 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IA's academy for the date 4th of February 2022. See this page here are the list of news article that I have chosen for today's discussion. As I have showed you today also there is an economic topic which is regarding the non-performing assert that is NPA. Now without wasting much time let's get into our discussion. Now look at this first news article, this news article talks about the POXO Act that is production of children from sexual offenses act 2012. See this act is again in news because recently the Tamil Nadu's director general of police DGP has framed a standard operating procedure that is SOP to be followed in all cases relating to this POXO Act. Also in this article we will see in brief about the POXO Act and we will also see the procedures framed by the DGP of Tamil Nadu. Okay, firstly what is the purpose of this POXO Act? See POXO Act was brought with an intent to effectively address the evil of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children. With that this act defines a child as any person below 18 years of age and it is a gender neutral act meaning this act is suitable for an applicable to or common to both male and female genders under 18 years of age. This act was passed by the parliament in the year 2012. An important reason why POXO was brought is previously child abuse was prosecuted under the following sections of the IPC. Firstly IPC 375 which covers rape offenses, then IPC 354 which covers outraging the modesty of women, thirdly IPC 377 which covers unnatural offenses. However, such a measure had drawbacks since the IPC could not effectively protect the child due to various loopholes like say IPC 375 doesn't protect the male victims or anyone from sexual acts of penetration other than traditional Pino vaginal intercourse. Then secondly IPC 354 lacks a statutory definition of modesty. It carries a weak penalty and is a compoundable offense, further it does not protect the modesty of a male child. Similarly in IPC 377 the term unnatural offenses is not defined. It only applies to victims penetrated by their attacker sex act and is not designed to criminalize sexual abuse of children. So considering these factors there was a need for a legislative reform with a specific child protection act in mind. The result is the POXO act that is protection of children from sexual offenses. The act was amended in 2019 to make provisions for enhancement of punishments for various offenses. This was made to deter the perpetrators and ensure safety, security and dignified childhood for a child. Here in this image I have given some of the silent features of the POXO act after amendment. Please go through it. Now let us quickly go through the SOP framed by Tamil Nadu's DGP. See a SOP or a standard operating procedure is a set of written instruction that describes the step by step process that must be taken to properly perform a routine activity. So here the standard operating procedure is to be followed in all cases relating to the protection of children from sexual offenses act or POXO act 2012. Regarding the procedure to be followed firstly it states that the first information report that is FIR must be registered within 24 hours of the receipt of the complaint also note that a copy should be handed over to the parent or guardian or the complainant. Secondly within 30 minutes of the receipt of the complaint the investigating officer that is IO should visit the scene or survivor, rescue the child and facilitate medical treatment if necessary without any delay. Thirdly when parents or guardians or complainants are present at the police station they must be asked to submit a return complaint and a copy of the community service register receipt should be given to them. Here community service register is abbreviated as CSR. It is just an acknowledgement given by a police station to a victim or a complainant for receiving a complaint from them. CSR therefore is just an acknowledgement and it does not have the effect of a FIR. See FIR is important because it is mentioned in the Code of Criminal Procedure that is in CRPC in section 154. If an FIR is registered it means that an offense has happened and it will be taken into crime records whereas CSR is not taken into account for calculating crimes that has occurred in a city. If FIR is registered police have to find out the accused and the police are accountable here ok. Then a charge sheet has to be submitted in the court after which the trial begins in the court then finally comes the judgement. Note this difference between CSR and FIR. Now coming back, after all these plain clothes police personnel must record the statements of the child. See police officers who wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform is called as plain clothes police personnel ok. And finally and most importantly the SOP says that the police should not only record these statements from suspects or accused persons but also collect their forensic DNA samples before producing them in the court for remand. This step is to speed up the investigation process. See to implement and practice the SOP the DGP's office even issued an order and according to the