 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IS Academy. These are the list of articles chosen for today's discussion and let us start our first discussion by discussing about an editorial article. In this editorial article we will be seeing about asset monetization followed by that we will be seeing an important news article about eco-sensitive zone notification and followed by that we will be seeing three important news articles. The first one will be based on the black holes and the second one will be on the make it or to damp issue and the third one will be based on the Jalyan Valaba massacre. So with this let us move on to the first discussion. Now take a look at this editorial. This editorial is regarding asset monetization. See our government has announced an ambitious program of asset monetization. Through asset monetization our government hopes to earn 6 trillion in revenues over a four year period. So in this context let us learn about asset monetization. The syllabus relevant to this topic is highlighted here for your reference. First let us understand what is asset monetization in order to understand the article better. See in asset monetization in exchange for a lump sum payment the government loses its assets for a specific period of time. At the end of this period the asset gets returned to the government itself. See the asset monetization is different from privatization because in privatization the government gives out the asset for sale. Once the sale is done the ownership gets transferred to another person and the government do not have any say on that asset. But in asset monetization the government just exchanges the asset for the lump sum amount for a specific period of time. Please note this difference. So by asset monetization the assets which has been already built by government is used to earn extra revenue so that government can use this extra revenue to invest in other infrastructure development projects. So this is the purpose of asset monetization and our government is planning to monetize assets in various sectors like roads, railways, power, airport, ports, telecom stadiums and power transmissions. Among these roads railways and powers will be the main sector of asset monetization. I hope you can follow. See two important statement has been raised about this asset monetization program. The first focus will be on underutilized assets and the second is monetization will happen through public private partnership and investment trust. First let us see about the underutilized assets. See for example imagine a hypothetical airport. This airport has not been properly developed and it is not marketed well also and it is not been put into proper use as well. So it becomes an underutilized asset. So if we monetize this asset a private party can make use of it better. The private party will pay the government a price equal to the present value of cash flows at the current level of utilization of the airport. So here the private party will pay the government equal to the value of the asset. Then by making necessary investments the private players can reap the benefit of high level of cash flows. See this is a win-win situation for government and the private players. How the government gets a fair price for its asset and the private players gets its return on investment. The efficiency of the airport also increases. So now we have a question. Why can't we monetize well utilized assets? See in case of well utilized assets the private players have little incentive to invest and improve its efficiency. Since the asset is already well established the private players simply need to operate the asset as they are. The private players don't have to make any changes and they can earn profit by operating the asset as it is. So there is no improvement in the efficiency of the asset. Also in many cases the government can earn more revenue if it operates the well established asset all by itself. So this is why we have opted for monetization of underutilized assets. As we have seen so far the benefits to the economy are likely to be greater when underutilized assets are monetized. Now moving on to the second statement. Monetization through public private partnership and investment trust. See according to the author asset monetization through public private partnership will exercise some problems. This is because in public private partnership we are fully transferring the asset to a private player for a fixed period. See private players will prefer well utilized assets to assets that are underutilized. That is because in well utilized assets cash flow and returns are more certain. That is you have a fixed amount of cash flow and returns. So they may not show interest in underutilized assets. Also there are other complications also. See it is very difficult to calculate and predict the value of an asset in a long time period. It includes many variables and we really cannot predict these variables for example like economic growth development etc. So it is tough to get the exact valuation right for an asset. This can affect both the private players as well as the government. Also remember one thing private players will not have an incentive to invest in the asset towards the end of the tenure of monetization. Because anyway they are going to hand it over to the government. So why should they invest at the end of the tenure? It is not going to be profitable at all. So the private players will not invest in the asset towards the end of the tenure of monetization. This is also a problem. The life of the asset when it returns to the government may also be low. So these are the problems. Now how can we solve these problems? Monetization through investment trust is a good idea. See investment trust or mutual