 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankara A.S. Academy. Displayed here are the list of articles that we will take up for discussion today. Have a look at it. Now we will start with the first article discussion. Look at this text and context article. It talks about the Karnataka Maharashtra border dispute. See interstate border disputes are not unusual in India. This is because India is linguistically and culturally very diverse. Apart from this, India is a very young country. We are still in the process of nation building. So it's very natural that now and then we might have some flare ups. In a due course of time, things would settle. So when stuffs like border dispute between Karnataka Maharashtra or border dispute between Assam, Mizoram appears in news, we must try to understand it rather than taking sides. With this note, let us take up the discussion for this article. We will first discuss about the State Reorganization Act. Then we will understand the issue between Karnataka and Maharashtra. After that, we will see the issues with such border disputes. And finally, we will end the discussion by seeing the ways to address this issue. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is displayed on your screen. Go through it. We will start by understanding a little bit of background. See, we know that our constitution provided for a quasi-federal government setup, right? However, national leaders at that time had a very big dilemma. The dilemma is regarding how these federations or the states should be set up. Somewhere of the opinion that administrative convenience should be the priority and others were of the opinion that languages should be the basis on which the states should be established. So in order to settle this dilemma, the government formed the Justice SKDAR Commission or the Linguistic Provinces Commission in 1948. See, this commission was of the opinion that administrative convenience should take precedence over language for the establishment of states. Later, the JVP committee or the Nehru, Patel and Sita Ramayana committee studied the recommendation of the DAAR Commission. And even they shared the same view of the DAAR Commission. Following this, there were protests mainly in the southern states for the establishment of states on linguistic basis. Due to the Vishalantra movement, Andhra Pradesh became the first state to be established in 1953 on linguistic lines. Again, this issue was reassessed. The state's reorganization commission was formed in 1953. This is what we famously call as the Justice Fasilalli Commission. The commission submitted its report in the year 1955. Unlike the previous two commissions, this commission accepted language as the basis of reorganization. But here you should note that it rejected this theory, this particular theory of one language, one state. Based on the report of the commission, the government passed the State Reorganization Act of 1956 and an amendment was made to the constitution. As a result of this, 14 states and 6 union territories were created. Now, with this basic information, let us learn about the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka. The State Reorganization Act demarcated the border between Karnataka and Maharashtra. So what happened was, Maharashtra felt that some parts of northern Karnataka, where Maratha was used widely, was given to Karnataka. Therefore, in 1957, Maharashtra demanded a realignment of its border with Karnataka. The Maharashtra government claimed Belagavi as a part of it and submitted a memorandum to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Karnataka on its part said that Belagavi belongs to itself and the inclusion of Belagavi as a part of its territory is beyond dispute. To substantiate its claim, the Karnataka government put forward the State Reorganization Act of 1956 and the Mahajan Commissioned Report of 1967. Further, Karnataka government went on to claim certain districts which were part of Maharashtra to be its own. Look at this building. This is the Suvarna Vidana Sauda. It is the legislative building of Karnataka in Belagavi. This is because the Karnataka government wanted to withhold its claim of Belagavi and therefore it is holding bintess sessions of its legislature since 2006. Here I mentioned about the Mahajan Commissioned Report of 1967, right? So what is this report about? In 1966, on the request of the Maharashtra government, the then Prime Minister Indra Gandhi established a commission under Meher Chand Mahajan to resolve the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka. The commission recommended that some villages of Karnataka be transferred to Maharashtra and that Belagavi and some other villages remain with Karnataka. See this report was rejected by Maharashtra but it was accepted by Karnataka. So this is the core of the border dispute that is happening between Maharashtra and Karnataka. See currently the issue is that the Karnataka Chief Minister has claimed that Jattaluk in Maharashtra to be a part of Karnataka. Now the Maharashtra government retaliated by passing a resolution in its assembly saying that it will legally pursue the inclusion of some Marathi speaking villages which are part of Karnataka into the state of Maharashtra. See the border issues might settle sooner or later but there are some issues arising out of these border disputes. The first major issue is the law and order problems. Oftentimes if you see the political parties will make use of these issues to create vote banks for themselves. They will incite people by giving fury speeches. So what will happen? This will lead to law and order issues. Recently a violence broke out in the downed village of Maharashtra. Some pro-Marathi activists vandalized the KSRTC buses. In retaliation few pro-Canada activists blackened the boards of an MSRTC bus so this is the first major issue. Then don't you think this will affect the national interest of India? As I said in the beginning India is a very young country and we are still in the nation building process. Interstate border disputes like this will affect the spirit of nationalism. How these interstate disputes sometimes may lead