 Dear viewers, Shankar IAS Academy has come up with two important initiatives for the students who are writing prelims this year. First one, Phoenix. This initiative will have four modules and each module will also be providing 18 tests free of cost. So, the first module, modern India, art and culture, press test series for free. Second one, polity and constitution, third, environment and geography including maps and fourth one, economics, international organizations and science and technology. And each of these modules, as said before, will be provided with free test series. The free test series consists of 18 tests in total, which are eight GS full mock tests and three C-SAT full tests, two current affairs covering current affairs from June 2019 to March 2020 and five monthly current affairs covering month-wise current affairs from April 2020 to August 2020, that is our lockdown period. So, coming to its pricing, each module will cost rupees 3600, which is inclusive of GST and if any student selects all the four modules, the total course fee is just 9999, which means if you subscribe for all the four modules, you will get a discount of around 4000 rupees. The Phoenix course, including 18 tests, is free for 2019 interview students and also free for Shankar A.S. Academy's 2019-20 PCM batch students and for pre-storming 2020 batch students. And the second initiative brought by Shankar A.S. Academy is Prelim's current affairs test series, which contains 18 tests in total. The admissions are in progress and will be closed on 4th October 2020. And you can take the test based on your time and convenience through an online portal. The fee for 2020 current affairs test series is just 1000 rupees. So, the test series consists of an exclusive 5-monthly current affairs covering current affairs for the month April 2022, August 2020. Further, top 3-minute students in each of the 5-monthly current affairs test will be given 100% fee reimbursement. So, in total, 15 candidates will be awarded 100% fee reimbursement. And not just that, for the benefit of students, along with 5-monthly current affairs test, as a complimentary package, Shankar A.S. Academy is giving 8-year full mock test, 3-seasoned full test, and 2 more exclusive current affairs covering current affairs from June 2019 to March 2020. So, if you subscribe to this course, you will get a total of 18 tests, which covers both static as well as your current affairs parts. The registration link for the Prelim's and Phoenix current affairs series is given in the description as well as in the comment section. With this, let us start our today's Hindu news analysis. The list of topics chosen for today's discussion, along with the page numbers, is given here for your reference. This news article discussion is with reference to DNA Technology Regulation Bill of 2019. So, this bill was examined by DRSC Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, and submitted its draft report. This draft contains a few contentious provisions present in the bill, which we are going to discuss now. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. See, firstly, what is the need for such a bill? See, this bill has been formulated after recognizing the need for regulation of the use and application of deoxyribonucleic acid, or in short, DNA technology. As we all know, DNA is the genetic or hereditary material in most of the organisms, including the humans. So, what is the need for regulation? The regulation is for establishing identity of missing persons, identity of victims, offenders, under trials people, and identity of unknown deceased persons. So, the purpose of this bill is to expand the application of DNA-based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system of the country. See, already the utility of DNA-based technologies for solving crimes and to identify missing persons is well recognized across the world. So, this bill wants to institute the same mechanisms in our country. So, firstly, we shall see what are the key components of this bill. First one, establishment of DNA regulatory board. Second, accreditation of DNA laboratories, which are undertaking DNA testing, analyzing, etc. And next, establishment of national and regional DNA data banks. So, what these data banks do? These data banks maintain national forensic DNA database for the purposes of identification of different category of persons we saw in the beginning. We talked about victims, under trial people, deceased persons, etc. So, this bill envisages these DNA banks to assist in forensic investigations and will aid in scientific upgradation and streamlining of DNA testing activities. Now, with respect to the provisions of the bill, the draft report of Parliamentary Standing Committee has noted that the bill is premature because the bill fails to address crucial issues. Let us see what are those crucial issues the Parliamentary Committee is talking about. Firstly, DNA profiles. It means the results of analysis of DNA sample for establishing human identification. So, this result or profile contains DNA data of each person. So, the DNA profiles can reveal extremely sensitive information of an individual such as ancestry, skin color, behavior, illness, health status, etc. So, access to such intrusive information can be misused to specifically target individuals and their families. If you see, there are already many allegations on other, even though other contains only biometric data. So, the DNA sampling and profiling could be misused for caste or community-based profiling. It could even be used to incorrectly link a particular caste or community to criminal activities. Another issue is the bill allows national DNA data bank to store the DNA profiles. That means the DNA profiles of suspects, under trials, victims and their relatives is stored for future investigations. Noted that there is no legal or moral justification for a database with DNA of the categories other than for convicts. So, the committee says that if you store DNA data