 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy. The list of articles that has been chosen for today's analysis are provided here. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the given articles is provided in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the time stamping is also provided in the comment section. Let's move on to the first article analysis. This discussion is based on this editorial which is with respect to the shutdown of internet in Delhi and in several other states. The syllabus that is relevant for this analysis is given here for your reference. In this editorial analysis, we will be seeing few provisions that empower the government authorities to shut down the internet and we will be also seeing about the procedure that is mentioned in the temporary suspension of telecom services rules of 2017. Then we will discuss about some of the important functions which are affected by the shutdown of internet. So, now let us start our analysis. We have been hearing about the shutdown of internet in Delhi and in other states. Particularly in some of the northeastern states such as Meghalaya, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, it is reported that the connections were entirely cut off. And even a similar shutdown of internet has also been witnessed in parts of Assam, West Bengal, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Now, according to the author of this editorial, the shutdown of internet in various places is a response to put an end to the growing protests and demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. Now, here you should note one point. That is whenever there is violence in a peaceful demonstration, this violence has to be dealt with by the calculated use of force. It is to be done in this way to protect the innocent civilians, to protect the public and private property and also to control the violence. Now, in such cases, the government can shut down the internet, thinking that some protests may go violent. Now, if this is the intention, then such actions may be justified in the court of law and it should stand the test of judicial scrutiny. But in some places, even when there are no justified reasons that a protest or a democratic action may turn violent, shutdowns were reported to be in place. Now, in such a case, shutdown of internet becomes arbitrary decision of the government that will definitely be subjected to criticism in a democracy. So, now in this context, let us see few provisions that empower the authorities to execute actions to shut down the internet and its access to the people. These provisions are mentioned in the suspension of telecom services, public emergency or public safety rules of 2017, which is under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. Then the other provision is section Code of Criminal Procedure. Now, as per this section, a district collector who is also called as a district magistrate can issue an order. This order will direct any person to abstain from certain act or acts. Now, one of the directed actions could be preventing or blocking the access to internet or shutting down the internet access. Now, such an order can be issued in urgent cases of nuisance where there is apprehended danger. That is, when urgent cases of nuisance may turn danger, then such an order may be issued. And this order can be issued if it is likely to prevent or tends to prevent the obstruction, annoyance or injury to any person who is lawfully employed. If it is likely to prevent danger to any human life, health or safety. And it can also be ensured if it is likely to prevent the disturbance of public tranquility or a riot of an affray. Now, when this affray refers to a group of persons who are fighting in a public place that disturbs the peace. So, this was the provision with respect to section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure. Now, let us see the important procedure that is mentioned in the temporary suspension of telecom services, public emergency or public safety rules of 2017. As we can see in the title of the rules, the grounds for temporary suspension of telecom services could be public emergency or public safety. These rules mention about who can issue directions to suspend the telecom services. In the central government, the authority to issue directions is Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs or it can be also issued by an officer who is not below the rank of a joint secretary to the government of India, who has been duly authorized by the union home secretary for this purpose. This officer is empowered by the rules to issue order only in unavoidable circumstances, that is when obtaining prior direction from union home secretary is not feasible. Now, with respect to states, the authority is as you can imagine it is the Secretary in charge of State Department of Home Affairs or it can also be issued by an officer who is not below the rank of joint secretary and who has been duly authorized by the State Home Secretary for this purpose. Now, when such an order for the temporary suspension of telecom services issued by the officer who is authorized by the union home secretary or the State Home Secretary, then this order shall be subject to the confirmation from the competent authority within 24 hours of issuing such order. Here, the competent authority for center is the union home secretary and for states it is the State Home Secretary of the concerned state. Now, any order that is issued by the competent authority shall contain reasons for such direction for the suspension of telecom services and also a copy of the telecom services suspension order shall be forwarded to the concerned review committee as soon as by the next working day. Now, the directions for suspension which is issued shall be conveyed to the designated officers of the telegraph authority or it shall be conveyed to the designated officers of the service providers. These are the service providers who have