 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 3rd October 2019. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been given along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Tiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad editions. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the time stamping is also provided in the comment section. Let's move on to the first article analysis for the day. This news article is about the inability of the methods used by Indian Meteorological Department in long range forecasting of the Indian Monsoon. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Before discussing about the news article, first let us understand about the Indian Meteorological Department. The Indian Meteorological Department or in short IMD was established in the year 1875 in the British India. Now it is functioning under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is the national meteorological service of the country. It is the principal agency of the government to deal in the matters related to meteorology, seismology and its allied matters such as weather forecasting. So, what is the mandate of IMD? IMD aims to forecast weather and it aims to provide information for the optimum operation of the weather sensitive activities such as agriculture, irrigation, shipping etc. So, for the activities like agriculture, irrigation and shipping, the information related to weather and the weather forecast is very important. IMD also gives warning against severe weather phenomena. The severe weather phenomena are tropical cyclones, dust storms, heavy rains and even snow. All these cause destruction of life and property. So, IMD gives warning for these phenomena. IMD also provides meteorological statistics which is required for agriculture, water resource management etc. So, these are the aims and objectives of IMD. Now, let us come to the news article discussion. The news article says that the monsoon mission coupled forecast system or in short CFS which is used by IMD has failed to accurately forecast the monsoon in the year 2019. According to the news article in the year 2019, India received a 10% more monsoon rain than usual. That means for the year 2019, the monsoon received was 110% of the long period average. So, what is this long period average or LPA? LPA is the average rainfall that is received all over India during southwest monsoon season. That is from June to September between the years 1951 and 2000. So, the average of the rainfall received in the southwest monsoon between these years is LPA. So, according to IMD, LPA is 89 cm. But the news article says it is 889 mm which is approximately 89 cm. Both are same only. And the rainfall over the country will be categorized based on the LPA. For example, if the rainfall during southwest monsoon season is less than 90% of the LPA, then it is categorized as deficient monsoon. So, now let us discuss about the forecasted rainfall and the actual monsoon rainfall for the year 2019. The news article says that the statistical model of IMD has forecasted the all India monsoon rainfall to be 96% of the LPA. And the CFS model initially predicted the all India monsoon rainfall to be 94% of the LPA. But later it revised it to 99% of the LPA in August 2019. But despite this, India received 110% of the LPA in 2019. So, the news article says that this might be the highest rainfall in the last 25 years in India. So, this shows that both models have failed in long range forecasting of monsoon. So, what is this long range forecasting? See, IMD does several types of forecasting like it does short range weather forecast, medium range forecast and even long range forecast. Short range weather forecasts are weather forecast which is valid up to 3 days. And medium range forecast is generally valid for a period of 4 to 10 days. But normally it is valid up to 7 days in the tropical regions. And long range which is also known as extended range forecast, it is valid beyond 10 days. So, generally the long range forecast is issued for a season such as for the southwest monsoon season. And also the short range forecasting will have more accuracy than the others. It is because the short range forecast is valid up to 3 days and it is able to accommodate the latest change in weather also. Which is not possible in medium range forecast and long range forecast. So, what is the issue discussed in this news article? IMD mainly uses two models for forecasting. The older model is the ensemble model which is also called as statistical model. And the latest model is the coupled forecast system or the dynamic model. The problem is that even the latest model failed in long range forecasting. For example, if you see the table which is given in the news article, it shows the predictions of the dynamic model in the year 2014 and in 2016. According to this table, the predictions in these two years were much higher than the actual rainfall that is received. For example, if you see in the year 2014, the CFS model predicted 96 percentage of LPA. But the actual rainfall was only 88 percentage. So, this shows that even the latest model has failed in long term forecasting or the long range forecasting. So, now we saw about two different models. One is the older model and the latest model. So, now let us discuss about these models in brief. First is the ensemble model or the statistical model. This ensemble model uses statistical techniques for