of convicts, it is fine. But there is no justification for storing the DNA data of other persons like suspects, under trials, victims and their relatives, etc. Since there is very high potential for misuse of such data. Next, with respect to security of DNA information, the committee noted that our country does not have robust data protection legislation so far. So, the security of huge number of DNA profiles in banks becomes questionable. So, without having a data protection law, there is a huge scope for misuse of such very extremely sensitive data. Next issue is with respect to consent provisions. See for DNA profiling, first collection of DNA samples has to be done. So, this DNA sample means bodily substances of any nature collected for conducting DNA testing. For example, our blood, etc. And according to the bill, bodily substances of persons may be collected by investigating authorities but they are required to obtain consent for collection of such data in some situations. So, here for arrested persons, authorities are required to obtain written consent if the offence carries a punishment of up to 7 years. This means if offence carries more than 7 years of punishment or death, consent is not required. And secondly, if a person is a victim or relative of a missing person or a minor or disabled person, the authorities are required to obtain written consent of such person. Here the problem is, wherever the bill stipulates consent, if consent is not given by the person in those cases, the authorities can approach a magistrate. So, this magistrate can give permission of taking bodily substances even if the victims refuse to give consent. So, a magistrate can override individual consent. Hence, the committee report called these consent provisions as just superficial or for namesake. And next, the bill does not provide guidance regarding the grounds and reasons on which the magistrate can override consent. So, there are no reasons given in the bill when and where the magistrate can override individual consent. So, the committee is of opinion that this provision could become a fatal flaw in DNA profiling in our country. So, these are some of the contentious provisions noted by Parliamentary Standing Committee with respect to DNA Technology Regulation Bill of 2019. With this, we have come to end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us take up this lead column from editorial pitch authored by a member of 14th Finance Commission. The author talks about the need for comprehensiveness, transparency and accountability in budget by the government of India. The article also talks about the off-budget liabilities and how they circumvent the fiscal consolidation roadmap given under the FRBM Act of 2003. Before discussing these aspects, the relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. See the Comptroller and Auditor General in short CAG has highlighted various actions by the government to keep some of its liabilities hidden. Here, liabilities means shortly loans. So, these are liabilities hidden from fiscal consolidation targets given in the FRBM Act of 2003. These hidden liabilities are also called as off-budget liabilities. So, first let us see what do we mean by off-budget financing or off-budget liabilities? See generally all the finances that is both incoming and outgoing of money for central government is done through budget. But off-budget financing refers to expenditure that is not funded through budget. So, this off-budget financing by its nature is not taken into account when calculating fiscal indicators like fiscal deficit. But the cost is borne by the budget through some mechanism or the other. Such financing tends to hide the actual extent of government spending, borrowings and debt and increase the interest burden. So, let us see a few examples to understand this further. One of the methods of off-budget financing is through special banking arrangements. This could be for covering arrears of fertilizer, subsidy, etc. Then government may raise money through the issue of short-term bonds and get unsecured loans and borrowings from national small savings fund. Such a finance could be used by Food Corporation of India towards meeting food subsidy and its arrears. See for example, in 2017-18, the Food Corporation of India took loans of Rs. 65,000 crore from National Small Saving Fund. This money will be paid by government at a future date. For example, maybe in next year's budget. And then the another example is government financing irrigation projects from long-term irrigation fund created by NABOD, that is National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Then another off-budget financing is financing of railway projects through borrowings from Indian Railway Finance Corporation. So, instead of government giving money to railway expenditure or railway infrastructure, the Indian Railway Finance Corporation lends money for railway infrastructure projects. These are some of the examples how government may resort to off-budget financing. And know that such borrowed money and the money obtained through bonds have to be repaid by the government. This means that off-budget financing will affect the government's fiscal space to spend in a budget. Since the financing is outside the budget, the spending is not reflected in fiscal deficit numbers. By doing so, government shows that it is following the fiscal consolidation by reducing fiscal deficit numbers. It is found that governments across the world use this method to escape budget controls. So, because of this reason, there is lack of transparency and accountability from the side of government. So, there has been a proposal to establish a watchdog called as Independent Fiscal Council to look into the fiscal consolidation path of government. This was proposed by 13th Finance Commission. According to its proposal, a committee to be appointed by Ministry of Finance and this committee should eventually transform itself into a fiscal council. The purpose is to conduct an