 Greetings, aspirants, welcome to Shankar's summary for UPSC prelims 2023. In this particular initiative, we are trying to consolidate all the current events in the format of MCQ, so that it will be easy for you to revise for your preliminary examination. In that line, we have already made two videos previously. I request you to watch that video also. In this particular video, we are going to solve MCQs for the month August 2022. So displayed here are the list of MCQs that we are going to solve. So we will just solve the questions. Now look at this question about Lingayats. Three statements are given. You have to choose the incorrect statement here. The first statement says that they bury their body. Second statement says they are great believers of caste system. Third statement says that they are against child marriage and favor widow remarriage. What will be the correct answer? Before seeing that, we will have a basic understanding about Lingayats. Who are Lingayats? Lingayats continue to be an important community in Karnataka to date. They worship Shiva in his manifestation as a linga and men usually wear a small linga. Linga in a silver case on a loop, shrunk over the left shoulder. Those who are revered include the jangama or wandering monks. Lingayats believe that on death, the devotee will be united with Shiva and will not return to this world. Therefore, they do not practice funerary rites like cremation prescribed in Dharmasastra. Instead, they ceremonially bury their body. They also question the theory of rebirth. So here the statement one is actually correct. Secondly, the Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the pollution attributed to certain groups by Brahmins. These warned them followers amongst those who are marginalized within the Brahminical social order. The Lingayats also encouraged certain practices disapproved in the Dharmasastra like post puberty marriage and the remarriage of widows. So here the second statement is wrong and the third statement in the question is correct. So the correct answer for the question is option B2 only. Because the question asks only the incorrect statement here. Here second statement is alone incorrect. So the correct answer is option B2 only. Now just to have a better understanding, let us understand the difference between the terms Lingayatism and Virasivism. See they have been used synonymously but they are not the same. Virasivism refers to the broader Virasiva philosophy and theology as well as the movement. Virasivism is spread across Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kralangana. Why Lingayatism refers to the modern community sect or caste that adheres to this philosophy. Hope you can understand the difference. Now remember Panchacharyas founded Virasivas almost about 5,500 to 6,000 years ago. These Panchacharyas are the five gurus who apparently incarnated directly from Shiva Linga and established the Virasiva religion and philosophy. Remember Virasivas are the followers of the five Pidas that is religious centers called Panchapitas. They are Kashi Mutt, Rameshwaram Mutt, Ujain Mutt, Rambapura Mutt and Sri Shaila Mutt. These Pidas are set up on similar lines to the four Pidas set up by Adi Shankara. They consider Siddhanta Shikamani as their holy book. The Virasiva faith is identical to the Brahminical belief that they are born from the years of Brahma. This definitely did not form the foundation of Basavanas thought. Basavanas had rejected all such Brahminical notions. So from broader Vaishnavas, Lingayats split in the 12th century. So the tradition of Lingayatism is known to have been founded by social reformer and philosopher Basavanas in 12th century Karnataka. Basavanas religious movement was during the reign of King Vijala too. In Karnataka was characterized by the dominance of Brahminical Hindu values, a social system based on caste restrictions and a feudal economy. The Lingayats emerged as a reactionary force against Hinduism in the 12th century. While it rejected most of the broad Hindu traditions, it also assimilated aspects of it. Lingayats are followers of Basavana and the Shrena writers whose philosophy is expressed in thousands of Vaishnavas. Vaishnavas is nothing but compositions. In several Vaishnavas, the Shrena's have rejected the Vedas, Sastras, Simnathis and Upanishads. Apart from this, they rejected faith in Karma based on caste and denied the concept of Pabha and Punya which was based on Karma. And they also rejected the notion of heaven and hell as based on Pabha and Punya. They scorned temple and idol worship and they rejected the phallic Linga symbol of Shiva and opted for Ishtalinga which represents inner conscience. Worship is centered on Shiva as the universal god in the iconographic form of Ishtalinga. Lingayatism emphasizes Qualified Monism. Qualified Monism is a school of Vedanta philosophy which believes in all diversity subsumed to an underlying unity. It is non-dualism of the Qualified whole in which Brahman alone exists but is characterized by multiplicity. To be specific, this philosophy is known as Vishisadvaita Ramonija who was the 11th to 12th century philosopher was the main proponent of this Vishisadvaita philosophy. They declared that work was worship and tried to break the barriers of caste by inter-caste dining. They fought against discrimination on the basis of gender and birth. They also abhorred superstitions. They ignored Sanskrit which was understood by very few and addressed the people in Kannada. So these are all some of the very important points that you have to note about Lingayats. Lingayats was frequently in use. That is why I took a valuable time to explain about them fully. So the correct answer for the question is option B2 only. Look at this question. Here a location is given. Parsi Baggan square in Kolkata. And you have to find which of the statements is correct about the place. Now before that we as Indians celebrated our 75th Independence Day on August 15, 2022. On that backdrop only this question is asked. Most importantly our government announced an initiative to make the day better. It is nothing but the Hargar Trianga initiative. See our relationship with the flag has always been more formal and institutional than personal. So the initiative envisages inspiring Indians. Everywhere to hoist their national flag at their home. So the idea behind the initiative is to invoke the feeling of patriotism in the hearts of the people. And to promote awareness about the Indian national flag. Apart from this it also aims to invoke a sense of ownership in the people. And to celebrate Azadika Amrit Mahotsav in the spirit of Jan Bahidari. Which is nothing but community participation. So with this basic understanding let us quickly go through the evolution of our Indian flag. See the history of Indian flag dates back to pre-independence era. It was between 1904 and 1906 that the first Indian flag came into existence. It was made by Sister Nivedita who was an Irish disciple of Swami Vivehananda. And the flag looks like this. After Sister Nivedita's flag another flag was designed in 1906. It was a tricolor with three equal strips of blue, yellow and red. You can see that here. But later in 1906 another flag came into existence which was hoisted on August 7, 1906 at an anti-partition rally in Parsi Bakhan Square in Kolkata. This tricolor is believed to have been designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra. So what is the correct answer for the question here? The correct answer for the question is option A, the Indian national flag is said to have been hoisted for the first time here. Now coming back after this 1906 the very next year in 1907 an Indian flag was hoisted in Germany. It was called as the Berlin Committee Flag and it was collectively designed by Madam Dikaji Kama, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in short called as Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Vamma. Remember this was the first Indian flag to be hoisted in a foreign land. Another flag came into existence in 1917 Dr. Andy Vicent and Lokmanya Tilak hoisted it during the home rule movement demanding dominion status. See after this tricolor flag came into being the design of the Indian tricolor is largely attributed to Pingali Venkaya. He is an Indian freedom fighter who reportedly first met Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War. In 1916 he even published a book with possible designs of Indian flags. At the All India Conference Committee in Beswada in 1921 Venkaya again met Gandhi and proposed a basic design of the flag consisting of two red and green bands to symbolize the two major communities Hindu and Muslims. Gandhi arguably suggested adding a white band to represent peace and the rest of the communities living in India and the spinning wheel to symbolize the progress of the country. But some people were not happy with the communal interpretation of the flag keeping this in mind a new flag was designed. The color of the flag was changed to saffron white and green. At last our national flag came into existence when India attained independence a committee headed by Dr. Rajendra Prasad was formed to select the national flag of India. The committee adopted the Swaraj flag with a slight change as the flag of independent India. The Chakra in the middle was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra and hence our present national flag came into existence now that our national flag has no religious interpretation. Saffron on the top symbolizes strength and courage white in the middle represents peace and truth and green at the bottom stands for fertility, growth and aspeciesness of the land. The Ashoka Chakra with 24 spokes is intended to show that there is life in moment and death in stagnation. So this is how our Indian national flag evolved. Since Hargar Trianga initiative was in news knowing about the evolution of national flag is very important there might be a question and problems. That is why we have chosen this question. The correct answer for the question is option A. Look at this question. This question is about monsoon. Four statements are given. You have to find which factor actually influences monsoon. Now I framed this question because already in the year 2012 UPSC has asked about the characteristics of monsoon like duration and rainfall across the Indian territory. That is why. Now the first factor mentioned here in the question is intense heating of Tibetan Plateau. Does this factor has potential to influence monsoon? Yes, the first factor is correct. It does influence Indian monsoon. Now if you have doubt how intense heating in Tibetan Plateau influence Indian monsoon. See this intense heating in Tibetan Plateau results in strong vertical air currents and the formation of low pressure over the Plateau. This belt of low pressure sucks in moisture from the oceans thus initiating the monsoon. So the first factor is correct. Now the second factor mentioned here is Indian Ocean Dipole. The second factor is also correct. This IOD affects Indian monsoon in both positive and negative way. A positive IOD leads to greater monsoon rainfall and more active monsoon days in Indian subcontinent. A negative IOD leads to less rainfall and more monsoon break days. Monsoon break days means no rainfall days. Now the third factor here is El Nino and La Nina. We all know this influences the Indian monsoon. El Nino weakens the southeast trade winds that travel to the inter-tropical convergence zone over India. This weakening of trade winds is due to the warming of tropical Pacific Ocean. So if trade winds are weakened then obviously Indian monsoon will also be weakened. So that will be less rainfall during El Nino. The opposite is the La Nina. During La Nina monsoon intensifies in the Indian subcontinent. So they both influence the Indian monsoon. Now the final factor given here is presence of tropical easterly jet stream in Peninsular India. Now here you might get a little bit of confusion. See it is found that the moment of the westerly jet stream to the north of the Himalayas and the presence of tropical easterly jet stream over the Indian Peninsular during summer affects monsoon. So here all the factors influences Indian monsoon in one way or the other. So the correct answer for the question is option C, 1, 2, 3 and 4. But let us say that the question is about the favorable factors for Indian monsoon. Then what would be the answer? It would be intense heating of Davidian Platu, positive IOD, La Nina presence of tropical easterly jet stream in Peninsular India. I am saying this because IOD and El Nino affects the Indian monsoon in a negative way. So understanding the question carefully before attending it is very important ok. So the correct answer for the question here is option C, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Now moving on, this question is about Ostrow account. You have to find which statement is the best description of the term. And to answer this question first we should know what is Ostrow account. See Ostrow account is an account that a domestic bank holds for a foreign bank in the domestic bank's currency. Now there is another term called Nostrow account. See both the Ostrow and Nostrow are technically the same type of account with a different being who opens the account and where. So for example, if SBA wants to open an account in the US it will get in touch with a bank in the US which will open a Nostrow account and accepts payment from SBA in dollars. The account opened by SBA in the US will be a Nostrow account for the SBA. Why? For the US bank the account will be considered as Ostrow account. Hope you can understand the concept. Now to make understand things better let me explain how these accounts work. I'll tell you using an example. Let's say bank X in the United States has a customer who wants to buy goods from a supplier in India. Bank X does not have Indian rupee on hand but they have a Nostrow account at Bank Y in India. So they will use this Nostrow account in India to complete the transaction. But Bank X will transfer the necessary amount of US dollar to their Nostrow account at Bank Y. Then Bank Y converts the dollars into rupees and transfers the funds to the suppliers account in India. So here there will be no currency exchange risk. This is the most important advantage of the Ostrow and Nostrow account. So the correct answer here is option A. Account used by domestic banks to provide international banking services to their clients. So now moving on. This is a map based question. We have to arrange the cities in the correct direction. Four important cities are given here. Pengu Islands, Taipei, Koyosung, Kaohsiung then Tainan. See to solve this question first of all you should know the location of these cities. Now look at this map here. You can find all the cities mentioned in the question right. First of all you should identify which region is this. Yes it is the China Sea and the island is Taiwan. So the question here is about important cities in Taiwan only. Okay. Pengo Island is situated to the west of Taiwan. Taipei is located in the north. Kaohsiung is situated in the south and Tainan is little above Kaohsiung. So the south to north order is Kaohsiung, Tainan, Penguai Island and Taipei. So the correct answer for the question is option C 3 4 1 & 2. See I have framed this question because UPC has asked many map based questions. Two such examples are given here. These questions are asked in the year 2014. One is about the location of Turkey and the other one is about the location of major