 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. We are given along with the page numbers of different editions. The link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Let us now move on to the analysis of the first news article. Now let us take up this editorial article written by the Minister of State for Home Affairs. In this article the author tries to analyze the recent amendments of the GNCTD or the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Amendment Act in a positive light. For your information we have discussed the amendments of the GNCTD Act in great detail in a March 20th video so we humbly request the aspirants to go through it for a better understanding of the issue. The syllabus relevant for this news article is given below for your reference. Now to begin with the author illustrates the ongoing tussle between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor of NCT Delhi by citing an example of bill passing. See in 2017 a bill called Delhi Netaji Subhash University of Technology Bill of 2015 was written by the President of India back to the legislative assembly of Delhi and one of the reasons stated for the return was the inconsistent definition of the term government in the bill. See when the legislative assembly of Delhi had passed the bill and sent it for the President's Ascent it had defined the term government as a government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. But this was considered inconsistent with the definition of the term government and therefore the bill was written. Now after the returning of the bill the Delhi assembly sent a modified version of the bill for the President's Ascent again and here the definition of government was described as Lieutenant Governor of NCT Delhi appointed by the President and after this the bill was accepted. Now this example shows the lack of consistency when it comes to defining the basic term government. So according to the author the recent amendments in the GNCTD Act will help in bringing consistency and in the formalization of the term government and he also stresses that these amendments would also clear the ambiguities in the role of various stakeholders and it will help in providing a constructive rule-based framework which will help the government of Delhi to work in tandem with the union government. Know that we are in the era of cooperative federalism and the chief ministers of states are partners in the national agenda. See cooperative federalism is a concept of federalism in which national, state and local governments interact cooperatively and collectively to solve common problems and the creation of NITI IOC and the establishment of the Goods and Services Tax Council, the restructuring of central schemes and accepting the 15th finance commission's recommendations for greater devolutions are clear examples of this cooperative federalism. Now you should note that cooperative federalism can only work in an environment of trust and mutual cooperation. Now this is because it requires distant delineation of roles and responsibilities and also the removal of ambiguities and in addition to all that it requires the definition of a clear chain of command among these stakeholders. Now according to the author in this regard it was therefore important to define without doubt who represents the government in the unique case of Delhi. Next the author moves on to the discussion of encroachment of legislative matters. See the Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers for the National Capital Territory of Delhi was created in 1992 by adding two articles to the constitution and these two articles are 239AA and 239AB. Now the additions of these two articles gave the government of NCT Delhi the power to enact laws regarding matters that are specified under the state list and concurrent list to the extent that is applicable to a union territory. But here you should remember it gave no legislative competence in matters pertaining to the police, public order and land. Now the main reason for this is because the national capital hosts the country's legislature, the seat of the union government, the judiciary, the diplomatic missions and all other institutions of national importance. So therefore its safety and smooth functioning is of great and utmost importance and that is why subjects such as police, public order and land are still under the control of the union government. Now according to the author this clear demarcation of subjects should be respected and that there must be no encroachment of subjects and legislative matters. So when we view the issues in this slide these amendments will hate the above cause and it will also help the government of NCT Delhi to work in complete sequence with the union government. And further he also says that by making the Delhi assembly rules to be consistent with that of the rules of Lok Sabha or by ensuring that the opinion of the lieutenant governor is taken the act is ensuring clarity and it is fostering an environment of cooperation and in addition to that the author also stresses that in no manner do these amendments will dilute or they will affect the powers of the Delhi legislative assembly but rather they seek to remove the ambiguities and the lack of clarity that is existing. And finally he concludes the editorial by saying that just like how the people of Delhi deserve a functioning government similarly the amendments aim in creating such an environment. Let us take up this news article. This news article is regarding the heat waves in Tamil Nadu. It says that though summer season is yet to reach its peak in Tamil Nadu severe interior places are already suffering from heat waves. And