 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Aayesh Akrami. These are the news articles chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page number of different traditions. Link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping for the discussed articles are given in the description box as well as the comment section for the benefit of the mobile viewers. First, let us see past problems questions. See, past problems questions are very important. They help us to understand the approach of the exam. So whenever you have trouble filtering information or you have doubts regarding priority areas, you can go through past problems questions. They will guide you. Now let us solve few 2020 problems questions. First question. Consider the following statements. 36% of India's districts are classified as over-exploited or critical by the Central Groundwater Authority. CGWA. Second statement. CGWA was formed under Environment Protection Act. Third statement. India is the largest area under groundwater irrigation in the world. Which of the statements are correct? So in order to understand the first statement, we need to know a report called Dynamic Groundwater Resources Assessment. See, the Central Groundwater Body periodically assesses the groundwater resources in India. This is done in collaboration with state and union territories. And based on that data, it publishes a report called Dynamic Groundwater Resource Assessment. In this report, the Central Groundwater Body categorizes assessment units depending on stage of groundwater extraction. In this case, the assessment units can be districts, taluk, mandals. The name varies from place to place. So according to this assessment, an area can belong in any one of the four categories. For example, an area can belong in over-exploited category. It can belong in critical category. It can belong in semi-critical category. It can belong in safe category based on stage of groundwater extraction. Since the first statement in the question is about over-exploited and critical category, let us see about them. First, let us take over-exploited category. See, over-exploited category means if the stage of groundwater extraction is greater than 100%. Whereas critical category means the stage of groundwater extraction is greater than 90% but less than 100%. So based on the 2017 national compilation, we can see that 1186 assessed units were in over-exploited category. This is 17% of assessed units. And we can see 313 assessed units are in critical category. This is approximately 5% of assessed units. So in total, 22% is in over-exploited and critical category. But the first statement in question says 36% of India's districts are classified as over-exploited or critical. So this statement is wrong. Now let us move on to the second statement. CGWA was formed under the Environment Protection Act. This statement is correct. See, the Central Groundwater Authority is a statutory body. It was established under Section 3-3 of Environment Protection Act 1986. The main objective of CGWA is to regulate and control the groundwater development and management in the country. So the second statement is right. Moving on to the third statement. India has the largest area under groundwater irrigation in the world. This statement is also correct. See, according to a research paper of Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, India's largest extent of area under groundwater irrigation. This area is approximately 39 million hectares. So in conclusion, the first statement is wrong. Second statement is correct. Third statement is correct. So the answer is B213 only. See, there is a technique called illumination technique which can be used in problems. This technique will better your guesses. It will improve your accuracy. It will also help you to take calculated risk in problems. This technique is used by topists to narrow down their guesses. So let us apply this technique to this question. See, in this question, we have three statements. Now let us take up the first statement. The first statement is about overexploited and critical areas. See, to be frank, it is a tough statement to assess because one has to know the exact data and the report to get it right. So for time being, let us keep this statement aside and let us move on to the second one. The second statement is regarding the Environment Protection Act. See, this statement is easy to assess because if you are following the current affairs regularly, you will know that CGWA was established under Environment Protection Act. So obviously you know the statement is correct. Only two options have second statement in them. It is B213 only and C213 only. So the answer can be either option B or option C. So without knowing the data in the first statement, we have completely eliminated the first statement. This is called illumination technique. So whenever you are practicing film's questions, even if you are not sure about the answer, try to apply this technique to narrow down the guesses. It will increase your accuracy and boost your score. Now let us move on to the second question. This is a problem's question asked in 2020. Which of the following are the most likely places to find the musk deer in its natural habitat? First place as called wildlife sanctuary. Second place Gangaotri National Park. Third place Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary. Fourth