to extreme kinds of regionalism and this would lead to secessionist movements. And don't you think this will affect the integrity of India? Thirdly these issues are counterproductive to the growth and economic prosperity. When the states are continuously fighting among themselves it will affect the investor confidence. This will affect the economic prosperity in the long run. So in essence it is only the political parties who stand to gain by these issues. Four steps must be taken to resolve these issues. Because if these issues are not resolved it will affect the territorial integrity and stability of India, right? But how can these issues be resolved? Are there some methods available to resolve these issues? Yes, there are some methods. Let us see them one by one. First is judicial redressal. According to article 131 of the constitution the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in case of a dispute between two or more states. Therefore the Supreme Court can take up the issue and provide a judgment. So this judgment is to be acceptable to all parties involved. This will bring the interstate border dispute to an end. Second is the setup of Interstate Council. Article 263 of the constitution provides for Interstate Council. According to article 263 an Interstate Council could be set up by the President if need arises. Even the Sakaria Commission recommended for the creation of a permanent Interstate Council to promote the cooperative federalism. Recently the Interstate Council has been reconstituted with Prime Minister as Chairman and Chief Minister of all states and 6 Union Ministers as members. Using this as a forum the Interstate border issues can be resolved amicably. Then the third one is the Zonal Council. The establishment of this council is mentioned in the State Reorganization Act of 1956 itself. So basically the State Reorganization Act of 1956 divided the country into North and Central, Eastern, Western and Southern zones. Here also the states can engage in discussion and sort out their disputes right? One thing you have to note here. The Maharashtra came under the Western zone and Karnataka came under the Southern zone. So the applicability of the Zonal Council to resolve this particular issue between Karnataka and Maharashtra is questionable. Finally the governments of both the states can come together and engage in talks. Here the Union government can play the role of a facilitator. This will bring about a long term solution to the dispute. Recently our Union Home Minister met the Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra and asked them to form a 6 member team comprising 3 ministers from each side to address all boundary issues. These are some of the methods to resolve the Interstate Border dispute. So in this article we talked about the State Reorganization Act, the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka and finally we saw some methods that are available to resolve this issue. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now let's start with the next article. This is an article from the friend page. It says that the Election Commission has announced the development of a prototype. This prototype is of a multi-constituency remote electronic voting mission. The basic objective of development of such a mission is to enable the remote voting by migrant voters. This mission can handle multiple constituencies from one remote booth. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us understand about this RVM, the need for it and the benefits and issues associated with the remote electronic voting mission. Before that the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here, have a look at it. So what is an RVM or the Remote Electronic Voting Mission? See an RVM is like any other regular electronic voting mission. Like the traditional electronic voting missions that are used in the elections, the remote electronic voting missions are also standalone non-network voting missions which means they do not have any network interface and it cannot be connected to any network. As we all know this is one of the significant features of our Indian electronic voting missions. It is only because of this feature the electronic voting missions could not be tampered or hacked. So in this way the RVMs are similar to the EVMs. However there are slight differences. See EVMs are used for voting in a single constituency. If you are a registered voter of a particular constituency you go to the particular booth, cast your vote and come back. However RVMs can run elections for several constituencies even up to 72. And you would have seen that the traditional EVMs that we commonly use in elections have paper ballot affixed to it like you see in this image. But in RVMs there is no paper there will be a digital display of the names and symbols of the candidates. So if you are a remote voter and if you go to vote the names and symbols relevant to that constituency will be displayed on the screen of the RVM. So this is how the remote electronic voting mission differ from the traditional electronic voting mission. Now to understand how RVMs work let us quickly go through the basic components of the remote electronic voting missions. It contains something called as the remote control unit, remote ballot unit, public display, RVVPAT that is remote voter verifiable paper audit trial, remote symbol loading unit, constituency card reader, ballot unit over display. So if you are a remote voter you basically have to pre-register by applying online or you can even do it offline during the specific period of time that is allocated for this purpose. Now you will be marked as a remote voter in a remote location. Then a special multi constituency remote voting polling station will be set up near the place of your current residence. So on the polling day you will go to the remote voting station. The presiding officer will scan your relevant constituency card using the CCR or what I earlier told as the constituency card reader. The system will display the candidates for the constituency to which you are voting. The system will then display the list of candidates in your constituency