cities of Southeast Asian countries. Now you know the importance of knowing about the map based details of important region right. Before moving to the next question let us see some detail about Taiwan. Taiwan is located at the edge of the south China seas shipping lanes. It is positioned 100 miles east of China from the south it is 200 miles from the Philippines and 900 miles from Vietnam and the spotlight islands. It is linked to the north with their IQ islands and lies 700 miles from Japan's home island. Historically Taiwan's pivotal location has served a variety of strategic purposes for regional powers both as offensive and defensive location and in the contemporary era Taiwan remains geographically at the intersection of most of the east Asia's danger points. So the operation in Taiwan will impact the world order in a larger scale. The only power that presently threatens the peace and stability of the region are the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and People's Republic of China. This is the reason why we saw about Taiwan's location today. Okay? So the correct answer for the question here is option C 341 and 2. Now moving on look at this question. This question is about hydrocarbon exploration and licensing policy in short called as HELP. Now before that what are hydrocarbons? See hydrocarbons are organic compounds that consist of hydrogen and carbon atoms. They are primary constituents of fossil fuels like crude oil, natural gas and coal. Some of the significant uses of hydrocarbons include they are extensively used as a source of energy. For example coal is used to generate electricity right. Then they are used as raw material in various industries including petrochemical, plastic and synthetic rubbers. Apart from this hydrocarbons are essential for transportation, powering vehicles like car, truck, ships and aeroplanes and they are used for heating and cooking in many households. For example natural gas is a popular choice for cooking while propane is used in outdoor grills and camping stops. So with this basic understanding now coming to HELP policy see the hydrocarbon exploration and licensing policy HELP is a policy initiative introduced by the Indian government to promote exploration and production of hydrocarbons in India. Now let us see the features of HELP policy. First is revenue sharing model. See under the HELP policy companies are required to share a percentage of their revenue with the government. Now the revenue share is determined through a competitive bidding process. Then there is a single license for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons. That is any company needs only a single license to explore and produce both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons in a given area. Then the open acreage policy allows companies to choose the areas they want to explore and produce. They don't have to wait for the government to offer specific blocks through bidding rounds. Companies can submit expression of interest EOI for any area and the government will put the area up for bidding. Then the policy allows companies to freely market and price their hydrocarbons subject to certain conditions. This gives companies greater flexibility in selling their product. Now read the question again. Statement 1 says under HELP separate licenses were issued for exploring different types of hydrocarbons. But actually HELP provides for a uniform licensing system that will cover all hydrocarbons like oil, gas and cold bed methane. So Statement 1 is incorrect. Now the second statement says under HELP oil companies can select blocks of their choice. This statement is actually correct. The open acreage policy allows companies to choose the areas they want to explore and produce. So the correct answer for the question is Option A 1-1-D because the first statement alone is incorrect here. Now moving on this particular question is about the recent reintroduction of cheetah in Indian Territory. The first statement says that cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952. Yes this statement is actually correct. One of the main aim of project cheetah is to bring back independent India's only extinct large mammal the cheetah. Cheetah happens to be the only large carnivore that caught completely wiped out from India. The main reason for this are over hunting and habitat loss. Now coming to the second statement cheetahs are going to be translocated from only Namibia. Look at this statement here only is given so you have to be extra cautious while answering this statement. Actually this statement is incorrect because already we got two batches of cheetah. The first batch of 8 cheetahs reached India on September 17, 2022 they were from Namibia and the second batch of 12 cheetahs reached India on February 18, 2023 they were from South Africa. But one of them died due to kidney infection so this statement is actually incorrect. Now look at this third statement Kuno National Park of Madhya Pradesh is the only national park recommended for holding and conservation breeding of cheetah in India. See this statement is also incorrect. Just now I said we got two batches right. The first batch was from Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi into Kuno National Park. The second batch of cheetah were released by Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan into the quarantine enclosure of Kuno National Park. But remember the Kuno National Park is not the only park which was recommended for holding and conservation breeding of cheetah in India. As per government data initially 10 sites of the central Indian states were provided for this purpose. But among these 10 sites Kuno Pallpur National Park KNP in Madhya Pradesh has been rated the highest. That is why first two batches were released there. Other sites recommended for holding and conservation breeding of cheetah in India in controlled wild conditions include Naura Dehi Wildlife Sanctuary Madhya Pradesh Gandhi Sahar Wildlife Sanctuary Bains Rogark Wildlife Sanctuary In Madhya Pradesh Shahgarh Bulge in Jaisalwar Rajasthan and finally Mukuntara Tiger Reserv as fenced enclosure Rajasthan. Correct answer for the questioner is option B213 only because these two statements are incorrect statements. These type of topics are very important. I am saying this because UPSC has already asked a question like this in 2017. It is about the trans location from Gujarat so this understanding now let us move on to the next question look at this question this question is about MCLR two statements are given first statement says that banks prepare marginal cost of funds based lending rate MCLR which is the internal benchmark lending rate see actually this statement is correct the marginal cost of funds based lending rate which is in short called as MCLR refers to the minimum interest rate of a bank below which it cannot lend except in some cases alone by the RBI it is an internal benchmark or reference rate for the bank MCLR actually describes the method by which the minimum interest rate for load is determined by a bank on the basis of marginal cost or the additional or the incremental cost of arranging one more rupee to the prospective borrower the MCLR methodology for fixing interest rates for advances was introduced by the Reserve Bank of India with effect from April 1 2016 this new methodology replaced the base rate system introduced in July 2010 in other words all rupee loans sanctioned and credit limits renewed with effect from April 1 2016 would be priced with reference to the marginal cost of funds based lending rate in short called as MCLR which will be the internal benchmark meaning a reference rate determined internally by the bank for such purposes so with this understanding now let us see the second statement of the question based on this rate interest rate for different types of customers is being fixed in accordance with their riskness actually this is exactly MCLR so here the correct answer for the question is option C both one and two now moving on this question is about bisnoi moment four statements are given you have to choose which of the statements given here or true about bisnoi moment okay first statement says the prominent leader of the moment was Amrita Devi statement two it organized in present day Rajasthan in the 1700s statement three it is one of the first organized movements of ecological conservation and the fourth statement is all of the above statements are true actually the correct answer for the question is option D all of the above statements are true see bisnois or a group of people from Rajasthan who have been living in harmony with nature for centuries they believe in protecting the environment wildlife and plants as part of their sacred traditions the founder of the bisnoi sect Jamboji believed that human interference with nature was causing drought and hardship in the area so he laid down 29 principles for his followers one of them is being compassionate to all living being and not cutting down green trees one incident that highlights the bisnoi devotion to nature is the kejarali massacre in the 1700s the king of Jodhpur wanted to build a new palace and ordered his men to cut down the trees around the village of Jalnadi Amrita Devi who was a bisnoi woman saw this and tried to stop them by hugging a tree sadly she was killed by the men but her sacrifice inspired over 350 bisnois to protect the trees with their lives by the end of the day more than 363 bisnois had lost their lives the king of Jodhpur felt bad when he heard about this and personally came to the village to apologize he promised that the bisnois would never be asked to provide timber to the ruler no kejri tree would be cut and hunting would be banned near the bisnoi villages that's how the village of Jalnadi came to be called kejarali and this moment is what called the bisnoi movement so here the correct answer for the question is option d all the statements are correct now look at this question this question is about borah caves the borah caves sometimes in news are located in which of the following hills four hills are given here the correct answer for the question is option b Anantagiri hills now we shall see few facts about borah caves see as i already said borah caves are located in the Anantagiri hills of the Arakku valley the Anantagiri hills are part of the eastern guards and are located in Andhra Pradesh borah caves are over a million years old borah caves are basically a limestone cave they are one of the largest and deepest caves in India also know that borah caves are discovered by William King George of the geological survey of India in 1807 having seen about the borah caves now let us revise some geographical basics i mentioned earlier that these borah caves or limestone caves right so what are these limestone caves see limestone caves are hollow formations that are formed by dissolution of limestone remember pure rainwater does not dissolve water but when the rainwater is mixed with carbon dioxide it turns into mild carbonic acid and this weak carbonic acid dissolves limestones so in areas of limestone topography which is called cast topography the weak carbonic acid formed slowly dissolves the limestone along the joints, bending planes and fractures therefore over a period of time the small fractures develop into large caves now while talking about limestone we also need to learn about two geographical features one is stalacite and the other is stalagmites i said that weak carbonic acid formed by rainwater and CO2 dissolves limestone right see this weak carbonic acid dissolves the limestone by percolating down the soil sometimes the carbonic acid may reach the underground cave formation in the cave degassing occurs here the term degassing refers to the liberation of gases from liquids so due to degassing carbonic acid loses its CO2 content and turns into pure water the pure water cannot dissolve limestone so the dissolved limestone starts precipitating out this phenomenon results in the formation of stalacites and stalagmites now look at this image here when the precipitation happens in the ceiling of the cave it forms stalacites the stalacites hang from the ceiling of the cave so the stalacites are downward dripping and when the precipitation happens on the floor of the cave it forms stalagmites so stalagmite is an upward growing mount of limestone deposits on the floor of a cave okay so here the correct answer for the question is option B Anantakiri Hills look at this question about energy conservation amendment act 2022 now i have framed this question because UPSC will ask the important amendment tax also this question in 2019 prevalence is about the maternity benefit amendment act 2017 so we have to prepare no that is why we are going to learn about the energy conservation amendment act 2022 first we'll solve the question and then we'll learn some important provisions of the amendment act 2022 now look at this first statement the amendment act 2022 empowers essential government to specify a carbon credit trading scheme see this statement is actually correct the act empowers the central government to specify a carbon credit trading scheme now remember the main aim of the carbon credit trading scheme is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions thereby addressing climate change now that carbon credit trading scheme is not it notified meaning it is not it functional now look at the second statement the term carbon credit is defined in the energy conservation amendment act 2022 see this statement might seem to be correct but it is wrong both the principal and the amendment act do not define the term carbon credit generally carbon credit refers to a tradable permit allowing the holder to emit a specific amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases also know that central government or any authorized agency may issue carbon credit certificates to registered entities who are compliant with the carbon credit trading scheme amendment act also empowers persons other than the designated consumer to purchase a carbon credit certificate on a voluntary basis so the second statement is actually incorrect now look at the third statement the carbon credit training scheme is the first ever trading mechanism brought under the energy conservation sector see this statement is actually incorrect as far as energy conservation sector is concerned this is not the first trading mechanism we have others also for example we have the perform achieve trade pat scheme another scheme energy savings achieved by notified industries is converted into a tradable instrument called energy saving certificates the energy saving certificates after issuance by the bureau of energy efficiency are traded at power exchanges similar to pat renewable energy certificate under the electricity act 2003 is also a trading scheme operational in the energy sector in india so the correct answer for the question is option a1 only now let us see other important provisions of the amendment act 2022 see the act 2022 empowers the central government to specify minimum share of conception of non-fossil sources by designated consumers as energy or feedstock know that the consumers are liable to pay a penalty of up to rupees 10 lakh for failure of compliance to the provisions now regarding the codes for buildings see the amendment act substitutes energy conservation and sustainable building code for the energy conservation building codes in the principal act another change is that earlier the code was applicable to only commercial buildings but