 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindi newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Aya's Academy for the date 4th of January 2022. First of all I wish you all a very happy new year and all the very best for all of your future endeavors. On that happy note, we will see the diverse list of articles that we have taken today for our discussion. First of all we are going to see about the Russia-Ukraine issue and after that we are going to see some details about the non-proliferation treaty that is the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and after that we will be seeing some details about offline e-payments. Yeah, you heard me right offline e-payments. It is an interesting oxymoron right? We will see what they are later in our discussion. Coming back to the articles list after this offline e-payments we will see some basic details about the unemployment and different types of unemployment and finally we will see about Pangong Seoul Lake and the significance of it for India. Without any delay let's get into our article discussion. Take a look at this text and context article here. It talks about Russia's military troops who are continuously gathering at Ukraine. See more than 1 lakh troops have gathered here. This Ukraine it is an aspiring member of the Nord Atlantic Treaty Organization which is nothing but the NATO. An aspirants if you want to know about NATO just take a look at our Hindu newspaper analysis video of December 28, 2021. See the article mentions about Russia's proposals and also it talks about the responses of the western countries like USA, Germany towards this move by Russia. We'll cover every aspect of this article in our discussion but before that the syllabus relevant to the article is given here for your reference. Please go through it. Now let us get into our discussion. See first of all you should know the location of Ukraine. Where is it exactly? Look at these maps you can clearly see that Ukraine shares borders with European Union countries and also with Russia but as a former Soviet Republic Ukraine has deep social and cultural ties with Russia. Now let us have a brief background about this Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia has long resisted Ukraine's move towards European institutions. When Ukrainians removed their pro-Russian president in 2014 Russia seized and then annexed the southern Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and Ukraine's two eastern regions collectively known as Donbas was captured by separatists backed by Russia. You can see the Crimean peninsula here and these are the two the eastern regions that are captured by separatists. See Russia's aggression in Ukraine has triggered the greatest security crisis in Europe since the Cold War. Though the United States and its allies have taken significant punitive actions against Russia during the seven-year-old conflict they have made only a little headway in helping to restore Ukraine's territorial integrity. See even at present continuous build-up of Russian military forces along the border of Ukraine has created fears that Moscow was preparing for a large-scale invasion of its neighbor but Russia has denied it. See at a press conference Russia's president has clearly stated that the troop deployment is in response to NATO's refusal to cap its eastward expansion. Though US and NATO had agreed for talks with Moscow they had denied to take Moscow's proposals seriously and also note that US President Joe Biden had assured his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky that in case of an invasion by Russia US will respond decisively. Thus US and NATO insist that Ukraine and every other country has the right to determine its own foreign policy. So we saw that US and NATO had not taken the Moscow's proposal seriously right. In this context we'll understand what are those demands by Russia regarding this Ukraine issue. Russia's President Mr Vladimir Putin said that non-invasion by Russia would depend on complaints with Russia's security demands. See Russia released some demands in the form of draft security packs at a press conference in 2021 December. The foremost demand among them is that NATO should withdraw troops and weapons from all countries in Europe that joined the alliance after May 1997. Why after May 1997? See this was after the collapse of the Soviet Union which happened in the year 1991. So what does Russia mean by this demand? By this they mean that NATO cannot operate in any of the Baltic nations that border Russia like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and also Central European states such as Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic and lastly the Balkan states such as Croatia and Slovenia. The next important provision is that demanding NATO to stop its expansion towards the east. See now Ukraine is aspiring to become a NATO member. This is also an eastward expansion of NATO right? So by this Russia means to say that NATO should not accept Ukraine and Georgia as members. There is one more demand which is that NATO must not hold drills without prior approval from Russia in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Georgia. Here by drills they mean military exercises. So what all we saw so far? We saw about the location which is between European Union countries and Russia and we saw a brief background on Russian-Ukrainian issue which includes annexation of Southern Crimean Peninsula and the capture of Donbass area by separatists backed by Russia and we saw some of the demands of Russia which includes withdrawal of troops and weapons from all countries in Europe and demanding to stop the eastward expansion of NATO and the final one is to not hold drills without prior approval from Russia in the Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Georgia. Moving on now we will try to understand how this NATO that is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is