instruction the unit officers were to train the investigation officers on this SOP and make sure that the culprits are found guilty and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. It added that the complaints might come through helplines like 1098, 181 and 100 as well as oral and written complaints and those received through the social welfare departments like one stop crisis center and non-governmental organization should also be taken. That's all about this article. See utilize these points to enrich your answers by saying that how an act can be made efficient by following proper standards of procedures and this can be taken as an example for good governance. Now with these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Look at this article. This article states that lenders who lend it to a firm called Future Retail have started classifying loans to the firm as a non-performing asset or NPA. So in this context we will learn about NPA in prelims perspective. See this is the economic topic today I am going to give you as I promised in my previous videos. Okay. So first of all what are the non-performing assets or NPA? See NPA refers to those loans and advances that are in default or in arrears. That is principal and interest payments are late or missed. You may note that for a bank the loans given by the bank is considered as its own assets. Am I right? So as per the RBA an asset becomes non-performing when it stops to generate income for the bank. So if the principal or the interest or both the components of a loan is not being serviced or you say given to the lender who is here the bank for example then it would be considered as a non-performing asset. To put it in simple words NPA is any asset of a bank which is not producing any income and these NPA are declared by the concerned banks. Suppose now let me explain this full concept with an example here I will take the bank to be state bank of India who is giving loan to a company say for example Kingfisher Airlines. Okay, see SBI gives a loan of rupees 10 crores to this Kingfisher Airlines. Considered that they agreed upon an interest rate of say 10% per annum. Now initially everything was good and the market forces were working in support to the airline industry. So therefore this Kingfisher was able to service the interest amount to this bank. In later period due to some administrative technical or corporate reason say for 90 days they are not able to pay the interest rate. In that case the loan given to the Kingfisher Airlines can be considered as a non-performing asset. So now have you understood? So here all the values that I mentioned or the company or the bank that I mentioned are completely for giving you an example. It's not the actual value or actual company or bank okay. Now as per the RBI the non-performing asset is a loan or an advance. See now RBI has taken 4 cases in which you can declare a loan as a non-performing asset. First case the interest or the installment of the principal remain overdue for a period of more than 90 days in respect of a term loan. In second case the bill remains overdue for a period of more than 90 days in the case of bills purchased and discounted. See I am mentioning here overdue know it is nothing but a situation where any amount is not paid on the due date fixed by the bank okay. Now in the third case the installment of the principal or interest remains overdue for two crop seasons for short duration crops and in the fourth case the installment of the principal or interest remains overdue for one crop season for long duration crops. See the third case and the fourth case are specific for agricultural loans okay. Now we will see the classification of the non-performing asset or NPA. Based upon the period to which a loan has remained as NPA it is classified into three types okay. So what are all the type? First type is substandard assets. See it is an asset which remains as NPA for less than or equal to 12 months. The second type is doubtful assets it is an asset which remained in the substandard asset category for 12 months and the third type is loss asset. See asset where the loss has been identified by the bank or the RBI is called as loss asset okay. However there may be some value remaining in the loan which can be rectified by the RBI or the bank okay. Therefore this loan has not been completely return off. That's all regarding this article so I have given an idea of what is non-performing asset and how a loan is classified as a non-performing asset and I also gave the classification how this NPA is getting transformed into substandard asset or doubtful asset and finally it is ending up as a loss asset okay. With the key points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion. Look at this news article it states that Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh unfolded the national flag at the Jinnah Tower in the Guntur city on Thursday that is yesterday. The news article also states that some leaders of some political parties are wanting to rename the tower after former president APJ Abdul Kalam. This is the crux of the article in this context we will learn about Jinnah Tower in prelims perspective also I'll cover in