now the meteorological department has warned that the heat wave may continue to sweep several parts of Tamil Nadu till April 4th. So in this context let us discuss in detail about heat waves the criteria for heat waves etc. The syllabus covered by this article is given below. So what is a heat wave? See in terms of quality heat wave is a condition of the hair temperature which becomes fatal to human body when exposed and when you view it in terms of its quality then it can be defined based on the intensity of the temperature over a region in terms of actual temperature or its departure from normal. And in certain countries it is defined in terms of the heat index based on the temperature and humidity or based on extreme percentile of the temperatures. So therefore a heat wave is a period of abnormally high temperatures which is more than the normal maximum temperature. See this usually occurs during the summer season mainly in the northwestern parts of India. Note that heat waves typically occur between March and June and in some rare cases they may even extend till July. These extreme temperatures and its resultant atmospheric conditions adversely affect the lives of people residing in these regions as they cause physiological stress sometimes resulting in death as well. Note that the Indian Meteorological Department has given several criteria for heat waves. The first and foremost criteria is that the heat wave need not be considered till maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40% in the case of planes and at least 30% in the case of Ili regions. Next consider a case when the normal maximum temperature of a station is less than or equal to 40 degree Celsius. Then heat wave departure from normal is 5 degree Celsius to 6 degree Celsius and severe heat wave departure from normal is 7 degree Celsius or more. But take another case when the normal maximum temperature of a station is more than 40 degree Celsius then the heat wave departure from normal will be 4 degree Celsius to 5 degree Celsius and the severe heat wave departure from normal will be 6 degree Celsius or more. And also when the actual maximum temperature remains 45 degree Celsius or more irrespective of normal maximum temperature then heat wave should be declared and in order to declare her severe heat wave then the actual maximum temperature has to be 47 degree Celsius or more. Know that the peak month of the heat wave over India is usually May but higher and longer daily peak temperatures and more intense heat waves are becoming frequent globally due to the climate change. And India too is failing the impact of climate change in terms of increased instances of heat waves which are more intense in nature when compared to each passing year. Know that the heat waves have got a devastating impact on human health. They by increasing the number of heat wave casualties and the health impacts of heat waves typically involve like dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and also heat stroke. Know that in India heat wave generally occurs over plains of northwest India in the central India and also in the east and north Penunsular India during the month of March to June and this covers states such as Punjab, Ariana, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana etc and sometimes it occurs over Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well. However the maximum temperatures that is temperature more than 45 degree Celsius are observed mainly over Rajasthan and in the Vidarbha region in the month of May. With this information we will see what are the favorable conditions for heat wave. See the first and foremost is the transportation or the prevalence of hot dry hair over the region. Next comes the absence of moisture in the upper atmosphere. Now this is because the presence of moisture will restrict the temperature rise. Another favorable condition is that the sky should be practically cloudless to allow maximum insulation over the region. In addition to all this large amplitude anti-cyclonic flow over the area also favours heat waves and in India heat waves generally develop over northwestern India and is spread gradually eastwards and also southwards. But on some occasions heat wave may also develop over any region under the favorable conditions. So with this we'll move on to the next news discussion. This news article states that the Madurai bench of Madras High Court has issued anticipatory bail to a minister in Tamil Nadu. On looking at the background this minister allegedly resisted checking of his vehicle by the election flying squad and this incident reportedly took place on 12th of March 2021 following which the police registered a case against a minister under sections 353 and 506 of the Indian Penal Court. See section 353 of the Indian Penal Court deals with the offence of assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his or her duty. And section 506 prescribes punishment for the offence of criminal intimidation. See the offences under 353 of the Indian Penal Court is a cognisable and non- bailable offence whereas the offence mentioned under 506 of the Indian Penal Court is a non-cognisable and a bailable offence. See the main difference between a cognisable offence and a non-cognisable offence is that in the case of a cognisable offence the police can arrest the accused without arrest warrant from a magistrate or an appropriate court. Since one of the offences is a cognisable offence the accused minister was anticipating that he might be arrested sooner or later and therefore he sought anticipatory bail from the court. So in this regard let us now discuss about the anticipatory bail. See the procedure for the anticipatory