on the public display unit and also on the RBU or the remote ballot unit. You will then cast your OAT on the remote ballot unit in the same manner as you do on any regular EVM. Now your OAT will be then recorded along with the state code, constituency number and the candidate number. The RVVPAT prints the state and constituency codes along with the candidate name, symbol and serial number. All this is fine but why do we need an RVM when we already have an EVM? See the main reason for the development of RVMs is the less voter turnout. The voter turnout in the general election of 2019 was only around 67.4%. There could be plenty of reasons for less voter turnout but one of the major contributors is the domestic migration. If you see as per the 2011 census there are nearly 45.36 crore migrants in India. This includes both intra and interstate migrants. Now you will be shocked to know this constitutes nearly 37% of India's population. This is because people migrate for variety of factors including work, marriage and education. However, this problem need to be addressed. This is why the RVMs are developed. Now let us see what are all the advantages of RVMs. Firstly, the RVMs will help increase the voter turnout. It will also help the people who are not living in their constituencies to cast their OAT from any remote location. Then Election Commission can achieve its committed goal of no voter to be left behind. Election is an important aspect of democracy. The RVMs have a great role to play in this. See everything has its own advantages and disadvantages. Likewise, there are some issues with the RVM also. See in this article itself it is mentioned that the Election Commission has shared a concept note on the legal, operational, administrative and technological challenges in using the RVMs. I have given here the note shared by the Election Commission. Just go through it. It is self-explanatory. In case you have any doubts regarding these challenges, post your doubts in the comment section below. It will be addressed shortly. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now let's get into the next article discussion. Now for our next discussion, let us take this article. It says that the State Information Commission of Tamil Nadu has been the worst performing in responsiveness under the Right to Information Act. So the news article says that Tamil Nadu Information Commission furnished only 14% of the information that are being sought under the RTA Act. The second worst is the Maharashtra. It has shared only 23% of the information. So this is about the news article given here. In this context, let us see about the important provisions of RTI Act 2005. The Right to Information Act of 2005 provides the right for every citizen to access information held by the government or its agencies. So what this act does? It promotes transparency and accountability in the functioning of the government. Here, the citizen can request information from public authorities including all government bodies, the state, central, local authorities and public sector undertakings. Now we will move on to discuss some of the important provisions of the Act. Firstly, the Act provided for the establishment of Central Information Commission and State Information Commission. Secondly, the Act provided for the designation of public authorities as Central Public Information Officers or State Public Information Officers. So these offices are designated in all administrative units or offices and they provide information to the person who is requesting the particular information, right? Thirdly, the Act provides a mechanism for the request of information. See if you are a person who needs an information from a public authority. Then it is by writing or through electronic means in English or Hindi or any other official language of your area, you make a request for the information that you seek. It is then received by the Public Information Officer and kept at his disposal. It is then sent to the Public Information Officer to provide the necessary information. The Act provides for a mechanism for the disposal of request. See, I already told you that your request will be received by the Public Information Officer and he is the one who would provide you the information or reject the request within 30 days of the request. See, 30 days is in the case of a normal scenario. However, information can be obtained even within 48 hours if it is a matter of life or liberty of a person. Is that clear? Fifthly, it provides for the information which are exempted from disclosure. That is, if you ask for certain information which affects the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interest of the state, then that information will not be given to you or it will not be disclosed. So, the list of information which will not be disclosed is given under the section 8 of this Act. Then, the Act provides for another ground for the rejection of access to information. See, the Public Information Officer can reject a request for information if it involves an infringement of copyright of a person other than the state. So, in this discussion, we saw some of the key provisions of the Right to Information Act including the designation of public authorities as PIOs, mechanism for request of information, mechanism for the disposal of request and we also saw what informations are exempted from disclosure. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now, we will move to the next article. Take a look at this news article. It says that a special court in Mumbai remanded Ms. Kocher who was the former managing director of ICICI Bank and the Videocon Group Promoter in a judicial custody. They were arrested by the CBI and later the special CBI judge sent them to judicial custody in the ICICI Bank Fraud case. See, the CBI has alleged that ICICI Bank under the leadership of Ms. Kocher has sanctioned a credit of Rs. 3,250 crores to company owned by Videocon Group which is in direct violation of the Banking Regulation Act and the credit policies of the bank. This is the background of this news article. In this context, let us understand about CBI or the Central Bureau of Investigation. Let's first understand about the historical background of CBI. See, it was during World War II in 1941 a special police establishment was constituted. It was placed under the Department of War of the British India for what? To incur into allegations of bribery and corruption in the war-related procurements. Fine? Later on, based on the recommendation of the Sandanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946 was enacted. So, it was based on this act that the CBI was formalized as an agency of the Government of India to investigate into allegations of corruption in the various wings of the government. Fine? Now, you have to note one thing here. CBI is not a statutory body. It derives its power to investigate from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946. Currently, the CBI is functioning under the Department of Personnel under the Ministry of Personal Pension and Public Grievances and it is the premier investigating police agency in India. What it does is that it provides assistance to the Central Vigilance Commission and Lokpal. See, since this is the nodal police agency in India, it coordinates investigations on behalf of Interpol member countries. Now, we will try to understand what are the type of cases that can be taken up by the CBI. First is corruption-related crimes or anti-corruption crimes. Here, they investigate the cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act against public officials and the employees of central government, public sector undertakings, corporations or bodies owned or controlled by the Government of India. Then, they also handle economic crimes. They investigate into major financial scams and serious economic frauds including crimes related to fake Indian currency notes, bank frauds and cybercrime, import-export and foreign exchange violations, large-scale smuggling of narcotics, antics, cultural property and other smuggling-related crimes. They also investigate special crimes including serious and organized crimes which come under the Indian Penal Code or on the request of state government under any other law. They also take up cases based on the order of Supreme Court and High Courts. Example of special crimes include cases of terrorism, bomb blast, kidnapping for ransoms and crimes committed by the mafia or the underworld. Finally, they also take up Suomoto cases. But here, you should note one thing. It can take up Suomoto cases only to investigate offenses in union territories. The central government can authorize CBI to investigate a crime in a state but only with the consent of the concerned state government. However, if the Supreme Court or High Court orders the CBI to investigate a crime anywhere in the country, it can do so without the consent of the state. So, these are the types of cases that the CBI can take up for investigation. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now, let's take up the next article for discussion. See this news article here. It talks about a surprise ride which was conducted by the anti-terrorist unit in Kerala. So, here I'm talking about the country's prime anti-terrorist unit which is the National Investigation Agency or NIA. So, now in this article discussion, let us understand few facts about National Investigation Agency from the Prillin's perspective. See, the National Investigation Agency is the primary counter-terrorist task force of India. So, what the agency does is that it can deal with the investigation of terror-related crimes across states even without the special permission from the states if there is a written proclamation from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Fine? Now, a little background about this agency. This agency came into existence in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attack. So, such an attack revealed the failure of intelligence to track such activities by the existing agencies in India. So, it was then that the Government of India realized the need for a specific body to deal only with the terror-related activities in the country. So, the National Investigation Agency Act of 2008 was enacted by the Parliament of India and this led to the creation of the National Investigation Agency. Fine? Here, you should remember one thing that NIA is a statutory body and it comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is headquartered in New Delhi. So, this is about the National Investigation Agency. Now, you should know about a recent amendment in 2019 that was made to the National Investigation Act of 2008. So, what this amendment did was that it made three important changes. Let's see them one by one. First, with respect to scheduled offenses. So, what are scheduled offenses? See, there are certain acts which are mentioned in the Schedule of the NIA Act. So, if anyone is committing a crime under these acts, the NIA can investigate these cases. The schedule originally had certain acts like the Atomic Energy Act of 1962, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 and the Anti-Hijacking Act 1982. Now, this amendment has allowed the National Investigation Agency to investigate other crimes related to human trafficking, counterfeit currency or banknotes, manufacture or sale of prohibited arms, cyberterrorism and offenses under the Explosive Substance Act of 1908. Second major change was that the jurisdiction of NIA was widened. Actually, the original act allowed the NIA to investigate offenses only within India, fine? But a change was made to this in the 2019 amendment. Now, the Agency is empowered to investigate offenses committed even outside India. However, you should know that this is subject to the international treaties and the domestic laws of the other country. See, the central government can actually direct NIA to investigate these type of cases. In such a way, it would have investigated if the offense was committed in India. The NIA's special court in New Delhi will have jurisdiction over these cases. Then, the third major change was with respect to the NIA's special courts. See, the 2008 act constituted special courts for conducting the trial of offenses under this act. So, what the 2019 amendment did was that it allowed the central government to designate session courts as special courts for the trial of the scheduled offenses under the act. So, there is no separate court, but the central government designates a session court as a special court. For this, the central government is first required to consult the Chief Justice of the High Court under which the session court is functioning. Suppose, in case more than one special court has been designated for an area, it is the senior most judge who will distribute the cases among the courts. Here, you should also know that the state governments too may also designate session courts as special courts for the trial of the scheduled offenses under this act. Fine. So, in this article, we discussed about National Investigation Agency, why it was constituted and the recent changes made to the act. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now, let's move on to the next article. Look at this news article from the number column. The article says that India's mineral output in October this year has seen a 2.5% rise. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines, the sector has witnessed a cumulative increase of 4% from April to October compared to the same time last year. So, the minerals that recorded here on your growth include the iron ore and coal. This is the background of the news article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through the mineral distribution in India. Firstly, let us try to understand what is a mineral. See, a mineral is a natural substance of organic or inorganic origin. They have definite chemical and physical properties. So, based on these properties, these minerals are categorized into metallics and non-metallics. See, here in this image, you can see the classification of minerals. So, from the image, I hope you can understand that the metallic minerals are the source of metals. So, the ores which produce these metals are included in this category. The metallic minerals are again classified into ferrous and non-ferrous metallic minerals, right? Ferrous, as you know, refers to iron. Therefore, all those minerals which have iron content or ferrous such as the iron ore itself and those which do not have iron content are non-ferrous. These include copper, bauxite, etc. If you see the other side, there is non-metallic minerals. They are also known as mineral fuels which are derived from buried plants or animals. These can include coal and petroleum. So, these are of organic origin. There is another type which is of inorganic origin, which includes mica, limestone, graphite, etc. So, now talking about their distribution, these minerals are generally concentrated in three broad belts in India. They also occur here and there in isolated pockets as well. First, we will see about the North Eastern Plateau region. So, this region covers Chotanakpur, Odisha Plateau, West Bengal and parts of Chattisgarh. So, this is the major reason why the major iron and steel industries of India are being located in this region. We have a variety of minerals namely the iron ore, coal, manganese, bauxite and mica. And the second zone lies in the southwestern Plateau region. This belt extends over Karnataka, Goa, some parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Know that this belt is rich in ferrous metals and bauxite. It also contains high-grade iron ore, manganese and limestone. But you should know that this belt lacks coal deposits except the Neyveli Lignite. See, this belt does not have a diversified mineral deposit as we saw in the North Eastern Belt. Other than this, Kerala has deposits of monocyte and thorium. Goa has iron ore deposits. Then the northwestern region. See, this belt extends along Aravili in Rajasthan and some parts of Gujarat. Know that this is associated with the Darvar system of rocks. So here, copper and zinc have been the major minerals. Also, Rajasthan is rich in building stones like sandstone, granite, marble. Apart from this, gypsum and fuller earth's deposits are also extensive. See, there are many cement industries which are dependent on the dolomite and limestone which are also available in this region. Then Gujarat is known for its petroleum deposits. You may be knowing that Gujarat and Rajasthan both have rich resources of salt. Now, the Himalayan Belt. This is another mineral belt where copper, lead, zinc, cobalt and tungsten are known to occur. They occur in both the eastern and western parts of the Himalayan Belt. Also, Assam Valley has mineral oil deposits. Besides this, oil resources are also found in offshore areas near the Mumbai coast. So in this article discussion, we saw about minerals and their distribution. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now, let's move to the next article. Look at this news article here. Let me brief you on what's written there before we get into the discussion. See, few days ago, the Taliban placed a ban on women working in the Afghanistan's aid sector. Because of this, seven international NGOs have suspended aid because they say they cannot work without female staff. Now, to provide continued support to Afghanistan or to assist through human aid, the G7 foreign ministers have asked the Taliban government to reverse its decision. This is about the news article. In this context, we will use this opportunity to revise some important aspects of G7. See, G7 or the group of seven is an informal group of seven countries, which means it does not have a legal existence. So who are the members? United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. So it basically includes US and its allies. The GDP of all these countries put together are something around 40% and they constitute nearly 10% of the world's population. As I already told you, the G7 has no legal existence and it even lacks a permanent secretariat. It also has no binding impact on the policy and all decisions and commitments made at the G7 meeting. Since there is no binding impact, the policies and decisions need to be ratified independently by the governing bodies of the respective member states. Now let us see how G7 has evolved. The origin of G7 dates back to a meeting between the