been granted licenses under the section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. Now, the implementation of the directions for suspension of telecom services shall be determined by the telegraph authority. Now, just now we saw that the suspension order has to be forwarded to the review committee and this review committee is constituted by the central government or the state government for the purpose of reviewing the suspension order and the review committee which will be constituted by the central government shall have the members such as the cabinet secretary who will be the chairman and then another member is the secretary to the government of India who is the in-charge of legal affairs then the third member is the secretary of department of telecommunications at the central government. Then with respect to the state government the chairman of the review committee will be the chief secretary then the other members are the law secretary or the legal a member answer in charge of legal affairs in the state and then the secretary to the state now the secretary to the state is the secretary other than the home secretary it is because as we saw earlier home secretary is the authority who passes the order so she or he cannot be in the review committee to review their own order here legal remember answer is a law officer in the department who handles legal affairs. Now, the role of this review committee is that it shall meet within five working days of issue of directions for suspension of services and the review committee should record its findings that is whether the directions issued are in accordance with the provisions of section 5 subsection 2 of Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 or not. Now, we have given this particular section as this image for your reference so these are the provisions that you should know with respect to suspension of telecom services. Now, let us see some of the very important functions which will be obstructed by the temporary suspension of telecom services. Now, first know that the internet comes in the wider ambit of legal definition for telegraph that is mentioned in the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. So, what are the impacts when there is an internet shutdown firstly it affects the economic prospects with respect to entrepreneurship when we think about the economic activities we know that there are many new startups for which internet access is a basic necessity and the shutdowns also have the potential to cripple such startups and it can also cripple the promotion of women's empowerment. Now, this could be because of two reasons one is that the family member may be reluctant to send the woman in their family to workplaces when there is suspension of telecom services as they cannot communicate them then secondly those women who are dependent on work that requires internet access will also be at disadvantage that is why the author mentions that such shutdowns may cripple women employment. Now, this situation is also same for men and transcendenters also. Now, when there is a disrupted internet it is also a blow to digital financial transactions across several states then it is a blow to various e-governance initiatives of the government and it will also severely affect the economic productivity. Now, one example for affecting economic productivity is that if there is internet then one can send an information via gmail or instant messaging platforms but in the absence of such internet things have to be done manually. So, this will incur more cost to the individuals and to the companies which will affect the economic productivity. In this context the author also mentions that since 2015 the incidents of such temporary shutdowns are increasing but still we have a target to become a 5 trillion dollar economy by the year 2024 even though the shutdown is affecting our economic productivity then after this the shutdown affects the education and skill building process. Now, even recently you would have heard that the Kerala High Court affirmed in an order that the access to internet is a fundamental right that could not be denied arbitrarily. So, that means denying access to internet is denying the fundamental right and also the civil service aspirants who are dependent on the online resources and even our analysis are also at disadvantage as they do not have internet access. So, finally the author concludes the article by saying that issuing arbitrary shutdowns is a wrong road to take it is because arbitrary shutdowns will only become a net loss to the economy that is why the article is titled as net loss. Now, here you should note that author is criticizing only those shutdowns that are issued arbitrarily. Therefore, some reforms are required to ensure that arbitrary issuance of suspension orders are not done. Now, normally what happens is mostly people hear the news that there is a shutdown and they continue their daily affairs as usual without trying to know what was the actual opinion of the review committee that whether the grounds in which the orders were issued are justified or not. And then even if you see the review committee it consists only members from the executive, but there is no member from the judiciary. So, if there would have been a presence of judicial magistrate or a retired high court judge it will be a great improvement. So, this reform is required to curtail the arbitrary nature of such orders. Then we need mechanisms to ensure that if an order is issued arbitrarily then disciplinary and other punitive actions should be taken against the issuing authority. At present the temporary suspensions of telecom services public emergency or public safety rules of 2017 do not mention anything about the abuse of power or the punitive measures with respect to issuing temporary telecom services suspension orders in an arbitrary manner. That is the rules does not contain any provision about what kind of action will be taken if the review committee finds that the issued order is not in accordance with section 5, Subsection 2 of Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. So, we need such a mechanism to keep the arbitrary orders in check. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, In the past several days we are seeing many news articles related to quality. So, for a change today we are going to discuss a concept from geography that is earthquake which is based on this news article. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. The news article mentions that a strong earthquake has hit Afghanistan and Pakistan on 20th December and even the tremors were felt up to Delhi. As per the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was about 6.1 magnitude and it has hit the northern Afghanistan and it has forced residents of Vadakshan province of Afghanistan into the streets. And according to Indian Meteorological Department, the tremors or the slight earthquakes were also felt up to Delhi. So, in this context we will discuss about earthquakes, then about the different measuring scales, then also about different types of earthquakes based on causes of earthquakes. Then we will also finally see about the effects of these earthquakes. So, let us first discuss about the earthquakes. An earthquake in simple words is shaking of the earth. It is a natural geological event and it is caused due to release of energy. Then the released energy generates waves in all directions. These waves are known as seismic waves and the point of origin of this energy inside the earth is known as hypocenter or focus. Then the point on the surface of earth which is perpendicular to the focus as you can see in this picture is known as epicenter. And epicenter is the first surface to receive the seismic waves. It is because the epicenter is at the shortest distance from the point of origin of energy. Then the magnitude of energy that is released is measured with the Richter scale. This Richter scale is an open-ended logarithmic scale and the range of this Richter scale is 0 to infinity. That is why we are saying it is an open-ended logarithmic scale. If the value on the Richter scale is high, then it indicates that the amount of energy that is released is high. Then there is also another way of measuring the earthquake which is with reference to the Merkali scale. This Merkali scale is used to estimate the impact of the earthquakes and it is a closed scale with the range of 1 to 12. So, this is the background of earthquakes. Now keeping this in mind if you look at the news article, it mentions that the earthquake which hit northern Afghanistan was of magnitude 6.1 and the depth or the focus of this earthquake was over 200 km deep and this earthquake's epicenter was in a remote mountain area in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This region is partially populated region therefore the socio-economic losses were estimated to be minimum. So, this was about the news article. Now coming back to the discussion about earthquakes, let us now see about types of earthquakes. The earthquakes are classified into five categories based on the causes of earthquakes. They are classified into tectonic earthquakes, volcanic earthquakes, collapse earthquakes, explosion earthquakes and induced earthquakes. In this the most common one is the tectonic earthquakes. These are generated due to sliding of rocks along the fault plane. Here the fault plane indicates the fracture in the rock structure. Then there is a special class of tectonic earthquake which is sometimes recognized as volcanic earthquake. However these volcanic earthquakes are confined to areas of active volcanoes only. Then after this in the areas of intense mining activities sometimes the roofs of the underground mines collapse by causing minor tremors or slight earthquakes. These are called as collapse earthquakes. Then the ground shaking or the earthquakes may also occur due to explosion of chemical or nuclear devices. Then such tremors are called as explosion earthquakes. Then the earthquakes that occur in the areas of large reservoirs are referred to as reservoir induced earthquakes. So, these were the types of earthquakes. Now we will see the effect of earthquakes. As we know the first effect is ground shaking. Then it also causes tsunamis, then land and mud slides, then avalanches that is mass movement of snow is caused by earthquakes. Then it causes floods from dams, then it causes structural collapses and fire accidents etc. So, in this discussion we have discussed about earthquakes, the different types of earthquakes and the different scales used for the measurement of earthquakes and we also saw about the effect of earthquakes. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion. This discussion is based on this news article which is with respect to the proposal of state government of Tamil Nadu about the Sri Lankan refugees. The syllabus that is relevant for this analysis is given here for your reference. This news article mentions that the proposal of Tamil Nadu government to grant dual citizenship to the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is to be examined by the central government. So, in this context we will see about what do we mean by dual citizenship and what do we mean by double citizenship and whether both dual citizenship and double citizenship are one and the same and whether India has adopted the model of single citizenship or dual citizenship or double citizenship. Now before entering into the talk about citizenship let us see the stand of central government regarding the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. The news article puts the stand of central government in one of the cases concerning 65 refugees of Kottapattu camp in Trichy. The center has observed that as a large number of refugees came to Tamil Nadu after the 1983 ethnic riots in the neighboring country as they have come without valid travel documents they are considered