 A warm welcome to the Indian news analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy. These are the list of news articles that is chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page numbers of different editions. Also, the link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. So now let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. Now let us take up this op-ed article titled Crafting a unique partnership with Africa. See last month India's external affairs minister visited Kenya as a measure to strengthen the development partnership with Africa. So in this context let us discuss the op-ed article which highlights India's concerns in dealing with Africa providing greater focus on the agricultural sector. The syllabus covered by this op-ed article is highlighted below for your reference. As said earlier, this article especially throws light on the agricultural sector of Africa. This is because Africa accounts for 65% of the world's uncultivated arable land and currently employs over 60% of the workforce. In addition to that, agriculture constitutes almost 20% of the sub-Saharan Africa's GDP which is critical to Africa's economy. Also the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is expected to improve cost competitiveness by removing tariffs. So therefore it is evident that African Continent at present holds greater market integration and also adequate factors of production such as land and labour. But what they need at present is the capital that is the investments and the requirement of skilled labourers to boost their agricultural economy. And here is where China is taking advantage. Know that although India's Africa strategy exists independently, it is important to be aware of China's increasing presence in the region. Hence, before knowing about India's involvement in Africa's development and India's scope to improve the ties with Africa, let us discuss increasing role of China in the African Continent. See China is among Africa's largest trading partners and it is also Africa's single biggest creditor. And Chinese corporations dominate the region's infrastructure market and are now entering the agri-infra-sector. It is said that its engagement in African agriculture is taking on a strategy quality and alongside this China has also built industrial parks and economic zones in Africa which attracts low-cost labour-intensive manufacturing units that are relocating from China. In addition to it, Chinese tech companies are laying critical telecommunications infrastructure and are also investing in African FinTech firms in the form of venture capital funds. And another important aspect is that the nature of operation of Chinese entities in Africa's agricultural landscape has undergone substantial changes. Now, say for instance, in a country named Zambia, Chinese firms are introducing drone technology to control the fall army warp infestation and also they have set up over 20 agricultural technology demonstration centres in the continent with Chinese agronomists work on developing new crop varieties and also in increasing the crop hails. Furthermore, African agricultural experts, officials and farmers are provided opportunities to increase their skills and also to be trained in China. So through these measures, Chinese are keen to dominate the African market in the long term which includes pushing the Chinese standards in host countries. At the same time, one should be aware that such intense measures from China have also led to cautious attitudes among Africans. This is because Africa-China relations are becoming more complex, for example, increasing debt, high trade deficit with China and increase in Chinese competition with local businesses have become a cause of concern for Africa. Also, Chinese and African experts working in the agricultural technology demonstration centres operate in separate groups which restricts knowledge transfer. And note that on occasion, there seems to be a gap between skills transferred in China and the ground realities in Africa. So these are the areas where India can focus to strengthen its ties with Africa. So till now we saw about the role of China and now let us learn about India's engagement in the African region. See generally, New Delhi's engagement with the African continent has different aspects and features and it ranges with projects implemented under Indian lines of credit, capacity building initiatives and cooperation in a range of sectors. So currently, India-Africa Agricultural Cooperation, it includes institutional and individual capacity building initiatives and they are India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development in Malawi, Extension of Soft Loans, Supply of Missionary and also Acquisition of Farmland and the presence of Indian Entrepreneurs in the African Agricultural Ecosystem and many more. But the question is, are these measures sufficient enough to build a development partnership with Africa? And the answer is a clear no. So then what should India do at present to focus on Africa's agricultural economy? See, some national actors are providing alternative models of cooperation and agriculture. Now say for instance, the Kerala government is trying to meet its requirements for raw cashew nuts with imports from countries in Africa and there are also proposals to create a jointly owned brand of Africa Cullum Cashews. So similar ideas could increase state governments and civil society organisations to iron and identify the opportunities and also to invest directly. Secondly, it is evident that innovative and disruptive technology have transformed the African Agricultural Technology sector as the start-up ecosystem in a continent which has registered a growth of 110% between the years 2016 and 2018. Hence, incentivising Indian industries to tap into African Agribusiness value chains and also connecting Indian technology firms and start-ups with partners in Africa can be a good solution. Now thirdly, an impact assessment of the existing capacity building initiatives in agriculture needs to be conducted and this could include detailed surveys of participants who have returned to their own countries after getting trained in India. So also the curriculum for capacity building shall be country specific so that there could be demand led skill development. Finally, the article concludes by saying that India should continue to build the development partnership in line with African Priorities. So these are some of the takeaway points from this open article. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this editorial article. See the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of deaths and we all know about this. In fact, some of us have even lost our dear ones due to this pandemic. See from the beginning of this pandemic there has been suspicion regarding the official death toll that is released by the government and many experts believe that the governments are underreporting the death toll caused by this horrible pandemic and in this backdrop this article has been written. So let us move on to see what the article has got to tell us. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below. See the problem of underreporting of COVID-19 deaths is not just confined to India because even countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa and Peru faced the same issue but they found a way to overcome it. See the journalist in these countries captured the missed COVID-19 deaths using the data available in their death registration systems. Now Indian journalists are also doing the same and journalists from a range of news organizations have accessed the all-cause mortality data from the civil registration system in short known as the CRS. See this civil registration system or the CRS in India is the unified process of continuous permanent compulsory and universal recording of the vital heavens including birth, death and the stillbirth and also the characteristics thereof. See the data generated through a complete and up-to-date CRS is essential for socio-economic planning. Know that the journalist of our country accessed the CRS data to capture the missed COVID-19 deaths and priority was given to the CRS data of states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. By accessing the all-cause mortality data of the CRS they were able to conclude the following that is during the second wave of the pandemic that is between April and May 2021 there was a large rise in excess mortality and this rise in deaths easily exceeded the official COVID-19 toll for the same period. So this shows that a lot of COVID-19 deaths were not reported properly. See the initiative of using CRS data to capture the under reported deaths is a significant move because it will bring in transparency and will also enforce accountability and the author of the editorial appreciates such an initiative. But the author also stresses that the CRS data has some errors which may affect the noble cause of capturing the missed COVID-19 deaths. So what are these errors? See not all deaths are registered in the CRS because in the year 2019 only 92 out of 100 deaths were registered in the CRS. Also there was a large variation among states when it comes to the death registration. For example states like Bihar register just half of all the deaths so the data available in the CRS is not accurate since it does not include all the deaths. And according to the author the data used by the journalist is an underestimate of the total deaths so it does not give the complete picture. Also in recent years the registration of deaths through CRS is on the rise and it is increasing year by year and previously people didn't register death properly but now due to awareness and e-governance the registration of deaths through CRS is on the rise. So the increase in mortality during the April-May 2021 period can also be due to the increase in the death registration and also it can be due to the increase in natural deaths. So the use of CRS data to capture COVID-19 deaths may not be send person effective since it does not give a clear picture. Also the use of CRS data to capture the missed COVID-19 deaths is a noble initiative and it will give proper account for the underreporting of COVID-19 deaths and it will also provide peace and justice to the COVID-19 victims and their families. But we should also know that the CRS data is an imperfect source of information and journalists are forced to rely on the CRS data due to the lack of transparency from the government and the government also failed to engage with the journalist during the COVID-19 crisis to give a proper accurate information and this is forced them to rely on the CRS data for the information and the author here hopes that maybe in the future such orders can be overcome and transparency becomes a key pillar of good governance. So with this we have come to the end of this editorial discussion. So when this discussion we saw about the underreporting of the COVID-19 deaths on how the journalists are using the CRS data to capture the missed COVID-19 deaths and we also saw about the CRS briefly and further we also discussed about the errors in the CRS data and how CRS is an imperfect source when it comes to the capturing of the missed COVID-19 deaths. So with this we have come to the end of this editorial discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now look at this news article. This article