brief about Jinnah who is the founder of Pakistan okay. Now let's start our discussion. The Jinnah Tower is a landmark monument in the city of Guntur in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is named after the founder of Pakistan who is Muhammad Ali Jinnah and its exact location is on the Mahatma Gandhi road of the Guntur city. See after so many controversies now it is being repainted to tricolor and arrangements are made to hoist the national flag. See this tower in India is an edifice erected in the memory of the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Before going into the discussion of this tower in detail let us discuss about Jinnah and how he became the founder of Pakistan in brief. See Muhammad Ali Jinnah is also called Kuaidai Azam and he was born on December 25, 1876 at Karachi, India which is now in Pakistan and he died on September 11, 1948 at Karachi. He is an Indian Muslim Politician who was the founder of Pakistan. Also note that he was the first Governor-General of Pakistan during the period 1947 to 48. See Jinnah first entered politics by participating in the 1906 session of the Indian National Congress which was held at Calcutta. Remember in this session only the party began to split between those calling for Dominion status and those advocating independence for India. Then 4 years later he was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council and this is the beginning of his long and distinguished parliamentary career. See greatly influenced by Gopalakrishna Gokhale, Jinnah aspired during the early part of his political life to become a Muslim Gokhale. He worked to develop a sense of Indian national hood among the peoples of India but at that time also he looked upon Muslim interest in the context of Indian nationalism. See in order to safeguard Muslim interest the All India Muslim League was founded in 1906 but Jinnah remind a look from it. Only in 1913 Jinnah joined this league. And when the Indian Home Rule League was formed he became its Chief Organiser in Bombay. Note that Jinnah's endeavours to bring about the political union of Hindus and Muslims earned him the title the best ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity. This epithet was coined by Gokhale. It was largely through his efforts that the Congress Party and the Muslim League began to hold their annual sessions jointly. In 1915 the two organizations held their meetings in Bombay and in 1916 in Lucknow. See in this 1916 meeting only the Lucknow pact was concluded and in the terms of the pact the two organizations agreed to work mainly towards constitutional reforms. Thus constitutional reforms became their joint demand to the British government. But Muslims obtained separate electorates in the Indian Councils Act of 1909. This was resisted by the Indian National Congress or INC. The opposed to Gandhi's non-corporation movement, Jinnah left both the League and the Congress Party in 1920. But Jinnah worked towards the conversion of the Muslim League into an enlightened, unified political body, prepared to cooperate with other organizations, working for the good of India. In addition he had to convince the Congress Party as a prerequisite for political progress of the necessity of settling the Hindu-Muslim conflict. He worked towards this end within the Legislative Assembly at the Round Table Conference in London, that is in 1930 to 32 and through his 14 points which included proposals for a federal form of government, greater rights for minorities, one-third representation for Muslims in the Central Legislature, separation of the predominantly Muslim-Sind region from the rest of the Bombay province and introduction of reforms in the Northwest Frontier province. See his failure to bring about even minor amendments in the Nero Community proposal that is in 1928 over the question of separate electorates and reservation of seat for the Muslims in the Legislature frustrated him. The Muslim League stood divided at that time, see the Punjab Muslim League refused Jinnah's leadership and organized itself separately. In disgust, Jinnah desired to settle in England, that is from 1930 to 1935 he remained in England devoting himself to practice before the Privy Council. Soon preparation started for the elections under the Government of India Act of 1935. Jinnah was still thinking in terms of cooperation between Muslim League and the Congress Party and worthy coalition governments in the provinces but the elections of 1937 proved to be a turning point in the relations between the two organizations. Congress obtained an absolute majority in six provinces and the League did not particularly do well. The Congress Party desired not to include the League in the formation of provincial governments and the result was an exclusive all Congress government. The relations between Hindus and Muslims started to deteriorate and soon Muslim discontent became boundless. Jinnah had originally been uncertain about the practicability of Pakistan but later he became convinced that a Muslim homeland on the Indian subcontinent was the only way of safeguarding Muslim interest and the Muslim way of life. To guard against that danger he carried out a nationwide