annual independent public review of FRBM compliance. The FRBM review committee also made a similar recommendation. According to its recommendation, a council be created by Finance Ministry and this council will be reporting to the Finance Ministry. But the challenge here is, since this council is created and reporting to Finance Ministry, how can we expect that body to be independent? So, to address this problem, the 14th Finance Commission recommended the establishment of an Independent Fiscal Council. Such a council should be appointed by and reporting only to Parliament by inserting a new section in the FRBM Act of 2003. Even former Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Viral Acharya, has also declared the need for a bipartisan Independent Fiscal Council. So, thereby you can understand that many eminent people are asking Central Government to constitute an Independent Fiscal Council. Now, let us see the benefits or advantages of having such an Independent Fiscal Council. Since it will present an unbiased report to Parliament, its report will help to raise the level of debate and will bring greater transparency and accountability in the Parliament. This will act as next progressive step after FRBM Act. The FRBM Act is considered progressive because it has set up various controls over borrowings of government and also pushes government to follow fiscal consolidation. So, now the Independent Fiscal Council will be next progressive step in the direction of transparency and accountability. Here, accountability refers to accountability in terms of fiscal policies of government. This will also include all the measures that affect and that relate to fiscal consolidation, even off-budget financing and associated liabilities. So, what is fiscal consolidation? We have defined this term multiple times in the recent videos and I am telling it again to help you to recollect the definition. See, fiscal consolidation refers to the policies undertaken by governments to reduce their deficits and accumulation of debt. So, simply put, when governments reducing their deficits and reducing their debt, it is said that government is following fiscal consolidation path. So, coming back to fiscal council, the council will also provide scientific estimates of the cost of programs. This in addition with its assessment of forecasts will help in raising public awareness about the fiscal implications of decisions of government. See, generally, in an election year, governments will go on a spending spree to attract more voters to vote for the ruling government. So, this Independent Fiscal Council can provide scientific estimates of the cost of such programs and will help in raising the public awareness about the fiscal implications of such programs. So, the common agenda of these fiscal councils is to function as watchdogs. Their independent analysis, review, monitoring and evaluation of governments' fiscal policies and programs ensure that sooner the government will achieve the targets under FRBM Act. If you see in the last 10 years, government is continuously extending the time period to achieve these FRBM targets. If I am not wrong, as of now, the fiscal deficit target was pushed to 2023. So, if this Independent Fiscal Council is set up, there might not be frequent relaxations to the government in achieving these targets. See, for your reference, we have displayed nine broad heads of important principles outlined by OECD for a successful fiscal council. By this, the author implies that having a fiscal council should not be for namesake. Rather, such a council should have these principles to deliver the objectives in the realm of fiscal consolidation. So, in conclusion, as India is aspiring to be a global leader, having a sound economy with good track record in fiscal consolidation is necessary. So, Independent Fiscal Council is the means to achieve the end which is fiscal consolidation. With this, we come to end of analysis of this lead column from editorial page. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us take up this news article from editorial page. This news article talks about the much needed reforms in Indian health sector and what are the shortcomings with respect to the healthcare policies like Aishman Bharat. And this article assumes a greater significance because India is third in the world in terms of COVID-19 cases. So, in this scenario, let us discuss existing health sector problems in U.S. and in India and the proposals for a better healthcare system. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. Firstly, the other starts by saying that COVID-19 has underlined the need for universal health coverage. So, what do we mean by universal health coverage? It means all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering any financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential quality health services from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, etc. So, simply put, UHC means the citizens of the country get health services at free of cost or at an affordable price. So, to explain this, author takes the example of two big countries, which are the United States and India. He cites two reasons for non-implementation of universal health coverage in India and in the U.S. First is the issue of certain characteristics of health systems entrenched over the years. Second is the path-dependent resistance to healthcare reform, which means what has occurred in the past persists because of resistance to change. So, these are the two issues cited by the author for non-implementation or poor implementation of universal health coverage in India and in the U.S. Let us discuss these two issues with examples. First, other sides, U.S. Affordable Care Act 2010 are popularly known as Obama Care because this act was brought in when Obama was the president. So, this Obama Care was a comprehensive healthcare law with the goals of making affordable health insurance available to more people covering more adults and supporting