now the scope has been expanded to include buildings used or intended to be used as an office building or for residential purpose finally prior to the amendment act the energy conservation standards were specified for equipment and appliances but now it is expanded to include vehicles and vessels including ships and boats so here the right answer for the option a1 only now moving on look at this question about foreigners tribunal first we'll understand about it and then we'll solve the question see the foreigners tribunal is a quasi judicial body the purpose of the tribunal is to decide whether the person under question is a foreigner or not according to the foreigners act 1964 an order was issued by the central government namely foreigners tribunal order 1964 based on this order only the tribunals are established and know that this order has been amended twice once in 2013 and again in 2019 know that the order's amendments all these are applicable to the whole country and are not specific to any state according to section nine of the foreigners act 1946 it is the responsibility of the person to prove that he or she is an Indian citizen by providing necessary documents that is the individual in question has to provide evidence to prove his citizenship in the tribunals also note that an appeal against the order of the foreigners tribunal can be made only in the high courts there are quite a qualification of people who can become a member of the foreigners tribunal is given here you can go through it now let us see who can set up these tribunals see earlier the power to constitute tribunal was vested only with the center after the ministry of home affairs amended the foreigners tribunals order into 2019 district magistrates in all states and union territories or empowered to set up these tribunals and know that as of now foreigners tribunal or only in this is because nrc work is going on only in now coming back to the question the first statement says that foreigners tribunals or established only in the statement is actually correct now the second statement says foreigners tribunal order 1964 issued by the central government under section three of the foreigners act 1946 is applicable only to the state of this statement is incorrect the order is applicable to the entire country so here the correct answer for the question is option a one only now moving on this question is about gene or genome editing this topic is a very important topic because we have two previous questions in this particular topic alone this first question about ces9 protein was asked in 2019 brilliance ces9 protein is a molecular scissor used in targeted gene editing this another question here the question about genome sequencing was asked in 2017 upsc brilliance so that is why this topic is very important now before answering the question let us see some important points about gene editing technique see genome editing which is also called gene editing is a group of technologies that provides the ability to change an organism's DNA gene editing technologies allow us to add remove or alter the genetic material at particular locations in the genome of the plants or other living organisms several approaches to genome editing have been developed a well-known approach is called CRISPR Cas9 here CRISPR Cas9 is short form for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR associated protein 9 this CRISPR Cas9 is significant because it is faster cheaper more accurate and more efficient than other genome editing methods this CRISPR Cas9 was adopted from a naturally occurring genome editing system that bacteria use as an immune defense see when bacteria are infected with viruses the bacteria capture small pieces of the virus's DNA and they insert them into their own DNA in a particular pattern to create segments known as CRISPR arrays the CRISPR arrays allow the bacteria to remember the viruses so if the viruses attack again the bacteria produce RNA segments from the CRISPR arrays the RNA segments in turn recognize and attach to specific regions of the virus's DNA the bacteria then use Cas9 or a similar enzyme to cut the DNA of the virus this disables the virus so this is how CRISPR Cas9 actually works so what are the needs for such genome editing see the genome editing system allows for the targeted intervention at the genome sequence your targeted intervention means that you can insert, remove or alter a particular gene in the entire sequence gene editing tools have opened up various possibilities in plant breeding using this tool agricultural scientists can now insert specific tribes in the gene sequence like drought resistance, insect, ripple length tribes and etc this means that gene editing is used to cure diseases in plants apart from this gene editing can also help to cure certain diseases in humans like HIV, AIDS, sickle cell anemia and etc but know that gene editing is not completely safe during gene editing experiments scientists have observed certain safety issues like off target issues and side effects apart from this allergic reaction were also observed so gene editing is not completely safe now how does gene editing differ from genetic modification see genetic modification involves modification of the genetic material of the host by introduction of a foreign genetic material so the basic difference between genome editing and genetic engineering is that genome editing does not involve the introduction of foreign genetic material into the host whereas in the case of genetic modification it involves the introduction of foreign genetic material into the host, but know that both the techniques involve genome editing and aim to generate variants to cure diseases. So now coming to the question, see here the first statement is actually incorrect. For genetic modification only we have to introduce a foreign genetic material not for genome editing. So the first statement is incorrect here. Now look at the second statement, gene editing helps to cure certain diseases in plants and humans. So this statement is correct. Now look at this third statement, they say gene editing does not have any side effect, but it is incorrect. There are side effects, safety issues and allergic reactions associated with gene editing. So the correct answer for the question is option C1 and 3 only because the question asks for incorrect statements. So now moving on, this question asks us to find which of the following monetary measures can be taken by RBI to control inflation. Four statements are given, you have to choose the correct statement. See we all know that RBI is responsible for keeping inflation within a certain target range which is called inflation targeting right. To do this the RBI can use something called monetary policy. This basically means controlling the amount of money in the economy. So how does it work? Well if there is too much money in the economy people will have more to spend. This can cause demand to increase which can drive up the prices of goods and services. To combat this the RBI can decrease the amount of money in the economy. This can be done by increasing things like CRR, SLR, repo rate and reverse repo rate. It sounds complicated but basically it just means that the RBI can make it harder for banks to lend money which can decrease the amount of money in the economy. But the scope of monetary policy is limited. If the government is spending too much money it can offset the effects of the monetary policy. So that is where fiscal policy comes in. Fiscal policy refers to how the government spends and collects money. To control inflation the government can use something called contractionary fiscal policy. This means either increasing taxes or decreasing government spending. If people have less money to spend they will be less likely to drive up the prices of goods and services. There are also other measures the government can take like reducing import duties, banning exports, suspending futures, trading of commodities and raising stock limits for commodities. All these things can control inflation. So here the basic understanding is that it takes a combination of monetary and fiscal policy as well as other measures to keep inflation under control. Now read the question. Here 2, 3 and 4 are fiscal policy measures that can be done by the government. So the correct answer here is option A1 only. Because the question asks for monetary measures. Now moving on, this question is about exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Because carefully the question asks us to find which among the following does not come under the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. See to answer this question we should know article 131 of the constitution. Article 131 deals with the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. According to article 1, 3 things fall within the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. They are first is in case of dispute between government of India and one or more states. Secondly, in case of dispute between the government of India and any state or states on one side and one or more other states on the other side. Thirdly, in case of dispute between two or more states. See only in these three cases the Supreme Court has exclusive original jurisdiction. Here notice the last point which I have highlighted. It says that this jurisdiction of the Supreme Court does not extend to the disputes arising out of any pre-constitutional treaty or agreement. Make note of it. So now coming back to the question. Statement 1 disputes between the government of India and one or more states. This statement is actually correct just know we saw right. Statement 2 this is also an exclusive jurisdiction of Supreme Court. That is dealing disputes between two or more states. Now the third statement says disputes arising out of any pre-constitutional treaty or agreement. This statement is incorrect. They do not fall under the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as it mentioned in the article 131. This actually comes under the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. On any dispute arising out of any pre-constitutional treaty, covenant etc. The constitution under article 143 authorizes the precedent to seek the opinion of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court renders its advice but the precedent is not bound to follow that advice. So here the third statement is actually incorrect. Now look at the fourth statement enforcement of fundamental rights. See this also does not fall into the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Article 32 empowers the Supreme Court to enforce fundamental rights by issuing RITs and citizens can also directly approach the Supreme Court for the enforcement of fundamental rights. However, this jurisdiction is not exclusive to the Supreme Court since the constitution empowers the High Court to issue RIT. So statement 4 does not fall into the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court because High Court can also issue RITs. Now the fifth statement interstate water dispute. See interstate water disputes are resolved by the interstate water dispute tribunals and so it will also not come under the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Since the questions ask you to find which among the following does not come under the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the correct answer here is option C 3 4 and 5 only. Now moving on this question here as which is believed to be the burial site of Keeladi civilization. Four options are given option A Keeladi option B Akharam option C Kuntagai and option D Manalore. The correct answer here is option C Kuntagai. See the Keeladi excavation in Tamil Nadu has been going on for some time so it was in news repeatedly that is why we have chosen this question. The excavation sites are called as Keeladi clusters. The clusters include places like Keeladi, Akharam, Kuntagai and Manalore. Among these sites Kuntagai is thought to be the burial site of the Keeladi civilization. Let us see what are all found in this site. See one is the urns found was intact with the lid. Others contained skeleton in them. Some contained single skeleton while others contained two skeletons which means they could be a married couple. Secondly, one of the burial urns contained a small sword, vessel and terracotta ring. The presence of the sword may be an indication of the fact that the skeleton belonged to male and he might have been a warrior or soldier. Apart from this an iron sword measuring 40 centimeter. The longest sword so far was also unearthed at Kuntagai. Thirdly, one urn contained as many as 76 carnelian beads which were similar to the beads found in Keeladi. Fourthly, a human size skeleton surface in a trench was excavated in the site and experts say the skeleton is 183 centimeter in length and 35 centimeter in breadth. Apart from this, archaeologists also stumbled upon a skeleton measuring 75 centimeter in height. It was found between two urns and it may belong to a child. The last skeleton was found at the depth of 1.5 feet so all these indicates the different types of burials were practiced like pit burial, urn burial, surface burial and etc. Experts say that some of the urns contained ashes. So this might indicate that the person must have died elsewhere and after cremation the ashes must have been brought to the burial site to perform rituals. Also experts say that skeletons were found in cedar positions. So it is believed that people might have lowered the urn when the person was still alive because placing a dead body into the urn in a cedar position is very difficult. And finally it is also found that people from that era offered food that is padayal in pots along with the burial urns. This is because sediments of food particles were found in the pots. So that's all you have to know about Kondakai site. I am telling you this because excavation sites are very important for UPSC prelims examination. This question here from 2019 prelims is about the Harappan site from Indus Valley civilization. The most recent one is 2021 prelims. This is also about the ancient towns of Indus Valley civilization. So take note of all these points that we have discussed now. Now look at this map based question which of the following correctly identifies the boundaries of the Mediterranean Sea. Four options are given. See the Mediterranean Sea separates Europe from Africa and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean on the west all the way to Asia on the east. It's pretty big 4000 km from the stride of Gribaldar to the shores of Turkey and about 800 km from Croatia to Libya that is north to south. The western part of the Mediterranean Sea connects to the Atlantic Ocean through a narrow and shallow channel called the stride of Gribaldar. If we head north east from the Mediterranean Sea we will come to the Black Sea. This is connected through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus stride. Finally if you go south east from the Mediterranean Sea we will find the Red Sea. This is connected by the Suez Canal which is a man-made waterway that goes through Egypt. Also in total the Mediterranean Sea borders 21 different nations as well as several different territories. Some of the nations with borders along the Mediterranean are Spain, France, Monaco, Malta, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. It also borders several small seas and is home to over 3000 islands. The largest of these islands are Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Cyprus and