campaign to convert the Muslim League into a powerful instrument for unifying the Muslims into a nation. At that point Jinnah emerged as the leader of a renaissance Muslim nation. Evens began to move fast and on March 22 to 23 in 1940 in the Lahore the League adopted a resolution to form a separate Muslim state called Pakistan. The Pakistan idea was at first ridiculed and then tenaciously opposed by the Congress Party but it captured the imagination of the Muslims. Pitted against Jinnah where many influential Hindus including Mahatma Gandhi and Jarlal Nehru and the British government seemed to be intent on maintaining the political unity of the Indian subcontinent. But Jinnah no led his movement with such a skill and tenacity that ultimately both the Congress Party and the British government had no option but to agree to the partitioning of India. Pakistan thus emerged as an independent state in 1947. Jinnah became the first head of the new state faced with serious problems of a young country he tackled Pakistan's problem with authority. He was not regarded as merely the Ghana general he was revered as the father of the nation that is Pakistan. He worked hard until overpowered by age and disease in Karachi the place of his birth in 1948. Now let's see some information about the Jinnah Tower that we saw in the news article. See the tower was erected on six pillars which open to a dome. This is typical of the Muslim architecture in early 20th century according to historians. The Jinnah Tower was built before partition sometime between 1942 and 45. About its origin one story is that Jodalia Kudali Khan a representative of Jinnah was at Guntur in the pre-independence era. Sikhan was felicitated by Lal Jan Basha. This Lal Jan Basha is the grandfather of the Telugu Deism Party vice president SM Lal Jan Basha. Finally Khan got a tower built in the honor of the Muslim League leader that is Muhammad Ali Jinnah. According to another narrative two municipal chairmen Nadim Palin Arashimara and Telakulla Jalaya were responsible during their respective terms of office for the construction of the tower. See it was considered as a symbol of peace and harmony. The harrowing experience of partition and subsequent cross-border wars and other manner of trouble have never disturbed the peace and calmness in the Guntur city. So Jinnah Tower continues to stand tall as a beacon of harmony here. The Jinnah Tower is said to have a history of 77 years. This is approximately okay and it is also said that the landmark was intentionally located on the Mahatma Gandhi road the main artery of the city as a symbol of peace and harmony. See that's all regarding this article. So we had covered a crisp about both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Jinnah Tower that was mentioned in this news article. With these key points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this text-in-context article here. It is about the fiscal consolidation measures announced in the budget. The finance minister Mrs. Nirmala Sita Raman said that the move wasn't consistent with the broad path of fiscal consolidation announced last year in order to reach a fiscal deficit level below 4.5 percentage by 2025 to 26. So in this context let us see what is this fiscal consolidation means and what are all the challenges in achieving it considering the need to boost the economy. The syllabus 11 to this news article is given here for your reference just go through it. Now let us start our discussion. See what is fiscal consolidation? To know about fiscal consolidation you should know about fiscal deficit. The word fiscal refers to annual government account statements and the word deficit stands for shortage. Therefore the fiscal deficit is the term used to define the difference between what a government spends and what it collects as revenue. See a fiscal deficit situation occurs when the government spends more than it earns. This deficit is calculated in absolute terms and also as a percentage of the gross domestic product or GDP of the country. If a country has a large and recurring fiscal deficit it shows that the government has been spending beyond what it gets as revenue. Am I right? So now what is fiscal consolidation? Fiscal consolidation refers to the ways and means of narrowing this fiscal deficit. A government typically borrows to bridge the deficit. It thus allocates a part of its earnings to service the debt. The interest burden will increase as the debt increases because more deficit leads to more borrowing so more interest has to be paid. Am I right? See in the budget for the financial year 2022 of the total government expenditure of over 34.83 lakh crore more than 8.09 lakh crore that is around 20 percent was towards interest payments. See debt is one liability that is difficult to differ and at the end of the day the government struggles to find more resources not just for capital expenditure but also revenue expenditure. In the long run the uncontrolled fiscal deficit will hurt economic growth. See to know more about this fiscal deficit and what all it does just look into the Hindu news analysis of our academy on the date 3rd February 2022 that is yesterday's video okay. Now let