helping Ukraine. It is very clear that NATO's western military alliance is purely defensive. We will discuss here how NATO members are helping Ukraine. Firstly let us see about UK. UK is set to help Ukraine build two naval bases one on the Black Sea and the other one on the Sea of Azov. Secondly we will see about the USA. US has sent anti-tank javelin missiles to Ukraine and they also gave two US Coast Guard patrol boats to the navy. So this is how the NATO members are helping Ukraine. So these moves by the NATO members show that even though Russia is adamant that it will not allow Ukraine to join NATO, Ukrainian President Mr Zelensky is looking for a clear timeline for the alliance. See it is up to Ukraine and 30 NATO member countries to decide when Ukraine is ready to join the alliance and it is even more important to understand that Russia has no right to interfere in this process. And having said that now we will see how far and how will the western nations help Ukraine. Firstly the US. US has made it very clear that it is committed to helping Ukraine defend its sovereign territory. Now a crucial question arises here as to how will US help Ukraine. See the biggest tools in the West's armory appear to be the sanctions and supporting the Ukrainian military. But the US President Mr Biden also stressed that deploying US troops unilaterally is not the ultimate goal of US. See for this Ukraine has replied that it is prepared to defend itself alone. Secondly we will see about the UK. British officials are considering an extension of defensive support. This was said by UK's foreign office minister and also using the biggest tool that is threatening to disconnect Russia's banking system from the international swift payment system. So by doing all these UK will help Ukraine. Thirdly let us see about Germany. It has threatened to prevent the opening of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which is in Germany. Since the approval of this completed gas pipeline is currently being decided by the Germany's energy regulator, Germany's foreign minister has clearly mentioned that this Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline could not come into service if there is further escalation by Russia against Ukraine. And also note that in case of an invasion the American State Department officials certainly will put sanctions against Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. See viewers if you want to know more about Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline see the Hindu newspaper analysis of date December 30 2021. Moving on now let us see the futuristic actions that will be taken regarding this Russian Ukraine issue. See senior officials from the US and Russia will hold talks in Geneva on January to plan for Russia's de-escalation. Also note that negotiations are planned at organization for security and cooperation that is OSCE in Vienna. See while Russia is expected to continue its dangerous policy in terms of its geopolitical goals the American and the NATO officials have pointed out strong support to Ukraine. See this behavior of Russia is strengthening the NATO's thought of not to take decisions affecting Eastern Europe without involving the countries concerned. So that is all about this article with this we have come to the end of our discussion. What all we saw today we saw about the location of Ukraine which is between European Union countries on Russia and we saw about the Russia-Ukraine issue the annexation of Crimean Peninsula and the capture of Donbass area by separatists and after that we saw the demands of Russia in the form of draft security packs the first demand is to vidra troops and weapons from all countries in Europe that joined the alliance after May 1997. The second demand is to stop the NATO's expansion towards the east like accepting Ukraine as its member. The final demand is not to hold drills without prior approval from Russia and after that we saw how the western nations will help Ukraine if Russia invades Ukraine. We saw what US will do and what UK will do and what Germany will do. US will give support to Ukrainian military and it will impose sanctions. UK will extend the defensive support and it will threaten Russia regarding Russia's banking system from international swift payment system and what Germany will do. Germany will hold the approval of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which is very crucial for Russian economy and we moved on to see the futuristic actions regarding Russian-Ukraine issue. So with these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Look at this article. This article is with reference to the global nuclear powers who pledged on Monday to prevent nuclear conflict. The possibility of the conflict is because of the recently escalated tensions between USA and Russia and why is that? It's because of the deployment of the troops by Russia in the Ukraine border and on the other hand China has vowed to cease Taiwan. These two incidents have raised the concerns among the global powers. In this context we'll learn about NPT and why India didn't sign NPT and its relevance today. See NPT is nothing but the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and it came into force in 1970. The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objectives are three-fold. The first one is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology and the second one to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and finally the third one is the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. So the first objective is preventing the use of nuclear weapons. Second one is promoting cooperations in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy like for power generation and the third objective is the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. Moving on the NPT is the binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by nuclear weapons states. As