 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 29th of February 2020. The list of news articles taken up for today's analysis is displayed here along with the page numbers of five different editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format is available in the description section as well as in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone viewers. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about the delimitation exercise. The news article says that the president has cancelled the order of the union government related to the delimitation exercise in the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. In this context, let us discuss about the process of delimitation and then we will see about delimitation commission. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. We know that India holds direct elections to the Lok Sabha and the state legislatures, for that each state is divided into several Lok Sabha constituencies and assembly territorial constituencies. But we know that the population of India is quite dynamic. So in order to accommodate the changing dynamics, readjustment of the territorial constituencies are made after every census. Note that article 82 provides for readjustment and division of states into territorial constituencies for parliamentary elections after each census, whereas article 170 provides the same for assembly constituencies. So we can say that delimitation is the process of fixing boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a state having a legislative body. The job of delimitation is assigned to a higher power body, which is known as delimitation commission. Know that article 82 provides for enactment of a delimitation act after every census and following this, the center can constitute a delimitation commission. So know that delimitation commission is not a permanent body. Once the delimitation commission is constituted, it demarcates the boundaries of the parliamentary constituencies as per the delimitation act. Note that in India, after independence, till now, we have four delimitation commissions which have been constituted by the parliament in 1952, then in 1962, then in 1972, and then in 2002. So the present delimitation of constituencies has been done on the basis of 2001 census figures under the provisions of delimitation act of 2002. Note that the 84th constitutional amendment act of 2002 made it clear not to have delimitation of constituencies till the first census after the year 2026. So the present territorial constituencies which are based on 2001 census will continue till the first census after 2026. Here it is to be noted that after 84th constitutional amendment act, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to different states is based on 1971 census. Basically it is to ensure that the states who failed at family planning and having huge population now will not get more seats. Then if you see the division of each state into territorial constituencies is based on 1991 census. So for Lok Sabha seats, it is as per 1971 census and for the assembly seats within the state is as per 1991 census. Now let us see more about the delimitation commission which was constituted in the year 2002. This commission consists of three members. A person who is or who has been a judge of the Supreme Court shall be the chairperson of the commission. Then the chief election commissioner or an election commissioner who is nominated by the chief election commissioner is another member and then the state election commissioner of the concerned state is a member. Now while doing this delimitation process, the commission has to ensure uniformity. In order to ensure uniformity, the constitution has made two provisions. First, each state is allotted a number of seats in the Lok Sabha in such a manner that the ratio between that number and its population is same for all the states in order to maintain uniformity. Second, each state is divided into territorial constituencies so that the ratio between the population of each constituency and the number of seats allotted to it is the same throughout the states. This is to ensure uniformity between different constituencies in a state. So both these uphold the principle of 1 vote 1 value. Now another function of the delimitation commission is to refix the number of seats reserved for the scheduled cast and the scheduled tribes on the basis of 2001 census without affecting total number of seats based on the 1971 census. Both these are mentioned in articles 330 and article 332. See article 330 provides for refixing the number of seats that are reserved for scheduled cast and scheduled tribes in Lok Sabha based on 2001 census whereas article 332 provides for the same in case of the legislative assemblies of the states. So these are some of the functions of the delimitation commission. This commission while functioning shall determine its own procedure and it will have the powers of a civil court under the code of civil procedure 1908. Then if you see this commission also has the powers of summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses then it can require the protection of any document or the commission can even request any public record from any court or office etc. So this delimitation commission is a high power body whose powers have the force of law and it cannot be called in question before any court and know that these orders come into force on a date to be specified by the president of India in this behalf. And the copies of its orders are laid before the house of people and the concerned state legislative assembly. Once it is laid no modifications are possible. Know that the recommendations of this delimitation commission which was formed in 2002 got approval in the year 2008. So the delimitation exercise based on 2001 census figures was completed by 26 November 2008. But if you see this exercise was postponed in some Northeastern states like Assam Arunachal Pradesh Manipur and Nagaland. The issue was that the commission felt there was a threat to the peace and public order. So this delimitation exercise was postponed. So on 8 February 2008 the union law ministry issued an order stating that the delimitation exercise is deferred in these four states. Now this news article tells that the president has cancelled this earlier order of the union government. So now the delimitation exercise will be carried out by the delimitation commission in these four Northeastern states. So this is all that you need to know from this news article. To summarize we have seen about the process of delimitation and then the delimitation commission in relation to this news article where the president has given not for delimitation in few of the Northeastern states where the delimitation exercise was deferred for a long time because of the threat to peace and public order due to certain internal security issues such as insurgency. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now let us look at an editorial which has appeared based on the comments of the former prime minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Vikram Singh. If you remember during our 24th February the Hindu news analysis we discussed a news article related to the comments made by the former prime minister and during that discussion we also saw certain regional organizations such as SARC and BIMSTIC. So in our today's editorial we shall see the suggestions put forward by the prime minister and then let us discuss about some of the organizations that are mentioned in this editorial like ASEAN, RCEP, European Union and Mercasur. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. First let us look at the editorial. See the former prime minister of Sri Lanka as called for regional integration in the economic sphere for the South Asian region. Then he has also suggested to ease the tensions between India and Pakistan through dialogue to attain the regional growth. Here he has blamed the India-Pakistan tensions as a reason for a lack of economic integration in South Asia because if you see SARC which aims for regional economic integration has literally come to a standstill since 2016 due to India-Pakistan tensions and it is unlikely to convene in the near future because the problems between India and Pakistan is not sorted yet. Next if you see we have one more regional organization BIMSTIC which also aims for intra-regional trade among the seven BIMSTIC countries but if you see even this organization is weak so the author tells that both SARC and BIMSTIC are far behind the other economic groupings like ASEAN, European Union, Mercasur in terms of their regional share of the total trade. So what the Sri Lankan leader has suggested is that India should take the leadership role in the South Asian region by means of integration with its neighboring countries and also by means of easing the tensions with its neighboring country Pakistan. Also if you see the leader has suggested for even a smaller subgrouping of four countries for example like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand the leader has suggested that this small subgrouping can begin with reduced tariffs and non-tariff barrier regimes between these four countries. So you can see that this term South Asian region is often seen in the news especially from the Indian perspective. So what is the South Asian region? See in geopolitics any region for that sake in this case it is the South Asian region can have different countries so it depends on the organizations or it depends on the third countries which designates certain group of countries under a particular region so it depends on country to country and organization to organization because if you see United Nations also mentions Iran as a part of South Asian region but usually India does not consider Iran as a part of South Asian region. Now if you look as per Sark which is the South Asian association for regional cooperation it has eight countries which are India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. So it always depends on country to country and organization to organization. So this is all about the analysis of this editorial. In this editorial certain other groupings like ASEAN, European Union, Mercasurus mentioned. So let us discuss about them from the prelims perspective since prelims exam is near. First let us look at ASEAN. See the full form of ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It was established in the month of August in 1967 at Bangkok in Thailand after signing the ASEAN declaration. It is also called the Bangkok declaration. This declaration was signed by the founding members of ASEAN which are the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. After this five more nations joined this grouping. So the current membership is 10 countries. The other five countries are Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Now this ASEAN grouping aims to promote the economic growth, social progress and cultural development of ASEAN region. It also aims to promote peace and stability in the region. See the latest ASEAN summit was held in Bangkok in Thailand in the month of November 2019. Apart from that have an idea that on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit the 16th India ASEAN summit was also held in Thailand. So India is not a member of ASEAN. This you need to remember from prelims perspective. India is an important dialogue partner with ASEAN. Now when you study about ASEAN also know about the proposed deal of ASEAN which is called the RCEP deal or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership deal. See we know that in November 2019 India walked out of the RCEP deal. It is basically a free trade agreement between 16 countries 10 ASEAN plus six other countries which are the countries of China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. But India walked out of this proposed deal in November 2019 citing many reasons. One of the reason was that countries like China demanded that the market of India should be open to all the ASEAN members for trade and apart from this India also had concerns over lowering and eliminating certain tariffs on products from other countries since it would negatively affect the domestic agricultural and industrial sectors and it would