 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankarai's Academy for the rate 29th of November 2022. The articles taken up for today's discussion are displayed here. Interested aspirants can go through it. With this, let's start with our first news article for the day. Take a look at this editorial. This editorial is about a recent petition which was filed in the Supreme Court which argued that non-recognition of same sex marriage amounted to discrimination. In the petition, the petitioners mentioned about the special marriage act 1954. In India, special marriage act 1954 recognizes civil marriage between couples who cannot marry under the personal law like the Hindu marriage act 1955, Indian Christian marriage act 1872, Muslim personal law application act 1937 and so on. So, the petitioners said that the marriage of same sex couples could be recognized under the special marriage act 1954. On November 25, the Supreme Court asked for the government's response in regards to allowing recognition of same sex marriage under the special marriage act 1954. Based on this context only, this editorial has been written. The second article also argues for the recognition of same sex marriages by citing precedent from various countries across the world. The second article is taken from the text and context page. It actually appeared on June 19, 2021 in the Hindu newspaper. Since this article is relevant today, the Hindu has republished this article. This is a basic introduction about these two articles which are given here. So, in this context, we will discuss in detail the various points mentioned in these two articles. I have highlighted the syllabus here for your reference. You can go through it. Firstly, let us start with section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. C. Section 377 of the IPC was a relic of the colonial British government. This section criminalized people who voluntarily had carnal intercourse or sodomy against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal. So, basically, this section criminalized even the private consensual sex between adults of same sex. The validity of this section was questioned in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court held that article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before law and this applies to all citizens of the nation. Including the members of the LGBTQ plus community. The Supreme Court also held that homosexuality is not a mental disorder as previously thought. Due to this only, the Supreme Court in 2018 in the Navdaj Singh Johar vs Union of India case decriminalized homosexuality. Make a note of this case. It can be quoted by you while writing your main answer. Here, you have to note that Navdaj Singh Johar vs Union of India case judgment did not fully remove section 377. Some parts of section 377 still remain valid. For example, non-consensual carnal intercourse with adults, all acts of carnal intercourse with minors and acts of pestility are still a criminal offense under section 377. Navdaj Singh Johar vs Union of India case only decriminalized consensual same sex relation between adults. This is all about section 377 and the Navdaj Singh Johar vs Union of India case. Now moving on, let us look at some examples of how some countries around the world has legalized same sex marriage. Here you have to know that around 30 countries world over has legalized same sex marriage and today in our discussion let us look at 4 countries. First is South Africa. In 2005, the constitutional court of South Africa held that the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman as mentioned in South African common law is against the constitution of South Africa. As a result of the judgment of South African constitutional court, the civil union act 2006 was enacted by the South African legislators. This act enabled the voluntary and consensual union of two persons above 18 years of age by way of marriage. This is all about the legalization of same sex marriage in South Africa. Moving on, let us take the case of Australia. In Australia, the things were set in motion in the year 2007. The issue started when Justice Michael Kirby asked for the judicial pension to be extended to his gay partner. Initially, this proposal was opposed but later the same sex relationship act 2008 was enacted. This was very progressive piece of legislation. It not only recognized the same sex marriages but it also extended the social security enjoyed by the heterosexual couple to homosexual couples also. This is about the legislation of same sex marriages in Australia. Now moving on to England. In England, marriage of same sex couples act was enacted in the year 2013. This act recognized same sex marriages and also this act enabled same sex marriages to marry in civil ceremonies or with religious rites. This is the case with respect to England. Finally, let us take the case of the United States. In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States extended the fundamental right to marry to members of the LGBTQ community. This was the result of the famous Obergefell versus Rogers case. The Supreme Court of the US extended all the rights enjoyed by the heterosexual communities to the homosexual communities in this case. These are the four examples from the different parts of the world where the countries have taken steps to recognize same sex marriages happening within their territories. Now coming back to India. In India, in the year 2019, another development took place in this regard. In the Arun