of now a total of 191 states have joined the treaty including the five nuclear weapons states which are China, Russia, US, UK and France. It is very crucial to note here that India is not a signatory to the NPT. See to achieve the goal of non-proliferation and to gain the confidence of the state parties the treaty establishes a safeguard system under the responsibility of international atomic energy agency. So what this agency does? The safeguard system they are used to verify the complains with the treaty through inspections conducted by the IAEA which is nothing but the International Atomic Energy Agency. So through this safeguard system what they are doing they are inspecting the state parties whether they are following the treaty or not and also the treaty promotes cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear technology and equal access to this technology for all state parties. So if you are a signatory to NPT so you have equal access to the peaceful nuclear technology available. These safeguards are in place to prevent the diversion of fissile material for weapons use. Now we will see the relevance for India. Earlier India was excluded from the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Excluded in the sense it is not included as a nuclear power because India was said to be acquired nuclear weapons capability only after 1970. Those countries who acquired before 1970 were accorded the status of Nuclear Weapon States under the NPT. Those five countries include China, Russia, UK, US and France. So after this India refused to sign the treaty because India feels that it is a biased legal instrument that divided the world into nuclear haves and nuclear have nots. India believes that this treaty does not constitute or contribute to the development of customary international law. India also believes that it does not set any new standards or norms. Apart from this India have a geographical constraint also. With surrounding neighbours like Pakistan and China who are pursuing and restoring their nuclear power and weapons India giving up on its nuclear power status would be like a suicidal mission. In this way India became one of the four non-signatory countries which includes Israel, Pakistan and South Sudan. Just know that North Korea signed the treaty initially but later it has withdrawn. See the global efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation appears to be strengthened by treaties like NPT. But it is important to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the established systems. And it is also important to make necessary changes to improve the overall effectiveness of such mechanisms to succeed. Having said that the success of the NPT in the future rests upon a number of considerations including a neutral and indiscriminate mechanism. And a systemic shift is needed to make acquisition of nuclear weapons unattractive to all state actors. So with this we have come to the end of our discussion. We will have a quick recap. What all we saw today? We saw about the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons that is NPT and it came into force in 1970. We saw the three objectives which is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. And we saw the five nuclear weapons states which are China, Russia, US, UK and France. We saw about the safeguard systems under the responsibility of international atomic energy agency through which they check the compliance with the treaty. And we saw why India didn't sign the treaty. And finally we saw the needed changes to be brought in the treaty to make it a successful mechanism. With these key takeaway points let's move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this article. This is with reference to RBI's approval of small offline e-payments to promote digital payments usage in rural areas. Yesterday Reserve Bank of India that is the RBI issued a framework allowing offline payments up to Rs 200 per transaction and it is subjected to an overall limit of Rs 2000. In this context we'll learn about the offline e-payments and its significance in today's discussion. See first of all what is an offline payment. An offline payment is a transaction which does not require internet or telecom connectivity. You can understand this easily from the name itself. See under the offline mode payments can be carried out face to face using any channel or instrument like cards, wallets and mobile devices. Now we'll see why RBI is promoting offline payments. Many times when people try to make payments using accredited debit card one finds that the payment is failing most of the times. This could be due to any reason one of which is lack of internet connectivity. Apart from this unable to establish connection with the payments platform could also be a reason. See recently India has witnessed a boom in sales of cheap smartphones and even cheaper data connections. In spite of this internet connectivity is yet to reach many parts of the country. The latest available data from the world bank showed that in 2019 only 41 percentage of India's population had access to an internet connection. See this is despite of having a boom in the sales of smartphones and data connections. Therefore RBI's move to push offline payments is inclusive as many customers without smartphones would be able to reap the benefits of digitization. Now we'll see how the offline digital payment is done. It can be made using cards and mobile devices. See you should know that there are some authorized payment system operators. They can be banks or non-banks also. Some of the PSOs in India are National Payments Corporation of India, Mastercard, Visa, SBI, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited, RazorPay Technologies etc. These PSOs will provide offline payment solutions using cards, wallets or mobile devices for remote or proximity payments. We'll see an interesting example here. The NPCI which is the National