forecasting. It uses an average of several meteorological values that is related to monsoon. The meteorological values includes sea surface temperature and sea level pressure in the Pacific, etc. These meteorological values are derived from the data based on the historical performance of the monsoon. But this model has failed several times in predicting the monsoon. Failure of this model created the need for a modern forecasting system. So, newer and accurate models were started to develop under the National Monsoon Mission Initiative. This initiative was launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The vision of this initiative is to develop a state-of-the-art dynamical prediction system for the monsoon rainfall on different time scales. Whenever we use the word state-of-the-art, it means the most recent stage of the system which consists of newest ideas and newest features. The important objective of this National Monsoon Mission Initiative were to improve prediction of monsoon rainfall on extended range to seasonal timescale. That is from 16 days to one season. And also to have improved prediction of temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events on short to medium range timescale. That is up to 15 days. So, based on this initiative only, the dynamic climate forecast system or the CFS was adopted. It was adopted from the USA as a part of this mission. The CFS is used to forecast monsoon since the year 2012. Ever since, the model is getting evolved to make it more accurate. The dynamic monsoon model works by simulating the weather on powerful computers and also by extrapolating it over particular time frames. It means that a computer model of the weather patterns will be created and then the data will be extended to different time frames. So, we can see that this model was adopted to have an accurate weather forecast. But according to the news article, even this model has failed many times in the long range forecasting of the monsoon. The news article also mentions the reason for this failure. It is because the dynamic models are incapable of accommodating the changes in advance that are happening in the Indian Ocean. Now, this is due to the anomalies or the abnormalities. The anomalies include the sudden development of low pressure systems in the ocean. So, it is very difficult to anticipate these changes and accommodate these changes in the forecasting. So, that is why these new models are also failing in long range forecasting of the monsoon. So, in this news article, we have discussed about IMD. We saw what is LPA and we also saw about long range forecasting and then the models which is used for these forecasting. With this, we have come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. This news article is about the Swatch Rail Swatch Bharat 2019 ranking report. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The news article states that Southern Railway slips five places in cleanliness ranking. This means in the 2018 ranking, Southern Railways was in the seventh position and now it has been ranked at 12th position. So, in this context, let us see how this is relevant to the exam and in what way one has to read such kind of rankings and related aspects. Now, this topic is very much relevant to the prelims examination. Therefore, we will be discussing different dimensions like who releases this report, on what basis the ranking is done and is there any third body that is involved in the releasing of this report and also the highlights mentioned in this report, etc. So, this report that is the Swatch Rail Swatch Bharat 2019 ranking report is officially released by Ministry of Railways. But the survey is conducted by Quality Council of India. Now, you should know that Quality Council of India is much important because there was a previous pronunciation with respect to Quality Council of India which we have given here. So, first let us know about this Quality Council of India or QCI. QCI is a non-profit society. It is registered under Societies Registration Act 21 of 1860. The Quality Council of India is an autonomous body of department for promotion of industry and internal trade which is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The QCI was established by Government of India with partnership with the Indian industry. The Indian industry is jointly represented by Confederation of Indian Industry, then Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry that is FICI and then Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry that is ASOCHAM. The QCI is headed by a Chairman. The Chairman is appointed by the Prime Minister on recommendation of the industry to the Government. The main vision of QCI is to establish an accreditation structure in the country. So, what is this accreditation? Accreditation is the formal recognition by an accreditation authority to the technical and organizational competence of a conformity assessment body. Conformity means complying with standards, rules and laws. Now, this is to carry out a specific service in accordance to these standards and technical regulations as described in the scope of accreditation of that particular body. So, QCI is the accreditation authority in India. Another vision of QCI is to spread quality movement in India by undertaking a national quality campaign. In India, the awareness on quality is still at a evolving state. So, there is a need to propagate the concepts of quality within