us see some of the measures from the expenditure side and the revenue side that are envisaged by the government to achieve fiscal consolidation. Firstly improved tax revenue realization for this increasing efficiency of tax administration by reducing tax avoidance eliminating tax evasion enhancing tax compliance etc are to be made. Secondly enhancing tax GDP ratio by widening the tax base and minimizing tax concessions and exemptions also improves tax revenues. Thirdly better targeting of government subsidies and extending the direct benefit transfer scheme for more subsidies. See all these measures from both expenditure side as well as revenue side are taken by the government in order to achieve fiscal consolidation. See higher tax revenues will help government to get higher economic growth rate. So augmentation of the tax revenue is necessary to bring fiscal consolidation as there are limitations for reducing government expenditure in India. Now coming back to the article let us see what are all the challenges that are in front of the government. The first challenge is specific to the pandemic and it is pertain to the need of undertaking policies that boost labor income and consumption expenditure. The second challenge is pertain to addressing the structural constraints of the Indian economy. See the structural constraint of the Indian economy restricted the growth even during the pre-pandemic period that is before the covid scenario. Having seen the challenges now let us see what are all the shortcomings of the measures announced in the current budget. Firstly the objective of fiscal consolidation has been set to be achieved primarily by reducing the expenditure GDP ratio. See in this image here it shows a list of various expenditures such as total capital revenue expenditures and in the year 2021 to 2022 as per the revised estimates revenue expenditure was reduced compared to the previous year. From this we can say that the burden of reducing the government expenditure fell on revenue expenditure. Continuing with the fiscal strategy adopted in the last two years since the pandemic the allocation of capital expenditure as a share of GDP has been marginally increased in 2022 to 2023 as compared to 2021 to 2022. See here the additional capital expenditure can be financed either by postponing fiscal consolidation process or by increasing revenue but the budget has sought to achieve fiscal consolidation by reducing the allocation for revenue expenditure to the GDP ratio. Secondly see the bulk of the revenue expenditure comprises of food subsidies and current expenses in social and economic services. So the reduction in the allocation for revenue expenditure is associated with the fall in several key expenditure that affect the income and livelihood of labour. You can see from this image here how the spending has reduced in different sectors such as social services, health, rural development and agriculture. See here in this image the allocation for both agriculture and allied activities and rural development registered a sharp decline in the year 2022 to 2023 as compared to 2021 to 2022. Similarly in the middle of the ongoing pandemic total nominal expenditure on medical and public health registered a sharp fall in the year 2022 to 2023 as compared to 2021 to 2022. Such expenditure reduction is largely associated with the overall fall in the allocation for total social sector expenditure. Thirdly despite sharp increase in profits during the pandemic the corporate tax GDP ratio has continued to remind below the 2018 to 2019 level. This is mainly due to the tax concessions. The last decade registered a sharp rise in the share of corporate tax concession in GDP. This you can see in this image here see the red line here represents the tax concessions and note that it reached its peak by 2020 to 2021 that is it achieved 3.9 percentage and also note that corporate tax GDP ratio registered a decline particularly since 2018 to 2019 when the corporate tax ratio declined sharply and immediately from 3.5 percentage to 2.7 percentage. This decline in tax payment reflects the tax concessions given by the government. Fourthly the objective of fiscal consolidation along with the inability to increase revenue receipts has posed a constraint on development expenditure. Here we should know about what is this development expenditure. See it refers to expenditure on activities which are directly related to economic and social development of the country. For instance expenditure incurred on education, health, housing, agriculture and industrial development, then rural development, social welfare, scientific research all this comes under development expenditure. See with the non-development expenditure comprising of interest payments administrative expenditure the burden of expenditure compression has fallen on development expenditure. See from this image you can learn the trend and share of centers development expenditure. See the development expenditure is calculated as the sum of expenditures on social services and economic services. Okay see this image shows a sharp decline in the development expenditure ratio till the advent of the pandemic in 2019 to 2020 but the