bail is spelled out in section 438 of the Court of Criminal Procedure and as per the section whenever a person has got a reason to believe that he may be arrested on an accusation of having committed a non- bailable offence then he or she may apply to the high court or the court of session for a direction under this section and the concern court may direct that in the event of such an arrest he or she shall be released on bail. Here we can know that while an anticipatory bail application can be made in a high court or in a court of session such application cannot be made before a magistrate court or in other words if a person gets anticipatory bail then he or she will not be arrested by the law enforcement authorities and therefore anticipatory bail is a court direction that is issued even before a person is arrested to release a person on bail and while issuing anticipatory bail the court can also include some conditions say for example that the person shall make himself available for interrogation by a police officer when required and also that the person shall not leave India without prior permission of the court etc so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article to have a quick recap we discussed in brief on the background of the issue mentioned in the news then we discussed about what do we mean by cognizable offence and then we mainly discussed about the anticipatory bail in probation with this now let us move on to the next part of the discussion now look at this editorial article this article titled still no recognition of the third tyre is a critical appraisal of 15th finance commission recommendations especially with reference to local self-governments that was submitted in parliament on the 1st of February the syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference now before getting into the editorial discussion i just have a brief outline on finance commission as sanctioned in the constitution see finance commission is a constitutionally provided body under article 280 and it is a quasi-judicial body whose recommendations have a non-binding character on the executive and the legislature see it is called a quasi-judicial body because it is got the power of a civil court under the civil procedure code of 1980 and this finance commission is constituted every five years by the president and in cases where the president deems it necessary then he may constitute it earlier as well now let's look at its functions see the constitution outlines the following functions as the functions of the finance commission and it is mandated to provide recommendation to the president on the following matters which includes the distribution of the net proceeds of taxes to be shared between the center and the states and the allocation between the states the respective shares of such proceeds etc which is commonly referred to as the vertical and the horizontal devolution next comes the recommendations on the principles which should govern the grants in a to the states by the center out of the consolidated fund of india and also recommendations on the measures that are needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the panjaites and the municipalities in the state on the basis of the recommendations made by the finance commission apart from the above any other matter referred to it by the president in the interests of sound finance can also be recommended by the commission see the recommendations made by the finance commission are laid before the parliament by the president along with the action taken report and the government is bound to provide an explanation in the parliament if it fails to absorb any recommendations of the finance commission now let's move on to the article know that the finance commission was entrusted with responsibilities with respect to local government only through the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment acts we know these two acts constitutionalized local self-governance in india through the incorporation of part 11 and part 11 here and the 15th finance commission has made some remarkable contributions and financially strengthening the grassroot level institutions now let's see some of them see the vertical devolution that is the devolution from the center to local self-government through states is raised remarkably high see earlier home ago share of 0.78 percent of the divisible pool was recommended by the 11th commission and the 15th commission has now raised it to 4.23 percent with a reasonably estimated amount of 436361 crores now next the author talks about the performance-based grants see what his performance-based grants see these are grants that are given for achieving certain social or governance-based targets and as you can see grants are used as incentives for local governments and the performance-linked grants were brought in by the 13th finance commission and it earmarked 35 percent of local grants if the panjaitz fulfill six conditions and urban local bodies fulfill nine conditions like that of the establishment of an independent homebid's man to notifying standards for service sectors such as drinking water and solid waste management etc then the grants were to be provided next the 14th finance commission however cut the performance grant share to 10 percent of the grant panjaitz and 20 percent to the municipalities with the conditionality that all local governments will have to show improvements in its own source revenue and municipalities are additionally required to publish service level benchmarks for basic services but the 15th finance commission reduced the performance-based grant to just 8000 crore and that too for building new cities thereby leaving