also affect dairy farmers. Also India thought that signing this RCEP deal would actually be detrimental to the governments making India initiative. So know that India has backed out of this RCEP deal. So whenever you're studying about ASEAN also try to have an idea about RCEP. Now apart from this if you see regional organizations like SARC and BIMSTEC have also been mentioned we have discussed in detail in our 24th February analysis. We request the viewers to have a look at it for further subject clarity. Here what we have done is we have given the table comparing ASEAN with SARC and BIMSTEC so you can make use of this table for your preparation. Now let us look at another regional grouping the European Union which is mentioned in this editorial know that the European Union is a group of 27 countries in the European continent. So it is basically an economic and a political bloc but if you see in the initial days the European countries started to cooperate economically to be exact in the year 1951. At that time only six countries participated which are the countries of Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands. So all these six countries signed the Treaty of Paris in 1951 to form the European Coal and Steel Community. Over time more and more countries joined and in 1992 the Maastricht Treaty was signed and this led to the creation of the European Union. Today if you see 27 countries are a part of this European Union just in the previous month it was 28 countries the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on 31st of January 2020. So as of now there are only 27 countries. Now to create a huge single economic market what European Union did was it launched a single European currency which is called the Euro but if you see not all the members of this European Union use this common currency only 19 out of the 27 European Union countries use this Euro. Now if you look at the objectives of this European Union one is to promote peace in Europe and the next is to have a strong European economy such that the countries can use the same currency and do business together. So these are some information related to the European Union that you need to know from prelims point of view. Now from this map try to know what are those countries which are not a part of European Union for example you can see here countries like Switzerland Norway Iceland even Russia are not a part of European Union though geographically they belong to the European continent. So just try to have an idea of those countries which are not a part of this European Union. So this is all that you need to know about European Union. Now let us see another regional grouping from South American continent which is called the Mercasur. The full form of Mercasur is South American Regional Economic Organization. It is also called as the Southern Common Market. See this Mercasur was initially established by four countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay by the Treaty of Assuncion in the year 1991. Then later in the year 2012 Venezuela joined this grouping but if you see Venezuela was suspended from Mercasur since it did not follow the proper trade standards also there were violations of human rights in Venezuela. So in 2016 Venezuela was suspended from Mercasur grouping. Now if you see Bolivia is not a part of this Mercasur it is likely to join this grouping in the future. So Mercasur is also one of the world's leading economic blocks which has quite a significance in the world trade. Now know that this Mercasur functions as a customs union and a free trade area. So the ambition of this Mercasur grouping is to have a common market along the lines of European Union. Now if you look at the main objective of this grouping it is to promote a common space in order to generate business and investment opportunities through ways of integration of the national economies into the international market. So this is the main objective behind this Mercasur grouping. So this is all about Mercasur that you need to know from prelims point of view. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this editorial. To summarize this analysis we saw about the comments made by the ex-prime minister of Sri Lanka Mr. Ranil Vikram Singhe over the need for India to take a leadership role in the South Asian region. In this context we saw some regional groupings like ASEAN and then about European Union and then about Mercasur, Sarkand, BIMSTEC as a part of this discussion. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to water quality. The news article states that the water samples collected from 11 random locations in Delhi failed to confirm with ISO standards. Your ISO means International Organization for Standardization. So the key words that you need to focus from this news article is IS 10500-2012 standards and next the Coaliform Contamination. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Know that clean water and sanitation comes under sustainable development goal number 6. In India if you see the responsibility to supply clean water comes under the ambit of states and union territories with legislatures since water comes under the state list. Now let us look at IS 10500-2012 standards. Know that these standards have been issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Know that Bureau of Indian Standards is the national standard body of India which was established under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act of 2016. This 2016 act repealed the BIS Act of 1986. See this Bureau of Indian Standards works under the ages of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. This organization works for the development of standards, then marking system and quality certification of goods. So based on its functions the Bureau of Indian Standards has issued IS 10500-2012 standards for drinking water quality which is in line with the ISO norms. Now know that this standard checks for water quality under six categories. It will check the physical quality of the water. So there are some physical parameters. Then it will check for any undesirable substances which are present in excessive