innovative medical care delivery methods. Simply, this is a health insurance program wherein any subscriber can join the program by paying the premium amount. And if any health problem arises, he can visit any hospital and can receive the treatment. So, according to author, the U.S. Healthcare has several entrenched aspects. For example, a fragmented private insurance landscape and law for expensive specialized care. So, there is an already private health insurance sector in U.S. and also the people's law for expensive or costly specialized care. So, these non-negotiable aspects contained are limited the scope of affordable care actor Obama Care. So, as a result, this program was not very successful and author talks about a similar program in India as well. So, when it comes to India, government has come up with Aushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jain Aragiojna. This is a health insurance program and a significant step towards universal health coverage in India. This scheme provides health coverage up to Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalization to around 50 crore beneficiaries. So, who are all eligible under this scheme? See, the poor and vulnerable families based on deprivation and occupational criteria as per socio-economic cost sensors are eligible for this scheme. So, all the beneficiaries under the scheme will get cashless service from both public and private M-panel hospitals across India. So, hospitals can register in this scheme and any beneficiary can go to these registered hospitals to get free treatment. So, according to author, giving more role to private players, that is private hospitals, instead of strengthening the public provisioning of health care, reflects the non-negotiability of private healthcare in India. So, this higher dependence on private players could hamper the potential of Aushman Bharat. The news article also says that almost two-thirds of corporate hospitals are concentrated in major cities. So, the people from rural areas have to visit cities to get treatment, which means it increases their out-of-pocket expenditure. Another issue is low budgetary allocation to Aushman Bharat. Though the government is trying to expand the coverage under Gen R. Geojna, because of above said reasons, it might fail to deliver. Next, author also cites another issue in Indian policies, aiming high with little homework. An example is launching of Pradhan Mantri Gen R. Geojna to ensure universal health coverage without enough regulatory measures to check malpractices, monopolistic tendencies, etc. So, if you ask why India is not having any clinical establishments act, the answer is, India has a clinical establishments act of 2010. This act provides for registration, regulation of all clinical establishments in the country. It also prescribes the minimum standards of facilities and services provided by them. But the problem here is, this act is enforced only in 11 states and all UTs except Delhi. The act is not enforced in other states and UTs. Why? Because the public health is a state subject under 7th schedule. So, central government can give only Model X. Based on that model act, state government has to legislate a state act on its own. Author also talks about the recent example, which is national digital health mission. So, under this mission, government is aiming to give a unique health ID similar to Aadhar ID. This health ID would have details of diseases, diagnosis, report, medication in a common database. So, the author feels that without establishing robust ground-level documentation practices, the reach of NDHM will be limited. If you remember, at the beginning of this discussion, we have mentioned the path-dependent resistance to reform. As we all know, the PMJAY is a massive scheme covering 50 crore population and is conceived as world's largest healthcare scheme. So, extending coverage to the remaining population, say remaining 80 crore population, presents us a massive fiscal and design challenges. First and foremost is the fiscal strain on public X checker. As we said in the previous article discussion, India should maintain fiscal consolidation and has to bring its fiscal deficit down to FRBM standards. And the second one is the need for a robust regulatory and administrative architecture. So, this robust regulatory architecture requires administrative expenses and technical capabilities. And the third one, India's huge informal sector. Because of this, it is very difficult to bring all the people and the hospitals into the ambit of Pradhan Mantri Jain Arigyojna. And final challenge lies in harmonizing benefits and entitlements among various beneficiary groups. These are the difficulties or the challenges given by the author to make Pradhan Mantri Jain Arigyojna a true universal scheme by covering every person in the country. So, despite all these challenges, the Pradhan Mantri Jain Arigyojna offers us an important opportunity to push the much needed healthcare reforms. Also, India's vibrant civil society needs to mobilize widespread public consensus and pressure for healthcare reform. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that states with higher per capita public spending on health have fared better. For example, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, etc. While concluding, we can say that the political class from the center as well as states should strengthen our public health system and should work for successful implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jain Arigyojna. We are saying both center and state should work because public health is in state subject. But public health needs a lot of money, which can only be provided by the center. So, only when both center and states come together, India will have a very good public healthcare system. This is all about the discussion of this news article. The practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us take up this news article titled Microlithic Tools Found in Agaram and