out the panjaitz raj institutions altogether so that's the transformative potential that is the potential of performance-based grants to rejuvenate the functioning of the local self-governance has been missed by the 15th finance commission now next comes the issues with entry-level grants see entry-level grants are the one-time achievements or commitments that the local bodies need to fulfill to gain access to a specific grant and 15th finance commission has made a case for this entry-level grants for panjaitz the condition is online submission of annual accounts for the previous year and audited accounts for the year before and for urban local governments two more conditions apart from the above set criteria are specified one is the fixation of minimum floor after 2001 to 2002 that is the basic ceiling for property tax rates by the relevant state second is the consistent improvement in the collection of property taxes and tandem with the state's own gross state domestic product now this is a welcome step because the local governments have been evasive in maintaining the audits and accounts and it has been viewed as opacity in governance but the author here feels that the two additional conditions laid down for the urban bodies could have also put to policy in rural areas as well now besides these the absence of sound database to support policy formulation on finances has also been critiqued by the author and further the author talks about the equalization principle see under the principle of equalization transfers aim to equalize fiscal capacities thereby enabling the states to provide it they make comparable tax effort after taking into account the cost and use disabilities and on referring to the Alma Arta declaration the 15th finance commission talks about the equalization between the center and the state in which the local governments have been left out now here it is to be noted that although the 15th finance commission outlines nine guiding principles as the basis of its recommendations to local governments but still there is no integrated approach as it is forgotten that public finance is an integrated whole and further the author is also critical of the use of census 2011 at 90 percentage and area weight age of 10 percentage here we may recollect that use of 2011 census gave a high huge jump in the share of popular states like that of Bihar and UP whereas states that have fared well in population control measures like that of Kerala and Tamil Nadu were given reduced share and further the use of only 10 percentage weightage to area also was criticized and the author believes that this can affect the efficacy and equity as a conclusion the author infers that finance commission does very little to strengthen the local self-governance institutions financially with this we have come to the end of this particular news discussion let's move on to the next news article look at this article the news article mentions about a panel discussion and food corporation of India in which efforts taken by the fci to ensure food security during the pandemic was discussed so in this regard let's see about this fci or the food corporation of India see it is a statutory body as fci was set up in 1965 under the food corporations act of 1964 and this body works under the department of food and public distribution in the ministry of consumer affairs food and public distribution and it was set up against the backdrop of major shortage of grains especially wheat so therefore its vision is to ensure availability accessibility and also affordability of food grains to all people and at all times so that no one nowhere and at no time should go hungry remember it is a main agency for implementation of food management policies of the government of India and therefore its objectives are to provide effective price support operations to farmers see this is for safeguarding the interest of farmers and then to procure and supply grains that is to distribute food grains throughout the country for public distribution system see this is for distributing subsidized staples economically vulnerable sections of our society now the third objective is to maintain satisfactory levels of operational stocks and buffer stocks of food grains in order to ensure national food security see to keep a strategic reserve of basic food grains is to stabilize markets for those basic food grains note that the primary duty of fci is to undertake purchase to store to transport to distribute and also to sell the food grains and other foodstuffs and its functions are also based on this mission only now let's see in brief about its functions see its first function is procurement so fci along with other state agencies they undertake procurement of wheat or paddy under the price support scheme in order to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for their produce see this also works as an incentive for achieving better production now after procurement comes storage and the management of food grains for future use which is also an important function of fci as all the grains will not be used in one day so therefore fci will store food grains in its own go downs and also in go downs hired from the central warhousing corporation the state warhousing corporations and from various state government agencies and also from private parties now following this comes the duty of stocking or maintaining the stock and for this fci will maintain operational stock and strategic stock now you should remember buffer stocks are a part of this strategic stock and finally comes distribution or movement of the food grains remember fci undertakes transportation of food grains like that of wheat or rice from