amounts. Then it will check for the toxic substance which is present in the water. Then it also checks for certain radioactive substances that are mentioned under the standards. Apart from this it will also check for the pesticide residue limits. And then finally it will also check the bacteriological quality parameters. Now if you look at the bacteriological quality parameters, it prescribes for zero presence of total coliform bacteria and excretia coli in 100 ml sample. So under bacteriological quality of drinking water category, total coliform bacteria and excretia coli are checked for treated water that is entering the distribution system and for treated water which is present in the distribution system. We will discuss more about this coliform bacteria contamination in the later part of our discussion. Now these are some of the information that you need to know under the IS 10500-2012 standards. Now let us come to the news article. This news article tells that in January 2020 the Supreme Court ordered the Bureau of Indian Standards to conduct a random check of water quality in Delhi. So based on this the Bureau of Indian Standards submitted its report in February 2020. It stated that all the water samples failed to confirm to the IS 10500-2012 standards. The samples mainly failed in various parameters like order, aluminum and coliform contamination. So here you need to know about coliform contamination. See coliform contamination occurs when the fecal matter gets mixed with the treated water and it can lead to a number of diseases like typhoid fever, hepatitis, then gastroentritis and then even dysentery. So in this regard the Supreme Court has deputed another joint inspection by certain organizations like Central Pollution Control Board, the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Delhi Gel Board and apart from this the Supreme Court has also requested the Bureau of Indian Standards to suggest measures to improve water quality. Now let us see in brief about coliform bacteria. See most types of coliform bacteria are harmless to humans but some can cause mild illnesses and few can even lead to serious waterborne diseases. So both beneficial and harmful coliform bacteria exist together. See they are often referred to as indicator organisms because they indicate the potential presence of disease causing bacteria in water but it is not that their presence will guarantee that the drinking water will cause illness when consumed rather the presence indicates that a contamination pathway exists between a source of bacteria. For example like surface water or a septic system or an animal waste and the water that is supplied. So the disease causing bacteria may use this pathway to enter the water supply. This is all that you need to know about coliform bacteria. With this we come to the end of the discussion. To summarize this news article we saw two keywords one is the IS 10500 2012 standards by the Bureau of Indian Standards and next we saw about coliform contamination in drinking water. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the announcement of the government of Karnataka to allocate funds for Kalasa Banduri Nala project. In this context let us see about Mahadai river and then about the Mahadai river dispute. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First let us look about Mahadai river. See Mahadai is a west flowing interstate river. It originates in the western guards of Karnataka and it runs through the state of Karnataka and Goa. It drains near Panaji into the Arabian Sea. This river is called as Manvi in Goa. Now know that this river flows across two states Karnataka and Goa whereas the catchment area of this river is spread among three states which are Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra. So the sharing of water from this Manvi river is a cause of dispute between all these three states especially after the Karnataka government's announcement of Kalasa Banduri Nala project in the year 1989. Now this project involves building of dams and canals across the rivers Kalasa and Banduri Nala in order to divert the water from Mahadai river to the depleted Malaprabha river. Know that both these rivers are tributaries of Mahadai river whereas Malaprabha is a tributary of Krishna river. So this project aims to supply drinking water from Malaprabha river to the four draught-prone districts of Karnataka which are the districts of Bagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad and Gadhak. But this project was opposed by Goa government. So in order to settle the dispute in the year 2010 Mahadai water disputes tribunal was formed by the central government under section 3 of the Interstate River Water Disputes Act of 1956. So the parties involved are the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Now let us look at the award given by the Mahadai Water Disputes Tribunal. See in August 2018 the tribunal allocated around 13.42 TMC feet that is 1000 million cubic feet of Mahadai river water to the state of Karnataka for the purpose of irrigation and drinking water supply for all the four districts that we saw. So out of this 13.42 TMC feet of water, 5.5 TMC feet is set aside for use within the river basin and the remaining 7.9 TMC feet is to be diverted to Malaprabha reservoir for generating power. And apart from that Maharashtra was allocated 1.33 TMC of water whereas Goa was given 24 TMC of water. But if you see the other two states Goa and Maharashtra were not satisfied with the award of the tribunal. So in August 2018 both the state governments approached the Supreme Court with a petition challenging the decision. At the same time Karnataka also filed a petition seeking directions to the central government to issue a notification. Now on 20th February 2020 the Supreme Court allowed Karnataka's plea for implementing the final award given by the Mahadai Water Disputes Tribunal. After this judgment now the central government has issued a notification on sharing the waters on 27th February. Now Karnataka is very happy with this decision. So yesterday the state government of Karnataka has announced that funds would be allocated for this Kalasa Banduri Nala project in the state budget for the upcoming financial year. Also Karnataka has plans to construct drinking water and hydropower projects in Karnataka. So this is all that you need to know from this news article. To summarize we saw about Mahadai River and the Mahadai River dispute between the three states of Karnataka Goa and Maharashtra and then we saw the award of Mahadai Water Disputes Tribunal and the recent judgment by the Supreme Court based on which the center has issued a notification on sharing the Mahadai waters between the three states. And finally we saw the news article where the state government of Karnataka has announced for allocation of funds for this project. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to the quarterly economic growth rate data which has been released by the National Statistical Office. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. We know that GDP is the final value of the goods and services that is produced within the geographic boundaries of a country during a specified period of time. Normally it is a year. See GDP growth rate is an important indicator of the economic performance of any country. We have three methods of calculating GDP. We have explained this in detail in our 30th November analysis. We request the viewers to have a look at it for further subject clarity. Now know that the GDP growth rate data is released by the Central Statistical Organization under the National Statistical Organization which in turn comes under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. See this National Statistical Organization was formed by merging Central Statistical Organization and National Sample Survey Organization. Now according to this news article the National Statistical Organization has released the GDP growth rate data for the third quarter of the current financial year which is 2019-2020. Now this GDP grew at a rate of 4.7 percentage during the period when compared to 5.6 percentage in the previous year. Now this news article tells this is the slowest rate of growth in about seven years. The main reason given for this is the fall or the slump in the manufacturing sector. Apart from this the National Statistical Organization has also estimated the GDP growth for the entire financial year 2019-2020 at 5 percentage. This is significantly lower than the 6.1 estimates in financial year 2018-2019. Now if you look at this news article it cites the Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs who says that the economics slowed down as bottomed out. Here you need to know the term bottom out. It simply means that the falling growth has reached the lowest or the bottom point and from this point there will be an upward trend in the future. So this bottoming out is actually a part of a business cycle. See the business cycle shows the rise and fall in production of goods and services in an economy. The stages in the business cycle are expansion and reaching a peak and then there will be a recession reaching a trough or the bottom and again the economy will be in the path of recovery. So this marks the end of one cycle and again there will be the next cycle expansion and recession. Now this news article tells that Indian economy will get into the recovery phase soon. So this stage is characterized by a rise in demand which will lead to rise in production and this will be followed by more credit flow and investment in the economy. So this is the concept of bottoming out. We know that Indian economy has been witnessing a slowdown for the last few years. So in order to revive the growth rate of Indian economy the union government had introduced several measures like reducing the corporate tax then withdrawing the enhanced surcharge on FPIs then announcement of merging the state-run banks and also budget announcement on privatization drive and abolishing of dividend distribution tax to boost investment etc. So these are some of the measures introduced by the union government in order to revive the economic growth. So we can hope that all these measures will bring back the lost growth fortunes in the near future and it will enable India to become a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024-2025. Apart from this if you see this news article also mentions a graph which compares the nominal and real GDP growth. Now know that the nominal GDP is the GDP that is calculated at the prevailing prices or current prices in the market whereas the real GDP refers to the measure of GDP which is adjusted to the inflation in a particular year. It means that it is a measure of GDP at constant prices with respect to a base year. So this is the difference between nominal GDP and the real GDP that you need to know from Trillium's perspective. This is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article we have seen the GDP growth rate that has been recorded in the third quarter of the current financial year and as a part of this we also saw the concept of bottoming out and finally we saw the difference between real GDP and nominal GDP. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now let us look at a question based on the news article which is given here. This is also a topic under economics. Now this news article says that the eight core industries recorded a 2.2 percentage growth in the month of January 2020. Now this data is important because if you see the eight core industries actually recorded a negative growth from August 2019 to November 2019. So this 2.2 percentage growth is important because Indian economy is now witnessing an expansion in the production of coal, refinery products and electricity. So from this news article you need to focus and remember mainly who releases the index and the weightage of the various constituents of the eight core industries. Before seeing the index of eight core industries let us look in brief about the index of industrial production. See the index of industrial production is released on a monthly basis by the central statistics office under the National Statistical Organization of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The base here taken