arkaandCSE

2011-08-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

Employment Law and Labour Law In India

http://www.erlaws.com/keyw.asp?keyw=110

HIDDEN TRUTH OF PSU PAY REVISION

2009-06-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Last pay revision of PSU officers was done in year 1997. After a Gap of 10 years, 2nd Pay Revision Commission was set up on 30/11/06 under Mr. Justice M.Jagannadha Rao, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India. This commission gave its report on 31/05/08, after a detailed study of 18 months of Market scenario, Quantum of revision and various other factors.

The main Highlights of the “PSU pay commission” reports were:
1. Classification of PSU in A+, A, B, C, D categories based on their profit and other criterias. Separate Pay scale was decided for these categories with appropriate RISK PAY component added into new basic.
2. A+ categories were mostly the Navratna PSU (eg. Indian Oil, ONGC, NTPC, BHEL and other 7 PSU) making high profits and internationally acclaimed.
3. Continuous Loss making PSU were kept under category 'D' for whom Govt has to give financial assistance to pay salary.
4. 2-4% annual increment to be decided by PSU management.

Govt set up a “Committee of Secretaries (CoS)” to look into minor objections raised by PSU in the commission’s report. When the revised report was submitted by this CoS , it was totally different than what was recommended by pay commission. And Cabinet approved this revised report.

The CoS report, instead of doing minor modification for benefit of PSU, APPROVED 'D' CATEGORY SALARY FOR ALL PSU, INCLUDING HIGHLY EFFICIENT AND HUGE PROFIT MAKING NAVRATNA PSUs. IT SCRAPPED THE CONCEPT OF CATEGORISATION ITSELF. It is this decision that all PSU are demanding to take back.

As a matter of statistics: I will explain an example of salary of an entry level officer of PSU.
Pre Revision Salary already received for Jan-07
Pay scale : Rs 10,750 – Rs 16,750
Basic : Rs 10,750
Dearness Pay (50% of basic) : Rs 5,375
DA (18.8% of basic): Rs 3,032
Total : Rs 19,157
---------------------------------
New salary as Recommended by Pay revision Committee
Pay scale : Rs 24,000 – Rs 37,000
Risk Pay : Rs 2,200
New Basic : Rs 26,200
Total : Rs 26,200
% increase in salary : 36.76%
----------------------------------
Final approval as suggested by CoS
Pay scale : Rs 20,600 – Rs 46,500
Risk Pay : NIL
New Basic : Rs 23,600 (30% fitment on old Basic+DA)
Total : Rs 23,600
% increase in salary : 23.2%
-----------------------------------------------
There is no 50% - 200% increase in salary as published in paper/news channels.
1. As visible, an increase of Rs 6000 approx was recommended by pay commission, an increase in basic. But this small increase was also reduced by CoS .
2. The annual increment of 4% was reduced to uniform 3%.
3. The 50% DA merger benefit was never mentioned in both reports.
4. The Loss due to revision of report keeps on increasing with seniority of officer.
Any reduction in basic means loss in HRA and other benefits which are calculated on Basic salary. Approximately, there will be a loss of Rs 7000 per month for entry level officer if CoS approved report is implemented. And this loss will be in range of 20000-40000 for higher officers.

PSU officers work in direct competition with private players. They are different than Govt staff. As an irony, after the 6th Pay commission implementation of central govt. staff and this revision recommended for PSU, same level officer of central Govt now draws much more salary than PSU officer.

THE PAY REVISION COMMISSION’S REPORT FOR CENTRAL GOVT STAFF WAS IMPLEMENTED WITH UPWARD MODIFICATION, THEN WHY PSU PAY COMMISSION IS IMPLEMENTED WITH DOWNWARD MODIFICATION?????

2009-05-27T22:29:00.001-07:00

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Economic Terms

2009-05-26T21:10:00.001-07:00

Economic Terms

Absolute advantage: A country has an absolute advantage if its output per unit of input of all goods and services produced is higher than that of another country.

Ad valorem taxin Latin: to the value added) - a tax based on the value (or assessed value) of property.

Aggregate demand is the sum of all demand in an economy. This can be computed by adding the expenditure on consumer goods and services, investment, and not exports (total exports minus total imports).

Aggregate supply is the total value of the goods and services produced in a country, plus the value of imported goods less the value of exports.

Alternative minimum tax: An IRS mechanism created to ensure that high-income individuals, corporations, trusts, and estates pay at least some minimum amount of tax, regardless of deductions, credits or exemptions. It operates by adding certain tax-preference items back into adjusted gross income. While it was once only important for a small number of high-income individuals who made extensive use of tax shelters and deductions, more and more people are being affected by it. The AMT is triggered when there are large numbers of personal exemptions on state and local taxes paid, large numbers of miscellaneous itemized deductions or medical expenses, or by Incentive Stock Option (ISO) plans.

Asset: Anything of monetary value that is owned by a person. Assets include real property, personal property, and enforceable claims against others (including bank accounts, stocks, mutual funds, and so on).

Average propensity to consume is the proportion of income the average family spends on goods and services.

Average propensity to save is the proportion of income the average family saves (does not spend on consumption).

Average total cost is the sum of all the production costs divided by the number of units produced.

Balance of trade: The difference in value over a period of time between a country's imports and exports.

Barter system: System where there is an exchange goods without involving money.

Base year: In the construction of an index, the year from which the weights assigned to the different components of the index is drawn. It is conventional to set the value of an index in its base year equal to 100.

Bear: An investor with a pessimistic market outlook; an investor who expects prices to fall and so sells now in order to buy later at a lower price

Bid price: The highest price an investor is willing to pay for a stock.

Bill of exchange: A written, dated, and signed three-party instrument containing an unconditional order by a drawer that directs a drawee to pay a definite sum of money to a payee on demand or at a specified future date. Also known as a draft. It is the most commonly used financial instrument in international trade.

Birth rate: The number of births in a year per 1,000 population.

Bond: A certificate of debt (usually interest-bearing or discounted) that is issued by a government or corporation in order to raise money; the issuer is required to pay a fixed sum annually until maturity and then a fixed sum to repay the principal.

Boom: A state of economic prosperity

Break even: This is a term used to describe a point at which revenues equal costs (fixed and variable).

Bretton Woods: An international monetary system operating from 1946-1973. The value of the dollar was fixed in terms of gold, and every other country held its currency at a fixed exchange rate against the dollar; when trade deficits occurred, the central bank of the deficit country financed the deficit with its reserves of international currencies. The Bretton Woods system collapsed in 1971 when the US abandoned the gold standard.

Budget: A summary of intended expenditures along with proposals for how to meet them. A budget can provide guidelines for managing future investments and expenses.

Budget deficit is the amount by which government spending exceeds government revenues during a specified period of time usually a year.

Bull: An investor with an optimistic market outlook; an investor who expects prices to rise and so buys now for resale later

c.i.f., abbrev: Cost, Insurance and Freight: Export term in which the price quoted by the exporter includes the costs of ocean transportation to the port of destination and insurance coverage.

Call money: Price paid by an investor for a call option. There is no fixed rate for call money. It depends on the type of stock, its performance prior to the purchase of the call option, and the period of the contract. It is an interest bearing band deposits that can be withdrawn on 24 hours notice.

Capital: Wealth in the form of money or property owned by a person or business and human resources of economic value. Capital is the contribution to productive activity made by investment is physical capital (machinery, factories, tools and equipments) and human capital (eg general education, health). Capital is one of the three main factors of production other two are labour and natural resources.

Capital account; Part of a nation's balance of payments that includes purchases and sales of assets, such as stocks, bonds, and land. A nation has a capital account surplus when receipts from asset sales exceed payments for the country's purchases of foreign assets. The sum of the capital and current accounts is the overall balance of payments.

Capital budget: A plan of proposed capital outlays and the means of financing them for the current fiscal period. It is usually a part of the current budget. If a Capital Program is in operation, it will be the first year thereof. A Capital Program is sometimes referred to as a Capital Budget.

Capital gain tax: Tax paid on the gain realized upon the sale of an asset. It is a tax on profits from the sale of capital assets, such as shares. A capital loss can be used to offset a capital gain, reducing any tax you would otherwise have to pay.

Cartel: An organization of producers seeking to limit or eliminate competition among its members, most often by agreeing to restrict output to keep prices higher than would occur under competitive conditions. Cartels are inherently unstable because of the potential for producers to defect from the agreement and capture larger markets by selling at lower prices.

Census: Official gathering of information about the population in a particular area. Government departments use the data collected in planning for the future in such areas as health, education, transport, and housing..

Central bank: Major financial institution responsible for issuing currency, managing foreign reserves, implementing monetary policy, and providing banking services to the government and commercial banks.

Centrally planned economy: An economic system in which the production, pricing, and distribution of goods and services are determined by the government rather than market forces. Also referred to as a "non market economy." Former Soviet Union, China, and most other communist nations are examples of centrally planed economy

Classical economics: The economics of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and later followers such as John Stuart Mill. The theory concentrated on the functioning of a market economy, spelling out a rudimentary explanation of consumer and producer behaviour in particular markets and postulating that in the long term the economy would tend to operate at full employment because increases in supply would create corresponding increases in demand.

Closed economy: An economy in which there are no foreign trade transactions or any other form of economic contacts with the rest of the world.

Collateral security: Additional security a borrower supplies to obtain a loan.

Commercial Policy: encompassing instruments of trade protection employed by countries to foster industrial promotion, export diversification, employment creation, and other desired development-oriented strategies. They include tariffs, quotas, and subsidies.

Comparative advantage: The ability to produce a good at a lower cost, relative to other goods, compared to another country. With perfect competition and undistorted markets, countries tend to export goods in which they have a Comparative Advantage and hence make gains from trading

Compound interest: Interest paid on the original principal and on interest accrued from time it became due.

Conditionality: The requirement imposed by the International Monetary Fund that a borrowing country undertake fiscal, monetary, and international commercial reforms as a condition to receiving a loan for balance of payments difficulties.

Copyright: A legal right (usually of the author or composer or publisher of a work) to exclusive publication production, sale, distribution of some work. What is protected by the copyright is the "expression," not the idea. Notice that taking another's idea is plagiarism, so copyrights are not the equivalent of legal prohibition of plagiarism.

Correlation coefficient: Denoted as "r", a measure of the linear relationship between two variables. The absolute value of "r" provides an indication of the strength of the relationship. The value of "r" varies between positive 1 and negative 1, with -1 or 1 indicating a perfect linear relationship, and r = 0 indicating no relationship. The sign of the correlation coefficient indicates whether the slope of the line is positive or negative when the two variables are plotted in a scatter plot.

Cost benefit analysis: A technique that assesses projects through a comparison between their costs and benefits, including social costs and benefits for an entire region or country. Depending on the project objectives and its the expected outputs, three types of CBA are generally recognised: financial; economic; and social. Generally cost-benefit analyses are comparative, i.e. they are used to compare alternative proposals. Cost-benefit analysis compares the costs and benefits of the situation with and without the project; the costs and benefits are considered over the life of the project.

Countervailing duties: duties (tariffs) that are imposed by a country to counteract subsidies provided to a foreign producer Current account: Part of a nation's balance of payments which includes the value of all goods and services imported and exported, as well as the payment and receipt of dividends and interest. A nation has a current account surplus if exports exceed imports plus net transfers to foreigners. The sum of the current and capital accounts is the overall balance of payments.

Cross elasticity of demand: The change in the quantity demanded of one product or service impacting the change in demand for another product or service. E.g. percentage change in the quantity demanded of a good divided by the percentage change in the price of another good (a substitute or complement)

Cross elasticity of demand: The change in the quantity demanded of one product or service impacting the change in demand for another product or service. E.g. percentage change in the quantity demanded of a good divided by the percentage change in the price of another good (a substitute or complement)

Crowding out: The possible tendency for government spending on goods and services to put upward pressure on interest rates, thereby discouraging private investment spending.

Currency appreciation: An increase in the value of one currency relative to another currency. Appreciation occurs when, because of a change in exchange rates; a unit of one currency buys more units of another currency. Opposite is the case with currency depreciation.

Currency board: Form of central bank that issues domestic currency for foreign exchange at fixed rates.

Currency substitution: The use of foreign currency (e.g., U.S. dollars) as a medium of exchange in place of or along with the local currency (e.g., Rupees).

Customs duty: Duty levied on the imports of certain goods. Includes excise equivalents Unlike tariffs customs duties are used mainly as a means to raise revenue for the government rather than protecting domestic producers from foreign competition.

Death rate: numbers of people dying per thousand population.

Deflation: a reduction in the level of national income and output, usually accompanied by a fall in the general price level.

Developed country is an economically advanced country whose economy is characterized by a large industrial and service sector and high levels of income per head.

Developing country, less developed country, underdeveloped country or third world country: a country characterized by low levels of GDP and per capita income; typically dominated by agriculture and mineral products and majority of the population lives near subsistence levels.

Dumping occurs when goods are exported at a price less than their normal value, generally meaning they are exported for less than they are sold in the domestic market or third country markets, or at less than production cost.

Direct investment: Foreign capital inflow in the form of investment by foreign-based companies into domestic based companies. Portfolio investment is foreign capital inflow by foreign investors into shares and financial securities. It is the ownership and management of production and/or marketing facilities in a foreign country.

Direct tax: A tax that you pay directly, as opposed to indirect taxes, such as tariffs and business taxes. The income tax is a direct tax, as are property taxes. See also Indirect Tax.

Double taxation: Corporate earnings taxed at both the corporate level and again as a stockholder dividend Economic growth: Quantitative measure of the change in size/volume of economic activity, usually calculated in terms of gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product(GDP).

Duopoly: A market structure in which two producers of a commodity compete with each other.

Econometrics: The application of statistical and mathematical methods in the field of economics to test and quantify economic theories and the solutions to economic problems.

Economic development: The process of improving the quality of human life through increasing per capita income, reducing poverty, and enhancing individual economic opportunities. It is also sometimes defined to include better education, improved health and nutrition, conservation of natural resources, a cleaner environment, and a richer cultural life.

Economic growth: An increase in the nation's capacity to produce goods and services.

Economic infrastructure: The underlying amount of physical and financial capital embodied in roads, railways, waterways, airways, and other forms of transportation and communication plus water supplies, financial institutions, electricity, and public services such as health and education. The level of infrastructural development in a country is a crucial factor determining the pace and diversity of economic development.

Economic integration: The merging to various degrees of the economies and economic policies of two or more countries in a given region. See also common market, customs union, free-trade area, trade creation, and trade diversion.

Economic policy: A statement of objectives and the methods of achieving these objectives (policy instruments) by government, political party, business concern, etc. Some examples of government economic objectives are maintaining full employment, achieving a high rate of economic growth, reducing income inequalities and regional development inequalities, and maintaining price stability. Policy instruments include fiscal policy, monetary and financial policy, and legislative controls (e.g., price and wage control, rent control).

Elasticity of demand: The degree to which consumer demand for a product or service responds to a change in price, wage or other independent variable. When there is no perceptible response, demand is said to be inelastic.

Excess capacity: Volume or capacity over and above that which is needed to meet peak planned or expected demand.

Excess demand: the situation in which the quantity demanded at a given price exceeds the quantity supplied. Opposite: excess supply

Exchange control: A governmental policy designed to restrict the outflow of domestic currency and prevent a worsened balance of payments position by controlling the amount of foreign exchange that can be obtained or held by domestic citizens. Often results from overvalued exchange rates

Exchange rate: The price of one currency stated in terms of another currency.

Export incentives: Public subsidies, tax rebates, and other kinds of financial and nonfinancial measures designed to promote a greater level of economic activity in export industries.

Exports: The value of all goods and nonfactor services sold to the rest of the world; they include merchandise, freight, insurance, travel, and other nonfactor services. The value of factor services (such as investment receipts and workers' remittances from abroad) is excluded from this measure. See also merchandise exports and imports.

Exchange control A governmental policy designed to restrict the outflow of domestic currency and prevent a worsened balance of payments position by controlling the amount of foreign exchange that can be obtained or held by domestic citizens. Often results from overvalued exchange rates.

Externalities: A cost or benefit not accounted for in the price of goods or services. Often "externality" refers to the cost of pollution and other environmental impacts.

Fiscal deficit is the gap between the government's total spending and the sum of its revenue receipts and non-debt capital receipts. It represents the total amount of borrowed funds required by the government to completely meet its expenditure

Fiscal policy is the use of government expenditure and taxation to try to influence the level of economic activity. An expansionary (or reflationary) fiscal policy could mean: cutting levels of direct or indirect tax increasing government expenditure The effect of these policies would be to encourage more spending and boost the economy. A contractionary (or deflationary) fiscal policy could be: increasing taxation - either direct or indirect cutting government expenditure These policies would reduce the level of demand in the economy and help to reduce inflation

Fixed costs: A cost incurred in the general operations of the business that is not directly attributable to the costs of producing goods and services. These "Fixed" or "Indirect" costs of doing business will be incurred whether or not any sales are made during the period, thus the designation "Fixed", as opposed to "Variable".

Fixed exchange rate: The exchange value of a national currency fixed in relation to another (usually the U.S. dollar), not free to fluctuate on the international money market.

Foreign aid The international transfer of public funds in the form of loans or grants either directly from one government to another (bilateral assistance) or indirectly through the vehicle of a multilateral assistance agency like the World Bank. See also tied aid, private foreign investment, and nongovernmental organizations.

Foreign direct investment (FDI): Overseas investments by private multinational corporations.

Foreign exchange reserves: The stock of liquid assets denominated in foreign currencies held by a government's monetary authorities (typically, the finance ministry or central bank). Reserves enable the monetary authorities to intervene in foreign exchange markets to affect the exchange value of their domestic currency in the market. Reserves are invested in low-risk and liquid assets, often in foreign government securities.

Free trade: Trade in which goods can be imported and exported without any barriers in the forms of tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions. Free trade has often been described as an engine of growth because it encourages countries to specialize in activities in which they have comparative advantages, thereby increasing their respective production efficiencies and hence their total output of goods and services.

Free-trade area A form of economic integration in which there exists free internal trade among member countries but each member is free to levy different external tariffs against non-member nations.

Free-market exchange rate Rate determined solely by international supply and demand for domestic currency expressed in terms of, say, U.S. dollars.

Fringe benefit: A benefit in addition to salary offered to employees such as use of company's car, house, lunch coupons, health care subscriptions etc.

Gains from trade The addition to output and consumption resulting from specialization in production and free trade with other economic units including persons, regions, or countries.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) An international body set up in 1947 to probe into the ways and means of reducing tariffs on internationally traded goods and services. Between 1947 and 1962, GATT held seven conferences but met with only moderate success. Its major success was achieved in 1967 during the so-called Kennedy Round of talks when tariffs on primary commodities were drastically slashed and then in 1994 with the signing of the Uruguay Round agreement. Replaced in 1995 by World Trade Organization (WTO).

Global warming Theory that world climate is slowly warming as a result of both MDC and LDC industrial and agricultural activities.

Gross domestic product: (GDP) Gross Domestic Product: The total of goods and services produced by a nation over a given period, usually 1 year. Gross Domestic Product measures the total output from all the resources located in a country, wherever the owners of the resources live.

Gross national product (GNP) is the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year, plus income earned by its citizens abroad, minus income earned by foreigners from domestic production. The Fact book, following current practice, uses GDP rather than GNP to measure national production. However, the user must realize that in certain countries net remittances from citizens working abroad may be important to national well being. GNP equals GDP plus net property income from abroad. Globalisation: The process whereby trade is now being conducted on ever widening geographical boundaries. Countries now trade across continents and companies also trade all over the world.

Human capital Productive investments embodied in human persons. These include skills, abilities, ideals, and health resulting from expenditures on education, on-the-job training programs, and medical care.

Imperfect competition A market situation or structure in which producers have some degree of control over the price of their product. Examples include monopoly and oligopoly. See also perfect competition.

Imperfect market A market where the theoretical assumptions of perfect competition are violated by the existence of, for example, a small number of buyers and sellers, barriers to entry, nonhomogeneity of products, and incomplete information. The three imperfect markets commonly analyzed in economic theory are monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition.

Import substitution A deliberate effort to replace major consumer imports by promoting the emergence and expansion of domestic industries such as textiles, shoes, and household appliances. Import substitution requires the imposition of protective tariffs and quotas to get the new industry started.

Income inequality The existence of disproportionate distribution of total national income among households whereby the share going to rich persons in a country is far greater than that going to poorer persons (a situation common to most LDCs). This is largely due to differences in the amount of income derived from ownership of property and to a lesser extent the result of differences in earned income. Inequality of personal incomes can be reduced by progressive income taxes and wealth taxes.

Index of industrial production: A quantity index that is designed to measure changes in the physical volume or production levels of industrial goods over time.

Inflation is the percentage increase in the prices of goods and services.

Indirect tax: A tax you do not pay directly, but which is passed on to you by an increase in your expenses. For instance, a company might have to pay a fuel tax. The company pays the tax but can increase the cost of its products so consumers are actually paying the tax indirectly by paying more for the merchandise.

Interdependence Interrelationship between economic and noneconomic variables. Also, in international affairs, the situation in which one nation's welfare depends to varying degrees on the decisions and policies of another nation, and vice versa. See also dependence.

International commodity agreement Formal agreement by sellers of a common internationally traded commodity (coffee, sugar) to coordinate supply to maintain price stability.

International Labor Organization (ILO) One of the functional organizations of the United Nations, based in Geneva, Switzerland, whose central task is to look into problems of world labor supply, its training, utilization, domestic and international distribution, etc. Its aim in this endeavor is to increase world output through maximum utilization of available human resources and thus improve levels of living.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) An autonomous international financial institution that originated in the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944. Its main purpose is to regulate the international monetary exchange system, which also stems from that conference but has since been modified. In particular, one of the central tasks of the IMF is to control fluctuations in exchange rates of world currencies in a bid to alleviate severe balance of payments problems.

International poverty line An arbitrary international real income measure, usually expressed in constant dollars (e.g., $270), used as a basis for estimating the proportion of the world's population that exists at bare levels of subsistence.

Land reform A deliberate attempt to reorganize and transform existing agrarian systems with the intention of improving the distribution of agricultural incomes and thus fostering rural development. Among its many forms, land reform may entail provision of secured tenure rights to the individual farmer, transfer of land ownership away from small classes of powerful landowners to tenants who actually till the land, appropriation of land estates for establishing small new settlement farms, or instituting land improvements and irrigation schemes.

Macroeconomic stabilization Policies designed to eliminate macroeconomic instability.

Macroeconomics The branch of economics that considers the relationships among broad economic aggregates such as national income, total volumes of saving, investment, consumption expenditure, employment, and money supply. It is also concerned with determinants of the magnitudes of these aggregates and their rates of change over time.

Market economy A free private-enterprise economy governed by consumer sovereignty, a price system, and the forces of supply and demand.

Market failure A phenomenon that results from the existence of market imperfections (e.g., monopoly power, lack of factor mobility, significant externalities, lack of knowledge) that weaken the functioning of a free-market economy--it fails to realize its theoretical beneficial results. Market failure often provides the justification for government interference with the working of the free market.

Market-friendly approach: World Bank notion that successful development policy requires governments to create an environment in which markets can operate efficiently and to intervene selectively in the economy in areas where the market is inefficient (e.g., social and economic infrastructure, investment coordination, economic "safety net").

Market mechanism: The system whereby prices of commodities or services freely rise or fall when the buyer's demand for them rises or falls or the seller's supply of them decreases or increases.

Market prices: Prices established by demand and supply in a free-market economy.

Merchandise exports and imports: All international changes in ownership of merchandise passing across the customs borders of the trading countries. Exports are valued f.o.b. (free on board). Imports are valued c.i.f. (cost, insurance, and freight).