surplus states to the deficit states and also at times within the states by rail road or even river see this is done to ensure availability of food grains for targeted periods and also other welfare schemes and also to maintain reasonable levels of buffer stocks at various strategic locations throughout the country so with this information let's now move on to the next news article look at this news article titled polis man votes in postal ballot which talks about the police men and home guards casting their vote through postal ballots so in this light let's have a brief understanding about the postal ballot system in India first what is postal voting see it is a facility through which voter can cast his or her vote remotely by recording a preference on the ballot paper and by sending it back to the election officer before counting note that it is exercised by a restricted set of voters now let's see who can avail this facility first is service voters that is voters who are having service qualification and the relevant service qualification is given under section 20 clause 8 of the representation of people act of 1950 and this includes members of the armed forces like that of the army navy and air force and also members of the state armed police force who are serving outside the state and also government employees who are posted outside India and their spouses are entitled to enjoy this postal voting also special voters such as the president of India the vice president governor's union cabinet ministers the speaker of the house and government officers on poll duty have also got the option to vote by post now adding to them the people in preventive detentions can also cast their vote through postal ballot note that recently in 2019 the election commission of India has given postal ballot facilities for absentee voters of essential services and also to senior citizens of more than 80 years see an absentee OT is a person who's belonging to such class of persons as may be notified under section 60 clause C of the representation of people's act now let's see how this postal ballot system works see the postal ballot papers are sent to the eligible voters by the returning officer and this is done after printing the ballot for each and every voter of the constituency who are eligible to cast the postal ballot and then the ballot is put in an envelope which is inscribed with the address of the record office of each service otters and it is sent on receiving it the otter will mark his or her preference with a tick mark or a cross mark against the candidate's name and they also have to fill up a duly attested declaration to the effect that they have marked the ballot paper and this ballot paper and the declaration are then placed in a sealed cover and it is sent back to the returning officer before the time fixed of the commencement of vote counting now the shortcomings of the postal ballot system is that it takes a lot of resources efforts and time thereby increasing the chance of mistake and this brought the electronically transmitted postal ballot system which is a one-way electronic transmission of the postal ballots where the eligible otter can cast their vote and sent it to the respective returning officer through post so these are few informations which you need to know about the postal ballot or postal voting now let's move on to the next part of the discussion look at this news article recently Pakistan has decided to resume trade with India after nearly two long years of ban and this article is a discussion on that see Pakistan has decided to lift the 19 month old ban on imports of Indian sugar and cotton when it comes to India we are the biggest producer of cotton and the second biggest producer of sugar a prior to this ban Pakistan was one of the leading buyers of cotton from India but Pakistan decided to ban the imports of goods from India after India revoked the special status of cashmere and this here there have been some positive talks going on between India and Pakistan say for example the militaries of India and Pakistan recently announced that they have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the line of control in Jammu cashmere and other sectors and in addition to that letters were also exchanged between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Imran Khan with these positive developments and soaring prices of goods Pakistan decided to resume trade with India and since the article mentions about sugar and cotton let us now see about these crops in brief first let's see about cotton see cotton is a tropical or subtropical crop that grows in semi-arid areas of the country mainly in the Deccan Plateau this crop requires high temperature and light rainfall between 50 to 100 centimeters in addition to a bright sunshine for its growth remember frost is the biggest killer of cotton crops so therefore at least 210 frost free days is essential for its proper growth in addition to that black soil is also preferred for cotton's growth because black soil is a well-grained soil which is capable of retaining moisture now on moving to sugarcane which is a long duration crop that requires at least 15 to 18 months to mature depending upon the geographical conditions see sugarcane requires a hot and humid climate with an average temperature of about 21 to 27 degree Celsius and 75 to 150 centimeters of rainfall note that too heavy rainfall results in low sugar content and a deficiency in rainfall produces fibrous crops and therefore irrigation is required in those areas which receives less rainfall than the prescribed limit remember sugarcane can be grown on all types of soils ranging from sandy loam to clay loam it however