Kumar and Shrija versus the Inspector General of Registration and others case, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court made the wider interpretation of the word bride in the Hindu marriage act 1955. The Hindu marriage act 1955 recognizes a marriage between a groom and a bride. The Madurai Bench observed that the word bride not only includes biological women but the people who identify themselves as women. That is the word bride in the Hindu marriage act 1955 includes trans women and intersex persons identified as women. This is a very recent progressive development which recognizes marriage between man and a trans woman, both professing the Hindu religion. Now, as the Supreme Court has husked the opinion of the government regarding the recognition of same sex marriages under a special marriage act 1955, the government can refer to previous Supreme Court judgments as the case Puttasami verdict and the Safin Jagan versus Ashok and K.M. Here, in the Puttasami case, the Supreme Court held that fundamental right to privacy is an intrinsic part to life and liberty. The Supreme Court also declared that bodily autonomy was an integral part of right to privacy. Here, note that sexual orientation of an individual comes under the ambit of bodily autonomy. So, basically a person's sexual orientation is his fundamental right protected under right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Next comes the Safin Jagan versus Ashok and K.M. In this case, the Supreme Court held that right to choose and marry a partner is a constitutional right of every individual. Also, the Supreme Court mentioned that the society has no role to play in determining a person's choice of partners. So, if the government bases its response to the Supreme Court based on the progressive Supreme Court judgments like the two mentioned here, it will help the LGBTQ plus community in India greatly. Now, coming to the conclusion part. Let us hypothetically consider that our government allows for the recognition of same sex marriages under the special marriage act 1954 in the coming days. Although this would be a significant step in legalizing the same sex marriages, it would only be of smaller help for the same sex couples. This is because providing legal protection is one thing, but changing the social mindset of the community is another. For example, in India, we have prohibition of employment as manual scavengers under Rehabilitation Act 2013. Although this piece of legislation prohibits manual scavenging, still in India, we face deaths due to manual scavenging. Likewise, we enacted Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989. But still in remote corners, peoples of SC and ST are facing atrocities. The point that I am trying to make here is that on one hand, the government must take legal changes for the protection of rights of members of LGBTQ plus community. And on the other hand, government must also take steps to change the conservative mindset of the Indian population. This is because only a social change can prevent the stigmatization, humiliation faced by the members of the LGBTQ plus community. This is all with respect to this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the legality of same sex marriages in India and also we saw about the condition of same sex marriages legality in four different countries around the world. And finally, we saw about the two case laws relating to a person's ability to choose his sexual partners in India. With this information, now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this article. This article talks about the export of low quality iron ore from India to China. Here note that in May this year, our government placed a 50% export duty on iron ore exports from India to slow down the increase in iron ore price within India. But now, as the iron ore price in India has normalized, our government removed the 50% export duty. Due to this recent development, steel makers from China are planning to buy cheap low grade iron ore from India. This is about the news article given here. In this context, let us see about the different types of iron ore. See, iron is a metallic mineral. Iron rarely occurs naturally in the earth's crust. Instead, in the crust, we can find iron oxides. These iron oxides are called as iron ore. It is from this iron ore, iron is obtained. Some of the principal iron ores are given in this table along with their formulas. Pause the video and take a note. Iron ore is the basic mineral and it is the backbone of industrial development of a country. Fortunately, we in India are endowed with fairly abundant resources of iron ore. Most of the iron ore found in the country is of two types, which are hematite and magnetite. Hematite ore contains up to 70% of iron. It is red in color and is often referred to as red ore. It is the most important industrial iron ore in terms of quantity used. It is mainly found in the Darwat and Kadapa rock systems of Peninsular India. Here, let us take a detour and look at Darwat and Kadapa rock systems. First, let us take Darwat rock system. Darwat rocks are the earliest metamorphed sedimentary rocks in India. These rocks were formed between 4 billion to 1 billion years ago. They are found in abundance in Darwat district of Karnataka. Some of the remnants of the rocks are also found in Aravallis, Tamil Nadu, Chotanagpur Plateau and Mehalaya. Now, let us move to Kadapa rock system. See, the rocks in the Kadapa rock system are mostly sedimentary in nature. They are formed some 1400 to 