 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. Displayed are the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and the page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. Let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article talks about a waning and dying dance form of Udisha. The dance form is called as Ghotipua dance. In today's discussion, let us see about this dance form and also why it is in news in the course of the discussion. See these are some of the previous your questions asked in the area of art and culture. Keeping in view how these questions have been framed, we will have an in-depth discussion on this dance art form. See Ghotipua is a majestic traditional folk dance of Udisha. It is largely found in eastern part of Udisha. And if you know the meaning of the word Ghotipua, you can understand what the dance is about. See in Odiya language, Ghoti means one or single and Pua means boy. So it is a dance that is performed by young or single boys. But note that this is not one man's or one boy's dance. Ghotipua's always dance in pairs but it is completely different from other kinds of pair dances like duets. Now the magnificence or the beauty of this dance is that these young boys, they dress up as female to praise Lord Jagannath. Secondly, Lord Krishna. See Lord Jagannath and Lord Krishna, they are incarnation of Lord Vishnu in Hindu mythology. So therefore, the actual form of the dance is executed by a group of boys who perform acrobatic figures inspired by the life of Radha and Krishna. See Radha and Krishna are considered and believed to be a symbol of divine love in Hindu mythology. See these young boys, they start to learn this dance at an early age and they learn until their adolescence or they learn until when their androgynous look is fading. See androgynous means partly male and partly female in appearance. Here it doesn't mean that the boys are androgynous rather they have that appearance which may be attributed to some soft features like a female. So to look like a female in the performance, the boys cut their hair and they apply makeup. But the dance costume has evolved over time because of the influence of modernity. So as part of modernity, now it even includes gymnastic poses or human permits. And these two are very important part of this dance for which now the dance is famous around the world. And this acrobatic nature is also attributed to the history or origin of this dance form. So what about its history? The history of this dance form can be traced back to 16th century AD. At that time, Devadasi system was prevailing. Devadasis were called as Maharis in Odisha. They were the female dancers who are dedicated to the temples and in Odisha they were devoted to Lord Jagannath. But the Maharis, they came to be employed in royal courts and as a result this led to the degeneration of the art form. And around this time a class of boys they were trained in the Maharis art. They danced in the temples and they even took the dance out of temple for general entertainment as well. Now this is what was came to be known as Gotipuva's dance. But around 16th century AD, during the time of boy king Ramachandra Deva, there was a decline in Maharis style dances. See Ramachandra Deva was the founder of boy dynasty. So seeing the decline in Maharis style dance, he revived the dance and inculcated a physical culture in the dance through gymnasiums. See these gymnasiums they acted like a hub where there were military training and cultural activities. And maybe this is how the acrobatic movements got involved in this dance Gotipuva which was not present in the original version. So remember that the Gotipuva dance is in Odisha style resembling Maharis but their technique costumes and presentation differ from Maharis. In addition Gotipuva is far more organized than that of Maharis. Most importantly the present form of Odisha dance has been largely inspired from Gotipuva dance only. So we can say Gotipuva is the precursor of Odisha and as you know Odisha is one of the classical dances of India. Now let us see some of the features of Gotipuva dance. First the singing is done by the dancers themselves but it is reported that this tradition is now fading out. Secondly the song found in the traditional Gotipuva dance is a composition of Vaishnava poets who are these poets. Some of the important poets we can say Kabi Samrat, Upendra Banja, Kabi Surya Baladevarath, Gopal Krushna, Dina Krushna, Banabali Das, some of the Vaishnava poets whose composition were added in this traditional Gotipuva dance. Most of the songs are related to morality, ethics, principles that are found in Vaishnavism. Now thirdly the dance form includes musical instruments. What are the musical instruments found in this dance form? Mardala, Gini, Harmonium, Violin and Basuri. It is pronunciated as Basuri. Then fourth aspect see this Gotipuva dance it includes a repertoire or collection of dances. Very importantly it includes three aspects. One is Vandana prayer. See it is a customary dance worship prayer of God or Guru. Then there is Abhinaya. Now this includes enactment of a song and interpretation of poetry of ancient writings. Now this dance depicts or portrays Radha Krishna oriented poems like the famous Geetha Govinda of the 12th century. So it is like a moving love poem with facial expression, eye movement and mudra hand gestures. Then what is the third one here? That is Bandha Drutya. It is the presentation of acrobat yogic posters. This includes creation of figures of Radha Krishna, then the mythological scenes from their lives. Then it has similarity to visual representation that is drawn up by Pathachitra artist. See Pathachitra is the traditional painting of Odisha. So this dance includes difficult and intricate poses that involves twisting of the body and all. So therefore to be able to perform it, the boys need to start learning the dance at the early age of like five or even six years. Fifthly the dance posters, costumes, makeups, including the Bandha Rutya poses, they were derived from two ancient texts. What are