 Welcome as friends, I have an important announcement regarding your prelims preparation. Pre-storming batch 3 will commence on 9th November and the first test will commence on 20th November. Like the previous two batches, this batch will also have 66 test. Use this initiative to boost your prelims score. With this, let us get into the news article discussion by Shankar A.S. Academy for the date 8th November 2022. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today. Now let's start our discussion. Let us start today's discussion with this news article. Earlier, a petition was filed by two individuals in the Delhi High Court and the petition challenged certain provisions of the Saragasy Regulation Act of 2021. Subsequently, the court asked for central government stand on the petition. So yesterday, the central government filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court. This is the crux of the news article. So in this context, let us learn about the provisions that have been challenged in the court. First, let us see what is meant by Saragasy. Saragasy is an arrangement by which a woman who is called a surrogate gives birth to a baby on behalf of someone who is physically unable to have babies themselves. When baby is born, after some specific time, the surrogate mother hands over the baby to the respective parents. Now coming back, the Saragasy Regulation Act 2021 provides the option for Saragasy for persons in two situations. Firstly, for the woman who is a widow or a divorcee between 35 to 45 years of age. Secondly, for the couple, if they have a medical condition, necessitating the Saragasy option. The definition of the term couple is provided in the Saragasy Regulation Act of 2021 itself. According to the Act, the term couple means a legally married woman and man above the age of 18 years and 21 years respectively. Here the age is about the eligible age of marriage. The Act also prescribes an age criteria for the couple who do not have a child of their own to opt for Saragasy. For women, the age is between 23 years to 50 years and for men, the age is between 26 years to 55 years. The Act also bans commercial Saragasy and it also provides for punishments for those who are involved in doing Saragasy procedures for commercial purposes. The punishment here is, for the first offense, they shall be punishable with the jail term of 5 years or fine up to 5 lakhs and for the second offense, they shall be punishable with the jail term of 10 years and a fine up to 10 lakhs. Here note that the Saragasy Act allows only for altruistic Saragasy. The term altruistic Saragasy refers to those Saragasy arrangements where the Saragate does not receive any monetary compensation. These provisions are only challenged in the Delhi High Court by two individuals. The individuals are one is a unmarried man and another is a married woman who is having one child. They said that the Act excludes the option of Saragasy for a single man and a married woman who is having a child. Also, they stated that commercial Saragasy is the only option available for them but the ban on commercial Saragasy takes away their option. They also highlighted that these provisions in the Act are against the right to privacy granted under Article 21 of the Constitution. Here the personal decision of a single man about the birth of a baby through Saragasy that is the right to reproductive autonomy which comes under the Ambit of Article 21 is violated. For this petition only the central government filed a affidavit. In the affidavit the central government stated that the Saragasy laws were enacted following a due procedure and the central government also said that those laws were enacted with the intention to restrict commercialization of embryos and newborns. The center also highlighted that if the provisions challenged in the petitions are diluted then it would defeat the whole purpose of the Saragasy Regulation Act of 2021. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw some of the provisions of the Saragasy Regulation Act of 2021. We also saw some issues associated with the provisions highlighted by the petitioners. So with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article. Now let us take up this article for our next discussion. See as per the article India-Pakistan relations have entered an age of minimalism. This is nothing but the engagement between both the countries have become minimal. Don't you think so? See earlier we used to hear one thing or another about Pakistan. There was this Uri attack and then the Pulwama attack. After these events there was a sense of nationalism and anger among our people. After that our Indian authorities will respond to these attacks with force. All these things will happen on a regular basis. But currently this is not the scenario and that is exactly why the author is saying that the India-Pakistan relationship has entered the age of minimalism. In this article discussion we will see why there is minimalism in the relationship between India and Pakistan and let us see the characteristics of the minimalistic approach. Before getting into the discussion I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now we will start the discussion. First of all let us see the timeline of India-Pakistan relationship and then only you will understand how the engagement has come to a minimal state. It all started in 1947. You all know what happened in 1947 right? Yes. Violent partition between India and Pakistan happened and this even only defined the India-Pakistan relations. See the first war between India and Pakistan was fought over Jamun Kashmir. Armed Pakistani tribesmen aided by the newly created Pakistani