhi and here the union government was criticized for not being consistent with its view and wanted the court to adjourn the case as it was not much urgent. So in this context the author conveys his opinion favoring a legislation to formalize same-sex marriage since as per the author the time has come to bring in progressive reforms by learning lessons from the rest of the world. So now let us see some developments that took place to strengthen the rights of LGBT, QIA plus communities in other countries. See the last two decades have witnessed tremendous progress in establishing civil rights for the LGBT, QIA plus community and firstly in 2005 the constitutional court of South Africa unanimously held that the common law definition of marriage was found to be inconsistent with its constitution. So therefore it rejected the common law definition of marriage that defines it as a union of one man with one woman and as a result of the verdict the civil union act of 2006 was enacted. This civil union act of 2006 it enabled the voluntary union of two persons above 18 years of age by way of marriage. Secondly in 2007 Australia witnessed a progressive reform related to LGBTQIA plus communities. Note that in that year the reforms to civil rights of QIA community were prompted by the honourable judge of the High Court and in his writing to the Attorney General of Australia the judge asked for extending the judicial pension scheme to his gay partner. Now here the response from the federal government was in the form of a legislation which resulted in the same sex relationships act of 2008. See this act was enacted to provide equal entitlements for same sex couples. Among these developments the most recent one is from the Supreme Court of the United States. See in the year 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States they decided that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to the same sex couples as well. So in that way the case of Obergefell versus Hodges led to a landmark shift in the American position because this case judgment allowed same sex marriages to be recognized and treated on par with opposite sex marriages. In addition to it the Supreme Court of the United States held that the denial of marriage rights to same sex couples disrespects and subordinates gays and lesbian community and across the world this recognition of the unequal loss discriminating against the LGBTQIA plus community has acted as a trigger to reform. So till now we saw developments that took place in other countries. Now let us see how the Indian judiciary reacted to the demands of the vulnerable community. Firstly know that in India marriages are formalized under various personal laws. It includes Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, Christian Marriage Act of 1872 then the Muslim Personal Law Application Act of 1937 and so on. At present these laws they do not recognize the same sex and queer marriages clearly but we have judicial guidance to correct it. Know that in Arun Kumar and Shreja case the Madurai bench of Madras High Court they employed a beneficial and purposive interpretation of the term bride. See here the court held that the term bride under the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 includes trans women and intersex persons identifying as a women. So as a result a marriage formalized between a male and a trans women both professing the Hindu religion is said to be a valid marriage under the act. Similarly Hadiya case judgment played a vital role in moving forward with progressive reforms. Now according to the case judgment the right to choose and marry a partner was considered to be a constitutionally guaranteed freedom. So therefore keeping this in mind the Supreme Court held that togetherness of marriage lies within a core zone of privacy and here the society has got no role to play in determining the choice of partners and hence the logical interpretation from these judgments is that any legal or statutory bar to same sex and queer marriages is unconstitutional and this leads to violation of articles 14, 15 as well as article 21 of the Indian Constitution. So till now we dealt with the court judgment to build opinions in favor of same sex marriage now let us see the way forward. See the author mentions that the domain of marriage cannot be immune to reforms and review. Now here he cites the reforms brought by the state of Tamil Nadu. Note that the concept of self-respect marriage is legalized in Tamil Nadu and this reform was legalized through amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 and accordingly this is done away with priests and religious symbols such as fire or saptapadi and instead solemnization of self-respect marriages only requires an exchange of rings or garlands or tying of the Mangal Sutra. Now such reform of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 to bring self-respect marriages is seen as a strong move towards breaking caste-based practices within the institution of marriage and hence the author here proposes the need for a similar legislation that expands the institution of marriage to include all gender and sexual identities and the author concludes the editorial by stating that it is time for India to review its existing legal architecture in order to legalize marriages irrespective of gender identity and sexual orientation. So with these facts in mind let's move on to the next news discussion. Now look at this news article this article talks about the draft master plan for Delhi 2041 the article says that the plan apart from the provisions for developing infrastructure and responding to disasters it also provides for handling disease outbreaks and pandemics for example the plan promotes decentralized workspaces home-based work and it also promotes the utilization of common community spaces as common kitchen and quarantine spaces at the time of emergency. So in this context let us discuss in brief about the draft master plan for Delhi 2041 the syllabus covered by this news article is highlighted below for your reference see a master plan of any cities like a vision document by the planners and the land-owning agencies of that particular city. Usually such a master plan serves as a direction to the future development and it includes analysis recommendations and proposals keeping in mind the population economy housing transportation etc. Now here when you take the master plan for Delhi it is one of the key instruments that