Sivakalai. See the important sites of excavation often seen in news are important for film examination. This article is about the discovery made during the sixth phase of excavations in Keeladi, Agaram, Adichanallur and Sivakalai areas in Tamil Nadu. So, all these places are in Tamil Nadu. Now, let us see the discoveries made in these sites. The important discoveries are carbonized rice greens, semi-precious stones, terracotta seals and even microlytic tools such as blades, scrapers, coins, etc. And at Kondagai, a burial site, evidence of urn burials, pit burial and surface burials are also identified. And other important discoveries include a red-slipped ware containing tamilly lettuce. Apart from this, several human and animal skeletons were also unearthed with the bowels of red ware, red-slipped ware and black and red ware. All these red ware, black and red ware are pottery. If you have gone through our ancient India NCRT book, you might have well versed with these terms. Now, let us see about the microlytic tools. So, what is microlytic tool? See, firstly know that human history is divided into three main periods. They are stone age, bronzes and iron age. The name implies the material used to make tools and weapons. You can understand that stone is used in stone age, bronze during bronzes and iron during iron age. And this stone age is further subclassified into three periods, paleolithic, mesolithic and neolithic. So, here lithic means stone. So, paleolithic means old stone age, mesolithic means middle stone age and neolithic means new stone age. The oldest period that is the paleolithic age extended from 2 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago and the mesolithic age about 12,000 years ago till about 10,000 years ago. The technological hallmark of this period are tiny stone tools or microliths. Micro means small and lith means stone. So, small stone tools. In addition to microliths, mesolithic people used a variety of non-microlytic tools made on flakes, cores and blades. The next stage from about 10,000 years ago is known as neolithic age. And finally, let us see about Tamilese script or Tamil Brahmi script. See, Brahmi is the earliest Indian alphabetical script. As per its regional variations, it is identified as Tamil Brahmi, Ashokan Brahmi, Northern Brahmi, Southern Brahmi as well as Sinhala Brahmi. All modern Indian scripts are the evolved forms of Brahmi script. And Tamil Brahmi inscriptions are classified as early Tamil Brahmi and late Tamil Brahmi. Due to overseas trade, few pottery pieces and a touchstone bearing personal names in this script were recently noticed in Egypt and Thailand as well. So, with respect to prelims examination, remember the names of these places Kailadi, Agaram, Adichanallur and Sivakali, which are in Tamil Nadu. And also know that this Adichanallur is also called the cradle of ancient Tamil civilization because many items of ancient age were found at this place. And for your reference, the map containing the important archaeological sites of India is given here. So, this is all about the discussion of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us take up this news article from Oped Page, Palestine Now a Footnote. So, this is a continuation news article for what we have discussed on 16th of this month. On that day, we have said that Israel and UAE are going to have peace with a deal mediated by the United States of America. On that day, we have discussed in depth about the Palestinian problem, the wars of 1967 and what happened after the war, and the hostility between Arab states and Israel. See, if you observe, the entire issue between Israel and Gulf nations as well as Arab nations is because of the Palestinian problem. So, when Israel was formed in 1948, the Muslim countries are not happy with it. So, continuously different wars were waged and mostly Israel maintained an upper hand. Because of this, all the Muslim nations in that region declared their famous three noses, which are no peace with Israel, no talks with Israel and no recognition of Israel. Accordingly, all these countries in West Asia won't recognize Israel and they don't have any diplomatic relations with Israel and they won't even recognize Israel as a country. But very soon, this position was abandoned by Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan, etc. And now the current happening is even UAE, that is United Arab Emirates, is going to have peace with Israel, which means both share diplomats and recognize each other. So, because of all these developments, the main loser here is the Palestinian people. Even today, they don't have a state or it is not recognized as a state across the globe. So, talking in this context, the author of today's opiate column has said that for a long time the Palestinian issue has become a non-issue in the region. Once the Palestinian was the main issue for all the contentions in the West Asia has now become a non-issue or unimportant or non-significant issue in the West Asian region. So, the recent development that is a peace deal between Israel and UAE is supposed to have a domino effect or a butterfly effect wherein all the other Muslim nations may also have peace with Israel. But the most unfortunate thing in all these developments is the Muslim countries are not pressing for statehood for Palestine. They are okay with current status quo, that is Israel on the upper hand with respect to Palestine. What they don't want is any big change in status quo and they would like to promote their security interests as well as economic interests. This is because the overpowered or empowered Iran is a threat to all other Gulf nations in West Asia. So, to contain or counter Iran, these countries are coming up with an agreement with Israel as well as with United States. So, if you ask why UAE as well as other Muslim nations are ready to make peace with Israel, the answer is very simple. With changing world and evolution of new geopolitical realities, the nations in Gulf had to update their