Crete and take a look at the location of important mountain ranges. The Pyrenees, the Alps, the Appines, the Atlas and the Atlas Mountains. Now look at the options closely. You will easily eliminate option D, Himalayas to the south. Absolutely not. Now look at option A, Red Sea to the west. We know that it is in the southeast and not west. So here you can eliminate option A also. Now look at option C. We know that A-Gian, C is in the northeast of Mediterranean Sea. So we can arrive at the right answer option B. See here the location of Israel is very important. It is often in news. So keep a tab open for this topic as well. So the correct answer for the question is option B. Now look at this question here. This question is about parliamentary privileges. The question asks us to find the parliamentary privileges that are guaranteed by the Constitution. See all the statements given here are parliamentary privileges. But the question here asks us to find the privileges guaranteed by the Constitution. In our Constitution, Article 105, 122 and 361A deals with parliamentary privileges. I have displayed Article 105 here. This article guarantees the freedom of speech in parliament. The article also says that no member of parliament will be liable to any court with respect to anything said or any vote given by her or him in parliament or any committee. Article 122 prevents the courts from inquiring about the proceedings of the court. And Article 361A prevents the publication of proceedings of parliament and state legislature. So now coming back to the question, from what we just saw, we can conclude that statement 103 or covered under Article 105 of the Constitution. But what about statement 214? I already mentioned they are also parliamentary privileges. Here, statement 2 is covered under Section 135A of Code of Civil Procedure. And it is not mentioned in the Constitution. Likewise, statement 4 is covered in the Rules of Procedure of the House. Since the question asks about the parliamentary privileges mentioned in the Constitution, the correct answer here is option B. 1 and 3, 1D. To know more about the parliamentary privileges, see our 6 August 2022 Indian newspaper analysis. So the correct answer here is option B. 1 and 3, 1D. Now moving on, this question asks us to find which of these listed procurements do not need to meet defence offset requirements according to defence acquisition procedure 2020. Now before answering the question, let us understand about defence offsets. As we all know, India imports major of its defence equipment from a foreign country or foreign firm. As per the defence acquisition policy of India, the foreign firm from which India is buying defence equipment is obligated to boost India's domestic defence industry. This is called defence offset. In simplest terms, the defence offset is an obligation by a foreign firm to boost India's domestic defence industry if India is buying defence equipment from it. So here you might have a doubt why India brought defence offset. As we all know, defence contracts are costly and India depends on imports for most of its military hardware. So the costly defence imports can strain India's foreign exchange reserves. By keeping this in mind, defence offset is proposed with three main objectives. The first objective is to partially compensate for the significant outflow of forex reserve. Then secondly, to facilitate technology transfer and finally to add capacities and capabilities of domestic industry. So these are all the objectives of defence offsets. Until 2020, the defence offset policy in India was implemented through the defence procurement procedure 2005. This DPP 2005 contains policies and procedures for procurement and acquisition of military hardware. The main aim of the DPP is to ensure time-bound defence procurement process and past decision-making. According to the DPP 2005, in case of defence procurements over 300 crore rupees, that is 30% of it will result in offsets and it is implemented through Indian offset partners. Here the offset partners are mostly Indian MSMEs. Now that the DPP was revised in 2016 and the limit was increased from 300 crore to 2000 crore. Remember in 2020, the DPP 2005 was relabeled as defence acquisition procedure 2020 DAP. The DAP brought many changes in Indian defence acquisition policy and an important change was made to the defence offset policy. According to DAP 2020, there is no need for defence offset in case of 3 types of procurement contracts. They include government to government procurement, single vendor procurement and the defence procurement done under intergovernmental agreements. Here the term single vendor procurement means that there is only one vendor in the procurement process. Now coming to the question, according to defence acquisition procedure 2020, which of the following procedures do not need to meet the defence offset requirements. So here all these procurements do not need to meet the defence offset requirements according to defence acquisition procedure 2020. So the correct answer for the question is option D1213. Now look at this question. Four events are given and you have to arrange it in a chronological order. First is decide like what plan. Second is farewell plan. Third is see Rajya Coppala Chari formulae and finally given here is cabinet mission. So you have to arrange all these four events in a chronological order. See here the correct answer for the question is option A3124. See Rajya Coppala Chari formulae is the first even to happen. Now let us see briefly about see Rajya Coppala Chari formulae or CIA formulae. See the British government stated that for India to be provided statehood there must be cooperation between the Congress and Muslim League. The CIA formula is Mr Rajya Coppala Chari's effort to ensure Congress Muslim League cooperation. The CIA formula is important because for the first time a congressman acknowledged the inevitability of the partition. In the CIA formulae it was stated that after the end of World War II a plebiscite would be held in the Muslim majority area of northwest and northeast India to decide the formation of a separate sovereign state. In this plebiscite all the people in the region would be allowed to vote. It was also stated that the Muslim League must support the Congress demand for independence and cooperate with Congress in forming the provincial government. Now here comes the question was this formulae accepted by Muslim League. The answer to this is no. The Muslim League did not accept the plan. The League wanted only the Muslim of the northwest and northeast India to vote in the plebiscite not the entire population. So this is about CIA formulae. The second event is Desai like what pact. This pact is the next effort to break the deadlock between the Congress and the Muslim League. Bullabai Desai of Congress and like what Ali Khan of Muslim League came up with the DL pact. In this pact it was stated that both parties that is Congress and League nominate an equal number of candidates in the central legislature. The pact also secret to provide 20% reservation to minorities. But the pact was not endorsed by either Congress or the Muslim League. Now moving to Vivell's plan see the plan proposed that Weiss Roy's executive council will have all Indian members except the Weiss Roy himself and the commander in chief. Secondly the council will have a balanced representation. Muslims were given 6 out of 14 members. Thirdly the Weiss Roy would have the power of veto but its use would be minimal. Finally foreign affairs to be handled by an Indian and difference would be a British general until the full transfer of power. The similar conference was convened to discuss the Vivell plan and the conference ended up a failure. Finally came the cabinet mission. The members of the cabinet mission were Lord Pethic Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and AV Alexander. The important fact about the cabinet mission plan is that it rejected the demand for a full fledged Pakistan. So this is all regarding the question given here. Here the correct answer for the question is option A 3124. Now look at this question about minor forest produce. Three statements are given. You have to find the correct statement here. See UPSC has asked a question about bamboo as minor forest produce in 2019. This question was asked because of the Indian forest amendment ordinance 2017. This ordinance exempts bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree and this gave the right to fell bamboos in non-forest areas. Now here I have framed this question generally about minor forest producers. This is because they were in use quite often due to the decline in their availability. So you may expect a question about them. So with this understanding about the importance of minor forest produce let us solve the question. Now look at this first statement. As per the Act minor forest produce include all timber and non-timber forest producers of plant origin. See actually this statement is incorrect. As per the Act the definition of minor forest produce includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin. This includes bamboo, brushwood, stumps, cane, tassar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendo leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers and other similar products. So it does not include timber producers. It includes only the non-timber producers of plant origin. So this statement is incorrect here. Now look at this second statement. As per the Act the forest dwelling scheduled tribes have the right of settlement and conversion of all forest villages into revenue villages. See this statement might be an extreme statement but it is actually correct. Specifically talking Chapter 2 in the Act is about the forest rights of forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers. One among the right is this statement. It says that forest dwellers have the right of settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitat, unsurveyed villages and other villages in forest into revenue villages. It does not matter whether these villages are recorded, notified or not. So this statement is actually correct. Now moving on to the third statement. As per the Act the central government can provide for the diversion of forest land without any condition if the diversion is for the purpose of drinking water supply. See this statement is incorrect. As per the Act central government shall provide for diversion of forest land for allowing certain facilities which are managed by government and know that this diversion is provided for the facilities which involves filling of trees not exceeding 75 trees per hectare. These facilities include school, dispensary or hospital, Anganwadi's, fire price shops, electronic and telecommunication lines, tanks and other minor water bodies, drinking water supply and water pipelines and many things like that. But know that this diversion comes with certain conditions. First condition is that the forest land to be diverted shall be less than one hectare in each case. Second condition is that such developmental projects should be recommended by the grams above also. So the correct answer for the question here is option C to only because the second statement is alone correct here. Now moving on this question is about Kusyara river treaty. Again three statements are given you have to find the correct statement here. Now before we address this question let us first see few points about the Kusyara river and the treaty. See the Kusyara river is a distributory of the Barak river. The Barak river divides into Kusyara and Surma river. It is also a trans-boundary river that forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In Bangladesh it mainly flows through the fertile Silhet region. The river floods during the summer when there is heavy rainfall. During winter the river becomes almost dry. See during the dry winter season the people of Silhet grow a type of rice crop called Boro rice. Since the Boro rice is cultivated during the winter season the demand for water from Kusyara river becomes high. The water from the river is diverted into the Rahimpura canal to aid in the cultivation. But India had objected to the construction of dikes that help divert the water into the Rahimpura canal citing security concerns. So these are also some of the important points about Kusyara river. Now we will see some of the important points about the treaty. See according to the treaty Bangladesh will be allowed to withdraw 153 Q6 of water from the Kusyara river during the winter. This will ensure water supply in the river during dry winters. So this will help the Boro rice cultivation in Silhet district and as part of the treaty India has also retracted its objection to the construction of dikes. So water from the Kusyara river can be easily diverted into the Rahimpura canal and can aid cultivation. So with this basic understanding let us approach the question. Look at this first statement. Bangladesh will be allowed to withdraw 153 Q6 of water from the Kusyara river during the summers. See this statement is incorrect. It is not during the summers. Okay. So now look at the second statement. This statement is actually correct. We just now saw that in the discussion right. Now look at the third statement with the signing of the treaty. Bangladesh can now divert Kusyara river through the Rahimpura canal for cultivation. This statement is absolutely correct. This is the main objective of the treaty signed between India and Bangladesh. See we already have a river sharing treaty with Bangladesh for River Ganga and after so many years we have concluded this Kusyara river treaty. So there might be a question in preliminary examination. Even we have a treaty for Thista but Thista river treaty has not yet concluded. So that is why this question becomes very important to make note of it. Now moving on. Look at the question given here. Description about an architecture is given. We have to find out which one is correct. See the correct answer for the question is option B, Humayun's tomb. Humayun's tomb is located in Delhi. It was built in 1565 AD. It was built under the patronage of Mohal Emperor Akbar. The architecture of this monument was Merak Mirza Giyas. It was one of the monuments which inspired the architecture of Taj Mahal. So the correct answer here is option B, Humayun's tomb. Now I have chosen this question because the art, culture and architecture during Mohal period is a favorite topic of UPSC. Recently also in the year 2019 there was a question about the art during Mohal period. So it is very important to revise the art and culture of Mohal period. Here I have framed the question particularly about Humayun's tomb because Humayun's tomb was illuminated in the colors of the national flag on Independence Day. Now we shall see some of the important points that you have to remember about Humayun's tomb. As I already said, Humayun's tomb is located in the eastern part of Delhi and it is one of the best preserved Mohal monuments. After a century from its construction, Humayun's tomb inspired the construction of Taj Mahal. Again as I already said, it was built in the 1560s. Humayun's wife Hamidah Banu Begum commenced the construction of a mausoleum for her deceased husband in 1565. It is nine years after his death and it was built under the patronage of Humayun's son the great emperor Akbar. Now coming to the architectural details, see the architecture of the tomb is strongly influenced by Persian architecture. The architect of the building