मेरा भारत मेरी शान
भारत के बारे में रोचक तथ्य
* भारत के इतिहास के अनुसार, आखिरी 100000 वर्षों में किसी भी देश पर हमला नहीं किया है।
* जब कई संस्कृतियों 5000 साल पहले ही घुमंतू वनवासी थे, भारतीय सिंधु घाटी (सिंधु घाटी सभ्यता) में हड़प्पा संस्कृति की स्थापना की।
* भारत का अंग्रेजी में नाम ‘इंडिया’ इंडस नदी से बना है, जिसके आस पास की घाटी में आरंभिक सभ्यताएं निवास करती थी। आर्य पूजकों में इस इंडस नदी को सिंधु कहा।
* पर्शिया के आक्रमकारियों ने इसे हिन्दु में बदल दिया। नाम ‘हिन्दुस्तान’ ने सिंधु और हीर का संयोजन है जो हिन्दुओं की भूमि दर्शाता है।
* शतरंज की खोज भारत में की गई थी।
* बीज गणित, त्रिकोण मिति और कलन का अध्ययन भारत में ही आरंभ हुआ था।
* ‘स्थान मूल्य प्रणाली’ और ‘दशमलव प्रणाली’ का विकास भारत में 100 बी सी में हुआ था।
* विश्व का प्रथम ग्रेनाइट मंदिर तमिलनाडु के तंजौर में बृहदेश्वर मंदिर है। इस मंदिर के शिखर ग्रेनाइट के 80 टन के टुकड़े से बनें हैं यह भव्य मंदिर राजा राज चोल के राज्य के दौरान केवल 5 वर्ष की अवधि में (1004 ए डी और 1009 ए डी के दौरान) निर्मित किया गया था।
* भारत विश्व का सबसे बड़ा लोकतंत्र और विश्व का छठवां सबसे बड़ा देश तथा प्राचीन सभ्यताओं में से एक है।
* सांप सीढ़ी का खेल तेरहवीं शताब्दी में कवि संत ज्ञान देव द्वारा तैयार किया गया था इसे मूल रूप से मोक्षपट कहते थे। इस खेल में सीढियां वरदानों का प्रतिनिधित्व करती थीं जबकि सांप अवगुणों को दर्शाते थे। इस खेल को कौडियों तथा पांसे के साथ खेला जाता था। आगे चल कर इस खेल में कई बदलाव किए गए, परन्तु इसका अर्थ वहीं रहा अर्थात अच्छे काम लोगों को स्वर्ग की ओर ले जाते हैं जबकि बुरे काम दोबारा जन्म के चक्र में डाल देते हैं।
* दुनिया का सबसे ऊंचा क्रिकेट का मैदान हिमाचल प्रदेश के चायल नामक स्थान पर है। इसे समुद्री सतह से 2444 मीटर की ऊंचाई पर भूमि को समतल बना कर 1893 में तैयार किया गया था।
* भारत में विश्व भर से सबसे अधिक संख्या में डाक खाने स्थित हैं।
* विश्व का सबसे बड़ा नियोक्ता भारतीय रेल है, जिसमें दस लाख से अधिक लोग काम करते हैं।
* विश्व का सबसे प्रथम विश्वविद्यालय 700 बी सी में तक्षशिला में स्थापित किया गया था। इसमें 60 से अधिक विषयों में 10,500 से अधिक छात्र दुनियाभर से आकर अध्ययन करते थे। नालंदा विश्वविद्यालय चौथी शताब्दी में स्थापित किया गया था जो शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में प्राचीन भारत की महानतम उपलब्धियों में से एक है।
* आयुर्वेद मानव जाति के लिए ज्ञात सबसे आरंभिक चिकित्सा शाखा है। शाखा विज्ञान के जनक माने जाने वाले चरक में 2500 वर्ष पहले आयुर्वेद का समेकन किया था।
* भारत 17वीं शताब्दी के आरंभ तक ब्रिटिश राज्य आने से पहले सबसे सम्पन्न देश था। क्रिस्टोफर कोलम्बस ने भारत की सम्पन्नता से आकर्षित हो कर भारत आने का समुद्री मार्ग खोजा, उसने गलती से अमेरिका को खोज लिया।
* नौवहन की कला और नौवहन का जन्म 6000 वर्ष पहले सिंध नदी में हुआ था। दुनिया का सबसे पहला नौवहन संस्कृत शब्द नव गति से उत्पन्न हुआ है। शब्द नौ सेना भी संस्कृत शब्द नोउ से हुआ।
* भास्कराचार्य ने खगोल शास्त्र के कई सौ साल पहले पृथ्वी द्वारा सूर्य के चारों ओर चक्कर लगाने में लगने वाले सही समय की गणना की थी। उनकी गणना के अनुसार सूर्य की परिक्रमा में पृथ्वी को 365.258756484 दिन का समय लगता है।
* भारतीय गणितज्ञ बुधायन द्वारा ‘पाई’ का मूल्य ज्ञात किया गया था और उन्होंने जिस संकल्पना को समझाया उसे पाइथागोरस का प्रमेय करते हैं। उन्होंने इसकी खोज छठवीं शताब्दी में की, जो यूरोपीय गणितज्ञों से काफी पहले की गई थी।
* बीज गणित, त्रिकोण मिति और कलन का उद्भव भी भारत में हुआ था। चतुष्पद समीकरण का उपयोग 11वीं शताब्दी में श्री धराचार्य द्वारा किया गया था। ग्रीक तथा रोमनों द्वारा उपयोग की गई की सबसे बड़ी संख्या 106 थी जबकि हिन्दुओं ने 10*53 जितने बड़े अंकों का उपयोग (अर्थात 10 की घात 53), के साथ विशिष्ट नाम 5000 बीसी के दौरान किया। आज भी उपयोग की जाने वाली सबसे बड़ी संख्या टेरा: 10*12 (10 की घात12) है।
* वर्ष 1986 तक भारत विश्व में हीरे का एक मात्र स्रोत था (स्रोत: जेमोलॉजिकल इंस्टीट्यूट ऑफ अमेरिका)
* बेलीपुल विश्व में सबसे ऊंचा पुल है। यह हिमाचल पवर्त में द्रास और सुरु नदियों के बीच लद्दाख घाटी में स्थित है। इसका निर्माण अगस्त 1982 में भारतीय सेना द्वारा किया गया था।
* सुश्रुत को शल्य चिकित्सा का जनक माना जाता है। लगभग 2600 वर्ष पहले सुश्रुत और उनके सहयोगियों ने मोतियाबिंद, कृत्रिम अंगों को लगना, शल्य क्रिया द्वारा प्रसव, अस्थिभंग जोड़ना, मूत्राशय की पथरी, प्लास्टिक सर्जरी और मस्तिष्क की शल्य क्रियाएं आदि की।
* निश्चेतक का उपयोग भारतीय प्राचीन चिकित्सा विज्ञान में भली भांति ज्ञात था। शारीरिकी, भ्रूण विज्ञान, पाचन, चयापचय, शरीर क्रिया विज्ञान, इटियोलॉजी, आनुवांशिकी और प्रतिरक्षा विज्ञान आदि विषय भी प्राचीन भारतीय ग्रंथों में पाए जाते हैं।
* भारत से 90 देशों को सॉफ्टवेयर का निर्यात किया जाता है।
* भारत में 4 धर्मों का जन्म हुआ – हिन्दु धर्म, बौद्ध धर्म, जैन धर्म ओर सिक्ख धर्म, जिनका पालन दुनिया की आबादी का एक बड़ा हिस्सा करता है।
* जैन धर्म और बौद्ध धर्म की स्थापना भारत में क्रमश: 600 बी सी और 500 बी सी में हुई थी।
* इस्लाम भारत का और दुनिया का दूसरा सबसे बड़ा धर्म है।
* भारत में 3,00,000 मस्जिदें हैं जो किसी अन्य देश से अधिक हैं, यहां तक कि मुस्लिम देशों से भी अधिक।
* भारत में सबसे पुराना यूरोपियन चर्च और सिनागोग कोचीन शहर में है। इनका निर्माण क्रमश: 1503 और 1568 में किया गया था।
* ज्यू और ईसाई व्यक्ति भारत में क्रमश: 200 बी सी और 52 ए डी से निवास करते हैं।
* विश्व में सबसे बड़ा धार्मिक भवन अंगकोरवाट, हिन्दु मंदिर है जो कम्बोडिया में 11वीं शताब्दी के दौरान बनाया गया था।
* तिरुपति शहर में बना विष्णु मंदिर 10वीं शताब्दी के दौरान बनाया गया था, यह विश्व का सबसे बड़ा धार्मिक गंतव्य है। रोम या मक्का धामिल स्थलों से भी बड़े इस स्थान पर प्रतिदिन औसतन 30 हजार श्रद्धालु आते हैं और लगभग 6 मिलियन अमेरिकी डॉलर प्रति दिन चढ़ावा आता है।
* सिक्ख धर्म का उद्भव पंजाब के पवित्र शहर अमृतसर में हुआ था। यहां प्रसिद्ध स्वर्ण मंदिर की स्थापना 1577 में गई थी।
* वाराणसी, जिसे बनारस के नाम से भी जाना जाता है, एक प्राचीन शहर है जब भगवान बुद्ध ने 500 बी सी में यहां आगमन किया और यह आज विश्व का सबसे पुराना और निरंतर आगे बढ़ने वाला शहर है।
* भारत द्वारा श्रीलंका, तिब्बत, भूटान, अफगानिस्तान और बंगलादेश के 3,00,000 से अधिक शरणार्थियों को सुरक्षा दी जाती है, जो धार्मिक और राजनैतिक अभियोजन के फलस्वरूप वहां से निकल गए हैं।
* माननीय दलाई लामा तिब्बती बौद्ध धर्म के निर्वासित धार्मिक नेता है, जो उत्तरी भारत के धर्मशाला से अपने निर्वासन में रह रहे हैं।
* युद्ध कलाओं का विकास सबसे पहले भारत में किया गया और ये बौद्ध धर्म प्रचारकों द्वारा पूरे एशिया में फैलाई गई।
* योग कला का उद्भव भारत में हुआ है और यहां 5,000 वर्ष से अधिक समय से मौजूद हैं।
In English
Interesting Facts about India
* India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.
* When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)
* The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
* The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name 'Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
* Chess was invented in India.
* Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.
* The 'Place Value System' and the 'Decimal System' were developed in India in 100 B.C.
* The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This magnificent temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
* India is the largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest Country in the world, and one of the most ancient civilizations.
* The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
* The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after leveling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.
* India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.
* The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people.
* The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
* Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
* India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
* The Art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh over 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word 'NAVGATIH'. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.
* Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. According to his calculation, the time taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun was 365.258756484 days.
* The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians.
* Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus also originated in India.Quadratic Equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 (i.e. 10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C.during the Vedic period.Even today, the largest used number is Terra: 10*12(10 to the power of 12).
* Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the world
(Source: Gemological Institute of America).
* The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
* Sushruta is regarded as the Father of Surgery. Over2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgeries.
* Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient Indian medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism,physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
* India exports software to 90 countries.
* The four religions born in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
* Jainism and Buddhism were founded in India in 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. respectively.
* Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion.
* There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.
* The oldest European church and synagogue in India are in the city of Cochin. They were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.
* Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively
* The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia built at the end of the 11th century.
* The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.
* Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.
* Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
* India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees originally from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who escaped to flee religious and political persecution.
* His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, runs his government in exile from Dharmashala in northern India.
* Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
* Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
भारत के बारे में रोचक तथ्य
Friday, November 27, 2009
Pendency of court cases in India
: As of June 2009, 52,000 cases are in the Supreme Court (24 judges and seven vacancies), almost 4,00,000 cases in high courts (652 judges and 234 vacancies) and a whopping over 2.5 million cases in subordinate courts (13,723 judges and 2,998 vacancies). The ratio of judges is as low as 12 per million, compared to 107 in the US, 75 in Canada and 51 in the UK.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Address to the Nation by the Chief Justice of India, K. G. Balakrishnan
The following is the full text of the Address by the Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan on the eve of the National Law Day. November 26 is celebrated as National Law Day because it was on this day in 1949 that the Constituent Assembly of India adopted the Constitution, which then came into effect on January 26, 1950.
My Fellow Citizens,
I extend my warmest greetings to all of you on the eve of the 60th Law Day of our country. The legal and judicial fraternity of our country, as well as people at large, celebrate November 26 of each year as National Law Day because it was on this day in 1949 the Constituent Assembly of India had adopted our Constitution, which subsequently came into effect on January 26, 1950.
Law Day is an occasion on which we pay our humble tribute to the unique vision and genius of the framers of our Constitution. It prompts us to reflect upon and renew our pledge to protect, preserve and extend the values enshrined in our Constitution. The very first goal of the Constitution, is to secure justice to all — social, economic and political. This mandate not only shapes the rights of the people but also serves as a command to all those who wield authority in the name of the State. As the head of the Indian judicial system, it is my duty to keep the nation informed about the state of affairs in this branch of government.
An independent, accessible and efficient justice-delivery system is a pre-requisite for maintaining healthy democratic traditions and pursuing equitable development policies. In the last six decades Indian courts have played a leading role in protecting constitutional values and upholding the rule of law in our country. The vital social role of the courts has been strengthened by the creative reading of ideas such as ‘equal protection before the law’ and ‘personal liberty’. Especially with the evolution of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) movement over the last three decades, the understanding of rights has expanded in many directions. From conferring guarantees of a civil-political nature, the fundamental rights have been interpreted to include positive socio-economic obligations on the State. This means that the courts of law are unique spaces where just solutions are devised, in spite of the socio-economic inequalities between the litigants.
India is a diverse country where we are still grappling with social stratification and discrimination on the grounds of caste, religion, gender, language, race and ethnicity among other factors. Conflicts that arise out of such identity-based differences or those related to the distribution of material resources are often very complicated since they involve multiple interest groups. Adjudicating such disputes often calls for a departure from the norm of adversarial litigation and the judges have accordingly devised procedural innovations to respond to the needs of litigants. This means that the role of a judge is not only that of applying the existing rules in a mechanical manner but also interpreting them in a creative manner in order to pursue the ends of justice.