600 million years ago. The Kadapa rocks are found mainly in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. Coming back to the hematite ores. In India, 80% of hematite reserves are found in Odisha, Jordan, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. In the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa, smaller quantities of iron ore are also found. Now, let us take magnetite ore. See, it contains 60 to 70% iron content. It is dark brown to blackish in colour and is often referred to as black ore. This excellent magnetic quality is especially valuable in the electrical industry. This ore is also mainly found in Darwad and Kadapa rock systems. See, the major producers of magnetite ore are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Now, coming to the third type. This third type of iron ore is known as limonite. It has an iron content of about 40 to 60% in it. The colour of this ore is yellow. Since India has large reserves of hematite and magnetite ores, inferior quality ores like limonite is rarely exploited. In India, limonite ores are found in the Damuda series of Raniganj coal fields, Garhwal in Uttarakhand, Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh and Kongra valley of Imachal Pradesh. One advantage of the limonite ore is that they are very easy to mine, making the ore a little cheaper. Lowest concentration iron ore is found in Ciderite. See, this is the fourth type of iron ore. Ciderite or iron carbonate ores have only about 40% iron content. This makes the mining of Ciderite economically unviable. This is all about the different types of iron ores. In this discussion, we have seen about hematite, magnetite, limonite and finally about Ciderite. These are all the four ores of iron. With these information, now let's move on to the next news article. Take a look at this article. The news is that, yesterday in a press note, the central trade unions expressed their grief over new pension scheme. As per the article, they urged Union Finance Minister to restore the old pension scheme. The trade unions also sought measures to check the price rise and unemployment. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let's learn about new pension scheme and why the trade unions are opposing this new pension scheme. See, NPS was started in the year 2004 as a social security measure to all government employees. Then in the year 2009, the scheme was made open to all citizens. Here, know that it is now being regulated by both the pension fund regulatory and development authority and the central government. Now, let's see who can join NPS. Any employee from public, private and even the unorganized sectors can join in the new pension scheme. Here, note one important fact. The armed forces personnel are exempted and they are still covered under the old pension scheme. Now, coming to the eligibility criteria for opening an NPS account. A person who intends to open NPS account should be an Indian citizen and must be between the ages of 18 and 65. Then the person should also be KYC compliant and must not have any pre-existing NPS account. See, the eligibility criteria for opening an NPS account is made so easy so that every citizen present in India can make use of this opportunity. This is all about the new pension scheme. Now, coming to the question why the central trade unions are opposing the new pension scheme. To know the answer for this question, we have to understand why firstly government brought the new pension scheme and replaced the old pension scheme. Under the old pension scheme, the employees get a pension under a predetermined formula. Here, the pension is off of their last drawn salary. Under the old scheme, the payout pension is fixed so that they receive this amount till their death. So, if an employee is retiring at the age of 60 and having a lifespan of nearly 80 years or more, they have to be paid pension for over two decades after their retirement. Moreover, in the event of death of the pensioner, their spouses are also entitled for a portion of the pension under the old pension scheme. This has led to a massive pension burden on government and such liabilities impact the fiscal health of both the union and state governments. This is the exact reason why the old pension scheme was discontinued in the year 2003 and the new pension scheme was started in 2004. Now, coming back to the question why the central trade unions are opposing the new pension scheme. See, unlike the old pension scheme, in the new pension scheme, the employees are required to deposit 10% of their basic pay of their salary in their NPS account. The government will contribute 10% to its employees' NPS account. The pension fund collected will then be given to the pension fund managers with the consent of the NPS account holder. Then, the pension fund managers will invest this amount in different market instruments like stocks, mutual funds, government bonds, etc. This mechanism will provide the return as the pension to the NPS account holder after his or her retirement. The trade unions protest saying that the pension amount now is marked linked and written based. Thus, making it uncertain for the employees which under the old scheme was certain. In the old scheme, the pension amount was guaranteed by the government and it was not linked to the market conditions. So, this is one of the main reasons why the trade unions are protesting. The second major reason is that pension under the scheme will be far less to the government employees when compared with the old scheme. As I said earlier, the government employees contribute only 10% of their basic pay to the fund while the other 10% is contributed by the government itself. This cumulative account will not be able to fetch a sum which was paid to the previous government employees which was nearly equal to their 50% of lost drawn salary. So, this is the second major reason why the trade unions are protesting against the new pension scheme. These are the two major reasons why the old pension scheme is preferred over the new pension scheme by the trade unions. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we saw about the new pension scheme and also about the reasons why trade unions are protesting against it. With this information, now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this news article. The news is that yesterday, the Special Investigation Court of the National Investigation Agency in Delhi has awarded life imprisonment to five terrorists affiliated with the Jayishi Mogamad. See, Jayishi Mogamad is a terrorist organization based out of Jammu and Kashmir. The terrorists were punished for recuting and training youth for terror activities across the country. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let's learn about National Investigation Agency. See, the National Investigation Agency is the counter-terrorism law enforcement agency of India. It functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs and the headquarters of the agency is located in New Delhi. Here note that NIA was first constituted in the year 2008 under the National Investigation Agency Act. It was created in the backdrop of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. NIA as a central agency investigates and prosecutes offence which are affecting the sovereignty, security, integrity of India. It also deals with the cases involving atomic and nuclear facilities within the territory of India. This is a brief about NIA. Now, let's see about the jurisdiction of NIA. See, the jurisdiction extends to the whole of India and it also applies to the Indian citizens outside the country. NIA has also the jurisdiction over the persons who are in the service of the government wherever they are posted. It also extends to the persons on ships and aircrafts which are registered in India. Here note that the jurisdiction also covers the persons who are committing a scheduled offence outside India and that offence is committed against the Indian citizen or it is affecting the interest of India. See, I listed here the scheduled offences in the National Investigation Agency Act. Pause the video and just go through it. This is all about the jurisdiction you want to know. See, under section 6 of the NIA Act, the state governments can refer the cases to the central government for NIA investigation. After assessing the details made by the state governments, the central government can direct the NIA to take over the case. In this scenario, the state governments are required to extend all assistance to the NIA. This is one situation. The recent Coimbatore and Mangalore bomb blasts were given to NIA by the respective state governments itself. There is also another situation. In this scenario, the central government may direct the NIA to take up the probe without the need for state governments approval. When can this be done? See, it is done when the central government is of the opinion that a schedule offence has been committed which requires the investigation of NIA within the territory of the state concerned. So, from this we can say that state governments permission is not needed for NIA to take up a case which has been committed inside the state's territory. But the point here is that the committed offence should be a scheduled offence under the NIA Act 2008. Also know that the central government can also direct the NIA to register the case and take up the investigation when a scheduled offence has been committed at any place outside India. This is all about the jurisdiction of NIA. In this discussion, we have covered many points relating to the National Investigation Agency. With these land points, now let's move on to the next news article. Take a look at this article. It says that Mehalaya government will set up border outposts in the sensitive areas along the interstate borders with Assam. This decision was taken after an all parting meeting which was held in Shillong. See, these steps were taken following the firing which took place at Mukro on November 22. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us understand about the firing incident and we will also see some examples of other interstate border disputes which are presently going on in India. And finally, we will see who has the authority to alter these state borders. But before starting our discussion, the syllabus for this article is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. Now, let's start our discussion with the Mukro firing incident. See, the firing is said to be taken place in the border town of Mukro. The place Mukro is located around 2-3 km from the Assam-Mehalaya border. According to the Mehalaya government's version, the Assam police and forest guards entered Mehalaya and resorted to unprovoked firing. This has resulted in five residents of Mukro village getting killed and also in the death of one Assam forest guard. The Assam government contents this version. It said that the incident took place when their forest guards tried to stop a truck which was illegally smuggling timber. And they also said that the