 A very good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankara's academy for the date 22 February 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of hindu newspaper. Now let us start our analysis with this news article which talks about the dangers posed by red-eared slider turtle. So in this discussion let us see about this turtle and what are the dangers posed by the turtle which I have just mentioned. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Notice note that its scientific name is Chakemis Crypta elegans and its general name is red-eared slider turtle. It is named as slider because of the fact that they are quick to slide off rocks or slide off the logs or the banks if there is any danger to them. Now coming to its characteristic features note that this species is a medium-sized freshwater turtle and as you can see in the image it is identified by this prominent yellow to red patches on each side of the head but mostly these patches are red only and sometimes they are yellowish also. But the carapace and the skin vary in colors. Carapace is the hard upper shell of a turtle. This carapace and skin both are olive sometimes and they also vary towards brown colors and they have yellow stripes or spots on them. And these sliders are cold blooded and they spend hours sunning themselves on rocks and logs that is they lie or sit enjoying the warmth of the sun as you can see in this image. So we can simply say they are sunbathing. And this is known as basking. Now what about its food habits? This species is an opportunistic omnivore. So it survives on a variety of plants and animals. This includes filamentous algae, macrophytes, snails, terrestrial insects, crustaceans and small vertebrates. But the juveniles or the small ones of the species are mainly carnivorous and studies show that as they grow older they become more herbivorous but that does not mean that they completely become herbivorous as adult turtles will also opportunistically eat aquatic invertebrates especially the insects and mollusks. They eat fish, frog eggs, tadpoles and aquatic snakes. And note that normally the species can live for about 40 years. Therefore even if reproduction does not occur in these species they can survive in the wild for many years. And these species are diurnal which means they are active during the day. Further they can remain submerged in water for a considerable time. Now talking about its distribution, note that the species is native to Mississippi Valley in the southern United States. So it is indigenous to the southern USA. Next is the habitat which it prefers. See within its natural range this species lives in a wide variety of freshwater habitats including rivers, ditches, swamps, lakes and ponds. And particularly this species prefers large quiet water bodies with soft bottoms and those water bodies which have abundance of aquatic plants. But although they prefer quiet waters, this species is highly adaptable and they can tolerate anything from brackish water to man-made canals and ponds. So they can even thrive in dams that have been polluted by excessive organic matter. Studies say that they can tolerate radioactive pollution, thermal chemical and organic pollution also. And based on this studies say that the tolerance of pollution in this species is higher compared to other vertebrates. In addition to this the species also adapts and readily tolerates subtropical and tropical areas generally where temperatures are between 10 degree Celsius and 37 degree Celsius. And they can also survive in winters especially the adults can even survive severe winters by brumation. See brumation is the word which we used to denote the hibernation for cold blooded animals. That is they lie dormant without doing anything for a period of time. So this shows that this species is highly adaptable to any environment. And maybe this is one of the reason why this red slider is the world's most commonly traded live reptile and mainly it is used as a pet. So it has become the most popular turtle in the pet trade. And they have also become a popular pet because they are small in size, their breeding requirements are simple that is they are easy to maintain and they have reasonably low price also. So these factors contributed to this species being a popular pet. But the problem is the adults are large in size. So pet owners usually are not prepared to handle them. And the species can even live up to 50 years when they are in captivity. And when they mature they inflict painful bites also. So all these traits result in large number of species being dumped or released into the wild. And because of this, this red-eared sliders now occur in freshwater ecosystems in many developed countries also other than its native range. And which is the main reason why they are found in high densities in urban wetlands. Further other than pet they are also farmed for food in Philippines, China and Malaysia. And the estrals are also used in traditional medicine in China. And additionally millions of red-eared sliders have been released into the wild in Asia for Buddhist mercy ceremonies also. So as a result of the release of unwanted pets or release for rituals the species has been introduced to the wild outside its natural range to various countries and regions in Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa. So the threat to this animal is quite small compared to the threat that it poses on the environment. So what are the threats posed by this species to the environment? First they impact indigenous habitats because of their omnivorous diet and ability to adapt to various habitats. And as a result of which they have naturalized on every continent and on numerous islands also except the Antarctica. And secondly they also cause reduction in native biodiversity. There are considerable evidence that this species have negative impacts on native turtles and aquatic ecosystems in general. It is because they are aggressive and they compete with indigenous species for food, for nesting and for basking sites. For example in Singapore these red-eared sliders are posing a significant threat to the survival of critically endangered river terrapins. Additionally they are also a threat to the nesting water birds because they take over the nests of the water birds