I am deeply gratified by the trust and confidence that the people of this country repose in our judicial system. About 1.8 crore fresh cases had been filed in Indian courts in 2008, reflecting a steady increase in the rate of institution of fresh proceedings over the years. Against this, approximately 14,000 judges disposed of about 1.7 crore cases in 2008, demonstrating a disposal rate of about 1,200 cases per year by each judge. This was achieved notwithstanding the severe shortage of judges and their very heavy work load, abysmal infrastructure and a very challenging environment.
In all, Indian courts processed some 4.8 crore cases in 2008 — which is one of the largest volume of cases faced by any national judicial system in the world. Expert studies have suggested that our judicial strength is only very minimal and large expansion is required to dispose of this case-load. It is therefore quite natural that most cases take several years to be completed. Such is the shortage of judicial officers that, on average, an Indian judge has a total of about 25 minutes to devote to each case.
A significant consequence of the severe shortage of judges is that a substantial number of poor people are unable to obtain the protection of courts to preserve and strengthen their rights. This ‘docket exclusion’ does not bode well for the country as affected people may turn to alternative (including violent) means for securing their rights. On the contrary, there is an urgent need to promote ‘docket inclusion’. There is also a widespread perception that many people are being deterred from approaching the courts on account of apprehensions about undue delay in the delivery of justice. This may indeed be true in some parts of the country where the number of civil cases being instituted are very low in proportion to their respective population-levels. Therefore, any meaningful agenda for judicial reforms must account for the twin problems of high pendency levels as well as the limited access to justice for some sections of society.
This means that even as we devise strategies to combat the existing backlog, we must also prepare for the further expansion of court dockets in the coming years. With gradual improvements in development indicators such as income-levels, access to education and healthcare, we should expect the previously marginalized sections to approach the judicial system in larger numbers, enhancing “docket inclusion”.
In many cases, the undue delay in disposal is a consequence of hurdles placed in the procedural steps involved in litigation. In the course of a legal proceeding, there is a likelihood of delay at various stages from the service of notice upon the parties, the framing of issues, submission of pleadings, examination of witnesses, production of documents and the counsels’ arguments. If a party apprehends an adverse result, there is a tendency on part of litigants or practitioners to place obstacles in these proceedings. The logical response to this endemic problem is that judges need to be more proactive in managing the flow of proceedings before them. Attempts to delay the proceedings should be treated firmly but it must also be kept in mind that the desire to improve procedural efficiency should not compromise the quality of justice being delivered. As inheritors of the common-law tradition, we are bound to follow the principles of natural justice, namely that ‘no man shall be a judge in his own cause’, that ‘no persons shall be condemned unheard’ and that ‘every order will be a reasoned order’.
Even though the judges are the main actors in the justice-delivery system, their efficiency is closely related to the behaviour of advocates, litigants, investigating agencies and witnesses among others. While public scrutiny is rightly being directed towards the performance and accountability of judges, there is also a need to examine the responsibilities of all the other participants in the judicial system. In particular, there is an urgent need to tackle the institution of frivolous claims and the giving of false evidence. Judges can perform their fact-finding and adjudicatory roles in a satisfactory manner only if they receive the co-operation of all the stakeholders. In this sense, the judicial function is as much a collective enterprise as the other wings of government.
A meaningful shift will only occur if attitudes change among the bar. Ultimately it is the responsibility of legal practitioners to advice their clients on the suitability of resorting to litigation. For resolving many categories of disputes, adversarial courtroom litigation is not appropriate since disputes can be amicably resolved at the pre-trial stage. With the objective of promoting awareness about these methods, full-time Mediation Centres have been established in the various High Courts as well as some of the District Courts. Their function is to not only provide mediation services but also to impart training about the same.
I must also emphasize that a large portion of the increase in litigation rates can be attributed to stronger remedies that have been introduced through Central and State legislations over the years. In particular, our trial courts are confronted with a disproportionate number of cases involving the dishonour of cheques, motor accident compensation claims, domestic violence and corruption-related cases. This is of course a natural consequence of the fact that litigant-friendly procedures and remedies were incorporated to address such grievances. Hence, there has been an incentive for parties to come forward and file cases in these categories. However, there has not been a commensurate increase in the strength of judges needed to decide these cases.
In recognition of this fact, the strength of the Supreme Court and the various High Courts has been gradually increased. However, it is the strength of the subordinate courts which calls for a drastic increase. I have repeatedly called for targeted interventions by way of increasing the strength of the subordinate judiciary, while emphasizing the need for establishing more Family Courts, CBI Courts and specialised magistrates’ courts. In recent months, a lot of attention has been drawn to the proposal for establishing ‘Gram Nyayalayas’. Under the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 judicial officers of the rank of Civil Judge (Junior Division) will be appointed to function at the block-level. The intent of course is to bring the justice-delivery system closer to rural citizens who have to otherwise travel to distant district centres. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 judicial officers will be needed to occupy these positions.
Since 2007, some important steps have been taken to improve the quality of justice-delivery. Hundreds of judicial conferences have been organized through the National and State Judicial Academies as well as National and State Legal Services Authorities on the topic of delay and arrears reduction as well as enhancing timely justice to raise awareness about the problem and develop effective strategies. There has been substantially increased attention to the use of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques, in particular mediation and Lok Adalats. A system of planning and management is being developed and recommended to High Courts for their consideration. A National Judicial Infrastructure Plan, A National Judicial Education Strategy and a National Mediation Plan have been developed and are in different stages of implementation. The results of these massive initiatives have been encouraging. Reversing earlier trends, filing of new cases as well as disposal has gone up at the national level. However, aggregate pendency has increased because the increase in filing has been faster than the rate of disposals in general.
I must also comment on the importance of Legal Aid programmes, especially those which seek to impart legal literacy in remote and backward areas. We must acknowledge that access to legal education is still confined to a privileged few and that the existing pool of judges and lawyers is not adequate to bring about the changes that we desire. In recognition of this fact, a Committee headed by a sitting Supreme Court judge has been recently appointed to oversee the training of motivated young individuals as paralegals, who can then expand the reach of the legal aid programmes. We are also in the process of designing a project dedicated to the improvement of access to justice in the North-Eastern region of our country. It is our hope that improved awareness and access to legal remedies will help in mitigating the socio-political conflicts in troubled areas.
Efforts are also being made to incorporate Information Technology (IT) based solutions in order to strengthen the judicial system. Under the E-Courts project, most judicial officers in the country have been provided with computers, printers and access to legal databases. Steps are also being taken to digitize precedents as well as the permanent records of courts at all levels. At present the daily cause-lists, orders and judgments of the Supreme Court and the respective High Courts are freely available online through the Judgment Information System (JUDIS). In the coming years, the objective is to ensure that materials pertaining to all subordinate courts as well as tribunals will also be made freely available through this system.
Another important element of judicial reforms is that of organising educational programmes, which are held at the National Judicial Academy (Bhopal) and the various State Judicial Academies. These programmes are periodically held for the benefit of sitting judges from all levels. They are designed to raise awareness about the latest legal developments as well as the strengthening of skills for court-management, research and writing. Special efforts are made to sensitise judges to the complex interactions between law and social realities. These programmes also serve as a common forum for judges serving in different parts of the country to interact and learn from each others’ experiences.
Recently, the Union Minister for Law and Justice has also unveiled some proposals for systemic reforms. There are plans to establish a ‘National Arrears Grid’ which will compile reliable statistics on the institution, disposal and pendency of cases at all levels. The top law officers of the Central Government have also resolved to reduce the extent of litigation which involves governmental agencies. A ‘National Litigation Policy’ is being designed wherein administrative remedies will be strengthened in order to reduce the burden before the courts. A comprehensive legislation dealing with the subject of standards and accountability in the higher judiciary is also on the anvil.
To conclude, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my colleagues who are serving at the various levels of the judicial system. I hope that they will all strive to uphold the high standards of dignity and integrity that are expected from anyone who holds a judicial office. I must also place on record my gratitude to the administrative staff members who have been working hard to keep pace with the increasing case-load. Like any public institution, the quality of justice-delivery also depends on the trust and confidence of the larger public. We rely on an active bar, a free press and a vigilant citizenry to point out our unintended mistakes so that we can improve our functioning. I sincerely hope that the dialogue between the judiciary and the various stakeholders in our society continues to take place in a cordial and constructive manner.
Jai Hind!
My Fellow Citizens,
I extend my warmest greetings to all of you on the eve of the 60th Law Day of our country. The legal and judicial fraternity of our country, as well as people at large, celebrate November 26 of each year as National Law Day because it was on this day in 1949 the Constituent Assembly of India had adopted our Constitution, which subsequently came into effect on January 26, 1950.
Law Day is an occasion on which we pay our humble tribute to the unique vision and genius of the framers of our Constitution. It prompts us to reflect upon and renew our pledge to protect, preserve and extend the values enshrined in our Constitution. The very first goal of the Constitution, is to secure justice to all — social, economic and political. This mandate not only shapes the rights of the people but also serves as a command to all those who wield authority in the name of the State. As the head of the Indian judicial system, it is my duty to keep the nation informed about the state of affairs in this branch of government.
An independent, accessible and efficient justice-delivery system is a pre-requisite for maintaining healthy democratic traditions and pursuing equitable development policies. In the last six decades Indian courts have played a leading role in protecting constitutional values and upholding the rule of law in our country. The vital social role of the courts has been strengthened by the creative reading of ideas such as ‘equal protection before the law’ and ‘personal liberty’. Especially with the evolution of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) movement over the last three decades, the understanding of rights has expanded in many directions. From conferring guarantees of a civil-political nature, the fundamental rights have been interpreted to include positive socio-economic obligations on the State. This means that the courts of law are unique spaces where just solutions are devised, in spite of the socio-economic inequalities between the litigants.
India is a diverse country where we are still grappling with social stratification and discrimination on the grounds of caste, religion, gender, language, race and ethnicity among other factors. Conflicts that arise out of such identity-based differences or those related to the distribution of material resources are often very complicated since they involve multiple interest groups. Adjudicating such disputes often calls for a departure from the norm of adversarial litigation and the judges have accordingly devised procedural innovations to respond to the needs of litigants. This means that the role of a judge is not only that of applying the existing rules in a mechanical manner but also interpreting them in a creative manner in order to pursue the ends of justice.
I am deeply gratified by the trust and confidence that the people of this country repose in our judicial system. About 1.8 crore fresh cases had been filed in Indian courts in 2008, reflecting a steady increase in the rate of institution of fresh proceedings over the years. Against this, approximately 14,000 judges disposed of about 1.7 crore cases in 2008, demonstrating a disposal rate of about 1,200 cases per year by each judge. This was achieved notwithstanding the severe shortage of judges and their very heavy work load, abysmal infrastructure and a very challenging environment.
In all, Indian courts processed some 4.8 crore cases in 2008 — which is one of the largest volume of cases faced by any national judicial system in the world. Expert studies have suggested that our judicial strength is only very minimal and large expansion is required to dispose of this case-load. It is therefore quite natural that most cases take several years to be completed. Such is the shortage of judicial officers that, on average, an Indian judge has a total of about 25 minutes to devote to each case.
A significant consequence of the severe shortage of judges is that a substantial number of poor people are unable to obtain the protection of courts to preserve and strengthen their rights. This ‘docket exclusion’ does not bode well for the country as affected people may turn to alternative (including violent) means for securing their rights. On the contrary, there is an urgent need to promote ‘docket inclusion’. There is also a widespread perception that many people are being deterred from approaching the courts on account of apprehensions about undue delay in the delivery of justice. This may indeed be true in some parts of the country where the number of civil cases being instituted are very low in proportion to their respective population-levels. Therefore, any meaningful agenda for judicial reforms must account for the twin problems of high pendency levels as well as the limited access to justice for some sections of society.
This means that even as we devise strategies to combat the existing backlog, we must also prepare for the further expansion of court dockets in the coming years. With gradual improvements in development indicators such as income-levels, access to education and healthcare, we should expect the previously marginalized sections to approach the judicial system in larger numbers, enhancing “docket inclusion”.
In many cases, the undue delay in disposal is a consequence of hurdles placed in the procedural steps involved in litigation. In the course of a legal proceeding, there is a likelihood of delay at various stages from the service of notice upon the parties, the framing of issues, submission of pleadings, examination of witnesses, production of documents and the counsels’ arguments. If a party apprehends an adverse result, there is a tendency on part of litigants or practitioners to place obstacles in these proceedings. The logical response to this endemic problem is that judges need to be more proactive in managing the flow of proceedings before them. Attempts to delay the proceedings should be treated firmly but it must also be kept in mind that the desire to improve procedural efficiency should not compromise the quality of justice being delivered. As inheritors of the common-law tradition, we are bound to follow the principles of natural justice, namely that ‘no man shall be a judge in his own cause’, that ‘no persons shall be condemned unheard’ and that ‘every order will be a reasoned order’.
Even though the judges are the main actors in the justice-delivery system, their efficiency is closely related to the behaviour of advocates, litigants, investigating agencies and witnesses among others. While public scrutiny is rightly being directed towards the performance and accountability of judges, there is also a need to examine the responsibilities of all the other participants in the judicial system. In particular, there is an urgent need to tackle the institution of frivolous claims and the giving of false evidence. Judges can perform their fact-finding and adjudicatory roles in a satisfactory manner only if they receive the co-operation of all the stakeholders. In this sense, the judicial function is as much a collective enterprise as the other wings of government.
A meaningful shift will only occur if attitudes change among the bar. Ultimately it is the responsibility of legal practitioners to advice their clients on the suitability of resorting to litigation. For resolving many categories of disputes, adversarial courtroom litigation is not appropriate since disputes can be amicably resolved at the pre-trial stage. With the objective of promoting awareness about these methods, full-time Mediation Centres have been established in the various High Courts as well as some of the District Courts. Their function is to not only provide mediation services but also to impart training about the same.