was Mirqas Mirza Giyas. The tomb was constructed with a Persian style charba garden in the center. The garden was then divided into four main parts by walkways or flowing water. This was created to resemble the paradise garden described in the Quran. Now look at this image here. The mausoleum stands on a massive platform which has a height of up to seven meters. The building was constructed using red sandstone while the tomb was made of yellow and black marble. The two-storey mausoleum is crowned with white Persian style marble dome. The lower tire of this rectangular construction is decorated with great full arches which are located around the whole perimeter of the building. The cenotap or the empty grave of the ruler is located in the center of the upper tire. The central chamber houses the graves of other members of the royal family. The real grave of the emperor is on the basement floor. So these are all some of the details that you have to remember about the Humayun's tomb. So here the correct answer for the question is option B Humayun's tomb. Now look at this question three statements are given. You have to find which statement here is incorrect. See to answer this question you have to have a basic idea about cooperative banks first. Basically cooperative banks are divided into two types urban and rural. The rural one can be short term or long term with short term ones being further divided into state cooperative banks, district central cooperative banks and primary agricultural credit societies. The long term ones are either state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks or primary cooperative agriculture and rural development banks. Now the urban cooperative banks can either be scheduled or non scheduled banks. These cooperative banks are registered under the states cooperative societies act and are regulated by the registrar of cooperative societies of the respective state governments. But if they operate in more than one state then they also come under the regulatory ambit of the central registrar of cooperative societies. On the top of that these banks are also regulated by the Reserve Bank of India under two laws the banking regulating act 1949 and the banking laws cooperative societies act 1955. So now read the question here the first statement says state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks SCAR DBS are short term credit institutions. Actually this statement is incorrect they are long term credit institutions. Look at the second statement cooperative banks account for less than 25 percentage of total rural credit. Again this statement is also incorrect it accounts for about 67 percentage of total rural credits. Now look at the third statement cooperative banks are regulated by Reserve Bank of India RBI and NABARD national bank for agriculture and rural development under the banking regulation act 1949. See this statement is actually correct here. So the correct answer for the question is option C 1 and 2 only because the third statement is correct here and the question asked you to find the incorrect statements alone. So here the correct answer is option C 1 and 2 only. Now moving on look at this question it is an excavation site located on the bank of the Amarabarani river in southern Tamil Nadu. It is an urn burial site having characteristics of iron age. The site was first discovered by German explorer Dr. F. Jagorin in 1876 which excavation site is referred here. Option A keeladi, option B adichanallur, option C korkai and option D mangudi. See here the correct answer for the question is option B adichanallur. Since here you have seen the terms like Thamirabarani river in southern Tamil Nadu you might have thought it is keeladi but actually it is adichanallur. Adichanallur is an excavation site located on the banks of river Thamirabarani in present day Toothkadi district in southern Tamil Nadu. Know that adichanallur is an urn burial site which has the characteristics of the iron age. Here urn burial refers to the type of burial in which a pottery vessel is used to bury the remains of the dead human body after cremation or without cremation. Adichanallur site was first discovered by the German explorer Dr. F. Jagorin in 1876. Subsequently the excavation was carried out by the Alexander Rhea. He was a British explorer and the then superintendent of the archaeological survey of India ASI. He made important discoveries in adichanallur which are known to be a remarkable collection of South Indian iron age artifacts. In 2005 nearly 3800 years old 169 clay urns containing human skeletons were unearthed in adichanallur. Apart from the skeletons several gold diadems that is the crown were also found. In addition to this a number of bronze figurine of buffaloes, goats, tigers and elephants were also unearthed in the adichanallur site. Because of this much importance adichanallur is recognized as one of the five sites by the government which are to be developed into iconic sites. In addition to this the government also announced the development of a museum at adichanallur excavation site. This site was recently in use because the archaeological survey of India has found gold in the adichanallur burial sites. So here the correct answer for the question is adichanallur. Now moving on look at this question about G20 four different statements are given you have to choose the correct statement here. Before that let us see some of the basics about G20. See G20 or the group of 20 is the premier forum for international cooperation on aspects of the international economic and financial agenda. It brings together the world's major advanced and emerging economies. Know that G20 was created for two reasons. One is in response to the financial crisis that happened in a number of emerging economies in the 1990s. Second is in recognition that some of the countries are not adequately represented in global economic discussion and governance. So for these two reasons only G20 was created. It was founded in 1999 as a forum for the financial ministers and central bank governors to discuss global economic and financial issues. After its creation in 1999 the finance ministers and central bank governors meet annually. India and its part has hosted a meeting of G20 finance minister and central bank governors in 2002 but know that G20 was raised to the summit level in 2008. This was to address the global financial and economic crisis of 2008. So now let's quickly see who constitute G20. G20 comprises of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, UK and USA. The G20 countries together represent around 90 percentage of global GDP, 80 percentage of global trade and two-third of the world's population. Now how does G20 work? G20 does not have a permanent secretariat. The G20 presidency only steers the G20 agenda for one year and hosts the summit. The presidency is supported by the Troika. It includes the previous current and the incoming presidency. Now India holds the presidency of the G20 from 1st December 2022 30th November 2023. That is why knowing about G20 is very important. During India's presidency the Troika will comprise Indonesia, India and Brazil respectively. So now look at the question. The first statement says G20 has a permanent secretariat based in Paris. This statement is obviously incorrect. Second statement says the G20 consists of 20 member countries and the European Union. This statement is also incorrect. Third statement says the G20 summit is held by annually under the leadership of rotating presidency. It is incorrect. It happens annually. The 2024 G20 summit will be hosted by Indonesia. This statement is also incorrect here. So the correct answer for the question is option D because all the statements given here are incorrect. Take a look at this question here. This question is about the Muslim woman protection of rights on marriage act 2019. Here two statements are given. You have to find the correct statement. Now before answering this question let us learn some facts about the act. See in 2017 the Supreme Court declared that the instant triple talak was unconstitutional and void. This is because on the ground that the instant talak violates the right to equality under article 14 of the Indian constitution. Now what is this triple talak? First of all know that talak is an Islamic word for divorce which denotes dissolution of marriage. Under the Muslim law triple talak refers to the liberty from marriage by simply pronouncing the word talak three times. See by simply telling talak three times a Muslim husband can give divorce to his wife. This instant divorce is called triple talak and it is also known as talak e bidat. The Supreme Court found that the triple talak is unfair. So in 2017 the Supreme Court declared that the instant triple talak was unconstitutional and void. This pushed the government to make a law for effective implementation of the Supreme Court's judgment. So to give immediate effect to the verdict of the Supreme Court the Muslim woman protection of rights on marriage ordinance 2018 was promulgated and finally in 2019 after the ascent of the president the Muslim woman protection of rights on marriage act 2019 came into force. Now we will discuss some important provisions of the act. Firstly the act declared that any pronouncement of talak by a Muslim husband upon his wife by words either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner shall be void and illegal. To put it simply the act declared that the instant divorce granted upon the pronouncement of talak three times shall be void and illegal. In addition to this the act also provides for a jail term of three years and fine to a Muslim husband who pronounces talak. So the important point that you have to note here is even today Muslim men can give talak to his wife but they cannot pronounce talak instantly three times and give divorce. Hope you can get that. Then the second important provision is that the act made instant talak as a cognizable, compoundable and non-bailable offence. Here the term cognizable offence refers to the offence in which the police can take the case on its own and it does not need approval of the court. Then the term compoundable offence refers to the offence that can be compromised. This means that the person who made a complaint can be allowed to take back the charges levied against the accused person. So as per the Muslim women protection of rights on marriage act 2019, instant talak is a cognizable, compoundable and non-bailable offence. And the third important provision is that the act grants the custody of children with the Muslim woman upon whom the talak was pronounced. Apart from this the act also mandates the Muslim husband to pay subsistence allowance to the wife. Overall the Muslim woman protection of rights on marriage act 2019 provide a legal protection for the Muslim woman against the irrational pronouncement of triple talak alone. Other ways of talak is still legal in India. So with this basic understanding let us approach the question with reference to the Muslim woman protection of right on marriage act 2019 consider the following statements. Now look at this first statement according to the act pronouncement of triple talak by a Muslim husband upon his wife by words in any manner shall be void and illegal. See this statement is actually correct if the statement is given very blankly talak then the statement would be wrong. But since it is mentioned here triple talak it is right. Secondly as per the act instantaneous talak is a cognisable compoundable unbailable offence. See this statement is partially wrong as per the act instantaneous talak is cognisable and compoundable offence but the instantaneous talak is a non-bailable offence. So statement 2 is incorrect here. So the correct answer here is option A11 Lee. Now look at this question this question is about Mulai Periyar Dam. Four statements are given and you have to choose the correct statement here. Before approaching this question let us first see some points about Periyar River and Mulai Periyar Dam. Let's start with Periyar River. See Periyar is the longest river in Kerala. It originates from the Sivagiri hills of western Ghats. Muthirapula, Mulayar, Cherutoni and Perinjan Gutti are the rivers primary debuteries. The river flows through a Tihar reserve called Periyar Tihar reserve. The river finally drains into the Arabian Sea. Now moving on to Mulai Periyar Dam. Mulai Periyar Dam is built at the point where Periyar and Mulayar meet and forms the Periyar lake. A major part of the dam including the catchment area is situated in Kerala's Idiqui district. Although the 126 year old Mulai Periyar Dam is located in Kerala, it is operated by the Government of Tamil Nadu through a lease agreement. The dam's reservoir is surrounded by Periyar National Park. Some of the water from the dam is devoted to the Vahai River through a tunnel for irrigation purposes. The dam is a point of contention between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In 2010 Justice AAS Anandth committee was constituted to study the safety of the dam. So now coming to the question, statement one says Mulai Periyar Dam is constructed at the point where Periyar and Vahai River meets and forms the Periyar Lake. See this statement is incorrect. Mulai Periyar Dam is built at the point where Periyar and Mulayar meets. Now look at the second statement. The dam is located in Kerala's Idiqui district but it is operated by the Government of Tamil Nadu. This statement is also correct. Statement three, the Periyar National Park is located around the reservoir of Mulai Periyar Dam. See this statement is also correct. Periyar National Park is located around the reservoir of Mulai Periyar Dam. And the fourth statement, the water from the dam is diverted in the river Vahai to aid cultivation downstream. This statement is also correct. The water from the dam is diverted into the Vahai River through tunnels. So here the correct answer for the question is option B, 2, 3 and 4 only because the first statement given here is incorrect. Now look at this question about NFHS-5. Two statements are given. First statement says more than 70% of women in most states and union territories have operational bank accounts. Statement two says the proportion of men and women who use the internet is almost equal across all states. Here you have to choose the correct answer. To answer this question first we shall see some women related facts in the NFHS-5 before taking the question for discussion. See NFHS-5 found that the proportion of women who own a mobile phone has increased in all states. However in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and West Bengal only around 50% of women own and use mobile phone. The study also found that men have higher internet usage than women in almost all states with a difference being more than 25% in some states. In states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Tripura less than 25% of women have used the internet. Then the proportion of women who have a saving or bank account has increased across all 17 states with Bihar and Manipur seeing the highest increase. Close to 80% of women now have a savings or bank account in most states. However the survey found that the proportion of women who own a house or land has declined in 9 of the 17 states. Then with respect to use of hygienic method of protection during the menstrual period it has increased across almost all states. Largest increase is seen in Bihar and West Bengal. However it still remains low in Bihar, Assam and Gujarat. The survey