for basking sites and they damage and even prey on the eggs and hatchlings of the water birds. Now apart from all these the continuous release of exotic pet turtles in natural ecosystems increases the risk of parasite transmission to native species. Additionally they also affect humans because Salmonella can be transferred to humans when drinking water that has been contaminated by turtles. So they are a threat not only to the environment but also to the humans. But their full ecological impact is still unknown due to the lack of research. So that means they have high adaptability and they pose large number of threats. And that is why this turtle is well known as a successful invasive species and it is regarded as one of the world's worst invasive alien species. Even IUCN has listed the red-eared slider among the 100 examples of the world's worst invasive species. Additionally the global invasive species database lists this as a pest in these countries. So its import is also banned in many countries. And that is why the news article mentions that if anyone finds this turtle in any water body they should immediately report it so that it doesn't pose any threat to the environment. So these are some of the points that I should take note about the red-eared slider turtle. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this next discussion is based on this news article which talks about Bio CNG. The news article mentions that the Greater Chennai Corporation will soon start a decentralization drive for solid waste management. And one of such plans is a Bio CNG facility that will have a capacity to process more than 100 tons wet waste every day. So in this context let us discuss in detail about biogas, bio CNG and its advantages etc. So first let us understand about biogas. Biogas is an energy rich gas which is produced by anaerobic decomposition or through thermochemical conversion of biomass. And this biogas is composed mostly of methane which is also the same compound we can find in natural gas. And biogas additionally also contains carbon dioxide. Now the methane content of raw biogas or untreated biogas may vary from 40 percentage to 60 percentage and the remaining is carbon dioxide only. Apart from methane and carbon dioxide biogas also contains trace components such as water vapor, hydrogen sulphide, hydrocarbons, ammonia, oxygen, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. And the proportion of these trace components depends on the source of the biomass. Now since biogas has presence of these many components it makes biogas very corrosive and unsuitable to be used as fuel. That means if this biogas is used as fuel in automobiles it can cause erosion of the metal parts which in turn increases the maintenance cost of the vehicles. Now in order to tackle this problem the solution that is available is to upgrade biogas. This is called as biogas upgradation or simply purification. It is the process by which contaminants in the raw biogas team are absorbed and then it leaves more methane per unit volume of gas and this final product is what is called as biomethane. Now this biomethane can also be compressed and it can be bottled into cylinders and this is called as biocompressed natural gas that is in short biocng or it is also simply called as compressed biogas that is CBG. Now this biocng or CBG contains about 92 to 98 percentage of methane and it contains only 2 to 8 percentage of carbon dioxide. Additionally the calorific value of biocng is 167 percentage higher than that of biogas. See calorific value is the amount of heat released by a unit volume of a substance during complete combustion. So that means biocng has high methane content and also high calorific value. So these two combined along with low quantity of moisture then low hydrogen sulphide and low impurities makes the biocng an ideal fuel for automobiles and an ideal fuel for power generation. In addition to this the low emission levels of biocng also makes it more environment friendly fuel than biogas. Here you should note that chemically the CBG that is the compressed biogas is same as the compressed natural gas because both are compressed methane and both have same calorific value. But here the difference is that while CNG is a byproduct of petroleum the CBG that is compressed biogas can be produced from any biomass and this biomass can be crop residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal wet waste or effluence from a sewage treatment plant. So this makes CBG a more commercially viable option as it can be directly used to replace CNG in transportation fuel and just like CNG CBG too can be transported through cylinders as we already saw and it can be also transported through pipelines to retail outlets. So this makes biocng or CBG as a good option as compared to CNG. So these are some of the points that you should take note from this news article and about biocng. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now our next discussion is based on this editorial article which has been written in the context of passage of a bill in Karnataka's legislative council. The bill had already been passed by the legislative assembly where the state government enjoys a majority. But the passage of the bill in the legislative council was quite doubtful because the opposition parties have majority in the council which means the ruling government does not have a majority. So the opposition parties were opposing this bill. But even then this bill has been passed by the council despite the lack of majority from the side of ruling government. But you may think only when there is a majority a bill can be passed but even without a majority the bill has been passed in legislative council and a similar thing has happened even with respect to the passing of form laws. Here too the government seemed to lack majority to pass the bill in Rajasabha. But ultimately as we know it was finally passed. So what happened in both the cases. So what is the methods adopted by the ruling governments to bypass the legislative council or Rajasabha that is the upper house or upper chamber of the legislature. In this discussion we will see certain methods used by the ruling governments to bypass the upper houses. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See in both the cases which we just discussed what was done was instead of a division vote a voice vote was taken to decide the will of the house. So this is one of the mechanisms or methods used by the ruling governments to bypass the upper houses where they are lacking majority. So to understand this better let us know about division vote and voice vote. See as we all know matters that is the bills motions etc in a parliamentary democracy are generally decided by voting. Now in parliamentary parlance that is in parliamentary language this is called as division that is dividing the house to decide a matter by majority vote. Now every matter requiring the decision of the house is decided by means of a question put by the presiding officer on a motion made by a member. After the motion has been moved the chairman formally proposes the motion for consideration of the house. Then after this the debate happens on the motion then at the end of the debate on motion the motion is put to vote. For example when government introduced the triple talak bill in Lok Sabha during its introduction one member of parliament demanded a division on the motion of introduction of the bill. See a motion is a binary question that is it has only two answers whether yes or no. So a motion is raised in parliament for a decision to be taken by the MPs and here the question was whether the triple talak bill could be introduced or not. So the result of this motion was around 185 MPs voted to support the introduction of the bill and 74 voted against it but since the majority vote was in favor of the bill the bill was introduced in Lok Sabha. Now in case of Rajya Sabha you should note that there are four such methods of voting one is voice vote second is counting then division by automatic vote recorder and then division by going into the lobbies. Now in case of a voice vote when the debate concludes the chairman puts the question before the house and invites those who are in favor of the motion to say aye and those who are against the motion to say no. So that means if the ayes are more then the motion is passed and vice versa that is if no's are more the motion is said to be defeated. Now this method is called voting by voice vote and here the votes are not recorded. Now when the question is decided by this method the chairman does not announce the number of ayes and no's because they are not counted or they are not recorded. Now comes the second method it is the counting. Now counting takes place when the opinion of the chairman regarding the decision of a question is challenged then the chairman asks the members who are for aye and those for no to rise in their places respectively that is here they have to stand in their place then after counting them the chairman will declare the result. Now in this case also the names of the voters or MPs are not recorded. See generally if the opinion of the chairman is challenged the chairman will order a division to be held under which the votes can be recorded like it happened in the case of triple talak and the rules provide for two different kinds of division one by operating automatic vote recorder and the other by going into lobbies. Now in case of automatic vote recorder a vote console like this is provided to each MP and they will record their choice. Now in case of division by going into lobbies the chairman will ask those in favor to go into the right lobby and the ones who are against the motion to go into the left lobby then the votes are counted and then the fate of the motion is decided that is whether it will be passed or not. So here you can clearly see that in the first two methods that is in voice vote and counting the votes are not recorded but in the remaining two the votes are recorded as a permanent record. So generally the last two methods are called division methods and they are considered as better mechanisms in a parliamentary democracy. This is because unlike the first two methods here the opinions are recorded and stored so the real numbers regarding the passage of the bill will be noted. So based on this differentiation the governments are misusing the voice vote mechanism to pass motions or bills even though they are lacking majority in upper houses and for this reason only the editorial article is titled as voice vote as constitutional subterfuge. Here subterfuge means deception. So this is one method used by the ruling governments. Now in addition to this governments are also resorting to other mechanisms like passing ordinary bills as money bills to pass the bills and this is mainly done to subvert or bypass the scrutiny of Rajasabha as Rajasabha has limited say in the case of money bills. See as you know a money bill can be only introduced in the Lok Sabha and that too on the recommendation of the president. So if any question arises whether a bill is a money bill or not then the decision of speaker of Lok Sabha is final and this decision cannot be questioned in any court of law or in the either houses of the parliament or even cannot be questioned by the president and further the money bill is obviously transmitted to Rajasabha for its consideration but Rajasabha has restricted powers with regard to money bill as it cannot reject or amend a money bill but it can only make the recommendations and it must return the bill to the Lok Sabha within 14 days either with or without the recommendations and it is up to the Lok Sabha to either accept or reject all the recommendations or any of the recommendations of Rajasabha. So whether recommendations are given or not given or whether it has been accepted or not or whether it is returned within 14 days or not the bill is deemed to have been passed by both the houses. Here the only change is if the recommendations are accepted then the bill will be passed after making some modifications. So that means Lok Sabha has more powers than Rajasabha with regard to money bill and that is why many controversial bills are passed as money bills. If you see even the Adhar bill was passed in this manner which was even upheld by supreme court and only one dissenting judge was present in the bench who called the use of money bill as nothing less than fraud on the constitution and unfortunately the increasing use of money bill route was defended even by the then leader of Rajasabha. It