speaks about the use of facial recognition technology for online verification of beneficiaries at various vaccination centers in India. Now the issue is that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is alleged to have used the technology without any sort of legal order authorizing it. So in this context let us discuss about this facial recognition technology, its applications, legal backing etc. The syllabus covered by this article is given below for your reference. See facial recognition is a way of identifying or confirming an individual's identity using their face and this facial recognition systems can be used to identify people in photos, videos and also in real time. Note that this facial recognition is a category of biometric security and other forms of biometric software includes voice recognition, fingerprint recognition and eye retina or iris recognition. See the technology is mostly used for security and also for law enforcement. Now there is an increasing interest in other areas of usage as well. Now let us see the four important stages that is involved in the facial recognition technology. See the first stage is face detection. Now here the camera detects and locates the image of a face either alone or in a crowd and the next stage is face analysis. The most facial recognition technology it relies on 2D rather than 3D images because it can more conveniently match a 2D image with public photos or those in a database. Now here the software reads the geometry of your face and key factors include the distance between your eyes, the depth of your eye socket, the distance from your forehead to your chin, the shape of your cheek bones and the contour of the lips, ears and chin. Now here the aim is to find or identify the facial landmarks that are key to distinguishing an individual's face and the third stage involves converting the image to data. Now here the face capture processes transforms analog information that is a face into a set of digital information that is in the form of a data based on the person's facial features and this numerical code is called as a face print. In the same way that the thumbs are unique each person has got their own unique face print. Now the final stage in this process is finding a match. Now here the face print is compared against a database of other known faces. Say for example on Facebook any photo tagged with a person's name becomes a part of Facebook's database and such data may be used for facial recognition. See of all the biometric measurements facial recognition is considered to be the most natural. Now this makes sense as we typically recognize ourselves and also others by looking at their faces rather than thumb prints and hyruses. Now let us see the applications of this facial recognition technology. See the technology is used for a variety of purposes and the most common application is unlocking phones. See it offers a powerful way to protect personal data and also to ensure that sensitive data remains inaccessible if the phone is stolen. Also facial recognition is regularly being used by law enforcement. Know that police collect mugshots, ramaesties and compare them against local state and federal face recognition databases. And as we know facial recognition has become a familiar site at many airports around the world and facial recognition not only reduces the waiting times but it also allows the airports to improve its security. Know that facial recognition can be used to find missing persons and victims of human trafficking as well. Now in addition to that the technology has also got the potential to improve the retail experiences for customers. For example kiosks in stores could recognize customers and also it can make product suggestions based on your purchase history. And apart from all these biometric online banking is also another benefit of facial recognition because instead of using one-time passwords customers can authorize transactions by looking at their smartphones or computer. So when you take India this facial recognition technology is used in the National Automated Facial Recognition System. Now being developed by the National Crime Records Bureau it claims to automatically identify and verify criminals missing persons etc. Now currently in India we don't have a specific law which authorizes deployment of these technologies and the Indian Information Technology Act of 2000 being India's mother legislation on the electronic format is also completely silent on facial recognition. So by this we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this article for discussion. See recently the Supreme Court found that Section 66A of the Information Technology Act is being enforced even six years after it was struck down. See we all are aware that Section 66A of the Information Technology Act was declared unconstitutional in the Shreya single case that took place in the year 2015. So in this context let us discuss about this Section 66A of the IT Act. See Section 66A of the IT Act dealt with information related crimes and note that according to this provision sending information that are found to be offensive, disrespectful and threatening are made a public offence. But this provision is enforced only when the communication is sent by means of a computer resource or through any communication device. The detail of this provision is given below for your reference. The spirals can have a glance of it. See the weakness of Section 66A lay in the fact that it had created an offence on the basis of undefined actions or to put it in simple words look at the subsection B. It mentions that the law can be enforced when the information is found to be causing inconvenience, danger, obstruction etc. But