illegal migrants. This is one of the reasons why Indian citizenship is not given to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees even though some of them have been in India since 1980s. So, this is the stand of the central government. So, now in the context of the news article let us see about dual citizenship. See if a person is said to have dual citizenship this means this person is citizen of two countries at the same time. If you take United Kingdom it allows dual citizenship this means one can be a citizen of United Kingdom and at the same time the person can be citizen of some other country also. And also remember this dual citizenship is also known as dual nationality. Now then what do we mean by double citizenship? Now this double citizenship concept applies to those countries that have adopted a federal polity. Federal polity is characterized with the presence of central government at the center and many state governments in the states. Now the states are also called as sub national entities in these federal polity. So, if a person has a double citizenship she is the citizen of a country at the same time she is also the citizen of the state government. Now in the current world we can see dual citizenship in federal states such as USA and Switzerland. Now from this discussion itself you would have known that the dual citizenship and the double citizenship are not the same in this one applies at the level of countries and the other applies within nation. So, which model of citizenship was adopted by India? Actually India has neither adopted dual citizenship nor double citizenship. India has adopted single citizenship. Here single citizenship means one can be a citizen only for India. So, as a citizen of India one can show allegiance only to the Indian Union and not to any other country. If someone becomes a citizen of other country then the Indian citizenship is terminated or revoked. But this is not applicable in time of war where India may be engaged. In case of war where India may be engaged if an Indian citizen acquires citizenship of another country then the citizenship of the person is not immediately terminated and it is up to the central government to decide whether to terminate the citizenship or not. Now this is as per section 9 of the Citizenship Act of 1955. If centre decides to continue the Indian citizenship of that person then the person is considered as an Indian citizen. If centre directs otherwise that is if centre mentions clearly that so and so person is no more an Indian citizen then the person's citizenship has become terminated. Now you may think why immediately such person's citizenship is not terminated. This is to understand the situation in which the person might have acquired the citizenship of other country because some type of condition exists in time of war. The person could have been faced coercion or the person could have faced undue influence or even compulsion to get citizenship of other country. That is why the centre does not terminate the Indian citizenship. Now you may think in our country also we have a central government and state government. So whether the double citizenship applies to our country no it is because single citizenship in India means that there is no double citizenship between the centre and the states and also remember that the citizenship comes under the union list in the seventh schedule of Indian constitution and as per the 17th entry of union list citizenship naturalization and aliens is a subject upon which the legislative power rests only with the centre and not with the states. So based on this we can say that if after the centre's examination if the centre decides to give dual citizenship to the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees then they may have their citizenship rights in both the countries. They can have all the rights of citizens of India in the constitution and under other laws also. But as of now the children of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have taken the facilities of education in the state and they have also pursued higher studies. But they do not get jobs commensurably with their educational qualifications. This is because of the refugee tag. So if they are given the Indian citizenship then they will be able to enjoy full rights as the member of an Indian state. So with this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion. This news article is about the spectrum auction plan that is proposed to be carried out in March April 2020 by the government. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now before going into the article let us first understand the concept of spectrum auctioning. Now we have heard about visible light spectrum in our school days. This spectrum is actually a range of all lights of various wavelengths that is visible to the human eye. But this visible light spectrum is a part of a larger spectrum which is known as electromagnetic spectrum. This electromagnetic spectrum in itself has a range of similar electromagnetic radiations like radio waves, visible light, infrared light, ultraviolet light, x-rays, etc. But the one that is useful for us to this discussion is radio waves. This radio wave is also known as radio frequency signals. These ranges from 3 kilohertz to 300 gigahertz. The radio waves are used in wireless communication. It is because they have large wavelength. This large wavelength helps them to penetrate through objects and travel long distances. So now government is auctioning this spectrum. So what do we mean by auctioning spectrum? It means that government is actually attempting spectrum management. See like land, mineral, oil, gas and water these are exclusive property of a state. So like that radio frequencies are also property of a state that is government. Government manages these frequencies because it is scarce and government manages these frequencies for various uses like telecom, radio, television and defense. But nowadays the