foreign policies to protect their interests. This is even seen in case of Uighur Muslims of China. Entire world knows that the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province of China are being persecuted and are put in concentration camps in China. But still most of the Muslim countries including OIC, whose mandate is to protect the interests of Muslims across the globe, is silent on this issue. And even ironically, they went on supporting China in the separation of Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang province. So, thereby we can understand that in the current scenario, the issues which are having utmost significance are economic interests and security interests. So, the economic and security interests are undermining any other issue across the world. Because of this reason, the author of today's opiate column says that Palestine now a footnote. This is all about this news article. Let us move on to practice questions discussion session. So, the first question, this question is framed based on this news article. The National Security Guard and Elite Anti-Terrorism Force functions under four options are given. Home Affairs, Defense, Prime Minister's Office and Option D, Parliament. The correct answer is Option A, Ministry of Home Affairs. CNSG is a federal contingency force to deal with anti-terrorist activities. Second question, consider the following statements. Statement one, Brahmi is the earliest Indian alpha vertical script and all modern Indian scripts or evolved forms of Brahmi. Yes, the statement one is correct. Statement two, the pottery containing the Tamil Brahmi script has also been discovered in Egypt and Thailand. Yes, this statement is also correct. Therefore, the correct answer is Option C, both one and two. Next question, consider the following statements. Statement one, deoxyribonucleic acid that is DNA acts as the genetic material in most of the organisms and ribonucleic acid RNA acts as a genetic material in some viruses. See, DNA and RNA are the two types of nucleic acids found in living systems. DNA acts as the genetic material in most of the organisms. RNA though it also acts as genetic material in some viruses mostly functions as a messenger. So, the statement one is correct. Statement two, thymine is present only in DNA. Yes, the statement two is also correct. See, the length of DNA is usually defined as number of nucleotides and nucleotide has three components. One among them is nitrogenous bases and these nitrogenous bases are of two types, purins and pyrimidines. So, purins consist of adenine and guanine while pyrimidines consist of cytosine, rasil and thymine. Here, know that thymine is present only in DNA and in RNA rasil is present. So, statement two is correct. Therefore, the correct answer is Option C, both one and two. Next question, which of the following is incorrect regarding Aishman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jen Argyojana. So, four options are given and we are supposed to identify incorrect statements. Option A, it is a centrally sponsored scheme where the funding is shared between center and state governments. Yes, Option A is correct. Government of India has launched Aishman Bharat Jen Argyojana in 2018 and it is a centrally sponsored scheme. This scheme is centrally funded by government and the funding is shared between center and state governments. We will go to option C. This scheme covers more than 10 crore poor and vulnerable families based on deprivation and occupation criteria as per socio-economic cost census database. Yes, this option is also correct. Option D, under the scheme, there is no restriction on family size while determining the beneficiaries. Yes, this is correct. There is no restriction on family size, ensuring all members of designated families, specifically girl, child and senior citizens get coverage. So, options A, C, D are correct. Therefore, the incorrect statement is Option B. So, it is the correct answer. It provides health coverage up to rupees 5 lakh per family per year for primary, secondary and tertiary hospitalization. This statement is incorrect because only secondary and tertiary hospitalizations are covered under this scheme. The primary hospitalization or primary healthcare is not covered. So, the correct answer is Option B. Next question. In the recent years, proposals have been put forward to set up an independent fiscal council. Which of the following could be the mandates of an independent fiscal council? Four mandates are given and we should identify which of them could be the mandates of independent fiscal council. First one, reviewing fiscal policies of government. Yes, one is correct. Two, raising public awareness about fiscal implications of government decisions. Yes, this is also correct. Three, keeping of reserves with a view to secure monetary stability in India. No, this is incorrect because keeping of reserves to secure monetary stability in India is the mandate of Reserve Bank of India. We all know that Reserve Bank of India has reserves of both gold and foreign currency to maintain monetary stability in the country. So, three is incorrect. If you eliminate three from the options, you can arrive at the answer that is Option D. One, two and four only. So, automatically four is also correct. Monitoring compliance with fiscal rules. Yes, this is also correct. The answer is Option D. Let us take up one main question. An independent fiscal council is Sinequanon to achieve targets of fiscal consolidation. Sinequanon means essential. Discuss. Discuss both pros and cons of having an independent fiscal council. The word limit is 150 words. Write the answers and post your answers in the comment section. We will get back to you with necessary feedback in seven working days. With this, we conclude today's news analysis. If you find this session resourceful, click on the like button, show your appreciation in the comment section, and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Stay home. Stay safe.