Merchandise trade balance: Balance on commodity exports and imports.

Microeconomics: The branch of economics concerned with individual decision units--firms and households--and the way in which their decisions interact to determine relative prices of goods and factors of production and how much of these will be bought and sold. The market is the central concept in microeconomics.

Middle-income countries (MICs): LDCs with per capita income above $785 and below $9,655 in 1997 according to World Bank measures.

Mixed economic systems: Economic systems that are a mixture of both capitalist and socialist economies. Most developing countries have mixed systems. Their essential feature is the coexistence of substantial private and public activity within a single economy.

Monetary policy: The regulation of the money supply and interest rates by a central bank in order to control inflation and stabilize currency. If the economy is heating up, the central bank (such as RBI in India) can withdraw money from the banking system, raise the reserve requirement or raise the discount rate to make it cool down. If growth is slowing, it can reverse the process - increase the money supply, lower the reserve requirement and decrease the discount rate. The monetary policy influences interest rates and money supply.

Money supply: the total stock of money in the economy; currency held by the public plus money in accounts in banks. It consists primarily currency in circulation and deposits in savings and checking accounts. Too much money in relation to the output of goods tends to push interest rates down and push inflation up; too little money tends to push rates up and prices down, causing unemployment and idle plant capacity. The central bank manages the money supply by raising and lowering the reserves banks are required to hold and the discount rate at which they can borrow money from the central bank. The central bank also trades government securities (called repurchase agreements) to take money out of the system or put it in. There are various measures of money supply, including M1, M2, M3 and L; these are referred to as monetary aggregates.

Monopoly A market situation in which a product that does not have close substitutes is being produced and sold by a single seller.

Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) A set of nontariff bilateral quotas established by developed countries on imports of cotton, wool, and synthetic textiles and clothing from individual LDCs

Multinational corporation (MNC) An international or transnational corporation with headquarters in one country but branch offices in a wide range of both developed and developing countries. Examples include General Motors, Coca-Cola, Firestone, Philips, Volkswagen, British Petroleum, Exxon, and ITT. Firms become multinational corporations when they perceive advantages to establishing production and other activities in foreign locations. Firms globalize their activities both to supply their home-country market more cheaply and to serve foreign markets more directly. Keeping foreign activities within the corporate structure lets firms avoid the costs inherent in arm's-length dealings with separate entities while utilizing their own firm-specific knowledge such as advanced production techniques.

National debt: Treasury bills, notes, bonds, and other debt obligations that constitute the debt owed by the federal government. It represents the accumulation of each year's budget deficit Public debt: Borrowing by the Government of India internally as well as externally. The total of the nation's debts: debts of local and state and national governments is an indicator of how much public spending is financed by borrowing instead of taxation

Newly industrializing countries (NICs) A small group of countries at a relatively advanced level of economic development with a substantial and dynamic industrial sector and with close links to the international trade, finance, and investment system (Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Taiwan).

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Privately owned and operated organizations involved in providing financial and technical assistance to LDCs. See foreign aid.

Nontariff trade barrier: A barrier to free trade that takes a form other than a tariff, such as quotas or sanitary requirements for imported meats and dairy products.

Official development assistance (ODA) Net disbursements of loans or grants made on concessional terms by official agencies of member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Official exchange rate: Rate at which the central bank will buy and sell the domestic currency in terms of a foreign currency such as the U.S. dollar.

Open economy An economy that encourages foreign trade and has extensive financial and nonfinancial contacts with the rest of the world in areas such as education, culture, and technology. See also closed economy.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD):An organization of 20 countries from the Western world including all of those in Europe and North America. Its major objective is to assist the economic growth of its member nations by promoting cooperation and technical analysis of national and international economic trends.

Overvalued exchange rate An official exchange rate set at a level higher than its real or shadow value--for example, 7 Kenyan shillings per dollar instead of, say, 10 shillings per dollar. Overvalued rates cheapen the real cost of imports while raising the real cost of exports. They often lead to a need for exchange control.

Perfect competition A market situation characterized by the existence of very many buyers and sellers of homogeneous goods or services with perfect knowledge and free entry so that no single buyer or seller can influence the price of the good or service.

Performance budget is a budget format that relates the input of resources and the output of services for each organizational unit individually. Sometimes used synonymously with program budget. It is a budget wherein expenditures are based primarily upon measurable performance of activities.

Political economy The attempt to merge economic analysis with practical politics--to view economic activity in its political context. Much of classical economics was political economy, and today political economy is increasingly being recognized as necessary for any realistic examination of development problems.

Portfolio investment Financial investments by private individuals, corporations, pension funds, and mutual funds in stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, and notes issued by private companies and the public agencies of LDCs. See also private foreign investment.

Poverty gap: The sum of the difference between the poverty line and actual income levels of all people living below that line.

Poverty line: A level of income below, which people are deemed poor. A global poverty line of $1 per person per day was suggested in 1990 (World Bank 1990). This line facilitates comparison of how many poor people there are in different countries. But, it is only a crude estimate because the line does not recognize differences in the buying power of money in different countries, and, more significantly, because it does not recognize other aspects of poverty than the material, or income poverty.

Price: The monetary or real value of a resource, commodity, or service. The role of prices in a market economy is to ration or allocate resources in accordance with supply and demand; relative prices should reflect the relative scarcity of different resources, goods, or services.

Price elasticity of demand: The responsiveness of the quantity of a commodity demanded to a change in its price, expressed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price.

Price elasticity of supply: The responsiveness of the quantity of a commodity supplied to a change in its price, expressed as the percentage change in quantity supplied divided by the percentage change in price.

Quota: A physical limitation on the quantity of any item that can be imported into a country, such as so many automobiles per year. Also a method for allocating limited school places by noncompetitive means--for example, by income or ethnicity.

Repo rate: This is one of the credit management tools used by the Reserve Bank to regulate liquidity in South Africa (customer spending). The bank borrows money from the Reserve Bank to cover its shortfall. The Reserve Bank only makes a certain amount of money available and this determines the repo rate. If the bank requires more money than what is available, this will increase the repo rate - and vice versa.

Revenue expenditure: This is expenditure on recurring items, including the running of services and financing capital spending that is paid for by borrowing. This is meant for normal running of governments' maintenance expenditures, interest payments, subsidies and transfers etc. It is current expenditure which does not result in the creation of assets. Grants given to State governments or other parties are also treated as revenue expenditure even if some of the grants may be meant for creating assets. Subsidy : Financial assistance (often from the government) to a specific group of producers or consumers.

Revenue receipts: Additions to assets that do not incur an obligation that must be met at some future date and do not represent exchanges of property for money. Assets must be available for expenditures. These include proceeds of taxes and duties levied by the government, interest and dividend on investments made by the government, fees and other receipts for services rendered by the government.

Stabilization policies: A coordinated set of mostly restrictive fiscal and monetary policies aimed at reducing inflation, cutting budget deficits, and improving the balance of payments. See conditionality and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Subsidy: A payment by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry (e.g., as a result of continuous unprofitable operations) or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor (as in the case of a wage subsidy). Examples are export subsidies to encourage the sale of exports; subsidies on some foodstuffs to keep down the cost of living, especially in urban areas; and farm subsidies to encourage expansion of farm production and achieve self-reliance in food production.

Tax avoidance: A legal action designed to reduce or eliminate the taxes that one owes.

Tax base: the total property and resources subject to taxation.

Tax evasion: An illegal strategy to decrease tax burden by underreporting income, overstating deductions, or using illegal tax shelters.

Terms of trade The ratio of a country's average export price to its average import price; also known as the commodity terms of trade. A country's terms of trade are said to improve when this ratio increases and to worsen when it decreases, that is, when import prices rise at a relatively faster rate than export prices (the experience of most LDCs in recent decades).

Treasury bill: A short-term debt issued by a national government with a maximum maturity of one year. Treasury bills are sold at discount, such that the difference between purchase price and the value at maturity is the amount of interest.

VAT: A form of indirect sales tax paid on products and services at each stage of production or distribution, based on the value added at that stage and included in the cost to the ultimate customer.

World Bank: An international financial institution owned by its 181 member countries and based in Washington, D.C. Its main objective is to provide development funds to the Third World nations in the form of interest-bearing loans and technical assistance. The World Bank operates with borrowed funds.

WTO: The World Trade Organization is a global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. It was set up in 1995 at the conclusion of GATT negotiations for administering multilateral trade negotiations.

Another some good link

2009-05-23T20:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2184672/Social-Problems-of-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/134682/What-is-Social-Entrepreneurship
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4973191/An-Essay-on-Poverty-with-reference-to-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6174156/Sez-Problems-and-Cons
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5356507/Dialogue-with-Christian-Missionaries-in-India-David-Frawley
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7521422/dalit-precept-problem-and-practice
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15711444/Social-Justice
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2466508/Stability-of-Urbanization-in-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7165792/The-Problem-of-the-Rupee
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8648594/GROWTH-OF-INDUSTRIAL-JURISPRUDENCE-IN-INDIA
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4865391/Abortion-laws-in-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/101616/Section-IMacroeconomic-Problems
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13996059/Quotes-about-Revolutions-and-Revolutionaries
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13576261/On-Naxalism-in-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11432079/India-Under-Siege
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13576261/On-Naxalism-in-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13702584/Madhani-the-Muslim-Terrorist-of-Communists-and-Congress-Parties-of-India
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13179115/India-as-a-New-Global-Power-An-Action-Agenda-for-the-United-States
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3650864/My-Girlhood-Taslima-Nasreen-Autobiography-Must-be-read-by-every-woman

http://www.quiz-zone.co.uk/quizrounds/020517generalknowledge/questions.html
http://www.indiaquiz.net/caf.index.html
http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-574.html
http://www.paralumun.com/warworldwartwo.htm
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~prathabk/pages/tech_archives/global/global_governance.pdf
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~prathabk/pages/tech_archives/global/
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~prathabk/hawk/index.html

glpo

2009-05-23T20:52:00.001-07:00

Arka Bhattacharya
Assistent System Engineer(Trainee)
Tata Consultancy Services
Ph:- +919320998049
Mailto: arka.b@tcs.com
Website: http://www.tcs.com
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Experience certainty.IT Services
Business Solutions
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Arka B/TVM/TCS

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gyan bytes1

2009-04-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Headquarter-- Mumbai Bandra Curla ComplexSEBI is need to be responsive to the needs of three groups whichconstitute the market
-->the Securities
-->the investor
-->the market intermediaries
SEBI has three function rolled into one body
--quasi judicial > Can pass rule and order
--quasi legislative>Can draft regulation
--quasi executive>Can investigate and enforce action
--------------------------------------------------------------
DeflationDeflation is negative inflation. Inflation happens when value ofmoney decrease than goods similarly deflation happens whenvalue of money increase then goods. Deflation occurs because ofa combination of four factors.
-->The supply of money goes down
-->The supply of goods goes up.
-->The demand of money goes up
-->The demand of goods goes down
-------------------------------------------------------------------
HUDCO(Housing and Urban development Corporation Ltd. )GOI industry created on April 25, 1970 under Companies Act 1956Provides long term finance for construction of houses for residential purpose. support on housing of Industry and it is a leading techno financial institution in the country in housing and urban developmenttypes of service>Loans,Housing,Infrustructure,Land Acquisation, Building Material Industry,Individual finance(HUDCO Niwas scheme),Public Deposit Scheme
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP):basic need development programmespublic health and village Sanitation programmesAgricultural Need development programmessubsidiary occupation development programmefarm labour trainingSocial forestry and waste land developmentyouth and woman development programSocial and cultural activitySubsidiary plan-->Training Rural youth for self Employment(TRYSEM)Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)
------------------------------------------------------------------
NRF --- > National Retail Federation Largest Retail trade association in US

bytes from Economy of India

2009-04-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

*Reserve bank of India created on april 1, 1935
*Asian Tigers--Hong Konng,taiwan,South Korea,singapore
*current account(country)=balance of trade+net factor income from abroad+net unilateral transfer from abroad
* Ease of doing business Index is an index to point out security of business and easyness. India ranked 120 , singapore top
*According to Corruption Index Indonesia top the list*According to World bribe index India top the list
*Bihar and Orissa have the poverty level one of the most poor place in world
*Bombay Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in South Asia.
*India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper
*It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut and inland fish.
*Goldman Sachs has outlined 10 things that it needs to do in order to achieve its potential and grow 40 times by 2050. These are
--improve governance
--raise educational achievement
--increase quality and quantity of universities
--control inflation
--introduce a credible fiscal policy
--liberalize financial markets
--increase trade with neighbours
--increase agricultural productivity
--improve infrastructure and
--improve environmental quality.

How is the President of India elected?

2009-04-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

As our present President’s term is set to end, it is time we learn a bit about the Presidential election. The President is elected by an electoral college, consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and state legislative assemblies. For the Presidential elections, there are thus a total of 4,896 potential electors, consisting of 543 Lok Sabha members, 233 Rajya Sabha members and 4,120 MLAs.
The voting strength of each elector is different and is determined on the basis of proportional representation. The population of each state is divided by 1,000 and then by the number of elected MLAs in the assembly to yield the value of each MLA’s votes from that state. In all, the MLAs of all the assemblies put together have 5,49,474 votes. The system also tries to ensure a balance between the value of votes of MPs and state legislators. This is done by dividing the votes of all the MLAs by the number of MPs, which is 776, to work out the value of each MP’s votes. This yields a figure of 708 votes per MP. Hence the total value of the MPs’ votes is 5,49,408 (776 x 708). This is slightly different from the total votes of the MLAs due to rounding effect. The total votes in the electoral college thus is 10,98,882.
The Presidential contestant is declared elected when he secures a simple majority i.e., 1 vote more than half the total votes polled by the electoral college. The electoral college votes by a system of ‘single transferable vote’. What this means is that the contestants in the fray are given preferences by the voters. If no candidate reaches the simple absolute majority in the first round of counting, then the candidate with the least polled votes is eliminated and the second preferences marked in his polled votes are added to the respective contestants. The process is continued till one of the candidates reaches the simple absolute majority and is declared the winner.
The only occasion when second preference votes had to be taken into account was in 1969 when VV Giri led after the first round over Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy

2009-03-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

Kichu bhalo link

http://generalknowledgetoday.blogspot.com/
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
http://manybooks.net/
http://vipulgrover.blogspot.com
http://visionias.cfsites.org/
http://indian-history.suite101.com/
http://facetsofindianhistory.blogspot.com/
http://famousindian.blogspot.com/
http://kchaiindians.blogstream.com/
http://thecurrentaffairs.com/
http://tanushreebagrodia.blogspot.com/2009/03/present-and-future-of-indian-politics.html
http://www.esnips.com/doc/425c4ea7-9c83-463e-bc6b-8a7cf83ca8c2/The-Encyclopedia-of-World-History

2009-03-19T04:27:00.000-07:00

1-1000

68
Establishment of the Kushan Empire by Kujula Kadphises
78
Gautamiputra Satkarni took over Satavahana Empire and defeated Scythian king Vikramaditya
240
Establishment of the Gupta Empire by Sri-Gupta
320
Chandragupta I took over the Gupta Empire
335
Samudragupta took over the Gupta Empire and started expanding it
350
Establishment of the Pallava Empire
380
Chandragupta II took over the Gupta Empire
399 -414
Chinese scholar Fa-Hien traveled to India
415
Accession of kumara gupta I
455
Accession of Skanda gupta I
606
Harshavardhana crowned king.
609
Coronation of Pulakeshi II
630
Hiuen Tsiang traveled to India
637
Badami Chalukya power at its peak. Pulakesi II pushes north up to the Narmada and defeats the invading Harshavardhana of Kanauj
641
Harsha’s embassy to china
642
Death of Pulakeshin II
643
Harsha’s meeting with Hieu en Sang
647
Death of Harsha
736
Found of Delhika(Delhi)
761
First Muslim, Md. Bin Qasim defeats King Dahir
788
Adi Shankara born in Kalady, in central Kerala
800
The birth of Shankaracharya
814
Nripatunga Amoghavarsha I becomes Rashtrakuta king. Kannada literature flourishes.
836
Accession of King Bhoj of Kanauj
985
Accessin of Rajaraj the great Chola
1000
Invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni
1001
Battle of Waihind and defeat of Jaipal(Hindu Shahi Ruler) by Mahmud
1017
Alberuni traveled to India
1021
Mahmud Ghazni defeats Tarnochalpal and annexes Punjab
1025
Destruction of Somenath Temple by Mahmud of Ghazni
1022
Chola expedition to the Gangeti valley; Defeat of the somavamas of Orissa and Palas of Bengal
1025
Chola Naval expedition to sri Vijaya and its conquest
1030
Alberuni arrivies in India; blah of Ghazni
1058
Sumra Dynasty ends the Arab domination and establishes its own rule over Sindh.
1076
Merger of the Vengi Kingdom with the chola empire by Kulottunga 1
1120
Kalyani Chalukya power at its peak. Vikramaditya VI ushers in Vikrama Chalukya era.
1134-1196
Life of Basaveshwara, Philosopher and social reformer.
1157
The Kalachuris under Bijjala II capture Kalyani
1175
Muhammad Ghuri conquest the Punjab
1178
Muhammad Ghuri’sa defeat by Mularaja II, the Solanki ruler of Gujrat
1191
"Victory of Prithviraj Chauhan". First battle of Tarain between Mohammed Ghori and Prithviraj III and Ghauri is defeated by Prithivi Raj Chauhan III.
1192
"Victory of Mohammed Ghauri". Second battle of Tarain fought between Ghauri and Prithivi Raj Chauhan III and Ghauri killed Prithivi Raj Chauhan III and captured his beautiful wife Samyukta.
1194
Battle of Chandawar fought between Ghauri and Jayachandra and Ghauri defeated Jayachandra and killed him.
1202
Conquest of Bihar and Bengal by Bakhtiyar Khalji
1206
Gakhars kill Muhammad Ghori during a raid on his camp on the Jhelum River
Accession of Qutubuddin Aibak to the throne of Delhi
1221
Genghis Khan invades Punjab
1228
Conquest of Kamrupa by Sukhapa , first Ahom King
1231
Completion of Qutub Minar
1240
Death of Razia Sultana
1265
Accession of Balban to Delhi throne
1287
Death of Balban
1288
Marco Polo visit to India
1296
Accession of Alauddin Khalji
1310
Ala-ud-din Khalji's army under Malik Kafur occupies Devagiri ending the Seuna Yadava Kingdom
1316
Death of Alaudin Khalji
1323
Ulugh Khan defeats Prataparudra ending the Kakatiya dynasty
1325
Accession of Muhammad bin Tughlaque
1327
Transfer of captital from Delhi to Daulatabad(Deogiri) by Muhammad Bin Tughlaque
1333
Arrival of Moroccon travellar Iban Batuta
1336
Vijayanagara Empire established by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I
1337
Muhammad bin Tughlaqe’s expedition to Karajal
1343
Veera Ballala III killed at the Battle of Madurai.
1347
Governor Hasan Gangu revolts against Muhammad bin Tughluq founding the Bahmani Sultanate
1351
Samma Dynasty assumes rule over Sindh
Accession of Feroz Shah Tughlaque
1361
Firoz Shah Tughlaque’s invasion to orissa
1370
Bukka, the Vijayanagara ruler and his son Kumara Kamapna capture the entire Tamil speaking parts.
1398
Timur plunders Lahore
1401
Dilawar Khan establishes the Malwa Sultanate in present-day northern India
1407
Zafar Khan: governor of Gujarat, declares himself as Sultan Muzaffar Shah founding the Gujarat Sultanate/Muzaffarid dynasty
1414
Khizr Khan, deputized by Timur to be the governor of Multan takes over Delhi founding the Sayyid dynasty
1420
Visit of Nicole de Conti to Vijaynagar
1424
Deva Raya II succeeded his father Veera Vijaya Bukka Raya as monarch of the Vijayanagara Empire
1429
Transfer of Bahmani Capital from Gulbarga to Bidar by Ahmad Shah wali
1443
Abdur Razzaq visits India
1451
Bahlul Khan Lodhi ascends the throne of the Delhi sultanate starting the Lodhi dynasty
1446
Mallikarjuna Raya succeeds his father Deva Raya II
1469
Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism is born
1485
Saluva Narasimha Deva Raya drives out Praudha Raya ending the Sangama Dynasty
1486
Sher Shah Suri (original name Farid Khan) born in Sasaram
1494
Accession of Babur in Fagana
1497-99
Vasco da Gama's first voyage from Europe to India and back
1506
Transfer of capital from Delhi to Agra by Sikander Lodhi
1509
Accession of Vijaynagar ruler Krishna Deva Raya
1510
Conquest of Goa by Portugeese
1522
Portuguese land on the Coromandal coast
1526
Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, of the Delhi Sultanate, angers local nobles, who respond by inviting Babur, the Mughal ruler of Kabul, to invade Delhi and Agra. The local population, plus the possession of artillery, assists Babur in killing the Sultan (whose soldiers desert him) at the Battle of Panipat.
1527
Babur makes secret pact with Mewar general Silhadi that he will give Silhadi a kingdom, if Silhadi betrays Mewar King Rana Sanga in Battle of Khanwa, thus leading to the annexation of Mewar.
1529
Battle of Ghaghara and Babur’s defeat of Afgans under Muhammed Lodhi
1530
Babur completes his Baburnama, reflecting on society, politics, economics, history, geography, nature, flora and fauna, which to this day is a standard textbook in 25 countries. Babur dies, and is succeeded by his son Humayun.
1535
Visit of Nuniz toVijaynagar
1539
Battle of Chausa and first defeat of Humayun by Sher Shah
1540
Battle of Bilgram (or Kanauj) and second and final defeat of Humayun by sher shah
1542
Birth of Akbar atAmarkot
1545
Battle of Kalinjar and death of Sher Shah
1555
Reconquest of Delhi by Humayun
1556
Humayun converts from Sunni Islam to Shia Islam, to gain the alliance of the Shah of Persia. Humayun dies, and is succeeded by his son Akbar.
Second battle of Panipath and defeat of Afgan under Hemu by Akbar
1562
Akbar’s marriage with princess of Amber
1564
Akbar’s abolition of jijiya and his victory of Rani Durgawati of Garhkatanga
1565
Battle of Talikota and destruction of city Vijaynagar
1569
Birth of Akbar’s Elder son Salim
1571
Foundation of Fatehpur Sikri
1572
Akbar annexes Gujarat.
1573
Introduction of Dagh and Chahra by Akbar
Construction of Buland Darwaja
1574
Akbar annexes Bengal.
1575
Battle of Tukaroi and defeat of Daud Khan of Bengal by Akbar
1576
Battle of Haldighati (or Gogunda) and defeat of Rana Pratap by the Mughals under Raja Man Singh of Amber
1582
Proclamation of Tauhit-i-illahi or Din-i-illahi
1586
Akbar annexes Kashmir.
1589
Death of Todar Mal and Bhagawan Das
1596
Introduction of the dual rank (mansab) of zat and sawar
1597
Death of Rana Pratap
1600
East India company is formed in England. Gets exclusive trading rights with India.
1602
Murder of Abul Fazl by Bir Singh Bundela at the instigation of Prince Salim
Dutch East India Company stated
1604
Adi Granth of Sikhism created
1605
Akbar dies, and is succeeded by his son Jehangir.
1606
Rebellion of Prince Khusru and execution of the fifth Sikh Guru Arjun by Jahangir
1609
Dutch business house in Pulikat
1611
Nur Jahan’s Marriage with Jahangir
English business house created in Masalipattanam
1612
Annexation of Kooch Hajo to the Mughal Empire
1615
Conclusion of peace with Mewar under Rana Amar Singh
1616
Sir Thomas Roe visit jahangir
1626
Rebellion of Mahabat Khan and temporary arrest Jahangir
1628
Jehangir announces "Chain of Justice" outside his palace that anyone can ring the bell and get a personal hearing with the emperor. Jehangir dies, and is succeeded by his son Shah Jahan.
1630
Birth of Shivaji.
1631
Death of Mumtaz
1644
Shivaji takes oath of Independence at Raireshwar.
1656
Annexation of Javli
1658
Shah Jahan completes Taj Mahal, Jama Masjid, and Red Fort. Imperial treasuries drained by architectural and military overexpenditures. Shah Jahan dies, and is succeeded by his son Aurangzeb.
1659
Shivaji's ill-equipped and small Maratha army defeat mighty Adilshahi troops at the Battle of Pratapgarh in a major upset in Indian history. Shivaji personally kills Adilshahi commander Afzal Khan (general).
Battle of Khajwah and Deroi in which Dara was finally defeated captured and executed
1660
Appointment of Mir Zumla as Governor of Bengal
1661
Execution of Murad by Aurangzeb
Mughal Capture Cooch Bihar
1662
Mir Zumla’s invasion of Assam and imposition of Treaty of Ahom
1664
Sack of Surat by Shivaji
1665
Conclusion of the Treaty of Purandar between shivaji and Jai Singh
1666
Death of Shah Jahan
Shivaji’s Visit to agra and escape
1669
Revolt of Jats under Gokia
1670
Second sack of Surat by Shivaji
1671
Revolt of Chatrasal Bundela
1672
Satnami Rebellion; revolt of Afridis in the north-west.
1674
Forces led by Shivaji defeat Aurangzeb’s troops, and establish Maratha Empire.
1675
Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru of Sikhs is executed in Delhi by the order of Aurangzeb for his support for the Kashmiri Hindus to practice their religion.
1680
Shivaji dies of fever at Raigad.
1681
Aurangzeb invades the Deccan
1699
Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of Sikhs creates KHALSA, the saint-soldier at Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.
1705
Mughal army besiege Sikhs at Anandpur Sahib fort, Guru's family is separated, two sons die in battle, two younger sons buried alive in a wall by the order of Mughal ruler of Sirhind
1707
Aurangzeb dies, and is succeeded by son Bahadur Shah I.
Civil war breaks in Maharashtra between Maharani Tarabai and Shahu, Maratha Empire breaks into two divisions.
1708
Guru Gobind Singh survives an assasination attempt by Mughal assasins at Nanded, Maharashtra. Guru instruct Banda Singh to take charge of Khalsa army and liberate people. Guru Gobind Singh appoints Adi Granth as the eternal Guru of Sikhs before his death.
1710
Banda Singh Bahadur emerges in Punjab and sacks the Mughal establishments of Sirhind, Samana, Sadhaura, Kaithal, Sonepat, and Haryana
1715
Mughal army captures Banda Singh Bahadur. The Sikhs are brought to Delhi and executed after public torture.
1717
Pamheiba decrees Vaishnavism as the state religion of Manipur
1719
Bajirao I is appointed the Peshwa by Maratha Emperor Shahu.
1734
Pamheiba invades Tripura
1735
Annexation of Rajputana by Peshwa Bajirao
1737
Bajirao I conquers Delhi, Mughal Emperor is spared and kept as titular head.
1739
Nadir shah invade Delhi
1740
Bajirao I annexes Bengal and Orissa.
Bajirao I dies, with the distinction of winning every battle he fought. He is succeeded by Balaji Bajirao
1742
Maratha invasion in Bengal
Duplex being the head of Pondicherry
1746
First massacre of Sikhs by Mughal army led by Diwan Lakhpat Rai of Lahore
Battle of Negapatam between English and French during Seven year’s fight
1757
The British East India Company's private army under Robert Clive annexes Bengal for the company in the Battle of Plassey. Edmund Burke has Robert Clive arrested for the act.
1758
Battle of Negapatam between English and French during Seven year’s fight
1760
Marathas comprehensively defeat the Nizam, Maratha Empire reaches its zenith.
Battle of Bandibas English defeat French
1761
The Marathas are defeated in the Third battle of Panipat bringing an end to their expansion.
Sikhs attack Afghan army of Ahmad Shah Abdali carrying exploits of Panipat and rescue 20,000 Indian women, mostly Maratha.
1762
Second massacre of Sikhs by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan.
1764
Battle of Buxar . English defeat Mir Kashim
1765
Bengal’s new governor Lord Clive
1766
Sikhs defeat Afghans army of Ahmad Shah Abdali and establish Sikh rule in Punjab.
First Anglo-Mysore War begins.
1768
Ching-Thang Khomba and Suramphaa invade Manipur.
1769
First Anglo-Mysore War ends.
1772
Young Madhavrao Peshwa dies of tuberculosis.
Bengal’s newGovernor Warren Hestings
1773
Narayanrao Peshwa is murdered by his uncle Raghunathrao's wife in front of Raghunathrao.
Regulating Act passed in English Parliament
1774
Chief Justice of the Maratha Empire, Ram Shastri passes death sentence against the ruling Peshwa Raghunathrao for murdering his nephew.
1777
First Anglo-Maratha War begins.
1779
Maratha sardar Mahadji Shinde routs the British army at the Battle of Wadgaon.
1780
Second Anglo-Mysore War begins.
1782
First Anglo-Maratha War ends with the restoration of status quo as per Treaty of Salbai.
Battle of Negapatam between English and French during American Revolution War
1784
Second Anglo-Mysore War ends with the Treaty of Mangalore.
1789
Third Anglo-Mysore War begins.
1790
The Marathas under Holkar and General de Boigne comprehensively defeat the Rajputs of Jaipur and their Mughal allies at the Battle of Patan, where 3000+ Rajput cavalry is killed and the entire Mughal unit vanquished. The defeat crushes Rajput hope of independence from external influence
1792
Third Anglo-Mysore War ends.
1796
Ching-Thang Khomba moves Manipur's capital to Kangla
1798
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War begins.
1799
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War ends with the death of Tipu Sultan and the restoration of the Wodeyar dynasty.
1801
Maharaja Ranjit Singh establishes Khalsa rule of Punjab from Lahore. Khalsa army liberates Kashmiri Pundits and invades Afghanistan through Khyber Pass, first time an Indian army goes west to conquer.
1803
Second Anglo-Maratha War begins
1805
Second Anglo-Maratha War ends
1807
East India Company signs treaty of Amritsar with Maharaja Ranjit Singh
1817
Third Anglo-Maratha War begins
1818
Third Anglo-Maratha War ends with the defeat of Bajirao II and the end of the Maratha Empire leaving the British with control of almost the whole of India
1828
Lord William Bentinc New Governor General
1829
Abolish of Sati system
1831
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Reunite Sikh misl
1839
Ranjit Singh Dies
1845
Eng-sikh war .Sikh defeated
1848
New Governor General Lord Dalhousi
1848-49
Sencond eng-sikh war again sikh defeated. Punjab under control of British.
1857
First Freedom fight of India