spectrum is used for more applications and new technologies such as 4G and 5G. So this has further created a need for more spectrum. So what the government actually does is within each frequency government splits it up into circles. That is government splits it up into cities or states and then government divides it to various users. So the government auctions specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to the telecom service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, GEO, etc. So by auctioning the spectrum the government sells the exclusive rights to transmit signals to the network operators and this is done by providing a license. And this auctioning process helps the government in terms of revenue generation. Now today's news is that the Digital Communications Commission has approved the plans to auction over 8,300 megahertz of spectrum in the mid-2020 and this auctioning includes airwaves or radio waves which is useful for offering 5G services. And the news article also mentions that the reserve price is fixed at 5.22 lakh crore. Here reserve price is the minimum level of price that is kept for auctioning spectrum. This reserve price has two purposes. First is to keep the non-serious bidders out of auctioning and then also to ensure a certain minimum revenue to the government. Now when there is high reserve price it is seen as a setback to the telecom service providers. So the telecom service providers have been demanding a reduction in the reserve price. It is because according to the news article the present reserve price is 4 times to 6 times higher than that of similar spectrum that is sold recently in several countries. So based on this the telecom service providers are demanding a reduction in the reserve price. Now since the reserve price is fixed at a higher level it is said that the telecom service providers will find it very difficult to raise funds to participate in the auctions. Because we know that already the telecom sector is in high levels of debt and there is also a financial stress in the sector. Now in addition to this the auction will also add burden to the sector. Then after this the news article also mentions that some changes have also been made in the upfront payment which the successful bidders have to pay. See here upfront payment is the amount that is paid by the client to the service provider before the service is received. So in our condition the client is telecom companies and service provider is the government and the service is the spectrum which will be one through bidding. So the upfront payment in our context is the amount paid by the telecom companies to the government before the spectrum that is one through bidding is received. In this context the news article has noted that now the telecom companies have to pay lower upfront amount. Now this will happen in case the spectrum which is won by the telecom companies is not available with the department of telecom in the next 30 days period. So this will provide some relaxation to the telecom companies and it will also make sure that they receive the spectrum in time. Now in the beginning we saw that the government will auction over 8300 megahertz of spectrum in mid 2020 and among this around 6000 megahertz are allocated for 5G services. But according to some sources this is very much inadequate for the operators to roll out a robust 5G network and 5G services throughout the country. Now to know more about the 5G services and the 5G networks we request the viewers to visit our 9th June in the news analysis in which we have discussed about the 5G network in detail. The link is provided in the description box and also in the comment section or else you can also click the i symbol at the top right corner of this screen. Now since the auction has been approved by the Digital Communications Commission it is important from the examination point of view to know about this commission. Now this Digital Communications Commission was formally known as the Telecom Commission. This telecom commission was set up by the government of India through a resolution in the year 1989 and then in 2018 through another resolution the telecom commission was redesignated as the Digital Communications Commission and this DCC consists of a chairman four full-time members and four part-time members and also know that the secretary of the Department of Telecommunications is the ex-officio chairman of the DCC. This DCC is responsible for formulating the policy of Department of Telecommunications for approval of the government then it is also responsible for preparing the budget for the Department of Telecommunications for each financial year and also getting it approved by the government is also responsibility of this commission and then finally it is also responsible for the implementation of government's policy in all matters that concerns telecommunication. So in this discussion we discussed about spectrum auctioning, reserve price, upfront payment and we also discussed about the Digital Communications Commission. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. There is a quick practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion. This news article is of political nature where the West Bengal Chief Minister has provided a clarification on a demand which he made regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act but that is not important for us. What is actually important is the two words which is mentioned in this news article. The words are plebiscite and referendum. So now let us discuss what these two words actually mean in addition to two other words which is initiative and recall. We will discuss this from the examination point of view. Now before going into the discussion remember these are the areas in the syllabus that can be linked to this discussion. See normally whenever we think of India we immediately think we are a democracy that is the first thought that normally comes to the mind. Now this is because of