fund like setup in which investors are subscribed to units that give dividends. The government will transfer the monetizable assets to the investment trust and the companies can subscribe to these units and get dividends. Here the sponsor of the trust is required to hold a minimum prescribed proportion of the total units issued. See the investment trust also offers a portfolio of assets so investors get the benefit of diversification also. If we monetize our assets through investment trust route the public authorities continue to own the right to a significant portion of the cash flows and they will also have a right to operate the asset as well. So the issue that arises with transfer of assets to a private party are solved. So finally the author concludes by saying that the economy is best served when the public authorities develop infrastructure and monetize them. The author also suggests monetizing underutilized assets through investment trust will help us in a long go. This method will increase efficiency and solve many problems and he also wanted the government to set up an asset monetization monitoring authority. This authority should be staffed by competing professionals and they must have the independence to monitor the asset monetization process as well. So these are the points highlighted in this article with this we came to the end of this article. Now let us move on to the next article. Now let us take up this news article for our next discussion. The news article talks about the recently notified eco-sensitive zone of Deepur Bheel. So today let us understand in brief about this site the threats and what are the benefits brought by the eco-sensitive zone notification. First let us see about Deepur Bheel. See the term Bheel in Assamese means a wetland or a large aquatic body specifically in Assamese it means flat plain wetlands. This Deepur Bheel is located in the Kamrap district of Assam. It is located to the south west of Guwahati city. Now that river Brahmabutra is situated to its northwest and to its south the Rani reserve forest, Chakradoli hill, Garbanga reserve forest are present. So let us first understand about the important importance of this Bheel. See this Bheel is a permanent freshwater lake. It has an open lake basin which is connected with a set of in-flow and out-flow channels. The main sources of water to the Bheel are the Kalmani and Basista rivers. The Bheel is spread over an area of 40.14 square kilometers during the monsoon season. It is considered as one of the largest and important river in wetland in the Brahmabutra valley of lower Assam. See it is said that originally the Bheel had its natural linkage with Brahmabutra through another Bheel called the Sola Bheel. But this linkage was disrupted due to several anthropogenic activities. This includes construction of residential buildings, construction of a national highways, particularly NH 37 and construction of a railway line. Therefore as of now the Bheel remains as a small secondary channel only. Another important factors the Bheel is the only major stormwater storage basin for Kohati city. Also know that the main inhabitants around the Bheel are the Kar Bheel community. So these Bheels provide means of livelihood for these local communities. Apart from fishing these communities also harvest the nymphia nuts, flowers and sell it in local markets. Especially the seeds of gained water lily from the Bheel are annually leased by the government. So it is also a major source of revenue for them. So what about its biodiversity? See it supports a range of fauna, it supports 50 fish species, 12 reptile species, 6 amphibian species along with 155 species of aquatic macro biota etc. Elephant herds from adjacent protected area passes through these Bheels. Apart from this it also supports threatened species of birds like spot-billed pelican, lesser adjutant stork, greater adjutant stork, black-necked stork and large whistling teal. Additionally know that it is considered as one of the staging sites for migratory birds in India. So what is this staging sites? Staging sites are those which are used by migratory birds to refuel themselves in their ongoing journey. That is they stop to eat here before continuing their journey. It is also a site of large congregation of aquatic birds in Assam during winter. Because of all these the Bheel is rich in avian fauna. Therefore the poor Bheel has been selected as one of the important bird area site by Bird Life International. Please make note of it. It might be very important for your preliminary examination. The poor Bheel has been selected as one of the important bird area site by Bird Life International and it is declared as bird wildlife sanctuary. Further in 2002 due to its biological and environmental importance, the poor Bheel has been designated as a Ramsar site. That is as a wetlite of international importance. From the discussion itself you can recognize how important this Bheel ecosystem is. But these Bheel faces many threats also. We saw the anthropogenic activities before. These constructions are a major threat because around 30 square kilometer area is encroached or reclaimed or a developed area. Secondly several brick clings are located here and the city's garbage dumping ground is situated next to the Bheel. So the liquid and solid waste leaches into the Bheel during the rainy season. Due to these the Bheel suffer from pollution. Pollution is also majorly caused by the sewage from Guwahati which enters the Bheel. It is also caused by other inorganic or industrial effluent and agriculture waste as well. So this resulted in eutrophication of the Bheel. So the Bheel gets heavily infested with water hyacinth and some emergent weeds such as Hyderilla, Neofia and etc. Analysis in 2004 