personnel opened fire in order to save their own lives. This is all about the differing two versions of the Mehalaya and Assam governments related to the firing incident which took place at Mukro on November 22nd. Now, let's see about the interstate border dispute which is going on between Mehalaya and Assam. See, Mehalaya was carved out of Assam in the year 1972. But many parts of the 8-85 km interstate border was not clearly demarcated at that time. There are still as many as 12 areas along the Assam-Mehalaya border which are climbed by the both states. And due to this violent clashes have taken place many times in the past. The last major incident occurred in May 2010. In 2010, firing by Assam police resulted in the deaths of four causes in the disputed Langpi area along the interstate border. So, Assam and Mehalaya already have a tense relationship due to the interstate border disputes. Now, with this Mukro incident, it has further strained the ties between these two states. See, like this many other areas are present in India which suffers from interstate border conflict. I will give you some examples of the states which have interstate border disputes. Just make note of it. Firstly, let us take the case of Assam. See, Assam has border disputes with many states. The states are Arunachal Pradesh, Nahaaland, Mizoram and lastly, Mehalaya. We have seen about the Assam-Mehalaya dispute today. Now, moving on to the state of Himachal Pradesh. See, Himachal Pradesh has border disputes with Haryana and the Union Territory of Ladakh. Now, coming to the most important border dispute presently going on in India. It is with respect to the border dispute present between Maharashtra and Karnataka. This dispute relates to an area called Belgam which is located along the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka. See, we will see the reasons for the border disputes in these states in some other discussion. Now, with this information, let us move on to see who has the authority to alter state boundaries in India. When it comes to altering state borders, we have to remember Article 3 of the Indian Constitution. Article 3 says that Parliament has the exclusive power to alter the state boundaries present in India. The power of Parliament to form new states include the power to form a new state or Union Territory by uniting a part of any state or Union Territory to any other state or Union Territory. See, the example of this power was the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories in the year 2019. A bill which proposes changes to states' boundary as per Article 3 can only be introduced in the Parliament only with the prior recommendation of the President, which means that the bill should be a government bill and not a private member's bill. And the President has to refer the bill to the state legislature concerned for expressing its views. So, a question emerges, does this mean states have a say in the alteration of their boundaries? Not necessarily. It is because the President is not bound by the views of the state legislature. He or she may either accept them or reject them. And further, it is not necessary to make a fresh reference to the state legislature every time an amendment to the bill is moved and accepted in the Parliament. This is all about the alteration of states and the constitutional provision related to it. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the micro-incident and also about the interstate border problem which is going on between the states of Assam and Meghalaya. And we also saw about the other areas which are presently present in India with border disputes. Finally, we also saw about the exclusive authority to alter the state boundaries present in India. With this information, now let's move on to the next news article. In this article here, the news is that the Saras-3 telescope has provided clues to the nature of the universe's first stars and galaxies. See, the Saras-3 is a radio telescope which is using radio waves to study about stars and galaxies. It was designed and built at Ramand Research Institute which is based out of Bangalore. Since 2020, the telescope has been deployed over the Gandhi-Dhanahalli lake and Sharavathi-Brakwaters. With the help of this telescope, astronomers and researchers have been able to determine the properties of radio-luminous galaxies. See, such radio-luminous galaxies were formed just 200 million years post the Big Bang event and that period is known as the Cosmic Dawn. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let's learn about radio waves and also about the term Cosmic Dawn. Let's first see what are radio waves? See, the radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation. Now coming to the question, what is electromagnetic radiation? See, electromagnetic radiation is a wave of electric and magnetic fields propagating at the speed of light. Here, the electromagnetic radiation propagates through empty space or through a material medium in the form of electromagnetic waves. Note that in this electromagnetic wave, the electric and magnetic fields change their magnitude and direction each second. This rate of change is known as frequency. Here, the frequency is measured in cycles per second and it is named as Hertz. Note that the electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays. Now coming back to radio waves. See, the radio waves have the longest wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum. These waves were discovered by Henrych Hertz in the late 1880s. As