elections. It is because today elections have become the most visible symbol of democratic process but actually democracy is of two types. One is direct democracy and the other one is indirect democracy. So what do we mean by direct democracy? In a direct democracy people exercise their supreme power directly. A direct democracy is the one where the citizens directly participate in the day-to-day decision-making of the government and citizens directly participate in the day-to-day running of the government. This means that in a direct democracy without the intermediary of elected officials or appointed officials all citizens can participate in making public decisions. The ancient city states in Greece were considered examples of direct democracy and in the current world Switzerland is an example of direct democracy. But this system is clearly only practical when there are relatively small number of people. For example you can take the local unit of a trade union where members can meet in a single room to discuss issues and they can arrive at decisions by consensus or majority vote. So in this way many would consider local governments especially the Gram Sabas as the closest examples of direct democracy in our country. But this kind of direct democracy cannot be practiced when a decision has to be taken by lakhs and crores of people. That is why rule by the people usually means rule by people's representatives. So today the most common form of democracy is representative democracy. In such an arrangement citizens choose their representatives who in turn are actively involved in governing and administering of the country. Hence we can say that citizens elect officials to make political decisions to formulate laws and to administer programs for the public good. Now remember that ours is a representative democracy. So every citizen has the important right to vote for her or his representative. People elect their representatives to all levels from panchayats, municipal boards, state assemblies to parliament. And the method which is followed to choose these representatives is referred to as an election. So in a representative democracy on a whole we can say citizens are not very actively involved in the making of policies. But citizens are involved only indirectly through their elected representatives. That is why their representative democracy is also known as indirect democracy. But our today's discussion is based on the terms plebiscite referendum recall and initiative. So let us focus on that now. These four terms are the four devices or instruments of direct democracy. In this initiative is a method by means of which the people can propose a bill to the legislature for enactment. And initiative gives direct participation of electorates in legislative process from downward that is from people to upward that is to the legislature. And the next is recall. Recall is a method by means of which the voters can remove a representative or an officer before the expiry of their term. Now this can be done when the representative or the officer fails to discharge her or his duties properly. So recall gives right to the people to call back their representatives if they cease to represent them. We can say this is a no confidence move by the electorate against the elected representatives. Now the remaining terms are plebiscite and referendum. Normally there is a confusion between these two. Most of the times people use these two words interchangeably. But actually these two are different and have different meaning even though they seem similar. These two that is plebiscite and referendum gives right to people to express their opinion on legislative measures which are intended by legislature or the legislative measures which are seeking approval by legislature. But in this particularly in this referendum it is a procedure whereby a proposed legislation is referred to the electorate for settlement by their direct vote. And by looking at the name itself you can say that it means referring some important issue policy or decision to the people such as for example amendment of the constitution. According to some experts providing opinion by people in a referendum can be compulsory or it can also be voluntary. So on a whole we can say a referendum is a procedure which gives the electorate a direct vote on a specific political constitutional or legislative issue. And this takes place when a governing body or a similar authority decides to call for a vote on a particular issue or when such a vote is required by law because many countries carry out referendum which is required by their law. See normally as we just saw a referendum is initiated by the representatives but in some cases like in some countries there are procedures which allow citizens to demand a referendum on an issue. And the result of a referendum may also be legally binding as determined by their law or constitution under which it is called or it may also be used by authorities for advisory purposes only. But on a majority a referendum are binding only and remember that our constitution does not provide for referendum. Now coming to plebiscite it is a method of obtaining the opinion of India's people on any issue of public importance. Now this is generally used to solve territorial disputes and the plebiscite indicates that the people are directly consulted on questions of political importance or public importance and this plebiscite is also a vote by the people of an entire country or district like referendum. And it is a vote to decide on some issues such as choice of a ruler or choice of the government and option for independence or annexation by another power or a question of national policy etc. And in a plebiscite voters are asked to confirm or reject the legitimacy of a certain form of government or the government's course of action. And some experts blame that plebiscite is conducted for the purpose of getting a preconceived result. So the main difference between a plebiscite and referendum according to experts is that the outcome of plebiscite is not mandatory for the government to implement or even to adopt but the outcome of referendum ought to be implemented by the government. So in case of a plebiscite the government earns the anger of the people but whereas in a referendum the outcome has to be implemented and it is binding. So these are the information that you should know with respect to the terms plebiscite referendum recall initiative etc. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next news article discussion which is about India's foreign exchange reserve and the import cover. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus that is given here for your reference. The news article mentions that India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $429.84 billion by June 2019. It rose from $412.47 billion in March 2019. Now during this same period India's import cover also rose to 10 months from 9.6 months. Now we have already discussed elaborately about the foreign exchange reserves on our 6th December Hindi news analysis. Please have a look at it for better understanding. Today we will be discussing in brief about the concept of import cover. The import cover measures the number of months of imports that can be covered with foreign exchange reserves which is available with the central bank of the country. So it simply means for how many months we can import the needed goods and services using the foreign exchange reserves which is available with us or which is available with the RBI. And it is said that around 8 to 10 months of import cover is essential for the stability of our currency. Now we can relate this concept to the 1991 balance of payment crisis which happened in our country. Now you would have heard that in the 1980s India witnessed huge trade deficits. It means what India had imported was much more than what we had exported. In addition to this also because of the Gulf War during the 1990 to 1991, the price of oil witnessed a sharp increase and we all know that one of the major import item for India is oil. Hence we had to import oil at higher price to meet our domestic needs. So this took a toll on our forex reserves that is it adversely affected our forex reserves. And according to some sources India's forex reserves was depleted to a very low level that it could barely last for few weeks of imports. So what were the consequences of this depletion in forex reserves? First is that because of this Indian rupee depreciated heavily. That means the value of Indian rupee came down compared to the value of other currencies such as the US dollar. Then the economic crisis was so deep that our country was on the verge of being bankrupt or the country was unable to pay for the goods and services that was received. So to solve this problem our government took a extreme step. What the government did was the government pledged our national gold reserve to get a bailout by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Now here bailout simply means getting financial help to ease the financial crisis. And during this same period our Indian economy also went through structural reforms such as liberalization, privatization and globalization. So all these indicate that if the forex reserves are not properly managed then it can lead to an economic crisis. So this was about the 1991 balance of payment crisis or BOP crisis. Now as per the latest data on December 13, India's foreign reserves have reached 454 billion dollars. This means that the import cover of India has further increased from June 2019. So why such a huge amount of forex is necessary? Now earlier we discussed that our forex reserves drained very quickly because of the Gulf war. And even today India still depends on its oil needs on the West Asia. So what if another crisis happens in the Gulf and the price of oil again goes up? And since this is an era of globalization the world is interconnected. So any crisis in the West Asia will obviously affect the other countries. Now since there is a possibility that such a crisis can happen again it is necessary to keep a huge amount of forex. Our forex reserves should be huge enough to absorb the temporary shocks that is happening around the world. Now India is not the only country which maintains this big import cover. Even countries such as China, Russia and Brazil also maintain huge import cover. Now there is also one criticism with respect to maintaining huge forex amount. Some say that there is no need for such huge forex amount. According to them some of that money could be used for funding some government policies so that it can help people directly. So in this discussion we discussed about the import cover, what is the advantage of it and what is the criticism around this huge forex amount. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. Moving on to the final news article discussion for the day this news article mentions that the Kerala government has decided to put on hold or to stay the proceedings for updating the national population register. Even earlier this week we have discussed that the West Bengal government had stayed all the proceedings regarding the NPR. Now following the same footsteps the Kerala government has also decided to put on hold the proceedings for updating the NPR. So this is a burning issue hence it is very important from the examination point of view to know about national population register. We have covered about NPR in a detailed manner on 17th December in the news analysis. Those viewers who have not watched it kindly watch it. The link is given in the description box and also in the comment section or else you can click the I symbol that is appearing in the top right corner to view the video. With this we come to the end of news article discussion sessions. Let move on to the next session of practice questions discussion. This question is based on temporary suspension of telecom services public emergency