I must also emphasize that a large portion of the increase in litigation rates can be attributed to stronger remedies that have been introduced through Central and State legislations over the years. In particular, our trial courts are confronted with a disproportionate number of cases involving the dishonour of cheques, motor accident compensation claims, domestic violence and corruption-related cases. This is of course a natural consequence of the fact that litigant-friendly procedures and remedies were incorporated to address such grievances. Hence, there has been an incentive for parties to come forward and file cases in these categories. However, there has not been a commensurate increase in the strength of judges needed to decide these cases.
In recognition of this fact, the strength of the Supreme Court and the various High Courts has been gradually increased. However, it is the strength of the subordinate courts which calls for a drastic increase. I have repeatedly called for targeted interventions by way of increasing the strength of the subordinate judiciary, while emphasizing the need for establishing more Family Courts, CBI Courts and specialised magistrates’ courts. In recent months, a lot of attention has been drawn to the proposal for establishing ‘Gram Nyayalayas’. Under the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 judicial officers of the rank of Civil Judge (Junior Division) will be appointed to function at the block-level. The intent of course is to bring the justice-delivery system closer to rural citizens who have to otherwise travel to distant district centres. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 judicial officers will be needed to occupy these positions.
Since 2007, some important steps have been taken to improve the quality of justice-delivery. Hundreds of judicial conferences have been organized through the National and State Judicial Academies as well as National and State Legal Services Authorities on the topic of delay and arrears reduction as well as enhancing timely justice to raise awareness about the problem and develop effective strategies. There has been substantially increased attention to the use of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques, in particular mediation and Lok Adalats. A system of planning and management is being developed and recommended to High Courts for their consideration. A National Judicial Infrastructure Plan, A National Judicial Education Strategy and a National Mediation Plan have been developed and are in different stages of implementation. The results of these massive initiatives have been encouraging. Reversing earlier trends, filing of new cases as well as disposal has gone up at the national level. However, aggregate pendency has increased because the increase in filing has been faster than the rate of disposals in general.
I must also comment on the importance of Legal Aid programmes, especially those which seek to impart legal literacy in remote and backward areas. We must acknowledge that access to legal education is still confined to a privileged few and that the existing pool of judges and lawyers is not adequate to bring about the changes that we desire. In recognition of this fact, a Committee headed by a sitting Supreme Court judge has been recently appointed to oversee the training of motivated young individuals as paralegals, who can then expand the reach of the legal aid programmes. We are also in the process of designing a project dedicated to the improvement of access to justice in the North-Eastern region of our country. It is our hope that improved awareness and access to legal remedies will help in mitigating the socio-political conflicts in troubled areas.
Efforts are also being made to incorporate Information Technology (IT) based solutions in order to strengthen the judicial system. Under the E-Courts project, most judicial officers in the country have been provided with computers, printers and access to legal databases. Steps are also being taken to digitize precedents as well as the permanent records of courts at all levels. At present the daily cause-lists, orders and judgments of the Supreme Court and the respective High Courts are freely available online through the Judgment Information System (JUDIS). In the coming years, the objective is to ensure that materials pertaining to all subordinate courts as well as tribunals will also be made freely available through this system.
Another important element of judicial reforms is that of organising educational programmes, which are held at the National Judicial Academy (Bhopal) and the various State Judicial Academies. These programmes are periodically held for the benefit of sitting judges from all levels. They are designed to raise awareness about the latest legal developments as well as the strengthening of skills for court-management, research and writing. Special efforts are made to sensitise judges to the complex interactions between law and social realities. These programmes also serve as a common forum for judges serving in different parts of the country to interact and learn from each others’ experiences.
Recently, the Union Minister for Law and Justice has also unveiled some proposals for systemic reforms. There are plans to establish a ‘National Arrears Grid’ which will compile reliable statistics on the institution, disposal and pendency of cases at all levels. The top law officers of the Central Government have also resolved to reduce the extent of litigation which involves governmental agencies. A ‘National Litigation Policy’ is being designed wherein administrative remedies will be strengthened in order to reduce the burden before the courts. A comprehensive legislation dealing with the subject of standards and accountability in the higher judiciary is also on the anvil.
To conclude, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my colleagues who are serving at the various levels of the judicial system. I hope that they will all strive to uphold the high standards of dignity and integrity that are expected from anyone who holds a judicial office. I must also place on record my gratitude to the administrative staff members who have been working hard to keep pace with the increasing case-load. Like any public institution, the quality of justice-delivery also depends on the trust and confidence of the larger public. We rely on an active bar, a free press and a vigilant citizenry to point out our unintended mistakes so that we can improve our functioning. I sincerely hope that the dialogue between the judiciary and the various stakeholders in our society continues to take place in a cordial and constructive manner.
Jai Hind!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Influence of Advertising on Daily Life
The impact of advertising is a matter of continuous debate. For and against claims about advertisement have been made in different contexts. Cigarette manufacturers have been claiming that cigarette advertising does not encourage smoking and their eventually successful
opponents just the opposite. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish advertising from other television programs, as the faculty to judge a message
develops on attaining adolescence. There is, however, no doubt that Advertisement-loaded media do influence our daily lives.
Marshall McLuhan, media thinker and philosopher of the electronic age, in his Understanding Media observes: “The continuous pressure is to create ads more and more in the image of audience motives and desires. The product matters less as the audience participation increases.”
An observant netizen has culled a few nuggets from the currently popular television advertisements that tellingly illustrate McLuhan’s point:
Before going to propose to a girl
Believe in the best—BPL.
Proposing to a girl
Vicks ki goli lo kich kich door karo—Vicks.
For writing a love letter
Likho script apna apna—Rotomac.
If you love someone
Go get it—Visa power.
Not satisfied with your date
Yeh dil mangey more—Pepsi.
Have many girl friends
The Complete Man—Raymonds.
Having many boyfriends
Yeh hai hamara suraksha chakra—Colgate.
Advertising promotes consumerism and encourages mass production. Some advertising campaigns inadvertently or even intentionally propagate sexism, racism, and ageism. Is the advertisement industry creating or merely reflecting cultural trends? Advertising often reinforces stereotypes as it banks on recognizable “types” for telling stories in a single image or 30-second time frame.
The public perception of advertising is getting increasingly negative. It is accused of dishing out half-truths and hoodwinking the consumer to benefit the advertiser or Big Business. Realizing the social impact of advertising, Media Watch educates consumers about registering their concerns with advertisers and regulators.
Advertisement sustains the media [newspapers, televisions, internet, e-mail, telephone] and the media impact on our daily lives. They are full of advertisements. One has to search for the news in the ‘national’ dailies. They justify advertisements as newsreaders can use. From morning till late night, men, women and children have to bear a blitz of advertisement.
Our tastes, our habits, our clothes, modes of travel, entertainment, our choices of schools, colleges, universities, leave aside products, get decided by advertisements. Our hopes and frustrations too are ordained by advertisement. The electronic society is losing touch with reality, as did the industrial society with nature. We now live, not in a real but virtual world. We care more for the photograph than the face before us.
Perhaps the most pernicious effect of advertisements is on middle-class children and their relations with parents. Some of them have become “couch potatoes”, watching too much television, and unavoidably, too many advertisements. Craze for fatty, fast foods among boys and girls is due to advertisements. This is affecting children’s health and growth. Working couples do not have time and give hefty pocket money to please their children who spend on chips and candies, spoiling their teeth and digestive system.
Advertisers make viewer/consumer believe that their product will make them achieve goals or fulfil desires. They are commercializing our festivals, religious practices, sports and cultural events. Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Gurparb, all have been tuned into commercial displays of saleable goods, bought, at times, beyond means.
There is also a brighter side. Advertising is a powerful tool capable of motivating large audiences to participate in campaigns against disease, poverty and war.
Power of advertising is overwhelming. It may not brainwash overnight. It will change you subtly, but surely. It has the power to prevail. Our daily living is tightly in the ad grip!
opponents just the opposite. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish advertising from other television programs, as the faculty to judge a message
develops on attaining adolescence. There is, however, no doubt that Advertisement-loaded media do influence our daily lives.
Marshall McLuhan, media thinker and philosopher of the electronic age, in his Understanding Media observes: “The continuous pressure is to create ads more and more in the image of audience motives and desires. The product matters less as the audience participation increases.”
An observant netizen has culled a few nuggets from the currently popular television advertisements that tellingly illustrate McLuhan’s point:
Before going to propose to a girl
Believe in the best—BPL.
Proposing to a girl
Vicks ki goli lo kich kich door karo—Vicks.
For writing a love letter
Likho script apna apna—Rotomac.
If you love someone
Go get it—Visa power.
Not satisfied with your date
Yeh dil mangey more—Pepsi.
Have many girl friends
The Complete Man—Raymonds.
Having many boyfriends
Yeh hai hamara suraksha chakra—Colgate.
Advertising promotes consumerism and encourages mass production. Some advertising campaigns inadvertently or even intentionally propagate sexism, racism, and ageism. Is the advertisement industry creating or merely reflecting cultural trends? Advertising often reinforces stereotypes as it banks on recognizable “types” for telling stories in a single image or 30-second time frame.
The public perception of advertising is getting increasingly negative. It is accused of dishing out half-truths and hoodwinking the consumer to benefit the advertiser or Big Business. Realizing the social impact of advertising, Media Watch educates consumers about registering their concerns with advertisers and regulators.
Advertisement sustains the media [newspapers, televisions, internet, e-mail, telephone] and the media impact on our daily lives. They are full of advertisements. One has to search for the news in the ‘national’ dailies. They justify advertisements as newsreaders can use. From morning till late night, men, women and children have to bear a blitz of advertisement.
Our tastes, our habits, our clothes, modes of travel, entertainment, our choices of schools, colleges, universities, leave aside products, get decided by advertisements. Our hopes and frustrations too are ordained by advertisement. The electronic society is losing touch with reality, as did the industrial society with nature. We now live, not in a real but virtual world. We care more for the photograph than the face before us.
Perhaps the most pernicious effect of advertisements is on middle-class children and their relations with parents. Some of them have become “couch potatoes”, watching too much television, and unavoidably, too many advertisements. Craze for fatty, fast foods among boys and girls is due to advertisements. This is affecting children’s health and growth. Working couples do not have time and give hefty pocket money to please their children who spend on chips and candies, spoiling their teeth and digestive system.
Advertisers make viewer/consumer believe that their product will make them achieve goals or fulfil desires. They are commercializing our festivals, religious practices, sports and cultural events. Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Gurparb, all have been tuned into commercial displays of saleable goods, bought, at times, beyond means.
There is also a brighter side. Advertising is a powerful tool capable of motivating large audiences to participate in campaigns against disease, poverty and war.
Power of advertising is overwhelming. It may not brainwash overnight. It will change you subtly, but surely. It has the power to prevail. Our daily living is tightly in the ad grip!
Friday, November 20, 2009
All of us Learn from our Failures as well as Success
There is no finality about failure, said Jawaharlal Nehru. Perhaps, that is why learning from failure is easier than learning from success, as success often appears to be the last step of the ladder. Possibilities of life, however, are endless and there are worlds beyond the stars—which is literally true. What appears as success in one moment may turn out to be a failure or even worse in the next moment.
We often do not know what is failure and what is success ultimately.
There are examples of people who became wealthy but renounced all their wealth achieved after a lifetime’s effort. The kings like Bharthrihari gave up their kingdoms because of their failure in love. The Duke of Windsor abdicated the throne of England for marrying an American divorcee Miss Simpson.
While we can see our failures clearly, success is prone to blind our vision. Yet, the time-world that we live in is a mixture of pain and pleasure, sorrow and delight, light and darkness, success and failure! Success as well as failure are parts of our life and experience. We gain from both and also lose from both. Failure dejects us, success delights us, but experience accretes them both. After a while, success also loses its shine just as failure loses its sting. An aware person learns from both successes and failures of life and begins to see life what it is.
Most people try to achieve what they want. They either fail or succeed in getting what they want. In a difficult world trial and error become our way of solving life’s problems. Yet there are escapists who avoid undertaking the trial because they are scared of meeting failure or committing the error. They, perhaps, consider making mistake as wrong and harmful but the fact is that, for most of us, trial and error are both helpful and necessary.
Error provides the feedback for building the ladder to success. Error pushes one to put together a new and better trial, leading through more errors and trials, hopefully, finding ultimately a workable and creative solution. To meet with an error is only a temporary, and often necessary part of the process that leads to success or well-earned achievement. No errors or failures, often, means no success either. This is more true in business and while handling an on-going project.
According some business training programmes, an early partial success is not commended. In fact, early success in a long-term project is regarded as a premature outcome of good efforts that is likely to cause complaisance and slackening of effort to achieve the ultimate objective of the project. Early success might tempt one to get fixed on to what seemed to have worked so quickly and easily and stop from looking up any further. Later, maybe, a competitor will learn from the slackened ‘achiever’ to further explore for larger possibilities and push on to find a much better solution that will push the earlier achiever out of the competition.
Yet, there are many organisations who believe in what they call ‘culture of perfection: a set of organisational beliefs that any failure is unacceptable’. Only a hundred per cent, untainted success will be acceptable. “To retain your reputation as an achiever, you must reach every goal and never, ever make a mistake that you can’t hide or blame on someone else”.
But this is a flawed strategy because the stress and terror in such an organisation, at some point, become unbearable and lead to attrition. The ceaseless covering up of small blemishes, finger-pointing and shifting the blame result into rapid turnover, as people rise high, then fall abruptly from grace. Meanwhile, lying, cheating, falsifying of data, and hiding of problems goes on and swings and shakes the organisation from crisis to crisis and, ultimately, weakens it irreparably.
Some ego-driven, ‘experienced’ achievers forget that time and environment have changed and demand other kinds of inputs. A senior lecturer of ten years’ standing was rejected and one with only one-year experience was selected. When the senior protested, selectors told him: “You too have only one year of experience—only repeated ten times. The selected lecturer has fresher and more relevant experience.”
Balance counts and a little failure may help preserve one’s perspective on success. Finally, life is more than a count of failures and successes, as a humorist said: “try and try—only twice, the third time let some one else try” is yet another way of looking at life’s struggle.
We often do not know what is failure and what is success ultimately.