for calculation is 2011-2012. Note that this index of industrial production is composed of three major industries which are manufacturing, mining and electricity with a total number of 407 items. Among this if you see the manufacturing sector has 405 items and mining and electricity as one item each. Here if you look at the weightage the manufacturing sector has the maximum weightage which is 77.6 percentage followed by mining at 14.3 percentage followed by electricity with the least weightage of 7.9 percentage. So this is in brief about the index of industrial production. Now if you look at the index of eight core industries this report is published every month. The base here is 2011-2012. So this index is released by the Office of the Economic Advisor which comes under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in short DP-IIT which in turn comes under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Now as the name indicates this index is composed of eight core industries which are coal, natural gas, crude oil, refinery products, fertilizer, steel, cement and electricity. Now each industry is assigned a weightage based on the weight of these industries given in the index of industrial production. Out of the total weight of the index of industrial production the combined weightage of these eight core industries is 40.27 percentage. So remember this fact and among these eight core industries refineries as the maximum weightage which is 28.03 percentage whereas the fertilizers have the least weightage of 2.6 percentage out of the total weightage of 100 percentage. So this is the data. So remember all these information that we have discussed now regarding index of industrial production and the index of eight core industries. Now let us take up the question. The question is consider the following pairs index of eight core industries released by Office of Economic Advisor Ministry of Commerce and Industry and index of industrial production released by Central Statistical Organization under National Statistical Organization, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and the question asks you to choose the correct pairs. Here both the given pairs are correct. So the correct answer to this question is option C both one and two. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us look at a question which is based on this news article. This news article mentions that the Kerala NRA Commission has urged the central government to amend the representation of people act in order to ensure voting rights for the overseas Indian citizens from their workplace. In this regard it has urged the central government to pilot a bill in the next parliament session. Now based on this news article you need to know there are different allowed ways and means of voting as per the representation of people act 1951. As per section 61A of the Act voting machines that is the electronic voting machines in short EVMs are allowed with effect from 15th of March 1989. See voting in an Indian election can be done in three ways. One is in person, the other by post and the third through a proxy. Under proxy voting if you see a registered elector can delegate is her voting to a representative. Here only a classified service voter is allowed to nominate a proxy to cast vote on his or her behalf. This definition includes members of the armed forces, then members of BSF, CRPF, CISF, then general engineering reserve force and border roads organization. If you see a classified service voter can also vote by postal ballot. See this postal ballot is usually exercised by the ordinary government employees who are posted for election related work during elections along with the classified service voters. Now if you look at e-ballot it is not allowed in India as of now. In 2005 Estonia became the first country in the world to hold nationwide elections using this method. Now if you look at this newspaper it mentions that Lok Sabha had passed a bill enabling proxy voting rights for NRIs in August 2018 but the issue is that this bill lapsed following the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha. And then if you look at this news article it says that even public interest litigation was filed at the Supreme Court demanding for introduction of either e-ballot or proxy voting for NRIs. Therefore know that as of now there is no provision for e-ballot or proxy voting for NRIs. However there is a provision of postal or proxy voting for service personnel. This is all about this news article. Now look at this question. The question is consider the following methods of voting allowed as per the representation of People's Act 1951 voting machine postal ballot e-ballot proxy voting. We know that as of now e-ballot is not there in India. So if you are able to eliminate this third item you can eliminate three options options A, C and D. So the correct answer to this question is option B, 1, 2 and 4. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Look at this first question which is on delimitation commission. It is a previous year question which was asked in 2012 UPSC prelims exam. See it is a two statement questions. You need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement it tells that the orders of the delimitation commission cannot be challenged in a court of law. See during our discussion we saw that delimitation commission will have the powers of a civil court under the court of civil procedure 1908. It has the powers of summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses then it can ask for any document to be produced and it can also request for any public record from any court or office. It is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and they cannot be called in question before any court. So this statement is correct the orders of the delimitation commission cannot be challenged in a court of law. Now look at the second statement it tells that when the orders of the delimitation commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or state legislative assembly they cannot affect any modifications in the orders. This statement is also correct see the copies of the