place Manas National Park. Select the correct answer using the code given below. First let us see about Himalayan musk deer. See the Himalayan musk deer is locally known as Kasturimrik. It is found in the forested areas between 2,500 meters and the treeline. See the Himalayan musk deer is adapted for living in alpine, subalpine and upper temperate habitats. That is greater than 2,500 meters. So it is mostly found in cold areas. So the Himalayan musk deer are usually found in high altitude ecosystem in the colder part of Himalayas. For example it is found in Nandadevi National Park, Valley of Flowers National Park, Gangaotri National Park, Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Govind Wildlife Sanctuary, Ascot Wildlife Sanctuary and many other protected areas. Most of these protected areas are found in Uttarakhand. Now coming back to the question. We are given 4 places. See the third place Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary is in Uttarpadesh. So it does not belong to a high altitude cold ecosystem. So we can eliminate this option. So option B and option C is eliminated. Now we have A, 1 and 2 only and D, 1 and 4. Of these two options, now let us take Manas National Park. The fourth place. See Manas National Park is in Assam. It is located at height of 61 meters above sea level. So it is a low altitude ecosystem. As we have already discussed, Himalayan musk deer occurs in high altitude cold ecosystem. So we can eliminate this fourth place, Manas National Park. Hence the option D, 1 and 4 only is eliminated. So only one option remains that is A, 1 and 2 only. The Himalayan musk deer is found in Ascot Noir Life Sanctuary and Ganga Uttari National Park. The answer is A, 1 and 2 only. Now let us move on to the third question. With reference to India's biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Copper smith barbet, and White throated red star tar, birds, primates, reptiles, amphibians. These are the options given. See the answer is A, birds. See these kind of questions are direct questions. So they are tough to guess. You can't apply elimination technique in these questions. Only if you know the species mentioned in the question, you can attend it accurately. Now let us see about these birds mentioned in the question. The first bird is Sri Lanka frogmouth or Ceylon frogmouth. The picture of the bird is displayed here. From the picture we can see it is an odd cryptic looking bird. It is more like a cross between an owl and a nightjar. It has wide mouth and proportionally smaller eyes. Now let us move on to the second bird. Copper smith barbet. See, copper smith barbet is a small bird with staked under parts and a well patterned face. As you can see from this picture, this bird has a red forehead with yellow shades around the eyes and throat. It is an attractive bright colored bird. Now let us move on to the next one. Gradeshin minivit. See Gradeshin minivit is a song bird usually found in mountain forests. Mountain forest means forest found in mountainous region. See the Gradeshin minivit is a small long tail bird. It is usually vocal, active and encountered in large flocks. The males of this species have a bright orange belly and a comma shaped slash on the wing. This can be observed in the picture given here. You can see the bright orange belly in the picture and a comma shaped slash on the wing. This is a unique feature of this bird. Now let us move on to the next one. The next bird is white-throated red star. As the name says, both the male and female of this species have a white throat. This can be observed in the picture given here. See from the picture you can see there is a white throat and we can also observe a long white stripe on the wings. These birds also have a flashing orange rump. Rump is nothing but the underbelly part of the bird. And from the picture we can also see a dark tail. The male of these species usually have a black face and a deep orange belly. This can be seen in the picture. Now let us move on to the next question. With reference to the period of Gupta dynasty, the towns Gantasala, Kadura and Chal were well known as Option A, Ports Handling Foreign Trade Option B, Capitals of Powerful Kingdoms Option C, Places of Exquisite Stone Art and Architecture Option D, Important Buddhist Pilgrimage Centers The answer is Option A, Ports Handling Foreign Trade. See India has a 5000 years history of maritime activity. During this 5000 years, India has played a major role in commerce and cultural interaction between the East and West. In India, we have evidence of shift building, port and veros installation since the Arapan culture times. So it is important to learn about the ports and trade centers during the ancient times. Now let us see some important Arapan ports. They are Lothal, Kinderkera, Kuntasi and Megam. There are also important ports during Maurias and Gupta period. Let us see about them. The important ports during this period are Kalyana, Semilla, Mandagore, Malizhigara, Muzuris. These ports were found on the West Coast. Now let us see the ports on the East Coast. They were Charitrapur, Paluru, Dantapur, Kalingapatnam, Gantasala, Puhar and Kemara. So make note of these ports. UPS likes to ask questions about ports and trade centers during the ancient and medieval times. So you can use this information to solve the questions. With this we have come to the end of past prelims