There are examples of people who became wealthy but renounced all their wealth achieved after a lifetime’s effort. The kings like Bharthrihari gave up their kingdoms because of their failure in love. The Duke of Windsor abdicated the throne of England for marrying an American divorcee Miss Simpson.
While we can see our failures clearly, success is prone to blind our vision. Yet, the time-world that we live in is a mixture of pain and pleasure, sorrow and delight, light and darkness, success and failure! Success as well as failure are parts of our life and experience. We gain from both and also lose from both. Failure dejects us, success delights us, but experience accretes them both. After a while, success also loses its shine just as failure loses its sting. An aware person learns from both successes and failures of life and begins to see life what it is.
Most people try to achieve what they want. They either fail or succeed in getting what they want. In a difficult world trial and error become our way of solving life’s problems. Yet there are escapists who avoid undertaking the trial because they are scared of meeting failure or committing the error. They, perhaps, consider making mistake as wrong and harmful but the fact is that, for most of us, trial and error are both helpful and necessary.
Error provides the feedback for building the ladder to success. Error pushes one to put together a new and better trial, leading through more errors and trials, hopefully, finding ultimately a workable and creative solution. To meet with an error is only a temporary, and often necessary part of the process that leads to success or well-earned achievement. No errors or failures, often, means no success either. This is more true in business and while handling an on-going project.
According some business training programmes, an early partial success is not commended. In fact, early success in a long-term project is regarded as a premature outcome of good efforts that is likely to cause complaisance and slackening of effort to achieve the ultimate objective of the project. Early success might tempt one to get fixed on to what seemed to have worked so quickly and easily and stop from looking up any further. Later, maybe, a competitor will learn from the slackened ‘achiever’ to further explore for larger possibilities and push on to find a much better solution that will push the earlier achiever out of the competition.
Yet, there are many organisations who believe in what they call ‘culture of perfection: a set of organisational beliefs that any failure is unacceptable’. Only a hundred per cent, untainted success will be acceptable. “To retain your reputation as an achiever, you must reach every goal and never, ever make a mistake that you can’t hide or blame on someone else”.
But this is a flawed strategy because the stress and terror in such an organisation, at some point, become unbearable and lead to attrition. The ceaseless covering up of small blemishes, finger-pointing and shifting the blame result into rapid turnover, as people rise high, then fall abruptly from grace. Meanwhile, lying, cheating, falsifying of data, and hiding of problems goes on and swings and shakes the organisation from crisis to crisis and, ultimately, weakens it irreparably.
Some ego-driven, ‘experienced’ achievers forget that time and environment have changed and demand other kinds of inputs. A senior lecturer of ten years’ standing was rejected and one with only one-year experience was selected. When the senior protested, selectors told him: “You too have only one year of experience—only repeated ten times. The selected lecturer has fresher and more relevant experience.”
Balance counts and a little failure may help preserve one’s perspective on success. Finally, life is more than a count of failures and successes, as a humorist said: “try and try—only twice, the third time let some one else try” is yet another way of looking at life’s struggle.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Prosperity Through Environment
Protection of the environment in all its forms has been receiving much public attention at domestic and international forums. The question is by no means new but it has acquired much greater urgency than ever before because of the ceaseless pollution of the atmosphere, the reckless destruction of the multi-faceted gifts of Nature by thoughtless human beings. Among the offenders are people who are, or should be, aware of the folly of their deeds and the irreparable damage they are doing to the safety and prosperity of mankind, the present and the future generations. Hence the environmentalists' clarion call.
Human existence depends upon the environment. Few persons would now question the statement that we have been poisoning or destroying valuable resources on earth (including water) and also in the air—all in the name of economic development. In fact, development, expansion and growth are the key slogans in the modern world; nothing else seems to matter. Senseless poisoning is proceeding with unbelievable speed. While genocide rightly receives severe condemnation, ‘‘ecoside’’—ruthless murder of the environment—has only recently become a cognisable offence.
After all, it is the biosphere, that is, the air and water encasing the earth, besides the green cover and the wildlife, that sustain life on this planet. In chemical terms, it is the mixture and fine balance of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour that is vital for life. These are operated and maintained by multiple biological processes. For centuries man took for granted that the bounties of Nature were inexhaustible and that the resources get renewed automatically. Both these assumptions have lately been proved wrong.
The struggle now is for adequate renewal of such resources as man has to use every day, and also for preservation and protection of as many resources as possible. Attempts are being made to check the reckless destruction of precious environment. Scientists have warned that mankind might have to return to the much-dreaded ‘‘ice age’’ if the reckless destruction of trees, other greenery and natural resources continues at the pace associated with ‘‘modern’’ progress, especially in industry.
A look-back in this regard would be helpful. Oddly enough, it was only in 1972 that the first systematic international effort was made to take stock of the situation and plan adequate steps to counter the process of destruction. The step was the UN Conference on Environment held in Sweden. The conference was poorly attended, for political and other reasons. Then came the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements in 1975 in Vancouver and the UN Desertification Conference in Nairobi in 1977 to check the ruinous growth of deserts.
But in many ways the year 1990 marked a specific advance in the programmes for saving mankind from disaster. The occasion marked recognition of the basic fact that the environmentalists are fighting for the concept of sustainable progress with the belief that environment and development are not opposite poles. In this connection, the observation of the Brundtland Commission (in its report published in 1987) was recalled. The commission said: ‘‘Economy is not just about the production of wealth, and ecology is not just about the protection of Nature; they are both equally relevant for improving the lot of mankind.’’
The Montreal Protocol was very much in the news in 1990. The aim of the Protocol is to save the precious ozone layer from chemical damage. All enlightened countries now concede that destruction of the ozone layer will have serious consequences on human, animal and plant life.
There is no denying that the major culprits in causing pollution and damaging the ozone layer are the developed countries. These countries have benefited all through the years by using cheap CFCs and have harmed the global environment. If they want the developing countries to restrain themselves from following the same course, they should assist them. Though the developing countries produce only a small proportion of the world output of CFCs, they require massive assistance to switch over to new technologies and to less harmful substitutes. Therefore, a large fund is needed.
The Government of India’s growing concern over this problem is obvious from the establishment of a department and Ministry for Environment and the series of laws passed to check the practices that endanger the environment. Among these are: The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Water (Pollution and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Environment (Protection) Act, May 1986, the Forests (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which has been frequently amended to make it more effective. Besides, there is a full-fledged national forest policy, several programmes and projects to conserve the environment and check the destructive practices.
There have been many social conflicts over the issue of natural resources in India. The controversies over the Sardar Sarovar Dam and the Narmada Project are among the outstanding examples. Competing claims and Inter-State disputes over water and forests are quite common. As in the case of land disputes, the controversies over the natural resources involve vested interests. There are, in many cases, unequal antagonists; several agrarian conflicts have ecological roots. The grave consequences of some of the dam construction projects have been highlighted by the numerous agitations carried on by voluntary agencies and courageous individuals. The Chipko movement started by the brave Sunderlal Bahugana to save the Garhwal forests won well-deserved international recognition.
The social good has to be weighed against individual benefit and a rational balance needs to be struck. The writing on the wall is clear. If the present generation fails to preserve and protect Nature’s bounty, the coming generations will hold us guilty of betraying an invaluable trust. But in their excessive zeal the environmentalists ignore a vital aspect. India needs more foodgrains, more water, more electricity, more industries for manufacturing and finishing goods for domestic consumption and exports—all for the social good.
Dams over rivers and construction of large power houses to harness energy sources enable the economy to flourish. These amenities can be made available only by sacrificing some of the greenery. If the building of large dams is to be halted in response to the environmentalists' agitations, where are the additional foodgrains, irrigation facilities and uninterrupted power for industry to come from?
Human existence depends upon the environment. Few persons would now question the statement that we have been poisoning or destroying valuable resources on earth (including water) and also in the air—all in the name of economic development. In fact, development, expansion and growth are the key slogans in the modern world; nothing else seems to matter. Senseless poisoning is proceeding with unbelievable speed. While genocide rightly receives severe condemnation, ‘‘ecoside’’—ruthless murder of the environment—has only recently become a cognisable offence.
After all, it is the biosphere, that is, the air and water encasing the earth, besides the green cover and the wildlife, that sustain life on this planet. In chemical terms, it is the mixture and fine balance of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour that is vital for life. These are operated and maintained by multiple biological processes. For centuries man took for granted that the bounties of Nature were inexhaustible and that the resources get renewed automatically. Both these assumptions have lately been proved wrong.
The struggle now is for adequate renewal of such resources as man has to use every day, and also for preservation and protection of as many resources as possible. Attempts are being made to check the reckless destruction of precious environment. Scientists have warned that mankind might have to return to the much-dreaded ‘‘ice age’’ if the reckless destruction of trees, other greenery and natural resources continues at the pace associated with ‘‘modern’’ progress, especially in industry.
A look-back in this regard would be helpful. Oddly enough, it was only in 1972 that the first systematic international effort was made to take stock of the situation and plan adequate steps to counter the process of destruction. The step was the UN Conference on Environment held in Sweden. The conference was poorly attended, for political and other reasons. Then came the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements in 1975 in Vancouver and the UN Desertification Conference in Nairobi in 1977 to check the ruinous growth of deserts.
But in many ways the year 1990 marked a specific advance in the programmes for saving mankind from disaster. The occasion marked recognition of the basic fact that the environmentalists are fighting for the concept of sustainable progress with the belief that environment and development are not opposite poles. In this connection, the observation of the Brundtland Commission (in its report published in 1987) was recalled. The commission said: ‘‘Economy is not just about the production of wealth, and ecology is not just about the protection of Nature; they are both equally relevant for improving the lot of mankind.’’
The Montreal Protocol was very much in the news in 1990. The aim of the Protocol is to save the precious ozone layer from chemical damage. All enlightened countries now concede that destruction of the ozone layer will have serious consequences on human, animal and plant life.
There is no denying that the major culprits in causing pollution and damaging the ozone layer are the developed countries. These countries have benefited all through the years by using cheap CFCs and have harmed the global environment. If they want the developing countries to restrain themselves from following the same course, they should assist them. Though the developing countries produce only a small proportion of the world output of CFCs, they require massive assistance to switch over to new technologies and to less harmful substitutes. Therefore, a large fund is needed.
The Government of India’s growing concern over this problem is obvious from the establishment of a department and Ministry for Environment and the series of laws passed to check the practices that endanger the environment. Among these are: The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Water (Pollution and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Environment (Protection) Act, May 1986, the Forests (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which has been frequently amended to make it more effective. Besides, there is a full-fledged national forest policy, several programmes and projects to conserve the environment and check the destructive practices.
There have been many social conflicts over the issue of natural resources in India. The controversies over the Sardar Sarovar Dam and the Narmada Project are among the outstanding examples. Competing claims and Inter-State disputes over water and forests are quite common. As in the case of land disputes, the controversies over the natural resources involve vested interests. There are, in many cases, unequal antagonists; several agrarian conflicts have ecological roots. The grave consequences of some of the dam construction projects have been highlighted by the numerous agitations carried on by voluntary agencies and courageous individuals. The Chipko movement started by the brave Sunderlal Bahugana to save the Garhwal forests won well-deserved international recognition.
The social good has to be weighed against individual benefit and a rational balance needs to be struck. The writing on the wall is clear. If the present generation fails to preserve and protect Nature’s bounty, the coming generations will hold us guilty of betraying an invaluable trust. But in their excessive zeal the environmentalists ignore a vital aspect. India needs more foodgrains, more water, more electricity, more industries for manufacturing and finishing goods for domestic consumption and exports—all for the social good.
Dams over rivers and construction of large power houses to harness energy sources enable the economy to flourish. These amenities can be made available only by sacrificing some of the greenery. If the building of large dams is to be halted in response to the environmentalists' agitations, where are the additional foodgrains, irrigation facilities and uninterrupted power for industry to come from?
What is Wrong With Child Labour?
Not all work is bad for children. According to social scientists most kinds of work are unobjectionable, if they are not exploitative. School boys delivering newspapers is a common sight in the USA and Canada. This activity benefits the child as he learns how to work, gain responsibility, and earn some pocket money. But if the child is not paid, the same work becomes exploitative.
The United Nations Children Fund (Unicef)’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report says: “Children’s work needs to be seen as happening along a continuum, with destructive or exploitative work at one end and beneficial work—promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest—at the other. And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.” Social scientists agree but draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable work differently.
International conventions define children as aged 18 and under. Individual governments may define “child” according to different ages or other criteria. “Child” and “childhood” are also defined differently by different cultures. In fact, children’s abilities and maturity vary widely and, therefore, defining a child’s maturity by calendar age can be misleading.
In 2000, the ILO estimated, “246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labour, of which 171 million were involved in work that by its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or mental health, and moral development. Moreover, some 8.4 million children were engaged in so-called ‘unconditional’ or worst forms of child labour, such as forced and bonded labour, conscription by military forces in armed conflict, trafficking, commercial, sexual and other forms of exploitation.
In India, child labour is exploitative in the extreme. Growing children are employed as domestic help and live in miserable conditions. They are low paid and sleep in staircases or on the road. Those employed by the roadside dhabas or teashops in the cities or on the highways likewise lead a life of deprivation and dreariness. Yet, if they do not take up this type of work, they face starvation and ill-treatment at home, even at the hands of parents and relatives. There are laws prohibiting child labour but in India the laws are seldom implemented.
More boys than girls work outside their homes. Increasingly, however, more girls are working in some jobs: for instance, as domestic maids. Being a maid in someone’s house is risky. Cut off from friends and family, these little maids can easily be phy-sically or sexually abused by their employers and even by neighbours or unknown visitors.
Children in hazardous and dangerous jobs are in danger of injury and death.
According to UNICEF, it is a myth that “[1] child labour is only a problem in developing countries. … children routinely work in all industrialised countries, and hazardous forms of child labour can be found in many countries. [2] child labour will only disappear when poverty disappears. [3] only a very small proportion of all child workers are employed in export industries—probably less than 5 per cent. Most of the world’s child labourers actually are to be found in the informal sector—selling on the street, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses—far from the reach of official labour inspectors and from media scrutiny.”
In our view, poverty is largely responsible for what is wrong with child labour; other causes are not as pervasive.