they? One is Abhinaya Chandrika, then the other is Sankita Darpana. What is Abhinaya Chandrika? See it is an ancient text on Odisha dance. It was written by Maheshwar Mahapatra during the 15th century. What is then Sankita Darpana? See it is an ancient text from 16th or 17th century. It is about music and dance. It was written by Chathura Damodar Mohapatra. Sixthly, let us see the religious festivals that are linked with traditional Gautipua dance. See the festivals that include Gautipua dance are linked to Gautipua dance. We can say Chandan Jatra, Julan Jatra and Dola Jatra. During Chandan Jatra, the dance is performed on the water actually on a boat. Now why this dance form is in news? See this is because the current existing form of the dance is a degenerate state of its original form. Because now it is reported that it has become a poor imitation of Odisha dance. Initially, Odisha dance followed the Gautipua dance style but the situation is so grim that now Gautipua's follow Odisha. Also it is now performed as a group dance of six to ten boys and vastly it includes premed formation. So they are saying that it is differing from its most authentic form which was without the modern acrobatic movements and most worryingly even the state government is alleged to be focusing only on Odisha dance and not on Gautipua. So these are the reasons why they are found to mention in Metropolis of today's the Hindu newspaper edition and these are various aspects and we had an in-depth discussion on Gautipua dance. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This editorial article is with reference to the recent decision of the Supreme Court which has decided to appoint retired judges as ad hoc judges to clear the increasing or mounting areas in the various high courts. So it is a discussion based on this issue. We will analyze the related aspects as part of this analysis. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. See the high courts all over India they have a backlog of more than 57 lakh cases. While this is on one side these high courts they also have a vacancy level of around 40 percent and Supreme Court of India states that the high level of vacancy is what has actually contributed to the high backlog of cases. Therefore the Supreme Court or the apex court has chosen to activate an article from the Indian constitution to solve this problem. This article is what now you are seeing in the newspapers article 224 capital A. Now this decision was taken by a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India. So according to Chief Justice of India Sharath Aravind the challenge of mounting areas and existing vacancies requires recourse to article 224 capital A. Now there is one question whether this provision has been used widely or very frequently or only sparingly or rarely in the past. The answer is see the provision has been utilized only rarely or sparingly in the past. See it was used only for the limited purpose of disposing a particular kind of cases but the increasing backlog of cases has forced the Supreme Court of India to invoke this provision. So what do we mean by this article 224 capital A. Let us see about this. See this article deals with appointment of retired judges at sittings of high courts and as per this article the provision provides for the appointment of ad hoc judges in the high courts based on their consent. See a Chief Justice of a high court for any state may at any time request any person who has held the office of judge of that court or of any other high court so as to sit and act as a judge of the high court for that particular state with the previous consent of the president. That is the request will be made with the previous consent of the president of India. Now this is what the article is all about in addition to these matters the Supreme Court of India has orally outlined the prospective guidelines for the appointment and functioning of an ad hoc or temporary judge. Now let us see about them. See according to the guidelines the trigger points for these appointments will be when certain circumstances exist. What are they? One is when the vacancies go beyond 20% of the sanction strength or when more than 10% of the backlog of pending cases or more than five years old or when cases in a particular category are pending for more than five years or when the rate of disposal is slower than the rate of institution of fresh cases. So if the high court meets any of the above guidelines then an ad hoc judge can be appointed. See the court has clarified that this is a temporary process or an ad hoc process and therefore it does not constrain the regular appointment process of judges of a high court. Also the appointment of ad hoc judges would not be a threat to the services of other judges because the ad hoc judges will be treated as the junior most judges in the high court. The retired judges for the appointment of ad hoc judges would be chosen on the basis of their expertise in a particular field of dispute. See when the Supreme Court of India proposed for the appointment of ad hoc judges the central government did not oppose the proposal the central government welcomed this proposal and it ensured that the vacancies will be filled up first through regular appointment process from its side. That is after that there will be appointment of ad hoc judges. See judiciary is an important pillar of our democracy. Speedy and fair trial is an essential part of justice system. So appointment of retired judges to clear the backlog of cases is a welcome step but judiciary should also ensure that only retired judges with experience and expertise are offered these temporary positions and the article states that the judiciary should take all necessary steps to avoid favoritism during the appointment process. See generally the cases at the high courts involve adjudication with respect to some form of violations. If the cases are not heard and if judgment is not given on time then there will be disappearance of one of the important principles of penology. See in penology or in the study of punishments we say