facilitates Delhi's development and this is done by assessing the present condition and on guiding how to achieve the desired development. The anchor agencies for the master plan is the Delhi Development Authority and the implementation of the plan is the collective responsibility of all agencies who are involved in the development of Delhi including the central government concerned departments of the government of the NCT of Delhi local bodies etc. See the first master plan for Delhi was promulgated in the year 1962 under the Delhi Development Act of 1957 and it was followed by the master plans of 2001 and 2021 and these plans they were prepared for 20 years perspective periods and they provided a holistic framework for plant development of Delhi. Now the draft of the present master plan for Delhi 2021 it comprises of two volumes and 22 chapters and this plan it seeks to foster a sustainable livable and vibrant Delhi by the year 2021 and here you should note that the draft master plan for Delhi it presents a plan for the city for the next 20 years and the plan pursues three important goals. The goal one or the first goal is to become an environmentally sustainable city that provides a healthy environment for its citizens and adaptable towards addressing impacts of climate change. Secondly its goal is to develop a future-ready city that offers good quality affordable and safe living environment with efficient mobility systems and finally the third goal is to emerge as a dynamic place for economic creative as well as cultural development. So these are the three important goals of the master plan for Delhi 2021. Moving further the visions and goals will be achieved through six objectives and these six objectives are given below for your reference so the respondents can go through it. Coming back know that there are ten key focus areas for the master plan and some of them are environment, water, critical resources, mobility, housing, heritage assets, economic potential etc. Having these informations in mind now let us see how the plan aims to tackle environmental pollution in Delhi. See the draft plan aims to minimize vehicular pollution through key strategies and this includes a switch to greener fuels for public transport and adoption of transit oriented development. Know that transit oriented development is the creation of compact walkable pedestrian oriented mixed use communities that are centered around high quality train systems. See the master plan also addresses improving the quality of water which is taken from the Amunah river as well as from various other lakes and the draft also lays a clear boundary of the buffer zone near the Amunah river and explores how to develop it. As per the plan a green buffer of 300 meter width shall be maintained wherever feasible along the entire edge of the river and while the grassing or other suitable ground cover vegetation shall be planted for 25 to 30 meter from the river edge and also trees may be planted beyond this grass belt. So these are some of the components of the draft master plan for Delhi 2041. Though the master plan on paper is a perfect document for Delhi's progress there are chances for it to face challenges in implementation due to lack of resources and funds, corruption in different departments, lack of political and bureaucratic well and also because of the multiplicity of agencies etc. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion and let's move on to the next news article. Have a look at this news article. The news is that two lions have succumbed to the corona disease and four other lions have tested positive in the Aranya Ranna Zoological Park for Delta variant and the Delta variant of Pangolin lineage B1617.2 seems to have been the cause of it. So in this context let us know about these big cats and also the Delta variant. First let us begin with the Asiatic lions. Have a look at this picture. Their scientific name is Pantha Lyopasika. See Asian lions are different from African type and they're slightly smaller when compared to the African lions and unlike African lions the males do not tend to live with the females of the pride and female lions are the pride's primary hunters and they often work together to prey upon large mammals. See Asiatic lions are magnificent and the most striking morphological character which is always seen in Asiatic lions and raggedly in African lions is a longitudinal fold of skin running along its belly and this fur ranges in color from Ruddy Tony heavily speckled with black to sandy or buff gray sometimes with a silvery sheen in certain lines and the average lifespan of Asiatic lions is between 16 to 18 years. Note that Asiatic lions once crawled from the Middle East to India and now sadly only a fraction of these magnificent animals they survive in the wild and there are only several hundred Asiatic lions in the wild and they all only live in the Gir Forest in India and to understand better see this Gir Forest is in an area that is smaller than Greater London and you occupy remnant forest habitats in the two hill systems of Gir and Girnar that comprise Gujarat's largest tracts of dry deciduous forests Thornie Forest and Savanna. The WWF or the World Wide Fund estimates its population at 523 owing to the threat and decline in population the Asiatic lions is listed in Schedule 1 of the WPA or the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and the IUCN marks it endangered while the sites has kept it in appendix 1. Having seen about the Asiatic lions now let us know about the Delta variant. Now let us make it clear that a variant is nothing but a mutated or a changed version of a microorganism and here the microorganism is coronavirus. See earlier alpha and beta variants were discovered and delta is a descendant of this alpha and beta variant. See the delta variant is reportedly the most prevalent coronavirus variant in India and this variant has caused huge loss of lives during the second wave. It is commonly referred to as B1 617.2 and this variant is associated with more infectivity compared to alpha and beta variant of the primal coronavirus. See increased infectivity means an infected individual can infect many more individuals than previously thought and it is also known to circumvent the vaccine induced immunity. Know that recently an emerging form of the delta variant called Ay1 is raising global concern and according to the scientist Ay1 marks the continued evolution of the delta variant