The United Nations Children Fund (Unicef)’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report says: “Children’s work needs to be seen as happening along a continuum, with destructive or exploitative work at one end and beneficial work—promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest—at the other. And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.” Social scientists agree but draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable work differently.
International conventions define children as aged 18 and under. Individual governments may define “child” according to different ages or other criteria. “Child” and “childhood” are also defined differently by different cultures. In fact, children’s abilities and maturity vary widely and, therefore, defining a child’s maturity by calendar age can be misleading.
In 2000, the ILO estimated, “246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labour, of which 171 million were involved in work that by its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or mental health, and moral development. Moreover, some 8.4 million children were engaged in so-called ‘unconditional’ or worst forms of child labour, such as forced and bonded labour, conscription by military forces in armed conflict, trafficking, commercial, sexual and other forms of exploitation.
In India, child labour is exploitative in the extreme. Growing children are employed as domestic help and live in miserable conditions. They are low paid and sleep in staircases or on the road. Those employed by the roadside dhabas or teashops in the cities or on the highways likewise lead a life of deprivation and dreariness. Yet, if they do not take up this type of work, they face starvation and ill-treatment at home, even at the hands of parents and relatives. There are laws prohibiting child labour but in India the laws are seldom implemented.
More boys than girls work outside their homes. Increasingly, however, more girls are working in some jobs: for instance, as domestic maids. Being a maid in someone’s house is risky. Cut off from friends and family, these little maids can easily be phy-sically or sexually abused by their employers and even by neighbours or unknown visitors.
Children in hazardous and dangerous jobs are in danger of injury and death.
According to UNICEF, it is a myth that “[1] child labour is only a problem in developing countries. … children routinely work in all industrialised countries, and hazardous forms of child labour can be found in many countries. [2] child labour will only disappear when poverty disappears. [3] only a very small proportion of all child workers are employed in export industries—probably less than 5 per cent. Most of the world’s child labourers actually are to be found in the informal sector—selling on the street, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses—far from the reach of official labour inspectors and from media scrutiny.”
In our view, poverty is largely responsible for what is wrong with child labour; other causes are not as pervasive.
Promotion of Sports: A Social Necessity
The importance of sports and games is being increasingly recognised in India from both the educational and social points of view. More and more funds are being allocated for encouraging sports in schools, colleges and universities; in fact, sports have become an essential part of the curricula. Time was when only a few students who were fond of certain games, like hockey, football, cricket or tennis, were allowed special facilities. But now regular programmes are drawn up in all educational institutions to persuade as many students as possible, regardless of special aptitudes, to participate in games and not merely watch matches occasionally to cheer up their favourite teams and attend the prize distribution functions at the end of a sports season.
Educationalists and others have come to the conclusion that it is in the interest of society as a whole that adequate facilities should be provided, depending of course upon the availability of funds, for games and sports for the country’s youth, both boys and girls. Sports foster friendship and amity. Nor does the belief hold good any more that those who take part in sports or games would be no good at studies and that each year their absence from the class or shortage of lectures would be condoned because they can either attend to their studies or be on the playing field for some game or the other. It is felt that apart from some exceptional cases of students showing extraordinary talent and skill in certain games, or students who are expected to be high on the merit list in university examinations, most other students should play one game or other, not necessarily for achieving distinctions but for the sake of sport.
Several factors need to be taken into account in this connection. First, physical fitness is of the utmost importance for everyone, young and old. Participation in games and sports invariably ensures good health, fitness and, generally, freedom from ailments of various types which find easy victims among people who take no physical exercise and are either lazy, indolent or desk-bound or are book worms and keep studying all the time under the mistaken concept that they can win success in life by studying all the time and concentrating on the development of their mental faculties. They feel convinced that brains matter, not brawn, that spending hours on the play-field is a waste of time. But such students, sooner or later, find that unless the human body is kept in smooth trim and in an overall fit condition, even the brain will refuse to co-operate after some time. Actually, physical fitness is essential for proficiency in studies and for winning distinctions in examinations. Ailing bodies do not make for sharp brains. Exercise in some form or another is necessary, and sports provide an easy method to ensure such fitness.
Secondly, regular participation in sports provides a healthy channel for diversion of energies. Wherever students and other youth participate in sports regularly ensure constructive sublimation, misdirection of youthful vigour is much less and the tendency to indulge in indiscipline and mischief, disruptive activity of various kinds is curbed. Young people have surplus energy, and if this is fruitfully utilised, the foundations are laid for a healthy society where people are fully aware of the need for discipline, co-operative effort, team spirit, the cult of sportsmanship, of joint devotion to the achievement of a common goal in collaboration with others. They also learn to cultivate the vital quality of learning how to work together, to become not only good winners but also good losers. Both sides playing a game cannot win simultaneously and ups and downs are common.
The losers must learn to take their defeat sportingly. The right spirit can be learnt on the playgrounds. There is no point in bearing a grudge against the rivals; today’s losers can be tomorrow’s winners, as in society in general and the political arena in particular.
Thirdly, the statement that ‘‘the battle of Waterloo was won on the play-fields of Eton’’, implying that playing games and the spirit of sportsmanship help to inculcate lasting values which make for good soldiers, good fighters and good discipline, apart from promoting 100 per cent physical fitness. In British schools and colleges the fullest importance is given to sports, especially cricket and football. The result has been the creation of a healthy, well-developed, disciplined and efficient society in which people know the right proportions in life, put everything in the right perspective and seldom conduct themselves in an unsporting, ungentlemanly and unbecoming manner. Playing the game on the playground naturally instructs people to play the game of life in the right spirit, which is what matters most, not victory or defeat.
According to sociologists, society gains in many ways when the government encourages sports and games everywhere, provides playgrounds, the necessary equipment and other facilities, rewards outstanding sportsmen so as to encourage others also to play games. The crime graph dips, which means that the incidence of general crimes decreases because the right spirit and the right approach to things is developed on the playground. Sport, it has been said, is not only a manifestation of animal energy of surplus strength to develop more strength; it is, in addition, a safe and wholesome outlet for the aggressive spirit in human beings.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines play thus: ‘‘to move about in lively or unrestrained or capricious manner, frisk, flutter.’’ This definition, however, also conveys a wrong concept and a misleading interpretation. In genuine sports there is no question of a ‘‘capricious manner’’; the aim is to play the game in a fair manner according to the prescribed rules of which every player is supposed to be fully aware. Those who violate the rules, play foul or exceed the permissible limits, or indulge in tactics that are unfair, are promptly pulled up by the referee or the umpire. Anyone who refuses to mend his ways or to repeatedly violate the rules is ordered to quit the field and is replaced by another player. This helps to inculcate the habit of respecting the judge and of observing the rules.
Obviously, society as a whole stands to benefit if its members play the game according to the prescribed rules, which means the laws and regulations, and does not flout them. Those who flout the law and become anti-social elements are hauled up by the forces responsible for maintaining law and order. The executive authorities enforce the laws and the judiciary punishes those whose guilt is duly established. Sportsmen generally tend to become good citizens, and society is thus the ultimate beneficiary.
While most people concede the importance of sports in a healthy society and under a good government, there has also been much criticism, which is fully justified, too, about the craze, enthusiasm and fervour displayed by people of all ages, especially the country’s youth (except the sober elders and duty-conscious officers and employees), whenever cricket Test matches are being played in India or abroad and wherever India is one of the participants. Work virtually comes to a stop in offices, factories, schools and colleges. Everyone starts listening to cricket commentaries, forget their work and duty, in effect lose themselves mentally in the process; all their attention is concentrated on the ball-by-ball Test commentaries. At wayside shops, in trains and buses, on ships and in aircraft, it is the same story during the cricket season—people attentively listening to radio commentaries or watching the cricket matches on TV.
Surely this is not what we mean by sport and sportsmanship. The right description for this habit is ‘‘craze’’. It does not develop any of the values which sports and games inculcate—discipline and playing the game in the right spirit. Tennis, hockey and football are more vigorous games, and a match is over in about an hour. Watching such games is understandable and should be encouraged but cricket Tests last for five or six days each, and the waste of time of the general public who listen to the commentaries from morning to late afternoon can be well imagined.
Some observers have contended that there is a close link between sports and a country’s industrial development and the general progress of society. That is why it is contended, most of the gold medals at the Olympics are bagged by advanced countries such as the USA, Russia and Germany, and Britain too manages to bag a few of them. Of the eastern countries, China and Japan plunder most of the gold and silver medals.
Is there a link also between performance in sports and a country’s military might? Militarily China is the most powerful country in the East, but Japan, which matches the USA in industrial, especially electronic, advancement, does well in sports despite its small size. India is a large country of continental size, and given the proper incentives and the necessary facilities, this country’s sportsmen should do well on the sports field, but whether it is the climatic factor, the lack of adequate nutrition and of incentives, our sportsmen do not compare favourably with those of the USA, Russia, Germany and Australia.
In any case, the relatively poor show of our athletes in international competitions does not weaken the case for encouraging sports which help to lay the foundations of a healthy, sound society. The cost is returned several-fold.
Educationalists and others have come to the conclusion that it is in the interest of society as a whole that adequate facilities should be provided, depending of course upon the availability of funds, for games and sports for the country’s youth, both boys and girls. Sports foster friendship and amity. Nor does the belief hold good any more that those who take part in sports or games would be no good at studies and that each year their absence from the class or shortage of lectures would be condoned because they can either attend to their studies or be on the playing field for some game or the other. It is felt that apart from some exceptional cases of students showing extraordinary talent and skill in certain games, or students who are expected to be high on the merit list in university examinations, most other students should play one game or other, not necessarily for achieving distinctions but for the sake of sport.
Several factors need to be taken into account in this connection. First, physical fitness is of the utmost importance for everyone, young and old. Participation in games and sports invariably ensures good health, fitness and, generally, freedom from ailments of various types which find easy victims among people who take no physical exercise and are either lazy, indolent or desk-bound or are book worms and keep studying all the time under the mistaken concept that they can win success in life by studying all the time and concentrating on the development of their mental faculties. They feel convinced that brains matter, not brawn, that spending hours on the play-field is a waste of time. But such students, sooner or later, find that unless the human body is kept in smooth trim and in an overall fit condition, even the brain will refuse to co-operate after some time. Actually, physical fitness is essential for proficiency in studies and for winning distinctions in examinations. Ailing bodies do not make for sharp brains. Exercise in some form or another is necessary, and sports provide an easy method to ensure such fitness.
Secondly, regular participation in sports provides a healthy channel for diversion of energies. Wherever students and other youth participate in sports regularly ensure constructive sublimation, misdirection of youthful vigour is much less and the tendency to indulge in indiscipline and mischief, disruptive activity of various kinds is curbed. Young people have surplus energy, and if this is fruitfully utilised, the foundations are laid for a healthy society where people are fully aware of the need for discipline, co-operative effort, team spirit, the cult of sportsmanship, of joint devotion to the achievement of a common goal in collaboration with others. They also learn to cultivate the vital quality of learning how to work together, to become not only good winners but also good losers. Both sides playing a game cannot win simultaneously and ups and downs are common.
The losers must learn to take their defeat sportingly. The right spirit can be learnt on the playgrounds. There is no point in bearing a grudge against the rivals; today’s losers can be tomorrow’s winners, as in society in general and the political arena in particular.
Thirdly, the statement that ‘‘the battle of Waterloo was won on the play-fields of Eton’’, implying that playing games and the spirit of sportsmanship help to inculcate lasting values which make for good soldiers, good fighters and good discipline, apart from promoting 100 per cent physical fitness. In British schools and colleges the fullest importance is given to sports, especially cricket and football. The result has been the creation of a healthy, well-developed, disciplined and efficient society in which people know the right proportions in life, put everything in the right perspective and seldom conduct themselves in an unsporting, ungentlemanly and unbecoming manner. Playing the game on the playground naturally instructs people to play the game of life in the right spirit, which is what matters most, not victory or defeat.
According to sociologists, society gains in many ways when the government encourages sports and games everywhere, provides playgrounds, the necessary equipment and other facilities, rewards outstanding sportsmen so as to encourage others also to play games. The crime graph dips, which means that the incidence of general crimes decreases because the right spirit and the right approach to things is developed on the playground. Sport, it has been said, is not only a manifestation of animal energy of surplus strength to develop more strength; it is, in addition, a safe and wholesome outlet for the aggressive spirit in human beings.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines play thus: ‘‘to move about in lively or unrestrained or capricious manner, frisk, flutter.’’ This definition, however, also conveys a wrong concept and a misleading interpretation. In genuine sports there is no question of a ‘‘capricious manner’’; the aim is to play the game in a fair manner according to the prescribed rules of which every player is supposed to be fully aware. Those who violate the rules, play foul or exceed the permissible limits, or indulge in tactics that are unfair, are promptly pulled up by the referee or the umpire. Anyone who refuses to mend his ways or to repeatedly violate the rules is ordered to quit the field and is replaced by another player. This helps to inculcate the habit of respecting the judge and of observing the rules.
Obviously, society as a whole stands to benefit if its members play the game according to the prescribed rules, which means the laws and regulations, and does not flout them. Those who flout the law and become anti-social elements are hauled up by the forces responsible for maintaining law and order. The executive authorities enforce the laws and the judiciary punishes those whose guilt is duly established. Sportsmen generally tend to become good citizens, and society is thus the ultimate beneficiary.
While most people concede the importance of sports in a healthy society and under a good government, there has also been much criticism, which is fully justified, too, about the craze, enthusiasm and fervour displayed by people of all ages, especially the country’s youth (except the sober elders and duty-conscious officers and employees), whenever cricket Test matches are being played in India or abroad and wherever India is one of the participants. Work virtually comes to a stop in offices, factories, schools and colleges. Everyone starts listening to cricket commentaries, forget their work and duty, in effect lose themselves mentally in the process; all their attention is concentrated on the ball-by-ball Test commentaries. At wayside shops, in trains and buses, on ships and in aircraft, it is the same story during the cricket season—people attentively listening to radio commentaries or watching the cricket matches on TV.