that punishments should be swift, certain and proportionate. All these three aspects should be there so that there is no repetition of an offense or so that there is correction of the behavior. If there is no swiftness then there is less deterrence or less fear to commit or transgress laws or to commit violations. So this will lead to a serious question of maintaining law and order in the society and therefore the idea of the Supreme Court to appoint ad hoc judges is a welcome step. So this can also address one another the court we usually say when justice is delayed that is delayed justice is denied justice or injustice. So these are some of the aspects with reference to the decision of the Supreme Court regarding appointment of ad hoc judges. Now let us move on to analysis of next news article. This article talks about African swine fever disease. See the African swine fever has hit four districts of Missouri state and has so far killed more than 1000 pigs in a month. So in this discussion let us have a discussion on this disease. See it is a highly contagious and a deadly viral disease but human beings need not worry because it is not a threat to human health. Why it is not a threat to human health? Because it cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans. We can now coming to this fever see this disease affects both domestic swines and feral swines of all ages. Here when we say swines we refer to pigs. Feral means those animals which exist in a wild state or in an untrained or untamed state or undomesticated state simply domestic and wild pigs. This fever it leads to an acute form of haemorrhagic fever. Why we need to worry about this fever? Because the mortality rate of this fever is close to 100% because it has no cure. The only way to stop its spread is by culling or by selectively killing the infected animals. Now what causes such fever? See it is caused by a large DNA virus of family called as far viride family and this disease comes under trans boundary animal disease. See according to food and agricultural organization the trans boundary animal diseases is defined as those epidemic diseases that are highly contagious or highly transmissible and having the potential for very rapid spread irrespective of national borders and causing serious socioeconomic and possibly public health consequences. So since African swine fever is a trans boundary animal disease it causes severe economic and production losses across the world. Now let us discuss how it spreads. See it spreads by live pigs or dead pigs both domestic and wild and also through pork products. The transmission of this disease can also occur through contaminated feed and fomites. Here fomites are some non-living objects like shoes, clothes, vehicles, knives, other equipment. We may ask how these fomites contribute to the transmission? This is because of high environmental resistance of this African swine fever virus. And know that so far there is no approved vaccine against this disease. Now let's see where these diseases have been reported so far. Historically outbreaks have been reported in Africa then in parts of Europe, South America and also in the Caribbean. It is also found in countries around the world very particularly in sub Saharan Africa. More recently we have found that it has spread through China, Mongolia and Vietnam and also within parts of even European Union. Now other facts about this disease is that see it is a disease that is listed in Terrestrial Animal Health Code of World Organization for Animal Health. So what is the meaning that if such a fever is listed in such code? That is it should be immediately reported once identified to this organization. See this organization is an intergovernmental organization that is responsible for improving animal health all over the world. It develops normative documents or research documents relating to rules that member countries can use to protect themselves from the diseases and such pathogens. Coming to India, India is a member of this organization. Its acronym is OIE. Now this is because initially it was called as Office International Day Epizooties. It was established in 1924. However in 2003 it became World Organization for Animal Health. However it kept its historical acronym OIE. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article wherein we discussed about African swine fever, some consequences, how it can affect those people whose livelihood is based on pigs, pork, pork products etc. We also saw a brief about World Organization for Animal Health. Now let us move on to the next part of the discussion. Now let us take up this editorial article written by Mr. Prashant who is a senior public interest advocate practicing at the Supreme Court of India. The last year we discussed several aspects of contempt to the Supreme Court with reference to some of his tweets in the social media against the present Chief Justice of India. In relation to that we have discussed several provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971. Now coming to this article here the author talks about the failure of Indian judiciary particularly at the offices of the highest level in the Supreme Court mainly the last four Chief Justices of India in upholding justice and ensuring the independence of judiciary. For this he takes the examples of different cases that came up in the court and how the CJ dealt with them. So let us discuss this article in detail. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. So before we see what the author has to say it is important for us to know about the Chief Justice of India. So first let us briefly see about the CJI. See CJI is referred to as Prima Sinterpare which means First Amongst Equals that is within the Supreme Court. Now talking about the appointment see the CJI and the judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President Asper class 2 of article 124 of Indian Constitution and we know that article 124 is about the establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court and at present the maximum strength of the Supreme Court is 34 which includes one Chief Justice and 33 other Supreme Court judges and this number of judges of the Supreme Court is based on a law that is called as the Supreme Court Number of Judges Act of 1956. In 2019 this law was amended so as to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court that elevated number to 34 including the Chief Justice of India. Prior to this the total strength was 31. Now coming to the appointment to the office of Chief Justice of India she or he should be the senior most judge of the Supreme Court who is considered fit to hold the office. The union minister of law and justice would seek the recommendation of the outgoing CJ for the appointment of the next CJ at the appropriate time and after the receipt of recommendation of CJ the union minister will put up the recommendation to the prime minister who will advise the president the matter of appointment. Know that other judges of the Supreme Court they are appointed by the president on the recommendation of Chief Justice of India who consults a collegium of four senior most puny judges of the Supreme Court. Now in addition to her adjudicatory role the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also plays the role of administrative head of the court. Here she or he will exercise the prerogative of allocating cases to particular benches and will also decide the number of judges that will hear the case. Now this power of Chief Justice is commonly reported as the master of the roaster system. Now let us see what the author has to say regarding failure of judiciary to uphold justice. See the author is of the opinion that the Supreme Court of India the last five years during the tenure of last four Chief Justices has seen or kind of allowed unwarranted interference from the executive that is from the government. According to him there were issues in every aspect of dispensation of justice and this includes issues with respect to administration of the court and the allocation of cases and benches, protection of civil liberties, securing the rights and livelihood of poor and the marginalized and also in ensuring checks and balances in the functioning of executive. To substantiate his views he talks about the outgoing Chief Justice of India Mr. Sharad Arvind. Many important cases came before him during his tenure but most of these cases remained unheard or the court dismissed them. Some of the cases that were delayed for a long period of time include habeas corpus petitions under Article 32 mainly with reference to arrest of various political leaders from the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and there were also delay with reference to handling cases that were filed questioning of legality or constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 and also with reference to the judgments related to electoral bond schemes and in addition to this with reference to administration because of COVID-19 and associated lockdown the Supreme Court remained shut for physical hearing much of the time. Some reports say that there were at present currently more than 11 lakh cases pending at the highest court of India. So to prove his opinion the author does a case by case analysis one he talks about application filed in Supreme Court to prevent the detention and deportation of Rohiniya particularly in the current time where there is crisis or violence in Myanmar where the current ruling regime is military and recently we saw that it was disposed by a bench headed by CJA on the basis that there is procedural things are being followed by the government even in the current time with respect to deportation we saw a detailed discussion about this on 9th April 2021. What was the decision made by Supreme Court? Why such decision was made? What was the contention of the central government? What was the contention of the arguments of the advocates? We have discussed in detail in that analysis you can take a look on that. Secondly the author talks about unprecedented suffering by migrant laborers because of nationwide lockdown last year. The case for relief in terms of food, wages and transport was initially heard by the bench headed by CJA but unfortunately the author feels that the court failed to provide effective remedy to them. In this regard the author quotes the remark made by CJA who said if the migrant laborers are being provided meals then why do they need money? See basic subsistence does not only include having food it includes various other aspects like water, basic health, basic sanitation, basic shelter etc. Then according to the author it shows the court's inhumanity and apathy towards the distress of the poor and marginalized people. Then he talks about the Supreme Court's discouragement of habeas corbus petitions. At one point the CJA asked or discouraged this and has added statements like first approach high courts under Article 226 then come to us but as per the constitutional remedy available under Article 32 we can directly approach the Supreme Court for the failure or the violation of fundamental rights guaranteed in Part 3 of Indian Constitution. Then the author talks about the doubts on political neutrality of a committee of persons appointed by CJA to examine the issues of farmers and also with reference to farm laws and to negotiate with the farmers in the wake of recent protests of farmers. Here the author states that these members of the committee had earlier publicly supported the farm laws. So in this context the committee of people are pro-government then how they can be involved in negotiate or in having a neutral stand on these issues. Next the author talks about the failure of CJA in ensuring proper filling of vacancies of judges to Supreme Court and also to High Court and also mainly in failing to address the complaints that were filed against judges. Two important things the author reports there were lack of transparency and accountability with reference to the complaint that was filed against former CJA and current Rajasabha member Mr. Ranjan with reference to sexual harassment and also one against the upcoming