also revealed that the proportion of married women who have faced spousal violence has increased in 5 states including Karnataka where it has doubled from 21% to 44%. More than a third of married women face spousal violence in Karnataka, Bihar, Manipur and Tilangana. Overall the NFHS5 study highlights both progress and challenges related to women's related factors in India while women's access to mobile phones and bank accounts has increased internet usage and ownership of property or still areas of concern. Gender-based violence also reminds a significant issue that needed to be addressed. Now these points if we approach the question statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect because the study found that men have higher internet usage than women in almost all states. Now moving on this question is a power-based question on one side the elephant reserves are given and on the other side the states are given. We have to find how many pairs are correctly matched. See these four elephant reservoirs were declared recently. Singh font was declared as elephant reserve in 2018 then Therai, Lemru and Agastiyamalai were declared as elephant reserve in 2022. Because of this only we have framed this question. Here the correct answer for the question is option B1-2 pairs. The first pair is incorrect Therai elephant reserve is located in Uttar Pradesh and not in Uttarkhand. The second pair is correct Laimur elephant reserve is located in Chatishkar. The third pair is incorrect Singh font elephant reserve is located in Naha land and not in Jharkhand. Know that there is one elephant reserve called Singbum elephant reserve. This elephant reserve is only located in Jharkhand and it is the first elephant reserve of the country. Kindly note the difference here. The fourth pair is correct Agastiyamalai elephant reserve is located in Tamil Nadu. So here the second and fourth pair are only correctly matched. So once again the correct answer is option B1-2 pairs. Now let us see some points about elephant reserves. See India is home to about 60% of the global Asian elephant population. The conservation of elephants in their natural habitat was becoming difficult. So to help in conserving and protecting wild elephant in their natural habitats elephant reserves were declared. See elephant reserve is the basic management unit for elephant conservation in the country. It is notified by the central government as per the recommendation of government of India. Here the critical elephant habitats of the country are declared as elephant reserves. These critical habitats are conservation areas which have notable environment or historical importance. They are protected by law against undesirable changes. So such critical habitats or reserves include protected areas, forest areas, corridors and even private lands or reserve lands. Note that elephant reserves are declared under the project elephant. The project elephant was launched in 1991 to 92. It is centrally sponsored scheme implemented by the Ministry of Environment. Its primary aim is to restore the elephant habitat and reduce the suffering of both elephants as well as the human population by eliminating the human elephant conflicts. So for the conservation of elephants elephant reserves are notified under the project elephant. Remember till now 33 elephant reserves have been formally notified by various state governments. Now if you ask me is there any criteria to be fulfilled for a landscape to be elephant reserves? The answer is actually no. See as of now being a critical elephant habitat is the only criteria and even for the criteria also no norms have been listed by the government. But in 2018 the Ministry of Environment has made a proposal to provide legal status to the elephant reserves and project elephant by amending the WPA Act. So this is under consideration as of now. Don't get confused here. As of now the elephant reserves is not legally protected but if the elephant reserve has other protected areas like national parks or wildlife sanctuaries then they have the legal protection. So here the correct answer for the question is option B only two pairs. Now moving on to the next question. Now look at this question about Dornier 228 aircraft. I have framed this question because recently India gifted a Dornier 228 military aircraft to Sri Lanka. This is to underscore the cooperation between the two maritime neighbours in defence and security spheres. So that is a possibility that your PFC might ask a question about Dornier 228. Now let's see about Dornier 228 to answer the question. See it is a short takeoff and landing that is STOL aircraft. It is a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements. It is also capable of operating out of semi-prepared runways. It is a twin engine multi-role light transport aircraft. It is used by Indian Coast Guard, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy for Renaissance missions. Renaissance means military observation of a region to locate an enemy. It is also used by the armed forces for electronic warfare missions, maritime surveillance and disaster relief system. Some other purposes include pollution prevention, troop transport, aerial survey, search and rescue, commuter transport, calibration of airport NEAV comm aids, then remote sensing applications, casualty evacuation, executive transport, cargo and logistics support. So it is a highly versatile multi-purpose aircraft. Also know that it is a non-pressurized plane that is capable of day and night services. It can operate in all weather conditions including high temperature or high humidity. The air conditioning system in DO-228 is capable of maintaining the flight compartment temperature at comfortable levels. Now let us see some equipments that increases the significance of Dornier 228. Dornier 228 contains solid state flight data recorder, SSFDR, then cockpit voice recorder, emergency locator transmitter, traffic pollution and avoidance system and fuel dumping system. See these are the equipments that increase the significance of Dornier 228. Finally one important fact, Dornier 228 is indigenously manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and it is licensed by Swiss company RUAG. Now let us take up the question. First statement says, Dornier 228 is a twin engine aircraft that has the capability of short takeoff and landing STOL. This statement is correct. Statement 2 presently Dornier 228 is used only by Indian Air Force for Renaissance mission. This statement is incorrect. It is used by Coast Guard also. So here the correct answer for the question is option A11 Lee. Now look at this question. This question is about pardoning power of governor. We are discussing this particular question because UPSC has already asked questions about the discretionary powers of governor in the year 2014. So there is a possibility that UPSC might ask a question about pardoning power of governor as well. Now let us take up the question. The first statement says that the governor can pardon a person who committed any offense against the state law. See this statement is actually correct. Government can pardon, remit, respite, suspend or commute the sentence of any person if the offense is against the state law. The pardoning power of the governor have been mentioned in article 161 of the Indian Constitution. So this statement is actually correct. Now the second statement says that the governor can pardon a death sentence if it is prescribed by the state law. This statement is incorrect because the government can only suspend, remit or commute the death sentence. The power of pardoning a death sentence lies only with the president of India. The pardoning power of president has been explained in article 72 of the Indian Constitution. So here the second statement is actually incorrect. Now look at the third statement. Third statement says that the governor can grant a remission for the sentence given by the court martial. This particular statement is also incorrect because the government has no power when it comes to military court and again president of India is the only authority who has pardoning powers with respect to sentences by the military courts. With respect to sentence by the military courts, president of India can pardon, respite, suspend, remit and reprive a sentence by the court martial that is the military court. So here the correct answer for the question is option B213 only because the question asked for incorrect statements. Now moving on this particular question is about geo-referencing. Do you know what is geo-referencing? It is nothing but assigning locations to geographical objects with a geographical frame of reference. In simple words it is the process of adding geographical information to a digital image. This process is completed by selecting pixels in digital image and assigning them geographic coordinates. As simple as that. Now the concept of geo-referencing was in use because the Madras High Court has asked the government of Tamil Nadu to geo-reference all the wetlands in the state. The court also directed the state government of Tamil Nadu to superimpose the geo-reference on the satellite image of 24,684 wetlands in the state mapped under the national wetland inventory and assessment. Now if you are asking why such an order is given it is because geo-referencing is used to identify the exact location of the wetlands and what their present status is. Only after knowing the exact location and current status they can be notified under wetlands conservation and management rules 2017. This process also helps in prevention of encroachments in wetlands. In this way geo-referencing can also be used in conservation of the wetlands. So from the above discussion we can say that option D is the correct description or explanation of the term geo-referencing. Now moving on here both statements are given you have to find the correct statement. Statement 1 says article 2 of the Indian constitution relates to admission or establishment of new states which are not part of the union of India. See this statement is actually correct. Article 2 concerns with the admission or establishment of new states which were not part of India into the Indian union. Second statement says parliament has the sole authority to admit or establish new states into the Indian union. This statement is also correct. Article 2 of the constitution confers power on the parliament to admit or establish new states. The state legislature has no power regarding the admission of new states into the Indian union. Now look at the third statement parliament can seed a part of India's territory only by passing a constitutional amendment under article 368. This statement is also actually correct. See an issue came up in 1958 when the government tried to implement the Nero Noon Agreement which is an enclave exchange agreement between India and former East Pakistan. The issue being does the power of parliament to diminish the areas of a state include also the power to seed Indian territory to a foreign country. At that time the president of India requested the supreme court of India for its opinion under article 143. The supreme court stated that the parliament has the power to seed or give up the territory of India in favour of any foreign state. But it has to be done only through a constitutional amendment under article 368. That is special majority. This judgment of the supreme court is nothing but the famous Berubari union judgment. So the parliament passed the 9th amendment act in 1960 to implement the Nero Noon Agreement. Also note that parliament passed the 100th constitutional amendment act 2015 to implement the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh. This is because it involved India seeding some territory to Bangladesh. So here the third statement is correct. To seed a territory an amendment must be passed under article 368. In addition to this note some important points here. See while seeding of territory requires constitutional amendment under article 368 for the admission of state into Indian union constitutional amendment under article 368 is not necessary. Secondly settlement of a boundary dispute between India and other country does not require a constitutional amendment. It can be done by executive action itself. A ruling regarding this was given by the supreme court in 1969. So note the differences here. There might be a question in problems. Now moving on to the fourth statement constitutional amendment passed for this purpose must be introduced only in Lok Sabha. See this statement is actually incorrect. The constitutional amendment for this purpose can be introduced either in Lok Sabha or in Rajesh Sabha. For example the 100th constitutional amendment act that was passed to implement the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh was introduced in Rajesh Sabha. Now coming back to the question since the question asks for correct statements the correct answer here is option A 1 2 1 3 1 D. See the national legal service authority NLSA is an important topic for UPSC prelims examination. Here I have displayed two previous questions related to NLSA for your reference. This year also we can expect a question related to NLSA not just because this topic is important but because as of 2022 NLSA has completed 25 years of its establishment. So our next question is about a scheme launched by NLSA. The scheme is nothing but the legal aid defence council system or scheme. Three statements are given. We have to find which of the statements given or correct. Now before answering this question let us first cover the basics about LADCS. Firstly what necessitated the creation of NADCS? See article 39A of the constitution of India provides that the government should take efforts to provide free legal aid to everyone. To make article 39A a reality the legal service authority provide legal services to accused or convicts. This is because not all of the accused person are able to afford the legal services. Legal services authorities provide legal services through the assigned council system of delivery of legal aid. Under this system cases are assigned to a panel of lawyers by legal services institutions. But the major drawback of this system is that the panel of lawyers to whom cases are assigned by the legal services authorities have private practices. So they cannot exclusively devote their time to legal aid cases. Because of this reason this system is ineffective. To address the issue with this system only the LADCS operationalized. The lawyers who are part of LADCS are employed full time and they are not allowed to take any private cases. Due to this the lawyers can devote their time entirely to help the needy. The LDCS provides legal service free of cost but it is not available to everyone. It is only available to accused or convicts who are coming within the eligibility criteria given in the section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987. So the main objective of this scheme is to provide good quality legal services in criminal matters to all the eligible persons that is the person who satisfies the eligibility criteria given in the section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987. Some of the main advantages of this system include firstly availability and accessibility of Legal Aid Defense Council which leads to timely and effective client consultations. Secondly, professional management of legal aid work in criminal matters. And finally the system will ensure accountability on the part of the legal aid providers. So these are all