orders of the delimitation commission are to be laid before the house of the people and the concerned state legislative assembly and there can be no modifications once they are laid before the Lok Sabha or the state legislative assembly. Now you need to choose the correct statements the correct answer here is option C 1 and 2. Now look at the next question which of the following pairs are correctly matched certain regional groupings have been given and the declaration based on which these groupings have formed has also been given you need to choose the correct pairs. Look at the first pair Asian Bangkok declaration this statement is correct the Bangkok declaration was signed in 1967 based on which Asian came into force. Look at the second pair Sar Dhaka declaration this pair is also correct Sar came into force in 1985 based on Dhaka declaration. Now look at the third pair it tells Beemstek Kathmandu declaration this pair is wrong because Beemstek came into being on June 1997 through the Bangkok declaration it's not Kathmandu declaration so here the first and second pair are correct so the correct answer here is option B 1 and 2 only. Look at the next question which is on Mercosur two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements look at the first statement it tells that Mercosur is a South American regional economic organization this statement is correct look at the second statement Argentina Brazil Paraguay Uruguay and Venezuela are the member countries of Mercosur this statement is wrong because during our discussion we saw that Venezuela was a part of Mercosur but it was suspended from Mercosur in the year 2016 due to certain violations so the second statement is wrong the correct answer to this question is option A 1 only. Now look at this question which is on Bureau of Indian Standards three statements are given and you need to choose the statement or statements which are correct look at the first statement it tells that BIS is the national standard body of India established to develop quality and certification standards of goods yes this statement is correct look at the second statement it tells that it is a non-statutory body and was established through executive resolution of the cabinet in 1986 this statement is wrong because it is a statutory body established as per the BIS Act of 2016 and this 2016 act repealed the BIS Act of 1986 so the second statement is wrong here look at the third statement it tells that BIS works under the ages of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs food and public distribution this statement is correct so the correct answer to this question is option D 1 and 3 only look at this question which is on Mahadai river two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements look at the first statement it tells that the river Mahadai which originates in Karnataka flows through Maharashtra and Goa before draining into Arabian Sea this statement is wrong because during our discussion we saw that it flows across two states Karnataka and Goa whereas the catchment area is present in three states which also includes Maharashtra along with Karnataka and Goa so the first statement goes wrong look at the second statement it tells that the disputed Kalasabanduri Nala project involves constructing dams and canals to divert water from Mahadai to Ghataprabha river this statement is wrong the plan is to divert waters from Mahadai river to Malaprabha river not Ghataprabha river so the second statement also goes wrong now we need to choose the correct statements the correct answer is option D neither 1 nor 2 know that both Malaprabha and Ghataprabha river are the tributaries of Krishna river whereas Kalasabanduri are tributaries of Mahadai river so the correct answer is option D now look at the next question three statements are given and you need to choose the incorrect statements look at the first statement it tells that the bottoming out effect in an economy is when the industrial output reaches its peak and then starts to decline this statement is wrong because during our analysis we have explained the bottoming out effect and the business cycle see the bottoming out effect simply means that the falling growth has reached the lowest or bottom point and from this point we can see an upward trend in the future so this is the stage from which the recovery begins so the first statement is incorrect now look at the second statement it tells that the recovery phase of an economy is characterized by a rise in investment and a rise in demand see the recovery of any economy begins after the economy reaches the trough for bottom so this stage is characterized by a rise in demand which will lead to an increase in production and this will be followed by more credit flow and investment in an economy so the second statement here is correct now look at the third statement it tells that the RBI may go for a contractionary monetary policy when the economy faces recession see when an economy faces recession we need more flow of money or credit to boost the demand and hence the production so the RBI usually follows an expansionary policy which involves expanding the money flow in an economy whereas if you see the contractionary policy it involves decreasing the money supply so this will help to increase the cost of borrowing and this will eventually decrease the GDP rate so the third statement is incorrect now you need to choose the incorrect statements the correct answer is option D 1 and 3 because both these statements are incorrect now look at the main question the question is the delimitation commission plays an important role in ensuring uniformity of representation within a state and between different states elaborate so try to post your answers for this question in the comment section you need to answer this question in 150 words we shall review your answer and give suitable suggestions and feedback within a reasonable time frame with this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session if you like the video press the like button comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates stay focused and motivated friends thank you