itself revealed the toxic condition of the Bheel. It was found that Bheel's pH was between 4.7 and 6.9. That means it is acidic in nature. Remember that pH less than 7 means acidic in nature. Apart from these the railway lines are a threat to elephants because the trains often hit the approaching herds of elephants and this causes loss of life among the herds of elephants as well. So an action to safeguard this protected area was long-pending. And now the news mentions that Ecosensitive Zone has been notified in the Deepar Bheel Wildlife Sanctuary. See the Ecosensitive Zone or declared under section 3 of Environment Protection Act and as per the section the Union Ministry of Environment is empowered to take measures for protecting and improving the quality of the environment. They can take measures to prevent and control environmental pollution and for this purpose they can even restrict areas. This restricted area are called Ecosensitive zones. In these areas any industries or class of industries their operation or processes is prohibitor. Sometimes exceptions are given to carry out these activities with certain safeguards. So therefore to conclude many times the activities in Ecosensitive Zones are of regulatory nature rather than prohibitive in nature. So what does this mean? They do not prohibit the function of the industries but they regulate the nature in which the industries work. Note that these Ecosensitive Zones are declared around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. So Ecosensitive Zones create some kind of shock observer for these protected areas. They also serve as a transition zone between high protected area and low protected areas. And now since news reports that Ecosensitive Zones of Deepur Beale has been notified certain activities are restricted and prohibitor. According to the article new commercial hotels and resorts of prohibitor only around certain range of the Beale or around the Ecosensitive Zone. And then hydroelectric projects, brick lanes, commercial use of fireworks and discharge of untreated effluent in natural water bodies or land areas all these are prohibited. So this notification comes as a relief to this protected area which was in the way of becoming a quagmire of pollution. So these are some of the important points that you can grasp from this article. With these information let us move on to the next article. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this news article. See the news article mentions about the spotting of a rare merging of three supermassive black holes. It has happened three times already. So this is not the first time happening and this event has been spotted by a team of astrophysicists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics from the Paris Observatory. So this is basically the crux of this news article. Now based on this context we are going to have a basic understanding about what is black hole. The syllabus covered by this article is given here for your reference. See the black hole is a place in space where the gravity pull is so much that even light cannot escape. And the reason for gravity being this strong here is because the matter here has been squeezed into a tiny space. When matter is squeezed into a tiny space the strength of the gravitational pull will increase. And this usually happens when a star is dying. As I said earlier due to gravity even light cannot escape from this black hole. And since no light can get out it appears black. Due to this people cannot see black holes and they appear invisible to people's eye. And this is the reason for them to be termed as the black holes. Now talking about the size. See black holes can be both big or small. According to the scientist the smallest black holes are small as just one atom and another kind of black hole is called stellar. The mass of this stellar black holes can be up to 20 times more than the mass of the sun. Imagine how massive the black hole will be. And the largest black holes are called supermassive. These black holes have masses that are more than one million suns together. Know that scientists have found proof that every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. Just remember one thing the largest black holes are called the supermassive and such black holes have masses that are more than one million stars together. On talking about their formation according to scientists the smallest black holes formed when the universe begun. When you take stellar black holes which we saw earlier they are made when the center of a very big star falls in upon itself or collapses. And when this happens it causes a supernova. And for your information a supernova is an exploding star that blasts parts of the stars into space. Also note that supermassive black holes are believed to be formed at the same time as the galaxy that surround them formed but astronomers are still not sure about it. So these are the basic information about how a black hole forms. Now coming to their parts see the black hole has two basic parts. It is very important to know about these two basic parts. One is the singularity and the another one is the event horizon. To say about event horizon event horizon is also called as the point of no escape or the point of no return. It is around the black hole and know that it is not a physical surface but it is a sphere surrounding the black hole that marks where the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light. So if you have to escape from this region you have to move with the velocity of speed of light. So imagine how much speed you need to escape from this region. Now on talking about singularity see one thing about event horizon is that once the matter is into it then the matter will fall to the center of the black