 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the newspaper dated 22 December 2022. Displayed up here are the list of the articles that we will take up for discussion today. Have a look at it. Now we will get into the first article discussion. This editorial is written in the context of the reasons spike in COVID-19 cases in China. The editorial cites two major reasons for the spike in cases. See, the first reason is the lack of natural immunity. We know that in China there was a very strict containment strategy. The lockdown protocols extended for nearly three years in some places in China. It is because of this that the people's natural immunity has come down. Now that China is easing down the lockdown, a lot of people with very low natural immunity are becoming exposed to the virus. This is one of the major reasons for the spikes in cases. The second major reason is China's vaccination strategy. See, China mainly used its domestic vaccines like the CoronaVac and the Sinofarm vaccines. These vaccines use inactivated virus technology. It is through the government sources that we come to know around 90% of the Chinese citizens have received their first dose and around 50% have got their second dose. See, even after this, if the cases are spiking, it clearly shows that the effectiveness of the vaccines are declining. This is because the virus is continuously mutating. And so the effectiveness of the vaccines might decrease in some cases. What China failed to do was that they did not continuously sequence the new COVID variant and check the effectiveness of its vaccines against the new variants. So according to this editorial, these are the reasons for the recent rise in the COVID cases. The editorial also says that India can learn from the mistakes committed by China. There are two important lessons that India can learn from China. Firstly, lockdowns are not the correct way to deal with COVID. The only effective way is vaccination, right? Secondly, even in vaccinations, the government must continuously check the effectiveness of the vaccines. This is because, like China, India also used one vaccine, which is the COVID shield to immunise the majority of its citizens. So new COVID strains must be sequenced and the effectiveness of the COVID shield against these new variants must be reviewed. These are some of the important takeaways from the editorial. As we are discussing about COVID-19, now let us take a look at the COVID-19 variants. What is COVID-19 strategy and the challenges associated with it? The syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. First, let us see how the coronavirus is classified. Coronavirus, like all viruses, undergo something called as the mutation. What this mutation does? This mutation sometimes brings about major changes in the virus that results in their classification as separate variant. We know there were separate variants like the Delta variant, Omicron variant, right? Apart from this, currently the variants of coronavirus are also classified as variants under investigation, variant of interest, variant of concern and variant of high consequence. See, a virus is placed under the variant under investigation category when a mutation causes a virus to evolve a particular character that is similar to an already existing virus and this virus is already a public health concern. See, for example, let us assume virus B is an already existing public health concern. Now, there is another virus A and if virus A undergoes mutation and evolves a similar variant right to virus B, then virus A is placed under the variant under investigation. Next is the variant of interest. See, if the mutation causes the virus to evolve certain genetic traits that might have a potential to cause certain changes, then the variant is placed under variant of interest. So these changes can be decreased effectiveness of treatment, increase in transmission rate, increase in disease severity and escape from diagnostics, that is the virus cannot be diagnosed. See, here the variant need not develop these characteristics to be placed under the variant of interest but if the scientists believe that there is a possibility that it might develop these characteristics, then it is placed under the variant of interest list. An example for this is the double mutant strain of B.1.617. Then the next category is the variant of concern. In this case, a genetic mutation results in a virus developing a trait and with such a trait, there is a clear evidence of high transmission, increased disease severity and reduction in efficacy of treatment. So if these signs are present, then it can be placed under the variant of concern. Currently, Omicron and some of its sub variants are classified under the variant of concern. And the last category that you should know about is the variant of high consequence. So in this case, the variant has clear evidence of failure of diagnostic test, significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness, more severe clinical disease and increased hospitalizations. Know that as of now, no COVID variant is placed under the variant of high consequence list. So this is how the classification of the variants is done. Now we will see how India handled COVID-19 with its vaccination strategy. See, India developed its national COVID-19 vaccination strategy using inputs from the global best practices, the SOPs proposed by World Health Organization and the recommendations made by India's national expert group on vaccine administration for COVID-19. The major components of India's vaccination strategy include protecting the most vulnerable, secondly, efficient administration of vaccination, the domestic manufacturing and R&D was encouraged and the health