army invaded Jamun Kashmir in October 1947. At that time Jamun Kashmir was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh. After the invasion the ruler requested the assistance of the Indian armed forces and he agreed to sign the Treaty of Assession. He handed over control of the defence, communication and foreign affairs to the Indian government. So the legal document was signed on October 26 1947. The war officially ended on 1st January 1949 when the united nation arranged a ceasefire. But know that by then Pakistan occupied one third of Jamun Kashmir. And in the year 1965 India and Pakistan fought their second war. The conflict began after a clash between border patrols in April in Ranafkach. But it escalated on August 5. This is because around 30,000 Pakistani soldiers crossed the ceasefire line dressed as Kashmiri locals. This war witnessed the largest engagement of armored vehicles and the largest tank battle since World War II. And it ended after the UN mandated ceasefire following the diplomatic intervention of Soviet Union and United States. And at the end of this war only Tishkanth agreement or the Tishkan declaration was signed. Now again in 1971 India and Pakistan entered into war for the third time. This time the recent being East Pakistan. The conflict between East and West Pakistan began when Pakistani government in West Pakistan refused to allow Awami leader Sheikh Mujabur Rahman to assume the premiership of the country. The Pakistani military attacked the protestors in Dhaka. Now India became involved in the conflict after Pakistani Air Force launched a strike on airfields in India's Northwest. India retaliated with coordinated land, air and sea assault on East Pakistan. It compelled the Pakistani army to surrender at Dhaka and more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. And at the end of this only the Shimla agreement was signed. But in 1989 armed insurgency in the Kashmir very began. Muslim political parties accused the state government of manipulating the 1987 state legislative election. So they formed militant wings. Pakistan declared that they are providing moral and diplomatic support to the militants. But it was believed that Pakistan did more than that. It was providing funding, direction, shelter, weapons and training to the fighters. And this is a clear manifestation of cross-border terrorism by Pakistan. And this marked the starting of everything. See from this period onwards, pan-Islamic terrorist groups like Laxar-e-Thaiba, Jaishi-Mohammad and Hisbul-Mujayuddin continued to be active in Jammu-on-Kashmir. And it is believed that they are headquartered in Pakistan and Pakistan administered Jammu-on-Kashmir. After this the major event was in the year 1999 when Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee signed Lahore declaration with the Pakistani counterpart. This is the first major agreement between the two countries since the 1972 Shimla agreement. Both the countries agreed to undertake confidence building measures to improve the bilateral relations. But as usual in the same year the Kargil conflict broke out. This is because the Pakistani forces intruded and occupied strategic positions on the Indian side of the line of control. This caused an Indian counter offensive move in which Pakistani forces were pushed back to their side of the line of control. And in December 2021 an armed attack on the Indian parliament happened. Laxar-e-Thaiba and Jaishi-Mohammad were held responsible for the attacks. After this again in 2008 another attack happened. The 2008 attack was considered as one of the most gruesome terrorist attacks the world has ever witnessed. The armed gunmen opened fire on civilians in several sites in Mumbai. They attacked places including Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, Obrai Trade and Hotel, Chhatrapati Shivaji train terminus, Leopold Cafe, Kama Hospital, Nariman House, Jewish Community Center, Metro Cinema, St. Xavier's College and a lane near the Times of India office. Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker captured alive, confessed that the attackers were the members of Laxar-e-Thaiba. So after this India ceased to talks with Pakistan. In 2009 Pakistani government admitted that the Mumbai terror attacks were planned on Pakistani soil. But the Pakistani government denied that the plotters were aided by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. After this many instances of talks were held between India and Pakistan to resolve the issues between the two countries. But again in 2016 the Jaishi-e-Mohammad terrorist disguised as soldiers carried out a deadly attack on Patankot Air Base in Punjab. This happened a week after our Prime Minister Modi made a visit to Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif as an effort to revive bilateral talks. In September 2016 Jaishi-e-Mohammad terrorist attacked an army base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir and killed 17 Indian soldiers. On 19th September 2016 India conducted surgical strikes on suspected terrorists across the line of control. And finally we all know about the 2019 Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir. In this attack only 40 members of the Indian Central Reserve Police force were killed in a suicide bombing. This is how India-Pakistan relations evolved over these years. Do you know that Pakistan's policy is to bleed India through 1000 cuts? That is instead of directly engaging with Indian Army through state sponsored terrorism Pakistan is trying to counter India. But currently the India-Pakistan relationship has entered into an age of minimalism. The timeline also indicated that India-Pakistan relationship