Calender

2009-01-04T03:59:00.000-08:00

In September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so September 14 followed September 2 on the day of the change. The result was that between September 3 and 13, absolutely nothing happened!- - -The first Roman Calendar (introduced in 535BC) had 10 months, with 304 days in a year that began in March. January and February were added only later. In 46BC, Julius Caesar created "The Year of Confusion" by adding 80 days to the year making it 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The solar year - with the value of 365 days and 6 hours - was made the basis of the calendar. To take care of the 6 hours, every 4th year was made a 366-day year. It was then that Caesar decreed that the year begins with the 1st of January.- - -In 325AD Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week. He also introduced movable (Easter) and immovable feasts (Christmas).- - -The Chinese New Year occurs at the second new moon after the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere winter, thus between January 20th and February 20th.- - - The Jewish calendar began 3,760 years before the beginning of the Christian era. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is celebrated during September or October of the Gregorian calendar.- - -Century years can be leap years only when they are divisible by 400 (e.g. 1600). This rule eliminates three leap years in four centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for all ordinary purposes.

2008-12-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes seen on this page, can be very expensive. But that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.
This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.
#10. Titanic
$150 Million
The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).

#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge
$358 Million
On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.

#8. MetroLink Crash
$500 Million
On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.

#7. B-2 Bomber Crash
$1.4 Billion
Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety. The crash was captured on video. It shows one B-2 Bomber successfully taking off followed by the B-2 Bomber which crashes. The crash starts at 2:00

#6. Exxon Valdez
$2.5 Billion
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.

#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig
$3.4 Billion
The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day.. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.
Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.

#4. Challenger Explosion
$5.5 Billion
The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).

#3. Prestige Oil Spill
$12 Billion
On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.
According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

#2. Space Shuttle Columbia
$13 Billion
The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.
In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

#1. Chernobyl
$200 Billion
On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

Indan National Congress THE CSR OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT

2008-12-26T03:19:00.000-08:00

Indian National Congress was formed by a British Civil Servant Mr A O Hume in 1885. The stated objectives were greater participation of educated Indians in Government.
It never envisaged anything rebellious. It was merely a hollow Corporate Social Responsibility activity of the British Government. We have been hearing about workers participation in Corporate Managemnent since time ad nauseam. Indian National Congress was something similar.
Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by corporate to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.
Fresh after the first battle of independence or mutiny (depending upon point of view) and aware of the atrocities committed by British soldiers and vice versa, Government wanted to do something to allow the LOCALS to vent their feelings. Hence on suggestion of the British civil servant Mr Humes an organization principally a debating society under the name and style of Indian National Congress was set up in 1885.
However Britishers cunningly got Muslims to despise it. The Muslims boycotted it. Sir Syed Ahmed was in the forefront opposing Congress. The Tragedy was that the muslims and the rich Hindus were not comfortable with any other perception of rulers. They were comfortable with feudal system of governance. The British system of governance was comfortable with most of them. Muslims were made to believe that INC was a Hindu party and would not take care of their interests.
To counter congress British Government promoted Muslim League another debating drawing room organization.
Yet the CSR efforts went astray with the arrival of nationalist leaders like, Lal-Bal-Pal, Mahatma Gandhi etc., They realized it too late that the education being provided under the CSR efforts had opened the vistas of the world to these persons.A British officer remarked that “we were trying to build administrators , by teaching revolutionary literature.” Once the elite Hindus had had English education the Vista of the whole world was opened to them. That included revolutionary literature of Roussau Voltaire and the likes.

question answer from civilserviceindia.com

2008-12-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

Ques (1): With reference to Indian Polity, which one of the following statements is correct? Ans : (b) President can make ordinance only when either of the two Houses of Parliament is not in session
Ques (2): Tim Montgomery set a new world record at the IAAF Grand Prix final in the year 2002 in: Ans : (c) 100 m Dash
Ques (3): In which of the following states vast deposits of coal of Gondwana formations do not existAns : (b) Rajasthan
Ques (4): What is WiMAX (a) World wide Interoperatability for microwave access (b) World wide Interoperatability for mediumwave access (c) Wireless Interoperatability for microwave access (d) Wirless Interoperatability for medium wave access Ans : 3) C
Ques (5): Which of the following company has launched free insurance scheme to its all customers? Ans : c) BSNL
Ques (6): Which portfolio was held by Dr. Rajendra Prasad in the interim Government formed in the year 1946? Ans : c) Food and Agriculture
Ques (7): World's largest nuclear power plant is located at Ans : c) Fuqu Shima (Japan)
Ques (8): Who among the following won the men’s singles title at the World Badminton Championship in the year 2001? Ans : (b) Hendrawn
Ques (9): Annual report of UPSC is submitted to Ans : c) President
Ques (10): Dr. P.K. Sethi is well known for Ans : a) Invention of famous artificial "Jaipur Foot"
Ques (11): Who among the following was not a member of Royal commission on public services in India, 1912? Ans : d) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Ques (12): Who was the first Indian actress to receive the Padma Shri Award? Ans : (d) Madhubala
Ques (13): Statutory recognition to portfolio system was accorded by (a) Indian councils Act 1892 (b) Indian councils Act 1857 (c) Indian councils Act 1861 (d) Indian councils Act 1833 Ans : 3) C
Ques (14): The Indira Gandhi Peace Prize, 2002 was awarded toAns : (c) Norodom Sihanouk
Ques (15): Among the following cities, which one is nearest to the Tropic of Cancer ? Ans : b) Kolkata
Ques (16): Which of the following Constitutional Amendments are related to raising the number of Members of Lok Sabha to be elected from the States? Ans : (c) 7th and 31st
Ques (17): The magazine on politics is Ans : (b) edited by Gurbaksh
Ques (18): Which one among the following has the largest shipyard in India? Ans : (d) Visakhapatnam
Ques (19): Which one of the following statements is NOT correct? Ans : (a) Ali Mardan Khan introduced the system of revenue farming in Bengal
Ques (20): The main reason for unrest and violence in Zimbabwe in recent years is due to Ans : (b) prolonged crisis over land reforms
Ques (21): The ancient Indian play Mudrarakshasa of Vishkhadutt has its subject on Ans : (d) the court intrigues at the time of Chandragupta Maurya
Ques (22): Nanda Devi peak forms a part ofAns : (b) Kumaon Himalayas
Ques (23): The number of companies holding non-scheduled air transport operators permit as in 2007 is Ans : (d) 46
Ques (24): Among the follwing cities, which one is at the highest altitude above mean sea level ?Ans : (a) Bangalore
Ques (25): My country, my life is autobiography of Ans : a) L.K. Advani
Ques (26): There are 8 equidistant point a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h in the clockwise direction on theperiphery of a circle. In a time interval t, a person reaches from a to c with uniform motion while another reaches the point e from the point b during the same time interval with uniform motion. Both the person moves in the same direction along the circumference of the circle and start at the same instant. How much time after the start, will the two persons meet each other? Ans : b) 7t
Ques (27): Three bells toll at intervals of 9, 12 and 15 minutes respectively. All the three begin to toil at 8 a.m. At what time will they first toll together again? Ans : (c) 11.00 a.m.
Ques (28): How did the Mughal Emperor Jahandarshah’s reign come to an early end ?Ans : (c) He was defeated by his nephew in a battle
Ques (29): In the year 2001, India offered a grant of five million dollars to Tajikistan to Ans : (a) tackle the drought situation
Ques (30): Emperor Harsha’s southward march was stopped on the Narmada river by: Ans : (b) Pulakesin-II
Ques (31): How did Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aibak die? Ans : (d) He died after a fall from his horse while playing Chaugan
Ques (32): How many numbers are there in all from 6000 to 6999 (Both 6000 and 6999 included) having at least one of their digits repeated?Ans : c) 496
Ques (33): ‘A’ walks around a circular field at the rate of the one round per hour while ‘B’ runs around it at the rate of six rounds per hour. They start in the same direction from the same point at 7.30 a.m. They shall first cross each other atAns : (d) 7.42 a.m.
Ques (34): Which one of the following is the correct chronological order of the Afghan rulers to the throne of Delhi? Ans : c) Bahlol Khan Lodi-Sikandar Shah-Ibrahim Lodi
Ques (35): The correct sequence of the eastward flowing rivers of the peninsular India from north to south is Ans : (a) Subarnarekha, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery and Vagai
Ques (36): According to 2001 census, the total population of scheduled castes nearly Ans : (b) 166 million
Ques (37): Who was founder of Asiatic society? Ans : b) William Jones
Ques (38): What is "Force India"? (a) A term used to denote rich Human resource of India.. (b) Nickname of India's Twenty-20 Cricket world cup winning squad (c) Recently discovered molecular force by Indian scientist (d) F-1 racing team from IndiaAns : 4) D
Ques (39): In a solar water heater, the solar pipes are blocked after 10 years. It may be can clouded that water flowing through pipe contains?Ans : a) Calcium carbonate
Ques (40): Which of the following is not correctly matched? Prominent Indian Writer : Language Ans : a) Raja Rao : Telugu
Ques (41): Which state relieives highest number of migrants? Ans : a) Maharashtra
Ques (42): 15. The sportsperson Soma Biswas is associated with: Ans : (d) Athletic
Ques (43): Consider the following statements : A 4-wheel vehicle moving in a sharp circular path at high speed will 1. overturn about its outer wheels. 2. overturn about its inner wheels. 3. skid outwards. 4. skid inwards. Which of these statements are correct ?Ans : (a) 1 and 3
Ques (44): Which one of the following statements is not correct? Ans : c) Cauvey River rises in Andhra Pradesh
Ques (45): Which of the following is not correctly matched (a) Badminton - Thomas Cup (b) Football - Santosh Trophy (c) Hockey - Ranga swami Cup (d) Chess - Nehru Trophy Ans : 4) D
Ques (46): The aim of education as stated by the Wood’s dispatch of 1854 wasAns : (d) the introduction of scientific research and rationalism in the traditional Indian education
Ques (47): In the FIFA World Cup Football event in the year 2002, the number of goals scored by Ronaldo of Brazil were: Ans : (c) 8
Ques (48): How can the International Date Line be explained in simple terms? (a) It is the equator (b) It is the 180° longitude (c) It is the 90° E longitude (d) It is the 0° longitude Ans :
Ques (49): The major emphasis in the tenth five-year plan was on Ans : (c) Priority to agriculture and rural development
Ques (50): Projects and Development India limited is mainly engaged in design engineering, procurement and supervision of construction/commissioning in which area? Ans : d) Fertilizer and allied chemical plants
Ques (51): What percentage of GDP was the country’s merchendise trade deficit during 2006-07?Ans : (c) 5.5%
Ques (52): The Basque people who are frequently in the news for their separatist activity live in:Ans : (d) Spain
Ques (53): Money can be advanced out of contingency Fund of India to meet unforeseen expenditures byAns : b) President
Ques (54): Which one of the following statements is correct ? Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA) concerns Ans : c) Both fiscal deficit and revenue deficit.
Ques (55): The estimated potential of the solar photovoltaic power sector in India is…………..MWAns : (a) 5,000
Ques (56): Which of the following can be used to detect purity of gold in sample Ans : b) Archimede's principle
Ques (57): Which one of the following countries is not a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)? Ans : c) Estonia
Ques (58): Which of the following statements about the indian Railway is correct?Ans : (d) It is the second largest rail system in the world under a single management
Ques (59): Majauli island which is world's largest fresh water mid river deltaic island is situated in Ans : b) Jorhat district of Assam
Ques (60): A trader fixed the price of an article in such a way that by giving a rebate of 10% on the price fixed he made a profit of 15%. If the cost of the article is Rs. 72, the price fixed on it is Ans : (c) Rs. 92.00
Ques (61): How did the Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah’s reign come to an early end? Ans : (c) He was defeated by his nephew in a battle
Ques (62): Who is the author of the book ‘New Dimensions of India’s Foreign Policy’? Ans : (a) A. B. Vajpayee
Ques (63): Under which article of the Indian Constitution did the President make a reference to the Supreme Court to seek the Court’s opinion on the Constitutional validity of the Election Commission’s decision on deferring the Gujarat Assembly elections (in the year 2002)? Ans : (b) Article 143
Ques (64): Between which of the following was the ancient town of Takshasila located? Ans : a) Indus and Jhelum
Ques (65): India has the maximum volume of foreign trade with Ans : (a) USA
Ques (66): Recently government of which country openly apologised to country indigenous people on stolen generation issue? Ans : a) Australia
Ques (67): Which one of the following High Courts has the Territorial Jurisdiction over Andaman and Nicobar Islands ?Ans : (b) Calcutta
Ques (68): Whom did Mahesh Bhupati and Max Mirnyi beat in the US Open men’s doubles tennis championship in the year 2002 to win the title ?Ans : (d) Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek
Ques (69): Which of the following statement is incorrect? (a) M.R.I. stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (b) When a molecule is reduced it always gains electron (c) The most common monomer of carbohydrate is molecule of Glucose (d) A.T.P. stands for Adinosine Tetra phosphateAns : 4) D
Ques (70): If the radius of the earth were to shrink by one percent, its mass remaining the same, the value of ‘g’ on the earth’s surface would: Ans : (d) decrease by 2%
Ques (71): Whom did Croatia defeat in the Davis Cup-2005 Finals to win the Davis Cup-2005? Ans : b) Slovak Republic
Ques (72): With reference to India, which one of the following statements is NOT correct? Ans : (a) IPCL is India’s largest petrochemical company
Ques (73): Who was Francisco De Almeida? Ans : b) Portugese viceroy in India
Ques (74): In which one of the following films did the Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck collaborate? Ans : b) Guide
Ques (75): The ports located at two ends of suez canal are? Ans : a) Port said and suez
Ques (76): In which of the plans, india’s growth of agriculture production was negative?Ans : (b) third
Ques (77): Which of the following institutes is located in Chandigarh? Ans : (a) Central scientific instruments organisation
Ques (78): Manufacture of cement was started in India in 1904 at Ans : (b) Madras
Ques (79): Which one among the following countries has the lowest GDP per capita ?Ans : (b) India
Ques (80): What is the approximate mean velocity with which the Earth moves round the sun in the orbit ? Ans : b) 30 km/s
Ques (81): Which of the following is not a central university? Ans : d) University of Madras, Chennai
Ques (82): Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched? (a) Teak - Jammu & Kashmir (b) Deodar - Madhya Pradesh (c) Sandal - Kerala (d) Sundari - West Bengal Ans : 4) D
Ques (83): The outlay for the power sector in the tenth plan is Ans : (a) Rs.1,43,399 crore
Ques (84): The purpose of the inclusion of Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution is to establish Ans : (d) Social and economic democracy
Ques (85): An outlay of what amount was approved in the Tenth five-year plan for the development of roads in india? Ans : (c) Rs.59,700 crore
Ques (86): The petro-chemicals, because of their superior properties, are substituting the traditional raw material in th form ofAns : (d) All of these
Ques (87): What is "Bandhan" (a) Scheme by UP government for marriages of BPL family girls (b) A new contraceptive for women which successfully stops transmission of HIV (c) Microfinance institution from kolkata which has been ranked 2nd in world by Forbes magazine (d) None of the above Ans : 3) C
Ques (88): Diffusion of light in the atmosphere takes place due to: particles Ans : (b) Dust
Ques (89): The total population of india on the basis of 2001 Censuks was nearest to the figure ofAns : (d) 1028 million
Ques (90): Doubling per captia income in ten years was one of the mandated objectives of the ……….. five year planAns : (b) tenth
Ques (91): Agenda 21 is (a) UN's agenda for 21st century (b) Outcome of UN conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) of 1992 (c) Agreement between 21 states of USA (d) Forum of 21 developing countries at WTO Ans : 2) B
Ques (92): In which of the following cases light behaves like energy packet?Ans : d) Photo electric effect
Ques (93): Which one among the following States has the highest female lieracy rate as per the Census 2001 ?Ans : (a) Chattisgarh
Ques (94): The principal natural rubber producing countries of the world are.(a) India, Russia, UK, China (b) Malaysia, Indonesia, Thialand, Shri lanka(c) Bangaladesh, Pakistan, myanmar, Vietnam (d) Canada, Mexico, Chile, Argentina.Ans : 2) B
Ques (95): Tim Montgomery set a new world record at the IAAF Grand Prix final in the year 2002 inAns : (c) 100 m Dash
Ques (96): In terms of value, which one of the following commodities accounted for the largest agricultural exports by India during the three year period from 1997-98 to 1999-2000? Ans : (b) Marine products
Ques (97): In which one among the following is the speed of sound maximum? Ans : d) Wood
Ques (98): For short-term climate predictions, which one of the following events, detected in the last decade, is associated with occasional weak monsoon rains in the Indian subcontinent? Ans : (c) El Nino and Southern Oscillations
Ques (99): Who was the Governor-General of India during the Sepoy Mutiny? Ans : a) Lord Canning
Ques (100): The term of the Lok Sabha Ans : (c) can be extended by one year at a time during the proclamation of emergency
Ques (101): In the year 2001, Germany approved a $ 32 million credit to India Ans : (d) for oceanographic research
Ques (102): An oil tanker is partially filled with oil and moves forward on a level road with uniform acceleration. The free surface of oil then: Ans : (a) remains horizontal
Ques (103): Among the following which planet takes maximum time for one revolution around the Sun? Ans : (b) Jupiter
Ques (104): Consider the following statements : 1. India launched its first full-fledged meteorological satellite (METSAT) in September, 2002. 2. For the first time, the space vehicle PSLV-C4 carried a payload of more than 1000 kg into a geosynchronous orbit. Which of these statements is / are correct ?Ans : (c) Both 1 and 2
Ques (105): Which is the first person to decode his genes under Human Genome projectAns : d) J. Craig Ventor
Ques (106): Consider the following animals of India : 1. Crocodile 2. Elephant Which of these is / are endangered species ?Ans : (c) Both 1 and 2
Ques (107): Who among the following was selected for the 2001 Dada Saheb Phalke Award ?Ans : (d) Yash Chopra
Ques (108): Which one of the following powers of council of states is provided in Indian constitution? (a) To reject or amend money bill (b) To decide, whether bill is money bill or not (c) To vote for public expenditure (d) To delay a money bill for a period not exceeding fourteen days.Ans : 4) D
Ques (109): Who won the title in the finals of French Open men’s singles tennis championship in the year 2002? Ans : (a) Albert Costa
Ques (110): Three flags, each of different colour, are available for a military exercise. Using these flags, different codes can be generated by waving (i) single flag of different colours, or (ii) any two flags in a different sequence of colours, or (iii) three flags in a different sequence of colours. The maximum number of codes that can be generated isAns : (c) 15
Ques (111): C. B. Bhave has been appointed as chairman of SEBI. Before this he was working as chairman of Ans : a) NSDL
Ques (112): Consider the following statements: Which of these statements are correct? 1. The world Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is a specialized agency of United Nations System of Organisation. 2. WIPO has its headquarters at Rome. 3. The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement is binding on all WTO members? 4. Least developed country members of WTO are not required to apply the provisions of TRIPS Agreements for a period of 20 years from the general date of application of the Agreement. Ans : (d) 1 and 3
Ques (113): With reference to the latest development in stem cell research, consider the following statements:Which of these statements are correct? 1. The only source of human stem cells are the embryos at blastocyst stage. 2. The stem cells can be derived without causing destruction to blastocysts. 3. The stem cells can regenerate themselves in vitro virtually forever. 4. Indian research centers also created a few cell lines which can be developed into many types of tissues. Ans : (d) 3 and 4
Ques (114): (i) L, M, N, P, Q, R and S are sitting in a circle and Playing cards. (ii) N, who is the neighbour of P, is not the neighbour of R (iii) Q is second to the left of R (iv) N is second to the left of S, who is neighbour of M Which of the following pairs has the first person sitting third to the left of second person? Ans : b) SR
Ques (115): With reference to the Public Sector Undertaking in India, consider the following statements: Which of these statements is/are correct? 1. Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation of India Limited is the largest non-oil importer of the country. 2. Project and Equipment Corporation of India Limited is under the Ministry of Industry. 3. One of the objectives of Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Limited is to enforce quality control and compulsory pre-shipment inspection of various exportable commodities. Ans : (a) 1 only
Ques (116): Consider the following statements: 1. There is no provision in the Constitution of India to encourage equal pay for equal work for both men and women. 2. The Constitution of India does not define backward classes. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? Ans : (b) 2 only
Ques (117): Consider the following statements: Which of these statements is/are correct? 1. Molasses is a by-product of sugar production process. 2. Bagasse obtained in the sugar mills is used as a fuel in the boilers to generate steam for the sugar factories. 3. Sugar can only be produced from sugarcane as the raw material. Ans : (a) 1 and 2
Ques (118): Consider the following statements: Which of these statements is/are correct? 1. India’s import of crude and petroleum products during the year 2001-02 accounted for about 27% of India’s total imports. 2. During the year 2001-02, India’s exports had increased by 10% as compared to the previous year. Ans : (a) Only 1
Ques (119): Who among these won the Nobel Peace Prize? 1. Arehibiship Desmond Tutu 2. Lech Walesa 3. Shimon Peres 4. Yasser Arafat Ans : (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Ques (120): Which of these countries has/have Adriatic Sea as a boundary? 1. Albania 2. Bosnia Herzegovina 3. Croatia 4. MacedoniaAns : (b) 1, 2 and 3
Ques (121): With reference to Indian transport systems, consider the following statements: Which of these statements are correct? 1. Indian railways system is the largest in the world. 2. National Highways cater to 45 percent of the total road transport demand 3. Among the states, Kerala has the highest density of surface road. 4. National Highway No. 7 is the longest in the country. Ans : (d) 2 and 4
Ques (122): Consider the following statements:1. The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale and so an increase of 1 magnitude unit represents a factor of 10 times in amplitude. 2. Each integer reading of the Richter scale has an energy 100 times that of the previous integer reading. Which of the statement given above is/are correct? Ans : (c) Both 1 and 2
Ques (123): Assertion (A) - Buffalo milk is more yellow than cow milk Reason (R) - Cow milk contains casein Ans : d) Both A & R are correct by R does not explain A
Ques (124): Full convertibility of the rupee may mean 1. its free float with other international currencies. 2. its direct exchange with any other international currency at any prescribed place inside and outside the country. 3. it acts just like anyother international currency. Ans : (d) 1, 2 and 3
Ques (125): A4-wheel vehicle moving in a sharp circular path at high speed will: 1. overturn about its outer wheels. 2. overturn about its inner wheels 3. skid outwards 4. skid inwards Ans : (a) 1 and 3
Ques (126): Consider the following plants: Which of these plants are propagated by stem cuttings? 1. Bougainvillea 2. Carnations 3. Cocoa 4. Grapes Ans : (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Ques (127): Consider the following statements: Which of these statements is/are correct? 1. The joint sitting of the two houses of the Parliament in India is sanctioned under Article 108 of the Constitution 2. The first joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was held in the year 1961 3. The second joint sitting of the two Houses of Indian Parliament was held to pass the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill. Ans : (a) 1 and 2
Ques (128): With reference to Indian satellites and their launchers Which is correct 1. All the INSAT-series of satellites were launched abroad. 2. PSLVs were used to launch IRS-series of satellites. 3. India used the indigenously built cryogenic engines for the first time for powering the third stage of SLV. 4. GSAT, launched in the year 2001, has payloads to demonstrate digital broadcasts and internet services. Ans :
Ques (129): Consider the following statements (1) The mittle land canal joins the three major rivers of Ems, Wesser and Elbe (2) Kiel canal links the Rhine estuary to the Baltic sea. (3) Ludwig canal links the Danube river to the Rhone, through a tributary. (4) Carrillion canal lies on the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence waterway. Which of the above statements is/are correct? Ans : b) (1) & (4)
Ques (130): P, Q, R, S and T reside in a-storeyed (Ground + 4) building and each of them resides on a separate floor. Further, 51 T does not reside on the topmost floor. 2. Q does not reside on the ground floor. 3. S resides on one storey above that of P and one storey below that of R. To know as to which one of the 5 persons resides on the ground floor which of the above statements are sufficient/insufficient? Ans : (d) 1, 2 and 3 are insufficient
Ques (131): Match List I (Indian Scientist/Scholar) with List II (Area of Work) and select the correct answer using the code give below the lists:
A. C. N. R. RaoB. Jagdish BhagwatiC. G. N.RamachandranD. Ashok Jhunjhunwala
1.Telecommunication2.Physics 3. Economics 4. Solid State Chemistry and Material ScienceAns : (a )4 - 3 - 2 - 1
Ques (132): Match List (Leading woman Lawn Tennis Player) with list II (country) and select the correct answer using the code given below the list:
A. Daniela Hantuchova B. Patty Schnyder C. Nadia PetrovaD. Amelia Mauresmo
1. Russia2. Slovakia3. France4. SwitzerlandAns : (c) 2 - 4 - 1 -3
Ques (133): Match List I (centre of Handicrafts) with List (state) and select the correct answer using the code given blow the list:
A. MonB. Nalbari C. PasighatD. tura
1. Arunachal Pradesh2.Assam3. Meghalaya4. NagalandAns : (a) 4 -2 - 1 - 3
Ques (134): Match List-I (Sports-person) with List-II (Sport/Game) and select the correct answer using the codes given below the Lists:
A. Shikha Tandon B. Ignace Tirkey C. Pankaj Advani D. Rohan Bopanna
1. Hockey2.Swimming 3. Lawn 4. Snooker Ans : (d)2143
Ques (135): Match List-I (State/Province/Overseas Territory) with List-II (Country) and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists:
A. British ColombiaB. Bavaria C. Gibraltar D. Rhode Island
1. USA2.UK 3. Canada 4. Germany Ans : (b)3421
Ques (136): Match list I (place of Archaeological Monuments) with list II (state) And Select the correct answer using the code given below the list:
A. SisupalgarphB. Piprahwa C. Goalpara D. Bishnupur
1. Assam2. Manipur3.Orissa4. Uttar Pradesh Ans : (c) 3 -4 -1 - 2
Ques (137): Match List I (Author) With List II (Book) and select the Correct Answer using the code given below the list:
A . Amartya senB.Bimal jalanC.Arundhati roy D. Mani shankar Aiyar
1. An ordinary2. The Argumentative Empire3. The future of India 4. Confessions of a secular FundamentalistAns : (b) 2 -3 - 1 - 4
Ques (138): Match List-I (Item in the Indian Constitution) with List-II (Country from which it was derived) and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists:
A. Directive PrinciplesB. Fundamental Rights C. Concurrent List in Union-State RelationsIndia as a Union of States with greater powers to the Union
1. Australia of State Policy2. Canada3. Ireland4. United States of America Ans : (d) 3412
Ques (139): Which one of the following statements is correct with reference to FEMA in India ? (a) The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was replaced by Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in the year 2001 (b) FERA was given a sunset clause of one year till 31st May, 2002 to enable Enforcement Directorate to complete the investigation of pending issues (c) Under FEMA, violation of foreign exchange rules has ceased to be a criminal offence (d) As per the new dispensation, Enforcement DiMatch list I with list II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists: rectorate can arrest and prosecute the people for the violation of foreign exchagne rules
A. PneumoniaB. MalariaC. Smallpox D. Athlete’s foot
1. Virus2. Bacteria3. Protozoa4. Fungi Ans : (c) 2 1 3 4
Ques (140): Match List-I (Institute) with List - II (located At) and select the correct answer using the codes given below the Lists:
A. Gopnath Beach B. Lawsons Bay Beach C. Devbagh Beach D. Sinquerim Beach
1. Andhra Pradesh 2. Karnataka 3. Gujarat 4. Goa Ans : (a)3124
Ques (141):Assertion (A): In 1916, Maulana Mohammad Ali and Abul Kalam Azad resigned from the Legislative Council. Reason (R): The Rowlatt Act was passed by the Government in spite of being opposed by all Indian members of the Legislative Council. Ans : (d) A is false but R is true
Ques (142):Assertion (A): The effect of labour participation in the Indian nationalist upsurge of the early 1930s was weak. Reason (r): The labour leaders considered the ideology of Indian National Congress as bourgeois and reactionary. Ans : (a) Both A and R are individually true and R is the correct explanation of A
Ques (143):Ans : d) Neither 1 nor 2
Ques (144):Assertion (A) : In our houses, the current in AC electricity line changes direction 60 times per second. Reason (R) : The frequency of alternating voltage supplied is 60 hertz. Ans : (d) A is false but R is true
Ques (145):Assertion (A) : The Central Rural Sanitation Programme was launched in 1986 to improve the quality of life of rural people in India. Reason (R) : Rural sanitation is a subject in the Concurrent List in the Constitution of India Ans : (c) A is true but R is false
Ques (146):Assertion (A) : Bangalore receives much higher average annual rainfall than that of Mangalore. Reason (R) : Bangalore has the benefit of receiving rainfall both from south-west and north-east monsoons. Ans : (d) A is false but R is true
Ques (147):Ans : c) Both 1 and 2
Ques (148):Assertion (A): Artificial satellites are always launched from the earth in the eastward direction.Reason (r): The earth rotates from west to east and so the satellite attains the escape velocity. Ans : (c) A is true but R is false
Ques (149):Assertion (A) : West-flowing rivers of Peninsular India have no deltas. Reason (R) : These rivers do not carry any alluvial sediments. Ans : (a) Both A and R are individually true and R is the corrrect explanation of A
Ques (150):Assertion (A): Human diet should compulsorily contain Glycrine, Serine and Tyrosin. Reason (r): Essential amino acids cannot be synthesized in the human body. Ans : (d) A is false but R is true