all suppliers of products and services, especially on the quality standards, quality tools and best practices. And also, the consumers must be empowered to demand quality. Now, this can happen only when there is a large-scale quality campaign across the country. The purpose of national quality campaign is to educate both suppliers and consumers on modern concepts of quality. The campaign is carried out from the funds that is received from department for promotion of industry and internal trade. The major activities under this quality campaign are the awareness programs, then conducting of surveys, then publications and even media campaign and specialized training courses. So, all these things are carried out by Quality Council of India under this national quality campaign. Now, coming back to this report, that is the Swatch Rail, Swatch Bharat 2019. Remember that this is a part of Swatch Bharat Abhyan. Now, this report is compiled by QCI based on four important parameters. The parameters are process evaluation, direct observation, citizen feedback and interview of station manager. Here, process evaluation means the evaluation of the equipment that is used for cleaning or equipment used for standards or the different method that is used to maintain the station cleanliness, etc. And in case of direct observation, field visits are undertaken to assess the neatness of the station and its environment. Then, with respect to citizen feedback, the feedback of citizens is duly considered for the ranking. Now, also know that the parameters like process evaluation, direct observation and citizen feedback are given equal weightage. That is, they are given the weightage of 33.33 percentage. This means the fourth parameter, that is, interview of station manager has zero weightage. It is because this parameter is purely qualitative in nature and there is no weightage in the ranking. So, now, let us see the ranking of Indian railway zones with the help of this diagram. In India, we have 16 Indian railway zones. And from this diagram, you can easily say that the northwestern railway zone is ranked first and the north-central railway zone is ranked last. That is, it is at the 16th position. With this, we have come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed question will be discussed in the last session. This news article is about CARTSA and the S-400 deal. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The news article says that US has warned its allies about possible sanctions under CARTSA. Now, these sanctions will be imposed if US allies engage in transactions with Russia. So, in this context, let us discuss about the CARTSA and its impact on the S-400 deal between India and Russia. First, let us discuss the S-400 deal between India and Russia. The S-400 Triumph is one of the most sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems in the world. It has aircraft jammers. It has early warning and direction system. And it can attack a strategic aircraft that is carrying airborne missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles. And it can even attack other air attack vehicles. Now, this S-400 Triumph has a range of 400 km and it can shoot down more than 50 targets simultaneously. So, how does this S-400 work? Now, the system of S-400 has a long-range surveillance radar. This radar tracks objects and it passes information to the command vehicle, which is also a part of S-400 system. This command vehicle assesses potential targets. Then the target is identified and the command vehicle orders missile launch. The launch data are sent to the launch vehicle and it releases surface-to-air missiles. The S-400 system also has an engagement radar. This engagement radar helps to guide the missiles towards the target. So, from this, you can see that this S-400 Triumph is one of the important defence systems in the world. So, the deal between India and Russia will further strengthen the Indian defence systems. So, now let us understand CARTSA. CARTSA stands for Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act. It was enacted by the US in the year 2017. Now, this CARTSA is aimed at three countries. They are Russia, Iran and North Korea. Now, as the name suggests, these countries are treated as the adversaries of the US. That is, they are the opponents or rivals of USA. The ultimate goal of CARTSA is to prevent the flow of revenue to the Russian government. So, this CARTSA Act is meant to deter significant transactions with these three countries. So, why the Act concerns India? As per this Act, sanctions are to be imposed on the person who knowingly engages in a significant transaction. So, now in this context, you should know that the US government has already classified the S-400 deal between India and Russia as a significant transaction. So, when India completes the S-400 deal with Russia, it is liable to be sanctioned under this CARTSA Act. So, in India, the liable person can be either the Defence Acquisition Council, which is headed by the Defence Minister or the Defence Procurement Board, which is headed by the Defence Secretary. Now, the choice of person who is to be sanctioned will be made by the US President or it will be made by the Secretary of the State of USA or the Secretary of the Treasury of USA who have been delegated these powers. So, why US is worried about this S-400 deal? It is because the S-400 deal is a huge 5.2 billion dollars deal. So, it will generate