is because Lok Sabha is directly elected and it represents public opinion while Rajasabha is indirectly elected. So the Lok Sabha is seen as directly representing the will of the people and the Rajasabha as opposing in its way and since democracy is seen purely in terms of a parliamentary majority in the lower house only the countervailing function of the upper house is rarely seen as legitimate rather it is only seen as obstacle. So based on this many even suggest to remove Rajasabha or they suggest to convert bicameralism in India to unicameralism. So should we do this? In this context to answer this question we should take the views of philosophers especially the legal philosophers like Jeremy Waldron. Jeremy Waldron has explained the virtues of bicameralism especially when the two houses are chosen by different processes of representation and elected on a different schedule. He noted that the very questioning of the monopoly of the lower house that is Lok Sabha in India is to represent the people this context itself makes bicameralism desirable and even J S. Mill want that a majority in a single assembly easily becomes despotic and overbearing if there is no mechanism to check its act that is a majority in a single assembly becomes autocratic and overconfident if there is no mechanism to check its act. So this context author has noted that as the judicial review is hardly practiced in India the second chamber's performance of such a role becomes particularly important as it offers the opportunity for a second legislative scrutiny and the other merit of second chamber is especially significant in a Westminster system like India where the lower house is dominated by the executive that is it is filled with ministers. So Rajasabha holds the potential of a different legislative relation to the executive and it which makes it possible to have a robust separation of powers. So we can conclude that bicameralism is desirable in India though it is no doubt that Rajasabha has some imperfections and it has its own challenges like a backdoor entry for defeated MPs etc. But we have to remember that the constitutional fathers had a noble idea when they agreed for having a second chamber that is Rajasabha. But unfortunately it has been subjected to humiliation by the governments to enact their desired legislations. So these are some of the points that I should take note from this editorial article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now our next discussion is based on this news article which talks about biodegradable tableware. The news article mentions that scientists at National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology have developed a technology for manufacturing 100% biodegradable tableware. So let us see some facts about this tableware. It is a single user product. It is made from agricultural residues and agricultural byproducts such as clean wheat bran, rice husk, sugarcane buggy seed, fruit peels and pineapple leaves. So it is made from natural products and this tableware includes dishes such as disposable plates, soup bowls and also cups. And it is said that even the takeaway boxes for food delivery can also be made using this product. So what are the advantages of this product? First it is low cost so it is affordable. Second it is an eco-friendly alternative to single use plastics. Next it has a long shelf life of six months and it is also heat resistant up to 100 degree Celsius. Then it is also resistant to fungus and bacteria. Further it can also be safely used in microwave ovens which is not possible in case of single use plastics. Then it is also capable of holding water content for a reasonable amount of time. In addition to those the products can be customized with different colors and flavors such as it is possible to incorporate natural immunity boosters, nutritional supplements and also organic edible flavors into the products. And further if these products are not used within its shelf life it can be used as feed for cattle, poultry and fish or even as organic manure. And most importantly the product is easily biodegradable. So since it has all these eco-friendly characteristics it is a best alternative to single use plastics. So you can mention this example when you talk about alternatives to single use plastics and also when you talk about measures for safeguarding environment in a mains answer. So with this let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this editorial which talks about the important recommendations made by the 15th finance commission. So in this context let us discuss some of the important recommendations. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First as you know finance commission is a constitutional body which is formed by the president of India and it is formed under article 280 of Indian Constitution. It is formed to give suggestions on center state financial relations. So in this regard the 15th finance commission has given its report which contains certain recommendations. See these recommendations are important as already in the last 10 years two problems questions have been asked in UPSC civil service examination. So it is important to take note of these recommendations. First let us see about finance commission's recommendation on vertical devolution that is the tax devolution from center to states. Now it has recommended maintaining the vertical devolution at 41 percentage which is similar to the interim report given by the 15th finance commission for 2020 to 21 period. Here note that the 14th finance commission has also recommended almost the same level which was at 42 percent of the divisible pool. So this 15th finance commission has made the required adjustment of about 1 percentage due to the changed status of erstwhile state of Jomon Kashmir into two union territories. Here note that divisible pool is nothing but the total tax amount after deducting cesses and surcharges and cost of collection. So as per the recommended 41 percentage of the divisible pool it comes to 42.2 lakh crore for the period from 2021 to 26. Now next comes the horizontal devolution that is the allocation of devolved tax between the states. Now in this finance commission has suggested a formula for this which is based on the principles of need equity and performance