 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Ayes academy for the date 31st August 2021. These are the list of articles chosen for today's discussion and let us start our first discussion by discussing about an open article. In this open article, we will be seeing about transparency and accountability issues prevailing in the current political system. Followed by that we will discuss about an article regarding the tropical cyclone and followed by that we will be seeing an article regarding Pashminar shawls and followed by that we will be seeing another open article regarding the marital rape and finally we will end our discussion by discussing about an article regarding UNESCO World Heritage Site. So, now let us move on to the first discussion. Now let us take up this question for our discussion. See this question was asked in last year preliminary examination. The question is, if you withdraw 1 lakh rupees in cash from your demand deposit account at your bank, the immediate effect on aggregate money supply in the economy will be option A to reduce it by rupees 1 lakh, option B to increase it by rupees 1 lakh, option C to increase it by more than rupees 1 lakh and option D to leave it unchanged. See solving this question will be very easy for you if you understand a very simple concept called money aggregates. Let me rephrase the question so that you can understand what the question wants us to find. So before that just remember one thing, what is money supply? Money supply is nothing but it is the total stock of money or it is the total amount of money in circulation among the public at a particular point of time. So this is called as the money supply, which means each paisa in your pocket and my pocket are taken into account as money in circulation within an economy. So remember this point. Now coming to the question, imagine a scenario, imagine you have 2 lakh rupees in your demand deposit account in any bank, let the name of the bank be X and in bank X you have 2 lakh rupees in your demand deposit account. So you are in a hurry and you have to withdraw 1 lakh rupee from this account and you are withdrawing it, will this withdrawal of money from your demand deposit account affect the money in circulation within the economy or not? This is the question. So to answer this question, you must know what is a demand deposit account first and will the money in the demand deposit account is taken into account for calculating the money supply or not. So let us begin with knowing about the types of deposit accounts. See there are 3 types of deposit accounts. Now what is a deposit account? Imagine you are earning some amount of money per month and you cannot keep that money with yourself right? You will deposit in a bank account. You save money in bank account for a very important reason. The reason is you do not have to lose the value of money you save. See I hope you remember the inflation rate may increase or decrease with time. That is the value of money for a particular period of time may increase or decrease. So here the bank provide you a security and provide you a promise that the money you save will not lose the value. How the banks will provide you the interest for the money you deposit in your account. So by this way you can save the money for your future as well as you will have a guarantee that the money you have saved will not lose its value over a time. So this is the main purpose you deposit money in the bank account. So I guess you can understand the purpose of a deposit account. So there are 3 types of deposit account. The first one is named as demand deposit, time deposit and recurring deposit. Let us see them one by one. I guess you can identify what is the purpose of these accounts from the name itself. The first one is demand account. See when you deposit money in demand deposit, you can withdraw money from this account whenever you want. That is on the demand from your side you can withdraw your money whenever you want. So this is the demand deposit. I hope you can follow. But the scenario is completely opposite when it comes to time deposit. In time deposit, you have to deposit money for a fixed period of time and you cannot withdraw money from this account for this fixed period of time. I know that the time deposit is also called as the term deposit. It can be also called as fixed deposit as well. So when you deposit money in the time deposit account, you can withdraw that money only after completion of a maturity period. The maturity period may vary. It can be 1 year, 2 year, 3 year. It depends upon the agreement you make with the bank. But remember one thing, you cannot withdraw money in between the fixed period of time. So the third type of account is the recurring account. So what is a recurring account? In this account, a fixed amount decided by the depositor is deposited at regular intervals till the end of the tenure. See you make an agreement with bank that for a year, you will deposit money but you will not deposit in a lump sum amount like you do it in the fixed deposit. You will deposit money only at a regular interval. So this type of account is called as the recurring deposit. So you can make an agreement with bank and you can deposit money at regular interval and this money will be accumulated till the end of the tenure. So these are the types of deposits. Understand this first so that you can understand whatever discussed further. Now coming to the concept money aggregates. See money aggregates are nothing but it is the measure of money supply in the economy. These measures are published by RBI and they publish these measures in five terms called M1, M2, M3, M4 and M0. See know that M0 is also known as the reserve money. M1 is called a narrow money, M2 is called intermediate money and M3 is called the broad money. See each measure has a formula. You really don't have to mock up this. Just understand the concept so that you can