ecosystem of the country was strengthened. See, in the phase one of the national COVID-19 vaccination strategy, the main focus was provided to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers. However, in phase two, the focus shifted to the vulnerable population, right? In this phase, actually the vaccination drive focused on a population more than 45 years of age that accounted for more than 80% of COVID related mortality in the country. In phase three, the vaccination drive was extended to every Indian citizen. See this is not only because of the government actions, but the government also tried to bring in the private sector into the R&D related activities and vaccine manufacture. So in phase three, to encourage private participation, the government planned to liberalise the pricing policy. Under this liberalised pricing, the government continued with its free vaccination drive, but also allowed private hospitals to provide vaccines at market price. This is how the government balanced its social objective by ensuring the health of the citizen and also encouraged investments in vaccine manufacture and research. Another very important aspect of this strategy is the COVID app. Government used the cloud-based COVID app to monitor and manage India's COVID vaccination program. This app helped the government to monitor the vaccination drive on a real-time basis. Because of this, the government was able to ensure the beneficiaries are vaccinated and this also counted proxy vaccination. So this is the overall strategy adopted by India for its COVID-related vaccination drive. Now although this strategy has major benefits, it also had some drawbacks. Now let us see some of the issues that India faced while implementing this strategy. The first and foremost is vaccine hesitancy. See there were no attempts that were made to educate the people or to create awareness as a part of the vaccination strategy. As an awareness program was not part of the strategy, the vaccine hesitancy acted as a major hiccup in the government's vaccination drive. The second major issue is with respect to the infrastructure. So to ensure last-mile vaccination, a well-established network of cold chains is required, right? However, India lacked this. Due to this, COVID-19 vaccination drive faced some difficulty in ensuring 100% vaccination. The next major issue is ineffective planning. See the government made sure that the COVID vaccines are booked through Coven app. But there was no proper planning in the vaccination centres. This resulted in people forming huge crowds in the vaccination centre, which again led to the spread of the virus. Despite all this, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded something around 219.33 crore. And as of now, India has only something around 3000 active cases. But the government must stay cautious. As the editorial says, the government must make sure the genome of new variants are sequenced and the effectiveness of the vaccine against the new variants must be ensured. In this aspect, INSACOG has a major role to play. INSACOG stands for Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics. See, this is an initiative of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Department of Biotechnology with CSIR and ICMR. It is basically a consortium or a group of 28 national laboratories to monitor the genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2. So what they do? They carry out whole genome sequencing of the virus. This will help us understand the spread and evolution of the virus. And with this, we will be able to test the effectiveness of our vaccines against the new viral variants. So here we discussed about the coronavirus and the classification of the variants. And we also saw some steps that was taken by the government to contain the spread of the virus. This is all I wanted to discuss regarding this article. Now we will move to the next article. See, this news article talks about a recent comment made by the Union Home Minister. He has said that the NGOs or the non-governmental organizations which are not following FCRA rules will not be tolerated. On the other hand, the NGOs are blaming the government. They are saying that due to investigations under FCRA, the NGOs and other civil society organizations are not able to work properly. So the issue is around FCRA or the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act of 2010. So what is this FCRA? It is basically a statute that works to regulate the acceptance and utilization of foreign contribution by certain individuals or associations or companies. So what this act does is that it prohibits the acceptance and utilization of foreign contribution for any activities that are detrimental to the national interest. Now note this fact here. Since this act is about foreign contribution, it also applies to citizens of India who are residing outside India. Other than this, this act also applies to the associate branches or subsidiaries outside India. These associate branches or subsidiaries are of companies or bodies which are corporate in India, registered in India or incorporated in India. So this shows that to whom this law is applicable. Now remember that the foreign contribution in India is regulated by two legislations. One is the FCRA Act and second is the FCRA Rules 2010 along with other notifications or orders which are issued from time to time under this act. Now to get a deeper understanding about this, we will learn about the foreign contribution first. So what makes a foreign contribution? See, foreign contribution is basically a donation, delivery or transfer of any article, currency or foreign security. Such a donation, delivery or transfer is by any foreign source or by