questions discussion. See solving past prelims questions is very important to clearing problems. The mantra to clear problems is 50% preparation and 50% practice. So keep on practicing prelims questions. It will improve your accuracy and will boost your score. Now let us move on to article discussion. Now let us take up this article. This is about Indian Premier League 2021. See the BCCI as suspended the Indian Premier League 2021, amid cases of COVID-19. BCCI stands for Board of Control for Cricket in India. See the BCCI was open of conducting IPL by using biosecure bubbles. So what are biosecure bubbles? See a biosecure bubble is an environment which is cut off from the outside world. Everyone engaged in the tournament including the players, support staff and match officials will be limited only to a few places. The point of biobubble is to minimize the risk of contracting the infection through limited contact from outside world. So it is a secured space. There is a key element in the biobubble. See in a biobubble the players will not be permitted to have access to families, visitors, friends and relatives for the duration of the entire tournament. So the cricketers will not be permitted to pay a visit to family or friends outside the team's biosecure environment. See the biobubble is essential for the sporting world in this pandemic era. The sporting world has managed to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting various tournaments through biobubbles. For example, last year Indian Premier League, US Open and National Basketball Association conducted various tournaments using this strategy. During these tournaments the biobubble created a sanitized area which can be accessed only by a certain set of people who are not infected with virus. See international sports require a lot of frequent air travels. So biobubbles are essential to create a safe environment for players. But this mechanism has received a lot of criticism from sport personalities. According to these experts these biobubbles will have huge psychological impacts on sports persons since they are isolated from their support structure like family, friends, relatives. Now let us see how a biobubble works. See the bubble is a part of the hotel and the stadium. The procedure to enter a biobubble is like this. A player before leaving the country must clear the RT-PCR test. RT-PCR test is conducted for detecting COVID-19. Again at the destination the player will be tested again for COVID-19. Apart from this test regular test will be conducted throughout the tournament for detection of COVID-19. Also in this IPL additional technologies were used to make the biobubble secure. For example in 2021 IPL every player was supposed to wear a special bluetooth band on their wrist. This bluetooth band will sound an alarm if a player breathes the biosecure bubble. Also it was mandatory for the players families to wear this bluetooth band who are in the biobubble. See several sections of the society opposed this edition of IPL due to the present situation in India. The author of this article says that BCCI should have conducted the tournament in UAE like last time. 2020 IPL was conducted in UAE. See UAE is a safer location because it is a small country where majority of the citizens have been vaccinated. Since UAE is a small country it also requires minimum air travels. So UAE would have been a better option to contact IPL. But BCCI conducted IPL in India to show the world that we are ready to host World T20 in coming October. This was a grave mistake according to the author. With this we have come to the end of the discussion. In this article we saw about the working of biosecure bubble and also the reason for IPL post-mortem. Now let us move on to the next article. Now look at this article. According to this article the department of telecommunications devotee gave permission to telecom service providers to conduct trials for the use and application of 5G technology. But Chinese companies like Huawei and EZTE were left out from the trials. So in this context let us discuss about the evolution of mobile communication with special focus on 4G and 5G technology. The syllabus for references displayed on the screen aspirants can go through it. See the cellular networks are getting an upgrade with the arrival of fifth generation or 5G technology. With 5G consumers can expect new applications and improved user experience. What is 5G? 5G stands for fifth generation of mobile communication. The 5G promises consumers faster data rates with low latencies or delays in transmitting data. Now let us see the chronology of mobile communication. First came the 1G that is first generation. The first generation was about wireless calling. It eliminated the need for phone cords and copper wiring enabling network calls on the road. So the first generation gave the concept of mobile phones. The first generation can be seen as evolution from landlines to mobile phones. But it had many drawbacks. The 1G was only a voice service. It had poor battery life and poor voice quality. Next came the 2G that is the second generation. The 2G came with messaging that is SMS. The second generation mobile communication replaced analog with a digital network. The 2G enabled call and text encryption, text messaging and multimedia messaging. This was an important upgrade. Then came the 3G that is third generation. Third generation