Surely this is not what we mean by sport and sportsmanship. The right description for this habit is ‘‘craze’’. It does not develop any of the values which sports and games inculcate—discipline and playing the game in the right spirit. Tennis, hockey and football are more vigorous games, and a match is over in about an hour. Watching such games is understandable and should be encouraged but cricket Tests last for five or six days each, and the waste of time of the general public who listen to the commentaries from morning to late afternoon can be well imagined.
Some observers have contended that there is a close link between sports and a country’s industrial development and the general progress of society. That is why it is contended, most of the gold medals at the Olympics are bagged by advanced countries such as the USA, Russia and Germany, and Britain too manages to bag a few of them. Of the eastern countries, China and Japan plunder most of the gold and silver medals.
Is there a link also between performance in sports and a country’s military might? Militarily China is the most powerful country in the East, but Japan, which matches the USA in industrial, especially electronic, advancement, does well in sports despite its small size. India is a large country of continental size, and given the proper incentives and the necessary facilities, this country’s sportsmen should do well on the sports field, but whether it is the climatic factor, the lack of adequate nutrition and of incentives, our sportsmen do not compare favourably with those of the USA, Russia, Germany and Australia.
In any case, the relatively poor show of our athletes in international competitions does not weaken the case for encouraging sports which help to lay the foundations of a healthy, sound society. The cost is returned several-fold.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Top Ten Most Polluted Places in the World
This Top Ten list was compiled by the Technical Advisory Board of the Blacksmith Institute, an environmental NGO based in New York. The criteria used in ranking the include the size of the affected population, the severity of the toxins involved, and reliable evidence of health problems associated with the pollution.
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Forty factories that manufacture industrial and agricultural chemicals release 70-120,000 tons of detergents and pesticides into the air every year. Untreated sewage and mercury-contaminated sludge are dumped arbitrarily.
Linfen, China
Severe air and water pollution from the coal, steel, and tar industries.
Tianying, China
One of the largest lead production bases in China with average lead concentrations in the air and soils 8.5 to 10 times national health standards.
Sukinda, India
Twelve chromite ore mines dump untreated water into the river, and over 30 million tons of waste rock have been dumped in the valley's riverbanks, which has resulted in severe water contamination.
Vapi, India
There are over 1,00 industries covering over a thousand acres in the region that has contaminated local produce.
La Oroya, Peru
Lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide from mining have contaminative the town.
Dzerzhinsk, Russia
A major Russian chemical manufacturing center, which produced Sarin and other deadly poisons during the cold war. Between 1930-1998, nearly 300,000 tons of chemical waste were improperly disposed of.
Norilsk, Russia
An industrial city in Siberia founded in 1935 as a slave labor camp, Norilsk is home of the world's largest heavy metals smelting complex and is plagued by severe air pollution.
Chernobyl, Ukraine
The world's worst nuclear disaster took place on April 26, 1986. The 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable.
Kabwe, Zambia
The country's second largest city is severely contaminated with lead from the mining industry.
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Forty factories that manufacture industrial and agricultural chemicals release 70-120,000 tons of detergents and pesticides into the air every year. Untreated sewage and mercury-contaminated sludge are dumped arbitrarily.
Linfen, China
Severe air and water pollution from the coal, steel, and tar industries.
Tianying, China
One of the largest lead production bases in China with average lead concentrations in the air and soils 8.5 to 10 times national health standards.
Sukinda, India
Twelve chromite ore mines dump untreated water into the river, and over 30 million tons of waste rock have been dumped in the valley's riverbanks, which has resulted in severe water contamination.
Vapi, India
There are over 1,00 industries covering over a thousand acres in the region that has contaminated local produce.
La Oroya, Peru
Lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide from mining have contaminative the town.
Dzerzhinsk, Russia
A major Russian chemical manufacturing center, which produced Sarin and other deadly poisons during the cold war. Between 1930-1998, nearly 300,000 tons of chemical waste were improperly disposed of.
Norilsk, Russia
An industrial city in Siberia founded in 1935 as a slave labor camp, Norilsk is home of the world's largest heavy metals smelting complex and is plagued by severe air pollution.
Chernobyl, Ukraine
The world's worst nuclear disaster took place on April 26, 1986. The 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable.
Kabwe, Zambia
The country's second largest city is severely contaminated with lead from the mining industry.
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Baroness in a sari in the House of Lords
As a girl who raised her voice to demand India’s independence from the British, Shreela Flather never imagined that one day she would be a part of British politics and become the first woman from the Asian ethnic minority community to enter Britain’s parliament.
In 1990, as a member of the Conservative Party, Flather was elected to the upper house of British parliament, the House of Lords, and from then on, she has been referred as Baroness Flather.
Flather was born in Lahore in 1934 into the family of Sir Ganga Ram, an engineer and philanthropist famous for building a large number of schools and hospitals across undivided India. Both Lahoris and Delhiwallas are aware of the role the Ganga Ram hospitals play in their cities.
In the 1950s, Flather came to study law in London.
Though the Baroness concedes that racist attitudes did prevail in England during those times, she told the BBC: “If there was racism, it was very open. If people didn’t want to talk to you they would not, but they would never abuse you.”
In 1976, Flather became the first ethnic minority woman in the UK to be elected councillor. In 1986, she was elected as mayor to the royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, a county famous for having the Windsor Castle, one of the Queen’s principal official residences in England.
Before entering politics, Flather was actively engaged in the social sector.
As a member of the House of Lords, she gained attention for wearing a sari in parliament. “I have always worn saris,” she said. “I am habituated to wearing them from the time of independence and partition.”
Flather makes it a point to take her two sons frequently to India so that they understand the country and its traditions. “If children are not accustomed to their roots and heritage, they tend to grow up lacking in self-confidence”.
She has written a book, scheduled for release in February, where she argues that women can play a crucial role in confronting poverty.
Flather took the lead in establishing a memorial commemorating the sacrifices made by South Asians during the First and Second World War. “In 1997, it struck me that there was no cenotaph for our people who had laid down their lives during the world wars,” she said.
In 1990, as a member of the Conservative Party, Flather was elected to the upper house of British parliament, the House of Lords, and from then on, she has been referred as Baroness Flather.
Flather was born in Lahore in 1934 into the family of Sir Ganga Ram, an engineer and philanthropist famous for building a large number of schools and hospitals across undivided India. Both Lahoris and Delhiwallas are aware of the role the Ganga Ram hospitals play in their cities.
In the 1950s, Flather came to study law in London.
Though the Baroness concedes that racist attitudes did prevail in England during those times, she told the BBC: “If there was racism, it was very open. If people didn’t want to talk to you they would not, but they would never abuse you.”
In 1976, Flather became the first ethnic minority woman in the UK to be elected councillor. In 1986, she was elected as mayor to the royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, a county famous for having the Windsor Castle, one of the Queen’s principal official residences in England.
Before entering politics, Flather was actively engaged in the social sector.
As a member of the House of Lords, she gained attention for wearing a sari in parliament. “I have always worn saris,” she said. “I am habituated to wearing them from the time of independence and partition.”
Flather makes it a point to take her two sons frequently to India so that they understand the country and its traditions. “If children are not accustomed to their roots and heritage, they tend to grow up lacking in self-confidence”.
She has written a book, scheduled for release in February, where she argues that women can play a crucial role in confronting poverty.
Flather took the lead in establishing a memorial commemorating the sacrifices made by South Asians during the First and Second World War. “In 1997, it struck me that there was no cenotaph for our people who had laid down their lives during the world wars,” she said.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Writ Jurisdiction of High Court
The High Court issues writs for enforcement of fundamental rights
of the citizen under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. No
other court in a State can issue writs. There are 5 types of writs
provided for in the Constitution of India:
a. Writ of Habeas Corpus:
This writ is issued asking for producing a detained
person before it to know the reason for his detention. This writ is
usually issued when an arrested person has not been produced
before the Magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest as mandated by
the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. If there is no legal justification
for the imprisonment, the Court has the power to set the person
free.
b. Writ of Mandamus:
This writ is issued directing a public authority to
perform a legal duty which he has not performed.
c. Writ of Prohibition:
It prohibits a subordinate court from overstepping its
jurisdiction. This is issued before delivery of the judgment.
d. Writ of Certiorari:
This writ is issued to quash the order given by a
subordinate court by overstepping its jurisdiction. This is issued
only after the judgment has been delivered.
e. Writ of Quo Warranto:
This writ is issued against the usurpation of a public
office. The court enquires into the legality of the claim of a person
to a public office. He can be removed from office if his claim is
not well founded.
of the citizen under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. No
other court in a State can issue writs. There are 5 types of writs
provided for in the Constitution of India:
a. Writ of Habeas Corpus:
This writ is issued asking for producing a detained
person before it to know the reason for his detention. This writ is
usually issued when an arrested person has not been produced
before the Magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest as mandated by
the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. If there is no legal justification
for the imprisonment, the Court has the power to set the person
free.
b. Writ of Mandamus:
This writ is issued directing a public authority to
perform a legal duty which he has not performed.
c. Writ of Prohibition:
It prohibits a subordinate court from overstepping its
jurisdiction. This is issued before delivery of the judgment.
d. Writ of Certiorari:
This writ is issued to quash the order given by a
subordinate court by overstepping its jurisdiction. This is issued
only after the judgment has been delivered.
e. Writ of Quo Warranto:
This writ is issued against the usurpation of a public
office. The court enquires into the legality of the claim of a person
to a public office. He can be removed from office if his claim is
not well founded.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Interesting GK FACTS
-Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!
-A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.
-A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
-A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
-About 10% of the world's population is left-handed.
-A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.
-A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet
-A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
-A zebra is white with black stripes.
- Porpoises and dolphins communicate with each other by squeaking, growling, moaning, and whistling. Porpoises and dolphins are mammals. There are about 40 species or kinds of porpoises and dolphins. Most porpoises and dolphins navigate by using "echolocation". The largest member of the dolphin family is called an orca or killer whale.
- The hippopotamus gives birth under water and nurses its young in the river as well, though the young hippos do come up periodically for air.
-A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime
The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons.
The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
-- How the wind blows. As the sun warms the earth’s surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cool air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow.
- Dolphins sleep with one eye open!
--Why do we might feel warmer wearing a dark-colored jacket than a light-colored one? Dark colors absorb light energy. Light colors and white reflect light energy. When light shines on your dark jacket, the jacket fabric absorbs light energy. The absorbed light energy causes electrons in the atoms of the jacket to vibrate. This activity releases heat energy, which makes the jacket—and you—warmer. That's why we like to wear more dark colors in winter and more light colors in summer.
-While sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth.
-At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal.
--A flute made of bone is the oldest playable musical instrument in the world. It’s a flute carved from a bird’s wing bone more than 9,000 years ago. The flute was discovered with other flutes at an ancient burial site in China.
- The fastest dog, the greyhound, can reach speeds of upto 41.7 miles per hour. The breed was known to exist in ancient Egypt 6,000 years ago
-- Glue dates back to prehistoric times. Artists once mixed colorings with raw eggs, dried blood, and plant juices to make sticky paints for cave murals. Later, ancient Egyptians and other people learned to make stronger glues by boiling animal bones and hides. Today companies make glues using synthetic substances.
-A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
-A cat uses whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of any passage.
-A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
-The grizzly bear can run as fast as the average horse!!
- The female lion does more than 90% of the hunting while the male simply prefers to rest. !!
- A jellyfish is 95 percent water!
- At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.
-Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!
-You blink over 10,000,000 times a year!
- Of all the words in the English language, the word ' set ' has the most definitions!
- The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!-
- Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!
- A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
-A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
-More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
- "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language
The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.
- No word in the English language rhymes with "month".
- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
-An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
The average person laughs about 15 times a day.
The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.
- All polar bears are left handed.
-Ants don't sleep.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Current General Knowledge
ABBREVIATIONS
DMO: Debt Management Office.
GST: Goods and Services Tax.
NUIAI: National Unique Identification Authority of India.
AWARDS
Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, 2008
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has become the first business leader in the world to receive the coveted award.
Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation, 2008
The pro-democracy Myanmar leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been felicitated with Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation. The award was bestowed by the South African-based Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. Burmese PM-in-exile Thien Win received the award on her behalf. The award was being given on July 20 because it representeds the 20th anniversary of Suu Kyi’s house arrest by the military junta in her country.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, 2009
M.C. Marykom. Inspired by Dingko Singh’s gold medal feat in the 1998 Bangkok Asiad, the Manipuri girl took up boxing a decade back and hasn’t looked back. She took up the sport to support her family, but soon she emerged as one of the most feared boxers in the ring. Her best came in the world championships, where she has won four gold.
Vijender Singh. The boxer from Kaluwas in Haryana struggled to make ends meet in his early days. His talent got recognition after he started doing well in the junior nationals and subsequently was sent abroad for training and competition programmes. Kept the entire nation glued to the TV set during his bouts in the Beijing Olympics. Unlucky to have missed the final, the tall and handsome boxer did enough to create a record by becoming the first Indian to win an Olympic boxing medal.
Sushil Kumar. The Delhi wrestler has battled the odds since childhood, but kept on working hard to excel. Things began to change after he bagged the world cadet gold in 1998 and he followed it up with another gold in the Asian junior championship. Though he was successful at the highest level, the Beijing medal made him a household name.
Arjuna Award, 2009
Mangal Singh Champia (Archery), Sinimole Paulose (Athletics), Saina Nehwal (Badminton), L. Sarita Devi (Boxing), Tania Sachdev (Chess), Gautam Gambhir (Cricket), Ignace Tirkey (Hockey), Surinder Kaur (Hockey), Pankaj Navanath Shirsat (Kabaddi), Satish Joshi (Rowing), Ronjan Sodhi (Shooting), Poulomi Ghatak (Table Tennis), Yogeshwar Dutt (Wrestling), Girdhari Lal Yadav (Yachting), Parul Parmar (Badminton, disabled).
Dhyan Chand Award, 2009
Ishar S Deol (Athletics), Satbir Singh Dahya (Wrestling).
Dronacharya Award, 2009
P. Gopichand (Badminton), Jaydev Bisht (Boxing), S. Baldev Singh (Hockey), Satpal (Wrestling).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar, 2009
Community Sports Identification and Nurturing of Budding Young Talent: TATA Steel Ltd.