Payments Corporation of India operates an offline payments platform called STAR99. The platform works on the top of the UPI system and is available on all GSM based feature phones or smartphones. Look at this picture here. It shows the payments options without connecting to the internet. See this is the phone here. After dialing STAR99 hash it directly shows you certain options. What are those? You can send money, you can request money, you can even check your balance, you can update your profile, you can see the pending request if you select option 5, you can see your transactions and you can set or even change your UPI pin if you select the option 7. Marvelous right? Now we shall watch a video to understand how a digital payment is done using STAR99 hash without internet connectivity. Here comes the video for you. Okay I found this video interesting did you guys? See this video will help you get a clear picture of the concept. Now moving on to another example. Recently Paytm also launched a tap to pay card through which customers could load money onto the card without the internet and pay the merchants by tapping the card on the merchants terminal. See with this RBI's push now many players are expected to enter the offline e-payment services. Here in this discussion we saw two examples and we are expected to see more in the coming year and with this RBI's push more players are expected to provide these services. So that's all regarding this article with this we have come to the end. Let's have a quick recap. What all we saw? We saw about the RBI's approval allowing the payments up to 200 rupees per transaction and an overall limit of rupees 2000 and we saw about offline payment which is a transaction which does not require internet and we saw about payment system operators and some examples of PSOs and we saw why this offline payment system is significant because according to the latest data available only 41 percentage of India's population have access to internet connection and we saw two examples. One is an example of national payments corporation offline payments platform that is star double nine hash. The other one is Paytm's tap to pay card. With these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. See here this article gives you detail about India's unemployment rate. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy that is CMIE India's unemployment rate has hit four month high. In November it was seven percentage and it rose to seven point nine percentage in December. See the article also says that the economic activity is disrupted by the restrictions imposed due to the surge of Omicron cases and this article also says that the urban unemployment rate rose to nine point three percentage in December compared to eight point two percentage in November and the rural employment it stood at seven point three percentage. So what we are going to do here is taking this article as a context and we are going to learn about the different types of unemployment. First of all what is unemployment. The term unemployment refers to a situation when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work so that particular person is currently not working. That condition is called as unemployment. Unemployment is considered to be a key measure of the health of the economy. I have given here the definition of unemployment given by NSSO which is nothing but the National Sample Survey Office. Please go through it if you want to know about the definition of unemployment given by the NSSO. See the high rates of unemployment are a signal of economic distress while extremely low rates of unemployment may signal an overheated economy. High rates in the sense if unemployment is standing at nine percentage then there are no jobs in the economy. If unemployment is at one percentage or two percentage then the economy is being overwhelmed with jobs. Having seen that now let us move on to see some of the types of unemployment. The first one is cyclical unemployment. It is nothing but the variation in the number of unemployed workers over the course of economic upturns and downturns that is the economic expansion or recession. Unemployment rises during the recessionary periods that is when there is no economic growth unemployment rate increases which means the jobs are less and the unemployment declines during the periods of economic growth. This means that the unemployment rate is decreasing which equals to the job increase. So this is called as the cyclical unemployment. The second one is disguised unemployment. See the unemployment prevailing in Indian forms are mostly disguised unemployment. Suppose a farmer has four acres of land and he needs only two workers and himself to carry out various operations on his farm in a year but if he employs five workers and his family members such as his wife children to do the same work that is done by two workers plus himself then this situation is known as disguised unemployment. Here the productivity of the extra members is zero. So the disguised unemployment exists when a part of the labour force is either left without work or is working in a redundant manner such that the worker productivity is zero. It is also the unemployment that does not affect the aggregate output. An economy demonstrates disguised unemployment when the productivity is low as we have seen before and too many workers are filling too few jobs. So that's it about the disguised unemployment. We'll move on to the third one. The third one is frictional unemployment. See this frictional unemployment occurs when people voluntarily change jobs within an economy. After a person leaves a company it naturally takes some time to find another job. Similarly graduates just entering the workforce add to the frictional unemployment. So it is nothing but the time period that is there between a person being unemployed and he getting the job. So this time period between these two elements is