thrives best in well-grained soils which are rich in nitrogen calcium and phosphorus in addition to that the soil should not be either too acidic or too alkaline because sugarcane exhausts the fertility of soil in addition to that the soil should not be either too acidic nor too alkaline remember sugarcane exhausts the fertility of the soil quickly and extensively and its cultivation requires a heavy rows of manures and fertilizers and also it is a labor intensive cultivation which requires ample human hands at every stage and therefore cheap abundant labor is a prerequisite for its successful cultivation with this information let's move on to the next news discussion now look at this article regarding a pronouncement made by the kerala high court we all were about the diplomatic gold smuggling case in kerala and during the investigation it was alleged that the enforcement directorate forced the prime accused to give a false statement against the kerala chief minister and so cases were filed against the enforcement directorate officers and now the kerala high court asked the crime branch not to proceed with any coercive action against the enforcement directorate officials so in this context it is discussed in brief about the enforcement directorate see the directorate of enforcement or the enforcement directorate was established in 1956 with its headquarters at new delhi it is a specialized financial investigation agency which comes under the department of revenue under the ministry of finance remember enforcement directorate is responsible for the enforcement of the foreign exchange management act of 1999 and it is also responsible for certain provisions under the prevention of money laundering act or the pmla 2002 note before this foreign exchange management act of 1991 became effective in 2000 the directorate was enforcing regulations under the foreign exchange regulation act of 1973 see this foreign exchange management act is a civil law and it empowers officers to conduct investigations into suspected contraventions of the foreign exchange laws and regulations and also to adjudicate contraventions and to impose penalties on those adjudged to have contravened the law but when you take the case of the prevention of money laundering act of 2002 it is a criminal law and it empowers the officers to conduct investigations to trace those assets that are derived out of the proceeds of crime and also to provisionally attach or confiscate the assets and also to arrest and prosecute offenders who are found to be involved in money laundering now here we must know one thing as we said the enforcement directorate is under the administrative control of the department of revenue for operational purposes but the policy aspects of the foreign exchange management act and its legislation and its amendments are within the purview of the department of economic affairs and also the policy issues that are pertaining to the pmla or the prevention of money laundering act are the responsibility of the department of revenue now coming to its composition this enforcement directorate has one director and two special directors at headquarters and one special director at Mumbai and the directorate has got 10 zonal offices each of which is headed by deputy director and 11 sub zonal offices each of which is headed by assistant directors now with this information see some important functions of this enforcement directorate the first and foremost function is to collect develop and to disseminate intelligence relating to violence of the fema act of 1999 and then to investigate the suspected violations of the provisions of this fema act and these violations may include activities such as havala foreign exchange non-realization of export proceeds and also non-repartition of foreign exchange etc another important function of this ed is to process and to recommend cases for preventive detention under the conservation of foreign exchange and prevention of smuggling activities act and in addition to all this it also undertake survey search seizure arrest prosecution etc against those offenders of the prevention of money laundering act offense and it also provides and seek mutual legal assistance from contracting states for the attachment or the confiscation of proceeds of crime and also for the transfer of accused persons under the pmla act so these are some of the information that you need to know about enforcement directorate with this let us now move on to the practice question discussion look at this question an offense for which a police officer may arrest a person without warrant from an appropriate magistrate or court is called bailable offense petty offense non-cognizable offense and cognizable offense see the correct answer is option d that is cognizable offense and very often we can find the term cognizable offense in the newspaper see an offense for which a police officer may arrest a person without warrant from an appropriate magistrate or court is called as a cognizable offense and bailable offenses are those offenses which are mentioned as bailable in the first schedule of the criminal procedure court and these are offenses for which easily one can get a bail order from a court as a matter of right and non-bailable offenses are those offenses which are mentioned as non-bailable in the criminal procedure court and for these offenses also one can get a bail but only a court can issue bail and for such offenses bail is not a matter of right and in case police do not complete investigation on time then even in such cases after the period of investigations the accused have the right to bail even in non-bailable offenses so therefore the right option here is option d that