CJA. Mr. Ramana a letter was actually written by the Anthropidesh Chief Minister having some allegations against who is going to become the next CJA. So there were some lack of accountability and transparency that is what the author is alleging. So the author concludes by saying that the Supreme Court of India is regarded as one of the most powerful courts in the world and in this regard it acts as a leader for many other courts across the world. So it is high time that our court must examine its failure to provide justice to the citizens and human beings and as the new CJA is going to take office the article expresses hope that in coming years the court reclaims its constitutional role by upholding and protecting India's constitutional values judicial independence democracy human rights and dignity. So these are some of the aspects with reference to the analysis of this lead editorial article. Now let's move on to next news article. This news article talks about the eligibility criteria to become an expert member at the National Green Tribunal. We know that recently former IAS officer and former Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu Sri Girija Vaidyanathan was appointed as an expert member of NGT. The decision was challenged on the ground that she does not meet the eligibility criteria for the appointment. Initially the Madras High Court stayed her appointment but the decks were cleared later when it was substantiated that she is actually eligible. In this context let us discuss in brief about the qualification to become a member of National Green Tribunal and other important points in this article. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See the objective of forming a tribunal in general it is to provide for speedy justice and inexpensive justice to the litigants. The tribunals are adjudicatory bodies in their specific fields save that is company law there comes national company law tribunal save that is with respect to issues related to environment then comes national green tribunal. So these tribunals are adjudicatory bodies in their specific fields which are formed by members with specialization and technical expertise. So the delivery of justice through tribunals is expected to be cost effective more accessible and also gives scope for utilizing expertise in the respective specific fields and when we can achieve all these objectives this will happen only when experts who are appointed into these bodies have enough special knowledge and experience. So the question of expertise of an expert or as an expert member has been in news with reference to the recent appointment that was made in NGT. Let us take this opportunity so as to look into the criteria that is given in National Green Tribunal Act of 2010. First let's see the composition then come to that part. Here section 4 talks about the composition. NGT shall have a full-time chairperson then there shall be a minimum of 10 full-time judicial members or a maximum of 20 full-time judicial members as notified by center. Coming to expert members there shall be a minimum of 10 but maximum of 20 as notified by the central government. See this law was passed by the parliament. Apart from this the chairperson of NGT may invite one or more persons who have specialized knowledge and experience in a particular case before the tribunal so as to assess the tribunal in that particular case. Now let's come to the qualifications for appointment of chairperson, judicial member and expert member as given in section 5 of this NGT Act 2010. See section 5 subsection 1 states that a person is not qualified for appointment as the chairperson or judicial member of the tribunal unless she or he is or has been a judge of a Supreme Court or Chief Justice of a High Court. That is only if a person is or has been a judge of a Supreme Court or CJ of a High Court the person is qualified for the appointment as the chairperson or as the judicial member of the tribunal. In addition a person who is a judge of a High Court or who has been a judge of a High Court shall also be qualified to be appointed as a judicial member. Now let us see the qualification for the appointment of expert members that is given in subsection 2 of section 5. The Act provides two kinds of criteria one based on qualifications and practical experience and another on administrative experience in the field. In either of these two criteria they should be eligible. An expert member shall have a degree in master of science with a doctorate degree or master of engineering or master of technology. In addition they should also have an experience of 15 years in the relevant field and this 15 years also includes five years of practical experience in the field of environment and forest in a reputed national level institution. Here when we say five years practical experience in the field of environment and forest this includes pollution control, hazardous substance management, environment impact assessment, climate change management, biological diversity management and forest conservation. Now coming to second aspect or second set of criteria for the expert member that is they should have an administrative experience of 15 years and this 15 years is including experience of five years in dealing with environmental matters in the central or a state government or in a reputed national or state level institution. Now with respect to former chief secretary it was alleged that she comes under this criteria and that this five years of dealing with environmental matters there is some shortage or lack of clarity that is what it was alleged in the case. Later Metra Cycote has passed order that she is eligible to be an NGT member as she fulfilled the experience of five years in dealing with environmental matters in central or state government or in a reputed national or state level institution. Now there was also discussion about the question whether her administrative experience should be treated as equivalent to the real expertise. We are dealing with expert members so they are questioning of the 15 years you can find only five