came with internet and video. Third generation enabled full feature mobile internet access and video calling with faster data transmission speeds. Next came 4G or fourth generation. See the fourth generation of broadband cellular network was popularly referred to as magic 2. The magic 2 stands for mobile multimedia, anywhere, global mobility solutions over, integrated wireless and customized services. See a 4G network enabled the mobile device to exchange data at the rate of 100 mbps for high mobility communication and at a rate of 1gbps for low mobility communication. Also there are multiple 4G mobile technology standards used by different cellular providers. This includes LTE pre 4G, LTE advanced, Ymax and ultra mobile broadband, UMB. For example LTE or long term evolution is sometimes called as 3.9G or super 3G. This super 3G aims to accomplish higher speeds along with lower packet latency. So far we have discussed about 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G. See in 10 years the internet traffic demand will increase significantly and we will have more than 100 billion connections of internet of things. So we require next level of technology to counter such demands. Also the consumer demands high speed data at lower prices. To provide solution to all these problems 5G has been evolved. See 5G has been labeled as ultra fast, ultra reliable, ultra high capacity transmitting at super low latency. What is the difference between 4G and 5G? See the 5G technology can provide higher data speeds with less delay than 4G. 5G services can also provide coverage areas with data speeds up to 100 times faster and almost instantaneous response time. Let us see this with an example. For example with 4G it may take 6 minutes to download a full feature film. But with 5G the same movie can be downloaded in 15 seconds. This is a great upgradeation in speed. See the current 4G speeds are approximately 12 to 36 megabytes per second Mbps. While 5G services are expected to support speed of 300 Mbps or greater. The key differences between 4G and 5G are illustrated in the figure. You can go through it. Now let us talk about the 5G initiatives of India. See the government of India has launched a program title Building an end to end 5G Testbed in 2018. This program aims to advance innovation and research in 5G. It envisages close collaboration between the universities and small technology companies to build proof of concept 5G prototypes. Also in 2018, Ericsson has installed the first public access 5G testbed at IIT Delhi. This testbed aims at developing applications in the broadband and low latency areas which will provide access to the industry and institution to work on India specific usage scenarios and applications. With this we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion we saw about 5G, the evolution of mobile communication technology and 5G initiatives in India. Now let us move on to the next article. See the second way of COVID-19 pandemic is causing heavy damages to people's lives. Also the demand for medical oxygen is on the rise and several states are struggling to keep pace with demand. In this context this news articles reports about the device called Concentrators. See the oxygen concentrators can be used as a solution to control the rising demand for medical oxygen. But before discussing the device let us know some facts related to blood saturation levels. See the blood oxygen levels indicate the oxygen level present in the blood that flows through the arteries of the body. The blood oxygen level can be measured using an instrument called pulse oximeter. The normal oxygen level in the pulse oximeter usually ranges between 95% to 100%. But due to COVID-19 blood oxygen level in the body can drop below 90%. This oxygen level is considered as low and the condition is called as Ipoxemia. Ipoxemia is caused due to decreased capacity of the body to take in oxygen. In COVID-19 patients poor condition of lungs is a major reason for Ipoxemia. Now let us discuss about oxygen concentrator. See oxygen concentrators are external device that supply oxygen to ease the burden on the lungs. Concentrators are device that can be operated at home. See the medical oxygen source from industrial units are supplied via cylinders. It can be only operated in hospitals which have special devices. This shortcoming can be overcome by using an oxygen concentrator which can be operated in home. The concentrator works by plugging into a source of electricity. This device help those who saturation level ranges between 88% to 92%. This is the important point. But for levels even lower than that more intense oxygenation is required for which this device is incapable. In those situations only hospitals can help those patients. See the oxygen concentrator takes in air and separates the oxygen. That is how it works. It delivers the oxygen into a person via a nasal cannula. Nasal cannula is nothing but a device that consists of a lightweight tube which are placed in the nostrils and from which a mixture of air and oxygen flows. The oxygen concentrator delivers air that is up to 95% oxygen. Now let us understand its working. A concentrator consists of a compressor and a sieve bed filter. The compressor squeezes and adjusts the pressure of atmospheric air whereas the sieve bed which is made of zeolite material is used for separating the nitrogen in atmospheric air. This