easily remember and the formulas also varies. See in NCRT the formula for calculating money aggregates is different and in the current system what we are using is different. So you can follow this discussion to understand which measure is used in the current system. Now coming to the formula M0. M0 is also called as the reserve money. You'll know why it is called as reserve money if we discuss the formula. So what is M0? M0 is equal to currency in circulation plus bankers deposits with RBI plus other deposits with RBI. So it is the sum of currency which is in circulation. It includes every paisa, every notes, everything. Within the economy which is in circulation is taken into account plus bankers deposits with RBI. Now what do they mean by bankers deposits with RBI? I hope you are familiar with the word called cash reserve ratio. So what is this cash reserve ratio? See it is a safety amount which is deposited with the RBI by the banks. So what is the purpose of this CRR? See if there is a situation that the bank is nearly going to be bankrupt RBI will release this security amount to the banks. So the bank will not be bankrupt. So this is CRR. I hope you can understand. Cash reserve ratio is the security amount. You can say it as security amount or you can say it as the balance maintained by bank with the Reserve Bank of India. Its main purpose is to safeguard the bank when it is in the stage to be bankrupt. So this is the bankers deposits with RBI. So what is this other deposits with RBI? You can see in this image itself the other deposits with RBI are mentioned below. It may be any deposits of quasi government and other financial institutions like any corporate could have deposited with RBI. They would have made some agreement to safeguard each other. So this includes those deposits. And it may also include deposits from foreign central banks and governments. Like other governments may have deposited with RBI. So this also included in this account. Apart from this international agencies. It may be IMF that is the international monetary fund or any international agencies. So they may also have an account with RBI. So they may also have deposited some amount of money with RBI. So this also includes. I hope you can understand. So this is the reason why M0 is called as the reserve money. It is the value of total amount of money in the circulation within an economy. Even some deposits from the banks and some deposits from the international agencies and other governments are not brought into the supply. But still they are there, right? So M0 is the total value of the money which is currently in the economy. So I'm coming to M1. M1 is equal to currency with the public plus demand deposit with the banking system plus other deposits with RBI. Now what is this currency with the public? It includes every one rupee which is with the public right now. Plus demand deposit with the banking system. So we saw what is demand deposit and this demand deposit is taken into account for calculating M1. Plus other deposits with RBI. We already saw what is the other deposits with RBI. So these are included. So now coming to M2. See M2 is equal to M1 plus time liabilities portion of savings deposit with the banking system. So M1 included demand deposit. So M2 includes the time deposits. We already discussed what is a time deposit. In this deposit, when you deposit money in this account, you cannot withdraw money for a specific period of time. That is until a maturity period you cannot withdraw money from this time liability portion. So this is included in the M2 calculation plus certificate of deposit issued by banks. See certificate of deposits is also a type of deposit. In this account, the business people have their time deposit accounts. So the business people will make an agreement with the bank and they save their money for a particular period of time. So certificate of deposit is nothing but the time deposit with the bank deposited by the business people plus term deposit with maturity up to one year. So I already said that the maturity period may vary. So for calculating M2, the time deposits which have maturity period up to one year, those deposits are taken to calculate M2. So I guess you can easily remember these two by remembering one simple fact. M1 includes only the demand deposit and M2 includes only the time deposits. So with this, you can easily remember these two formulas. So now coming to M3. M3 is equal to M2 plus the time deposits which have a maturity period above one year. So in M2, we included the time deposit which have a maturity period up to one year. So in M3, we are including the left out part that is M2 plus time deposits which have maturity more than one year plus call or term borrowing. So now what is call or term borrowing? See, certain banks will have a overnight transaction for accounting purposes or for some other purposes. Bank A will borrow some money from Bank B. This borrowing is not for depositing purposes and they are borrowing for some management issues, those kind of overnight transaction. They'll borrow this money for just one day or two days. So this kind of deposits are called call or term borrowing. So M3 includes these things. So I hope you can understand why M2 is called the intermediate money and M3 is called the broad money. Now coming to M4, M4 is equal to M3 plus total post office deposits. We deposit not only in banks, we also deposit in post office also. So M4 includes M3 plus total post office deposits. These are the formulas of M1, M2, M3 and M4. I hope you can clearly understand how to remember these formulas. So why these formulas are required for us? See, these measures help us to identify the money multiplier in an economy. So what is this money multiplier? See, if RBI have to print money, if RBI has a demand for 400 rupees and it have to print money for 400 rupees. But RBI will not print the exact 400 rupees. Why? Because when this 