are characterized by intense engagement, high value terror attacks, Indian response, a breakdown of talks and eventual resumption of talks. This happened again and again. So always there has been high tension among the two countries. But today there is no political will for any grand relationship, grand gesture or even grand outreach. The bilateral contract is mostly tactical and business-like. So what is the reason for this age of minimalism in the India-Pakistan relationship? Firstly the reason for this minimalism is how relationship between India and Pakistan is defined. It is defined based on the history of missed opportunities, failed attempts at conflict resolution, political inability to resolve conflicts due to dual power center in Pakistan and lack of political wind on either sides. So these factors led to believe that making comprehensive peace with Pakistan is impossible. Secondly, there is a recognition that there is no easy way to resolve complicated conflicts between the two countries. Why? Because bilateral conflict resolution will be harder due to the rising populism in both the countries. In addition to this, there is a rapid growth of online hate between two countries in social medias. This is the second reason. Thirdly, our country has realized that the traditional logic of settling the conflict first and then addressing the bigger challenges is not helping. This is because none of the key bilateral conflict between India and Pakistan has been resolved since the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. Fourthly, our country is having a confidence that there is no need to talk with Pakistan to ensure peace inside Kashmir. This growing confidence is because of the capability to defend Kashmir against terrorist attacks in recent times. Finally, today both the countries, that is, India and Pakistan are preoccupied with other geopolitical challenges. Think about this. Pakistan is preoccupied with Taliban-led Afghanistan, and India is preoccupied with China on its borders. So, since India and Pakistan are busy elsewhere, they are not directly involving with each other. So, these are the five reasons why there is a minimalism in the relationship between India and Pakistan currently. Having seen the reason for minimalistic engagement, now let us see the characteristic features of this minimalistic engagement. Firstly, it is characterized by the way in which one country is approaching the another. Both India and Pakistan have adopted a clinical approach to deal with the other side. This means they are discussing only the issues that need urgent attention. The larger picture, both the countries, they ignore to discuss. This is one of the characteristics of minimalistic engagement. The second feature is there is a large focus on conflict management with little focus on conflict resolution. Here take an example of Kashmir. It is now discussed in the context of sustaining the ceasefire agreement. It is not discussed in the context of historical political conflict over Kashmir. The third and the most important feature is through engagement between both countries, the countries are aiming to achieve a clear cut outcomes. The recent example being the 2021 February ceasefire agreement. So, these three are the important characteristics of the minimalistic approach between India and Pakistan. So finally, while concluding, the author is saying that the important thing that led to minimalistic approach is direct engagement with Pakistani army establishment. See, we all know that there is two power centers in Pakistan. One is the political establishment and another one is the Pakistani army. Earlier, India had hesitations about involving directly with the Pakistani army establishment. So, all these years, India had talks only with the political establishment in Islamabad. But this did not work all these years because the conflict resolution steps taken by the political establishment did not get the support of the Pakistani army establishment. And this structural issue was rectified by directly involving with Pakistani army. Pakistani army also takes this direct approach more seriously. And this has also led to the minimalistic approach of India-Pakistan engagement according to the author of this editorial. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we briefly saw about the timeline of event in the India-Pakistan relation from 1947 to till date. After that, we saw about the reasons for the current state of minimal engagement between India and Pakistan. After that, we saw the three main characteristics of the minimalistic approach in India-Pakistan engagement. And finally, we saw the conclusion provided by the author of the editorial. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this text and context article. This article talks about the Black Sea Grain Initiative. What is this Black Sea Grain Initiative? Who initiated it? And what is its purpose? Let us discuss the answers for all these questions in this discussion. First of all, what is Black Sea Grain Initiative? It is a deal between Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine. The deal is to export grain and fertilizers from three Ukrainian ports that is Chornomorks, Odessa and Yulni. These three ports are important Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea. And this deal is brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. And it was signed in Istanbul on July 2022. It was initially expected to operate for a period of 120 days. But there was an option for extending it or terminating it after November. Under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Ukrainian vessels guide the cargo ships to international