and this formula has suggested a weightage for certain factors such as 45 percentage weightage is for income distance then 15 percentage weightage for population in 2011 then 15 percentage weightage for the area and then 10 percentage weightage for forest and ecology and then similarly 12.5 percentage and 2.5 percentage for demographic performance and tax effort respectively. In addition to this it has also recommended the total revenue deficit grants. See as per the terms of reference of the 15th finance commission it requires the commission to recommend grants in aid to the states. So these grants include revenue deficit grants, grants to local bodies and disaster management grants. Now based on the uniform norms and assessing revenues and expenditure of the states and the union now the 15th finance commission has recommended a total revenue deficit grant of more than 2.9 lakh crore rupees over the award period that is for 2021 to 26 for the 17 states. Then it has also recommended that the total size of grant to the local governments should be around 4.3 lakh crore for the period 2021 to 26 and this includes a certain amount of performance based grants for incubation of new cities for shared municipal service for rural local bodies for urban local bodies and for health grants through local governments. Then 15 finance commission has also recommended that health spending by states should be increased to more than 8 percentage of their budget by 2022. Then there are also recommendations for defense and internal security which have been made keeping in view of the strategic requirements for national defense. The commission has suggested that the union government may constitute a dedicated non-lapsable fund in the public account of India and this fund is to be known as modernization fund for defense and internal security. Now the total size of this proposed fund over the period 2021 to 26 is around 2.38 lakh crore rupees. Then in addition to this the commission has also made some recommendations for disaster risk management. For example, it has recommended for setting up of mitigation funds at both the national and state levels and it has to be set up in line with the provisions of Disaster Management Act. Now this fund should be used for those local level and community-based interventions which reduce risks and which promote environment friendly settlements and livelihood practices and note that the commission has recommended the total corpus of 1.6 lakh crore rupees for states for the disaster management in the award period that is from 2021 to 26. So based on the recommendation the author of the editorial has noted that the 15th finance commission's report aims to maintain an equitable approach towards the center and states and this approach is appreciable because both the center and states are facing unprecedented revenue stress and fiscal demands especially due to the impacts of pandemic. So in this discussion we have seen some of the important recommendations of 15th finance commission but this let us move on to the next discussion. Now coming to this news article it mentions that Telangana has joined a group of states that has ensured tap water connections to all schools and Anganwadi centers. See Telangana now has become one of the states which has ensured tap water connections to all schools and Anganwadi's. The other states are Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Haryana and Tamil Nadu and these states have already reported the provision of tap water in all schools and Anganwadi centers. Now the success of achieving 100% tap water in all schools and AWC's in Telangana is attributed to the mission Bhagiratha. So note that this mission is a flagship program of the Telangana government and it is aimed at providing safe drinking water to every household. Now this mission ensures safe and sustainable piped drinking water supply from surface water sources to all households and it provides different water capacities for rural and urban areas as you can see here like 100 litres per capita per day for rural areas then 135 litres per capita per day for municipalities then 150 for municipal corporations and then 10 percentage quantity is also allocated to industrial requirements. So just note that this is one of the missions that has ensured tap water connections in this state. So now let us move on to the next discussion. Now our next discussion is based on this news article which is an interview with our finance minister regarding various proposals that were put forward during the recent budget speech and in this discussion we'll only focus about the taxation imposed on those whose contributions to the provident fund is more than 2.5 lakh per year. See in the budget speech of 2021 there was a proposal to tax those employees whose income in the various provident fund contributions is more than 2.5 lakh per year. See such high income employees were previously exempted from taxation and here it is to be noted that the tax exemptions will remain along with guaranteed returns for those whose contributions to EPFR up to 2.5 lakh per year and this restriction is mentioned to be applicable only for those contributions that were made on or after 1st of April 2021. So in this regard there were talks about whether EPF and national pension scheme will be merged or not. So for that the finance minister has answered that there are no plans to merge EPF with national pension scheme. She has also noted that the government wishes to continue with EPF because contributors particularly the middle income earners have an assured return through the EPF. So government doesn't want to ruin this return and that is why EPF will be kept as it is. So based on this news article let us have a brief understanding about employees provident fund and national pension scheme. We will compare these schemes some other day. Today we'll just see about some basic details. First you should note that any pension plan provides for financial security as well as stability during old age. That is it provides stability when people don't have a regular source of income and these kinds of pension schemes provides with an opportunity to invest and accumulate savings and it also enables the person to get a lump sum amount as a form of regular income through the annuity