400 rupees is into the economy, it will multiply because already people have some amount of money in their hand. So this 400 will multiply into 800 or 1000 rupees. So this will cause an inflation. So to keep a check on this, even though if RBI has a demand for 400 rupees it will print only 100 rupees. Because people already have money with them and RBI knows that this 100 rupees will multiply into 400 rupees. So the money multiplier formula is M3 divided by M0. See, we already saw M3 is the broad money. That is the money which is with the people in the economy. And M0 is the total value of money within the economy. So if you know the difference between these two, you can easily identify the money multiplier. That is how many times the money is getting multiplied. So for example, you have found M3 as 400 rupees. That is the money with the people. But the M0, that is the total value of money in an economy in the initial stage. So if you know the difference between these two, you can easily identify the money multiplier. For example, if M3 is 400 rupees and M0 is 100 rupees, when you divide, you will get answer as 4. That is the money is multiplied at a rate of 4 times. So what RBI will do is, RBI will print only 100 rupees. Even though there is a demand for 400 rupees, RBI will print only 100 rupees. Because it knows this 100 rupees will multiply into 400 rupees. Thereby it will also control the inflation and the money supply in the economy. So this is the purpose of this money aggregate. Now coming to the question. See to solve this question, you need a very simple logic. You need to understand a very very simple logic. If you know M1 formula itself, you can solve this question easily. So what is the formula for M1? We have already saw that M1 is equal to currency with the public plus demand deposit with the bank system plus other deposit with RBI. So other deposit with RBI will not change over a period of time. For example, within a year, the other deposit with RBI will not change at all. So let that be a constant thing. Let us take, for example, the currency with public is 2 lakh rupees and the demand deposit with the bank system is 2 lakh rupees. Now I have withdrawn 1 lakh rupees from my account. So now the demand deposit with bank system will have only 1 lakh rupees. But the currency with the public will increase. That is the 2 lakh rupees will become 3 lakh rupees. I hope you can understand. Both the components are already in the formula. I am just taking this thing to this thing. So even though the money in demand deposit decreases, the currency with the public will increase. Which means when you sum the formula, you will get the same answer. So the answer for the question is to leave it unchanged. So by discussing this question, we understood what is money aggregate? What are the formulas used for M0, M1, M2, M3 and M4? With this, we came to the end of this discussion. Let us move on to the first discussion. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this op-ed article. See the author here talks about the rising instances of criminal antecedents among the members of the political party. And as the title hints, this op-ed article throws light on the lack of adequate accountability and transparency. That is prevailing among the political parties of today. So this is the basic overview of the op-ed article. Now without wasting time, let us move into our news discussion. The syllabus covered by this op-ed article is given below for your reference. As we all know, being in a democratic setup, political parties form the heart of our democracy. And these elected representatives frame policies that govern us and these policies have a profound impact on people's life. Therefore, it is for this reason the citizens are entitled with the right to know. The citizens must know the functioning of political parties, their funding and the kind of principles they follow in their various actions. So this is very important in a democratic setup. So on that line, recently the Supreme Court held a few political parties to be guilty of its contempt for disobeying its order. See the Supreme Court directed the political parties to inform citizens about the criminal antecedent of their candidates. And this order mandates to inform citizens within 48 hours of selection or not less than two weeks before filing of the nominations. So this is the direction given by the Supreme Court and the political parties are found to be guilty that they disobeyed the order of Supreme Court. See, this is not something new and this lack of transparency continues to grow with each day. For instances in 2004, only 24% of the members of parliament had criminal cases pending against them. But then this figure saw an immense growth and reached an alarming rate of 43% after the 2019 general elections. See, this is not the only instance where the political parties were found to be lacking transparency. Another popular instance where political parties have shown total contempt is in the people's right to information. To understand better, a judgment in the year 2002 directed all candidates to file an affidavit and this affidavit should declare their educational, financial and criminal backgrounds. But what happened is the political parties amended the representative of the People Act 1951 to nullify this disclosure requirements. But however, the court struck down the amendments. And on that line, the bench of the Central Information Commission declared that the national political parties must come under the Right to Information Act 2005. But still there was no positive signs. The political parties are not ready and they are very strong in not sharing their information to citizens. To nullify this order also, what they did was, they immediately introduced a bill in the parliament to amend the RTI law to exclude political parties from the ambit of the legislation. And it was only due to strong public