waters on the Black Sea. Then the vessels safely proceed along the agreed corridor along the Black Sea. Then the ships are inspected by JCC. It is a joint coordination center at Istanbul. It consists of representatives from Russia, Turkey and United Nations. Now what is the purpose of this deal? This deal is aimed at tackling the increasing food prices. Note that the food prices are emerging from supply chain disruption. Now what caused the supply chain disruption? The main cause was the Russia's war on Ukraine. Ukraine is considered the bread basket of the world. And Ukraine is among the largest exporters of wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil globally. And these commodities are exported through the deep sea ports of Ukraine in the Black Sea. And due to Russia's aggression, Ukraine was not able to access the deep sea ports. And this resulted in reduction in exports from Ukraine. And this has resulted in shortage in supply. So the food prices in the world market has increased. So basically the Black Sea grain initiative provides for a safe, maritime, humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian exports. Then it ensures an adequate supply of grains. For example, it provides humanitarian food assistance to the East African region and Yemen. Then it helps to limit food inflation. For instance, because of this initiative, the food price index had decreased by nearly 14% from its peak in March. And lastly, it helps to ensure the safety of merchant ships, delivering grains and food stuff in the Black Sea region. Now the news is that Russia has rejoined the Black Sea grain deal because the Russian Federation now believes that the guarantees that it has received currently appears sufficient. So the question here is what would have happened if the deal was suspended? It is very simple. If the deal had been suspended, there would be supply chain disruption, which would result in shortage in food grains and this would result in increase in food prices globally. Finally, it will result in global hunger. So this is about this text and context article. In this article discussion, we saw about the Black Sea grain initiative, its components and also its importance. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Now let us take up this news article for our next discussion. It is about social forestry. In 1994, a project was implemented at Edaykal in Vilipuram district of Tamil Nadu. This project was aimed at developing a social forest and it was funded under the social forestry scheme of government of India. The positive news here is that in 28 years, the area has become a dense mini forest and now this mini forest is home to fauna like deer, mongoose and snakes. This is about the news article. So in this discussion, let us focus on what is social forestry, the success story of the development of social forestry in Edaykal as mentioned in the article and some of the issues faced. Let us start with social forestry. What is social forestry? Social forestry literally means the development of forests outside the conventional forest. The ultimate aim is to provide a continuous flow of goods and services for the needs of the local people. Social forestry encourages to make use of unused barren lands. Here, those barren lands are turned into mini forest with the help of the local communities. So this helps in safeguarding the deeper conventional forest from exploitation. Mostly, fast growing trees are planted to meet the needs of food and fuel for the local community. The concept of social forestry has its origins in the teachings of Buddhism. And according to Buddhism, every good Buddhist was required to plant a tree and take care of it. Since 1976, the government of India has been implementing various projects for the development of barren lands with various social forestry projects. This is all about social forestry. The success story that is recently in news is actually a success story of former IAS officer K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty. Because it is Mr. K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty who initially set up the forest. The officer said in 1994, the garden was set up at a place called Edeikal in Vilupram district of Tamil Nadu when he was the collector of Vilupram district. He said that he got his inspiration from the Kew Gardens of London. The Kew Garden is supposed to have a sample of every type of tree, plant and shrub found anywhere in the world. In a Kew Garden, special agro-climatic conditions have also been created artificially. This enabled exotic species to grow in London. Now coming back, with the inspiration from the Kew Gardens, the officer sought to create a mini-Kew Garden. It was planned to create a large extent of more than 500 acres of barren government land in Edeikal village. Then he used the funds given by the government of India for the social forestry program and he delegated the work to the district's forest department. Around 250 varieties of flora were planted. This included various species of trees, plants and shrub and scurves which are native to Tamil Nadu. He said in late 1994 he got transferred and the Indian government also stopped the funding for the social forestry scheme in 1996. So the garden was neglected. But the effort he put in did not go in vain. Despite neglect, now in 28 years the area has become a dense mini-forest and it is now a home to fauna like deer, mongoose and snakes. This is all about the success story Edeikal mini-forest in Vilupuram district. Now let us see what are all the issues prevalent in implementing such type of innovative projects. Firstly, the officer who is trying to implement his innovative idea is not given long tenure and that hampers the progress of the scheme. The second important issue is the predecessor successor scheme. Here the successor will not carry forward the predecessor's initiative until and unless there is a government backing. Thirdly, the continuous changing nature of government policies affects the funding to the project. And finally, there is the issue of poor operation and maintenance of the projects that are undertaken. This also affects the progress of the initiative. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw what is social forestry. Then we saw the success story of the Edeikal social forest in Vilupuram district of Tamil Nadu. And finally we saw some of the issues faced when implementing innovative projects. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The news article states that a constitution bench of the Supreme Court through a majority decision upheld the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act. We know that 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act provided for 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to the economically weaker section of the society. Through this judgment, the Supreme Court said that this provision of reservation to the economically weaker section does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution. This is about the news article. So in our discussion today, let us see about the evolution of the doctrine of basic structure in India. If you want to know about the evolution of the doctrine of basic structure, we have to know about four important Supreme Court judgments, two important constitutional amendment acts. So here the first important judgment is the Shankari Prasad case of 1951. In this case, the Supreme Court said that the word law under Article 13 does not include the constitutional amendment made under Article 368. So it said that through amendment made by Article 368, the parliament can even amend the fundamental rights of the Constitution. This is about the Shankari Prasad case. Now moving on to Golaknath case. See, in the Golaknath case of 1967, the Supreme Court overruled the Shankari Prasad case judgment. It said that the word law under Article 13 also includes the constitutional amendment made by Article 368. So in this case, the Supreme Court said that the parliament cannot amend the fundamental rights of the Constitution even using Article 368. This is about the Golaknath case. See, the government was worried about this Golaknath judgment. So the government reacted by enacting the 24th Constitutional Amendment Act. Through the 24th Constitutional Amendment Act, the government included a provision in Article 368, which declared that the parliament has power to take away any of the fundamental rights. So again, the issue came back to question. So the next important Supreme Court judgment is the Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973. In this case, the Supreme Court overruled the judgment of Golaknath case. The Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 24th Constitutional Amendment Act. It said that the parliament under Article 368 can amend even the fundamental rights of the Constitution. But it also said that while amending the Constitution, the parliament must make sure that it does not affect the basic structure of the Constitution. This is the first time the word basic structure was used by the Supreme Court. And this is how the basic structure doctrine came into being. The next important Constitutional Amendment Act is the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976. In this amendment act, the parliament amended the Article 368 and it said that there is no limitation to the constitutional power of the parliament. And any amendment made by the parliament using Article 368 cannot be questioned in any court on any ground. Again, this provision was challenged in the Supreme Court. And it was challenged in the Minerva Mills case of 1981. In the Minerva Mills case, the Supreme Court said that judicial review is one of the basic structure of the Constitution. And the parliament through amendment cannot make changes to the basic structure. This is about the Minerva Mills case. Finally, there is the Vaman Rao case of 1981. In this case, the Supreme Court said that the basic structure doctrine would be applied to the Constitutional Amendment that are enacted after the Kesavananda Bharati case. That is after April 24, 1973. It also said that even the provisions that are placed under the 9th schedule of the Constitution can be brought to judicial review because judicial review is one of the basic structure of the Constitution. So this is about the evolution of the basic structure doctrine in India. These are some of the important cases and important amendments which you must know for your Plym's examination and you can use this in your main examination also. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the evolution of the basic structure doctrine in India. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the editorial article which is also about the recent judgment of the Supreme Court. Look at this editorial article. This editorial article is also written based on the context of the Supreme Court judgment regarding economically weaker section. See, on our first November 2022 Hindu News Analysis, I covered the Constitutional provisions, important Supreme Court judgments and the important Constitutional amendments regarding reservation policy in India. But I failed to cover the difference between vertical and horizontal reservation. So today as a part of this discussion, first I will cover vertical reservation and horizontal reservation and the difference between it and then let us see the points mentioned by the author in this editorial. Okay? The syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. Now let us start our discussion. There are two types of reservation that is mentioned in the reservation policy. They are vertical reservation and horizontal reservation. Now what is vertical reservation? Reservations in favor of scheduled cast, scheduled tribes and other backward classes is called as vertical reservation. Article 16, class 4, provides for vertical reservation in India. In the Indra Sauni case 1992, the Supreme Court said that vertical reservation cannot breach 50 percentage. But in yesterday's judgment, the Supreme Court said that reservation provided to economically weaker section even though it breached the 50% limit does not affect the basic structure of the Constitution. This is about the vertical reservation. Now moving on to horizontal reservation. What is horizontal reservation? Reservation provided in favor of ex-servicemen, person with disability, sportsmen, minorities, women, etc. are called as horizontal reservation. What does this horizontal reservation do? This horizontal reservation cuts across the vertical reservation and this is called as interlocking reservation. This means the horizontal quota is applied separately to each vertical category and not across the board. For example, if women have 50% horizontal quota, then half of the selected candidates will have to be necessarily women in each of the vertical quota category. That is, half of the selected AC candidates will have to be women, then half of the unreserved or general category candidates will have to be women, so on. Just have a look at this table to understand what was explained till now. So, by now you would have understood what is the difference between horizontal and vertical reservation. With this, now let us look into the editorial and the opinion of the author expressed in this editorial. First of all, what is said in 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act? This Constitutional Amendment Act provides for 10% reservation to the economically weaker section of the society in the general category. This 10% reservation will be in addition to the existing cap of 50% reservation for SC, ST, and OBCs. This takes the total vertical reservation to 60%. And note that this 10% reservation for the economically weaker section has been done by amending Article 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution. In Article 16, Class 6 speaks about 10% reservation to the economically weaker section in government jobs. In Article 15, Class 6 speaks about 10% reservation to the economically weaker section in educational institutions. So, this 10% reservation is a new kind of reservation in education and jobs that is solely based on income or economic criteria, okay? And hence, it was destined to face some constitutional hurdles. But through this judgment, the Supreme Court cleared the economically weaker section reservation from the constitutional hurdles. Here I have displayed the eligibility criteria for an individual to be classified as an economically weaker section. You can go through it. Here you have to note that the eligibility criteria are notified by the central government and it is not mentioned in the Constitution, okay? And the notification containing these eligibility criteria can change from time to time. Now a question arises. Is this economically weaker section reservation a horizontal reservation or vertical reservation? It is a type of vertical reservation. How? While it reserves 10% of general category seats to economically weaker section, it is excluding SEST, OBC from the reservation. This is because if they are included, it may undermine the entire idea of providing such reservation. So, this approach creates a vertical reservation scheme based on economic weakness, okay? Now let us see what are all the problems in this 10% reservation as cited by the author. Firstly, reservation cannot be used as a poverty alleviation measure because the core idea of the reservation policy is to uplift the socially and educationally backward classes. Secondly, take the existing income criteria of 8 lakhs per year for the economically weaker section. According to the author, this can result in excessive coverage of the economically advanced classes. How? Because in India, who all pays income tax? People who earn more than 2.5 lakhs per year earn our file income tax. So, according to the income tax policy in India, people who earn less than 2.5 lakhs are termed as poor. According to the author, this must be extended to the economically weaker section category also. The author says the limit for the economically weaker section should be fixed at 2.5 lakhs per annum. This will make sure that only the people who are truly deserving would avail the fruits of reservation. The third fault according to the author is that the core objective of the economically weaker section reservation is to economically emancipate the poorer section of the society. So, to truly achieve the objective of the economically weaker section reservation, this income-based reservation should be thrown open to all sections of the society. So, these three are the major issues with the economically weaker section reservation highlighted by the author in this editorial. The author of this editorial also provides two solutions to address these issues. The author says that the economically weaker section reservation should not be restricted only to the general category people. It must be thrown open to all communities. And the second solution provided by the author is that to achieve the true objective of the economically weaker section reservation, the income limit must be fixed at 2.5 lakhs which is in line with the income tax rules. This will help in achieving the true objective of the economically weaker section reservation. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the difference between vertical and horizontal reservation. After that, we saw three issues highlighted by the author of this editorial regarding the economically weaker section reservation and also two solutions to address the issues with the economically weaker section reservation. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. See this article here? It speaks about the national population register which is shortly called as NPR. Yesterday, the union home ministry published its 2021-22 annual report. In that report, the ministry said, again, there is a need to update the national population register. The ministry said, the update is mainly aimed at including the changes in the population due to birth, death and migration. The report does not mention about the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. As we all know, the Citizenship Amendment Act is a legislation that provides for granting citizenship to six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India before December 31, 2014. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context today in this discussion, we will focus on the national population register. The national population register is a register of usual citizens of the country. The NPR is maintained by the Registrar General and the Sensors Commissioner of India. They work under the Ministry of Home Affairs. As per Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, it is compulsory for every citizen of the country to register in the national register of Indian citizen that is NRAC. So the first and the foremost step towards the preparation of NRAC is the creation of national population register that is NPR. Under NPR, the data about the usual residents of the country is being collected after due verification of the citizenship status. As registering in the NRAC is compulsory, it implicitly says that it is also compulsory for the residents to register under NPR. So both registration under NRAC and NPR are compulsory in India. So here you may have a question. Who is a usual resident? Under NPR, a usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more. NPR is being prepared at the local level, that is in the village or the sub-town level, then on the sub-district or the district level and finally in the state and the national level. It is prepared under the provision of the Citizenship Act of 1955 and the citizenship registration of citizens and the issue of national identity card rules of 2003. The NPR exercise is different from the census and NPR is not linked to the national register of citizens because NRAC, that is the national register of citizens is maintained by the government of India for the state of Assam only. Now finally, let us take up the objectives of national population register. The main objective is to create a comprehensive identity database for every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars. Demographic particulars include name of the person, father's name, date of birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality, et cetera. And biometric particulars include fingerprints, iris, et cetera. The NPR was first prepared in 2010 and it was updated in 2015 by conducting a door-to-door survey. Also remember one fact here, no document will be collected during the data collection exercise of NPR. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw what is national population register. We saw who is a usual resident according to national population register and we also saw the objectives of national population register. With this, let us conclude this discussion. And before taking up the last article for our next discussion, we will take up this question. Let me read out the question. The word mastered on is sometimes mentioned in media in reference to, A, artificial intelligence, B, an extant species of mammoth, C, a decentralized social media platform and D, a new technology for biodiversity conservation. To find the answer for this question, we must look at the news article. See this text and context article is based on mastered on. So what is mastered on? Mastered on is nothing but a federated network that is a collection of thousands of social networks run on servers across the world and they are linked by a common mastered on technology on a platform known as FedEverse. So rather than being controlled by a CEO or a centralized moderation team, master on users pick servers which host their data and let them access the same platform. Now coming to the basic information. See mastered on was founded by a German developer named Eugene Rocco master on and it was released in the year 2016. This is all you should know about this master on. Now you may have a question. Why is this master on gaining prominence? We all know that Twitter's new CEO is Elon Musk and his plans for the social media app have raised a series of concerned about paid verified accounts, increased spread of misinformation and advertising on the platform. So the Twitter users are worried about online abuse and they have started leaving the platform while searching for the alternatives mastered on demanded their attention. This is the reason why master on made news now. Now why should you know about this? In the previous year Plymps examination we have seen several instances where the question is about a term and a technology that made news. I will give you some examples. See