some of the points that you have to remember about LADCS. Now let's take up the question look at the first statement. The program's main objective is to provide qualitative and competent legal services in civil and criminal matters. See this statement is actually incorrect because LADCS they pertains only to criminal cases and not civil cases. Now look at the second statement. This free legal service is available to everyone. This statement is also incorrect. LADCS even though it is free it is not available to everyone. It is available only to accused or convicts who are coming within the eligibility criteria given in the section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987. We saw that already right. Now look at the third statement. The lawyers who are part of the LADCS are not allowed to take any private cases. This statement is actually correct. One of the main objective of LADCS is that the lawyers who are part of LADCS cannot take up private practice and can dedicate their entire time in aiding the needy. So here the correct answer is option C3 only. Now moving on this question is about special category status. See since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh the political leader of the Andhra Pradesh has been asking for special category status to be granted to Andhra but the request have been consistently rejected by the central government. So the special category status has been in the news many times but till now there is no problems question in UPSC in this regard. So we can expect a question this year. This prompted me to frame this question as a part of this question discussion will revise the major points about the special category status. Now before that know that the constitution does not include any provision for categorization of any state in India as a special category status that is SES state. But since there was uneven regional development and since some states were historically disadvantaged special category status was granted. The concept of a special category status was first introduced in 1969 when the 5th finance commission sought to provide certain disadvantaged states with preferential treatment. Initially it was granted by the National Development Council NDC but right now the status is conferred by the central government. So a special category status is a classification given by the center to assist in the development of those states that face geographical and socio-economic disadvantages. This classification was based on the Gad-Gil formula. The parameters for classifying the states or hilly terrain, low population density or the presence of sizable tribal population, strategic international boundaries, economic and infrastructural backwardness and non viable state finances. Also remember one of the main advantage of getting special category status is that the center pays 90 percentage of the funds required in a centrally sponsored scheme to special category states. Center pays only 60 percentage in case of normal category states then if the states are left with unspent money of the center it does not lapse but it is carry forwarded to the next year. Lastly 30 percentage of the center's gross budget goes to special category states. Now finally we will see the states that are provided with SCS. Currently 10 states are provided with SCS such state include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mehalaya, Mizoram, Nahaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. So now let's try to answer the question. Look at the first statement the parameters for providing special category status to states is mentioned in the constitution. See we already saw it is not mentioned in the constitution so this statement is actually wrong. Now look at the second statement non-viable state finances is one of the parameter for providing the special category status. See this statement is actually correct as we saw just now non-viable state finances is one of the five parameters that help in deciding whether a particular state falls under the special category status or not. Now look at the third statement the state of Bihar is provided with special category status to aid in its development process. This statement is incorrect because Bihar has been demanding the status but the central government has not provided SCS to Bihar yet. So here the correct answer is option B2 only. Now look at this question about Oliverately Turtles. We already have some questions in UPSC regarding various important species. Take a look at these two previous questions. Here this first question about DeKong was asked in 2015 UPSC problems and the second question about Karai camel was asked in 2016 UPSC problems. Apart from these two questions many questions about the species were asked in UPSC problems. So topics related to species are very important. Now before answering the question let us learn some points about Oliverately Turtles. See Oliverately Turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. It is inhibiting warm waters of Pacific Atlantic and Indian oceans. These turtles spend their entire lives in the ocean. Oliverately's migrate thousands of kilometers between feeding and mating grounds in the course of a year. See the female Oliverately's return to the very same beach to lay their eggs from where they first hatched. During this phenomenal listing up to 6 lakh and more female Oliverately's emerge from the waters over a period of 5 to 6 days to lay eggs. This unique mass nesting phenomenon is called Aribada. Know that the coast of Orissa in India is the largest mass nesting site for the Oliverately. This is followed by the coast of Mexico and Costa Rica. Now talking about the conservation status, Oliverately's are categorized as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Apart from this they are protected under appendix 1 of sites that is conservation or international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna. So with this basic understanding now let's approach the question given here. Look at the first statement. Oliverately's are found in the warm waters of both Indian and Pacific Ocean. See this statement is actually correct. They are found in warm waters of Pacific Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Now look at the second statement. They are categorized as least concerned in the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. See this statement is incorrect. Oliverately's are categorized as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and not least concerned. Now look at the third statement. They are famous for their unique habit of mass nesting called Aribada. This statement is actually correct. We saw in the discussion itself right. Aribada is nothing but mass nesting phenomenon of Oliverately Turtles. So here the correct answer for the question is option A 1 and 3 only because the second statement is incorrect. Now moving on. This question is a concept based question from Economics. It asks us to find which of the given statements is or are the impacts of rupee depreciation on the Indian economy. Now before answering the question let us learn some points about rupee depreciation. See rupee depreciation refers to the laws in the value of Indian rupee against foreign currencies. This means that the rupee can buy less units of foreign currency than earlier. Know that generally the value of Indian rupee is determined by comparing it with the US dollars. Now let us understand the concept with an example. For example let us assume that today Indian rupee is traded for rupee 75 per US dollar and it was rupee 70 per US dollar yesterday. Here the Indian rupee has depreciated by rupees 5 per US dollar. This means that for purchasing 1 US dollar today the trader has to pay 5 rupee more than that of yesterday. So this is about the term rupee depreciation. Now let us learn the impacts of rupee depreciation on the Indian economy. Firstly export will get boost when the rupee depreciates. See as I said earlier during depreciation we need to pay more money to buy USD than earlier. Generally when we export items to foreign countries the amount for such items is paid in dollars. Then the exporters used to convert such dollar into rupee in our country. When the rupee depreciates the exporters will get more money in exchange of dollars. So this in turn will boost exports. Secondly when the rupee depreciates the foreign travel and foreign studies will become more expensive for Indians. This is because when we Indians go to foreign we have to pay more rupee than earlier to buy other currencies. Apart from this the import will become more costlier when rupee depreciates. This is because obviously the import bills are mostly paid in dollars. So when the rupee depreciates we have to pay more rupee than earlier to make imports. Due to this higher import cost the imported item will tend to decrease. As we all know India is importing most of its crude oil from foreign countries. So when the rupee depreciates oil imports become costlier. This in turn reduces the supply of oil. This could create more demand and cause inflation. So rupee depreciation paves way to high imported inflation. So with this understanding now look at the question which of the following are the impacts of rupee depreciation on the Indian economy. Statement 1 boost to India's export this is actually correct. Statement 2 crude oil imports become cheaper. This statement is incorrect. During rupee depreciation the price of crude oil tends to increase. So crude oil imports become costlier and not cheaper. So second statement is incorrect. Third statement increase in inflation. See during depreciation the quantity of imported items like crude oil will tend to decrease. So this will create more demand in the economy. This in turn will increase the inflation in the country. So here the third statement is actually correct. So the correct answer for the question is option C 1 and 3 only. Now moving on this question is about integrated child development scheme. Here you have to find which of the three statements given here are beneficiaries of integrated child development scheme. So what is this integrated child development scheme? See ICDS is one of the flagship programs of the government of India and represents one of the world's largest and unique programs for early childhood care and development. It majorly deals with providing supplementary nutrition, immunization and preschool education to the children. We can say that it is an integrated package of services for the holistic development of the child. It was launched long back in 1975. Remember it is a centrally sponsored scheme and it is implemented by state governments. The scheme is universal that is it covers all the districts of the country. The scheme was named as Anganwadi services and today we call all the ICDS centers as Anganwadi centers. Now let's see the objectives of the scheme. First objective is to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of 0 to 6 years and to improve them Anganwadi centers focuses on two aspects. Firstly they focus on laying the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child and secondly they focus on reducing the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropouts. Second and most important objective is to achieve an effective coordination of policy and implementation among the various departments to promote child development and finally its third objective is to enhance the capability of the mothers to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child. They make this possible through proper nutrition and health education to the mother. So the beneficiaries of the scheme are children in the age group of 0 to 6 years, permanent women and lactating mothers and remember ICDS scheme offers a package of six services which includes supplementary nutrition, preschool, non-formal education, nutrition and health education, immunization, health checkup and referral services. Now read the question carefully we saw that the beneficiaries of the scheme are children in the age group of 0 to 6, pregnant women and lactating women. So here the correct answer for the question is option C213 only because the first statement is incorrect. Now moving on this question is about hand food and mouth disease. Three statements are given and you have to find how many statements given here are correct. See HFMD is basically a contagious infection that usually affects young children under the age of 5 but anyone can get it. It is caused by a type of virus called a coxsacky virus which is part of a group of virus called non polio enteroviruses. The virus is spread from one person to another through things like unwashed hands or surfaces that have been contaminated with fecuses, saliva, stool or respiratory sections. This means that if someone who have the virus coughs or sneezes on their hand and then touches a surface like a door knob the virus can stay on that surface and someone else can pick it up by touching the same surface. Some of the symptoms of hand food and mouth disease includes a fever, mouth sores and a rash that can appear on the hand and feet. Sometimes people with HFMD may also have a sore throat, cough or running nose. Fortunately HFMD is usually not serious and can be treated with things like anti-allergic medicines and ointments. The mouth sores and rash typically go away on their in about 5 to 6 days. To help prevent HFMD it's important to wash your hands frequently and avoid close contact with people who have the illness. This means not sharing things like utensils, cups or towels with someone who has HFMD and avoiding crowded places if you can. Now read the question. Statement one says it is common in old age population. The statement is incorrect because it affects young children under the age of 5. Second statement it is most commonly caused by a rotavirus. This statement is also incorrect. It is caused by a type of virus called koksaki virus. And the third statement given here is it is highly contagious. This statement is actually correct. So here the correct answer for the question is option A one statement one Lee. Now moving on look at the question given here it is about the measures taken during the time of economics load down. Three statements are given and you have to find which are correct here. The first statement is increasing government expenditure. See this one is actually correct. Just give it a thought what happens during economics load down the demand will decrease. To increase the demand the money supply should be increased. In simple terms it means that people should have money in their hands to buy something right. If money supply is increased then people will have money in their hands to demand or purchase goods. So ultimately to increase the money supply government will increase its spending. Now look at the second measure it is reducing bank rate. See this is also correct. Bank rate is nothing but the rate charged by the central bank for lending funds to commercial banks. If this bank rate is reduced then it will increase the banks to get loans from the RBI. The commercial banks in turn will give loan to the public at reduced interest rates. Since the commercial banks are getting loans at reduced rate they will also be able to give loans to public at reduced interest rates. This reduced interest rates will increase the public to get loans from the banks. This in turn will increase the money supply in the economy. You know what will happen if money supply is increased right. Yes it will increase the demand and it will set the path for the economic