Financial Support for Sports Excellence, 2009: TATA Steel Ltd.
Employment of Sportspersons and sports welfare measures, 2009: Railways Sports Promotion Board.
BOOKS
Future of Cricket—The Rise of Twenty20, The
Written by John Buchanan, the former coach of the Australian national team and the Knight Riders IPL squad the book takes swipes at Sunil Gavaskar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Kevin Pietersen, Shoaib Akhtar, Vijay Mallya and Mark Ramprakash. The book deals with IPL and T20. Yet, attention remained focused on its criticism of some of cricket’s biggest stars.
DEFENCE
Nuclear Submarine INS Arihant is launched
Mrs Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, launched the first indigenously built nuclear submarine INS Arihant and sent it out to water on July 26, 2009. The 110-metre-long submarine is expected to generate a “wave” of strategic signals as India entered the exclusive club of nations that have the capability to build nuclear submarines.
The 5,500 tonne vessel, with a range of 750 km, will become operational within two years after sea trials. With this, India has become the only country in the Indian Ocean region to have nuclear submarine.
Two more indigenous nuclear submarines are under construction and are slated to be inducted by 2015. The three will cost about Rs 30,000 crore. Another nuclear submarine, the Akula class ‘Nerpa’, is to arrive on 10-year lease from Russia in December 2009. So far, only USA, Russia, France, UK and China have nuclear-submarine capabilities. India operated a nuclear submarine on lease from Russia between 1988 and 1991.
It took more than 25 years for it to come into existence since the submarine was planned. In between, India faced sanctions and was even denied technology but it carried on. The actual project commenced in January 1998 when the first steel was cut at a secret ceremony. The project was code-named the “advanced technology vessel” and the government had been denying its existence altogether.
The submarine has a diameter of 11 meters and displacement of 6,000 tonnes. It has the latest sensors, anti-ship missiles besides strategic (nuclear-tipped) missiles. INS Arihant can fire missiles from under the sea and can lurk in ocean depths of half a km and more. It is powered by an 85-MW capacity nuclear reactor and can acquire surface speeds of 22 to 28 kmph and submerged speed up to 44 kmph. It will be carrying a crew of 95 and will be armed with torpedoes and missiles, including 12 ballistic missiles.
The K-15 nuclear missile, Shaurya, that can fire some 700 km, has already been tested by the DRDO using a canister to mimic an under-sea launch. With this, India will complete its nuclear triad. India already has land-based and air-borne nuclear capabilities.
Unlike diesel-electric powered submarines that have to surface every 48 hours or so to “breathe”, a nuclear- powered submarine can remain submerged for longer periods, enabling it to hide. The vessel is critical for India's nuclear doctrine that calls for high survivability against surprise attacks and for rapid punitive response. A nuclear submarine can be counter in case an enemy launched a crippling strike on land-based or air-based nuclear weapons.
PEOPLE
Hangal, Gangubai
Legendary Hindustani vocalist, she died on July 21, 2009. She was 97. Gangubai, who enthralled millions with her deep understanding of Hindustani music and her powerful androgynous voice, lived a full life. Her career spanned over seven decades. She loved life and remained humble despite her unparalleled achievements. Her early life was tough. She battled hunger and caste and gender prejudices. Though this battle continued for most part of her life, she found a reason to always smile.
Born in 1913 in Dharwar (Karnataka) in a family of Gangamats (boatmen), Gangubai, like her mother Amlabai and grandmother Kamlabai, was naturally drawn to singing since childhood. Women belonging to the caste were supposed to entertain upper caste people by singing.
Gangubai’s late husband Gururao Kaulgi and her father Nadgir were both Brahmins. But, neither Gangubai nor her mother assumed their husbands’ name or lived with them. In adherence to the matrilineal tradition, her children also call themselves “Hangal”.
Gangubai, who belonged to the Kirana Gharana, first sang in front of a large audience in the Congress session held in Belgaum in 1924.
In her long life as a classical singer, Gangubai went on to bag prestigious awards, including the Padma Bhushan, Tansen Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Karnataka University (KU).
Naidu, Leela
Hindi film actress, who mesmerised audiences with her classic beauty in films like "Anuradha" and "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke” died in Mumbai after prolonged illness. She was 69. The actress, who came into the spotlight after winning the Miss India title in 1955, was later featured in the Vogue magazine along with Maharani Gayatri Devi in the list of 'World's 10 Most Beautiful Women'. Born to renowned scientist Ramaiah Naidu and an Irish mother, Leela began her career with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's National Award winning film "Anuradha" in 1960 opposite Balraj Sahni.
PLACES
L'Aquila
The heads of G-8 met in L'Aquila, a mountainous town of Italy, situated 120 km from Rome in July 2009. Almost 40 countries were present there. Many other international organisations were invited as well. G-5 that consists of India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa had a buzz around them. G-5 plus Egypt were invited for a special session.
Sharm El-Sheikh
This Red Sea resort city of Egypt hosted the Non-Aligned (NAM) summit in July 2009.
Staples Centre
Located in Los Angeles, the public memorial of pop star Michael Jackson was held here on July 7, 2009. A staggering 1.6 million people applied to win free tickets for the event, which were allocated via an online lottery. Over 1,400 police officers were deployed to provide security. In the US alone, at least 16 major TV networks covered the service live, and 88 cinemas screened it, making it one of the biggest televised events of the year after the January 20, 2009 inauguration of President Obama.
Taregna
A mindboggling two lakh star gazers, including researchers, astronomers and scientists from across the globe descended on July 22, 2009, on this sleepy Bihar village which was catapulted to world fame because of NASA declaring it as the ‘best spot’ to view the total solar eclipse.
The duration of the eclipse at Taregna, 35 km from Patna, was three minutes 48 seconds.
Taregna village, it is said, was the observatory of legendary astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata. The word ‘Taregna’ perhaps comes from the Sanskrit ‘‘taraka-gnana’’ (calculating stars).
Aryabhata was born in Pataliputra (then Kusumpura), in 476 AD (according to some experts on April 13) and at age 23 wrote his monumental work ‘Aryabhatiyam’. At the same age, Isaac Newton proposed his theory of gravitation in 1665 AD. Almost 1,000 years before Copernicus (1473-1543 AD) and Galileo (1564-1642), Aryabhata discovered that the earth is round and rotates on its axis. He proposed a theory of his own to explain various planetary motions and accurately predicted the duration of an eclipse and total obscuration of the sun and the moon.
PROJECTS
Gail to lay India’s longest gas pipeline
Gail India, country’s largest gas transportation company, will invest Rs 7,600 crore in building India’s longest gas pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal. Besides the 2,050-km pipeline, the company will invest an additional Rs 400 crore to lay two spur pipelines that will link Baurani and Chappra in Bihar with Gail’s pipeline networks.
Gail currently operates 7,100 km of gas pipelines and plans to double its the network by March 2012 with an investment of around Rs 28,000 crore.
The Jagdishpur-Haldia project will be executed in phases. First 1,410 km of pipeline will be laid from Haldia to Phulpur, along with spur-lines to various consumers like Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation at Durgapur and Barauni, Fertiliser Corporation of India at Sindri and Barauni, power plant at Barh and Bettiah and in the cities of Patna, Chapra, Siwan, Gopalganj and Bettiah.
In the next phase, spur-lines and feeder lines will be laid for a length of 450 km to the cities of Kolkata, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Varanasi and Allahabad and Sagardighi. In the last phase, gas pipeline infrastructure will connect SAIL’s plants at Durgapur and Bokaro and petrochemical plant at Barauni with Gail’s network.
RESEARCH
Superior face recognition software
Florida Atlantic University engineers in Boca Raton are working on a superior new face recognition technique that can see through disguises. Lin Huang, from the University's department of engineering, says that every face has special features that define people, yet faces can also be very similar. This is what makes computerised face recognition for security and other applications an interesting, but difficult task.
Face recognition software has been in development for many years, but the main technical limitation is that, although the systems are accurate, they require a lot of computer power. Early face recognition systems simply marked major facial features—eyes, nose mouth—on a photograph, and computed the distances from these features to a common reference point.
In the new study, researchers have applied a one-dimensional filter to the two-dimensional data from conventional analyses, such as the Gabor method (which is based on neural networks). This allows them to reduce significantly the amount of computer power required without compromising accuracy.
The team found that their technique was not only faster and worked with low resolution images, such as those produced by standard CCTV cameras, but it also solved the variation problems caused by different light levels and shadows, viewing direction, pose, and facial expressions. It could even see through certain types of disguises, such as facial hair and glasses.
The findings have been published in International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications.
SPACE RESEARCH
A hole as big as Earth in Jupiter
In a startling discovery, an amateur Australian astronomer has spotted a giant hole, the size of the Earth, on planet Jupiter—a finding corroborated by US space agency NASA. Anthony Wesley said he spotted the dark “scar” which had suddenly appeared on Jupiter through a homemade telescope, from the yard of his rural home near Canberra.
MISCELANEOUS
GM fish set to tickle Indian palates
Scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, have developed a genetically modified (GM) fish that are superior in yield and quality. The popular fish variety “rohu” will reach the Indian plates once the mandatory clearances come. After obtaining the approvals the CCMB will go for a tie up with Andhra Pradesh fisheries department for mass production of GM rohu.
This GM fish can multiply manifold within a short time. Not only that, they will be much bigger than the natural variety without any change in nutritional value and taste. Consequently, fish breeders will not need to wait for a long time for the fish to reach their optimum size and number, thereby reducing feed costs and other expenses of fish hatcheries.
Allaying apprehensions over the safety of GM rohu, scientists said: “There is no introduction of foreign gene. The gene inserted into the fish’s genome is part of its own genome.” Rohu is the most farmed and among the most widely consumed fish in India.
Google’s new system to take on Microsoft
Google is working on a new operating system for inexpensive computers in a daring attempt to wrest away Microsoft's long-running control over people's computing experience. The new operating system will be based on the company's nine month-old web browser, Chrome. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.
Google is designing the operating system primarily for "netbooks," a lower-cost, less powerful breed of laptop computers that is becoming increasingly popular among budget-conscious consumers primarily interested in surfing the web.
The operating system represents Google's boldest challenge yet to its biggest nemesis Microsoft. A high-stakes duel between the two technology powerhouses has been steadily escalating in recent years as Google's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search market has given it the means to threaten Microsoft in ways that few other companies can.
The Chrome operating system will run in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel computer coding that has been the foundation for the open-source software movement for nearly two decades. Google has already introduced an operating system for mobile devices, called Android, which vies against various other systems, including ones made by Microsoft and Apple.
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
GST is a comprehensive tax levy on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services at a national level. Through a tax credit mechanism, this tax is collected on value-added goods and services at each stage of sale or purchase in the supply chain. The system allows the set-off of GST paid on the procurement of goods and services against the GST which is payable on the supply of goods or services. However, the end consumer bears this tax as he is the last person in the supply chain.
The Goods and Service Tax (GST) will integrate State economies and boost overall growth. GST will create a single, unified Indian market to make the economy stronger. The implementation of GST will lead to the abolition of other taxes such as octroi, Central Sales Tax, State-level sales tax, entry tax, stamp duty, telecom licence fees, turnover tax, tax on consumption or sale of electricity, taxes on transportation of goods and services, etc., thus avoiding multiple layers of taxation that currently exist in India.
It is estimated that India will gain $15 billion a year by implementing the Goods and Services Tax as it would promote exports, raise employment and boost growth. It will divide the tax burden equitably between manufacturing and services.
In the GST system, both Central and State taxes will be collected at the point of sale. Both components (the Central and State GST) will be charged on the manufacturing cost. This will benefit individuals as prices are likely to come down. Lower prices will lead to more consumption, thereby helping companies.
Almost 140 countries have already implemented the GST. Most of the countries have a unified GST system. Brazil and Canada follow a dual system where GST is levied by both the Union and the State governments. France was the first country to introduce GST system in 1954.
CGST will include central excise duty, service tax, and additional duties of customs at the central level; and value-added tax, central sales tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, octroi, lottery taxes, electricity duty, state surcharges related to supply of goods and services and purchase tax at the State level.
India to be third largest Internet user base by 2013
The number of Internet users worldwide is expected to touch 2.2 billion by 2013 and India is projected to have the third largest online population during the same time, technology and market research firm Forrester Research said in a report. Globally, there were about 1.5 billion Internet users in the year 2008.
Titled ‘Global Online Population Forecast, 2008 to 2013’, the report noted that emerging markets like India would see a growth of 10 to 20 per cent by 2013. In the next four years, about 43 per cent of the Internet users globally are anticipated to reside in Asia and China would account for about half of that population. The percentage of Internet users in Asia would increase to 43 per cent in 2013 from 38 per cent in 2008.
The percentage of the global online population located in North America will drop from 17 per cent to 13 per cent between 2008 and 2013, while Europe’s share will shrink from 26 per cent to 22 per cent.
DMO: Debt Management Office.
GST: Goods and Services Tax.
NUIAI: National Unique Identification Authority of India.
AWARDS
Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, 2008
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has become the first business leader in the world to receive the coveted award.
Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation, 2008
The pro-democracy Myanmar leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been felicitated with Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation. The award was bestowed by the South African-based Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. Burmese PM-in-exile Thien Win received the award on her behalf. The award was being given on July 20 because it representeds the 20th anniversary of Suu Kyi’s house arrest by the military junta in her country.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, 2009
M.C. Marykom. Inspired by Dingko Singh’s gold medal feat in the 1998 Bangkok Asiad, the Manipuri girl took up boxing a decade back and hasn’t looked back. She took up the sport to support her family, but soon she emerged as one of the most feared boxers in the ring. Her best came in the world championships, where she has won four gold.
Vijender Singh. The boxer from Kaluwas in Haryana struggled to make ends meet in his early days. His talent got recognition after he started doing well in the junior nationals and subsequently was sent abroad for training and competition programmes. Kept the entire nation glued to the TV set during his bouts in the Beijing Olympics. Unlucky to have missed the final, the tall and handsome boxer did enough to create a record by becoming the first Indian to win an Olympic boxing medal.