US, UK, Italy, France, Germany and Japan, these six countries in the year 1975. Why this happened? Because the global economy was facing a state of recession due to the OPEC oil embargo. See, the organization of petroleum exporting countries or the OPEC placed an oil embargo on the west. This happened during the Israel-Egypt war. So what eventually happened was that emerged an energy crisis in the west. As the crisis was escalating, US decided that it would be beneficial for the large players on the world stage to coordinate with each other on macroeconomic activities. So this is why the six countries had a meeting. And they decided to meet annually and a year later Canada was also invited into the group. Now they officially formed the G7 as we know it today. Later in 1977, the president of the European Commission was asked to join the meetings. And in 1991 what happened? Yes, the collapse of the Soviet Union. Following this, Russia was also invited to join the group in 1998. Now it became G8. But again in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. So because of this, Russia was expelled from G7. So again the G8 became G7. Now look at the presidency of G7 groupings. Now let's look at the presidency of the G7 groupings. The presidency of G7 meetings is held by each of the seven countries in turn each year. So basically there is no election. It is by rotation that the presidency is being held. The country holding the presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the meeting. Know that for the year 2022, Germany holds the presidency of G7. Now how has the agenda of G7 evolved over years? See at the beginning, the G7 summit provided a forum for the member countries to just discuss their shared concerns and values. So basically in around 1980s, it mainly focused on the international economic policies. But right now, its agenda has expanded to include the issues related to foreign policy and security as well. So in recent years, G7 leaders have met to formulate common responses to challenges encompassing counter-terrorism, development, education, health, human rights and even climate change. So in this discussion, we saw about G7, its origin, the presidency and finally about its agenda. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this article. Now we will move to the next part of our discussion which is the practice questions. Now we will start with the prelims practice question. There will be five questions, four will be discussed by me and the one will be the quiz question for the day. Question number one. Consider the following statements regarding the Right to Information Act 2005. If the information sought under the Act concerns the life and liberty of a person, then the request is disposed within 48 hours of the receipt of the request. Statement two. As per the Act, the information which cannot be denied to the parliament or a state legislature shall not be denied to any person. Which of the above statements is correct? See the first statement is correct. Normally the time limit for the disposal of a request is 30 days as we saw in the discussion. We also saw that if it is concerned with the life or liberty of a person, then it should be disposed within 48 hours. Here the second statement is also correct. See this particular provision comes under section eight of the Act. This section is concerned about the information that will not be disclosed. But it is also said here that the information which cannot be denied to the parliament or a state legislature shall not be denied to any person. So the right answer here is option C both one and two. Moving on to the second question. Consider the following statements with reference to the National Investigation Agency. Statement one. It was established after the Khakil war to gather intelligence throughout India. Statement two. The director general of NIA is appointed by president. During the discussion we saw that the National Investigation Agency was formed in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack. So the first statement is incorrect. Also know that the NIA is headed by a director general who is appointed by the central government. His powers are similar to the powers exercisable by the director general of police in respect of the police force in the state. Therefore here the right answer is option D neither one nor two. Question number three. Which of the following is not true for minerals? Question A. They are naturally occurring substances. B. They have a definite chemical composition. C. They are formed in different types of geographical environment. D. All minerals are non-metallic. During the discussion we saw that minerals are natural substances of organic or inorganic origin and they have definite chemical and physical properties. So this makes the first and second statement correct. C here the third statement is also correct. They are formed in different types of geographical environment under different conditions. So if all this is eliminated the right answer is option D. In the discussion we saw that all minerals are not non-metallic. There are metallic minerals as well. Question number four. Consider the following statements about P5 plus 1 countries. Statement one. P5 plus 1 refers to UNSE's five permanent members along with Australia. Statement two. The joint diplomatic effort between P5 plus 1 and Iran resulted in the joint comprehensive plan of action. Which of the above statements is correct? See here the first statement is incorrect. Because P5 plus 1 refers to the Security Council's five permanent members along with Germany. Then the second statement is correct. Here you should know that the joint comprehensive plan of action is famously called as the Iran nuclear deal. It was signed between P5 plus 1 and Iran. Now this question is the quiz question for the day. Interested aspirants can go through it and post the answer in the comment box. These are some of the main questions for your practice. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment box below. If you have found a video to be useful kindly hit the like button. Share it with your friends. Subscribe to the channel. Happy learning.