or public safety rules of 2017. The first statement states directions to suspend the telecom services shall not be issued except by an order made by the secretary to the government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs in case of government of India. Now the statement is correct because in the end the statement mentions as in the case of government of India. So here the government of India refers to the central government. So that is why the statement is correct but also remember that in the state the same power is exercised by the state home secretary. Now the second statement states the review committee to be constituted by the central government shall consist of three members where the cabinet secretary is the chairman. This statement is also correct in the center the review committee constituted for this purpose has cabinet secretary as the chairman with two other members whereas in the state the review committee is chaired by the chief secretary with two other members. Here the question asks for the correct statement so the final correct answer to this question is option C both 1 and 2. Now this next question is based on citizenship first statement states India follows the system of dual citizenship. Now the statement is wrong because India follows single citizenship this means India neither has dual citizenship nor double citizenship despite following the federal polity. Now look at the second statement it states while citizenship is in union list naturalization is given in the state list. Now this statement is also incorrect because both citizenship and naturalization are mentioned in the union list in the Indian constitution under seventh schedule. Now since this statement is wrong and the question asks for the correct statement if you see the options all A, B, C have statement 2 so we have to eliminate all the options so the correct answer to this question is none of the statements. Now let us see why the third statement is wrong it is because this statement talks about double citizenship that is having citizenship under the central government and also under the state government. So this statement would have been correct only if India follows double citizenship now since India follows single citizenship this statement is wrong. Now this question is with reference to earthquake the question asks which one of the following statements is incorrect with reference to an earthquake. The point of origin of energy inside the earth is known as hypocenter or focus the statement is correct it is known as hypocenter or focus only then the point on the surface of earth which is perpendicular to the focus is known as epicenter this is also correct the hypocenter releases these seismic waves and it first reaches the epicenter. Then the third statement states the magnitude of the earthquake is measured with Richter scale yes this statement is correct even news also you would have heard many times that the earthquake was five Richter scale or six Richter scale etc. So this means the last statement is the correct answer to this question that is it is the incorrect statement with reference to an earthquake. Let us see why the intensity of the earthquake is measured with Merkely scale which is an open-ended scale when we say open-ended scale it means the scale ranges from zero to infinity but the Merkely scale is not an open-ended scale it has a range from one to twelve whereas the Richter scale is the open-ended scale so that is why this statement is the incorrect statement and it is the correct option to this question. Now look at this next question it is based on digital communications commission first statement states it was formed in 2018 through an act of parliament now this statement is wrong because formerly the digital communications commission was known as telecom commission and the telecom commission was set up by the government of India through a resolution in 1989 then through another resolution in 2018 it was re-designated as the digital communication commission and it was not re-designated through an act of parliament. So this statement is wrong and here the question asks for the incorrect statement so the correct answer to this question should include statement one so you can eliminate option C 2 and 3 only they look at the second statement it states one of its objectives is the implementation of government's policy in all matters concerning telecommunication this is correct it is the objective of DCC now this is a correct statement so the final answer to this question should not have statement two so you can eliminate option B also now the third statement states the chairman of telecom regulatory authority of India is the ex-officio chairman of DCC now since both the authority and the commission are related to telecom don't think that the chairman of tri is the ex-officio chairman of DCC this is wrong because the secretary of department of telecommunications is the ex-officio chairman of DCC so this statement is also wrong here the question asks for incorrect statement and statements one and three are the incorrect statement so the correct answer to this question is option D 1 and 3 only now let us see one main question based on GS paper 1 and earthquake repeats itself in the context of the above statement define tectonic earthquakes discuss the causes and effects of the earthquakes so while answering this question define tectonic earthquakes first then you have to discuss the causes of these earthquakes so based on that you can also list out the types of earthquakes as we discussed in the discussion then you can mention the effects of earthquakes such as ground shaking tsunami avalanche etc try to incorporate these points in your answer write the final answer and post it in the comment section we will review your answer in then working these with this we have come to the end of today's sessions if you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates on civil service examination preparation