called as frictional unemployment. This type of unemployment is usually short lived because anyways that particular person is going to get the job and it is also the least problematic from an economic standpoint. Now moving on to the fourth one. The fourth one is structural unemployment. See it is a longer lasting form of unemployment caused by the fundamental shifts in an economy and by various factors such as technology and competition. This kind of unemployment occurs because workers they lack the required job skills. See here the jobs are available but there is a serious mismatch between what the companies need and what the workers can offer. We'll see an example so that you will understand clearly. See examples of becoming structurally unemployed include production assembly workers being replaced by new technology that assembles the products with quotes. And another example is the declining need for printing press workers due to the increased consumer preference for digital publications. So now you understand why it is a longer lasting form of unemployment because the shift is from hard copies to preference for digital publications. So this trend is never going to reverse. So that is why this form of unemployment is a serious concern from an economic standpoint. And finally we have here the seasonal unemployment. Seasonal unemployment occurs only during a part of the year. In sectors such as agriculture and tourism, production takes place only in certain seasons. Therefore the sectors offer employment to the workforce involved only for a particular time period in a year. People engaged in such activities under these sectors may remain unemployed during the off season. Now let us understand this concept of seasonal unemployment with the help of an example. See there are a few seasonal crops that is the crops that yield only in a particular season. Example rabi or winter crops. So farmers working for the yield of these crops would be seasonally unemployed during the other times of the year that is during summer during rainy season. That means when there is an off season the farmers are unemployed as they do not get to work on the field for any other purpose. So that's it about seasonal unemployment and with this we have come to the end of our discussion. Let's have a quick recap. So what all we saw we saw about the definition of unemployment which is a person who is actively searching for an employment and is currently not working. And we saw that it is a signal of economic distress. And after that we moved on to see about the different types of unemployment. The first one is cyclical unemployment. This coincides with the economic upturns and downturns. The second one is disguised unemployment. It is mostly prevalent in agriculture. Here the productivity of the labour force is zero. It occurs when too many workers are filling too few jobs. The third one is frictional unemployment. It occurs when people voluntarily change jobs within an economy. It is the short lived unemployment and it is the least problematic. The fourth one is structural unemployment. It is the long lasting unemployment because it is caused by the fundamental shifts in an economy that is by the shift from older technologies to newer technologies. And here there is a mismatch between what the companies need and what the workers can offer. There is the lack of required job skills. And finally we saw about the seasonal unemployment which occurs only during a part of the year and it is mostly prevalent in agriculture tourism. With these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Look at this article here. This is with reference to China constructing a bridge in eastern Ladakh. See it connects the northern south banks of Pangongso lake. The bridge will significantly bring down the time for Chinese troops to move between two banks from around 12 hours to a mere three to four hours. So in this context we'll learn about the Pangongso lake and its significance. See the Pangongso lake which is one of the most famous lakes in Le Ladakh derives its name from the Tibetan word Pangongso which means high grassland lake. So means lake. Pangong lake is situated at a height of almost 4,350 meter in Ladakh. It is the world's highest saltwater lake. Its water seemed to be dyed in blue and stand in contrast to the arid mountains surrounding it. It extends to almost 160 kilometer. Note that one third of the Pangongso lake lies in India and the other two thirds in China. Now let us see some details about the Pangong lake. See the Pangong lake is known to change colors appearing blue, green and red at different times. The change in sky color and the refraction at high altitudes causes this color change. Pangongso lake lies closer to the center of the 826 kilometer long disputed border in eastern Ladakh. So this lake is lying closer to the center of the disputed border between India and China. Pangongso lake is a long, narrow, deep Endorhike lake situated at a height of more than 14,000 feet in the Ladakh Himalayas. See Endorhike is nothing but a land logged lake. You can see the image of Pangongso lake here. It is surrounded by land or to be precise mountains here. And now let's see an interesting fact. This is the place where the scenes of the movie three idiots were shot. We all enjoyed the scenery shot in that movie right. That beautiful place have a lot of significance for India. See this lake is an integral part of the geopolitical relation between India and China. The lake flows through the line of actual control of these two countries that is India and China. The LAC mostly passes on the land but the Pangongso is a unique case. Here the LAC passes through the water as well. Look at this map here. This is the line which India climbs as the LAC and this is the line which China climbs as the LAC and this is the disputed area. In the past there were many clashes happened in this region but recently China blocked the patrol