opposition that the amendment were finally dropped. However, without obtaining a stay on the commission's order from any court, parties have steadfastly refused to comply with the directions. Another main issue in this regard is the concept of electoral bonds. And this electoral bonds was introduced in the year 2018. The scheme is remarkable for opening the floodgates of unlimited anonymous funds to political parties, both by Indian and foreign sources. So, through this bond, both the Indian and foreign sources can fund a political party anonymously. As we know, the Indian political system have never been okay with the idea of transparency in electoral financing and this scheme went by this attitude very well. So, in short, the electoral bonds scheme gave a further blow to people's right to know. And it also helped in consolidating the role of big money in electoral politics. Apart from this, this scheme also favoured an asymmetry of information in favour of the party in power. This is also a problem. To understand this better, the scheme is designed in a way that only the party in power can get access to the data on who is donating bonds to which party. Whereas the general public or opposition cannot. And this added an advantage to the party in power. So, even though the tremendous bearing caused by this electoral process, still the case has not received the urgent attention. On this line, many a time the court has requested the lawmakers to take steps to ensure greater transparency of political parties and also to prohibit the involvement of persons with criminal antisem in polity. But still no effective measures is taken in this regard. And this shows the political parties and their representatives in the legislature have no interest in making themselves answerable to the citizens. So, in this regard, when public interest is at stake, the judiciary must play a proactive role in this regard. The author suggests some of the measures that the court can take in this regard. Firstly, the court can hear the electoral bill matter and the challenges to the refusal of political parties to comply with the Central Information Commission's order. Likewise, the court can also examine whether a post facto determination of the violation of its directive and it can impose fine to the parties who did not comply with the directions of Supreme Court. And most importantly, the judiciary should consider putting in place a mechanism to monitor compliance. And this mechanism should be complied by all states and general elections and it should debar candidates who violate its order. So, these are some of the important points mentioned in this article. With this, let us move on to the next article. Now, let us take up this article. See, a powerful hurricane named Ida has battered the southern US state of Louisiana. This is the news and it has killed at least one person and knocked out power for more than a million people. So, in this context, let us learn about tropical cyclones. The syllabus relevant for this article is highlighted here for your reference. See, the tropical cyclones are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical area. They move over to the coastal areas bringing about large scale destruction caused by violent winds, very heavy rainfall and storm surges. See, tropical cyclones are one of the most devastating natural calamities and they are known by different names in different areas. For example, they are called Cyclone in Indian Ocean, Hurricane in the Atlantic, Typhoons in the western Pacific and South China Sea and Willi Willis in the western Australia. So, the tropical cyclone has different names in different areas. Now, let us see about the conditions favorable for the formation and intensification of tropical storms. The first condition required for the formation of tropical storm is the large sea surface with temperature higher than 27 degrees Celsius. When a large sea surface or an ocean body has a temperature of greater than 27 degrees Celsius, when it heats up, the tropical storms begin to form. So, this is the first criteria and the second condition is the presence of Coriolis force. So, what is this Coriolis force? See, the earth is rotating every day and the rotation of earth about its axis affects the direction of the wind. So, this invisible force is called the Coriolis force. So, it deflects the wind to the right direction in the northern hemisphere and to the left direction in the southern hemisphere. So, there must be the presence of Coriolis force. This is the second condition. And the third condition is small variation in the vertical wind speed. When there is a small variation in the vertical wind speed, this may help in the formation of tropical storms. Apart from this, there must be a pre-existing weak low pressure area and there must be a condition in which the air parcels above the sea level could diverge upwards. So, these are the conditions which favours the formation and intensification of tropical storms. Now, where does this cyclone gets its energy? This is a question, right? See, the energy that intensifies the storm comes from the condensation process in the towering cumulonimbus clouds. I hope you remember there are many types of clouds, namely stratus, cirrus, cumulonimbus, altocumulus. So, these are the types of clouds and the characteristics of cumulonimbus clouds is, it is the only cloud type that can produce hail, thunder and lightning. So, when this cumulonimbus cloud is towered above the sea level, they begin to condense. And this condensation intensifies the energy of the storm. These clouds are around the centre of the storm and they provide the energy required. So, with continuous supply of moisture from the sea, the storm is further strengthened. It is important to know that on reaching the land, the moisture supply is cut off and the storm dissipates. And the place where a tropical cyclone crosses the coast is called