revenue for the Russian Defence sector. Hence, the US wants to prevent it. Now, because of this, India is demanding waiver from this CARTSA. It means that India wants an exemption from sanctions for this S-400 deal. But according to today's news article, this might not happen. So, if sanctions are imposed on India based on this CARTSA, then how it will impact India? According to the section 231 of CARTSA, it requires the President of USA to impose five or more sanctions described in section 235 of CARTSA. Now, the section 235 lists 12 types of sanctions. Now, out of these 12, 10 will have very little impact or it will have no impact on India's current relations with Russia or USA. And some of these are the prohibitions on loan to the sanctioned person, the prohibition on procurement by United States government to procure goods or services from the sanctioned person, etc. But there are some sanctions under this section 235 that may impact either India-Russia relations or India-US relations. The first such sanction is the prohibition of banking sanctions. This would make difficulties for India in making the payments for the S-400 deal because India will pay in US dollars. So, if this sanction is imposed on India, India will not be able to make payment to the Russian military export organization. So, this will likely have an impact on the India-Russia relations. Then another sanction which may impact India's bilateral relations is export sanction. Now, this export sanction will deny the license and also the export of any items which is controlled by the US to the sanctioned person. Now, if this sanction is imposed on India, it has the potential to completely derail the India-US strategic and defence partnership. Now, today's news is that our external affairs minister has recently stated that he was reasonably convinced about persuading US to accept the S-400 deal. But the statement given by the US official is actually against this statement. So, what we can actually do is, we can only hope that our foreign minister with his vast diplomatic experience will be able to persuade US officials to exempt India from sanctions. If India is not exempted, then it might derail or it might strain both India-US and India-Russia relations. With this, we have come to the end of this news article discussion. The split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now, this news article is about vio-strest someone. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The vio-strest someone is a scheme of national award for senior citizens. Senior citizens or older persons are those individuals who are aged 60 years and above. The senior citizens have played significant role in society as leaders, caretakers and custodians of tradition. And yet, they are also highly vulnerable. Many older persons or senior citizens fall into poverty. Also, they become disabled or they face discrimination. The population of elder citizens or the senior citizens is also growing. In India in the year 2001, the elderly population was 77 million that is 7.7 crores. This has increased to 104 million that is 10.4 crores in the year 2011. And it is predicted that by the year 2050 the population is likely to increase to around 300 million that is and it is said that the population of senior citizens will account to 20 percentage of India's total population by the year 2050. Now in this context, know that UN celebrates the international day of older persons. It celebrates the international day of older persons every year on 1st of October. And the theme for this year that is for 2019 is the journey to age equality. Now this theme is aligned with sustainable development goal number 10. And the goal number 10 is reduce inequalities. So to celebrate this international day of older persons, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment started to institute Viostrace to Samman since the year 2005. Viostrace to Samman means the award for senior citizens. This award is conferred to senior citizens and also to the institutions. This award is in recognition for their service towards elderly persons especially for their service to the poor and needy senior citizens. This award is given every year and this award is conferred by the President of India every year. Under this award, there are 13 categories as per the notification by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Among these 13, 7 awards are given to institutions belonging to both private sector and the public sector and the rest 6 awards are given to individuals. And the recipients of this award are drawn from diverse fields. The awards are given to institutions or organizations or individuals from any part of the country. The nominations for this award are invited from governmental and even from the non-governmental agencies. So for this year the Viostrace to Samman is yet to be given and the news article mentions about the probable award winners under this scheme. Among the 13 categories, there is one category which is the best state in implementing the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens act of 2007 and providing services and facilities to senior citizens. Now under this category Tamil Nadu is expected to be given the award. It is because Tamil Nadu has set up maintenance tribunals under the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens act of 2007. It has set up the maintenance tribunals in each subdivision of the state. Next