it fails to define or provide the exact meaning of those terms and therefore it gives a scope for wider interpretation which may go completely against the purpose of this law. And also note that such terms do not fall among the exceptions granted under Article 19 of the Constitution which guarantees the freedom of speech. In addition the court is also noted that Section 66A did not have procedural safeguards like other sections of the law. So because of such reasons this law was challenged in the Supreme Court and the apex court noted that the provision of 66A was vague and arbitrary and it also added that the public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the Information Technology Act or to make it clear the court has found that Section 66A was contrary to both Article 19 which ensures free speech and Article 21 which ensures the right to life by a constitution. So therefore in the year 2015 the Supreme Court struck down the Section 66A of the Act by terming it to be unconstitutional and this case is famously known as the Shreya Single Case. But unfortunately the number of cases registered under Section 66A had actually increased post the judgement. So with this we have come to the end of this article discussion. Now let's move on to the next news article. Now look at this news article. This news article mentions about a cyber attack on a US IT company and it was a ransomware attack which has led to the closing of hundreds of Swedish supermarkets. So in this light let us have a holistic understanding on the cyber attack and also on the ransomware attack. So first of all let us see what is a cyber attack. See it is an attack via cyberspace which targets and enterprises use of cyberspace for the purpose of disrupting, disabling, destroying or maliciously controlling a computing environment or infrastructure. And it is done even for destroying the integrity of the data or for stealing controlled information. So therefore in simple words cyber attacks are malicious attempts to access or damage a computer or network system and such cyber attacks can lead to laws of money, theft of personal information and also the theft of financial and medical information all of which can damage your reputation and safety. Now some common types of cyber attacks are malware, phishing, man in the middle attack, denial of service attack, SQL injection attack and etc. Note that the cyber attack that is mentioned in today's news is ransomware and to know more on that we have to first have an understanding about malwares. See malware is the short term for malicious software which is a software that is installed on a victim's computer without their consent and it compromises the operation of a system by performing an unauthorized function or process and such malware reaches a network through a vulnerability and most often it happens when a user clicks a dangerous link or email attachment which later installs risky software without the knowledge of the user and a malware includes spyware, ransomware, viruses and worms. So our focus here is on ransomware which is a type of malware that prevents you from accessing your computer or the data that is stored in it. This is because ransomware encrypts files on a device and it blocks access to key components of the network. In such an attack the computer itself may become blocked or the data on it might be stolen, deleted or encrypted and to note that it is an extortion attack so after the attack a ransom payment is demanded in order to unlock the computer or access the data. To make the payment the victim is asked to contact the attacker via an anonymous email address or is asked to follow instructions on an anonymous webpage and here the payment is invariably demanded in a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin but there is no guarantee that once the ransom is paid you will get access to your computers or files. So the impact is higher here and it can be devastating to an individual or an organization and it can severely impact the business processes and leave organization without the data they need to operate and deliver mission critical services and the same is happening with the attack mentioned in the news article as well where thousand companies are affected by the attack and the attackers are demanding 17 million US dollars in bitcoin in exchange for the stolen data from the US IT company and for your additional information some of the ransomware attacks so far was the 2017 Bonacry malware or ransomware the 2016 Petia ransomware and also the Ryuk ransomware of 2018. So with these informations in mind let us now move on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this news article. This news article mentions about the demise of Father Stan Swamy. He was a tribal rights activist who fought for the rights of indigenous tribes or Adivasis in Jharkhand and also he is one of the prime accused persons of the Bhima Khureygun violence case about which we will be saying in our discussion. See the Bhima Khureygun violence occurred in the Pune district of Maharashtra on 1st January in the year 2018 and this happened at an event that was organized to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Khureygun battle. So in order to understand the case we first need to know about this battle. See the name Bhima Khureygun denotes the name of a small village in Pune district of Maharashtra which is associated with an important phase of Maratha history that is it is associated with a battle between the Marathas and the British which was part of the Anglo-Maratha war and the battle was led by the Maratha king Peshwa Baji Rautu and it happened in Khureygun. See in this battle the major point to be noted is that the British army was dominated by Dalits especially from Mahar community. At that point in the 17th century Mahar community was known for their Martian as well as their administrative glory under Shivaji and then later under the British but even then under the later Peshwa rulers Mahars were treated as an untouchable caste in Maharashtra and they were oppressed and enslaved. Now in the battle the British force was small comprising of around 900 soldiers whereas the Peshwa's army was very large and it comprised of 20,000 soldiers and in this battle the Dalit dominated British army defeated the Peshwa army and this happened on January 1st, 1818. Note that this battle attained a legendary stage show for Dalits and it elevated the Dalit pride which enforced a positive identity in them and most importantly this win is considered as a victory of the Mahars against the injustices perpetuated by the Peshwa's or in other words it was seen as the victory of the Mahar majority battalion over the so-called upper caste Peshwa army. So to celebrate this victory and also for remembering those who fought in the battle the East India Company or British they installed a pillar which is known as the Vijay Stump meaning the victory pillar and it is inscribed with the name of the martyred Mahar soldiers. So every year on January 1st thousands of Dalits gather at this place and they pay respect to the martyrs and in a similar way in 2018 also people gathered at this place but the concern was that they gathered in large numbers because the year 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of the victory but unfortunately the event turned into a violence due to clashes between the Dalit and the Maratha groups and this resulted in the death of one person and injuries to several others which later led to a statewide Dalit agitation. The reason stated for this sudden violence is that few days before the event Govind Gopal Mahar's memorial was found desecrated. See Govind Gopal Mahar is said to have performed the last rites of the 17th century Maratha King Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in the year 1689 in defiance of orders passed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. So therefore it means that he is an important person to this Mahar community and this desecration incident was mentioned along with certain inflammatory remarks in a public conference that was held on 31st December 2017 and it was organized by the Dalit, other backward classes, Muslims and also Maratha organizations. See note that this conference is known as the Elgar Parishad and that is why mostly the case is reported in news as Bhima Koregon, Elgar Parishad case and Father Stan Swami was charged by the NIA or the National Investigation Agency for conspiring to incite the violence. So with these informations in mind let's move on to the next news article. Now look at this news article. See according to this article Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have intensified the dispute of sharing of the Krishna waters and this dispute has intensified particularly in the wake of works on the Rayala Seema lift irrigation scheme. So in this context let us discuss the lift irrigation scheme and also the Krishna river. First of all what is lift irrigation? See lift irrigation is a method of irrigation in which water is not transported by natural flow but rather it is lifted with pumps and surge pools. See lift irrigation schemes achieve two main tasks. First it carries the water by means of pumps from the water source to the main delivery chamber. Usually this main delivery chamber is situated at the top most point in the command area and secondly from the main delivery chamber it distributes the collected water to the fields of the beneficiary farmers by means of a suitable and proper distribution. So this is how it works. See lift irrigation system does not rely on gravity for the flow of water but rather it relies on pumps and distribution systems. Now let us discuss the advantages of lift irrigation schemes. See lift irrigation schemes make irrigation possible at a higher level and this is not usually possible in other water delivery systems. Also land acquisition becomes easy for the lift irrigation schemes since they are reliant on pumps instead of gravity. Know that lift irrigation schemes have got the flexibility when it comes to land acquisition and it also loses less water compared to that of other systems. Further it also requires less manpower. So these are some of the advantages of the lift irrigation schemes. So having done with the basic understanding of lift irrigation and its advantages, now let us discuss about the Krishna River. See Krishna is a mighty east flowing river of Peninsular India that rises from the western guards in Maharashtra. The total length of the river from its origin to its outfall into the Bay of Bengal is around 1400 kilometer. See the Krishna basin extends over the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka and it covers nearly 8% of the total geographical area of the country. See this river is bounded by the Balagat range on the north, by the eastern guards on the south and the east and by the western guards on the west. There are about 13 major tributaries which joined river Krishna along its 1400 kilometer course out of which six are right bank tributaries and seven are left bank tributaries. Among the major tributaries the Gatte Prabha, the Malla Prabha and the Tunga Bhattra are the principal right bank tributaries whereas the Bhima, the Musi and the Munneru are the principal left bank tributaries. Note that the major hydropower stations in the basin are Koina, Tunga Bhattra, Sree Saila, Nagarjuna Sagar, Almatti, Narayanpur and the Badra and this basin is said to possess rich mineral deposits which creates a great potential for industrial development. And note that iron and steel, cement, sugarcane, vegetable oil extraction and rice milling are some of the important industrial activities at present in the basin and the major urban centers in the basin are Pune and Hyderabad. So with these facts in our mind let us move on to the next news article. Now let us discuss this news article. This article is regarding a new policy document from the National Mission for Clean Ganga. It says that cities situated on river banks will have to incorporate river conservation plants when they prepare their master plans and such river sensitive development plants must consider the questions of encroachment and also land ownership. It also stated that such a plan should provide for a systematic rehabilitation plan for the encroaching entities by focusing on the alternative livelihood options and relocation. See at present these recommendations are applicable for towns that are on the main stem of the Ganga and currently there are 97 such towns encompassing the five states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. So in this context let us discuss in detail about the National Mission for Clean Ganga. See this National Mission for Clean Ganga was registered as a society in the year 2011 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. See this National Mission for Clean Ganga acted as an implementation arm of the National Ganga River Basin Authority. This National Ganga River Basin Authority was constituted under the provisions of the EPA Act or the Environment Protection Act of 1986. But the National Ganga River Basin Authority was dissolved with effect from October 2016 and it was replaced by the National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga which is often referred to as the National Ganga Council. See the Environment Protection Act envisages a five-tire structure at national, state and district level and these structures will take measures for the prevention, control and abatement of environmental pollution in River Ganga. And this would ensure continuous adequate flow of water so as to rejuvenate the River Ganga. Now let us see about this five-tire structure. On the top is the National Ganga Council under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of India and next is the Empower Task Force on River Ganga which is chaired by the Union Minister Robchal Shakti and then comes the National Mission for Clean Ganga and next is the State Ganga Committees and the final tire is the District Ganga Committees in every specified district abating River Ganga and its tribute trees in the states. Now coming to the National Mission for Clean Ganga, see it has a two-tire management structure and it comprises of the governing council and the Executive Committee. See the Executive Committee has been authorised to accord approval for all projects up to Rs 1000 crore and note that both of them are added by the Director General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga and the Director General of this National Mission for Clean Ganga has an additional secretary in the Government of India. See the objectives of the National Mission for Clean Ganga are to accomplish the mandate of the National Ganga River Basin Authority. Firstly, to ensure effective abatement of pollution and the rejuvenation of the River Ganga and this is done by adopting a river basin approach to promote intersectoral coordination for comprehensive planning and management and the next objective is to maintain minimal ecological flows in the River Ganga with the aim of ensuring water quality and also environmentally sustainable development. You can have a look at the figure in order to understand the key functions of the National Mission for Clean Ganga. With this, we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now look at this news article. The article reports about the birth of a leopard cub at a zoo in Kerala. So in this light, let us see a few facts about leopards. See leopards are scientifically known as panthera pardus and it is the most widely distributed and also the adaptable member of the family Felidae. Historically, this species range spanned across nearly three and a half crore kilometer and discovered all of the sub-Saharan and North Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor, South and Southeast Asia and it even extended to the Amur valley in the Russian Far East and its range also includes the island ranges of Sri Lanka, Java, Zanzibar and also the Kandian. Remember, these species occur in almost every kind of habitat right from the rainforest of the tropics to the desert and temperate regions. This is because leopards are quite adaptable with respect to habitat and also food requirements and this is one of the reasons why they are found in intensively cultivated and in habitat areas as well as found near urban developments. See another important characteristic of leopards is that they are prolific breeders. Note that the Indian subspecies of panthera pardus is the panthera pardus fusca and among all the subspecies Indian leopard retains the largest population size and range outside Africa and it is found in all forested habitats of India and it is absent only in the arid deserts and above the timber line in the Himalayas. See in the Himalayas the Indian subspecies occurs within the same geographical range as that of the snow leopards but up to 5200 meter. Even though they are widely distributed, still these species face many threats and it includes habitat loss, redepletion, conflict and poaching. So because of all these reasons their current distribution and numbers of significantly decreased across the range. Coming to its conservation status in the high UCN red list, the species is listed as vulnerable and it is also listed in appendix one of the sites or the convention on international trade of endangered species of wild fauna and flora and remember in India it is provided the highest level of protection under the schedule one of the wildlife protection act of 1972. So these are some of the important facts about the leopards. So with this let us move on to the practice question discussion. Now look at this question which of the following statements is correct with respect to the battle of Bhima Kuregorn. Statement A it was a part of the Anglo-Maratha war. Statement B Maratha army led by Chhatrapati Sivaji won the battle. Statement C Maratha army was dominated by Dalits and Statement D Vijay's thumb was installed in Satara to commemorate the victory. See the correct answer is option A because as we saw in the discussion the battle of Bhima Kuregorn was a part of the Anglo-Maratha war. Coming to statement B it is incorrect since the Maratha army was led by Peshwa Baji Rao too and not by Chhatrapati Sivaji and Statement C becomes incorrect since the British army was dominated by Dalits from Mahal community. And coming to the fourth statement this Vijay's thumb was installed in Pune and not in Satara and here remember Satara was the capital of the Maratha kingdom during the reign of Sivaji Shahuram Raja and Shahupratap Singh. So therefore the right answer is option A. Now look at this question about leopards. Statement 1 says that they do not occur in the Russian continent and statement 2 says that they are highly adaptable with respect to habitat and food requirements. So we need to find the correct statement. See the first statement is incorrect because the leopards occur in Russia especially in the Russian Far East and the subspecies is known as the Amur Leopard. See the Amur Leopard is also known as the Far East Leopard or the Manchurian Leopard or the Korean Leopard because while the Amur Leopards are now only found in the border areas between the Russian Far East and the Northeast China and possibly North Korea. Most of the leopards are in Russia with a few in China and their range is smaller than 2500 square kilometers. Now similar to other leopards the Amur Leopard can run at a speed of up to 37 miles per hour and this incredible animal has been reported to lead more than 19 feet horizontally and up to 10 feet vertically. Remember these Amur Leopards are solitary and they live for around 10 to 15 years and they will up to 20 years in the case of captivity. Now coming to the second statement so based on our discussion we can find that this statement is correct. So therefore the right answer is option B that is 2 only since the question wants us to find only the right statement. Now let us take up this question about river Krishna. Statement 1 says that Krishna is a mighty west flowing river of the peninsula India that rises from the western guards in Karnataka and statement 2 says that the Munneru river is one of the tributaries of river Krishna. See when you take statement 1 it is incorrect since Krishna is a east flowing river and not a west flowing river and coming to statement 2 Munneru is the left bank tributary of river Krishna and therefore the statement is correct and since the question wants us to find the right statement the correct answer is option B that is 2 only. Now let us take up this question about the ransomware. Statement 1 says that it is a malware that encrypts files on a device and blocks access to key components of the network and statement 2 says that WannaCry malware attack was a world's first ransomware attack and we need to find the incorrect statement. Coming to statement 2 see this statement becomes incorrect because WannaCry attack happened in 2017 and the world's first ransomware attack took place in 1989 and it targeted the healthcare industry. See the first ever ransomware virus was created in 1989 by an hour trained evolutionary biologist Joseph Hellpop who is now known as the father of ransomware and the ransomware was called the AIDS Trojan and also known as the PC Cyborg. See back then Pop sent around 20,000 infected discats, labelled AIDS information introductory discats, attendees of the world health organisations, international AIDS conference in Stockholm and the discs contained malicious code that hid file directories locked file name and also demanded the victims to send around 189 dollars if they wanted their data back and note that the AIDS Trojan was a generation one ransomware malware and therefore it was relatively easy to overcome. Since the question wants us to identify the incorrect statement the right answer is option D that is to one day. Now look at this prelims practice question statement one says that the national vision for clean Ganga is a society registered under the society's registration act of 1860 and the second statement says that the national Ganga council is chaired by union minister of Jhanshakte and we need to find the correct statement see based on our discussion we can infer that statement one is correct and coming to the second statement see this statement becomes incorrect because the national Ganga council is headed by the prime minister of India and not the union minister of Jhanshakte and since the question wants us to find only the right statement the correct answer is option A that is one only. The list of main practice questions is displayed here you can write your answers and post them in the comment section below. So with this we have come to the end of today's indoor news analysis. 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