is cognizable offense now consider the following prevalence of hot dry hair over a region large amount of moisture in the upper atmosphere cloudy sky anti-cyclonic flow over the sea which of the above conditions is favorable for the formation of heat waves see as we saw earlier in the discussion some of the favorable conditions for heat waves are the transportation of prevalence of hot dry hair over the region and the absence of moisture in the upper atmosphere and the sky should be practically cloudless and the large amplitude of anti-cyclonic flow over the sea now when you look at the options you can find that option 1 and 4 is correct whereas option 2 and 3 are incorrect this option 2 is incorrect because the presence of moisture will restrict the temperature rise and it will not facilitate the rise in temperature similarly the cloudless sky will allow maximum insulation over the region more than a cloudy sky so therefore the right option is option c that is 1 and 4 only now which of the following statements is not correct with a reference to the food corporation of india statement 1 it is a statutory body set up by the national food security after 2013 statement 2 its objective is to maintain satisfactory levels of operational stocks and buffer stocks of food grain to ensure national food security statement 3 it stores food grains only in its own grounds and statement d both a and c see when you look at statement 1 or statement 8 is incorrect because the fci is set up under section 3 of the fci act of 1964 similarly when you look at statement 3 it is also incorrect as fci will store food grains in its own go downs and also in go downs hired from central warehousing corporations state warehousing corporations state government agencies and private parties so whereas when you look at statement b which says about its objective we can find that the objective is right because the fci's main objective is to maintain satisfactory level of operational stocks and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure national food security and since the question asks for the incorrect statement the right option is option d that is both a and c next with reference to the postal ballot system in india consider the following statement statement 1 union cabinet ministers and persons who are employed under the government of india and posted outside india are eligible to cast postal ballot and a person subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being enforced is not eligible to give his out by the postal ballot see we look at statement 1 it is incorrect because as we have seen service orders as per section 20 clause 8 of the representation of people act of 1950 are eligible for casting wards through postal ballot system and service orders includes members of the armed forces like that of the army navy and air force and also members of the armed police forces of a state who are serving outside the state in addition to the government employees who are posted outside india and their spouses now we also saw that the special orders such as the president of india vice president governors then union cabinet ministers speaker of the house and the government officers on poll duty have also got the option to vote by post and all that the election commission of india has also given postal ballot facilities for absentee orders of essential services in addition to senior citizens of more than 80 years and marked now when you look at statement 2 it says that the preventive person subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being enforced is not eligible to give his vote by postal ballot is incorrect because a person subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being enforced can give his or to the postal ballot and since the question was the right option the answer is option a that is one only now with reference to the directorate of enforcement consider the following statements it is a financial investigation agency under the ministry of home affairs it is responsible for the enforcement of the foreign exchange management act of 1999 and while implementing the prevention of money laundering act enforcement directorate may provisionally confiscate the assets derived out of the proceeds of the crime now you should identify the correct statement when you look at statement one you can find that it is incorrect because enforcement directorate is a specialized financial investigative agency that comes under the department of revenue under the ministry of finance and not under the ministry of home affairs and when you look at the second and third statement based on our discussion we can arrive at a conclusion that both the statements are correct and therefore the right option is option b that is two and three only now the crop is subtropical in nature her hard frost is injurious to it it requires at least 210 frost free days and 50 to 100 centimeters of rainfall for its growth a light well-drained soil capable of retaining moisture is ideally suited for the cultivation of the crop which one of the following is the crop from the discussion of the article we can identify that the crop which is having the above mentioned characteristics is none other than cotton so therefore the right answer is option e that is cotton note this was the question that was asked in the recent prilams that is in prilams 2020 the list of mains practice question is displayed here you can write your answers and post them in the comment section below with this we have come to the end of today's hinder news analysis if you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Aya's academy youtube channel for more updates regarding upsc civil services preparation