the landfall of the cyclone. Now, look at this image of the tropical cyclone. See, a mature tropical cyclone is characterised by the strong, spirally circulating wind around the centre. The diameter of the cyclone is called the eye and the diameter of the circulating system can vary between 150 and 250 km. Know that the eye is a region of calm with subseding air, that is, the air subsides in this region. Around the eye, there lies a wall and it is called the eye wall. The eye wall is a region where there is a strong, spiralling accent of air to greater height reaching the troposphere. So, if you can see, in the eye, the air subsides, that is, the air submerges. And in the eye wall, the air gets moving up. That is, they reach the troposphere and the wind reaches maximum velocity in this region. It can also reach a high speed of 250 km per hour and it is also important to note that the torrential rain occurs here. Now, what is a torrential rain? When the rain is extremely hard and the downpour is very high, it is called as torrential rain. Also remember, from the eye wall, the rain bands may radiate cluster of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds and they may be drifted into the outland region as well. So, these are the characteristics of tropical cyclones. See, according to meteorologists, the diameter of the storm over the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean is between 600 to 1200 km. Also, the cyclone system can move about 300 to 500 km per day. So, it can create strong surges and integrate the coastal lowlands. This is the reason why tropical cyclones are one of the most devastating natural calamities. With this, we came to the end of this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about tropical cyclones. What are the different names given to the tropical cyclones? What are the conditions favoring the formation and intensification of cyclones and the characteristics of cyclones? Now, let us move on to the next discussion. Now, look at this news article. This news article reports about the centre for excellence. See, this centre for excellence was set up to restore the lost hand-driven processes which involved in the intricate shawl weaving industry. Which shawl they are talking about here? It is the Parshmina shawls. So, in this slide, let us see some important points relevant to Parshmina shawls. See the Parshmina shawls are a fine type or variant of shawl that are spun from the Kashmiri wools. And this wool comes from a number of different breeds of Kashmiri goats such as the Changtangi or Kashmir Parshmina goat. Know that for its soft feathers, these Parshmina shawls have been proved to be a status symbol for the wealthy both in India as well as across the world. And note that in the year 2019, the Bureau of India Standards, BIS, published an Indian standard for identification, marking and labeling the Parshmina shawls for its purity. When talking about its history, see the Parshmina shawls gained much prominence as subject of rank and nobility during the Mohal Empire. In fact, back in 1526, Barber first established the practice of giving kilat or robes of honour made of Parshmina wool to members of his court. So this was a tradition in Barber's court. And for your additional information, the shawl made up of Parshmina wool is being promoted as an alternative to Chateauche shawls. So what is this Chateauche shawls? See, this Chateauche shawl is made from the Tibetan antelope. See, this species is becoming rare because of the raising demand of Chateauche wool. And its shawl has wiped out around 90% of the Tibetan antelope. In order to preserve the left out population of the Tibetan antelope, other alternative like the top Parshmina shawls are being considered. Now talking about the goats from which it is obtained, see the Changtangi or Parshmina goat is a special breed of goat that is indigenous to the high altitude region of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. These goats are raised for their ultra fine Kashmir wool which is known as Parshmina once it is completely oven. Usually these textiles are hand span and were first oven in Kashmir. Now that these goats are generally domesticated and are reared by the nomadic communities called the Changpa in the Changtang region of Greater Ladakh. Now coming back to the article, see according to the sources, women's participation in the shawl weaving has faced a significant decline. So what is the reason for this decline? Poor wages and machines have played a major role in driving away women and also the old technique of weaving or fading fast in the Kashmir region. See the old technique are preferred because spinning on a traditional Kashmir charka allows longer threads of Kashmina wool with fine hair like size and like machines and it also adds softness and warmth to the product. So in the backdrop of this trend, the direct trade of handicraft and hand loom of Kashmir has announced a minimum support price for geographical indication certified handmade Parshmina shawl to sustain the old techniques. So in order to encourage people to sustain the old techniques, the direct trade have announced a minimum support price. And note that this Parshmina shawl also have a geographical indication. So these are some of the important points that we can know from this article. With this, we came to the end of this article. Now let us move on to the next article. Now look at this article. Recently the Chattiskar High Court discharged a man from facing trials for allegedly raping his wife. Know that Indian law does not recognize marital rape if the wife is above 15 years of age. Let us understand the nuances of this through the article. The syllabus relevant for this article is highlighted here for your reference. First let us understand what is a marital rape? See rape is a sexual intercourse with an individual without consent. Whereas marital rape is when the same is done