hole and with such strong gravity the matter squeezes to just a point like a tiny tiny volume with a crazy big density and that point is called the singularity. With this let us wind up this news discussion. So in this discussion we saw what is black holes, how they are formed and very important parts of the black hole. With these details in mind now let us move on to the next part of our news discussion. Now look at this article see recently Karnataka has proposed a construction of reservoir at Mekedato across the interstate Kaveri river. So this raised a serious concern for the Tamil Nadu government and the Tamil Nadu government has urgently moved the supreme court to seek judicial order to retain the proceedings. So this article is written in this context and in this context let us see a brief about the Mekedato issue. See the Mekedato issue is a continuation of the long existing Kaveri river water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As we know Kaveri is an interstate river with its upper hilly catchment lying in the Karnataka and Kerala states and the lower part is lying in the plains of Tamil Nadu. Know that the Kaveri rises in the Brahmagiri ranges of the western Ghats in the Kourg district of Karnataka. This may be very important for your preliminary examination. So the major tributaries of Kaveri in the Karnataka territory includes Harangi, Harangi, Hemavadi, Shimsa, Arkavadi, Lakshmana Tirtha and Swarnavadi. Apart from this, Kaveri which drains the north Malabar of Kerala state flows through Karnataka and joins Kaveri. Bhavani, Amaravadi and Noyal are the tributaries to the river in the Tamil Nadu state. Know that there are two interstate agreements signed in 1892 and 1924 on Kaveri river. The first agreement was signed in 1892 and it is a general agreement related to a number of interstate rivers. The second agreement was signed in 1924 and this is related to the irrigation development in the basin of Kaveri alone. Both the agreements were signed in 1892 and 1924 agreements are permanent. Later the Karnataka government constructed four new dams across the tributaries of Kaveri. So in which tributaries these four dams are built, the tributaries include Harangi, Kaabini, Hemavadi and Swarnavadi. For none of these, they have obtained the prior consent of Tamil Nadu. So in 1969, Tamil Nadu appealed to the then Prime Minister of India to adjudicate on this unilateral action. Later the centre used its power under the Interstate River Water Dispute Act 1956 to constitute the Kaveri Water Dispute Tribunal in 1990. This tribunal submitted the report in 2007 which was challenged in the Supreme Court. Based on the Supreme Court judgement in 2018, the centre notified the Kaveri Water Management Scheme. Based on the Supreme Court judgement in 2018, the centre notified the Kaveri Water Management Scheme and it constituted the Kaveri Water Management Authority and the Kaveri Water Regulation Committee. Now coming to Makedaatu, see it is a place in Karnataka and this project aim to construct balancing reservoir across the river Kaveri. Know that it is a multi-purpose project with several objectives and some of the objectives include utilizing additional 4.75 TMC of water from the proposed project to provide drinking water facility to Bangalore metropolitan region. Some of other objectives is to store the flood water that may escape into sea and to harness 400 meha watts of renewable energy in a year etc. This project is to be built by Kaveri Neerawari Nigham Ltd and this Kaveri Neerawari Nigham Ltd is completely owned by the government of Karnataka. See according to Tamil Nadu, this project violates the final award of the Kaveri River Water Tribunal. See construction of the two reservoirs would result in seizing of the flow in the intermittent catchment below the Krishna Raja Sahar and Karbini Reservoir. So this will result in less water inflow into the Tamil Nadu. So this is the present contention between the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka government and the Tamil Nadu government has urgently moved to the Supreme Court to retain the proceedings of Karnataka. These are some of the points that you should remember and with this let us move on to the next discussion. Now look at this article about the Jalian Valaba Memorial. According to the news article the renovated Jalian Valaba Memorial along with four museum galleries are restored well and new amenities for visitors was dedicated to the nation by our Prime Minister. Now in this context let us learn a few facts about the Jalian Valaba Massacre which is also called as the Massacre of Amritsar. First let us see about the background or the root cause of this massacre. See during the first world war the British government of India enacted a series of repressive emergency powers and these powers were designed in a way to counter rebellious actions. By the end of the war people expected relaxation from these measures and they also expected to gain more political autonomy. But that did not happen at all. Just remember a fact even the Montague Clumpsford report that was presented to the British parliament in 1918 also recommended limited local self-government to Indians. Now coming back instead of relaxing the wartime measures in early 1919 the government passed a rigorous act called Rowlett Act. The issue here is that the act initially extended the repressive wartime measures. This aggravated the people and the act met widespread anger and discontent among Indians notably in the region of Punjab. Now coming to the issue it was a baisahi that day and this festival is very important for Punjab and parts of North India because it is a popular harvest festival. See apart from extending the repressive wartime measures the Rowlett Act