device consists of two sieve beds that work to release oxygen into a tank that is connected to the nasal cannula. See the oxygen concentrator comes with different specifications. There is a pulse flow concentrator which uses sensors to deliver oxygen. While there is also a continuous flow concentrator which delivers oxygen at a constant level. Finally the article concludes that the use of concentrator could help in increasing the supply of medical oxygen required for COVID-19 patients. Now let us move on to the next article. Now look at this news article. It is related to geotagging. See according to this article Tiruvannaburam Corporation is planning to use geotagging to track COVID positive cases in the city. So in this context let us learn few relevant facts about geotagging. See science and technology is an important part of problems. Lot of technology based questions are frequently asked in problems. For example, past year a question was asked about drone technology. So learning the basics of technology and its working will help you to boost the scope. Now let us see about geotagging. The syllabus relevant to this article is displayed on the screen as friends can go through it. What is geotagging? See geotagging is adding some geographical information to a media form. The media form can be a digital photograph, it can be a video or it can be even a SMS message. Let me explain this concept with an example. For example, imagine a digital photograph. In that photograph a person is sitting near a lake. To this photograph you can add geographical information. For example you can add the latitude and longitude coordinates of the lake. You can add the altitude of the lake. You can add the timestamp during which the photo was taken. You can add the accuracy data to the photo. You can also add the location name to the photograph. This is called geotagging. Adding of geographical information to a media. Another example is Instagram. See in Instagram when we post a photo or video the location will be automatically added to the post. This is also an example of geotagging. What are the technical requirements for geotagging? See geotagging is a very simple process. It requires only a smart phone under location service. With geotagging we can tag anything which can be linked to a space. We can tag trees, we can tag rivers, we can tag manmade assets like monuments, buildings, we can even tag natural events like floods, cyclones or manmade events like festivals activities. The potential is vast. Because of its vast potential geotagging is used in addition making process. It is also used in time wealth and asset management. See currently geotagging is used in variety of fields ranging from social media to public works. It is also used in various government schemes and programs. For example geotagging is used in NREGA scheme that is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. It is used in Pradhan Mantri Gram-In scheme. It is used in Pradhan Mantri Gram-Sadhakya original scheme. It is also used for toilet construction under Swachh Bharat. It is also used for building of highways and urban housing. The first scheme to experiment with geotagging was NREGA scheme. See in NREGA scheme around 90% of the assets have been geotagged. Similarly geotagging is also used by Ministry of Jalsakthi. The Ministry of Jalsakthi has launched a mobile application for geotagging projects under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai original. So we can see the potential of geotagging is very vast and it is used in various fields. It is used in various schemes. It has a lot of positives. But there are some few drawbacks when it comes to geotagging. The geotagging requires proper internet connection and adequate knowledge for its functioning. But in India we have unpredictable internet connections and there is a lack of adequate knowledge at the ground levels. This has proved to be a major hurdle in implementing geotagging. Now coming back to the news article. See the geotagging method was already used after the first outbreak of COVID-19. It was used to prevent the quarantine people from venturing out. Now once again due to the increase in positive cases and difficulty in tracking people, the Thiruvandawaram Corporation has planned to resume the geotagging process. See under this process the coordinators will call up the COVID post operations and get their exact address. After getting the address, the corporation's volunteer team will visit the house and feed the location details into the geotagging application. This will help the corporation to track the COVID-19 patients and will also help the corporation to study the pattern of disease spread. So that is the end of this discussion. In this discussion we saw about geotagging, its working and also its usage in various fields. With this I have a look at this news article. The pandemic doesn't seem to be sparing the Asiatic lines as well. See about 8 big cats have tested positive in the Nehru Zoological Park in Idaho. The officials got suspicious of the infection after the felines displayed breathing distress. On subjecting them to RT-PCR test, they tested positive for COVID. Soon CT will also be done to assess the degree of infection. So in the above context, let us see about these big cats and the Nehru Zoological Park. Now let us see some key facts regarding Asiatic line. Common name Asiatic line. Scientific