with the spouse. That is sexual intercourse without the consent of the spouse. And one of the repressive issue with the Indian legal regime is that marital rape is perfectly legal. In India, rape by an outsider is a penal offense under section 375 and 376 of IPC. Shockingly it clearly avoids marital rape from ambit of conviction. It exempts the husband from any penal consequences if he forces intercourse on his wife without her consent. Especially if the wife is above the age of 15 years. Now let us see some of the legal backings. See non-criminalization of marital rape in India emerges from exception 2 of section 375. See section 375 is about rape and if you see exception 2 of section 375 it exempts unwilling sexual intercourse between a husband and wife. If the wife is over 15 years of age from the definition of rape. In other words, even unconsenting intercourse between spouse is legal. If the girl is over 15 years of age. So effectively it immunizes such act from prosecution. I hope you can follow. So as per current law, your wife is assumed to deliver perpetual consent to have sex with her husband after entering into marital relations. The concept of marital rape in India is the abstract of what we call an implied consent. Marriage between a man and a woman here implies that both have consented to sexual intercourse and it cannot be otherwise. Understand this and this exception is based on doctrine of covertures. See coverture is an Anglo American common law concept and it is derived from feudal Norman custom and this custom dictated a woman's legal status during marriage. This now continues to find a place in Indian jurisprudence and whatever we saw above is a product of patriarchal mindset. And the common argument given in support of marital rape is that marriage is a sexual relationship. So distinguishing between consensual and non-consensual acts could prove difficult. So even center had appealed in supreme court against criminalizing rape on the ground that it could destabilize the institution of marriage. But this has various counter arguments also. First and the basic argument is that marital rape runs counter to right to life and right to equality. See right to life comes under article 21 and right to equality comes under article 14 that is instraint in our constitution. And the marital rape runs against these two rights. In a case called the state of Karnataka versus Krishnapa, the supreme court held that sexual violence apart from being a dehumanizing act is an unlawful intrusion of the right to privacy and sanctity of a female. So this judgment held that sexual violence is not only a dehumanizing act but it is also an intrusion that is it is intruding the right to privacy and sanctity of a female. And in the same judgment it held that non-consensual sexual intercourse amounts to physical and sexual violence. The second basic argument is that the purpose of section 375 itself is defeated. The purpose of section 375 of IPC is to protect women and punish those who engage in the inhuman activity of rape. But by accepting husbands from punishment is entirely contradictory to that objective. See this is an archiac or a old-fashioned law that has no place in modern era. In that direction various efforts have been made so far. In 2018 a private bill called the women's sexual reproductive and menstrual rights bill 2018 introduced by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in the Lokshaba and it sought to criminalize marital rape. But the bill lapsed as it failed to grasp the support from the government. Likewise in 2013 also a UN committee recommended that the Indian government should criminalize marital rape. Apart from this the JS Verma committee set up in the aftermath of the Nirbaya protest also recommended the same. But despite the efforts this exception continued to remain in the statutory books and it is sad that it still adds a dimension to domestic violence. So these are some of the important points that you can grasp from this article. With this we came to the end of this article. Now let us move on to the next article. Now look at this article see the government had decided to monetize the Darjeeling toy train. The locals have raised an issue regarding this. Remember this Darjeeling toy train is also an UNESCO World Heritage site. In this context we shall know briefly about the toy trains and about the UNESCO World Heritage standards also. First what is world heritage? See according to UNESCO definition world heritage is the designation for places on earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity. And have been inscribed on the world heritage list to be protected for future generation to appreciate and enjoy. So the world heritage should have an universal value to humanity. And the future generation should also appreciate and enjoy this world heritage site. So such a site is called as the world heritage. And places like the Pramid of Egypt, Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Taj Mahal in India, the Grand Canyon in the USA, etc. or some of the examples of world heritage. And the UNESCO seek to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of heritage site around the world. So a convention called a world heritage convention was adopted by the UNESCO in 1972 in this regard. See the convention sets out the duties of state parties in identifying the sites. And the states also have the role in protecting and preserving them. For example the Taj Mahal in India has the above mentioned standards. And this site should be first identified by the state. That is India should identify this place as a world heritage and the state should also protect and preserve them. That is India should take its own interest and protect the Taj Mahal. And see by signing the convention each country pledges to conserve not only the world heritage site situated on its territory, but also protect its national heritage. Besides this the