plan on retirement. See annuity plan is the insurance contract which promises us to pay regular income either immediately or in the future. So this annuity plan is provided on retirement in case of pension schemes. So in this regard let us first see about Employees Provident Fund or in short EPF. It came into existence with the Employees Provident Funds ordinance in 1951 and this ordinance was later replaced by an Act which is Employees Provident Funds Act but presently the Act is referred to as Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 1952 and note that it comes under the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Now this Act and the schemes under it are administered by a tripartite board known as Central Board of Trustees and it consists of representatives from government, representatives from employers and from also employees. Now this board administers a Contributory Provident Fund pension scheme and an insurance scheme and these are provided for the workforce engaged in organized sector in India. Now the board is assisted by the Employees Provident Fund organization that is EPFO and it has got offices at more than 130 locations. Now this board operates on three schemes. These schemes are EPF scheme of 1952 then pension scheme of 1995 and insurance scheme of 1976. Now let us see these schemes in brief and also about their benefits. In the EPF scheme they provide accumulation plus interest when the individual retires or upon the death of the individual. It also provides partial withdrawals for education, marriage, illness and house construction. Now next comes the pension scheme. It offers monthly benefit for superannuation or retirement and also for disability and survivors then widows or widowers and children. And in the insurance scheme it provides a benefit in case of death of an employee who was a member of the scheme at the time of the death. So now let us come to the national pension scheme. It was launched in 2004 with an objective to provide retirement income to all the citizens. So it is a pension scheme come investment scheme. It brings an attractive long term saving venue to effectively plan our retirement through safe and regulated market based return. So the return under this scheme is market based so it is subjected to market fluctuations. And note that this scheme is regulated by the pension fund regulatory and development authority which comes under Ministry of Finance. Now the beneficiaries of this scheme include any employee from public, private and unorganized sector and under this scheme the pension fund regulatory and development authority has authorized public sector banks, private banks, private financial institutions and even the postal department as points of presence and these points of presence are for opening an NPS account for the citizens. And note that these points of presence will provide the subscribers with necessary customer services. Apart from that you should note that the national pension scheme provides a unique permanent retirement account number. This will be allotted to the subscriber and this unique account number will remain the same for the rest of subscribers life and it can be used from any location in India. And remember that this account number will provide access to two personal accounts which are tier one account and tier two accounts. The tier one accounts in NPS refers to a non-withdrawable account which is meant for savings for retirement and then comes the tier two account. It offers a voluntary saving facility and under this tier two account the subscribers are free to withdraw savings from their account whenever they wish and no tax benefit is available on this account. So these are some of the basic information that I should know with regarding EPF and NPS. So with this let us move on to the next discussion. Now we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. Now this question is based on 15th finance commission's recommendations. The question asks which of the above criteria are included in the horizontal devolution formula of 15th finance commission. Five options are given demographic performance forest and ecology population based on 2011 census financial inclusion women empowerment. Now from the given options you can easily say that one and two are definitely present. Now among the remaining three financial inclusion and women empowerment are not included in the criteria. As you can see here and this is the weightage of all these criteria. So the correct answer is option B 1 2 and 3 only. Now this next question is a direct question which asks which of the following states is implementing mission Bhagiratha to ensure safe and sustainable pipe drinking water supply. And the correct answer is option C Telangana. Now this next question is based on bio compressed natural gas. First statement is it contains more than 90 percentage of methane and less than 10 percentage of carbon dioxide. Now this statement is correct because we saw that it contains around 92 to 98 percentage of methane and around 2 to 8 percentage of carbon dioxide. Now the second statement is it can be produced from crop residues or effluents from sewage treatment plants. Now this statement is also correct. We saw this during the discussion and here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. Now this next question asks who among the following cannot join national pension scheme. First non resident Indians members of armed forces overseas citizens of India person of Indian origin. See first an NRI can open an NPS account but the contributions made by an NRI are subject to regulatory requirements as prescribed by RBI and FEMA from time to time. But the OCIs and PIOs that is the overseas citizens of India and persons of Indian origin card holders are not eligible for opening NPS accounts. Along with this the armed forces are also not included in this scheme. So the correct answer to this question is option D 2 3 and 4 only. Let us take one mains question based on GS paper 2. This is a 10 mark question and you have the answer in 150 words. You can write an answer and post it in the comment section. So with this we come to the end of today's in the news analysis along with the practice questions discussion session. If you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.