there is one more category which is the best urban local body in providing services and facilities to senior citizens. Under this category the municipal council of Unhel which is in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh is expected to receive the award for the best urban local body. This municipal council of Unhel provides medical services and also provides income generation schemes and pension to seniors. It has also opened a day care center called as Anandgarh which is fitted with recreation facilities. Then there is one more category among the 13 categories which is called best private sector organization in promoting the well-being and welfare of senior citizens. Under this category the Gandhi Bhavan international trust is expected to get the award. This Gandhi Bhavan international trust is a non-profit organization in Kolam district in Kerala. It will be honored under this category for providing care to 1,400 needy people including 350 senior citizens and also for conducting awareness programs for the youth. The news article also mentions a list of individuals who will be awarded under this scheme. The individuals who will be awarded the award will be the senior citizen sports person Ishwar Chandra Chintamani 93 year old Kannada writer Chajuram Sharma 87 year old freedom fighter This is all about this news article discussion. The respect practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article discussion which is based on this editorial. This editorial gives a brief idea about the present bilateral relations between India and the neighboring country of Bangladesh. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Before discussing about the editorial, let us see some facts about Bangladesh first. Bangladesh is a neighboring country of India. We all know that it was once a part of Pakistan. The then Pakistan had two parts. One is west and other is east. Eastern part of Pakistan is the present day Bangladesh. The eastern part was discriminated in terms of quality and also it was discriminated economically. So the eastern part of Pakistan revolted against the west. That is the western part of Pakistan which is the present day Pakistan. After this revolt the eastern part of Pakistan declared independence in 1971 under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. So Bangladesh got its independence from Pakistan in the year 1971. And India was the first country to recognize Bangladesh as a separate and independent state. And India was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Bangladesh immediately after its independence in 1971. Now also remember that India shares the longest land border with Bangladesh which is around 4097 kilometer. Now also when you study about the neighboring countries of India, try to know the states and the union territories of India that border a particular neighboring country. So in case of Bangladesh the states that border Bangladesh are West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. So now let's come to the editorial discussion. In this editorial the author discusses the present issues of India and Bangladesh. The author mentions that India and Bangladesh enjoy one of the best periods of their relationship. It is because they both have a positive development in the areas of diplomatic, political and economic and the security relations between the two countries. So we will be seeing more about the security and economic relations of India and Bangladesh in the first part of this discussion. Then we will see about the pressing issues in India and Bangladesh relations and then we will also see about the need for political leadership to strengthen the bilateral relations in the final part of this discussion. So first let us see the recent developments in security relations between the two countries. The author mentions that the current Bangladesh government has uprooted or removed the security threats and the acts of insurgency against India. So the author is mentioning that as of today among India's borders, India-Bangladesh border is one of the most secured border and one reason for this is because of the signing of land boundary agreement in the year 2015. After Bangladesh's independence in the year 1971, a land boundary agreement was signed in the year 1974 between India and Bangladesh. This is to exchange certain enclaves. Enclave means a portion of territory that is surrounded by a large territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct. Along with this agreement, a protocol to this agreement was also signed by countries in the year 2011. But the agreement was not ratified by India. So the hundredth constitutional amendment act was passed in the parliament in the year 2015 to mutually exchange the enclaves. So through this land boundary agreement India and Bangladesh peacefully exchanged the certain territories between themselves. Now this has led to effective cross-border cooperation between India and Bangladesh. Apart from this, in the year 2017, two defence packs were signed between India and Bangladesh. Then in 2018, India extended a line of credit of 500 million dollars to Bangladesh. This is to purchase armaments that is weapons. See, a line of credit is not a grant but it is a soft loan that is provided on concessional interest rates to the developing countries. Now this line of credit has to be paid by the borrowing government. Then after this, two memoranda of understanding that