2008-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Yudhistira

Second episode depicting the soft - righteous or peculiar - nature of Yudhisthira:Once Duryodhana and his army men reached Kamyak forest to see for themselves the ill fated life and hardships of Pandavas. They halted at a nearby lake where a group of Gandharvas - musicians from heaven - and their consorts were taking bath. Chitrasen was their leader. Duryodhana started misbehaving with them on the false euphoria of having many army personnel with him. But the Gandharvas used his divine powers to render Duryodhana and his army helpless. Duryodhana was defeated and was intensely ashamed of his poor defeat.Chitrasen wanted to teach Duryodhana a lesson so he fastened him was about to beat him up when Pandavas happened to pas by that side. Seeing the poor condition of his brother, Yudhisthira advised Arjuna and Bhima to free Duryodhana who was in the clutches of the Gandharvas. Both the brothers protested that Yudhisthira should be more practical and use his common sense; how and why could they help the tormentor of Draupadi?But Yudhisthira pacified them and said, "Our differences should not come in our duty to protect and our brothers in difficulty." Then Pandavas defeated Gandharvas and Duryodhana was set free. He ran away ashamed of himself.
Story of JarasanghaJarasangha was the cruel king of Maghadha State. He had planned a sacrificial ritual where he was to sacrifice one hundred and eight human beings from royal families. Thus far he had conquered and jailed one hundred such kings and princes.Sri Krishna knew about this cruelty and inhuman tendencies of king Jarasangha. Many a message was sent to him through the wives of such imprisoned princes and kings. Sri Krishna planned to release these jailed inmates. During the period of forest exile he took Bhima to the kingdom of Jarasangha and asked Bhima to challenge Jarasangha for a wrestling duet. As was customary, Jarasangha accepted the challenge.

The powerful Jarasangha was not to die easily. He had a Tantric power obtained through rigorous sadhana to heal himself even if any part of his body was detached! But there was one flaw; the detached part must remain on the same side of the body. For instance, if right hand is broken it will get attached to his body again if it lies on the same side! Sri Krishna knew this.The fight between Jarasangha and Bhima was intense, and nobody seemed to come victorious. Bhima was puzzled, what should he do now! He looked at Sri Krishna for advice, and Sri Krishna at that moment took a small twig and broke it into two. BUT he threw the two broken parts in opposite direction, crossed. Bhima understood. In one peculiar position, Bhima caught hold of the leg of Jarasangha and tore him into two. Quickly he threw two parts of Jarasangha's body in opposite direction. Thus came the end of demon king.The kings and princes in his captivity were released and as an act of gratitude promised Sri Krishna to fight or support him and Pandavas in case of necessity. That necessity arose later, and all these kings decided to side with Pandavas in that war of Mahabharata