and the delta variant has already developed a mutation called D614G last year and this mutation is responsible for the high infectivity rate of coronavirus and the mutation made the delta variant globally prominent due to its high infectivity nature and Ay1 is another one to be concerned about. So with this information let's move on to the next part of the discussion. Now let us take up this news article. This article is regarding the March disputed Megadatoo project. As per the news the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has urged the center not to approve Karnataka's plan to build dam across the Cauvery at Megadatoo and it also says that the Chief Minister has alleged that the proposal to build a dam goes against the 2018 Supreme Court's judgment as it would reduce the quantum of Cauvery river for Tamil Nadu. Here know that Megadatoo is a place in Karnataka and the proposed Megadatoo dam it aims to construct a balancing reservoir across river Cauvery and its major objective is to utilize the additional 4.75 thousand million cubic feet of water to provide drinking water facility to the Bangalore metropolitan region and it also focuses on storing the flood waters that may escape into the sea and also to harness the 400 megawatts of renewable energy in a year. Know that this project is to be built by the Cauvery Niravari Nigam Limited which is completely owned by the government of Karnataka. So this means that the Tamil Nadu government is not involved in its construction and the government of Tamil Nadu believes that this project violates the final award of the Cauvery River Water Tribunal as it would reduce the water flow in the intermediate catchment below the Krishna Rajasagar and Kavini reservoirs and if this happens it will result in less water for Tamil Nadu thereby affecting the rice cultivation in the Cauvery Delta. So with these information already see about river Cauvery, the interstate river with its upper catchment in Karnataka and Kerala and the lower part in Tamil Nadu. See the river rises in the Brahmagiri range of the western guards in Karnataka and you can have a look at the Cauvery basin for a better understanding. Now coming to the important tributaries know that Harangi, Hemavati, Sinsha, Arkavadi, Lakshmana Tirtha and Swarnavadi joins Cauvery in Karnataka and River Kavini which originates in Kerala joins Cauvery in Karnataka and also know that Bhavani, Amaravadi and Noel are the main tributaries of Cauvery in Tamil Nadu. Now coming to the water dispute the central government under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act of 1956 had constituted the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the year 1990. The main purpose of this tribunal was to adjudicate upon the water dispute between Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and also the Union Territory of Udicherry. The 2007 report of the tribunal was challenged in the Supreme Court which in 2018 directed the center to implement the modified tribunal award. So based on this the center constituted the Cauvery Water Management Authority and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee in order to give effect to the decision of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. See this Cauvery Water Management Authority is chaired by a person who is appointed by the center for a tenure of five years and it will have representatives from all four parties to the dispute. Further the composition of Cauvery Water Regulation Committee is given here for your reference the aspirants can go through it. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. With this let us move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Now let us take up this question about the Asiatic Lions. Statement one says that one walking through the Panna National Park hence spot these lions and statement two says that the Asiatic Lions are listed endangered in IUCN red list and statement three is that the Asiatic Lions are facing habitat loss and we need to find the correct statements. See the correct option here is option C that is 2 and 3 only because as we saw in the discussion Asiatic Lions are found only in Gir area in their natural habitat. So statement one is wrong and coming to statement two and statement three they are factually correct and therefore the correct answer is option C that is 2 and 3 only. Now look at this prelims practice question regarding the draft master plan for Delhi 2041. The statement one says that seeking to foster a sustainable liveable and vibrant Delhi by 2041 it is the first ever master plan promulgated for Delhi and statement two says that the Delhi Development Authority chaired by the Chief Minister of Delhi is the anchor agency for the plan. So we need to find the correct answer. When you take the first statement this statement is incorrect because the first master plan for Delhi was promulgated in the year 1962 under the Delhi Development Act of 1957 and following it we had the master plans of 2001 and 2021 as well. So this is now the first master plan. So therefore this statement is incorrect. Coming to the second statement as we have discussed the Delhi Development Authority is the anchor agency for the master plan but it is headed by the left-hand governor of Delhi and not the Chief Minister. So therefore this statement is also wrong. Since the question wants us to find the correct statement the right option is option D that is neither one nor two because both the statements are incorrect. Now look at this question which of the following rivers is or are the tributaries of Kaveri river and the options given are Kaabini, Mangalapura, Hema Vati, Idamalaya, Harangi. See the important tributaries joining the Kaveri are Harangi, Hema Vati, Kaabini, Suvarna Vati and Bhavani and the important tributaries of Periyar river are Mudhira Pura, Perinjan Kutty, Idamalaya and Mangalpura etc. So this shows that option 2 and option 4 are incorrect because they are not the tributaries of Kaveri river but rather they are the tributaries of the Periyar river and since the question wants us to find the correct answer the right option is option A that is 1, 3 and 5 only. The list of main questions is given below for your reference. You can write your answer and post them in the comment section. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindu News Analysis. If you like the video then don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC Civil Services preparation.