we all know, the radio waves are a kind of electromagnetic radiation. Note that the radio waves have a frequency of about 3 kHz up to 300 GHz. At 3 kHz, the wavelength of radio waves is nearly 100 km and at 300 GHz, their wavelength is 1 mm. What this means to us? See, if a wavelength is shorter, then the frequency of radio waves is higher. And if the wavelength is longer, then the frequency of radio waves is lower. Like all other electromagnetic waves, the radio waves also travel at the speed of light. Note that lightning and astronomical objects are the natural source of radio waves. Radio waves can also be artificially formed and such artificially formed radio waves are used in the fields of radio communication, radar, computer networks, broadcasting and different navigation systems. This is all you want to know about radio waves. Now let's move our attention towards the term cosmic dawn. We all know that our universe has undergone different phases from its beginning. See, the Big Bang event created our universe. Note that the term Big Bang literally means the cosmic explosion that marked the beginning of the universe according to the Big Bang theory. During the first 4 lakh years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled only with hot and dense ionized plasma. Note that plasma is the word that is given to the fourth state of matter. Plasma is an electrically charged gas that is so hot. Note that some or all constituent atoms of plasma are split up into electrons and ions which can move independently of each other. Now coming back, we initially saw during the first 4 lakh years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with hot and dense ionized plasma. Then after these 4 lakh years of Big Bang event, the plasma cooled down and it produced protons and electrons. And these protons and electrons filled the universe. Then the protons and electrons combined and remained as neutral hydrogen atoms. This period is known as dark ages. In this period, the universe had no source of visible light. Then roughly 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang event, the first stars and galaxies were formed. During that period, the hydrogen atoms gradually became ionized by the UV radiation of the stars. And this process separated the electrons from the protons, leaving them as free particles. This made the stars and galaxies to illuminate. This era in which the stars and galaxies started to illuminate is known as the cosmic dawn. The SARS-3 which we saw earlier in our discussion which catches the radio wave is providing clues to the nature of the universe first stars and galaxies which formed during this period of the cosmic dawn. This is all about the article given here. In this discussion, we saw about SARS-3, also about radio waves and also about the term cosmic dawn. With these information, now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this editorial article. It talks about the loss and damage fund and the practical problems associated with it. This is the essence of the article written here. To understand what's written in the article, we have to first understand the difference between loss and damage fund and the other climate financing funds like green climate fund. In this discussion, we will see about loss and damage fund and also about the issues facing it as given in the article. See, there are globally two different funds related to climate change. One is the climate financing funds like green climate fund and the other is the newly created loss and damage fund. Firstly, we will see about climate financing funds. See, the term climate finance refers to the local national or transnational financing drawn from both public and private that seeks to support mitigation and adoption actions that will address climate change. See, climate financing is mainly focused on the two pillars of mitigation and adoption strategies. Here note that climate financing so far has only focused on cutting carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to curb global warming. Here, one third of the climate funding till now has gone towards projects to help communities adapt to future impacts of climate change. The point here to note that is climate financing or funding till now didn't pay for any damages caused due to climate change induced disasters to the vulnerable countries. This is all about climate financing funds. Now, coming to loss and damage fund. See, loss and damage funding would be different from climate financing because it specifically covers the cost of damage that countries cannot avoid or adapt to. Here, let me tell you an example to make you understand about this fund. If you can recall, there was a flood in Pakistan a few months back. It resulted in huge economic loss to the country. If this flood is found to be happened because of climate change, loss and climate fund will come into action. Pakistan government will receive funds from this fund to restore its economy which was affected by the flooding. See, this is the major difference between loss and damage funding and the climate financing funding. Now, coming to the one common thing between these two funds. Both these funds will get funding from the developed countries and will distribute the funding to the developing nations. But the difference lies in the fact that climate financing only focuses on adaptation measures and doesn't pay the countries for the damages which are caused due to climate change disasters. This is all you need to know about the differences between