name, Panthera Leopascica. Population 523 height approximately 110 cm. Length 200 to 280 cm. Weight 110 to 190 kg. Status. This is very important. Asiatic line is listed in Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act. It is also in appendix 1 of Sites. It is also endangered on IUCN Red List. This is the key point. See Asiatic Lions are slightly smaller than African Lions. In African Lions, the males tend to live with the females. But in Asiatic Lions, the males do not live with females of their pride. Pride is a group of Lions. It is a collective known. In Asiatic Lions, the female Lions are the pride's primary hunters. They often work together to prey upon a large animal. See these animals are magnificent. The Asiatic Lions have a longitudinal fold of skin running along its belly. It is the most striking morphological character of Asiatic Lions. This character is rarely seen in African Lions. The fur of Asiatic Lions ranges in colour from Ratty Tony, heavily speckled with black, to sandy or buff cream, sometimes with a silvery sheen in certain lights. Rudy Tony is a colour which is similar to Reddish Brown. The average life of Asiatic Lion is 16 to 18 years. See the Asiatic Lions once prowled from Middle East to India. Now sadly, only fraction of these magnificent animals survive in the wild. There are only several 100 Asiatic Lions in the world. And they live only in the Gir Forest in India. To understand it better, it is an area that is smaller than Greater London. These Lions occupy remnant forest habitats in the two-ill system of Gir and Girnar that comprises Gujarat's largest tracks of dry deciduous forest, thorny forest and savanna. According to WWF, there are 523 Asiatic Lions in the world. Owing to the threat and decline in population, we have scheduled the Asiatic Lions in Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act. Also, IUCN marks it endangered, while the sites has kept it in Appendix 1. Now let us have a quick glimpse into Neurozological Park. See, the Neurozological Park is located in Ayurveda, Telangana. It is one of the most expansive zoo parks in Asia. The park is home to more than 1500 species of birds, animals and reptiles. This park was different species such as Minas, White Peacocks, African elephants, chimpanzees and rhinoceros. The major attraction for visitors within the zoo is the Lion Safari. See a van fenced with iron will take you through the gates of the Safari. There are 4 female and 4 male Asiatic Lions in their premises. So that is the end of this discussion. In this discussion we saw about Asiatic Lions and Neurozological Park. Now let us move on to the next article. Now let us discuss this news article from the world page. This article is regarding G7. So in this discussion, we will cover the article and we will also discuss about G7 from the exam point of view. The syllabus relevant to the article is displayed on the screen as Prince President. See the G7 Foreign Ministers first in-person talks were held for the first time in 2 years. During this meet the G7 countries discussed how to form a common front towards an increasingly assertive China. This meet was hosted by Britain. See Britain is holding the G7 presidency for this year. Also India, Australia and South Korea were also invited to participate in the summit. This was in line with the US call for deeper alliance. During this meet, the G7 countries pushed for a robust cooperation in pressuring China over the Xinjiang region. See the Xinjiang region is a far-risk province of China which is seeing unrest because of Uyghur population. See that China is accused of committing human rights violation against Uyghurs in this region. This issue was brought up in the summit. Besides this issue, the issue of Hong Kong was also taken up for discussion. See the Hong Kong protest is always making news. So let us take a quick detour to understand the history better. Far back in 1898, following the Opium War, Britain entered a 99-year lease with China to get Hong Kong. This lease ended in 1997. After termination of the lease, Britain returned Hong Kong to China as a special administrative region. See under the doctrine of one-country-two system, China allowed the Hong Kong to continue to govern itself and maintain many independent system for a period of 50 years till 2047. See Hong Kong and mainland China are practically two different countries. For example, Hong Kong economy is characterized by low tax rates, free trade and less government interference. Hong Kong politically is also more democratic. This is because of the western influence. Whereas mainland China is more conservative and restrictive. Because of these differences, Hong Kong was given a special administrative region status. But recently, China has increased its influence on Hong Kong through legal framework. This has created a lot of protest in the region. And the China has handling of the issue has invited criticism from the world leaders. So back to the article. This dubious handling of Hong Kong protest was also taken up for discussion during the G7 meet. Besides these topics, the group also discussed the cooperation on climate change issues. See, as we saw, the member nations stands unified in their idea against China. But their stand differed in the ways of expressing their opinion. For instance, Japan has historic tensions with China. But refrain from taking any aggressive