recovery. Now look at the third measure increasing tax rates. See first of all water tax rates it is the percentage of income or certain amount of money that has to be paid as tax right. Let us imagine something here. Person A is someone getting decent salary. The taxable amount of income received by person A is rupees 10,000 and the tax rate is 10 percentage. How much tax should person A pay? It is rupees thousand right. Now what will happen if tax rate is increased to 20 percentage. The tax amount that should be paid by person A will now increase to rupees 2000. So what happened here? The amount from the person A's hand decreased when the tax rate is increased. So he will have less money to spend or purchase products. This will lead to decrease in demand right but this should not happen for us. For economic recovery money supply and the money in a person's hand should be increased. So this third option is not correct increasing tax rates will decrease the demand. See I have framed this question because already UPSC have asked questions like this. In 2019 there was a question about measures not taken by government or RBA to stop the slide of Indian rupee. In 2021 also there was a question about steps taken at the time of an economic recession. So we should be prepared for questions like this okay. So the correct answer for the question is option A 1 and 2 only because the third statement is incorrect here. Now moving on to the next question. Now look at this question about denotified and nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes. Three statements are given. Look at the first statement denotified tribes or denotified after the repeal of Criminal Tribes Act 1924 in 1950. See this statement is actually incorrect. The denotified tribes actually stands for all those communities who were once notified under the Criminal Tribes Act enforced by the British Raj between 1871 and 1947. These acts were repealed by the Indian government in 1952 not in 1950. Based on the recommendations of Ananthas Ayanam INR committee report India enacted Criminal Tribes laws repeal act 1952. So this statement is incorrect. Look at the second statement a national commission for denotified and nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes was constituted only once in 2005 for preparing a state-wise list of castes belonging to denotified and nomadic tribes. See this question is also incorrect. The first national commission for DnT's was set up in October 2003 to look into the problems of the community. Again Range commission was set up in 2008 and again in the year 2015 a national commission was constituted under the chairmanship of Sri Baiku Ramji Idet. This commission was tasked to identify and list the committees in different states. This is done to evaluate the progress of development of DnT's in the states. Also know that based on the recommendation of this commission only the government has set up a development and welfare board for DnT's, SNT's and NT's in 2019. So this statement is actually incorrect. Look at the third statement Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched seed scheme for the welfare of denotified nomadic and semi-nomadic communities. See this statement is actually correct. Government decided to create an umbrella scheme for empowerment of DnT's. Accordingly the scheme for economic empowerment of DnT's, SNT's and NT's that is seed has been formulated in 2022 with four components. The four components of the seed scheme are firstly educational empowerment component. It includes free coaching to students from these communities for civil services, entry to professional courses like medicine, engineering, MBA etc. The second component is health insurance through PEM Jan Arogya Yojana. The third is livelihoods to support income generation and fourth is housing through PEM Arogya Yojana. Know that development and welfare board for DnT's, SNT's and NT's has been tasked with the implementation of this scheme. One important feature of this scheme is the online portal. This portal will ensure seamless registration and will also act as a repository of data on DnT's. So the correct answer to the question is option C312. See I have framed this question because there was a question in 2019 about PVTG's. So you have to be very careful about all tribal informations. So with this information now let's move on to the next question. See here two statements are given about competition commission of India and you have to choose the incorrect statement here. Competition commission of India is a statutory body responsible for enforcing the competition act 2002. It was established in March 2009. Its main aim is to ensure fair competition in the market and protect the interest of consumers. Basically it is a quasi-judicial body that gives opinion to statutory authorities and deals with other cases. Talking about the composition, the commission consists of one chairperson and six members who are appointed by the central government. The chairperson and other members shall be whole type members. Now let's talk about the eligibility criteria for the members of CCI, the chairperson and every other member should be a person of ability, integrity and standing. They should have special knowledge of and professional experience of not less than 15 years in international trade, economics, business, commerce, law, finance, accountancy, management, industry, public affairs, administration or in any other matter which in the opinion of the central government may be useful to the commission. In accordance with the provisions of the act, the competition commission of India and the competition appellate tribunal have been established. But the government replaced competition appellate tribunal with the national company law appellate tribunal NCLAT in 2017. Now let's discuss the functions and rules of CCI. See its main aim is to eliminate practices that have adverse effects on competition and protect the interest of consumers. It also gives an opinion on competition issues on a reference received from a statutory authority Additionally, it undertakes competition advocacy, creates public awareness and imparts training on competition issues. Its main focus is on consumer welfare and making the market work for the benefit and welfare of consumers. Now read the question. Statement 1 says NCLAT hears appeals against any direction issued by the competition commission of India. See this statement is actually correct just now we saw right. NCLAT is the appellate tribunal to hear and dispose of appeals against any direction issued or decision made or ordered passed by the competition commission of India CCI. Now look at the second statement. NCLAT was constituted under the competition commission of India Act 2002. See this statement is incorrect. NCLAT was constituted under section 410 of the Companies Act 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of national company law tribunals NCLT. So here the question asked you to find the incorrect statement. Second statement is alone incorrect. So the correct answer for the question is option B2 only. Now moving on look at this question. With reference to art, deco, architecture style consider the following statements. Three statements are given and you have to find which statement is correct. Now look at the first statement. This architectural style was introduced in India by the Mohal rulers. See art deco style of architecture originated in Paris around the 1920s. Subsequently it was developed into a major style of architecture in Western Europe and the United States during the 1930s. Now that the art deco style was introduced in India by the British during the 1930s. So the first statement is absolutely incorrect. Now look at the second statement. The Mumbai city is having the second most art deco buildings in the world. In India the art deco style of architecture was predominantly practiced in and around Mumbai. Some studies found out that Mumbai has the second most art deco buildings in the world after Miami. Know that Miami is a city located in the USA. So here the second statement is correct. Now look at the third statement. The art deco architectural style buildings in Mumbai were inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage List. See this statement is also correct. In 2018 the art deco architectural style buildings along with Victorian Gothic style buildings in Mumbai were inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage List. So the correct answer for the question is option B2131 Lee. Now before moving into the next question let us see some of the features of art deco architecture. See the art deco buildings have a sleek and linear appearance with stylized geometric ornamentation like pyramids floral designs zigzags and other geometric shapes. Apart from this they also have geometric windows and doors. In addition to this the decorative panels can be found that entrances windows and along roof edges of the buildings. The art deco buildings also have some distinctive features. We can witness the use of smooth finished building materials like stucco concrete block glazed brick or mosaic tile. Then the buildings also have sharp edged looks and stylized geometric decorative details. So these are all some of the important facts that you have to remember about art deco buildings. So here the correct answer for the question is option B2131 Lee. Now moving on this question is about antimicrobial resistance. See science related topics are always important for UPSC. Already there was a question about the causes of AMR in prelims 2019. With this understanding let's solve the question. Look at the first statement antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms like bacteria virus fungi and other parasites become resistant to only antibodies. See this statement is actually incorrect antimicrobials or medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans animals and plants antimicrobial is a broad term that includes antibiotics antivirals antifungals and antiparasites. So it is not about the resistance to only antibiotics it includes resistance to all antibiotics antiviral antifungal and antiparasites. Now look at the second statement antimicrobial resistance has been declared as one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019. See this statement is actually correct in 2019 world health organization released a list of top 10 threats to global health in 2019 AMR was one of them. So here the correct answer for the question is option B21 Lee. Now let's understand the concept of AMR. How AMR occurs? See due to random mutations some microbes develop resistance to a drug. When a person takes the drug it will kill all the non-resistant microbes but the mutant microbes will survive the drug. Then these drug resistant microbes will multiply and pass on their drug resistant gene to future generations. This is how drug resistance or antimicrobial resistance develops the microbes that are resistant to drugs are called superbugs. So what are the reasons for such occurrence? The first reason is overuse of antimicrobial. See we use these medicines for everything right for headache, fever, cold, stomach pain and what not. This overuse will lead to AMR. Second reason is misuse. See patients often do not complete the full course of antimicrobials. They will take the medicine for two days and they will stop. See if an antibiotic course is for five days and you are taking it only for two days then bacteria will not be removed from your body completely. This will result in the microbes becoming resistant. Other than this there is this issue of improper diagnosis or improper treatment. In India some doctors are prescribing antibiotics for viral infections. We know antibiotics do not have any effect on viruses right. Misuse like this also develop AMR. So that's all you have to remember about AMR. Here the correct answer is option B2 only. Now moving on look at this question about INS Vikrant. You have to choose which of the four options given here is the best description of INS Vikrant. We already have a similar previous question which was about INS Astra Darani in the year 2016. INS Vikrant was also very frequently in news that is why it is very important to know about INS Vikrant. Now let us see some of the details about INS Vikrant. See it is the first indigenously built aircraft carrier. It was commissioned on 2nd September 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the coast of Kerala. INS Vikrant was designed by Indian Navy's warship design bureau WTB and built by Cochin Shipyard Ltd a public sector shipyard under the ministry of ports shipping and waterways. INS Vikrant is 262 meter long and 62 meter wide and its maximum speed is 28 knots. INS Vikrant also has the credit of being the largest ship ever built in maritime history of India. This indigenous aircraft carrier is named in honor of its predecessor INS Vikrant which was India's first aircraft carrier bought from the UK in 1961. It was decommissioned in 1997. The warship Great Steel was indigenized through Steel Authority of India Ltd sale in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Laboratory DRDL. This ship is capable of operating 30 aircrafts including Kamo 31 Air Early Warning Helicopters MiG-29K fighter jets. Now let us see some of the significance of INS Vikrant. See it offers flexible operational options like surveillance, air defense, air born early warning etc. INS Vikrant improves the maritime security of the nation and it serves as an example of countries at Manipur Bharat and gives momentum to make in India initiative. So here the correct answer for the question is option D first indigenously built aircraft carrier. Now moving on this question is about rat hole mining. First statement says that rat hole mining is mostly followed in the northeastern part of India. See this particular statement is actually correct. The practice of rat hole mining is practiced in northeastern part of India like Mehalaya Assam. Before that what are these rat hole mining? See rat hole mining is a dangerous practice involving digging narrow tunnels each of which fits only one person to enter and extract coal. The national green tribunal that is the NGT had imposed a ban on it in 2014 terming it as unscientific. So as of now it is illegal to mine coal using rat holes. Now the second statement says it is a scientific unsafe method for mining of coals. Now this statement is actually incorrect. Rat hole mining is unscientific and it is not safe also. Now look at the third statement. Third statement says that rat hole mining is a cheap and most economically viable method of mining in northeastern part of India. See this statement is actually true. The coal seam is extremely thin in northeastern parts. Hence rat hole mining is the economically viable method for coal mining and this is the reason why this practice is continued even after the ban imposed by the national green tribunal. Rat hole mining was frequently in use because the miners eventually die or stuck inside if the mine collapses. Such instances are happening frequently that is why rat hole mining was in use. So here the correct answer for the question is option C 1 and 3 only. I hope you enjoyed the video. The upcoming video will be on September 2020 to currentifies. So don't miss that also. If you have not watched our previous videos based on the currentifies of June 2022 and July 2022, I request you to watch that video also. It will be very helpful for your UPSC preliminary exam preparation. Now thank you so much for listening.