any persons who has received it from any foreign source. Now have a look at this. You can find what is called as a foreign source under this act. See, the government of any foreign country or territory or any agency of such government and an international agency not being the UN or its specialized agency World Bank, IMF or any other agency that the central government may notify. Fine. Then a foreign company, a corporation not being a foreign company, incorporated in a foreign country or territory. And a multinational corporation which is also referred to as in the FCRA Rules itself and any company that comes within the meaning of a company that is specified under Companies Act 1956. A trade union and a foreign trust or a foreign foundation that is financed by a foreign country, a society or club which is formed or registered outside India and a citizen of a foreign country. So, these are some of the sources that is referred as a foreign source here. Fine. Now we will see what foreign contribution means or what it generally includes. Fine. Foreign contribution includes the interest that is accrued on the foreign contribution deposited in a bank and it also includes any other income from foreign contribution or interest on it. But now who can receive this foreign contribution? Can you and me receive it? Yes. We can receive it if we are a person having the FCRA registration or the FCRA prior permission. So, what does person under the FCRA Act means? The person includes any individual, a Hindu, undivided family, an association or company. They can receive foreign contribution subject to some conditions. Let me tell you what are these conditions. First, the person must have a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social program. Second, the person must obtain the FCRA registration certificate. See here an organization which is in the formative stage that is an organization just started is not eligible for the certificate of registration. Hence, they need to get a prior permission under the Act. Here the prior permission is granted for the receipt of specific amount from a specific donor for carrying out specific activities or projects. Also, remember that this registration certificate is not eternal. It has to be renewed as per section 16 of the Act that to within 6 months before the expiry of the certificate. Third, this person must not be prohibited under section 3 of the FCRA Act 2010. See this section prohibits certain categories from getting foreign contribution. It includes the candidates for election, judges, government servants or employees, members of any legislature, political parties, etc. Another crucial fact that you have to know here is that the Act was amended in 2020. Let me briefly tell you about two major amendments. See the first major amendment was made to section 3. The change was that public servants were included under the Ambit of the Act. This was done to provide that no foreign contribution shall be accepted by any public servant. Second one is the amendment of section 7. See this section prohibits any transfer of foreign contribution. That is if you as a person is receiving a foreign contribution, you will not be able to transfer it to another person or another organization. But an exception was given to this transfer. If the receiving person is also registered to accept the foreign contribution or has obtained prior permission, then transfer of foreign contribution is allowed. See this exception was removed by the amendment. Now there is a blanket ban on any transfer of foreign contribution to any association or person. That is if a person is receiving the foreign contribution, he will not be able to transfer it to another person even if the person has a prior permission. So in this news article discussion, we learnt about the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010. We saw who are the persons under this Act and we also saw what are the foreign sources and finally we saw the amendment that was made to this Act. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this article. Now let us move on to the next article. See this editorial column talks about the ongoing Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Recently, the regime has announced a ban on female students studying in the universities. This is not something new to hear because even before this regime, when they were ruling in 2001 also, many societal gains were wiped out. This included banning the school girls from studying about grade 6 job restrictions and a ban on women at gyms and public parks. Also, if they travelled without male relatives escorting them, they were publicly shamed. Even today, it is clearly visible that the regime is becoming more cruel and less rational day by day. The news article says that the regime just wishes to keep roughly half of the country's population hidden from public view. To counter such an attitude, the author of this article says that countries like India must curtail Afghan encashment until this repressive regime is abandoned. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through the strategic importance of Afghanistan to India and India-Afghan ties. Now the syllabus relevant to this news article is given here. You can go through it. Now let us see why Afghanistan is important to India. First is with respect to location. See the map. Afghanistan enjoys a strategic location in South Asia and is particularly relevant to India as a geographical neighbour. The country is bordered by the Central Asian Republics to the North, India and Pakistan to the East and Indian Ocean to the South. So now to trade with the Central Asian Republics, we could use the sea lanes of communication of the Indian Ocean and thereafter by land through the Dalaram Highway which India has built in Afghanistan, we can move to destinations in the Central Asian Republics. See, second is with respect to the regional security of India. A stable Afghanistan bordering India is crucial for the regional and domestic security and stability in South Asia and even in India. Right? We know that hardliners in Afghanistan have been used by Pakistan to export terrorism in Kashmir. After this, the third aspect is with respect to trade. See, a favourable Afghanistan is important for India's access to Central Asia and Eurasia. How does this happen? It happens through the Chabahar Port which bypasses Pakistan. Fine? Fourth is with respect to the access to resources. We know that Central Asia has large deposits of oil and natural gases. Afghanistan serves as an energy bridge and so it plays an important role in achieving India's strategy goals. Right? Now, not only that, a substantial concentration of high-value mineral deposits is along the Afghanistan borders. Afghanistan itself has most resources which remain untapped. So for all of this, Afghanistan is very important to India. Now, specifically as we are talking about the Indian-Afghan ties, India and Afghanistan have a strong relationship based on historical and cultural links. We know that India has played a very significant role in the reconstruction and re-habitulation of Afghanistan. And today, India is the fifth largest provider of development assistance to Afghanistan. India has provided something around 650-750 million worth of humanitarian and economic aid to Afghanistan. In 2005, India even proposed Afghanistan's membership in the SAAC. Following this, in 2007, Afghanistan finally became the eighth member of SAAC. Fine? In October 2011, India and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership agreement which further strengthened their relations. See, this agreement encouraged investments in Afghanistan's natural resources. It provided a duty-free access to the Indian market for the Afghanistan's export. This agreement advocated the need for a sustained and a long-term commitment to Afghanistan by the international community. See, later in December 2015, India donated three MI-25 attack helicopters to Afghanistan. Same year, on December 25, our Prime Minister visited Kabul to open the newly constructed Afghan parliament which has been built by India for around 90 million dollars. Apart from all this, India has even helped in the construction of Salma Dam in the Herat province. See, this Salma Dam, which is officially known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam project located on the Hari river in the Shishti Sharif district of the Herat province in western Afghanistan. As a note of friendship, the Afghan cabinet renamed the Salma Dam to the Afghan-India Friendship Dam. These are about the India-Afghan ties. Now, we all know that the Taliban government has been restored in Afghanistan. India is now worried over the issue of cross-border terrorism. There are groups such as L.E.T. and Jayshi Muhammad which have close ties with the Taliban. And they also enjoy Pakistan's support and this threatens the regional peace and security. Secondly, like all radical groups, the Taliban also have trouble in balancing their regional ideology with the people's interest. So now, India faces a challenge to de-radicalize the region for long-term peace and stability. Thirdly, there is also a possibility of a new regional geopolitical access between China, Pakistan and Taliban which may go against the interest of India, right? And finally, economic losses might happen. See, coming back of the Taliban will geo-paradise India's investment in Afghanistan. It will also hamper connectivity projects to Central Asia through Afghanistan. For example, the Chabahar port, INSCC, TAPI pipeline, all this might get affected. So this is with respect to the India-Afghan ties. So here we saw how Afghanistan is strategically important to India and some points on India-Afghan relations. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this article. We'll begin with the next article. See this article here. It says that the RBA governor has warned about letting the private cryptocurrencies to grow. He says that it can lead to the next financial crisis. He also reiterated the RBA's demand for a complete ban on private cryptocurrency. So this is about this news article. In this discussion, we will learn about cryptocurrencies and about the benefits and risks that are associated with private cryptocurrencies. So let us start our discussion by understanding about cryptocurrencies. See, cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies that let people to make payments directly to each other through an online system. And the cryptocurrencies are secured using cryptography technology. So now what is this cryptography that we're talking about? Cryptography is basically a method of storing and transmitting data in a particular form so that only the person to whom the data is indented can read and process it. See, most cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks which are based on blockchain technology. Now here you should know about the blockchain technology. So blockchain technology is basically a distributed ledger that is secure, transparent and immutable. And it can be used to create a decentralized database that is tamper-proof. So putting it simply, it is used to create a shared database which is distributed to the users. However, it cannot be edited. You should note one thing here. See, the cryptocurrencies have no legitimized or intrinsic value. And the worth of this cryptocurrency simply depends on the willingness of the people to pay for them in the