2008-12-04T03:33:00.000-08:00

Open Space
Why does February have 28 days, and July and August, 31 days?
According to a popular legend, July was named after Julius Caesar and hence it had 31 days. Later, when Augustus Caesar took over the Roman Empire, he wanted August, the month named after him, to have 31 days as well. Hence, the two extra days were taken from February, which was then left with 28 days. However, some historians don’t agree with this reasoning. They believe February always had 28 days ever since the time of King Numa Pompilius. He decided that a year would have 355 days, the length of 12 lunar cycles. Back then, even numbers were considered unlucky. So, he created seven months with 29 days, and four with 31. Since he now needed one short even-numbered month, he chose February, as it was considered the least favourite month for it arrived during the middle of winter. And hence, it was given only 28 days.
What is rice wine? Rice wine is made from fermenting freshly steamed glutinous rice. Most rice wines are low in alcohol content, light in colour, noncarbonated and have a sweet flavour. Rice wine is categorised according to the degree to which rice is polished. It does not usually improve with age and should be preferably consumed within one year of bottling. Why was the New Amsterdam Colony established? New Amsterdam was established by Dutch colonisers in 1624 in what is known today as New York city. The town of New Amsterdam became a city in 1653 when it received municipal rights and was reincorporated as New York city in June 1665. The town was founded on the southern tip of Manhattan island as the most optimal place for permanent settlement by the Dutch West India Company and was strategically located on the south of the Hudson river. The location was best suited to defend the integrity of the New Netherlands province and was entrusted to safeguard the West India Company’s exclusive access to New Netherlands’ other two estuaries — the Delaware river and Connecticut river. Which was the first war fought in the history of mankind? If we define war as a large-scale violent conflict between two states employing the military, the earliest recorded wars might have taken place between various city states in the Mesopotamian region during the period 3,000-2,300 BC in the Bronze Age. The first recorded evidence of such a war was the one between the two city states Lagash and Umma, estimated to have taken place in 2525 BC. From the stone slabs bearing inscriptions related to the war, it could be inferred that the war employed professional soldiers wearing helmets who moved on chariots. The weapons employed were maces and swords. Where does Santa Claus live? The original Santa Claus lived nowhere near the North Pole. If the 4th century bishop known as Saint Nicholas of Myra — the inspiration for Santa Claus — existed at all, he lived in Lycla, a province of the Byzantine Anatolla, now in Turkey. Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch name Sinte Klaas for St Nicholas, the patron saint of children and unmarried girls. Tradition says he gave bags of gold to three daughters from a noble, but poor family as their dowries, thus saving them from a life of prostitution. As the legends developed in the Netherlands, the three bags of gold were replaced by a bulging sack of presents which Santa Claus distributed to children on December 6, St Nicholas’ feast day. Later, this custom caught on to other parts of the world, to give gifts to good people and punish the bad. What is the Seebeck Effect? The principle of the thermocouple was first described by Seebeck in 1821. Seebeck discovered that when wires of two dissimilar metals were joined together to form a circuit of at least two junctions, a current would flow when the junctions were at different temperatures. This phenomenon, called the Seebeck Effect, is the basis upon which thermocouples are designed. What is polygraphy? This is the process of using an instrument called polygraph, which is also popularly known as a lie detector.
How is a satellite phone different from a cellular phone? Satellite and cellular phones are wireless devices. They almost look alike but the way they work is totally different. A cellular phone functions on the basis of cells, and hence are called cell phones. The whole network area is divided into small areas and an antenna is installed in each area. These are also called towers. When a cellular phone is moving, it enters from one cell to another. When it crosses the border of one cell, the phone sends a signal to the MTSO (Mobile Telephone Switching Office). With the help of control channel the database of the MTSO relocates the phone in a new cell or area. Satellite phones use Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. When a satellite phone is turned on, a signal goes up to any number of satellites of a group the phone is registered with. When a person makes a call from the handset, a signal goes to the nearest orbiting satellite. The satellite connects to the gateway or ground station. Then the gateway takes the call to the destination.
What’s the Green Gold project? The Green Gold or Oro Verde project seeks to ensure the safety of miners and also protect them from exploitation. A jewellery shop in Chichester, England along with miners in a cooperative in Choco in North-East Colombia and the Fair Trade Foundation embarked on this project which promotes the purchase of green gold or jewellery which isn’t created by putting labourers through hardships. What is Project Blue Book? This project is associated with the study of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). From 1947 to 1969, the US Air force started working on a special project named Blue Book. It was started for investigating UFOs and whether they posed any danger to national security. But it was discontinued later because they could not gather any solid information about UFOs. Who is a gelotologist? A gelotologist is a specialist who studies the physiological effects of laughter. When a person laughs, some special muscles called gelastic muscles get exercised, and, as a result, several physiological changes such as an increase in respiration and blood circulation take place. A gelotologist is concerned with analysis of such changes and their effect on human health. The word originated from the Greek root ‘gelos’ meaning laughter. The first institute devoted to the field of gelotology was started in 1971 in San Francisco by Dr William Fry, who believed that laughter was bad for health. However, his views were proven wrong later.
What is a Jordan Curve? First stated by Camille Jordan in 1887, the Jordan Curve Theorem says that any simple closed curve in a plane divides the plane into two disjoint regions (inside and outside of the curve). By simple closed curve, roughly a curve which does not cross itself but eventually joins itself; more formally, the theorem refers to any homeomorphic image of a circle. Although the statement of the Jordan Curve Theorem seems obvious, it was a very difficult theorem to prove. The first to attempt a proof was Bernard Bolzano, followed by a number of other mathematicians including Camille Jordan after whom the theorem is named. None could provide a correct proof, until Oswald Veblen finally did in 1905. Several alternative proofs have been found since then. A rigorous 6,500-line formal proof of the theorem was produced in 2005 by an international team of mathematicians using the Mizar System.
Why is infrared radiation used as signals during war? Ordinary visible light is scattered by haze but infrared (IR) radiation can penetrate through the haze without being scattered. Therefore, these can be used as signals on distant objects obscured by atmospheric haze. Also, IR radiation enables sharpshooters to see their targets in total darkness. These devices essentially consist of an IR lamp which sends a beam of IR radiation (called black light) and a telescope receiver which picks up returned radiation from the object and converts it to a visible image. What is otolaryngology? Otolaryngology is the medical speciality that studies the ear, nose, and throat, as well as other related structures of the head and neck. Within otolaryngology there are seven specialties namely paediatric otolaryngology, allergy, head and neck diseases, otology / neurotology (ears, balance, and tinnitus), rhinology (nose), laryngology (throat), facial cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. Otolaryngologists are often referred to as ENT doctors because of their focus on the ear, nose, and throat. They care for patients with hearing, balance, speech, voice, taste, and smell disorders. What is the Antarctica Treaty? The Antarctica Treaty, signed in 1959, was a path-breaking agreement among countries of the world. There are certain regions located beyond the sovereign jurisdiction of any country of the world. Therefore, they require common governance by the international community. These are known as ‘res communis humanitatis’ or Global Commons. It includes not only Antarctica but also the ocean floor and outer space. According to the treaty, Antarctica’s environment and ecosystem will be protected. Since 1959, activities in the area have been limited to scientific research and development, fishing and tourism. Even these limited activities have not prevented this region from being degraded by waste, for example, oil spills. The expansion of the treaty was Antarctic Environmental Protocol of 1991. What is a pagoda? A pagoda, in South-east Asia, is a cone-shaped monumental structure built in memory of the Buddha. But in the Far East, a pagoda is a tower-like, multi-storeyed structure of stone, brick, or wood, usually associated with a Buddhist temple complex. The pagoda is derived from the stupa of ancient India, which was a dome-shaped commemorative monument, usually erected over the remains or relics of a holy man or king.
Who was the mysterious Mona Lisa? The identity of the famed muse of Leonardo da Vinci was a mystery until recently. German researchers claim they have solved the mystery of the woman who was Mona Lisa. They believe it was Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy merchant in Florence named Francesco del Giocondo. The discovery is based on dated notes by a Florentine city official who was a friend of the artist. Interestingly, the painting, now on display at the Louvre in Paris, is called La Gioconda in Italian, which means the happy or joyful woman. The title is uncannily similar to Lisa’s married name.
What is four-dimensional cinema? What we normally see today in theatres are two-dimensional movies with multi-channel sound. In three-dimensional movies, viewers are required to wear special glasses which creates 3-D images of objects in the movie. Chhota Chetan and Shiva Ka Insaaf were such movies released two decades ago. Fourth dimension in a movie creates an overall different experience. In addition to the effects of 3-D features, viewers can experience the movies through other senses like sight, sound, odour, touch and also have personal remote control. Viewers are seated in special seats which have bass shockers and other special fittings which make them a part of the complete 4-D experience. What is psychogenesis? Psychogenic comes from the Greek words psyche meaning mind or soul and genesis meaning birth or origin. If a disease is emotionally, rather than organically, based, the ailment is psychogenic, of psychic origin or psychosomatic, resulting from the interaction of mind and body. What is bow shock? In aerodynamics, bow shock is a normal shock that occurs in front of an object within a supersonic flow. Unlike an oblique shock, the bow shock is not attached to the tip of the object in the flow. Oblique shock angles are limited in formation based on the corner angle and upstream Mach number. When these limitations are exceeded, a bow shock occurs instead of an oblique shock. Therefore, bow shocks are often seen forming around blunt objects. In astrophysics, bow shock is a boundary between a magnetosphere and an ambient medium. For stars, this is typically the boundary between their stellar wind and the interstellar medium. In a planetary magnetosphere, the bow shock is the boundary at which the solar wind abruptly drops because of its approach to the magnetopause. What is Assumption Day? Assumption Day is, according to the Roman Catholic church, the day on which the Blessed Virgin Mary was, along with her body and soul, accepted (or ‘assumed’) in heaven. It is usually celebrated on August 15 by Roman Catholics. In some parts of the world, Assumption Day is a public holiday; in some parts it is a day of solemnity and prayers, whereas in some other parts, it is a day of feasting and festivities. Although in the early days of Christianity some held that it was not certain how the Virgin Mary’s life ended, from the 5th century AD onwards, Christians believed that the Virgin Mary did not actually suffer a physical death and that she passed into heaven with her physical body and soul on Assumption Day. The above day was officially recognised through a Dogma by the Church only in 1950. The Assumption has also been a subject of Christian art for several centuries. What is heirloom gardening? An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, or (especially in the UK) heirloom vegetable is an open-pollinated cultivar that was commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but not used in modern large-scale agriculture. Since most popular heirloom plants are vegetables, the term heirloom vegetable is often used instead. The trend of growing heirloom plants in gardens has been growing in popularity in the United States and Europe over the last decade. This is called heirloom gardening. Some examples are heirloom tomato, forbidden rice and Bhutanese red rice. What is dies irae? Dies Irae literally means day of wrath. The mediaeval Christians were preoccupied with the end of the world; they anticipated the Last Judgement, followed by the millennium. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West there was a revival of the belief in the end of time. The year 1000 likewise excited mythological speculation, as did famines, plagues, and earthquakes. Most influential were the views of the visionary Joachim of Fiore. He divided history into several ages and said that 1260 would be the fulfilment of the Age of the Spirit, which had begun with St Benedict. At that time, mankind could expect a new revelation, the coming of the anti-Christ, and the last days of wrath. This myth, written down at the behest of the Papacy, exerted a potent influence on mediaeval thought, and in its vision of a future world where the Holy Roman Empire and the Church of Rome would give place to a free community of perfected beings who have no need of clergy or sacraments or scripture, it anticipated modern millennial theories. How many countries does the Dnieper flow through? Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are the three countries through which Europe’s third-longest river flows. It originates in the south-west of Moscow and flows through Smolensk (Russia), Mogilev (Belarus), Kiev (capital of Ukraine), Dnepropetrovsk and Kherson (Ukraine) and empties into the Black Sea.
What is anthropocene? The current geological epoch we live in is called Holocene, which began around 9600 BC. However, considering the way humans have altered the course of the Earth scientists suggest that the epoch be renamed anthropocene. Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen coined this term in a casual remark in 2002, while talking about how the Earth was entering a new epoch due to increasing human population and economic activity. However, other scientists want this word to refer to the human impact upon the planet. What is anti-dumping duty? If any company exports a product at a price lower than what it normally charges in its home market, then it is dumping the product. Opinions differ as to whether or not this is unfair competition, but many countries take action against dumping by imposing anti-dumping duty. Thus, anti-dumping duty is an extra import duty on a particular product from a particular country in order to bring its prices closer to the normal value of that product in the country it is imported to. It is done to protect its own industry from predatory pricing. The World Trade Organisation does not prohibit antidumping policies and allows any country to take anti-dumping action against the countries which violate the principles of General Agreement on Trade and Tariff.
Why is glass transparent? When light encounters a material, it can interact with it in different ways. These interactions depend on the nature of the light and the nature of the material. For instance, light falling on a leaf encounters many pigment molecules, predominantly chlorophyll. These molecules absorb light from the red and blue ends of the visible spectrum. The remaining light is scattered back because molecules in a leaf are tightly packed and so, we see a green leaf. Glass has properties of both a solid (its molecules don’t move very much) and a liquid (the molecules are not arranged in any ordered way). Molecules in glass are not packed into a tight lattice and, unless tinted, it doesn’t contain molecules that capture light with a particular energy. So, when light encounters glass, most of it passes straight through. Hence it is transparent. What’s the world’s first software? Ada Lovelace wrote a rudimentary programme for the analytical machine designed by Charles Babbage in 1827, but the machine never became operational. In 1949, the language short code appeared. It was the first computer language for electronic devices and required the programmer to change its statements into 0s and 1s by hand. What is a cascade effect? An unforeseen chain of events due to an act affecting a system, much like how a waterfall cascades down, is called cascade effect. Cascade effects are commonly visualised in tree structures called event trees. What is nephology? The Greek root nephos means cloud, and is found in a variety of meteorological terms such as nephology, the study of clouds; and the nephoscope, an instrument used to detect cloud motions. Nephology is a specialised and comple branch of science. Nephologists study clouds to help people understand weather patterns. What is lapis lazuli? Lapis Lazuli is an intense blue semiprecious stone. It has been mined for 6,500 years in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. It has lazurite as the main component. It’s used in jewellery, mosaics, architecture and as a pigment called ultramarine in tempera paintings. It was used by Assyrians and Babylonians for seals, as an eyeshadow by Cleopatra and Romans believed it to be an aphrodisiac. It was thought to keep limbs healthy and free the soul from error, envy and fear. When and where did figure skating originate? Figure skating began in the later part of the 19th century in Europe. An American ballet master Jackson Haines, who lived in Vienna in 1860s, added the elements of ballet and dance to figure skating. The first world championship for men was held in St Petersburg in 1896, followed by the women’s championship in 1906. SECOND THOUGHTS What are magic bullets in pharmaceutical terms? In pharmaceutical terms, magic bullets are those drugs which attack the affected organ/cells and not the healthy ones. For example, the medicine for blood cancer — called Glivec — is known to be a magic bullet as it attacks only those cells which are affected by the disease and not the healthy or surrounding cells.
What are textonyms? They refer to the new language developed by cellphone-addicted teenagers, based on predictive text on their handsets. They are also known as adaptonyms or cellodromes. Using predictive text, the first alternative to certain keywords are used in textonyms. What is mass spectroscopy? In this technique, the compound under investigation is bombarded with a beam of electrons which produces an ionic molecule or ionic fragments of original species. The resulting assortment of charged particles is then separated according to their masses. The spectrum produced is known as mass spectrum, which is a record of information regarding various masses produced and their relative abundance. Mass spectrum is an analytical technique that can provide information concerning the molecular structure of organic and inorganic compounds. It can be used to determine directly molecular weight as high as 4000. It is also useful to investigate reaction mixtures in understanding kinetics and mechanism of unimolecular decomposition reactions. What are Bankura Horses? The vibrant tradition of folk art in West Bengal’s Bankura district includes a variety of clay handicrafts. The district’s most famous product is the Bankura Horse, a very stylised figure with a long neck and elongated ears, in warm terracotta colours. Artisans have used the same techniques of hollow clay moulding and firing for generations. Sizes vary from minute, palm-sized to gigantic creations over 1 metre high. The horses are votive figures and are usually kept or placed in front of local deities. What is pisciculture? The breeding, rearing, and transplantation of fish by artificial means is called pisciculture, in other words, fish farming. It is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. It involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases ju venile fish into the wild for recre ational fishing or to supplement a species’ natural numbers is gen erally referred to as a fish hatch ery. Fish species raised by fish farms include salmon, catfish tilapia and cod. What is Darwin IV planet? Darwin IV is a fictional planet 6.5 light years from the Earth, with two suns and 60% gravity. It was depicted in the series ‘Alien Planet’ based on Wayne Barlowe’s book Expedition. According to the story, after identifying Darwin IV as a world that could support life, Earth sends a pilot mission consisting of the mothership Von Braun and three probes: Balboa, Da Vinci and Newton. This unmanned fleet is responsible for finding and assessing any life forms on Darwin IV. Initially, the expectation is to find microscopic life, but the probes soon find themselves in the middle of a developed ecosystem teeming with life of all sizes. The viewer experiences Darwin IV through the eyes of the probes Ike (Newton) and Leo (Da Vinci), whose data are relayed back to the mothership and then communicated to Earth. The biological and atmospheric data from the probes and mothership are relayed to viewers through computer voice simulation and on-screen readouts. The drama on Darwin IV is motivated by real science missions, such as the NASA Origins Program and the NASA/JPL Planet-Finder Mission, as well as the European Space Agency’s Darwin Project. Who was the first Indian to be knighted? Queen Victoria founded The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India in 1861, which was an order of chivalry, meant to be given to viceroys of India, nawabs and princes for their meritorious service and loyalty to the British empire. The people admitted to this order were called knights. In the year of its founding, Nawab Sikandar Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Bhopal was made the Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India (GCSI). Later, her daughter and grand-daughter also received the same honour. Who are kitchen police? Kitchen police are military service personnel whose services are deployed to assist the cook in the kitchen. They help the cook by cutting vegetables, cleaning the floor, washing the dishes, etc. Sometimes, regular combat personnel are also sent on kitchen duty as punishment for minor offences. This term has been used in the US since World War I.

What are ugg boots? Traditionally, ugg boots are Australian boots made from sheep skin, with wool as the inner lining and a tanned outer surface. The natural properties of sheep skin results in thermostatic benefits. Thick fleecy fibres on the inner part of the boots allow air to circulate during summer so that the feet do not become excessively warm. In winter, the sheep skin prevents heat loss and is highly effective. Ugg boots are designed to be worn without socks. The name ugg is probably derived from the word ugly to indicate their ugly look.
What are velafrons? Velafrons are possibly the world’s earliest beach bums. They were dinosaurs that lived by the Mexican seashore about 7 million years ago. It was a duck-billed dinosaur with a sail-shaped crest on its head. They were recently discovered by US, Canadian and Mexican scientists. Its biological name is Velafrons coahuilensis which means ‘sailed forehead from Coahuila’.
What is the uncertainty principle? The uncertainty principle was laid down by Heisenberg, and is called Heisenberg’s principle of uncertainty. According to it, it is impossible to measure simultaneously the position and momentum/ velocity of a moving electron i.e. if any attempt is made to measure both things at the same instant, there will always be uncertainty in measurement of either. This is because to measure the position of electron correctly at a certain instant, we need to use short-wavelength radiations. But, as wavelength and energy are inversely related, the short wavelength radiation imparts high energy to the moving electron. As E =1/2mv 2 , where E is the energy of the electron, m is its mass, and v is its velocity, so energy E is directly proportional to velocity v of the electron. Thus, the electron will gain velocity or momentum and hence we cannot correctly measure its momentum/ velocity at that instant. How are international telephone dialling codes assigned to countries? International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendation defines the international public telecommunication numbering plan used in the PSTN. It also defines the format of telephone numbers. As per these recommendations, numbers can have a maximum of 15 digits and are usually written with a + prefix. CCITT, the predecessor of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), developed the first formal list of telephone country codes. It was included in the 1964 CCITT Blue Book, which became ITU-T recommendation E.164. The list was organised by creating nine zones, one for each international region. Zone 1 — United States, Canada, Bermuda and other Caribbean nations; Zone 2 for Africa and other Atlantic Islands; Zone 3 for Europe; Zone 4 for Europe; Zone 5 for Mexico, South America, Caribbean, and Central America; Zone 6 for Oceania and South-East Asia; Zone 7 for Russia, former Soviet Union Zone; Zone 8 for East Asia and other special services; Zone 9 for South, Central, West Asia and Middle East. What is cosmology? Cosmology is the branch of physics and astrophysics that deals with the study of the physical origin of the Universe and the nature of the Universe on its very largest scale. In its earliest form it was known as celestial mechanics and the study of the heavens. Greek philosophers Aristarchus of Samos, Aristotle and Ptolemy proposed different cosmological theories. In particular, the geocentric Ptolemaic system was the accepted theory to explain the motion of the heavens until Nicolaus Copernicus, and subsequently Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei proposed a heliocentric system in the 16th century. This is one of the most famous examples of epistemological rupture in cosmology. With Isaac Newton and the 1687 publication of Principia Mathematica, the problem of the motion of the heavens was finally solved.
What is Psiphon? Psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the internet is censored. Psiphon turns a regular home computer into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages anywhere. Psiphon is a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab. What are bionic buildings? In the era of ever-increasing urbanisation, people live and work in high-rise buildings which depend on artificial energy sources like electricity for survival. In the natural world, insects like spiders use a saliva-made fibre to construct their steely web. Termites build intricate airway systems in their habitat. In the same way, some architects and engineers have turned to nature for inspiration when designing buildings. These buildings are called bionic buildings. They are designed to enhance the efficiency in usage of energy by having a provision for entry of sunrays (natural lighting) to reduce dependence on electricity. What is Web 2.0? The internet as we know it has been around for over 10 years now. It has principally been used for searching, browsing and reading static information. Now, it is evolving into something quite different. We are now in what is called the Web 2.0 era, where the internet is more about interactivity. The concept began with a brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International in 2004. Web 2.0 can be defined as a set of technologies which enable collaboration and sharing between internet users. The tools of Web 2.0 are web pages, web-based communities or hosted services such as social-networking sites, online encyclopaedias like Wikipedia, blogs and podcasts, etc. What is the Lantern Festival? The 15th day of the first lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival because the first lunar month is called yuan-month and in ancient times people called the night Xiao. The 15th day is the first night when the full moon is visible. So, the day is also called Yuan Xiao Festival in China. According to Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colourful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) and families gather to make for a joyful atmosphere.
What’s the doomsday vault? The doomsday vault is a Noah’s Ark of sorts which would store samples of the world’s most important seeds. It was inaugurated at Longyearbyen, Norway on Tuesday. The vault is trident-shaped tunnel bored into the permafrost of the Arctic mountain range. It comprises three cold chambers and can hold 4.5 billion batches of seeds from the world’s main crops. This is to ensure that species of plants obliterated by any manmade or natural disaster can be regrown. In which year was billiards first played? Though the origin of billiards is lost in history, an account by the Greek traveller Anacharsis suggests that a rudimentary version was played by Egyptians around 400 BC. This form was adopted by the Greeks. The word ‘billiard’ has its roots in the French words ‘billart’ meaning stick, and ‘bille’ meaning ball. In 1470, the first billiards table was found among the possessions of French king Louis XI. The earliest record of how the game was played was made in the 15th century. It started as an indoor version of croquet. The Spaniards introduced billiards to the Americans in 1565. Shakespeare’s use of the word ‘billiards’ in his play Anthony and Cleopatra shows that this sport was well known to the Elizabethans. What is the source of allethrin? Allethrins are compounds used in household insecticides like mosquito coils because they have low toxicity for humans. They are sourced from chrysanthemum flowers, found in Asia and eastern Europe. These plants, which have large white, yellow, pink or red flower heads, are cultivated for or namental, culinary or insecticide preparation purposes. The flowers are pulverized and the allethrin compounds found in the seed cells are extracted and sold to insecti cide makers.
What is the Time Preference Theory of Interest? The Time Preference Theory of In terest is also known as The Agio Theory of Interest. It was present ed by Bohm Bawerk, who said that interest is an agio (reward) or (pre mium) for time preference. People prefer present income, present con sumption and present satisfaction of wants, which means that people are impatient to spend. To induce them to postpone their consump tion, they are to be compensated by paying interest. People prefer pres ent to the future because future is uncertain and wants of today can not be satisfied tomorrow. Irving Fisher improved upon this, stating "The rate of time preference meas ures the rate of interest." The high er the time preference, the higher the impatience to spend, and hence the higher the rate of interest; the lower the time preference, the low er the rate of interest. According to Fisher, people with low level of income, uncertain about their fu ture and are spendthrifts will de mand high rate of interest where as their opposites will demand low amount of interest.
How was the term pink slip coined? In America, there was an old prac tice where the personnel depart ment would put a discharge notice printed on pink paper in the pay envelope to notify the employee of his or her termination of employ ment or lay-off. The term pink slip also refers to a car race in which the winner receives the loser’s car where the vehicle title would be printed on pink paper. The term dates back to 1915. However, origi nally, the colour of the paper had no particular significance. What is xenotransplantation? Xenotransplantation is the use of non-human animal cells, tissues and organs in human patients These cells can be implanted or en closed in a device used outside the body. The tissue is harvested from animals already being butchered Immune rejection remains the biggest challenge for a xenotrans plant. Cross-species transplants are more likely to produce host-vs-graft problems. A worrisome element of xenotransplant is the potential for infectious disease from donor ani mals which is called xenozoonosis
What is the Plato scale? The Plato scale, developed in 1843 by German scientist Karl Balling and improved by Fritz Plato, is a hydrometer scale that measures the amount of malt sugars, or su crose, in unfermented beer. The measure of sugar in any solution is known as specific gravity. The unfermented beer or beer wort has a higher specific gravity than its derivative, the fermented beer, as heavy sugars are converted into lighter carbon dioxide and alcohol during fermentation. The higher the specific gravity or sugar con tent of the final fermented beer, the more body and richness it pos sesses. Professional brewers usu ally use the Plato scale, rather than the traditional specific gravity scale, to measure the sugar levels
What are gigantes? In Greek mythology, the gigantes were a race of giants, children of Gaia or Gaea (Earth Mother) who was fertilized by the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. The primordial Gigantes rose up in arms against the Olympians in an attempt to end the reign of the Olympian gods but were defeated by them and buried beneath the Earth, where their writhing is supposed to cause volcanic activity and earthquakes. SECOND THOUGHTS What are warm holes in Physics? There are warm holes in Physics — semiconductor physics. The absence of an outer shell electron in a semiconductor lattice, formed as a result of covalent bonding of semiconductor atoms with an introduced trivalent impurity, is termed as a hole. A warm hole is supposed to exist at some stage. — Farhan Shariff, via e-mail
Who were the hobbits? Most know hobbits as the fictional dwarf-like creatures from J R R Tolkein’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. But scientists discovered the fossilised remains of hobbitlike creatures in a remote island in Indonesia. They believed them to be a separate species and called them Homo Florsiensis or Man of Flores. However, some anthropologists refuted the claim that they were a separate species and said the diminutive size of the hobbitlike cave dwellers was probably due to an iodine deficiency during pregnancy due to which their growth was stunted. What is a nocebo? Nocebo is an inert drug which when administered to a patient causes harmful effects in her, not because of any inherent chemical characteristics, but because she has negative feelings about it. It’s the opposite of a placebo, a sugar pill supposed to produce a therapeutic effect because the patient has faith in the drug or doctor administering it. In Latin, ‘nocebo’ means ‘I will harm’ and Walter Kennedy chose the term in 1961. Although the effect of a nocebo or placebo is not scientifically established, many people believe that they work by their power of suggestion. They are used for control groups in clinical trials, and in drug-related experiments. What is Raman Scattering? Raman Scattering or Raman Effect is the inelastic scattering of a photon. This was first reported by C V Raman for which he was awarded the Nobel prize in 1930. When light is scattered from an atom or a molecule, most photons scatter elastically. However, a very small fraction (one in a million) is scattered inelastically. The frequency of these photons changes, usually becomes lower than that of the incident light. Therefore, because of Raman Scattering, the energy of photons decreases. Why is pig iron called so? Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting steel ore with coke and resin. Pig iron has a very high carbon content, typically 3.5-4.5%, which makes it very brittle and not useful directly as a material except for limited applications. The traditional shape of moulds used for these ingots was a branching structure formed in sand, with many individual ingots at right angles to a central channel or runner. Such a configuration is similar in appearance to a litter of piglets suckling on a sow. When the metal had cooled and hardened, the smaller ingots (the pigs) were simply broken from the much thinner runner (the sow), hence the name pig iron. What is a gyroscope? A gyroscope is any rotating body that exhibits two fundamental properties: gyroscopic inertia or rigidity in space and precession or the tilting of the axis at right angles to any force tending to alter the plane of rotation. These properties are inherent in all rotating bodies, including the Earth itself. The term gyroscope is commonly applied to spherical, wheel-shaped or disk-shaped bodies universally mounted to be free to rotate in any direction. They are used to demonstrate these properties or to indicate movements in space. A gyroscope constrained from moving around one axis other than the axis of rotation is sometimes called a gyrostat. Which desert is also know as Shamo? Why? The Gobi desert, the extensive area of southern Mongolia and northern China and the largest desert in Asia, is also known as Shamo. It’s the Chinese word for ‘sand desert’. The Gobi, which extends 1,600 km from East to West and about 1,000 km from North to South, has an area of about 1,300,000 sq km. It is bounded by the Da Hinggan Ling (Greater Khingan Range) on the East, the Altun Shan and Nan Shan mountains on the South, the Tian Shan mountains on the West, and the Altay and Hangayn Nuruu (Khangai) mountains and Yablonovyy Range on the North. What is MySQL? MySQL (pronounced ‘my-ess-cueel’) is an open source, true multiuser, multi-threaded relational database management system (RDBMS), that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). MySQL was developed by two Swedes and a Finn — David Axmark, Allan Larsson and Michael Widenius. It was written in C, C++, and was first released in 1995. Currently, MySQL has more than 11 million installations. MySQL is fast and flexible enough to allow to store logs and pictures in it. Its main goals are speed, robustness, and ease of use. MySQL is open source, 100% GPL (General Public License) database. This provides a great opportunity for the open source community and for those who are developing open source software.
What is an adobe? In Peru, where I come from, an adobe is a brick made of mud mixed with other material such as cane, straw and stone to give consistency. It is dried in the sun. The adobe also provides a cool atmosphere to buildings made of it and is therefore used in many different kind of constructions. In Peru, there are many archaeological places that used this material, like the Huaca del Sol (450 CE), a great pre-Columbian construction in Trujillo, Peru which used around 100 million adobe bricks. Chan Chan, Huaca Pucllana, and many other complexes of our rich culture were also made with adobe. The great colonial buildings were also made with adobe, a very good material in dry weather prevalent on the coast of Peru where it rarely rains. Even today, adobe is still used for home constructions.
What is a ‘nano-factory’? Researchers in Japan have invented a tiny brain which can act as a remote control for swarms of nano-machines. They simultated eight such nano-machines to create a ‘nano factory’. According to experts, nano-machines could also be used to boost the processing power of future computers. They also have high hopes for nano-machines in treating diseases. The machine is made from 17 molecules of the chemical duroquinone. Each one is known as a ‘logic device’. What is macrobiotics? The word ‘macrobiotic’ originates from the Greek word meaning ‘great or larger than life’. It is based on The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, the oldest-known book of Chinese medicine. It is attributed to Huang Ti, the legendary Yellow Emperor (2704 BC), but was probably not written until about 500 BC. Macrobiotics is a healthy, holistic way of living a balanced lifestyle. It is a vast subject, but basically comes down to the fact that the world (the Earth and all thereon) is a constantly changing holistic system that is ever striving for balance. It not only covers diet, but balance in body, soul and spirit. Foods that help us remain centred are whole grains, vegetables, vegetable protein, nuts, seeds, sea vegetables, miso, pickles etc. What is the subprime effect? Subprime lending, also called ‘B-Paper’, ‘near-prime’ or ‘second chance’ lending, refers to the practice of giving loans to borrowers at interest rates above the prevailing market rates because of their low credit status and increased risk due to either a limited credit history, or histories of payment delinquen cies, charge-offs or bankruptcies Subprime lending includes mortgages, credit cards and car loans. It is risky for both the lender and the borrower. It helps those consumers who otherwise would not have access to credit market. But on the flip side the borrowers do not have the re sources to meet the long-term loan obligations. But the crisis began in 2006, when in the US, thousands of borrowers defaulted in pay ments; as a result many lenders had to file for bankruptcy leading to a direct impact on the US hous ing market and economy as a whole.
What is dumdum bullet? In the 1890s, the British military developed a bullet to be used at Dum Dum arsenal in India’ North-West frontier and was named ‘dumdum’ bullet. It com prised a jacketed .303 bullet in which the jacket nose opened to expose its lead core to improve the effectiveness of the bullet by increasing its expansion upon im pact. Afterwards, the term dum dum was taken to include any soft nosed or hallow-pointed bullet. In 1899, the use of dumdum bullet was outlawed following the Hague Convention. But during First World War, the Germans accused the Belgian government of hav ing used a dumdum bullet which the Belgians strongly denied. What is a fish-eye lens? It is a type of wide-angle lens used in photography to capture ex tremely wide and hemispherical images. Its focus length varies be tween 8-10 mm for circular lens es and 15-16 mm for full frame lens. Originally developed for use in meteorology and astronomy, it is used in planetariums and IMAX dome theatres to show pictures on a broad canvas. What is the Fermi Problem? The Fermi Problem, named after the Italian physicist Enrico Fer mi, is about a formula regarding how to think about what as sumptions we make, how to make them as realistic as possible, how to estimate well, and how to put all these in the service of a straightforward mathematical cal culation in order to come up with an answer. What are SQUIDS in physics? The Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, or SQUID, is an extremely sensitive magnetic flux-to-voltage transducer. The SQUID may be the most sensitive detector of any physical quanti ty, with an energy resolution that approaches the quantum limit The extreme sensitivity of the SQUID has caused it to be incor porated into a great variety of systems. SQUIDs have been used to measure cortical activity in the human brain and to search for gravity waves. Which is the world’s first oceanarium? The word oceanarium could mean two things. It can either mean a marine mammal park, which is a commercial theme park where dolphins, Beluga whales, and sea lions are kept within water tanks and displayed to the public in spe cial shows. It could also mean a largescale aquarium such as the Lisbon Oceanarium, which is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling animals and plants are kept, presenting an ocean habitat with marine animals, especially large fish such as shark. Marineland of Florida, one of Florida’s first theme parks is the world’s first oceanarium. With the passage of time, oceanarium gradually took the term of largescale aquariums like the kind we see today. Marineland was founded in 1937, and mainly focused on dolphin shows. In 1999, Hurricanes Floyd and Irene forced the park to close for two months. In 2004, the park closed completely for renovations, and re-opened on March 4, 2006. The park is now a Dolphin Conservation Center, where guests can interact and swim with the dolphins.
What are Clarke Orbits? Geosynchronous orbits which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground are called Clarke Orbits. The Clarke Orbit has become shorthand for geostationary orbit, home of the myriad communication satellites that bind our world together. It is named after the sci-fi guru Sir Arthur C Clarke, who died on March 19 in his adopted home in Sri Lanka. It was his paper Wireless World in 1945 that Clarke first suggested a network of satellites that could cover the world from an orbit that kept pace with the spinning globe below. It's these satellites that started the development of the globe-spanning network, which we know as the internet. What are Green Box policies in economics? How do they differ from Blue Box policies? Governments provide support to agriculture in numerous ways, for example, direct payments, research grants, loan programs, and stor age programs to name a few. Un der the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA), domestic support programs are divided into three boxes that indicate the trade distorting effects of the programs Green Box programs are consid ered to be less trade distorting Blue Box programs are considered to be more trade distorting but have production limits embedded in them. All other programs are Amber Box programs. They are considered to be the most trade dis torting. How did mammoths evolve? Mammoths stem from an ancestral species called M Africanavus, the African mammoth. These mam moths lived in northern Africa and disappeared about 3 or 4 million years ago. Descendants of these mammoths moved North and even tually covered most of Eurasia These were M meridionalis. In the early Pleistocene, about 1.8 million years ago, M meridionalis took ad vantage of low sea levels (during an Ice Age) and crossed into North America via a temporary land bridge across the Bering Strait The southern mammoth then ra diated throughout North Ameri ca. In the Middle Pleistocene, a new North American species evolved the imperial mammoth, M imper ator (though some question whether M imperator is a legiti mate genus). Then, in the late Pleis tocene, the Columbian mammoth M columbi (also known as the Jef ferson mammoth, M jeffersoni) appeared. And later in the Pleis tocene, the woolly mammoth (M primigenius), which incidentally was the smallest of the mammoths made its debut. Many believe that mammoths disappeared because of a change in climate, disease hunting by humans, or perhaps some combination of these.
What is Green Paper? Green Paper is a paper prepared by the government for discussion/ consultation purposes. A Green Pa per is usually followed by a White Paper, which then forms the basis of a Bill to be presented to Parlia ment. It is a preliminary report of government proposals that is pub lished in order to stimulate dis cussion.
Does any plant have rectangular leaves? Most plants don't have such leaves. However, the leaves of Nepenthes Truncata a carnivorous pitcher plant are almost rectangular in shape. Another plant which has rectangular-shaped leaves is Ilex Cornuta Rotunda, a hedge plant. What is a Rubin's scale? Zick Rubin is known for his ques tionnaire measuring love. To develop this measure, Rubin first wrote a large number of thoughts based on his understanding of the terms 'love' and 'liking.' Rubin decided that love has three elements: attachment (a physical or emotional need for the other), caring (giving to the other), and intima cy (close and confidential communication). Liking, according to Rubin, is undifferentiated positive regard. Next, Rubin sorted the questionnaire items into `love' and liking' sets based on their under standing of these terms. Then he chose 70 items and gave them to 200 undergraduate students. The students were asked to respond to each item in terms of their feelings toward their boyfriend or girlfriend (if they had one) and in terms of their feelings toward a platonic friend of the opposite sex
Is Earth a transducer? Yes, Earth is a gyropower trans ducer. This specification describes a completely new and different con cept, method, mechanisation, ap paratus configuration and se quencing procedure for obtaining commercially useful energy and power, namely: the use of a gyro scope to generate output power from the Earth's stored inertial ro tational (flywheel) energy. This is achieved by fixing the housing of the gyroscope to the Earth and us ing the rotation of the Earth, rel ative to the gyroscope's spatially stable rotor/gimbal assembly, to rotate the input shaft(s) of a pow er transducer(s). This provides a power-output stroke over a near 180 DEG precession excursion (near pole-to-pole alignment) until the rotor spin axis of the gyroscope is nearly aligned with the polar axis of the Earth. — Anup Aiyyappa, via e-mail What is a handicap horse race? In a handicap horse race, horses of different abilities participate, and for their chances of success, each participating horse is required to carry a different weight. The high capability ones will be assigned to carry more weight, and the low capability ones will be given less weight to carry. The weight to be carried by a horse in a race is called impost. The impost is assigned in a handicap race based on the performance of the horse in its racing history. Finally, when the horse enters the handicap race, the weight of its jockey together with the additional lead weights hung on it should be equal to it's assigned weight.
What is a persuasive mirror? It’s a technology that enables people to see how they would look like in the future, based on their habits. Users will have to fill out a questionnaire detailing their lifestyle and upload their images. Based on the information provided, the technology will digitally age the person and show how she will appear six months later. What is a datum line in geography? A datum (plural datums or data) is a reference point from which measurements are made. In surveying and geodesy, a datum is a set of reference points on the Earth’s surface against which position measurements are made. Horizontal datums are used for describing a point on the Earth’s surface in latitude and longitude or another coordinate system. Vertical datums measure elevations or depths.
What is the fifth dimension? In physics, the fifth dimension is a hypothetical extra dimension beyond the usual three spatial and one-time dimensions. Some scientists have speculated that the graviton, a particle thought to carry the force of gravity, may leak into the fifth or higher dimensions, which would explain how gravity is significantly weaker than the other three fundamental forces. M-theory (the mother of all theories underlying string theories) suggests that space-time has eleven dimensions, seven of which are ‘rolled up’ to below sub-atomic level. Scientist Hooft speculated that the fifth dimension is really the spacetime fabric. It has occasionally been stated that the fifth dimension refers to probability, meaning that it is the full amount of possibilities that could happen or, in other words, alternative realities. What is the Flynn Effect? The Flynn Effect is the rise of average intelligence quotient test scores seen over a period of time, say a decade or a century, in a country due to better schooling, improved nutrition or TV or even greater familiarity with multiple choice questions. The effect was named after New Zealand philosopher James R Flynn. What is Grimm’s Law? Grimm’s Law shows the systematic relationship between consonants in Germanic languages and consonants in other Indo-European languages, stating what phonetic changes took place. It is a phonetic principle formulated by German philologist Jacob Grimm in 1822. It describes the pattern of two stages of sound changes, known as the German consonant shift and the High German consonant shift. Grimm’s Law is important because it demonstrates the development, from the Old Germanic languages, of more recent languages such as English, Dutch, and Low German. It also shows that changes in a language and in groups of languages come about gradually and not as a result of random word changes. What are eddy currents? Eddy currents may be defined as currents induced in a thick conductor when it is placed in a changing electric field. Consider a metallic block placed in a continuously changing magnetic field by keeping the block fixed and changing the magnetic field with the help of an alternating current. Due to the continuous change of magnetic flux linked with the block, induced currents will be set up in the body of the metal block. These currents assume a circular path and the direction is such that it opposes the change producing it (according to Lenz’s Law). These currents look like whirlpools in a fluid, and hence called eddy currents. Generally, they are quite large in magnitude and produce a heating effect. What’s geometric in geometric progression? In mathematics, a geometric progression, also known as a geometric sequence, is a sequence of numbers in which each term after the first is found by multiplying the previous one by a fixed non-zero number called the common ratio. Books VIII and IX of Euclid’s Elements analyze geometric progressions and give several of their properties. A geometric progression gains its geometric character from the fact that the areas of two geometrically similar plane figures are in duplicate ratio to their corresponding sides. Further,the volumes of two similar solid figures are in triplicate ratio of their corresponding sides. For example, if two squares’ sides have the ratio 2 to 3, then their areas will have the ratio 4 to 9; we can write 2/3 as 4 to 6 and 6 to 9 and notice that the ratios of 4 to 6 and 6 to 9 both equal 2 to 3; so by using the side ratio 2 to 3 in duplicate we obtain the ratio 4 to 9 of the areas, and the sequence 4, 6, 9 is a geometric sequence with common ratio 3/2.
What’s unique about Gothenburg? Located on the west coast of Sweden, Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city. Known primarily as a university city housing two famous universities — University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology — Gothenburg is also an important trade centre, having one of the largest ports in the Scandinavian countries. Further, the city happens to be an important cultural and sports centre among Scandinavian countries, possessing many theatres, museums, parks, and sports clubs. The annual Gothenburg Film Festival is the biggest in Scandinavia. Despite its relatively small size, Gothenburg organizes many largescale international sports championships. During March 18-23, 2008, World Figure Skating championships were held there at the Scandinavian Arena, the second largest indoor stadium of Sweden.