years is considered in dealing with environmental matters. What about remaining 10 years can we consider it as real expertise that is what the question is. The author says that the High Court declined to interfere with this matter as the domain comes under the parliament or the statute was passed by the parliament it is the wisdom of parliament either to make an amendment in future or to remain with the same aspect with reference to the criteria. However this has raised the question to know about the need relevance and composition of many tribunals and some of the tribunals have also come under judicial scrutiny in the recent past. Therefore the author requests that the center should clarify qualifications for expert members in such tribunals and also the center must look into a directive given by the Supreme Court so as to constitute a national tribunals commission. Now what will be the function of this national tribunals commission see it will supervise the appointment and functioning of tribunals say for example national company or tribunal national green tribunal etc. It was suggested so as to ensure that real expertise will fill the vacancies in tribunals so as to ensure efficient justice delivery. So these are some of the aspects with reference to the analysis of this news article so what the High Court finally concluded is the current appointment is as per law and the future is up to the parliament so as to stay with the current format or to bring a change. So in this article we discussed about the composition of national green tribunal. We saw a brief about tribunals and the current issue with respect to appointment of a former chief secretary as expert member. We also saw the eligibility criteria to be appointed as chairperson judicial member and also as expert member. We also saw some directions given by this High Court with reference to appointment in tribunals. Now let's move on to next article analysis. This news article is regarding the commitment made by Prime Minister of India during the Leader's Summit on Climate which was organized by the United States of America. During the summit an important partnership called as India-U.S Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 was launched. It aims to mobilize investments and to demonstrate clean technologies and to enable green collaborations between the two states. In this context you can find an acronym called as NDC in this article. In this context let us discuss in brief about India's nationally determined contributions. See these are targets that are set up by each country to help achieve the objective of Paris Agreement which is to keep global warming to considerably below 2 degree Celsius or preferably below 1.5 degree Celsius by the turn of the current century. What will happen if this objective is not met? This will lead to destabilization of coastal ecosystems and communities and it will lead to submerging of lot of small island developing states. Now let us see India's NDCs. See India proposed a healthy and sustainable way of living that is to be based on traditions and values of conservation and moderation. It also adopted a climate friendly and a cleaner path at corresponding level of economic development that is at comparable levels of income India's growth path is much more cleaner and greener than the other countries. Next India committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from the 2005 level. It also committed to achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources which is also to be achieved by 2030. Now this would be done with the help of transfer of technology and low-cost international finance even including green climate fund. Next India committed to create an additional carbon sink of 2.3 to 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent how this is to be done through additional forest and additional tree cover which is again to be achieved by 2030. See India also focuses on adapting to climate change by enhancing investments in development programs in those sectors which are vulnerable to climate change what are some sectors we can say agriculture, water resources, Himalayan region, coastal regions etc. India also emphasized on mobilizing domestic new and additional funds from developed countries to implement the discussed mitigation and adaptation actions. Another focus is to build capacities to create domestic framework and also international architecture for quick diffusion of cutting-edge climate technology to our country. Now let us see the status of India with respect to these proposed NDCs. See during COP 25 of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Madrid in 2019 our Union Environment Minister updated India's achievements as per the statement India has already reduced emissions intensity of GDP by 21 percent and India is on track to achieve the goal of 35 percent emissions reduction and as we know we set 175 gigawatt renewable energy target by 2022 this was also later upgraded to 450 gigawatt by 2030 and as of December 2019 86 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity has already been achieved. Now coming to creating additional carbon sinks Union Minister stated that our green cover had increased by around 15,000 square kilometer the last few years. Here the last few years would refer to period prior to December 2019 and India is also investing in urban forests school nursery agroforestry and these are expected to further increase the forest cover while these are some of the achievements so far some independent studies have pointed that with our present pace it may be a little difficult to achieve the target by 2030 and one of the factors that has spoiled the pace is the COVID-19 pandemic so these are some information about India's NDCs now let's move on to next part of the discussion. Now see this news article which talks about an order from the Russian Defence Minister so as to end the Russian military drills near Ukraine this comes as a gesture to rebuild the country's relations with Ukraine in this regard the Russian president has invited the Ukrainian leader