posturing to avoid blowing up of confrontations. On the other hand, Italy has been seen as one of the most beaging friendly nations in the west. This is because Italy in 2009 signed up for Belt and Road Initiative with China. But during this meeting, Italy took a strong stand against China regarding the Uyghurs. So all these things happened in G7 foreign ministers meet. Now let's see what is G7. This is important. See, the G7 or group of seven are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. It is an intergovernmental organization that was formed in 1975 by the top economies of that time. See, the G7 is an informal forum. It was formed to discuss the pressing world issues. Canada joined the group in 1976 and the European Union began attending the G7 summits from 1977. See, initially the G7 was formed to discuss economic issues. But in the later years, G7 deliberated about several challenges over the decades. For example, it deliberated about oil crashes of 1970s, the economic change over of ex-ovid block nations and many pressing issues such as financial crisis, terrorism, arms control and drug trafficking. The G7 became G8 when Russia joined in 1997. This is important. But the group returned back to G7 after Russia was expelled as a member in 2014. This is because Russia annexed Crimea region of Ukraine. So Russia was expelled from G8 as a punishment. As we saw earlier, the G7 is informal. So G7 does not have a formal constitution or a fixed headquarters. The decision taken by the leaders during the annual summits are non-binding. See, in the recent years the G7 has lost its relevance. This is because of rise of India, China and Brazil over the past few decades. The G7 share in global GDP has now fallen to around 40%. So G7 is losing its relevance in recent years. We have seen about G7. Now let us see about G20. The G20 is important because India is a member of G20. See, G20 is a large group of countries and also includes G7 members. See, the G20 was formed in 1999 to bring more countries on board to address global economic concerns. G20 has a global GDP share of 80%. But the problem with G20 is it only discusses economic challenges and issues. Whereas G7 discusses a plethora of global challenges. That is the end of the discussion. In this discussion we saw about G7 the outcome of recent G7 meet and we also discussed about G20 in brief. Now let us move on to practice problems questions. The first question. With reference to G7 countries consider the following statements. First statement. Russia is a member of G7. Second statement. G7 countries discuss economic environmental and political issues. Third statement. The headquarters of G7 is in Florence, Italy. Which of the statements given are overcorrect? See, the first statement is a wrong statement. Russia was a member of G8 not G7. It was expelled from G8 in 2014 and now the organization is called G7. This was discussed in the article. Now let us move on to the second statement. This statement is correct. G7 has a wide mandate and it discusses on various topics. So it is the correct statement. Now moving on to the third statement. headquarters of G7 is in Florence, Italy. This statement is wrong. See G7 has no headquarters. It is an informal organization. This was also discussed in the article. So the answer is D2 only. Only second statement is correct. First and third are wrong statement. Now let us move on to the second question. With reference to Asiatic lines, consider following statements. The first statement. One walking through the Panna National Park can spot these lines. Second statement. The Asiatic lines are listed endangered in IUCN red list. Third statement. Asiatic lines are facing habitat loss. Which of the statements given and above are correct? Now let us take the first statement. One walking through the Panna National Park can spot these lines. This statement is wrong. See as we saw in the discussion Asiatic lines are only found in Ghir area in Gujarat. So we can eliminate the first statement. Moving on to the second statement. The Asiatic lines are listed endangered in IUCN red list. This statement is correct. We have discussed this statement in the article. Now moving on to the third statement. Asiatic lines are facing habitat loss. This statement is also correct. So the correct answer is option C 2 and 3 only. That is only second and third statement are correct. First statement is wrong. Now let us move on to the third question. Consider the following statements with respect to oxygen concentrators. First statement. Oxygen concentrators operate by drawing air from the environment to deliver continuous clean and concentrated oxygen. Second statement. They have high reliability under low cost compared with oxygen cylinders and piped oxygen supply system. Third statement. They need for regular although minimal maintenance and reliable power supply. Which of the above given statements are correct. See the answer is D 1 2 and 3. All the given 3 statements are correct. We have discussed all these points in the article. So the answer is D 1 2 and 3. Main practice questions displayed here. You can write your answer and post in the comment section below. With this we have come to the end of Hindu news analysis. If you like this video, don't forget to click, like, share and comment. Subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy channel for more UPSC updates. Thank you.