What is nomophobia? It's the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. According to a study, nomophobia is plaguing our 24/7 life — running out of battery, credit or losing one’s handset. About 53% of users surveyed are affected by not having network coverage. The survey revealed that men suffer more than women, with 48% of females and 58% of males admitting to feelings of anxiety. Many respondents said they never switched off their mobile phones. What is the Geographical Indications (GI) Registry? In December 1999, the Parliament passed the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. It seeks to provide registration and better protection of geographical indications relating to goods produced and manufactured in India. The Act is administered by the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks who is the Registrar of Geographical Indications. The Geographical Indications Registry is located in Chennai.
What does RAPD stand for? RAPD stands for Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA. RAPD reactions are PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) reactions but they amplify segments of DNA which are essentially unknown to the scientists as they are random.What is a progressive score in chess? In chess tournaments, when two players end up with the same score on the final round, the tie needs to be broken for ranking purposes. Different systems of rating follow different rules for such tiebreaking, and the FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) or the Worldwide Chess Federation system uses the cumulative progressive score. Progressive score in a round is the points obtained for the result in the current round plus the progressive score of the previous round if any. In general, the system tends to reward early wins rather late wins. What is singularity in Physics? In Physics and Mathematics, sigularity is defined as a point at which a complex function is undefined because it is neither differentiable nor single-valued while the function is defined in every neighbourhood of the point. Specifically, a quantity which approaches infinity as another parameter goes to zero. Like 1/x when x approaches zero. In astronomy, singularity is a hypothetical region in space in which gravitational forces cause matter to be infinitely compressed and space and time to become infinitely distorted. What is the Alexander Technique? It is a technique developed by F M Alexander, who utilized the self-observation and reasoning methods to enhance the physical performance of human body like sitting, standing, walking and speaking. It is utilized to overcome unwanted physical habits developed over the years through refined strategies borne out of empirical reasoning. It is a helpful tool for traditional methods of medication. How do you test the presence of methanol? Methanol can be detected by using the iodoform test. Mix sodium hydroxide (NAOH) and iodine (I2) in methanol. A yellow precipitate of CHI 3 (iodoform) will indicate the presence of methanol. This test is used for those alcohols in which there is a -CH 3 group is attached to the functional group. How did the polar bear evolve? Zoologists believe that the polar bear evolved from a species of brown bears in Siberia, making polar bears the eighth species of bears. With the shifting of polar ice caps and glaciers, the brown bear species native to that area was forced to adapt to the new environment, undergoing physical body changes to keep warm in the brutally cold weather. Their fur thickened and eventually turned white. Over time, the next few generations evolved with even thicker fur, a more rounded pointy face, larger teeth and claws, bigger feet with a patch on the bottom to help them keep their grip, while walking on the ice and sharper senses. Today, polar bears live in the Arctic, Alaska, Greenland, Canada and Norway. Their habitat is snow-covered mountains, mostly frozen bodies of water and where seals are found in abundance. Besides seals, polar bears eat walruses and even whales. The snow helps them blend into their environment for safety, even though man is their only predator.
What does Thor refer to? It is widely known that Thor is the Norse God of Thunder. But now, Thor is also the first ship made of ice-cream sticks that will sail to the UK from the Netherlands. This new-age Viking ship is built with 15 million recycled ice-cream sticks which are glued together. It was created by stuntman Robert McDonald along with his son and over 5,000 children. What are Fizeau’s fringes? Fizeau’s fringes occur in interferometry. One of the most common methods used to test the flatness of a polished surface is by analyzing the interference patterns formed when the surface is placed against another polished flat transparent surface. When two surfaces are fully in contact, a pattern of concentric dark and light circles is seen and these patterns (or fringes) are called Newton’s rings. However, when the surfaces are separated by a very thin wedge-shaped layer of air, straight, parallel, dark and light patterns are produced and these are called Fizeau’s fringes. These fringes are named in honour of French physicist Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (1819-1896), who used the interference of light to measure the dilation of crystals.
What is the origin of the term ‘the whole nine yards’? This phrase has several interpretations. Some popular ones are as follows: nine yards probably refers to the amount of cloth or material needed to make a wedding dress or bridal train, a man’s threepiece suit or a burial shroud. Also, the term perhaps comes from from World War II pilots who wanted to be sure that they were fully loaded with ammunition before take-off. The ammunition belts were normally 27 ft or 9 yards. Alternatively, the term comes from the capacity of readymix concrete trucks which were normally 9 cubic yards — the whole nine yards referred to a fully loaded concrete truck. What is Gradenigo’s Syndrome? Gradenigo, an Italian otolaryngologist from the University of Naples, described this syndrome in 1904. Painful anaesthesia in the first division of the fifth cranial nerve supplying the forehead with sixth cranial nerve palsy occurs in this syndrome. It happens as a result of a lesion at the apex of petrous temporal bone outside the dura mater. It may be due to infection, trauma or infiltration of the nasopharyngeal cancer. Additionally, the patient may have deep retro-orbital pain and swelling of the same side of face and scalp. The syndrome may be associated with vertigo and hearing loss. An MRI is better than CT scan for early diagnosis. What is back-door financing Back-door financing, an American concept, is the practice of governmental borrowing from the US treasury over and above legislature-approved budgeted expenses. The government resorts to this form of financing to meet unforeseen expenses arising out of events such as natural calamities. How is buffalo mozzarella made? First of all, raw buffalo milk stored in big steel containers is given thermic treatment and then it is poured into a cream separator where curdling is done by induction of natural whey. The curd is stored in tubs to reduce acidification processes till it reaches a pH value of nearly 4.95. Then, hot water is poured on it in order to soften it after which shaping is done with special shapers. These are then immersed in cold water and then in pickling tubs containing original whey. At last, packaging is done in special films.
Why is quartz used in watches? Quartz is used in watches as it acts as a piezoelectric oscillator. As a potential difference is applied across quartz, stress is generated across the perpendicular faces of the quartz crystal. It is known as reverse piezoelectric effect. The word piezo in Greek means pressure and, therefore, piezoelectricity means pressure electricity. It takes place in some crystals like quartz which lack certain symmetrical properties. A mechanical stress produces an electric polarization and, reciprocally, an applied field produces a mechanical strain. So, this oscillator keeps watches ticking. SECOND THOUGHTS How do you test presence of methanol? Methanol does not respond to the iodoform test (Open Space, Apr. 6). In fact, the test is given by ethanol and those alcohols which possess -hydroxymethyl group or - CH(OH)- group or carbonyl compounds having acetyl functionality. Methanol can be detected by the oil of wintergreen test. In this test, 1-2 ml of methanol along with few crystals of salicylic acid are treated with concentrated sulphuric acid in a test tube which is then gently heated. A characterstric smell of oil of wintergreen (Iodex type) is obtained due to the formation of methyl salicylate.
What is the OLE Robotic Beetle? These are robots that look like Volkswagen Beetle cars, only they have legs instead of wheels. They can scuttle across spaces and have the potential to help put out forest fires. They can be used in areas which can be quite danger ous for humans. These robotic Beetles were developed by the University of Magdeburg-Stendal in Germany. What is Sonet with reference to an optical network? Sonet (Synchronous Optical Network) is a high-speed, physical layer network designed to carry large volumes of traffic over relatively long distances on fiber optic cabling using lasers or lightemitting diodes (LEDs). It provides a standard interface for communications carriers to connect networks based on fiber optic cable to handle multiple data types (voice, video, and so on). Sonet defines a technology for carrying many signals of different capacities through a synchronous, flexible, optical hierarchy. This is accomplished by means of a byteinterleaved multiplexing scheme. Byte-interleaving simplifies multiplexing and offers end-to-end network management. Sonet was proposed by Bellcore in the mid'80s and now an ANSI standard. It is a successor to other wellknown communication technology implemented on fiber optics network called PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy). It possesses several characteristics that make it good for the internet today: It defines clear interoperability standards between different vendors' products. It can carry nearly any higher-level protocol (including IP), and includes built-in support for ease of management and maintenance. Sonet has emerged as a powerful protocol which is extensively used for large and high performance networks. Which is the longest building in the world? Kansai International Airport in Japan which is 1700 metres long is the longest building in the world. In the '60s, when the Kansai region was rapidly losing trade to Tokyo, planners proposed a new airport near Kobe and Osaka. Osaka International Airport, located in the densely-populated suburbs of Itami and Toyonaka, was surrounded by buildings; it could not be expanded, and many of its neighbours had filed complaints because of noise pollution.

What is the Bathtub Theorem? The British economist Kenneth Boulding used to explain many economic phenomena as similar to the accumulation or depletion of water in a bathtub due to a difference in the rate of inflow (injections) and outflow (leakages) of water. Such an explanation of an economic phenomenon popularly came to be termed by economists as the application of the Bathtub Theorem. This approach was supposed to have been used for the first time by Boulding in the 1940s in his book ‘The Economics of Peace’, in which he compared the change in national income to the change of water level in a bathtub; the production rate and consumption rate were similar to the injections and leakages respectively. Accordingly, when production exceeds consumption the national income rises and vice versa. Changes in national income can be explained similarly as arising out of differences in other injections and leakages, for example exports and imports. What is the Blue Gene project? Blue Gene is an ambitious project to expand the horizons of supercomputing, with the ultimate goal of creating a system that can perform 1 quadrillion calculations per second, or 1 petaflop. IBM expects a machine it calls Blue Gene/P to be the first to achieve this computational milestone. Today's fastest machine, NEC's Earth Simulator is comparatively slow -- about one-thirteenth of 1 petaflop.
What’s the origin of the word ‘karaoke’? The word karaoke is derived from two Japanese words — ‘kara’ comes from the word ‘karappo’ meaning empty or void and ‘oke’ comes from the word ‘okesutura’ or orchestra. Karaoke songs are typically music reproductions without the voice of the singer. It is said to have originated at a snack bar in Japan where a scheduled person was unable to perform. The bar owner played recorded music and invited customers to sing along. Some say that it started in the 1970s with a Japanese singer called Daisuke Inoue, who recorded songs and sold it to people to sing along too. — Sanjay Sharma, via e-mail What’s a sevillana dress? The sevillana dress is worn by artistes who perform sevillana, a colourful and exciting style of song and dance that originated in Castile, Spain. It is a variation of a style of dance known as the seguidilla. It is performed to a strict 3/4 rhythm by pairs or groups of people. This style of dance is performed at fiestas of all kinds throughout Spain, especially during the feria, when women wear the colourful sevillana polka-dotted dresses (traje gitanas), that gives the dance a swirling quality and grace.
What does Nerdic refer to? Nerdic is the language used by technology geeks and is also referred to as ‘geek speak’. The language has words as bizarre as dongle and mashup. It’s considered the fastest growing language in Europe because a 100 words were added to it in the last 12 months. Some of its words are borrowed from English but don’t have the same meaning. For instance, a cobweb is a website that hasn’t been updated in a long time and bandwidth refers to a person’s ability to cope with several tasks. Since nerdic is said to have the three essential elements of a new language — words, phrases and pronunciation —some Europeans have applied to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to recognise it as an official language. Which word has the most number of synonyms? Synonyms are words with similar meanings. However, it’s difficult to say which word has most number of synonyms because the synonyms of a particular word tend to be subjective and their meanings tend to vary from the original word. What is jipijapa hat? Jipijapa hat (named after a town in Ecuador, once a centre for hat trade) or a Panama hat or just Panama is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant. Straw hats woven in Ecuador, like many other 19 and early 20th century South American goods, were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing to their destinations in Asia, the rest of the Americas, and Europe. For some products, the name of their point of international sale rather than their place of origin stuck, hence Panama hats. What is the Sortino Ratio? Frank Sortino, now the director of a pension research institute in San Francisco, developed the Sortino Ratio. Many global Mutual Fund rating agencies prefer this risk-adjusted return measure over the Sharpe Ratio, because it is simple and easy. The Sortino Ratio is similar to the Sharpe Ratio, except that instead of using standard deviation as the denominator, it uses downside deviation. The Sortino Ratio was developed to differentiate between good and bad volatility in the Sharpe Ratio. If a fund is volatile to the upside (which is generally a good thing) its Sharpe ratio would still be low. To quote the Sortino website: "The denominator for the Sharpe Ratio is the standard deviation, and for the Sortino Ratio, the downside deviation." What is the Great Rift Valley? The Great Rift Valley is the vast geographic depression that runs from the Jordan River Valley in Syria, South-western Asia to Mozambique in eastern Africa. The valley is approximately 6000 km in length, and its width varies from a few miles to more than one hundred miles. Its elevation varies from 1300 feet below sea level to 6000 feet above sea level. It is supposed to have formed because of the rifting of Earth’s crust along a fault zone, believed to be millions of years old. The valley is of great interest to scientists because the bones of several human ancestors have been found there. The above name was given to the valley in late 19th century by the Scottish explorer John Walter Gregory.