also empowered British government to detain any person without trial. So on that day the local residents in Amritsar decided to hold a meeting to discuss and protest against the imprisonment of two important leaders. Who are these leaders? They include Satya Baal and Sai Fuddin Kichlow and the protesting crowd had a mixture of men, women and children. Apart from this they all gathered in a park called Jalyan Valaba and very importantly note that the protest was a peaceful one and the gathering not only had protestors but it also included pilgrims visiting the golden temple and some who had not come to protest also were in the gathering. And while the meeting was on Brigadier General Reynolds Edward Harry Dyer with an intention to teach the public assembled there a lesson, he brought 90 soldiers with him to the venue and he ordered them to open fire on the crowd and though many people tried to escape they could not escape from the park. Since the park was walled on all sides except for a few small gates so many people could not escape and in fact many jumped into the will located inside the park to save themselves and not only that people also died due to stampede. It is said that in the incident more than 1000 people had lost their lives while 1200 people were wounded. On talking about the outcomes after the massacre General Dyer was removed from command and exiled to Britain and on that line Rabindranath Thahur and Mahatma Gandhi renounced their British knighthood and Kesar A. Hinde medal as a sign of condemnation. Importantly in 1922 the infamous Rowlett Act was repealed by the British. So with this information we came to the end of this discussion. Now let us move on to the next segment. Now let us take up the preliminary practice questions. The first question is about the poor Bill. The question is that consider the following statements with reference to the poor Bill often seen in news. The first statement states that it is situated in Odisha. The second statement states that it has been declared as a Ramsar site and the only Ramsar site of the state and the third statement states that it is one of the staging sites for migratory birds in India. Which of the following statements given above is or are correct? See from our discussion we know that statement one is incorrect because the poor Bill is situated in Assam and it is not situated in Odisha and the statement two and three are correct. The poor Bill is a Ramsar site and it is the only Ramsar site of the Assam state and it is one of the staging sites for migratory birds in India. So the statement two and three are correct and the correct answer for the question is option C two and three one day. Now moving on to the next question. The next question is a two statement question and the first statement states that Harangi, Kaabini and Amaravadi are tributaries of Kaveri river and the second statement states that the Kaveri river rises in the state of Karnataka. Which of the above statements is or are correct? See both the statements are correct. We already saw this in our discussion and Kaveri river rises in the state of Karnataka. So the second statement is correct. Now coming to the first statement Harangi, Kaabini and Amaravadi are tributaries of Kaveri river. So both the statements are correct and the correct option for this question is option C that is both one and two. Now let us take up this question. The question is the terms singularity event horizon often seen in news is related to option A sans corona, option B black hole, option C dark matter and option D blue nets. See you can attend this question even if you don't have idea about what is singularity and what is event horizon. If you know what is sans corona, what is a black hole, what is a dark matter and what is a blue net, you can easily answer this question. So the sans corona is nothing but it is the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere and it is usually hidden by the bright light of the sun's surface. So that is no direct or indirect relation with singularity or event horizon so you can eliminate the first option. Now coming to the third option, you know what is a dark matter. See dark matter is a name given to all the masses in the universe that are invisible to our eyes. Many research suggests that about 70 percentage of the universe is composed of dark energy while the remaining 25 percentage is composed of mysterious substance called dark matter. So this also don't have direct relation with singularity or event horizon so you can eliminate this option also. Now coming to the fourth option, it is the blue nets. Know that blue nets are a name given by astronomers to the moons which got detached from their parent planets. Note that it is a combination of two word planet plus moon is blue net. So the moons which get escaped from the bondage of their parent planet is called as blue nets. So if you can remember these words, you can easily eliminate these options and the correct answer for this question is option B black holes. See we already saw about black holes in our discussion but if you are even more interested in space science, you can watch a movie called interstellar. In this movie the director explains about singularity and even horizon and even more concepts like warm hole and time travel are also discussed in this movie. If you get time just watch this movie so that you can understand the concept even more better. Now we came to the end of the discussion. The main question are displayed here. Please practice at home and do write answers and post it on the comment section. With this we came to the end of the discussion. If you like the video please like, comment and share and do subscribe to the Shankar IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you.