is MOUs were also signed between the countries for cooperation among the naval forces. But in this editorial the author has raised a security concern which is the border killings. He mentions that border killings have decreased. He has mentioned the claims by India's border security force. The border security force has claimed that most of the firings in the border areas is in self-defense in order to tackle the cattle trafficking. But cattle trafficking across the borders have reduced since the ban on cattle export by India since the year 2013. The author is telling that the cattle trade has fallen from 23 lakh in 2013 to 75,000 till the end of May 2019. So, the argument by the BSF that border killings are carried out in self-defense against the cattle trafficking is very unconvincing. Also the author mentions that though border killings have decreased, such killings are a serious violation of human rights. Next the author discusses about the economic relations of India with Bangladesh. According to the author, the overall bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh is slightly more than 9 billion US dollars in the financial year 2017 and in the financial year 2018 to 2019, the Bangladesh exports have also increased by 42.91 percentage. In the economic relations the author has discussed about trade in electricity sector, transportation sector and the tourism sector. In the electricity sector, the author has mentioned about a power project by Adani Power. Under this project, the plan is to supply power to Bangladesh from a 1600 megawatt power station. This power station is located at Gouda in Jharkhand. Also a dedicated transmission system is being developed from this site to boost power trade with Bangladesh. Then in the transportation sector, the author is mentioning about the land routes that have gained popularity over air travel. Around 85.6 percentage of Bangladeshis who are visiting India prefer to travel by land. When we say land route, it refers to both road and rail route. Already there is two rail routes that is existing between the countries. One is Dhaka-Kolkata route and other is Kolkata-Kulna route. And a third rail line is under construction which is on the Agartala-Akhoura route. Apart from this, five additional bus services were introduced in the year 2018 between the countries. So we can see that both the countries have taken measures to boost land travel. And according to the author, in March 2019 the first ever Dhaka-Kolkata cruise ship was also launched. So this is about the transportation sector. Now coming to the tourism sector, according to the author in the year 2018, Bangladesh tourists accounted for 21.6 percentage of the total percentage of tourists who visited India. But as per India tourism statistics which was released by Ministry of Tourism Government of India, Dhaka-Kolkata is for the year 2017 and not 2018. And Bangladesh is the top source country of tourists which has a 21.49 percentage share. Out of the total tourists from Bangladesh, 83.7 percentage visit India as tourists and 10.3 percentage visit India for medical tourism. In this context, author is also mentioning that Bangladesh contributes 50 percentage of India's health tourism revenue. So these are some of the economic relations with Bangladesh which the author has discussed in this editorial. According to the author, the economic relations at present are healthy between India and Bangladesh. But author has mentioned one issue which is regarding the non-tariff barrier. See, tariff means taxes or duties. Tariff barrier means restricting a trade by imposing higher taxes. And non-tariff barrier means restricting a trade through other means like quotas embargoes or sanctions etc. So with respect to non-tariff barriers, the author is telling that removal of this non-tariff barrier will help to improve the Bangladeshi exports to India. Now to understand this, let us take one example. One of the non-tariff barrier is harmonizing the standards for goods that is accepted by India. That is the good can be a food item. In India, the food items standards are based on FSS AI standards. But comparing to India, Bangladesh might have a slightly lesser standard. So it is not up to the mark of FSS AI standard. So because of these lesser standards in Bangladesh regarding food items, India is not importing food items from Bangladesh. Now if India wants to import food from Bangladesh, then the food products must conform to FSS AI standards. Otherwise India will not import. Now this acts as a non-tariff barrier. Now if this barrier is to be removed, then Bangladesh should harmonize its standards in line with India standards. After that the trade will be smooth between the countries. Now like this, there are many standards between the countries for different sectors. So for this only, the author is saying that removal of non-tariff barriers will help to improve Bangladesh's exports to India. So far we saw some of the positives and concerns related to the security economic relations with Bangladesh. Next the author has mentioned some other important pressing issues in India- Bangladesh bilateral relations. One of the issue is Tista water sharing agreement. Now Tista river originates in the Himalayas. It flows through Sikkim and West Bengal in India. And then it merges with Brahmaputra which is called as Jamuna in Bangladesh. This Tista river is lifeline for West Bengal because many districts in the northern