market. Note one thing here. The cryptocurrencies have no legislated or intrinsic value. And the worth of cryptocurrencies simply depends on the willingness of the people to pay for them in the market. This is in contrast to national currencies since national currencies are legislated as legal tenders, right? Also, a defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority. So this makes them literally immune from government interference. You should also know some examples of cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, etc. So with this understanding, we will now understand what are the benefits and risks associated with letting the private cryptocurrencies into the market. Fine. First, we will start with the benefits. The first benefit is that while using cryptocurrencies, we can transfer the funds in an easier and faster manner as compared to other conventional currencies. Then coming to the second benefit, we already know that the cryptocurrencies are secured by cryptography and they also use blockchain technology. So it is much harder to counterfeit cryptocurrencies, that is making fake currencies. This provides us with the safety and security while using the cryptocurrencies, right? Then the third benefit is that cryptocurrencies have single valuation globally. Also, the transaction fee is extremely low as compared with other currencies. So the cryptocurrencies are seen as a cheaper alternative to other online transactions. And finally, using cryptocurrencies funds can be transferred directly between the parties without the involvement of a third party like a bank. But you should also know that there are some downsides in letting private currencies into the economy. See, we all know cryptocurrencies are digital currencies. So they are vulnerable to security breaches and could end up in the hand of hackers. This is the first risk. Secondly, cryptocurrencies are more vulnerable to criminal activity and money laundering. Why? Because the cryptocurrencies provide greater anonymity than other payment methods. Basically, it means that you can't identify the face behind the transaction. So this provides the platform for money laundering activities. Finally, the third risk is that cryptocurrencies do not have any legal backing by the government. This creates risk to the person who are using cryptocurrencies. And finally, the cryptocurrencies are very volatile in nature and this is also seen as a risk to the customers. So in this article, we discussed about cryptocurrencies, what are the benefits and risks that are associated with letting the private cryptocurrencies into the market. So this is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this article. Now we'll move to the next article. See this article here. The news article says that the Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recommended the imposition of anti-dumping duty on viscous stable fiber. This is being imported from Indonesia into India. See, this move is aiming to safeguard this domestic manufacturers. Apart from this, India has also imposed anti-dumping duty on the stainless steel tubes which is imported from China. This is about the news article. Now in this context, let's learn about trade protectionism, then about the tools of trade protectionism. First of all, what is trade protectionism? Trade protectionism is basically a policy which is used by the government to control imports from foreign nations. So why is this done? It is done to promote the economy of the nation and it also protects the domestic industries from unfair foreign competition. See now we will understand trade protectionism with an example. Let us consider that there is a good aid. This good is produced domestically by an Indian manufacturer and is more expensive than the same good imported from foreign. Now what happens in this situation? Don't you think this would discourage the purchase of Indian goods? So to overcome such a crisis, the Indian government might impose import tariffs or import taxes on the imported goods. So now what will happen? The price of the foreign made good in India will increase. And this in turn will make the Indian made good more competitive on price in the Indian market. This is about trade protectionism. Now we will see what are the tools of trade protectionism. See there are four primary tools that is used in trade protectionism. They are tariff, subsidies, quotas and currency manipulation. Now we will learn about them one by one. First we will see about tariff. See tariff is the most common protectionist strategy. Here the government uses tariffs to tax the imports. Now what happens when the government increases the tariff? If the tariff on a particular good is increased, then it will immediately rise the price of the imported goods. So the imported goods become less competitive and the locally produced goods become more competitive. Am I clear? Now we will see about subsidies. Basically the government provides subsidies to local industries. And because of this, the local industries become competitive in the global market. Know that the subsidies come in the form of tax credits or direct payments. In India if you see subsidies are generally granted to farmers. It allows the farmers to lower the price of the crops that they produce. This in turn will bring down the cost of the product and make it more affordable for the consumer. So what you have to understand here is providing subsidies discourages, imports and it safeguards the domestic manufacturers. So this is about the subsidy. Now we will move on to understand about quotas. See the government uses quota methods to restrict the imports. So what the government do here is that it imposes quotas on goods imported from foreign. This means that if the government imposes quotas, only particular quantity of good will be allowed for import. This will help to protect the domestic industries and this is the most effective method than tariffs and subsidies. Now finally let's see about currency manipulation. See currency manipulation is nothing but a measure that is taken by the government to lower the value of its currency. That is devaluating its own currency. If the value of the currency is lowered, it can make exports cheaper and imports costlier, right? So the manufacturers won't export the good and this ensures the availability of sufficient goods within the country. Therefore it discourages imports. So this is about currency manipulation. So here we learnt about trade protectionism and the tools that are basically used for trade protectionism. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now we will move to the next article. Look at this article here. This news article says that Lal Bazar which is a village in West Bengal is becoming a hub for Dokra. See Dokra is a metal craft popular in Bengal region. There are basically two famous places for Dokra work in West Bengal. They are Bikna in Bankura district and Daryapur in Bardaman district. This news article goes on to say that the quality of Dokra is deteriorating in these two places. However with efforts of an artist from Kolkata, now Lal Bazar is becoming a hub for Dokra metal craft. This is about this news article. Now we will discuss about the Dokra metal craft. See Dokra is a craft which is made out of a non-ferrous metal. Know that the metal used in making Dokra is an alloy of nickel brass and zinc. So it is the combination of these alloys that gives an antique like appeal to the Dokra craft. This craft takes about a month to make each Dokra craft and most Dokra artifacts are human or animal figurines. So how is this Dokra made? They are crafted using the lost wax casting technique. As we all know this is one of the earliest known methods of metal casting. You would have learned about this while reading about the Mohanjadaro and Harappa civilizations right? And remember one more thing here. One of the earliest known lost wax artifacts is the Dancing Girl of Mohanjadaro. Now see Dokra metal craft got its name from Dokra Damar who are the traditional metal smiths of West Bengal. So these Dokras are commonly tribal people and they are mostly living in the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. So these people use this lost wax casting technique to make the Dokra craft. However this differs from the conventional lost wax technique. So we will see how these Dokra crafts are made. What they generally do is that they develop a clay core which is the first task in the casting process. Here the clay core is made roughly in the shape of the final cast image itself. So once the clay core is developed it is then covered by a layer of wax. See this wax is composed of pure b-wax, resin and oil. After covering with wax the wax model is shaped and carved with finer details of design and decoration. Then the wax model is covered with a layer of clay again. And now this becomes the mould for the metal that will be poured inside it. At the end of this process drain ducts are made. Why drain ducts are made? For the wax to drain out. Now the clay model is baked. After that the liquid metal is poured inside the mould. Now we all know that the liquid metal that is poured will get hardened after some time. Now the metal fills the mould and take the same shape as the wax. After the hardening of the metal inside the mould the outer layer of the clay is then shipped off. And finally the metal icon is polished and finished. So this is how the dokra grafts are made using the last wax casting technique. So in this discussion we learned about the dokra metal graft and how it is made. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this article. Now we will get into the next article. Look at this news article here. It says that the UP government is planning to clean the river Ganga ahead of the Prayagraj Kumbh 2025 through the Namami Ganga mission. In this context let us know about the Namami Ganga mission. See the Namami Ganga mission is a flagship program of the Union government. It was launched in 2014. So the main objective is to arrest the pollution of river Ganga and to revive it. Here there are two agencies. One is for operation and other is for the implementation. First the scheme is operated under the department of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation under the ministry of Jalshakti. And the program is being implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga. See this mission is the implementation organ of the National Ganga Council. So what is this National Ganga Council now? See the National Ganga Council replaced the National River Ganga based in authority. And it is also called the National Council for Rejuvenation Protection and Management of river Ganga. So what is the responsibility of the council? It basically has a responsibility for superintendents of pollution prevention and rejuvenation of the river Ganga basin including Ganga and its tribute rays. Know that the National Ganga Council is chaired by the Prime Minister. And this body is formed under the Environmental Protection Act 1986. Now coming back to the Namami Ganga Mission. To implement this mission the government has divided the activities basically into three. First is the entry level activities then there is medium term activities and finally there is long term activities. See with the entry level activities the impacts will be immediately visible. So these activities are cleaning the surface of the river to remove any solid waste from the