Zelensky for talks in Moscow so now let us have a discussion in brief about Ukraine see it is located at the central part of Eastern Europe having capital at Kiev it became fully independent in their 1991 after the breaking up of Soviet Union so prior to 1991 Ukraine was a Constituent Republic of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the USSR see the country is bordered by Belarus to the north Russia to the east we can see Sea of Azov and Black Sea to the south then to the southwest we can see Moldova and Romania then Hungary Slovakia and Poland to the west the far southeast Ukraine is separated from Russia by a straight called as Kerch Strait this straight it connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea see this country it lies on the crossroads of major transportation routes from Europe to Asia and from Scandinavian states to the Mediterranean region coming to landscape it occupies southwestern portion of the Russian plane this plane is called as the east European plane it consists of almost entirely of level planes at an average elevation of 175 meters above the sea level see it possesses around 5 percent of world natural resources coming to the drainage system almost all the major rivers in Ukraine they flow northwest to southeast through the plains and they empty into the Black Sea and Sea of Azov famous rivers we can say that Denaipar river, Sadanbu, Don, Danube etc mainly the Denaipar river and its tributaries dominate the entire central part of this country now coming to climate see it lies in a temperate climatic zone but influenced by a moderately warm humid air from the Atlantic Ocean the winters in the west are considerably milder than the winters in the east in the summer however on the other hand the east frequently experiences higher temperatures than the west rainfall or the precipitation is uneven and the maximum precipitation generally occurs in June and July while minimum falls in February snow falls we can see mainly in late November and in early December coming to vegetation three main zones of natural vegetation exist from north to south they are called as policia which means woodland and marshes then forest steppe and the steppe now during the soviet period that is prior to 1991 there were rapid industrialization and intensive forming and this resulted in destruction of the forest in this region and one another difficulty was when 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant this created severe environmental problems in the northwest in Ukraine see this part was earlier under soviet union but now it is situated in Ukraine it was reported that vast areas of land are contaminated by the dangerous short and long-lived radioactive isotopes particularly because of the impact of strontium-90 so these are some of the information with reference to Ukraine now let's move on to next part of the discussion this news article talks about the Trishur Puram the news article states that the Vilambaram ritual it marked the beginning of Puram celebrations yesterday and this ritual involved the arrival of Teiti Naidilakavu Bhagavati at Sri Vadakunnadan temple see Trishur is called as the cultural capital of Kerala now because of COVID-19 the news article reports that the famous 36-hour event will be reduced to just a few hours of celebrations now in relation to this we have discussed in detail about Trishur Puram called as the Puram of Purams on 14th May 2019 Hindu news analysis for more information on Trishur Puram we advise the viewers to have a look on that video now let's move on to next part of the discussion we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session first question is with reference to Gautipua dance with reference to Gautipua dance which of the following statements is or are incorrect it includes presentation of acrobat yogic postures see the statement is correct it also includes premit forming poses then difficult and intricate poses which involve twisting of the body so the statement is correct second statement it resembles maharidans and a precursor of odisi see this statement is also correct see this dance is an odisi style resembling maharis but the technique costumes and presentation in this dance it differ from those of mahari and Gautipua is far more organized than that of maharis the present form of odisi dance has been largely inspired from Gautipua dance only so we say that Gautipua is a precursor of odisi third statement it includes creation of figures and the mythological scenes from the lives of Radha and Krishna see this statement is correct we have to identify incorrect statements none of the other statements are incorrect so the correct answer is option d see this previously asked question the term intended nationally determined contributions is sometimes seen in the news in the context of pledges made by the european countries to rehabilitate refugees from the war affected middle east option b plan of action outlined by the countries of the world to combat climate change see option b is the correct answer see this map based question consider the following russia black sea turkey poland which of the above have land border with ukraine we can see that turkey doesn't have land border with ukraine if you eliminate turkey from the answer you can arrive at the correct answer option b one two and four only now this question is with reference to african swine fever two statements are given which of our statements are correct the african swine fever is a highly contagious and deadly bacterial disease see this is incorrect it is a deadly viral disease this disease easily spread from swine to humans again this statement is also incorrect as it does not spread from swine to humans so the correct answer is option d neither one or two are correct see these practice mains questions you can answer these questions and post them in the comment section with this we come to the end of today's the hindu news analysis if you like this video click the like button comment share and subscribe to shankarai's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation