 Welcome everyone. This is Shankar Ayesakadami's Hindu News Analysis for the date 7th of January 2023. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today. Now let's start the discussion. Take a look at this news article. This news article talks about a novel step taken to prevent desertification. Meet Mr. Behraram Bahar, Rajasthan's tree teacher. Through the concept of family forestry, Behraram Bahar has worked towards preventing desertification in western Rajasthan for over 24 years. How did he manage to do this? Basically Behraram Bahar is a primary school teacher in the Barma district of Rajasthan. He turned into an environmentalist at a very young age. He was very involved in increasing the region's green cover and has led several Yathras to raise awareness about environmental protection and family forestry. If you have paid close attention, you would have heard me use the term family forestry numerous times. Now what is this family forestry? Family forestry means caring for a tree as a family member so that the tree becomes part of the family's consciousness. This green or eco-socialization brings environmental sensitivity and empowerment to the people. In 2021, the Land of Life award of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification that is UNCCD was conferred to the family forestry of Rajasthan. While conferring the award, the UNCCD stated that family forestry of Rajasthan is a unique concept that relates a tree like a family making it a green family member. The rationale behind this is very simple. We usually take care of our family members so when we consider a tree as a family member, we take care of them and even plant more. By doing so, we are not only enjoying the benefits from the tree but also working towards preventing desertification. Here you should clearly know about desertification. Desertification does not mean the region turns into a desert and the land becomes sand covered. Desertification is the degradation process in which the fertile land becomes unproductive. This means the land struggles to grow any type of vegetation due to lack of minerals and nutrients in the soil. Now coming back, see this movement involved more than a million families from over 15,000 villages of the desert prone northwestern Rajasthan. As per UNCCD, about 2.5 million saplings have been planted in the past 15 years with active participation of students and desert dwellers. Now even though it is a government initiative, look at our Rajasthan tree teacher. He is a single man who has achieved a record in the family forestry campaign by planting 4 lakh trees and connecting 1.2 lakh people with his drive through the last 24 years. Mesmerizing, right? Now let us see what he actually did. See, Mr Bahar was posted as a government secondary school teacher at Barmer. He developed his own nursery there. Every year, since 2002, he spent his one month salary to plant trees in the nursery. Later, he began distributing saplings of the desert plants to his friends, colleagues, students and relatives with the support of the public at large. When we receive something as a gift, we tend to protect it right. In that way, Mr Bahar has planted 4 lakh trees and connected 1.2 lakh people with his drive during the last 24 years. Not only that, through his Yadras and motorcycle during the school vacation days, he traveled to every district in Rajasthan and even he touched states like Haryana, Uttarkan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The life of Mr Behraram Bahar is a perfect example of what a citizen should do to his country. You can use this example in your SA paper. You can also use Mr Bahar's life as an example of Aristotle's Virtue Ethics in your Ethics paper. By quoting real life examples from current affairs in your SA and Ethics paper, you can make your answer look unique and get more marks. So that's all regarding this discussion. Try to make note of these interesting examples which you find in the newspaper. We will also, from our part, try to quote this example in our news analysis. So take a note of it and try to use it in your answer and in your essays. So that's all regarding this discussion. Here we saw about family forestry and about the life of Mr Behraram Bahar. With this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Now take a look at this editorial article. It is a quite interesting one. This article is about the misconception about the political parties. See the author is saying that political commentators are starting to see political parties as corporations and their leaders as CEOs after important elections. This comparison is because CEO is responsible for the bad performance of a company, right? Likewise, political commentators are thinking that leaders of the political parties are only responsible for the poor election results. According to the author, this view is misleading and it will only create false idea about how political parties are functioning. So in this discussion, we will understand how the political parties in India are functioning and we will see why political party functioning as a corporation is detrimental to parliamentary democracy. Before that, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. Just go through it. First of all, let us begin our discussion by seeing the key difference between a political party and a company. The first difference is with regards to persons working in the institution. A political party has claimants and volunteers, but a company has employees. This difference impacts the basic functioning of the political party and a company. And it also impacts the operations of the two entities. See in a company, employees should be provided with salary, social security, good working conditions and holidays, right? Do you think these are all provided to volunteers in a political party? Actually a big no. So like I said, persons working in the entity impacts the basic functioning of the entity. The second difference lies in the purpose of the institution. As we all know, the purpose of the political party is to capture state power and to do service with some stated social agenda. This agenda is nothing but the ideologies that the political parties represent. In India, we have heard about the right wing and the left wing ideologies, right? So political parties' purpose is to have some ideology and do service to the society through the power given to them. But a company will not have any social agenda at all. A company's purpose is to make profit and expand its business. So for this, they do not need social agenda. They only need to know about the pattern of public consumption, market strategies, investment strategies. And this is exactly why social responsibility is forced upon the company through the CSR obligation. The third difference lies in the activities of the institution. Like we saw already, the purpose of the political party is to capture power in the society. So there is a need for the political party to be seen as a micro version of the larger society. It means the political party itself should have activities which are typical features of much larger society. Let me explain this as an example. Let us say a person next in a political party Y has come to power. What will Mr. X do after coming to power? He will hold MP or MLA position. Or he might become a minister if the political party Y forms government. And what is the duty that he will be performing while holding the post? If he is a minister, then he should take care of his departmental activities. If he is a minister of rural development, then he should take measures or make policies that aids the development of rural areas. So to gain the confidence of the people, he should do all these activities while working as a volunteer in the political party itself. And only then people will vote him to power. So there is a need for the political party to function as a micro version of the larger society. And this is exactly why there are different posts inside the political parties itself. A typical political party will have a single party leader, a group of party executives and a community of party members. They will also have other posts such as area president, different departments such as youth welfare, treasury, IT, etc. This seems exactly like the structure of the government, right? But there is no need for such a structure in a company. A company's purpose is to make profit and expand business. This purpose can be achieved by any means. So the company concentrates on hiring specialists, holding meetings for innovative ideas and analyzing the markets. It has no need to function as micro version of a larger society. As long as the company is making profit, it can function in whatever way it wants. This is because they do not have the need to win the confidence of the public. And this difference paves way for the next difference which is the space of functioning. As we already saw, companies function in a narrowly defined space, which is nothing but buying, producing and selling goods and services. But political parties, as we already saw, they have to function as the mini society and this pair of functioning is very large. It even has to think about the trajectory of the society for its progress. You may ask, even companies have to think about the trajectory of the society to sell its goods or bringing innovation to the market, right? Yes, you are absolutely right, but it will not be done by everybody in the company. Only a handful of people like the big executives and the big marketing team will be concerned about the societal condition. A developer in a software company will do only the work of software development and a financial officer will be only concerned about the account. So in a company, employees will be performing well-defined, non-overlapping roles. But in a political party, everyone should perform all roles which is concerned with the development of the society. And the next difference lies in the trade-offs. See, trade-offs are compromises. It literally means exchanging something of value. And these trade-offs are important when it comes to political parties. This is because a political party may have multiple conflicting interests and opinions. This we cannot blame also. See, even Gandhi and Subash Chandra Bose had conflicting opinion about how we should attain our independence. Gandhi followed the path of non-violence, but Bose involved in the Indian National Army. Both followed different paths to attain the same cause only. So it is natural that even while working towards a common goal, we must take conflicting opinions. And here only compromise is needed. But there is no such need for trade-offs in a company. Companies do not compromise just because an employee is having a conflicting opinion. If they have a set goal in terms of production units, they will attain the goal no matter what. They will ultimately work towards the goal, even if an employee does not agree to the goal. And the interesting thing is that the employee who is having a conflicting opinion will not express his opinion until he has some power to change the common norms. So in a company, only a few top executives have a say. But in a political party, everybody has a say. And some of them are compromised for the greater good of the political party and the people. And this difference leads to the next one, which is the internal dissonance. Internal dissonance is nothing but lack of agreement or harmony between people. This is again because of conflicting opinions only. Sometimes, trade-offs do not work. In that case, functionaries of the party will make contradictory statements during important campaigns. Sometimes, political parties have faced the problem of sabotage, leakage, rebel candidates or even sheer inactivity. This will not happen in a company. Right? No inside information will be let out by a company. If there is any problem in the functioning of the company by an employee, then the company will discipline them by firing the employee. This disciplining cannot be done in a political party. Right? Because the members are only volunteers and they are not hired. So internal factionalism will not affect the functioning of the company. But such internal factionalism will affect the functioning of the political party and its ability to raise funds. So a company and a political party differs in the aspect of internal dissonance and the way of handling it. And the final difference is the consolidation of power. In a political party, power is more informal and dynamic. A political party has a single leader only. But it functions with multiple small executives with overlapping jurisdiction. But this is not the case in a company. Company or a corporate functions based on the principle of hierarchy, compartmentalization, professionalization, discipline and accountability. In a corporation, a promoter can outsource management to a professional without worrying about the loss of control. This is as long as he or she controls the majority shares. But in a political party, power once delegated can be lost forever. See, these are the major difference between a company and a political party. I hope now you understand the functioning of the political party. Now let us see whether the political party will be detrimental to democracy or not if it functions like a corporation. As per the article, the recent trend is that the political parties are corporatized and there is the injection of professionalization. The author is quoting the anti-defection law for this trend. See, as per the anti-defection law, the elected representatives should vote based on the decisions of the whip of the party, right? So, as per the author, this provision deprives the political discretion from the elected representatives. Chief ministers using the bureaucracy to bypass ministers and the use of political consultants to bypass the party organizations are also examples of professionalization. According to the author, this professionalization has disregarded the overall public purpose of the political party. See, if an elected representative does not have the power to vote or voice his opinion, he has to listen to the whip. And this means the elected representatives are like employees and the whip is like the CEO of the party. And this strong internal power structure has led to the hopping of parties by the elected representatives. Meaning, members of the political parties are changing from one party to another frequently. Think about this. This is like employees changing from one company to another. And according to the author, this has reduced the overall credibility of the political space. So, basically the author is saying that due to the professionalization and corporatization of political parties, people are losing the trust in the overall democratic functioning of the political party. This is the conclusion. Before ending the discussion, let me quote the statement provided by the author in this article. The author says that, ultimately politics is a value-driven enterprise. We should seek competence and accountability from political functionaries, but not through corporatization of parties. See, actually this is a very nice quote. Just note this down and try to use it in your answer in the conclusion part. This will help you get brownie points from your evaluator. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the difference between a political party and a corporation and how the functioning of the political party differs from the functioning of the corporation. And finally, we saw how corporatization of political party is actually detrimental to the parliamentary system of democracy. Now, let us conclude this discussion with this. Take up the next news article. Look at this editorial. This editorial here talks about the crisis of international law. It is premised on the fact that the current international legal order is under attack from many sides. The author quotes various examples to explain his viewpoint. This is what is given in this editorial. In this context, let us learn about what is meant by international law. Why it is under attack now? And the ways in which international community can uphold international law. See, the discussion we are going to have now is very relevant for your GS paper to international relations. So kindly listen to this discussion very carefully. Firstly, let us start with what is meant by international law. According to the United Nations, international law defines the legal responsibilities of states in their conduct with each other and their treatment of individuals within state boundaries. So from this, we can say that international law has two components to it. One regulates the relationship of a sovereign nation with other nations, while the other looks over the treatment of individuals within the state boundaries. This is about international law. See, the international law covers a wide range of issues of international concerns such as human rights, disarmament, international crime, refugees, migration, problems of nationality, treatment of prisoners, use of force and conduct during war. International law also regulates global commons such as environment, sustainable development, international waters, outer space, global communications and world trade. This is all about international law. Now let us see the origin of the concept of this international law. The emergence of international law as a concept dates back to the year 1648. It was the year the Treaty of Westphalia was signed between the Kingdoms of Europe. See, the participants of this treaty is not important for our examination. So, setting the participants aside, we will now see the important aspects of the Treaty of Westphalia to understand it better. Firstly, this treaty guaranteed autonomous decision making at the national level. Simply put, sovereignty of the national governments was acknowledged in this treaty. Secondly, the states chose to use diplomacy as a means to solve their issue rather than going to war with each other. Finally, the concept of non-interference in the internal matters of one state by another state was agreed to be maintained according to this treaty. These three provisions of the treaty were agreed upon by the signing members. Thereby, this treaty promoted harmonious coexistence between the sovereign states. Here note one important fact. These provisions formed the bedrock of all other international laws in the subsequent centuries. Although the international law remained constant, the international order underwent some changes. Now let us trace the timeline of the international order. Let us start with the end of World War II. After the World War II, the Allies came victorious. The hegemony enjoyed by France and Britain in the world affairs came to an end with the 1956 Suez-Kennall crisis. From 1956 to 1991, the world was divided into two poles with the United States on one side and USSR on the other side. This is the period of passive confrontation. Communists to USSR and Capitalists to USA faced off with one another in this phase. Although there was no direct confrontation, they engaged in proxy wars. The famous one here is the Vietnam War. This phase came to an end with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. At the end of this phase, the United States emerged victorious. This led to multilateralism, which brought some international unity in decision making across various subjects. But currently this phenomenon no suffers a crisis due to countries like Russia and China. The author feels that Russia and China are not adhering to the agreed upon international law. For example, he says that Russia invaded Ukraine because Russia does not believe in the complete sovereignty of the Ukrainian government. He further says that China views the international law with selfish intention. China is actually using international law as an instrument to serve its national interest. This can be explained by looking at the huge number of territorial conflicts China is engaging in the South China Sea and across the line of actual control in India. Both the versions of international law put forward by China and Russia have neglected the sovereignty of their neighboring countries. Both these nations have also disregarded the territorial integrity of their respective neighbors. The author feels that this disregard for international order has resulted in economic protectionism by states which had previously championed free trade. The best example of rising economic protectionism is the adoption of inflation reduction act by the US Congress. This law aims to transition the US economy to adopt clean energy by providing massive industrial subsidies to domestic American companies at the cost of the imports and foreign companies. By subsidizing clean energy products in the country, America tries to contain import of clean energy related components from the international market. So basically the United States of America is curbing the import of solar cells from countries like China using this act. See this particular phenomenon is contrary to the goals of the WTO which is the World Trade Organization. World Trade Organization as you know tries to make the states interdependent among each other by reducing trade barriers within the countries and the United States inflation reduction act is against the goal of WTO. So the rise of China and its disregard for international law has pushed USA which once championed for international trade into protectionism. Other than this, the rising ethno-national governments across the world has also reduced the cooperative mechanism present between nations. Here for example, the former US President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and also the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which was signed with Iran. In addition to this, populist governments across the world have now started disregarding international law by saying that these laws are not compatible with their national interest. This is exactly what Trump said as a reason for his withdrawal from the Paris agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. These are all the problems associated with international law in the present times. The author wants the international community in the year 2023 to fight back this trend of economic protectionism, populism and military securitization. Some of the steps in the right direction might be to reform the United Nations Security Council by granting necessary representation for countries from Latin America, Asia and Africa. Other than this, strict law enforcement mechanism should be brought in by the United Nations to keep a check on the unruly behavior by their member states. UN was formed with the objective to avoid state-ponsored war. Even though the United Nations succeeded in avoiding another world war, it couldn't stop small transgression like that of Russia invading Ukraine. The permanent nature of UN Security Council membership has given some leeway for Russia to act against the established international law. To avoid future wars, this permanent membership of UN Security Council needs to be re-looked at. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. Through this discussion, we understood what is meant by international law, why it is under attack now and the ways in which the international community can uphold the international law. So that's all regarding this discussion. I hope this discussion was useful. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Take a look at the territorial. It talks about the recent decision taken by the Russian President to observe a 36-hour ceasefire on the war front line in Ukraine. Here note that this is the first ceasefire observed by the two warring nations after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th of February last year. This is about the editorial given here. We have covered about Russia-Ukraine war multiple times in our previous discussions. So, using this article, we are going to see about the present condition of warfare in Ukraine. Firstly, let us see the reason for the truth. The Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate New Year on January 7th. Since there are significant population of the Eastern Orthodox Christians in both Russia and Ukraine, the Russian side has proposed the truth under 36-hour ceasefire. But the Ukrainian side has questioned the timing of the truth. The Ukrainians believe that Russia will use the ceasefire to replenish their arms at the point of contact. This is about the opposing point of view around the truth given by the two countries. Here note that this truth has come at a time when Russia is suffering huge losses in the battlefield. The author feels that the momentum of Russia has been considerably weakened after Ukraine started counter-offensive against Russia in the month of August. Even though Russia gained momentum in the early phase of the invasion, it is no wonder severe pressure as the war is being prolonged for a year. In the last few months, Ukraine has recaptured two cities from Russian control, the cities being Kharkiv Oblast and Kharsan. Here the term oblast refers to a type of administrative division in the Eastern European nations. Since Ukraine has captured back its cities, Russia is now increasing its attack on the province of Donstek. It is also building a heavier line of defense in the region of Donstek. Now coming to the role of the Western countries in supporting Ukraine. Germany and the United States of America has reiterated their unconditional support to the war effort of the Ukrainian government. They have agreed to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine to aid the Ukrainian forces. The author feels that although the Western countries are supporting the Ukrainian government to put an end to the war, it might turn counter-protective. Actually, due to the support provided by the Western countries to Ukraine, Russia is being cornered in the battlefield. Due to this, the Russian president will only increase the attack on Ukraine. So, according to the author, the Western support is only intensifying the war in Ukraine, not reducing the war. But finally, the author ends the editorial positively by saying that this ceasefire should act as a starting point of a long-lasting peace agreement. The world nation should use this opportunity to put an end to this war. This is about the editorial. So, with this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. See, recently, the Union government assured members of the Jain community that the scarcity of the holy place that is Samad Shikarji on the Parasinath Hills in Jharkhand would be preserved and there would be no attempt to promote the site as a tourist destination. Following that, the members of the Santal tribe in the state have claimed the hill as their Marang Buru, that is hill deity, and they have even decided to launch protest in five states, asserting their rights to the hills. This is about the news article given here. Since Santal tribe is in news, let us revise the static part related to Santal tribes, which is nothing but Santal rebellion. The Santal rebellion also known as Santal Hool took place on 30th June 1855. The revolt was led by four Murmu brothers. They are Siddhu, Kanhu, Chan and Bhairav. They led the rebellion against the oppressive Zamindari system set up by the British East India Company. They organized 10,000 Santals and proclaimed a rebellion against the British. They took an oath to drive away British from their homeland. Now, what was the reason for such an uprising? The story goes like this. I hope you all remember the Battle of Placie 1757 and Battle of Buxar 1764. After these two battles, the British East India Company took control over the Indian territories of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. In 1793, the Governor-General Lord Cornwallis introduced the permanent settlement system in the Bengal and Bihar region. Under the system, the Zamindars had perpetual and heritory rights over the land as long as they paid a fixed revenue to the British government. That means if the peasants were not able to pay their rent, the British can auction away their land to anyone who would pay them a fixed revenue. In this process, several tribal lands were sold off. The Santals were the agricultural tribal people inhibiting the forest of Rajmahal Hills. They were dependent on forest and practiced shifting agriculture and hunting. In 1832, the British East India Company demarcated the Damin Ihoo from the regions of Jharkhand and gave it to the Santals. Due to the promise of non-interference in their land and economic activities, many Santals came to settle in this region. But with changing times and the raising demand of the Britishers, the rent that is to be paid by the Santals were raised to a very high amount. Due to the permanent settlement system, the Santals lost control over their land. They also lost their old tribal system which they followed for so much generations. Ultimately, the Santals were cornered. They had only one option to get away from this situation and the option being revolting against the British and the Zamindaris. This is the first reason for the Santal rebellion. Another reason cited for the Santal rebellion was that the Santals followed the barter system. They faced trouble paying the Zamindars in cash and as a result, they had to borrow money from the moneylenders at an very high interest rate. This put the Santals into the vicious cycle of poverty. The only way to break this cycle and preserve the Santal identity was to revolt against the British, the Zamindars and the moneylenders. These are the two main causes for the Santal rebellion. Now let us take the course of the rebellion. As I already said, the Santal revolt started on 30th June 1855 with the help of prominent leaders such as Siddhu, Kanhu, Chand and Beiro. They were also aided by their two sisters who were Fulo and Jano. The Santals engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Britishers and formed their own troops which included farmers, villagers and the village women. In this mission, they were able to capture large parts of land including Rajmahal Hills, Bhagalpur district and Birbam. They militarized over 10,000 Santal people. The villagers put to fight the storehouses and the warehouses and all forms of communication lines were disrupted. The government applied all means in their position to suppress the movement. The landlords were in support of the government whereas the local people supported the Santal in full vigor. While the Santals used bows and arrows to fight, the Britishers used heavily loaded weapons. Finally, the revolt came to an abrupt end when two important leaders of the rebellion were taken into custody by the British. Finally, the Santal rebellion was suppressed and the movement came to an end in 1956. So, this is about the Santal rebellion. See, like this only, whenever a topic appears in the newspaper, you have to revise the static part related to the current affairs. This will help you crack problems. So, that's all regarding this discussion. Here we saw about the reason and the course of the Santal rebellion. Now, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Now, look at this article here. It says that India is said to deploy an all-woman platoon of peacekeepers to the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abay. They are to be deployed on the border between South Sudan and Sudan. According to India's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York, it is India's largest single unit of women peacekeepers in the UN mission since the year 2007. This is about the article given here. In this context, let us understand about the UN peacekeeping force from exam perspective. We will also see about India's contribution towards UN peacekeeping force. First of all, what is this UN peacekeeping force? Peacekeeping is the role held by United Nations Department of Peace operation. It aims to assist countries to transition from the situation of conflict to peace. UN peacekeepers provide security and peace building support to help countries make the transition from conflict to peace. The UN began its peacekeeping efforts in the year 1948. It was when UN deployed military observers to West Asia. The peacekeeping mission's role was to monitor the armistice agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. This is about the history of UN peacekeeping force. Now, let us see about its operations. Know that the operational control of UN peacekeeping belongs to the secretary general of United Nations and his secretariat. The UN peacekeeping operations can be distinguished into two kinds. One is unarmed observer group and the other one is lightly armed military forces. The later is only allowed to employ their weapons for self-defense. Right now, there are 12 peacekeeping operations led by the Department of Peace operations. I have given here the missions. Just go through it. This is about the operations of UN peacekeeping force. Now let us move on to see about the three basic principles that guide the UN peacekeeping mission. The first one is consent of the parties. The second one is impartiality and the final principle is non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate. This is about the principles that guide the UN peacekeeping missions. Having seen this, now let us see the contribution of India towards UN peacekeeping missions. See, India has been among the largest troop contributing countries to the UN peacekeeping missions. Over 200,000 Indians have served in 49 UN peacekeeping missions since 1948. Currently, 5,581 Indians are part of various UN peacekeeping missions. In 2007, India became the first country to deploy an all-woman contingent to a UN peacekeeping mission. And this we saw in the news article also. We saw that since the deployment of first all-woman contingent in the year 2007, the current deployment is the largest all-woman contingent in UN peacekeeping mission history. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the UN peacekeeping force. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the refugee crisis on the Mizoram-Bangladesh border. Here the article talks about the Cookie Chin community. Several members of the Cookie Chin community were pushed back by the border security force and this is why it is in news today. So in this background, let us go through some of the important facts about the Cookie Chin community. Who are these Cookie Chin's? See, the Chin's of Myanmar, the Mizos of Mizoram, and the Cookies of Bangladesh are of the same ancestry and they belong to the Cookie ethnic group native to the Mizo Hills. They are collectively called as the Zo people. The Cookie community is a Christian community and they are settled in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Chittagong Hill Tracts is the only extensive hill area in the Bangladesh and it lies in the southeastern part of the country. It borders Myanmar on the southeast, Tirupura on the north, Mizoram on the east, and Chittagong district on the west. Now, why are the Cookie Chin's fleeing to Mizoram? It is because of the action taken by the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion against the insurgent Cookie Chin National Army. The Cookie Chin National Army is also known as the Cookie Chin National Front, that is KNF. It is a militant outfit. They are demanding sovereignty for the tribals and the roots of the Cookie militancy lies in the conflict of ethnic identity. They are demanding self-determination and have a desire to establish Cookie Land, which is a separate country for the Cookies. So, to achieve this goal, the KNF struck an agreement with the Radical Islamist Group. This added further complexity to the already complex relations between the Cookies and the Bangladeshes. Due to this, the security forces of Bangladesh took an offensive stance against the KNF. So, to escape the crackdown by the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion, the Cookie Chin's are fleeing to Mizoram. So, this is about Cookie Chin's and the conflict in the Bangladesh-Mizoram border. So, that's all regarding this discussion. With this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now, let us take up the practice problems questions. We have five practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. See, this is a map-based question. Four cities are given. We have to arrange the Ukrainian cities from the west to east order. From the map given here, you can see that Liv is a westernmost city of Ukraine. From this city, huge number of Indian students studying in Ukraine left the country after the war broke out in last February. As you all know, Kyiv is the capital city of Ukraine and it comes next in the order. The other two cities are recently taken in control by Ukraine from the Russian forces during the last few months. So, the correct answer here is option C, 4, 3, 1, and 2. See, this question may seem abstract, but the chances are there that these types of questions can be asked in your PLINCE examination. So, make note of the places that are coming in the newspapers. Last year, there were nearly five geography map-based questions. So, stay aware and take note of all the new places that comes in the newspaper and in our discussion. So, once again, the correct answer here is option C. Moving on to the second question. It is a two-statement question about UN peacekeeping force. Let us take up the first statement. Blue helmets are a military personnel of the UN that work to promote stability, security, and peace process. See, this statement is actually correct. See this image here. These personnel get the name from the iconic blue helmet or berets they wear. Currently, there are more than 70,000 military personnel enlisted as blue helmets. Know that African and Asian countries outnumber their western counterparts in contributing soldiers to blue helmets. Look at the second statement. All military personnel working under the blue helmet are first and foremost members of the UN, and they work under the command and control of UN. See, this statement is incorrect. Actually, these military personnel are first and foremost members of their own national armies and they are then seconded to work under the command and control of UN. So, second statement is wrong. Since first statement is correct and second is wrong, the correct answer here is option A only. Moving on to the third question. It is a previous question from 2018 prelims paper. It is a two-statement question about Santal uprising. Let us take up the first statement. The territories called Santal Pragana were created after Santal uprising. See, this statement is correct. After the Santal uprising or Santal revolt, the Santal Pragana was created. It became illegal for the Santals to transfer land to non-Santals after Santal uprising. See, this statement is also correct. After the Santal uprising subsided, the colonial government made it illegal for the Santal to transfer his land to a non-Santal. This was done to prevent further uprising of Santals. So, here both the statements are correct. So, the correct answer is option C both one and two. Moving on to the fourth question. This is also a two-statement question. Let us take up the first statement. India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951. This is a very easy answer because we all know that India is not a signatory to this convention. So, statement one is correct. Look at statement two. Cookie Chin refugees are refugees coming to India from Sri Lanka. This is also very easy from our discussion. We know that cookie chins are coming from Bangladesh and not Sri Lanka. So, statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So, the correct answer here is option A one only. See this question. This is a quiz question for you today. Interested aspirants can write the answer for this and post it in the comment section. The main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post it in the comment section. If you like the video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you.