fiscal stimulus implemented in the first year of the pandemic brought about a brief recovery in 2020 to 2021 and again the fiscal consolidation strategy carried out in the last year has once again led the development expenditure ratio to slide downward. The reduction in the allocation of development expenditure ratio for 2020 to 2023 reflects reduction in the allocation for food subsidies, national rural employment guarantee program and expenditure in agriculture, rural development and social sector. So these are some of the issues in the budget regarding the fiscal consolidation. See we all know that every economic crisis involves sharp production in output growth rates but the specificity of the present crisis in India lies in the sharper reduction in labor income as compared to profits and this reduction in the income share of labor is associated with a sharp fall in the consumption GDP ratio and this also results in the reduction of absolute value of consumption expenditure during the pandemic. While the GDP in 2021 to 2022 is estimated to attain the pre-pandemic level the real consumption expenditure remains lower as compared to 2019 to 2020. The sharp decline in the labor income and consumption expenditure witnessed during the pandemic turned out to be the longest episode of growth slowdown in the Indian economy since the liberalization period. At this time the budget projected a fiscal deficit of 6.4 percentage and it has reduced the development and revenue expenditure. So the recovery of labor income and consumption expenditure will be largely restricted by the manner in which fiscal consolidation has been carried out. This is because reduction in the allocation of the development expenditure will have adverse impact on labor income and consumption expenditure and the positive impact of higher capital expenditure on the recovery process will be largely curtailed by the adverse impact of fall in revenue expenditure. See given the fiscal consolidation strategy of the government the prospect and extent of economic revival the present remains heavily dependent on external demand. So Indian economy needs an effective policy instrument that boosts the labor income and aggregate demand. So that's all about this news article discussion. In this we saw about fiscal deficit then we saw what is fiscal consolidation and how to achieve fiscal consolidation then what are all the challenges that we face during fiscal consolidation and finally we saw the shortcomings in the measures announced in the budget to achieve this fiscal consolidation. With these key points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Now take a look at this news article according to this article minister Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha that India plans to execute the Chandrayan 3 mission this August. See the Chandrayan 3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayan 2 of July 2019 which aimed to land a rover on the lunar south pole and it is also said that the progress of realization of Chandrayan 3 is based on the learnings from Chandrayan 2 and suggestions made by the national level experts. The minister also said that the delay is attributed to pandemic linked constraints and a re-prioritization of projects. This is the crux of the article given here and in this context let us learn about Chandrayan 3 and we'll also see a comparison between the three missions that is Chandrayan 1, 2 and 3. Firstly let us see about Chandrayan 3. Chandrayan 3 is the third mission to moon by the ISRO after its land rover failed to soft land on the surface of the moon in 2019 which is the Chandrayan 2 mission. See the same year the Israeli parachute had also crashed on the surface of the moon. The main objective of the mission Chandrayan 3 is to soft land on the surface of the moon. If it happens it will make India the fourth country to do so and the first country to do it near the lunar south pole. See south pole has a greater significance than the north pole and here the lunar surface area remains in shadow and there is a higher probability of the presence of water and fossil records. Why because it is the coldest place on the moon and generally this place remains in shadow. Also note that south pole has craters that are extremely cold and contains fossil records. See Chandrayan 1 got the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface in the year 2012 which was confirmed later by NASA. Therefore Chandrayan 2 is a second lunar mission of India which will further study on the lunar surface of south region. See it is said that the third mission is mostly similar to the second one which is the Chandrayan 2 mission but the third mission will carry only a modified lander and rover and will use the orbiter of the Chandrayan 2 mission to communicate with the earth. See what happened in the second mission? In the second mission during the 15 minutes powered descent in 2019 from 100 kilometer round orbit around the moon to its surface the reduction in the velocity was actually more than planned which actually resulted in the spacecraft crash landing. So it is said that from these learnings modifications are done accordingly to the Chandrayan 3. Now let us see