river and construction of toilets and sanitary facilities. It also includes the construction of modern crematorium. Why this is done? Because there has been instances of disposal of unburnt or partially burnt dead bodies in the river right? And another major activity under this entry level activities is the guard beautification. Then we will move on to the second one which is the medium term activities. These activities have a five year timeframe. They mainly focus on arresting the pollution that is entering into the river maybe by industries or basically the municipality waste. So here the activities such as construction of sewage treatment plants etc would be undertaken. Then there is something called as zero liquid discharge. This is done to curb the industrial pollution. This can be done by strict governmental norms right? And the final component long term activities. So these activities are implemented in a timeframe of 10 years. So if these long term activities are undertaken it will ensure adequate flow of water to the river. And there would also be increase in the water use efficiency and efficiency of surface irrigation. Here we discussed about the Namami Ganga mission and the plans of the government on how to implement it right? This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now we will move on to see the prelims practice question. Here are some practice questions for your prelims. There are five questions. Four will be discussed by me and one will be a quiz question for today. Let me read out the question for you. Which of the following will be treated as foreign contribution? One, donation given by non-resident Indians. Two, donation given by person of Indian Arjun card holders. Three, donation given by overseas citizen of India card holders. Four, contribution by the United Nation or its specialized agencies. Select the correct answer from the code given below. Here the correct option is option B. C, option one is incorrect. NRI means a citizen of India living in another country. When a citizen makes contribution from his personal savings through his normal banking channel, it is not treated as foreign contribution. So the same is applicable to NRIs as they are not foreigners, right? On the other hand, donation from a person of Indian origin who has acquired foreign citizenship is treated as foreign contribution. Therefore, this will also apply to PIO or OCI card holders. So here two and three are correct. We also saw that contribution from a foreign source is termed foreign contribution. So such foreign source includes any international agency, but there is an exception given to United Nations or any of its specialized agencies like the World Bank, IMF, or such other agencies as the central government may specify. Hence, option four is incorrect. So the correct option is option B. Moving on to the second question. With reference to DOCRA metal graft, consider the following statement. One, it is crafted using sand casting process. Two, it is made using an alloy of copper and gold. Three, the artifacts are mostly human and animal figurines. Which of the following statements given above is RR incorrect? The answer is option A, one and two only. See here, the statement one is incorrect. DOCRA is basically crafted using the lost wax casting technique as we saw in the discussion, right? Then statement two is again incorrect. DOCRA is an alloy of nickel, brass and zinc. And we also saw that this is the alloy that gives the antique appeal to the DOCRA graft. Statement three is correct because these artifacts are mostly human and animal figurines, right? Moving on to the third question. With which of the following countries, India has signed free trade agreements? One, Thailand. Two, USA. Three, England. Four, Australia. Five, UAE. Which of the above are correct? The answer for this question is option C, one, four and five only. See, so far India has signed 13 free trade agreements with its trading partners. In this 13 FDAs, 11 were signed with other countries and the rest two with ASEAN and SAFTA which stands for South Asian free trade area. Right? So these 11 countries with which India has signed FDA include Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, UAE, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, Bhutan and Mauritius. Moving on to the next question. This is a question from 2014 prelims. Consider the following statements. One, Animal Welfare Board of India is established under the Environmental Protection Act 1986. Two, National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body. Statement three, the National Ganga River Basin Authority is chaired by the Prime Minister. Which of the following statements given above are correct? The correct answer here is option B, two and three only. See, statement one is incorrect. The Animal Welfare Board has been established under prevention of cruelty to animals at 1960 and not under the Environmental Protection Act of 1986. Fine? And the statement two is correct. The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body. It is established under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The statement three is again correct. The National Ganga River Basin Authority is currently named as National Ganga Council. So this National Ganga Council is headed by Prime Minister. We saw this in the discussion. Moving on to the next question. This is the quiz question for the day. Read the question carefully. Type your answers in the comment box below. The main practice question I displayed here on your screen. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post it in the comment box below. If you have found a video to be useful, like the video, share it with your friends. Happy learning.