What is the Kimberley Process? Conflict diamonds came to the attention of the world media during the extremely brutal conflict in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The UN, governments, the diamond industry and non-governmental organizations (such as Amnesty International), recognised the need for a global system to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate diamond supply chain, which helped fund conflict. The Kimberley Process (the first meeting was held at Kimberley, South Africa in July 2000, hence the name) is a negotiating process to establish minimum acceptable international standards in the trade of diamonds from rebel-held conflict areas. Kimberly Process includes organised import and export, careful administration, combating corruption in the customs service, written invoices for diamond transactions, the presence of modern measuring and weighing instruments, and numbered and difficult-to-forge certificates. The advantages of the Kimberly system are: 1) Stemming the flow of money to rebel movements. 2) Increasing governments’ transparency. 3) Getting governments to keep tabs on how many diamonds they import and export and how much they are worth. 4) Facilitating a system whereby governments can be held accountable for the relationship between income and public spending. What is a Cyrus Cylinder? The Cyrus Cylinder is a clay cylinder on which a declaration issued by the emperor Cyrus II of Persia is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform. It has been described as the world’s first charter of human rights, predating the Magna Carta by more than one millennium. This has been interpreted as expressing Cyrus’ respect for humanity. How is a stallion different from a gelding? Gelding is a castrated male horse while a stallion is a male horse that isn’t castrated. Geldings are calmer and better behaved, making them potentially more suitable as an everyday working animal. Also, geldings eliminate conflicts within domestic horse herds. Stallions are male horses used for mating and are normally the finest ones. They have a good muscular physique and are aggressive but can be controlled if trained well. They are used for horse racing, horse shows etc.
Which is the most pointless gadget? In a recent survey, an electric nail file, which gives a smooth finish to nails, all for a whopping £250, was voted the most pointless gadget of all times. While laser-guided scissors which helps cut a perfectly straight line came in second, electric candles were third.
What is genetic drift? The random changes in gene frequencies occurring by chance and not under the control of natural selection are called genetic drift or random genetic drift or sampling error. This theory was advocated by geneticist Sewall Wright in 1930. It explains the change in gene frequency and hence evolution. It is caused due to sampling error. A new generation arises from a sample of sex cells, randomly taken from the gene pool (or gametes) of the preceding generation. Now, when a sample is drawn in a large population randomly, chances that the sample will contain nearly the same gene frequency that is present in the gene pool are very high. But in a small population (and hence a small gene pool), chances that the sample drawn at random will contain an altered gene frequency are very high. What is the Taj Trapezium Zone and why is it called so? Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) is a defined area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal to protect the monument from pollution. The Supreme Court of India delivered a ruling on December 30, 1996 regarding industries covered under the TTZ, in response to a PIL seeking to protect the Taj Mahal from environmental pollution. The SC banned the use of coal/ coke in industries located in the TTZ with a mandate for switching over from coal/ coke to natural gas, and relocating them outside the TTZ or shutting down. The TTZ comprises over 40 protected monuments including three World Heritage Sites -- the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. TTZ is so named since it is located around the Taj Mahal and is shaped like a trapezoid. What are galactic superclusters? Each galaxy has billions of stars. Such galaxies are not uniformly spaced in the universe but exist in groups and clusters; a group containing up to 40-50 galaxies and clusters containing about thousands of galaxies. These groups and clusters along with isolated galaxies may form larger clusters known as galactic superclusters. These are the largest structures of matter found in the universe. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a member of a local group of galaxies, which is in turn a part of the Virgo supercluster. What is the Age of Antonines? The Age of Antonines is often referred to two successive ages of Roman emperors —Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius —who ruled between 138 AD and 180 AD and were famous for their skilled leadership. The age is also known as the transitional phase of the Roman empire. In 138 AD, after a long reign dedicated to the cultural unification and consolidation of the empire, emperor Hadrian named his son as heir, under the condition that he adopt both Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Hadrian died the same year, and Antoninus began a peaceful, benevolent reign, in contrast to Hadrian's wars of unification and his immediate predecessors’ expansionist wars. He adhered strictly to Roman traditions and institutions and willingly shared his power with the Roman senate. Marcus Aurelius succeeded Pius after his death in 161 AD and continued his legacy as an unpretentious and gifted administrator and leader. Marcus Aurelius died in 180 AD and was followed by his son Commodus who single-handedly ended this golden age of Roman empire. What is a semaphore? A semaphore (pronounced as sehm uh fawr, invented by Edsger Dijkstra) in computer science is a classic way of protecting shared resources. In multi-programming environments like Unix systems, semaphores are a technique for coordinating or synchronising activities in which multiple processes compete for the same operating system resources. A process needing the resource checks the semaphore to determine the resource’s status and then decides how to proceed. Depending on the value found, the process can use the resource or will find that it is already in use and must wait for some time before trying again, thus avoiding deadlocks.
What is the Golden Rule? An almost universal principle of ethics, the Golden Rule, is summarised by the phrase ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. Variations in this theme recur across most religions and ethical philosophies, including Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, in the Mahabharata, the Book of Leviticus, in the philosophies of Kant, Mills and Rawl’s Theory of Justice. Deep Ecology also recognises the Golden Rule with relation to species and ecosystems on Earth. Where did surfing originate? The sport of riding on the crest or along the tunnel of a wave, especially while standing or lying on a surfboard is called surfboarding. Originally developed by Hawaiian islanders before the 15th century, ‘he’e nalu’ spread in the early 20th century to mainland USA and Australia, where heavy timber plank boards were ridden directly towards beaches. The sport exploded in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, when cheaper, more manoeuvrable, and lighter boards made of fibreglass and foam became available, and teenage baby boomers headed to the beaches in droves to enjoy the manoeuvrability and stunts made possible by the new boards.
Who are hippy-crites? Hypocritical celebrities or those who espouse a cause but don’t live by the principles they preach. The word hippy-crite particularly refers to those celebrities guilty of environmental hypocrisy. For instance, those who complain about pollution but nonetheless use products that pollute. Hippy-crites also refer to wannabe hippies —those who claim they are hippies but don’t exactly lead such a lifestyle. What is urban mining? Urban mining is the European fancy name for the process of making money out of garbage using sophisticated machinery. Urban mining is the process of reclaiming precious and minor metals from old electronic equipment. With the soaring price of metals, such recycling of previously mined metals is lucrative — 1 tonne of ore from a gold mine produces just 5 gms of gold on an average, whereas 1 tonne of discarded mobile phones can yield 150 gms or more, according to a study by Yokohama Metal Co Ltd, a recycling firm. The same volume of discarded mobile phones also contains around 100 kg of copper and 3 kg of silver, among other metals. What is the backwash effect? Gunnar Myrdal in 1956 said that regional differences are the natural outcome of economic development and the inevitable result of market forces. No one region can prosper, he said, without adversely affecting the prosperity of another. Economic growth takes place initially where there are such natural advantages as a source of fuel or a supply of raw materials. Once in existence, this region of economic development sets in motion the process of cumulative causation. Myrdal called the movement of wealth from poorer regions to the central rich region the backwash effect. It takes place because of better facilities and opportunities offered by the growing region. To enhance this difference further, a rich area may flood the markets of poorer areas with cheap products. The result is an industrially expanding region on the one hand and stagnating, or even declining, region on the other. What is Grounded Theory? Grounded Theory is described as a research method in which the theory is developed from the data, rather than the other way around. That makes it an inductive approach, meaning it moves from the specific to the general. The Grounded Theory was developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss. Their collaboration in research on dying hospital patients led them to write the book Awareness of Dying. How are corrective lenses made? The lab technician selects a lens blank that has the correct segment (called an add) and a base curve close to the prescribed power. Then to make the power match the prescription exactly, another curve is ground on the back of the lens blank. In most labs, the equipment is designed to grind minus curves, so a strong, plus lens blank is usually selected. If the base curve is too strong, then a minus curve is ground in the back of the lens which reduces the total power of the lens. Corrective lenses can be made with glass or plastic. Advances in automation are rapidly changing how lenses are made. For example, the vast majority of labs now use computers to determine curve parameters and lens choice, and equipment is available that will combine several steps or even do the entire operation automatically. Can cosmic rays generate electricity? The jury is still out on whether we can generate electricity from cosmic rays but while many feel that in theory it may be possible, in practice it could be in very small amounts. In any case, tapping cosmic rays is a very complex engineering problem and the cost of doing so could be prohibitively high.
How do sunglasses filter ultraviolet rays? A special clear coating is applied to the lenses, either on the front or back of the lens, or sometimes both sides. It's a transparent coating and can be applied to any colour of lens including clear. The UV-filtering effect, however, is more complex. UV-filtering lenses are coated with special chemicals that allow light to pass through them, but reflect away UV. UV rays are basically high-frequency light waves which means that the chemical structure has to be built to deflect higher frequency light while allowing through lower frequency light. The most complicated sunglasses are prescription sunglasses. These are sunglasses that not only protect from light and UV, but also work like normal glasses to correct the eyesight. For this to work, it requires that normal vision-correction glasses are taken, tinted and coated with UV-reflecting chemicals. Why is the Spring Festival celebrated? The ancient town of Hama in Syria is well known for its Spring Festival celebrated every year for two weeks in April. This festival had its origins in the 2nd millennium BC when it would be celebrated to offer prayers and sacrifices to Adonis, the god of fertility. However, the tradition disappeared gradually over the centuries and reappeared briefly in the 1930s, with the organization of carnivals and games during April. During World War II, the festival suffered a setback, and was revived in 1998 and been celebrated annually without a break. In the local language, it's called the Muhrajan-al-Rabi and the objective is to display local customs and traditions and help preserve the heritage of Hama. The festival is characterised by many cultural and sports activities, and bazaars selling native food, handicrafts, and textiles.
What is the SuperMemo? It’s a software that facilitates speed learning, particularly of languages. It’s based on an algorithm which calculates the precise moment when a person is likely to forget something she has learnt. The program would then remind her about going over that information once again, during those times. It was invented by Piotr Wozniak. What is a memristor? Memristor is claimed to be the fourth basic element to electrical circuit theory along with the capacitor, resistor and inductor. It was recently discovered in HP Labs. Its most interesting characteristic is that it remembers the amount of charge that flows through it. So, it is named as memory resistor or memristor. Researchers believe the discovery will pave the way for instantly booting PCs, more energy-efficient computers, and new analog computers that can process and associate information in a manner similar to the human brain. Also, memristors can be used as either digital switches or to build a new breed of analog devices. What is a ghost word? A ghost word is one that has entered the language through the perpetuation of an error. It is a term invented by lexicographer W W Skeat in 1886 to denote words that are not real words. In ‘Transactions of the Philological Society’ (1886) Skeat says, "We should jealously guard against all chances of giving any undeserved record of words which had never any real existence, being mere coinages due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors." Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable revised by Adrian Room describes ghost words as "spurious terms, the result of errors made by authors, typists, editors, and printers, and they hardly ever become part of the language. An example of a lasting ghost word is ‘dord’ (meaning density) which can be found in the 1934 Merriam-Webster Dictionary, second edition. ‘Dord’ began life as an error made in transcribing a card that read: ‘D or d, meaning a capital D or small d — for density. Eliminated from future Merriam-Webster editions, this ghost word lives on in the 1934 edition". What is the Prague Spring? Prague Spring refers to the period of liberalisation in Czechoslovakia from January 5, 1968 to August 21, 1968 under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek who controlled the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In April 1968, agricultural and industrial reforms were instituted, a new constitution with a guarantee of civil rights and greater freedom of press was introduced with the announcement of federalisation of Czechoslovakia into two nations with autonomy for Slovakia and initiation of reforms in the Communist Party and the government. However, this led to the public demanding greater reforms towards democracy. The then Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries felt threatened by the likely emergence of a socialist-democratic Czechoslovakia since they felt it would weaken the Communist Bloc. On the night of August 20-21, 1968 armies from Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria invaded Czechoslovakia. They removed Alexander Dubcek from power and installed in his place anti-reform communists to run Czechoslovakia. What is pixie dust? Pixie dust is a fictional substance, that is pictorially represented as a trail of a sparkling substance that follows mythical creatures such as pixies and fairies. It’s also called fairy dust. The gravitational pull of each planet basically tries to pull everything within its field toward the planet’s centre, including the planet’s own mass. As all areas of a planet are being pulled equally toward the centre, the planet takes a spherical shape, with all points on the surface being more or less equally distant from the centre. The smaller the planet, the weaker the gravitational pull; which is why asteroids, along with many of the smaller moons of the solar system, are not necessarily spherical in shape. Deimos, a moon of Mars, is a good example of this. Direct Market Access (DMA) is a facility which allows brokers to offer clients direct access to the exchange trading system through the brokers' infrastructure without manual intervention by the broker. Some of the advantages offered by DMA are direct control of clients over orders, faster execution of client orders, reduced risk of errors associated with manual order entry, greater transparency, increased liquidity, lower impact costs for large orders, better audit trails and better use of hedging and arbitrage opportunities through the use of decision support tools/ algorithms for trading. Where did the practice of sunbathing originate? Sunbathing has its origins in ancient civilisations. Greeks, Romans, and Sumerians considered Sun as a God, because Sun was the most powerful natural source of heat and light; as a part of Sun worship, they used to expose their bodies to sunlight. Another reason was ancient man's liking for bronzed skin, which could be easily acquired by sunbathing. In mediaeval times, however, dark skin lost its appeal because it began to be associated with the working classes, and people craved for make-up and other treatments that would make the skin look pale and white. In the beginning of the 20th century, there was a renewal of attraction for golden brown skin, especially in France. Coco Chanel, a fashion designer, and Josephine Baker, a singer, were considered responsible for triggering the resurgence of sunbathing, because their fans took a great fascination for the light brown skin they acquired by sunbathing.
Which is the earliest reality show? The world’s first reality show is Allen Funt’s Candid Camera, which debuted in American television in 1948. It is considered a reality show for it involved unscripted situations involving unsuspecting people responding to pranks, which are caught on camera. It was based on a 1947-radio show called Candid Microphone. — S Ryan, Panjim What is a micelle? A micelle is the cluster or aggregated particles formed by associated colloids (substances which, at high concentration, behave as colloidal solutions due to formation of micelles) in solution. Micelle formation takes place above a certain concentration called Critical Micellization Concentration (CMC) and above a particular temperature called Kraft Temperature. Every micelle system has a particular value of CMC. Micelles are primarily responsible for the cleansing action of soaps. A micelle consists of a hydrophobic hydrocarbon-like central core. The cleansing action of soap is due to the fact that soap molecules form micelle around the oil droplet in such a way that hydrophobic part of the stearate ions (from the soap solution of sodium stearate) is in the oil droplet and hydrophilic part projects out of the grease droplet like the bristles. This oil droplet surrounded by stearate ions is now pulled in water and removed from the dirty surface. What is a shibboleth? A shibboleth is a practice of identifying the members of a community or a clan and their social and regional origin. The term originated from the Hebrew language which literally means ‘part of the plant’. In modern usage, it is used to solve numerous conflicts between groups speaking different languages of dialects, and is also used to discover hidden members of the opposing group. Today, in English, a shibboleth has a wider meaning, referring to any ‘in crowd’ word or phrase that can be used to distinguish members of a group from outsiders, even when not used for a hostile purpose. What are mocap suits? Motion capture, or mocap, is a technique for digitally recording movement. Originally used as an analysis tool for biomechanics, mocap is now successfully employed in a wide variety of sectors including games development, advertising, events and education. Movement is captured through the placement of sensors (or markers) on or near each joint of the body. As each joint moves, the positions or angles between the markers are recorded. Software records the angles, velocities, accelerations and impulses, providing an accurate digital representation of the movement. In entertainment, mocap is best known as an animation tool for films, TV and games. Not only does it save time and money but it also creates more lifelike movement than manual animation. Examples of applications include Gollum in Lord of the Rings, Polar Express and Happy Feet.
Who was called the Iron Chancellor? A hundred years ago, Germany was divided into many small states, or countries. In one of these states, Prussia, the chancellor, or chief minister to the king, was Otto von Bismarck. A strong and ruthless man, Bismarck made Prussia the strongest of all German states and its army feared throughout Europe. When the states were gathered into one empire in 1871, Bismarck, now a prince, and his king, now an emperor, were at its helm. Prince Bismarck continued to make the new empire stronger until he was dismissed by a new emperor in 1890. He got his nickname, ‘The Iron Chancellor’, when he said that Germany could only become a great power through blood and iron. What is the E layer? The E layer is a region of the ionosphere, extending from about 90-150 kilometres above the Earth, which influences long-distance communications by strongly reflecting radio waves in the 1-3 megahertz. It is also called E region, Heaviside layer, or Kennelly-Heaviside layer. This region reflects radio waves of medium wavelength and allows their reception around the surface of the Earth. The layer approaches the Earth by day and recedes from it at night. In medical terms, it is a cylinder of relativistic electrons gyrating in the magnetic field, which produces a self field strong enough to dominate the externally applied field and produces half reversal in the system. Since the mid ’20s, another connection regarding the ionosphere has been hypothesised --that lightning can interact with the lower ionosphere. According to this theory, thunderstorms could modulate the transient, localised patches of relatively high-electron density in the mid-ionosphere E layer, which significantly affects radio-wave propagation. Why is the Turtle Island called so? The Turtle Island, located about 10 kms off the coast of Toucheng in Yilan County (Taiwan), has a volcanic terrain that, from certain angles, looks like a turtle floating in the sea. Hence, it is known as Turtle Island. Among the features of the island are high cliffs, steaming fumaroles (an opening in a volcano), welling underwater hot springs, mountain peaks, sea-eroded caves, a lake and unique cliff vegetation as well as rich marine ecological resources.
Which is the world’s longest mobile phone? The longest mobile is NEED, a concept phone created by designer Tamer Koseli, which is about 14 cm long and is narrow in width. Koseli bucked the current trend in mobile phones which come with features like a camera and MP3 players. He wanted to create a phone pared of these so-called superfluous features. NEED has an OLED display which shows basic information, and also sports a touch screen. What does Freefonix refer to? Freefonix is a 40-episode, 3D animated music project created by Magnus Fiennes, Alex Tate and Simeon Warburton and produced by an Indian company and BBC. It is targeted at children and uses music and animation to tell an adventure story of three teenagers who accidentally discover the existence of The Thirteenth Note which brings them power and insight. When was chess first played as an international game? Chess was played in 1851 in London as an international tournament. The tournament was conceived and organised by English player Howard Staunton, and marked the first time that the best chess players in Europe met in a single event. German Adolf Andersson won the 16-player tournament, earning him the title of the Best Player in Europe. What is a moot court? In constitutional law, a moot court is an important part of the curriculum undertaken twice in a semester, during the class time, and students serve as both presenter and judges. A moot court is a competition, conducted at both undergraduate level and in law school, in which teams of students prepare and argue legal cases. Such cases may be real or hypothetical, and the students are given a set period to prepare. Judges are selected for the cases and the general rules are framed, some of which are: 1. Petitioners, the side bringing the case, go first; 2. Presenters have a set time period for their argument. 3. Judges may ask questions at any time. They may ask anything about the case, and are not restricted to the point or argument the presenter is making at the time. 4. After the petitioners, respondents have the same time period to present their argument. 5. At the close of the arguments, the judges meet to deliberate and they make three decisions: a. Judgment of the case on merits. b. Best overall team and c. Best individual presenter. What is the stroboscopic effect? The stroboscopic effect is a phenomenon due to interrupted illumination of a moving object. When an oscillating body is seen in periodically interrupted light (a series of light flashes occurring at a definite rate) it appears different. If the periodicity of the vibrating body is same as that of the flashing light, the body appears to be stationary. In movies, when a wagon with spiked wheels comes to a stop, the wheels often appear to stand still, then turn backward, stop, turn forward, and then stop again. This is due to the stroboscopic effect. A stroboscope is a light source emitting light with different but definite interruption rates. It is used to determine the frequency of a vibrating body or revolutions per minute of a rotating body. Car engines are tuned with the help of stroboscopic lights. Which country has the largest reserves of petroleum? Saudi Arabia has the largest petroleum reserves in the world. It comprises almost 1/4th (24 %) of the world’s proven total petroleum reserves. Saudi Arabia’s economy is petroleum-based; roughly 75% of budget revenues and 90% of export earnings come from the oil industry. Officially, it has about 260 billion barrels (41,000,000,000 cubic metres) of oil reserves. It has become one of the rapidly growing countries in terms of the average per-capita income.
What is a Sovereign Wealth Fund? A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is an investment fund owned by a government. The funds invested through such funds are usually the proceeds of non-renewable natural resources or a higher return alternative to holding foreign currency. An SWF differs from government funds that invest in their own country as these are usually driven by the desire to direct the economy in some way, for example, by investing in industries whose growth will have some benefit for the broader economy. The primary aim of an SWF is generating high returns. What’s unique about the Rio Grande River? Rio Grande in Spanish means big river. Two different rivers bear the above name: the first is the river flowing through the eastern part of Jamaica, and the second, the river originating in the US and flowing through the southern United States and Mexico. Rio Grande of Jamaica is the largest source of fresh water in Jamaica and provides water to Jamaica’s capital Kingston. It’s popular among tourists for rafting, which originally was used in the river for transporting bananas from several inland transplantations to Port Antonio harbour. Rio Grande of the US is its third longest river (1885 miles) and serves as the natural boundary between Texas and Mexico. In spite of being a long river, the river, today, suffers from a low rate of flow and hardly empties into the sea. Because of drought and overuse, the river faces a serious threat of extinction.
What is the yuppie flu? Yuppie flu, which is also called the shirkers’ syndrome, is a term cynically applied to those suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. Earlier, doctors and others believed symptoms of chronic fatigue such as sleep disorders and other severe problems to be imagined. But now, scientists are linking the yuppie flu to gene mutations, and medical professionals around the world largely agree that the syndrome is actually real. What is Llanfair PG? Llanfair PG or Llanfairpwll is the short form and commonly used name of a village located on the island of Anglesey in Wales. The long form of the village’s name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is Welsh for ‘St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave’. This is the longest officially recognised place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest worldwide with 58 letters. The long name was given in 1860s to the village to develop it as a commercial and tourist centre. The village was connected with London in 1850 by the railway and this artificially contrived name gave the village’s railway station the honour of having the longest name in the UK. Who has written the maximum number of books? Phillip M Parker, an American, has written 200,000 books. He has devised computer algorithms which write text, search and do many more defined operations which have helped him write these books. Among his publications include ‘The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea’ (168 pages), ‘Stickler Syndrome: A Bibliography and Dictionary for Physicians, Patients and Genome Researchers’ (126 pages), ‘The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India’ (144 pages). The Guinness Book of World Records ranks Mary Faulkner (1903-1973) as the most prolific novelist, having written 904 books. Mary wrote under six pen names, which include Kathleen Lindsay, Margaret Cameron, Mary Richmond, Molly Waring and Hugh Desmond. Some of her books are ‘There is No Yesterday’ and ‘Wind of Desire’, and ‘Harvest of Deceit’. What is a banana bond? A chemical bond is the phenomenon of chemical species like atoms held together by electrostatic or electronic forces. Of the several types of chemical bonds, a special type exists in the molecule of boron hydride BH3 which exists as a dimer B2H6 molecule. It contains two types of hydrogen atoms. Four hydrogen atoms are of one type, which are used in making four normal covalent bonds with two boron atoms (two with each of the boron atoms). The remaining two H atoms form bridges between the two boron atoms through threecentre electron-pair bonds. This type of bond involves three atoms but only two electrons. Since the shape of the electron cloud of the three-centre electron pair bond resembles the shape of a banana, it is called a banana bond. What is a Solid State Drive? Solid State Drives, or SSDs as they are popularly called, are new age storage drives and are slowly but gradually replacing traditional hard drives. A hard disk has heads, magnetic surfaces and many other complex moving parts, which enable it to function properly but they also make the hard disks fallible. The moving parts also make hard disks slower in reading and writing data. Whereas the SSD has no moving parts, no heads, and works on a principle similar to a RAM. Solid State Drives used either SDRAM or NAND Flash. Solid State Drives will replace the traditional hard disks due to their inherent advantages . They operate at higher speeds, data can be fetched almost immediately, and there is no time lag between the data request sent and transfer of data. When was the first Twenty20 match played? Twenty20 cricket was first played in English domestic cricket in 2003 between England and Wales Cricket Board. The first international Twenty20 cricket match was played between Australia and New Zealand on February 17, 2005, at Eden Park, Auckland. Australia defeated New Zealand by 44 runs. How is inflation calculated? Each country has its own method to calculate inflation. However, it reflects how the market prices affect a person's purchasing capacity. In India, it is based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) where the price level of the data of 435 commodities is tracked through WPI. It is an indicator of movement of prices of commodities in all trade and transactions. In India, it is done on a weekly basis. What is the Russian avantegarde movement? The term avante garde refers generally to art for the sake of social progress. But sometimes, the term is also used to refer to experimental and innovative art without any specific social purpose. The term is used with the former meaning in Russia, which experienced a great art reform in the period 1917-1932 in the wake of the Russian revolution. The Russian avantegarde movement is attributed to a group of about twenty artists, whose works had a great influence on the abstract art of the country of that period. The members of the movement were mostly located in St Petersberg and Moscow. Although their work had a great impact, these artists lacked unity, and had bitter quarrels among themselves, each individual and sub group considering others as insignificant and wrong.
What’s the origin of the phrase ‘touch wood’? There are several theories. According to one, it originates from the pagan belief that good spirits reside in trees such as oak, and hence, touching wood or knocking on wood would help ward off evil spirits. According to an ancient Celtic belief, trees can conduct evil spirits, much like a conductor absorbing heat. Some would knock on wood to thank mythical creatures named leprechauns for bestowing good luck. Also, since Jesus Christ was crucified on a wooden cross, touching a wooden crucifix was, therefore, a form of praying for good luck. What are applets? An applet is a little application. Prior to the World Wide Web, the built-in writing and drawing programmes that came with Windows were sometimes called applets. On the Web, using Java language, an applet is a small programme that can be sent along with a Web page to a user. Java applets can perform interactive animations, immediate calculations, or other simple tasks without having to send a user request back to the server. Why is it cooler at higher altitudes? High altitudes normally begin at 1500 metres above sea level. At such altitudes, the atmospheric pressure is considerably lower than at sea level. To give some examples: the pressure at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch and it decreases through 4.3 psi at 30,000 ft to 1.6 psi at 50,000 ft. Because of this, the air expands as it rises and this causes it to cool. That is why it is cooler on top of mountains. How does a cryogenic engine work? The cryogenic engine gets its name from the extremely cold temperature at which liquid nitrogen is stored. Air moving around the vehicle is used to heat liquid nitrogen to a boil. Once it boils, it turns to gas in the same way that heated water forms steam in a steam engine. A rocket like the Ariane 5 uses oxygen and hydrogen, both stored as a cryogenic liquid, to produce its power. The liquid nitrogen, stored at -320 degrees Fahrenheit, is vaporized by the heat exchanger. Nitrogen gas formed in the heat exchanger expands to about 700 times the volume of its liquid form. This highly pressurised gas is then fed to the expander, where the force of the nitrogen gas is converted into mechanical power. What is the Freedom of the Seas? Freedom of the Seas is the doctrine that ships of any nation may travel through international waters unhampered. It is the right of neutral shipping in wartime to trade at will except where blockades are established. How is a cricketer’s batting average calculated? In cricket, a player’s batting average is the total number of runs he has scored divided by the number of times he has been out. Since the number of runs a player scores and how often he gets out are primarily measures of his playing ability, and largely independent of his team mates, the batting average is a good statistic to describe an individual player’s skill as a batsman. The number is also simple to interpret intuitively, being approximately the average number of runs the batsman scores per innings. Why do particles and anti-particles, when they come in contact, annihilate each other? For sub-atomic particles like electrons and protons, there exist corresponding particles with the same mass but opposite electrical and magnetic characteristics. For example, the electron's anti-particle, positron, possesses the same mass as the electron, but carries a positive charge. The anti-particles are produced naturally in radioactive decay. In the universe, the number of regular sub-atomic particles and anti-particles is not the same; most matter in the universe is made of regular particles. When a particle and its anti-particle come in contact, both of them disappear giving rise to energy in the form of photons, gamma rays, etc. In such a reaction, if the particle and antiparticle pair does not annihilate itself, the sum total of mass energy before and after the reaction would not be the same, leading to a violation of the law of conservation of mass and energy.
What is the international space station? The most ambitious project since the Apollo missions to land a man on the moon, the International Space Station (ISS) is the next step in human exploration of the solar system. It is a joint venture between 16 nations, and the largest scientific cooperative programme in history. All power for the space station is generated by large arrays of solar panels connected to the main structure of the station. Also, attached to this framework are corrugated panels, which act as radiators, dispersing the excess heat from the station into space. Astronauts will live and work in the cylindrical modules between the solar panel arrays and will eventually be able to spend many years at a time in space. What’s special about EuroPass football? The EuroPass is the official football for UEFA Euro 2008. The adidas EuroPass combines tradition with modernity. It has a new surface structure which allows players to have more control over the ball and direct it perfectly in all weather conditions. The PSC-Texture, which consists of fine structures on the outer surface, guarantees optimum grip between the ball and boot. The 12 black dots on the ball contain individual graphic elements which stand for passion, friendship, action, training, fans and winning goal. The name EuroPass symbolises the connection between Austria and Switzerland, the host countries of the tournament. What are cladograms? Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. It's distinct from other taxonomic classification systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species. This is because it places heavy emphasis on objective and quantitative analysis. Cladistics generates diagrams called cladograms that represent the evolutionary tree of life. The starting point of cladistic analysis is a group of species and molecular, morphological, or other data characterising those species. The end result is a treelike relationship diagram which is the cladogram. It graphically represents a hypothetical evolutionary process. What is immunohistochemistry? Immunohistochemistry is the process of localising proteins in cells of a tissue section exploiting the principle of anti-bodies binding specifically with antigens in biological tissues. It takes its name from the roots `immuno', in reference to anti-bodies used in the procedure, and `histo' meaning tissue. Immunohistochemistry is widely used in the diagnosis of abnormal cells such as those found in cancerous tumours.
What is the Large Hadron Collider project? The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), currently being built at CERN near Geneva, is the largest scientific instrument on the planet. When it begins operations later this year, it will produce roughly 15 petabytes (15 million gigabytes) of data annually, which scientists worldwide will access and analyse. The mission of the LHC Computing Project (LCG) is to build and maintain a data storage and analysis infrastructure. What is the anti-greenhouse effect? The greenhouse effect occurs when the atmosphere lets sunlight in and blocks infrared radiation from escaping. If it is not so, then the temperature on Earth which is 15 degrees Celsius would be -15 degrees Celsius. Imagine a layer that stops light from getting in and lets infrared out. An anti-greenhouse effect does the same thing to heat --it lets heat out but doesn't let it in. The conventional greenhouse effect occurs because the atmosphere is largely transparent to solar radiation, but largely opaque to infrared. In an anti-greenhouse effect, this situation is reversed and this will cause cooling. This effect is only known to occur on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Which mutual fund scheme is the oldest in world? Sherman Adams was a daring Boston broker who in 1924 introduced the world's first mutual fund, the MIT Fund, or Massachusetts Investors Trust Fund. By investing in the MIT Fund, customers could buy or sell their shares whenever they wanted, rather than tie their money up for a set number of years. After the MIT Fund survived the stock market crash of 1929, more mutual funds cropped up, leading to a massive mutual fund industry. Now, the MIT Fund is managed by MFS Investment Management. What is continuous partial attention? A state in which most of one's attention is on a primary task, but where one is also monitoring several background tasks. CPA is that state most of us enter when we're in front of a computer screen, or trying to check out at the grocery store with a cellphone pressed to one ear or blogging the proceedings of a conference while it’s under way. We’re aware of several things at once, shifting our attention to whatever is more urgent.What's the Royal Ascot parade? Ascot is a town in southern England where horse races are held and Royal Ascot is the most famous and popular race meeting. The Queen and the royal family normally attend every day. The royal procession in a horse-drawn carriage, scheduled before racing on each day, is the Royal Ascot parade. It was started in 1711 by Queen Anne. The Royal Enclosure has a strict dress code. Male attendees must wear full morning dress, including a top hat, while ladies must not show bare midriffs or shoulders, and must wear hats. There are 16 group races on offer, with at least one group one event on each of the five days. SECOND THOUGHTS Why is it cooler at higher altitudes? As we go up, the air becomes thinner. Air molecules absorb heat from sunlight and collide with each other. As they collide, the heat is dissipated into the atmosphere. So, where the concentration of air is high, like in the plains, the atmosphere becomes hot. At higher altitudes, because of presence of lesser number of air molecules, the number of collision and resultant heat dissipation become less. This is why it’s cooler at higher altitudes.
What is the privacy paradox? Although people are particular about safeguarding their privacy, many have no qualms in divulging critical information about themselves on public forums like social networking sites. Researchers have dubbed this the privacy paradox. It refers to how people’s opinions and impulses about protecting their private information tend to be contradictory. What is ophidiophobia? Ophidiophobia is a Greek term which is a combination of ‘ophis’ meaning snake and ‘phobia’ meaning fear. Ophidiophobia refers to the fear of snakes, alternatively termed as herpetophobia. This kind of phobia is quite distinct from the fear of venom. Ophidiophobiac are usually afraid of snakes, not only when they come in contact with one but even when they think of snakes or see them on TV or in a magazine. One of the remarkable characteristics of the fictional character Indiana Jones is that he is an ophidiophobiac.
How are points in a stock exchange calculated? Points or index refers to a figure indicative of the health of the stock market. The most widely used index is sensex or sensitive index which is based on weighted value of 30 numbers of most traded shares in the Mumbai stock exchange. Each stock has a percentage share in a total of 100 and affects the value of the sensex accordingly. Similarly, Nifty is the index of 100 selected stocks which are most traded. There are others like midcap, small cap, large cap, banking, real estate, etc. What is the Treynor Ratio? The Treynor Ratio (reward-tovolatility ratio) was developed by Jack Treynor, one of the fathers of modern portfolio theory. The ratio measures the returns earned from a portfolio over and above the normal return that would have been earned on a risk-free investment. The formula for the Treynor Ratio is: average return of the portfolio minus average return of the riskfree rate divided by the beta of the portfolio. In short, the excess return over the risk-free return of the portfolio is divided by the beta of the portfolio to get the Treynor Ratio. Beta is a measure of market-related risk in a stock or collection of stocks. A high Treynor Ratio indicates better performance. A risk-free investment is akin to an investment in a government of India treasury bill. Which is the biggest container port in the world? Singapore is said to be the biggest port handling 26.9 million standard boxes, though China now claims that in 2008, Shanghai has overtaken Singapore and expected to handle 30 million TEUs (twentyfeet equivalent units, a measure used in transport). In 2002, it was claimed that Hong Kong in China was the biggest container port. What is the Great Manmade River? The Great Manmade River (better known as GMR) is a network of pipes that supplies water from the Sahara desert to Libya from a fossil aquifer. This aquifer is known as Nublon Sandstone Aquifer System. GMR is considered to be the largest underground network of pipes in the world. It has more than 1,300 wells supplying more than 7,100,000 cubic metres of freshwater per day to the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirt and other major cities of this African nation. Some wells are as deep as 650 metres. In 1953, when drilling for the search of oil, explorers found huge quantities of freshwater. GMRP (Great Manmade River Project) was developed in 1960 and it took shape in 1984. About 88 million cubic metres of excavation was done for the completion of the first of five phases, and it was inaugurated on August 28, 1991. This mammoth project, designed by Brown Root and Price Brothers, is funded by the Libyan government and owned by the Great Manmade River Authority. The Guiness Book of World Records has acknowledged it as the world's largest irrigation project.
What is the Sistine Chapel famous for? The Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV. It’s best known for being the location of papal conclaves, for the election of a new Pope. It is famous for its architecture, evocative of Solomon’s Temple of the Old Testament and on its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, and Sandro Botticelli. What do riders represent in the fiesta of San Joan? The Spanish fiesta of San Joan dates back to the 14th century and has religious significance. The riders participating in it or caixers as they are called represent the social strata of the church, nobility, craftsmen and country people (mostly farmers). SECOND THOUGHTS Why is it cooler at higher altitudes? Air in the atmosphere is not heated directly by the sun. It's the surface of the Earth that’s heated by the sun and the layer of air in immediate contact with the Earth’s surface gets heated due to conduction. As you go away from the surface of the Earth, the heating by conduction keeps decreasing and, therefore, it is cooler at higher altitudes. That is the basic explanation. There are other factors like rising of the air in immediate contact with the surface of the Earth due to heating and, thereby, distributing heat to the upper layers.