part of West Bengal are dependent on this Tista river. And Bangladesh also wants an equitable distribution of Tista river water. So in the year 1983, a deal was proposed for this. But until now, this deal has not been agreed. In the year 2015, when Prime Minister visited Dhaka, he even pushed for finalizing this agreement. But the agreement is not yet complete. Because the West Bengal Chief Minister has refused to endorse water sharing terms which were agreed by the Prime Minister in the year 2015. Now because of this, there is a lack of water in the downstream of Bangladesh. Now because of this lack of water, 1 lakh hectares of land have been affected. Also the cost of pesticides and irrigation has increased because of scarcity of water. And this has made farming less profitable in Bangladesh. Now the next important issue is the NRC process of Assam. The National Register of Citizens which is prepared in the state of Assam in 2019 has left out 1.9 million that is around 19 lakh people from the list. And majority of them are termed as illegal migrants from Bangladesh who are living in Assam post 1971 period. Now this period is the cutoff period based on which the citizens in the state of Assam are recognized. But Bangladesh is sure that no migrants have travelled to Assam illegally during the 1971 war of independence. So Bangladesh is telling that the NRC process is likely to hurt the bilateral relations of the two countries in the future. Now the third issue which the author has mentioned is about the Rohingya issue. Now we know that Rohingyas are the Muslim minority in Myanmar who have faced religious persecution. It is because Myanmar is a Buddhist majority nation. And because of the religious persecution the Rohingya Muslims fled to the neighboring countries. And they have reached Bangladesh as refugees. But India was not ready to accept the refugees. But according to the author India should have played a role between Bangladesh and Myanmar. But if you see now China is mediating between Bangladesh and Myanmar. So the author is telling that India is not playing a positive role in the regional leadership. That is India is not playing a positive role as a regional leader. Apart from these three issues the author has discussed about the issue of bureaucratic red tape. It means that there is too much rules which are imposed by the bureaucrats that is affecting the normal decision making process. According to the author since 2010 India has approved three lines of credit to Bangladesh. And these lines of credit is to finance the development projects in Bangladesh. And these three line of credit amounts to 7.3 billion dollars. And out of these 7.3 billion dollars only 442 million dollars has been dispersed as of December 2018. Now this is only 6 percent of the total line of credit which was approved by India. So according to the author the bureaucratic red tape is one more issue which is affecting the bilateral relations with Bangladesh. Now this is from the side of India. But Bangladesh has also been very slow in implementing the projects. So it does not mean that the issues are only from the side of India. But there is also some issue from the side of Bangladesh like implementing the projects in time. Now in the final part of the editorial the author is telling that India-Bangladesh bilateral relations have matured in the last decade. There has been development in many areas of cooperation. So according to the author it would be better if the existing challenges between the countries are resolved. The author is saying this based on the political relationship between the countries. It is because even on the side lines of the 74th UN General Assembly which happened in September 2019 Indian Prime Minister has assured Bangladesh Prime Minister that Bangladesh need not worry about the NRC and the water sharing. Because the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh are very good. So in this context the author is saying that it is now time to walk the talk. That is it is better if the existing challenges between the countries are resolved. Author is saying this because the author wants the political leadership of both the countries to improve the bilateral relations. And as a part of the political relationship the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will make her first official visit to India from October 3 to 6. Now this visit is of significance because in both the countries new government is in power and they are going to meet this October. So the author is telling that Bangladesh PM's trip to India will hopefully help relations between the countries to graduate to the next level. And this will lead to the strengthening of the three C's. The three C's are cooperation, coordination and consolidation. Cooperation is the action of working together for the same result. By coordinated and consolidated efforts that is by combining the efforts and working in a harmonized manner. So according to the author if these three C's are strengthened then it will strengthen the bilateral relation between the countries. So with this we have come to the end of this news article discussion. The respite practice question will be discussed in the last session. We have come to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. In this first question two statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement states long period average is the average rainfall received during