by India beyond the clash point four. Just know this fact and based on the article that we have taken today for discussion in this lake only China is building a bridge to connect the northern south banks of the lake. See the lake it lies to the southeast of LAC and it is very closer to LAC and we also saw that it is the region where the LAC passes through water. The brackish water lake freezes over in winter and becomes ideal for ice skating and polo. The legendary 19th century dogra general Zoravar Singh is said to have trained his soldiers and horses on the frozen Pangong lake before invading Tibet. See by itself the lake does not have major tactical significance but what makes it important is that it lies in the path of chusul approach. See it is one of the main approaches that China can use for an offensive into Indian health territory. Ironically chusul is one of the five officially agreed border personal meeting points between Indian army and the People's Liberation Army of China for regular consultations and interactions between the two armies to improve relations. So it is assessed that China can use this chusul as an approach for an offensive into Indian health territory. Indian assessments also show that a major Chinese offensive will flow across both the northern south of the Pangongso lake. See the chusul is here so if China completes the construction of bridge then it can enter India from both the southern and the northern banks of the lake. Over the years the Chinese also have built motorable roads along their banks of the Pangongso lake. This is also a major concern for India. So we have finished seeing the significance of Pangongso lake for India. They didn't show this aspect of Pangongso lake in that movie. We saw only the scenery of the place. So with this we have come to the end of our discussion. We'll have a quick recap. We saw the location of Pangongso lake and its characteristics and its significance for India. With these takeaway points let's move on to the next part of our discussion. Here I have given some of the prelims questions for your practice. Today I have given four questions out of which two questions are previous year prelims questions. So for those previous questions you are going to give me the answer in the comment section and I'll solve the remaining two prelims questions. Okay now let us take up this first question which has been asked in the year 2015. Consider the following countries China, France, India, Israel and Pakistan which among the above are nuclear weapons state as recognized by the NPT. The given options are one and two only one three four and five only two four and five only one two three four and five. So this is a very easy question go back to our discussion or try to recall what we saw in our NPT discussion. We saw that there are five nuclear weapons states recognized by the NPT. I'm not going to give you the names try to recall it and post it in the comment section the correct option for this question. Now moving on this question was asked in the year 2017. Consider the following statements National Payment Corporation of India helps in promoting the financial inclusion in the country and the second statement NPCA has launched Rupee a card payment scheme. So aspirants please try to solve this question if you have any doubt you ask me I'll address them but please try to solve it on your own and post your answer I'll tell you whether it's correct or not. Moving on to the third question consider the following statements statement one disguised unemployment hyphen technology and innovation structural unemployment agriculture cyclical unemployment that is the economic growth cycle. So which of the following statements given above is or are correctly matched. So from our discussion we saw that disguised unemployment is prevalent in the agricultural sector. So if we find that the statement one is wrong then we can easily arrive at the answer which is nothing but option B3 only because in all other options statement one is there. If we eliminate statement one we directly arrive at the answer that is 3 only. So here the statement one is wrong we'll see the statement two structural unemployment. Structural unemployment is a long lasting unemployment which occurs due to fundamental shifts in the economy that is technology and innovation. So here these two statements are reversed that is the statement one and two are reversed. Statement three cyclical unemployment it occurs with relevant to the economic growth cycle that is with expansion the unemployment rate decreases and with recession the unemployment rate increases. So the statement three is correct. So for this question the correct answer is option B3 only. Moving on to the fourth question which of the following statements regarding Pangong lake is correct option A Pangong lake is situated in Arnachal Pradesh is it right? No Pangong lake is situated in Ladakh. Statement two it is the world's highest freshwater lake is it right? No because we saw in our discussion that it is a saltwater lake. So option B is also incorrect. Option C Pangong so is an end or hike lake. We saw in our discussion end or hike is nothing but landlocked lake. So this statement is correct because Pangong so is a landlocked lake. Statement D one third of the Pangong lake lies in China and the other two thirds in India. The statement is wrong because we saw that one third is in India and the remaining two thirds are in China. So the correct option here is option C. Today I have given only one main question based on our article discussion. So interested candidates write it and post it in the comment section. If you have any queries regarding the articles post that also in the comment section I will address them. So with this we have come to the end of the analysis. If you find the video useful please like share and comment and do subscribe to the Shankar IA's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.