Sushil Kumar. The Delhi wrestler has battled the odds since childhood, but kept on working hard to excel. Things began to change after he bagged the world cadet gold in 1998 and he followed it up with another gold in the Asian junior championship. Though he was successful at the highest level, the Beijing medal made him a household name.
Arjuna Award, 2009
Mangal Singh Champia (Archery), Sinimole Paulose (Athletics), Saina Nehwal (Badminton), L. Sarita Devi (Boxing), Tania Sachdev (Chess), Gautam Gambhir (Cricket), Ignace Tirkey (Hockey), Surinder Kaur (Hockey), Pankaj Navanath Shirsat (Kabaddi), Satish Joshi (Rowing), Ronjan Sodhi (Shooting), Poulomi Ghatak (Table Tennis), Yogeshwar Dutt (Wrestling), Girdhari Lal Yadav (Yachting), Parul Parmar (Badminton, disabled).
Dhyan Chand Award, 2009
Ishar S Deol (Athletics), Satbir Singh Dahya (Wrestling).
Dronacharya Award, 2009
P. Gopichand (Badminton), Jaydev Bisht (Boxing), S. Baldev Singh (Hockey), Satpal (Wrestling).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar, 2009
Community Sports Identification and Nurturing of Budding Young Talent: TATA Steel Ltd.
Financial Support for Sports Excellence, 2009: TATA Steel Ltd.
Employment of Sportspersons and sports welfare measures, 2009: Railways Sports Promotion Board.
BOOKS
Future of Cricket—The Rise of Twenty20, The
Written by John Buchanan, the former coach of the Australian national team and the Knight Riders IPL squad the book takes swipes at Sunil Gavaskar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Kevin Pietersen, Shoaib Akhtar, Vijay Mallya and Mark Ramprakash. The book deals with IPL and T20. Yet, attention remained focused on its criticism of some of cricket’s biggest stars.
DEFENCE
Nuclear Submarine INS Arihant is launched
Mrs Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, launched the first indigenously built nuclear submarine INS Arihant and sent it out to water on July 26, 2009. The 110-metre-long submarine is expected to generate a “wave” of strategic signals as India entered the exclusive club of nations that have the capability to build nuclear submarines.
The 5,500 tonne vessel, with a range of 750 km, will become operational within two years after sea trials. With this, India has become the only country in the Indian Ocean region to have nuclear submarine.
Two more indigenous nuclear submarines are under construction and are slated to be inducted by 2015. The three will cost about Rs 30,000 crore. Another nuclear submarine, the Akula class ‘Nerpa’, is to arrive on 10-year lease from Russia in December 2009. So far, only USA, Russia, France, UK and China have nuclear-submarine capabilities. India operated a nuclear submarine on lease from Russia between 1988 and 1991.
It took more than 25 years for it to come into existence since the submarine was planned. In between, India faced sanctions and was even denied technology but it carried on. The actual project commenced in January 1998 when the first steel was cut at a secret ceremony. The project was code-named the “advanced technology vessel” and the government had been denying its existence altogether.
The submarine has a diameter of 11 meters and displacement of 6,000 tonnes. It has the latest sensors, anti-ship missiles besides strategic (nuclear-tipped) missiles. INS Arihant can fire missiles from under the sea and can lurk in ocean depths of half a km and more. It is powered by an 85-MW capacity nuclear reactor and can acquire surface speeds of 22 to 28 kmph and submerged speed up to 44 kmph. It will be carrying a crew of 95 and will be armed with torpedoes and missiles, including 12 ballistic missiles.
The K-15 nuclear missile, Shaurya, that can fire some 700 km, has already been tested by the DRDO using a canister to mimic an under-sea launch. With this, India will complete its nuclear triad. India already has land-based and air-borne nuclear capabilities.
Unlike diesel-electric powered submarines that have to surface every 48 hours or so to “breathe”, a nuclear- powered submarine can remain submerged for longer periods, enabling it to hide. The vessel is critical for India's nuclear doctrine that calls for high survivability against surprise attacks and for rapid punitive response. A nuclear submarine can be counter in case an enemy launched a crippling strike on land-based or air-based nuclear weapons.
PEOPLE
Hangal, Gangubai
Legendary Hindustani vocalist, she died on July 21, 2009. She was 97. Gangubai, who enthralled millions with her deep understanding of Hindustani music and her powerful androgynous voice, lived a full life. Her career spanned over seven decades. She loved life and remained humble despite her unparalleled achievements. Her early life was tough. She battled hunger and caste and gender prejudices. Though this battle continued for most part of her life, she found a reason to always smile.
Born in 1913 in Dharwar (Karnataka) in a family of Gangamats (boatmen), Gangubai, like her mother Amlabai and grandmother Kamlabai, was naturally drawn to singing since childhood. Women belonging to the caste were supposed to entertain upper caste people by singing.
Gangubai’s late husband Gururao Kaulgi and her father Nadgir were both Brahmins. But, neither Gangubai nor her mother assumed their husbands’ name or lived with them. In adherence to the matrilineal tradition, her children also call themselves “Hangal”.
Gangubai, who belonged to the Kirana Gharana, first sang in front of a large audience in the Congress session held in Belgaum in 1924.
In her long life as a classical singer, Gangubai went on to bag prestigious awards, including the Padma Bhushan, Tansen Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Karnataka University (KU).
Naidu, Leela
Hindi film actress, who mesmerised audiences with her classic beauty in films like "Anuradha" and "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke” died in Mumbai after prolonged illness. She was 69. The actress, who came into the spotlight after winning the Miss India title in 1955, was later featured in the Vogue magazine along with Maharani Gayatri Devi in the list of 'World's 10 Most Beautiful Women'. Born to renowned scientist Ramaiah Naidu and an Irish mother, Leela began her career with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's National Award winning film "Anuradha" in 1960 opposite Balraj Sahni.
PLACES
L'Aquila
The heads of G-8 met in L'Aquila, a mountainous town of Italy, situated 120 km from Rome in July 2009. Almost 40 countries were present there. Many other international organisations were invited as well. G-5 that consists of India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa had a buzz around them. G-5 plus Egypt were invited for a special session.
Sharm El-Sheikh
This Red Sea resort city of Egypt hosted the Non-Aligned (NAM) summit in July 2009.
Staples Centre
Located in Los Angeles, the public memorial of pop star Michael Jackson was held here on July 7, 2009. A staggering 1.6 million people applied to win free tickets for the event, which were allocated via an online lottery. Over 1,400 police officers were deployed to provide security. In the US alone, at least 16 major TV networks covered the service live, and 88 cinemas screened it, making it one of the biggest televised events of the year after the January 20, 2009 inauguration of President Obama.
Taregna
A mindboggling two lakh star gazers, including researchers, astronomers and scientists from across the globe descended on July 22, 2009, on this sleepy Bihar village which was catapulted to world fame because of NASA declaring it as the ‘best spot’ to view the total solar eclipse.
The duration of the eclipse at Taregna, 35 km from Patna, was three minutes 48 seconds.
Taregna village, it is said, was the observatory of legendary astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata. The word ‘Taregna’ perhaps comes from the Sanskrit ‘‘taraka-gnana’’ (calculating stars).
Aryabhata was born in Pataliputra (then Kusumpura), in 476 AD (according to some experts on April 13) and at age 23 wrote his monumental work ‘Aryabhatiyam’. At the same age, Isaac Newton proposed his theory of gravitation in 1665 AD. Almost 1,000 years before Copernicus (1473-1543 AD) and Galileo (1564-1642), Aryabhata discovered that the earth is round and rotates on its axis. He proposed a theory of his own to explain various planetary motions and accurately predicted the duration of an eclipse and total obscuration of the sun and the moon.
PROJECTS
Gail to lay India’s longest gas pipeline
Gail India, country’s largest gas transportation company, will invest Rs 7,600 crore in building India’s longest gas pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal. Besides the 2,050-km pipeline, the company will invest an additional Rs 400 crore to lay two spur pipelines that will link Baurani and Chappra in Bihar with Gail’s pipeline networks.
Gail currently operates 7,100 km of gas pipelines and plans to double its the network by March 2012 with an investment of around Rs 28,000 crore.
The Jagdishpur-Haldia project will be executed in phases. First 1,410 km of pipeline will be laid from Haldia to Phulpur, along with spur-lines to various consumers like Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation at Durgapur and Barauni, Fertiliser Corporation of India at Sindri and Barauni, power plant at Barh and Bettiah and in the cities of Patna, Chapra, Siwan, Gopalganj and Bettiah.
In the next phase, spur-lines and feeder lines will be laid for a length of 450 km to the cities of Kolkata, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Varanasi and Allahabad and Sagardighi. In the last phase, gas pipeline infrastructure will connect SAIL’s plants at Durgapur and Bokaro and petrochemical plant at Barauni with Gail’s network.
RESEARCH
Superior face recognition software
Florida Atlantic University engineers in Boca Raton are working on a superior new face recognition technique that can see through disguises. Lin Huang, from the University's department of engineering, says that every face has special features that define people, yet faces can also be very similar. This is what makes computerised face recognition for security and other applications an interesting, but difficult task.
Face recognition software has been in development for many years, but the main technical limitation is that, although the systems are accurate, they require a lot of computer power. Early face recognition systems simply marked major facial features—eyes, nose mouth—on a photograph, and computed the distances from these features to a common reference point.
In the new study, researchers have applied a one-dimensional filter to the two-dimensional data from conventional analyses, such as the Gabor method (which is based on neural networks). This allows them to reduce significantly the amount of computer power required without compromising accuracy.
The team found that their technique was not only faster and worked with low resolution images, such as those produced by standard CCTV cameras, but it also solved the variation problems caused by different light levels and shadows, viewing direction, pose, and facial expressions. It could even see through certain types of disguises, such as facial hair and glasses.
The findings have been published in International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications.
SPACE RESEARCH
A hole as big as Earth in Jupiter
In a startling discovery, an amateur Australian astronomer has spotted a giant hole, the size of the Earth, on planet Jupiter—a finding corroborated by US space agency NASA. Anthony Wesley said he spotted the dark “scar” which had suddenly appeared on Jupiter through a homemade telescope, from the yard of his rural home near Canberra.
MISCELANEOUS
GM fish set to tickle Indian palates
Scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, have developed a genetically modified (GM) fish that are superior in yield and quality. The popular fish variety “rohu” will reach the Indian plates once the mandatory clearances come. After obtaining the approvals the CCMB will go for a tie up with Andhra Pradesh fisheries department for mass production of GM rohu.
This GM fish can multiply manifold within a short time. Not only that, they will be much bigger than the natural variety without any change in nutritional value and taste. Consequently, fish breeders will not need to wait for a long time for the fish to reach their optimum size and number, thereby reducing feed costs and other expenses of fish hatcheries.
Allaying apprehensions over the safety of GM rohu, scientists said: “There is no introduction of foreign gene. The gene inserted into the fish’s genome is part of its own genome.” Rohu is the most farmed and among the most widely consumed fish in India.
Google’s new system to take on Microsoft
Google is working on a new operating system for inexpensive computers in a daring attempt to wrest away Microsoft's long-running control over people's computing experience. The new operating system will be based on the company's nine month-old web browser, Chrome. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.
Google is designing the operating system primarily for "netbooks," a lower-cost, less powerful breed of laptop computers that is becoming increasingly popular among budget-conscious consumers primarily interested in surfing the web.
The operating system represents Google's boldest challenge yet to its biggest nemesis Microsoft. A high-stakes duel between the two technology powerhouses has been steadily escalating in recent years as Google's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search market has given it the means to threaten Microsoft in ways that few other companies can.
The Chrome operating system will run in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel computer coding that has been the foundation for the open-source software movement for nearly two decades. Google has already introduced an operating system for mobile devices, called Android, which vies against various other systems, including ones made by Microsoft and Apple.
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
GST is a comprehensive tax levy on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services at a national level. Through a tax credit mechanism, this tax is collected on value-added goods and services at each stage of sale or purchase in the supply chain. The system allows the set-off of GST paid on the procurement of goods and services against the GST which is payable on the supply of goods or services. However, the end consumer bears this tax as he is the last person in the supply chain.
The Goods and Service Tax (GST) will integrate State economies and boost overall growth. GST will create a single, unified Indian market to make the economy stronger. The implementation of GST will lead to the abolition of other taxes such as octroi, Central Sales Tax, State-level sales tax, entry tax, stamp duty, telecom licence fees, turnover tax, tax on consumption or sale of electricity, taxes on transportation of goods and services, etc., thus avoiding multiple layers of taxation that currently exist in India.
It is estimated that India will gain $15 billion a year by implementing the Goods and Services Tax as it would promote exports, raise employment and boost growth. It will divide the tax burden equitably between manufacturing and services.
In the GST system, both Central and State taxes will be collected at the point of sale. Both components (the Central and State GST) will be charged on the manufacturing cost. This will benefit individuals as prices are likely to come down. Lower prices will lead to more consumption, thereby helping companies.
Almost 140 countries have already implemented the GST. Most of the countries have a unified GST system. Brazil and Canada follow a dual system where GST is levied by both the Union and the State governments. France was the first country to introduce GST system in 1954.
CGST will include central excise duty, service tax, and additional duties of customs at the central level; and value-added tax, central sales tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, octroi, lottery taxes, electricity duty, state surcharges related to supply of goods and services and purchase tax at the State level.
India to be third largest Internet user base by 2013
The number of Internet users worldwide is expected to touch 2.2 billion by 2013 and India is projected to have the third largest online population during the same time, technology and market research firm Forrester Research said in a report. Globally, there were about 1.5 billion Internet users in the year 2008.
Titled ‘Global Online Population Forecast, 2008 to 2013’, the report noted that emerging markets like India would see a growth of 10 to 20 per cent by 2013. In the next four years, about 43 per cent of the Internet users globally are anticipated to reside in Asia and China would account for about half of that population. The percentage of Internet users in Asia would increase to 43 per cent in 2013 from 38 per cent in 2008.
The percentage of the global online population located in North America will drop from 17 per cent to 13 per cent between 2008 and 2013, while Europe’s share will shrink from 26 per cent to 22 per cent.
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