the whole year all over India between 1951 and 2001. Now this statement is wrong because LPA is the average rainfall that is received all over India during southwest monsoon season that is from June to September and it is between 1951 to 2000, not 2001. The second statement states according to Indian meteorological department long period average is 89 centimeter for southwest monsoon. Now this statement is correct. We discussed this during our analysis. Here question asks for the correct statement. So the final correct answer to this question is option B2 only. This next question is about Swatch Rail Swatch Bharat 2019 ranking. The question asks which ministry releases this ranking. Four options have been given. First one is Ministry of Jal Shakti it is wrong. Second is Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Now this is also wrong. Third one states Ministry of Railways in partnership with Quality Council of India. And fourth one says Ministry of Railways in partnership with Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanity. Now we know that Swatch Rail, Swatch Bharat 2019 ranking is released by Ministry of Railways. So either option C is correct or D is correct. But if you see option D states Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Now remember that there is no more Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. This ministry along with Ministry of Water Resources River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation was integrated to form the Ministry of Jal Shakti. And also this option is wrong. The correct answer to this question is Ministry of Railways in partnership with Quality Council of India. In this Ministry of Railways releases the ranking report but it is compiled by Quality Council of India. Now this next question is based on countering America's adversaries through sanctions act. That is the CARTSA Act. First statement states it is aimed at Russia, Iran, Yemen and Syria. This statement is wrong. CARTSA is aimed at 3 countries. One is Russia, second is Iran and third is North Korea. North Yemen and Syria. So this statement is wrong. The second statement states any person knowingly doing significant transaction with the targeted countries can be sanctioned under the act. Now this statement is correct because as per the act sanctions are to be imposed on the person who knowingly engages in a significant transaction. So this statement is correct. The question asks for the correct statements. Here statement 2 is the correct statement. So final correct answer to this question is option B 2 only. Now this next question states International Day of Older Persons is celebrated every year by UN on 1st October. Consider the following statements in this regard. First statement is the theme for 2019 is the journey to age equality. Now this is correct. The theme for 2019 for the International Day of Older Persons is the journey to age equality. And this theme is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal number 10 which is reduce inequalities. So this statement is correct. The second statement states to celebrate this day Ministry of Human Resources and Development has instituted which is conferred to eminent senior citizens and institutions in recognition for their service to the elderly persons. Now in this statement the second half of the statement is correct. But the first half says Ministry of Human Resources and Development. This is wrong. This scheme is instituted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. So the correct answer to this question is option A 1 only. Now let us see one main question based on GS2. Land border agreement between India and Bangladesh is one of the landmark bilateral agreement. Discuss the various challenges in the bilateral relations between the two countries in the context of the above statement. Now to answer this question first explain in brief about the land border agreement. We saw this during our discussion. Then you can mention how posed the independence of Bangladesh and agreement was signed in 1974 but it was not ratified by India. Then later the agreement was accepted by India by amending the constitution as per the 100th constitutional amendment act. Now the question is discuss the various challenges in the bilateral relations between the two countries in the context of the above statement. Now to answer this part you can say that there are still operational issues in implementing the agreement in letter and spirit. Like you can say there is still drug trafficking, human trafficking, cattle trafficking that happens between the borders of India and Bangladesh. Then you can also discuss how the issues like NRC implementation in Assam is likely to affect the cultural ties between the countries. And you can also discuss about the Thista river water agreement and also the Rohingya issue. We discussed all these three during our editorial analysis. Then you can mention that these are some of the challenges to reap the benefits of land border agreement between two nations. Then you can conclude the answer by saying that the present political leadership has the mindset to arrive at positive results. Also you can say that it would reap economic benefits in the future for Bangladesh. And you can also add your own viewpoints. With this we end our today's Hindi news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share. And do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.