convention also explains how the world heritage fund is to be used and managed and under what condition international financial assistance may be provided. Apart from this the convention also stipulates the obligation of state parties to report regularly to the World Heritage Committee on the state of the conservation of their world heritage site or properties. So the state must identify the site. The state plays an important role in protecting and preserving them. Apart from this the state have to regularly update and report to the World Heritage Committee. Apart from this by signing this convention the state should not only conserve the world heritage site situated on its territory, but also to protect its national heritage as well. So now let us know about the World Heritage Committee. See it was constituted for implementation of the convention and the committee meets once a year and it consists of representative from 21 of the state parties to the convention elected by their general assembly. That is only 21 among the state parties will be represented in this committee every year. And that too are elected by the committee's general assembly. Now talking about the World Heritage Sites know that they are places that are listed by UNESCO for its special cultural or physical significance. The list of World Heritage Site is maintained by the International World Heritage Program which is administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. See there are three types of sites. The first one is cultural, second one is natural and the third one is mixed. Let us see one by one. See the cultural heritage site include historic building, important archaeological sites. For example Ajanta and Ellora caves, Hampi, Agra Fort, Konark Sun Temple. So these are some of the examples of cultural heritage. And the second one is the natural heritage site. The natural heritage sites are restricted to those natural areas. That are an outstanding example of Earth's record of life or its geological processes or it provides an excellent example of ongoing ecological and biological evolution processes etc. And the mixed heritage site contains elements of both natural and cultural significance. Now let us briefly know about the toy trains in Darjeeling. See it was built in the British era between 1879 and 1881 and the Darjeeling toy train was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. Know that it is an 88 kilometer long railway line and remember that the toy train runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. See recently the service of Darjeeling railways was suspended briefly and it was resumed on August 25th, 2021. It was suspended due to COVID-19. So these are some of the important points that you should remember from this article. Now let us move on to the next segment of the discussion. Now let us see some of the practice prelims question. See the first question is about Pashmina shawls. This is a three statement question and the first statement states that Pashmina shawls are a fine variety of shawls that is spun from the Kashmir wools. And the second statement states that the shawl made up of Pashmina wool is being promoted as an alternative to Shattush shawl. And the third statement states that a minimum support price has been announced for Pashmina shawl by the direct rate of handicrafts and handlooms. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? See the first statement is correct because we saw in the discussion that the Pashmina shawls are a fine type or variant of shawls that is spun from the Kashmir wools. And this wool come from a number of different breeds of the Kashmir goats such as Changtangi or Kashmir Pashmina goat. So the first statement is correct. Now coming to the second statement. The second statement is also correct because the rising demand for Shattush wool and its shawl had wiped out around 90% of Tibetan antelope. So in order to preserve the left out population of the Tibetan antelope other alternatives like that of the Pashmina wool or being considered. So the second statement is also correct. And now coming to the third statement. As per the news article women's participation shawl weaving has faced a significant decline and the wool technique of weaving are also fading out from the Kashmir. So on that line the direct rate of handicraft and handloom has announced a minimum support price for this Shattush shawls. So the third statement is also correct. The correct answer for this question is option D 1 2 and 3. Now moving on to the next question. This question is about the World Heritage Site. This is also a three statement question with a reference to World Heritage Site consider the following statements. The first statement is the latest addition to the list from India is Dolavira and Ramapaa temple. And the second statement is World Heritage Site may have both cultural as well as natural significance. And the third statement is World Heritage Program is administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which of the statement given above is or or correct. See we have 40 heritage sites among these 40 heritage sites. The list includes 32 cultural sites, 7 natural site and 1 mixed site. And know that Dolavira and Ramapaa temple are the latest addition. So statement one is correct. So from our discussion we know that statement two and statement three are also correct. The World Heritage Site may be both cultural as well as natural significance and the World Heritage Program is administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. So the correct answer for the question is option C 1 2 and 3. The main question or displayed here please write answer and post it in the comment section. With this we came to the end of the discussion. If you like the video, like, comment and share and do subscribe to the Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel. We are here to make your preparation easy. Thank you.