climate financing and loss and damage fund. The article primarily discusses about the history of loss and damage fund and the planned mechanism for the newly proposed fund. Now, let's see briefly about the history of loss and damage fund. See, the alliance for small island states has been asking for this fund for nearly past three decades. The issue was first brought to the forefront in the 1990s itself. At the time, the developed countries didn't accept this idea of loss and damage fund and cast away this idea. After nearly three decades of prolonged negotiations, finally the loss and damage fund was accepted in COP 27 which got recently concluded in Egypt. Now, let's see about the planned funding mechanism of the newly created LND fund. The author says that the fund would draw upon potential sources like that of a windfall tax on oil and gas companies profits. He also says that the idea of taxing fossil fuel oil and gas companies needs more research. Because it will lead to the LND fund receiving funds from the developing countries like India, China, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico. This will ultimately defeat the purpose of the fund itself. This is all about the history of loss and damage fund and the funding mechanism which is being planned to fund this fund. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we have seen the difference between climate financing fund and the loss and damage fund and also about the history behind the loss and damage fund. With this, let's move on to the next part of our discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice question discussion. Today, I have taken four different questions for our discussion. Now, let's start with the first question. Let me read out the question for you. Consider the following statements regarding alteration of state boundaries. The Indian constitution does not authorize the parliament to form new states without their consent. See, the statement is incorrect. The Indian constitution exclusively authorizes the parliament to form new states even without the consent of the state government concerned. So, statement one is completely wrong. Now, coming to the statement second. The Indian constitution guarantees the territorial integrity or continued existence of any state. See, the statement is wrong. When you know that first statement is wrong, automatically you could come to a conclusion that second statement is also wrong. Now, coming to the third statement. Loss made for the formation of new states under article three are not considered as amendments to the constitution under article 368. See, the statement is correct. This is what is given in article four of the Indian constitution. It says that loss made for admission or establishment of new states and formation of new states under alteration of boundaries or names of existing states are not to be considered as amendments of the constitution under article 368. This means that such loss can be passed by a simple majority and by the ordinary legislative process. So, statement three is correct. The question asked for the correct statement. So, the correct answer for this question is option A three only. Now, coming to the second question. Let me read out the question for you. In which of the following fields the radio waves are used? See, we have extensively covered about radio waves in today's discussion itself. If you have listened to our discussion keenly, you can easily answer this question. The answer for this question is option D all of the above. Radio waves are used in military communications, wireless computer networks, remote control, toys, navigation and air traffic control. So, the correct answer is option D. Now, moving on to the third question. Which among the following are the main type of iron ore found in India? From our discussion itself, we know that hematite and magnetite are widely found in India. You may have a doubt about limonite and cedarite. See, limonite is also found in India, but the extraction of limonite is very much limited. Also know that cedarite is not found in India and since it is not found, it cannot be extracted. So, the correct answer for this question is option B one two one three. Now, coming to the fourth question. This question is regarding National Investigation Agency. Coming to the first statement. It is functioning under the Ministry of Defence. See, the statement is wrong. NIA comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Now, coming to the second statement. Its jurisdiction applies only to the persons who are residing in India. See, the statement is also incorrect. The jurisdiction of NIA extends to the whole of India and it also applies to Indian citizens who are residing outside India also. So, statement two is incorrect. Now, coming to the third statement. The Government of India can direct the NIA to register case even if the scheduled offence has been committed outside India. See, the statement is correct. Regarding this statement, we saw in the discussion itself, so I am not going to repeat it again. This question asks for the incorrect statement. One and two are the incorrect statement, so the correct option for this question is option A one and two only. The prelims practice question is displayed here. Interested aspirants can post the answer in the comment section. The main practice question is displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this, we have come to the end of our today's discussion. 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