the comparative analysis of the three lunar missions by Indian Space Research Organization. Firstly let us see about the mission objective. For Chandrayan 1 the objectives are to place an unmanned spacecraft in an orbit around the moon and to conduct mineralogical and chemical mapping of the lunar surface and finally to upgrade the technological base in the country. For Chandrayan 2 the objective is to understand the history of our solar system and moon then to know about the origin and evolution of moon then to study about the lunar surface of south region related to water presence mapping of the moon and elemental study. Next for Chandrayan 3 the objective is similar to the second mission. Now we will see the difference between the three based on the second criteria which is the launch vehicle. See for Chandrayan 1 the spacecraft was carried by PSLV. For Chandrayan 2 the spacecraft was carried by GSLV MK3 and for Chandrayan 3 it is to be carried we have to wait and see. Now the third criteria that we have chosen for differentiating the three is the components. For Chandrayan 1 it carried payload consisting of several scientific instruments into the lunar orbit then for Chandrayan 2 it consisted of an orbiter, a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan and for Chandrayan 3 it will consist of only a lander and a rover and it will use the orbiter of Chandrayan 2. Now that's all about this article. Keep all these points in mind and it will be very useful for answering your problems based question. These key points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this last news article it talks about the issues associated with the destruction of elephant corridor by infrastructure projects such as roadways and railways. In this context let us learn about the issues in the elephant conservation and let us see some of the solutions to these issues. Now let's start a discussion. Elephants despite recognized as a national heritage animal and given the strictest level of protection under the law is in a lot of trouble in India today. The elephants were facing a far more serious problem than ivory poaching which is nothing but the fragmentation of their habitat. See the elephant corridors connect to these habitats that are crucial in maintaining the genetic diversity of the Asian elephants. So it is nothing but a corridor that is connecting two different forest areas or the elephant reserve areas okay that is called as elephant corridor. And these elephant corridor functions as a landscape element to facilitate their species movement from this side to another side of the elephant reserve or the forest area. For example, elephant corridors ensure elephant populations in the western and eastern Ghats to mingle and breed thereby maintaining the genetic diversity of the species. Now what is the problem here? See the large scale infrastructure projects like Paikara hydraulic scheme of Tamil Nadu caused a damage to the Nilgiri's biosphere reserve and elephant pathways. Note that India is home to around half the population of Asian elephants while South India is home to half of India's elephant population. So securing these elephant corridors becomes extremely important. So what are these infrastructure projects doing? See these infrastructure projects are interrupting the pathway or the reserve in which the elephant species are surviving. Yes thus it is fragmenting the habitat of the elephant. Now let us discuss some of the solutions to safeguard the elephant habitat. First and foremost thing is to safeguard the elephant corridor. But how to safeguard it? See infrastructure projects like roadways and railways are crucial for development. For any economy especially for developing an economy like India but at the same time it is crucial to ensure that the projects don't disturb the habitat of animals because it will lead to fragmentation of their habitat which in turn will result in decline of the population of animals. In this case it is the elephant species which is getting deteriorated. So firstly it is advisable not to disturb at least the corridor that is connecting the reserves or the forest areas or the habitats. Because the corridor is something that protects the already disturbed areas or the already fragmented areas. When we start an infrastructure projects in the corridor which is already meant for protecting because further damage to the elephant habitat. Then what else can be done to overcome this issue? See we can construct an overpass or underpass so that the movement of elephants will not be hampered. Look at this image. See this is how the overpass will be. It will be full of plant species in order to attract the elephant to enable it to have a free movement without any disruptions. And look at this underpass no. So when we have some railway project or road project we can have an underpass so that the elephant species can easily move through and we can avoid elephants due to collision in the railway tracks or in the roadways. Now we will see the conservation status of the ancient elephants. This is purely with respect to the prelims point of view. See ancient elephant is granted the highest protection in the wildlife protection act 