these two questions in the 2019 problems paper. The first question is about the word Denisovian. It is nothing but a early human species. It was in use because of an analysis. The analysis of a fossil job on containing molars required from China shows that Denisovians lived in Tibetan plateau some 160,000 years ago. So based on this news only this question was asked. Now look at this question. The second question is about an important waste to energy conversion technology namely pyrolysis and gasification. Waste to energy conversion is always in use because of the increasing rate of waste generation in our world. So this question was asked. So the answer here is option D. Now see this question asked in 2020. The question is regarding the term Wester Texas Intermediate. You will be able to answer this question if you had read the business page of the newspaper regularly. This term can be seen quite often in the business page. Here Wester Texas Intermediate refers to crude oil. Now see this question in 2021. Here they are asking about the term ACE2. See SAR COVID was in use almost daily because of the pandemic. So ACE2 was in use. ACE2 is an enzyme that is found on the surface of human self. This enzyme acts as a receptor that enables SAR's COVID to launch its attack. You would have known this answer if you had read carefully the science article that appears in the Sunday newspaper. So the answer for this question is option D spread of viral disease. I have given you all the examples here to tell you the importance of today's topic. Year by year without fail they are asking questions like this. So know the importance of today's discussion. Now coming back to our question. What is mastered on? The correct answer is option C, a decentralized social media platform. So with this, let us conclude the news article discussion session and take up the practice prelims questions. We have four practice prelims questions for today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. This question is in regards to the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. All commercial ships should pay a fee for the facilitation of their movement. This statement is incorrect because there is no fee incurred to the shipping companies for the facilitation of their movement under the purview of JCC. What is this JCC? JCC is nothing but joint coordination center and it is based in Istanbul. It consists of senior representatives from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations. Turkey is the host of the JCC and United Nations serves as its secretariat. This JCC has the responsibility to ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels carrying grains, food and fertilizer. All this has to be carried out in and out of three Ukrainian ports. The ports are Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yolni. The JCC will monitor the movement of the commercial vessels to ensure compliance with the procedure communicated to the vessels. The JCC is also responsible for the inspection of inbound and outbound vessels. This is done to ensure that there is no unauthorized cargo or crew. The JCC will also publicly report on shipments and movement of ships facilitated under the initiative. This is about the first statement and JCC Now moving on to the second statement. Only food grains carrying commercial vessels is included under the initiative. This statement is also incorrect because just now we saw that both food grains and fertilizers carrying commercial vessels are included under the initiative. Okay, so here both the statements given here are wrong. So the correct answer here is option D, neither one nor two. Now moving on to the second question. See this is a previous year question from 2020 to paper. The question is about Miyawaki method. The correct answer for this is option C, Miyawaki method is nothing but creation of mini forest in urban areas. See Miyawaki is a unique urban afforestation technique pioneered by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. The Miyawaki method helps us to create mini forest in cities. So once again the correct answer here is option C, creation of mini forest in urban areas. Moving on to the third question. This is a three statement question regarding Saragasi Regulation Act of 2021. Let us take up the first statement. It provides for the option of Saragasi only for the widow woman between the age of 35 to 45 years. Statement one is wrong because the Saragasi Regulation Act of 2021 provides the option for Saragasi for the woman who might be a widow or a divorcee between the age of 35 to 45 years. And the option is also available to couple who is having a medical condition necessitating the Saragasi option. So statement one is incorrect. Moving on to the second statement. The act allows altruistic surgery. This we saw in the discussion itself. This statement is actually correct. Moving on to the third statement. The act does not provide any punishment for persons who indulge in commercial Saragasi procedures. This statement is wrong. This also we saw in our discussion. The act actually provides punishments for people who are involved in commercial Saragasi procedures. So here statement one is wrong and statement three is wrong. So the correct answer here is option C21D. Moving on to the last question. This question is in regards to national population register. This is a quiz question for you. Interested aspirants can comment the answer for this question in the comment section. The main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post them in the comment section. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IAS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.