It is an African-origin ethnic tribe of about 20,000 people that has been living in near total obscurity in India for centuries. Isolated and reclusive, Siddis are mostly confined to small pockets of villages in the Indian states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, and the city of Hyderabad (there’s also a sizable population in Pakistan). Descendants of Bantu people of East Africa, Siddi ancestors were largely brought to India as slaves by Arabs as early as the 7th Century, followed by the Portuguese and the British later on. Others were free people who came to India as merchants, sailors and mercenaries before the Portuguese slave trade went into o... Read More...
Hard-rock aquifers of peninsular India These aquifers represent around 65% of India’s overall aquifer surface area. Most of them are found in central peninsular India, where land is typically underlain by hard-rock formations. These rocks give rise to a complex and extensive low-storage aquifer system, where in the water level tends to drop very rapidly once the water table falls by more than 2-6 meters. Additionally, these aquifers have poor permeability which limits their recharge through rainfall. This implies that water in these aquifers is non- replenishable and will eventually dry out due to continuous usage. ... Read More...
Maglev (derived from magnetic levitation) is a transport method that uses magnetic levitation to move vehicles without touching the ground. With maglev, a vehicle travels along a guide way using magnets to create both lift and propulsion, thereby reducing friction by a great extent and allowing very high speeds. Japan in 2015 clocked 600 km/h. Maglev trains move more smoothly and more quietly. They are relatively unaffected by weather. When we play with bar magnets we noticed that opposites attract, but if we turn one of the magnets around, then “like” poles repel. That is what keeps the mass of a train floating seve... Read More...
HNS is being executed under the State Nutrition Mission of Uttar Pradesh. · It is a scheme for providing nutritious food to pregnant woman and malnourished children. · Under this scheme, pregnant women and malnourished children would be given cooked food and one fruit each. · Consultation would also be provided to pregnant women and malnourished children come under the age group o... Read More...
It is a military doctrine. A military doctrine helps standardize operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing military tasks. Objective of “cold start” is to foster initiative and creative thinking and links theory, history, experimentation and practice. Cold Start is a military doctrine developed by the Indian Armed Forces to put to use in case of a war with Pakistan. The main objective of the Cold Start Doctrine is to launch a retaliatory conventional strike against Pakistan inflicting significant harm on the Pakistan Army before any international community could intercede, but not in way Pakistan would be pro... Read More...
Tamil oppari, or oppaari, is a distinctively South Indian genre of weeping songs performed primarily by grieving women, or by professional male musicians mostly from Harijan caste communities. Oppari is most commonly identified as the grieving song of a widow at the funeral of her husband. It is the folk tradition that grieves the death of men through story and song. Read More...
Dutee Chand is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. She is the third Indian women to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the Summer Olympic Games, with PT Usha having qualified for the event in 1980 Summer Olympics. Chand was dropped from the Commonwealth Games contingent in 2014 after the Athletic Federation of India stated that hyperandrogenism made her ineligible to compete as a female athlete. But she won the right to compete in 2015. Hyperandrogenism, or androgen excess, is a me... Read More...
The Global Peace Index (GPI) is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. It is the product of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected and collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It ranks 163 countries. In attempting to gauge peacefulness, the GPI investigates the extent to which countries are involved in ongoing domestic and international conflicts. It also seeks to evaluate the level of harmony or discord within a nation; ten indicators broad... Read More...
The serious mental distress experienced by a growing number of young people, particularly teenagers, as a result of family breakdown, school-related stress, bullying, cyber bullying and 24/7 online culture. As a result, young people are struggling with mental health problems and are more likely to abuse alcohol, drugs and prescription medication in an attempt to switch off from distressing feelings. Health services like de-addiction centres, voluntary sector, education and social care – should work together to make sure everything possible is being done to ensure those at risk are being offered the right services in the right places. ... Read More...
It is an intergovernmental organization located at The Hague in the Netherlands. The PCA is not a court, but a bureaucracy that provide services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes between member states, international organizations, or private parties arising out of international agreements.The cases span a range of legal issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment, and international and regional trade. It should not be confused with the International Court of Justice which is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations, while the PCA is not a UN agency. Read More...
Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial, computer-generated simulation or recreation of a real life environment or situation. It immerses the user by making them feel like they are experiencing the simulated reality firsthand, primarily by stimulating their vision and hearing. VR is typically achieved by wearing a headset like Facebook’s Oculus equipped with the technology, and is used prominently in two different ways: To create and enhance an imaginary reality for gaming, entertainment, and play (Such as video and computer games, or 3D movies, head mounted display). To enhance training for real life environments by creating a simu... Read More...
An industrial corridor is a package of infrastructure spending allocated to a specific geographical area, with the intent to stimulate industrial development.An industrial corridor aims to crease an area with a cluster of manufacturing or other industry. Such corridors are often created in areas that have preexisting infrastructure, suchas ports, highways and railroads. These modalities are arranged such that an "arterial" modality, such as a highway or railroad, receives "feeder" roads or railways. Concerns when creating corridors including correctly assessing demand and viabili... Read More...
The evidence now is fairly strong that people have cognitive limitations that lead them not to process all the available information. Poor people in particular suffer from a lot of cognitive constraints. Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir developed the idea of a “scarcity mindset”. The key finding is that poverty is a cognitive tax; it depletes our resources. Poor people cant afford nutritious food and thus their cognitive capacities become stunted. Because poverty is a vicious cycle, it is almost inherited. Our cognition is limited -- we can only think about a limited number of things at one time, and when the number of things we have to pay attenti... Read More...
The Iraq Inquiry, also referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, is a British public inquiry into the nation's role in the Iraq War. The inquiry was announced in 2009 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The Inquiry had broad terms of reference to consider Britain's involvement in Iraq between 2001 and 2009. It covered the run-up to the conflict, the subsequent military action and its aftermath with the purpose to establish the way decisions were made, to determine what happened and to identify lessons to ensure that in a similar situation in future, the British government is equipped to respond in the most effective manner in the best interes... Read More...
Ans. 1. The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has taken off India from the list of developing countries that are eligible for duty free access to US markets. Under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) scheme. 2. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is an umbrella that comprises the bulk of preferential schemes granted by industrialized nations to developing countries. 3. According to USTR, India’s share in global trade was 2.1 % for exports and 2.6% for imports in 2017. 4. Also India, along with nations like Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa, is p... Read More...
1. The US has approved the sale of an Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS) to India at an estimated cost of $1.9 billion. 2. The objective of the deal is to modernise India’s armed forces and to expand its existing air defence architecture to counter threats posed by air attacks. 3. IADWS will be used along with indigenous, Russian and Israeli systems to erect an ambitious multi-layered missile shield over the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi against aerial threats. 4. In India, the innermost layer of protection will be through the NASAM-II. 5. The indigenous Akash defence missile systems, with a 25-km range, will form the layer over the NAS... Read More...