1972 that is it is listed in schedule one of the wildlife protection act 1972. Also ancient elephant has been listed as endangered on the IUCN red list and also it is listed in the appendix one of these sites that is convention on international trading endangered species of wild fauna and flora. Now that's all about this news article. With these key points in mind now let us move on to the prelims practice question answer discussion. Now look at this first question. It is regarding our first article discussion that is POXO act 2012. See this is a two statement type question so you have to go through both the statements and then only conclude your answer. Okay see here the first statement is correct because this feature is exactly mentioned in the POXO act that is in some cases such as when a child is mentally ill the sexual assault is considered aggravated even if someone in a position of trust such as a doctor teacher police officer or family member abuses the victim this is exactly present in the POXO act itself. So statement one is correct. Statement two is also correct. See this is an additional information that I haven't mentioned in the feature is adequate provisions are made to avoid re-victimization of the child at the hands of the judicial system and in order to ensure that these steps are taken in a child friendly manner the act even assigns a policeman in the role of child protector during the investigating process. See I'll mention few more important feature in this act please make a note of it. The act templates that the case must be disposed of within one year from the date of reporting of the offense then the act also provides for the establishment of special codes for the trial of such offenses and matters related to it. Now coming back to the question we are asking for correct statements so your answer will be option C both one and two are correct. Now take up the second question this is with regarding to the Jinna Tower discussion since it is a three statement question just go through the options and find whether you can apply the elimination technique. Here the statement three is mentioned in three options so first go for reading the statement three. Jinna Tower is a landmark monument in the city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab the statement is absolutely incorrect because we saw that Jinna Tower is located in the city of Guntur in the state of Andhra Pradesh so statement three is correct eliminate all the options and you'll get the answer which is option A two only is the correct statement but just for you to confirm the answer go through the rest of the statements also look at the first statement Muhammad Ali Jinna founded all India Muslim League in 1906 no it is wrong it was founded by Nawab Kuwaja Salimullah in 1906. Jinna joined the league only in 1913. Now look at the second statement Jinna became the first governor general of Pakistan the statement is absolutely correct as the father of Pakistan also became the first governor general of Pakistan so your answer will be option A two only. Now look at the third question it is regarding Chandra in three it is a two statement question so you have to go through both these statements first statement it is incorrect because the spacecraft will land on the south pole and not the north pole this is because the south pole has greater significance than the north pole and here the lunar surface area remains in shadow and there is a higher probability of the presence of water and fossil records because it is the coldest place on the moon and generally this place remains in shadow okay. Now look at the second statement it is also incorrect because in our discussion we saw that Chandra in three will only have a lander and a rover and it will use the orbiter from Chandra in two and look at the question now it is asking for correct statement here neither of them are correct so your answer will be option D neither one nor two. Now look at the last question it is also a two statement question it is regarding our elephant conservation discussion okay the first statement is incorrect why see Karnataka has the highest number of elephants that is 6049 followed by Assam and then Kerala so Kerala does not have the highest elephant population only Karnataka is first Kerala is coming third so statement one is incorrect now look at the second statement it is correct because we saw that in the IUCN red list the Asian elephant species is marked as endangered so read the complete question it is asking for correct statement so your answer here will be option B two only is the correct statement displayed here is a prelims quiz question see this is regarding our non-performing as our discussion that is NPA discussion this is a very easy question if you had gone through the discussion terribly you can easily answer this please go through this question and post your answers in the comment section and now look at this question this is a main question regarding our discussion on fiscal consolidation go through this question and write your answers and post it in the comment section if you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to our Shankara A's Academy YouTube channel thank you