What does Zumba refer to? Zumba is a cardio-fitness regime based on Latin rhythms developed by a former aerobics instructor Alberto Perez from Colombia. A Zumba class would span several Latin dance styles including Mambo, Salsa, Cumbia and Merengue. Another unique feature of a Zumba class is its party atmosphere unlike a typical aerobics class. Which country receives the highest rainfall in the world? Of the 95 wettest countries in the world, Guinea, Solomon Islands and Sierra Leone are ranked the top three in order of maximum rainfall received on an average in a year, according to the World Statistics Pocket Book and the Statistical Yearbook of the United Nations. The records are for the period 1931-1960. Guinea, also known as the Republic of Guinea, with its capital named Conakry, is in Western Africa receives a monsoon-type of rainfall from June to November. Against the global weighted annual average rainfall of 9.627 cm, Guinea gets 37.84 cm, the Solomon Islands gets 32.90 cm and Sierra Leone gets 29.46 cm. Conakry is the wettest capital in the world and receives rainfall on an average of 134 days each year. India is the ninth wettest country with 21.68 cm of average annual rainfall. The UN World Statistics for 2007 record these figures: Guinea - 37.76 cm, Solomon Islands - 32.9 cm, Sierra Leone - 29.46 cm and India 24.01 cm. Guinea was still top of the list and India retained the ninth position. How do iridium spark plugs differ from regular ones? Iridium is a precious, silver-white metal and one of the densest materials found on earth. The natural properties of iridium makes the spark plug use less voltage to create a spark, burn fuel more efficiently and spark at leaner air fuel mixtures. It delivers higher horsepower and better mileage. Why do the Nilgiris appear blue from a distance? Not only the Nilgiris, but almost all mountains appear blue from a distance. This is due to a phenomenon known as the Rayleigh Scattering Effect. The light from the sun, due to which we see the mountains, is scattered by atmospheric molecules. The electric field of the incident sunlight oscillates the electrons in these molecules which, in turn, radiate light. Light having shorter wavelength (the blue end of the visible range) gets deviated the maximum from its original direction. Hence, mountains, which are near the horizon, appear bluish when the sun is higher in the sky.
The term Nilgiris is the English equivalent of ‘Nilagiri’, Tamil for Blue Mountains. The strikingly blue colour of the hills is attributed to the clustered bloom of the mass-flowering species ‘Strobilanthes kunthiana’, called ‘Neela kurinji’ in Tamil on the hill-slopes. The funnel-shaped blossoms appear only once in 12 years and are light blue in the young plants and purplish blue in the older ones. What is surface diffusion? Surface diffusion is a general process involving the motion of adatoms (adsorbed atom lying on a crystal surface, used in surface chemistry, when describing single atoms lying on surfaces and surface roughness), molecules, and atomic clusters (adparticles) at solid material surfaces. Tunnelling diffusion is a particularly interesting example of an unconventional mechanism wherein hydrogen has been shown to diffuse on clean metal surfaces via the quantum tunnelling effect. What is a flophouse? A flophouse is a place of cheap lodging. It is normally an apartment where some occupants pay rent while others are unemployed and do nothing with their lives except party and abuse drugs. They generally share bathroom facilities and reside in very cramped quarters. The people who use these places are often called transients, although some people stay in them for years. They are just a step above being homeless. Quarters in flophouses are very small and may resemble office cubicles more than a regular hotel room. In the past, flophouses were called working men’s hotels and were rather dirty. Some cities that have flophouses in abundance become well known in their own right such as the Bowery in New York. What are ground antbirds? Ground antbirds are tropical birds belonging to the family Formicariidae. They follow army ants and feed on insects, frogs, and lizards disturbed by the ants. They are native to South America.
What is the difference between soybean and moong bean sprouts? Moong bean sprouts are the young shoots of moong beans used as a vegetable. Soybean is rich in oil and protein, as compared to moong bean sprouts. SECOND THOUGHTS How are points in a stock exchange calculated? Nifty is actually an index of 50, not 100, stocks. Also, sensex is calculated on free-float market cap only i.e. shares held by the public and not by promoters. But, Nifty is calculated by total market capitalisation. Hence, shares like ONGC where the promoter holding is large gets very little weight in the sensex as compared to the Nifty.

What does a hypermiler do? Hypermilers are those who try to extract every bit of mileage from their cars by trying out various techniques like coasting when it's possible, at times even switching off the engine, not switching on the air-conditioner, etc. The term originated in hybrid driving clubs. Some radical techniques are employed by hypermilers, which are called renegades. They use extreme techniques that may even compromise their security. What is the Grettis Saga? The Grettis Saga is one of the finest Icelandic family sagas, which details the life of Grettis Asmundarson, an Icelandic warrior who became an outlaw. It was written in the 13th and early 14th century. Well-born, brave but troubleprone Grettis, at 14, kills a man in a quarrel and is outlawed. He spends these years in Norway performing many brave deeds. On his return to Iceland, he saves people from the malicious ghost of Glam. The dying fiend imposes a curse on him, predicting that he will grow afraid of the dark. Grettis accidentally kills the chieftain's son and is outlawed again. Grettis is pursued by kinsmen of men he has wronged and by other outlaws for the price on his head. At last, his enemies overwhelm him with the aid of witchcraft. His brother avenges his death. The saga's theme can be summed up thus: good gifts and good luck are often worlds apart. What is the windfall tax? The windfall tax is what's imposed on windfall gains, an abnormal increase in the profits of any organization or company in the normal course of its business due to certain circumstances. A good example would be the recent increase in the price of oil over the world. In this case, the oil exploration and production (E&P) companies will make huge gains if they sell oil to local refining companies at international prices, which are high. Such a gain is due to circumstances favouring E&P companies and not due to their cost-cutting or other efficient operations. These are windfall gains and the tax on such gains is called windfall tax. What is unique about the Hangzhou Bay Bridge? Hangzhou Bay Bridge is a bridge across Hangzhou Bay off the eastern coast of China. It links the municipalities of Shanghai and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. It's the longest trans-oceanic bridge in the world although it does not have the longest cable-stayed main span. The bridge is 36 km long with six expressway lanes in two directions. The construction started on June 8, 2003 and was completed on June 14, 2007. It is not open for public transportation but is only being used for test and evaluation purpose. Why is the bucket seat in automobiles called so? According to some sources, the word bucket comes from the French word ‘baquet’ which means cockpit. A bucket seat is much more comfortable, especially for long journeys. Bucket seats came into use after World War II in small cars due to the lack of seating room for a third passenger on account of the presence of a floor-mounted gear handle. — Jitin Sachdeva, by e-mail What is Pareto’s (80-20) rule of automation? Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian engineer-sociologist who, in the 19th century, studied the number of people in various income classes and represented his findings in diagrams. His important conclusion was that 80% of the total wealth in the world is owned by 20% of people and that 20% of wealth is owned by 80% of people. A similar pattern is observed in many other problem areas where number of causes contribute to a particular problem. In other words, 20% of the causes contribute to 80% of the problem. The specific Pareto’s (80-20) rule for automation is, however, unheard of. What is parthenocarpy? The term parthenocarpy originates from the Greek words ‘parthenos’ meaning virgin and ‘karpos’ meaning fruit. It refers to the production and development of seedless fruits. It has become increasingly important because: 1. Seeds are irritants when eating fruits. 2. Processing fruits requires removal of seeds; hence seedless fruits are desired. Parthenocarpy is of two types. Vegetative parthenocarpy: when seedless fruits develop even without stimulus of pollination, e.g. pear. Stimulative parthenocarpy is when pollination is required without the actual process of fertilisation, e.g. grapes. What is special about the Garden City of Falkenberg? The Garden City of Falkenberg is a housing estate in Berlin, Germany designed and built by the celebrated German architect and town planner Bruno Taut (1880-1938). In designing the complex, Taut applied the garden city concept he learnt from England. The most striking aspect of this architecture is its use of colour: each part of a building bears a different, contrasting colour with respect to the other parts, and all the parts together produce a harmonious and pleasing effect. Falkenberg is also the name of an important town in the Halland county on the west coast of Sweden. It is situated at the mouth of the river Atran. The town is wellknown for its food and beverage industry, and has several beaches and lakes which form its major tourist attraction.
What does bloatware refer to? Bloatware, also called junkware, adware and demoware, refers to pre-installed software and trial software that come with Windows computers. While it’s a ploy to get consumers to buy the software, most users regard it as junk and get confused by various icons or toolbars that pop up on their computers. Bloatware can also clog up the system and slow it down. What is the origin of the term horse trading ? The term horse trading, which came into usage around 1820, owes its origin to the notorious shrewdness of horse traders who bought and sold horses. As per Macmillan English Dictionary, it means difficult and sometimes dishonest discussions between people who are trying to reach an agreement. In political parlance, it implies any long drawn-out negotiation characterised by hard bargaining and compromises. It frequently takes place in democratic institutions like legislative bodies when a parliamentarian or legislator supports some Bill or trust vote in exchange for sup port for one of his initiatives for another Bill or legislation.What are sciophytes? Sciophytes are shade-loving trees or plants. These plants have larger photosynthetic units than sun plants or heliophytes. Sciophytes are also known as photophobous plants and they reach their saturation level in only 20% sunlight. Shade-plants essentially follow strategies of optimum use of available energy and conservation of energy. Adaptation to achieve these strategic goals include thinner leaves with a relatively higher chlorophyll content per unit leaf volume; lens-shaped epidermal cells that focus incoming light into and within the mesophyll; a red-cell layer that reflects outgoing light back into the mesophyll, and greater allocation of available energy to defencemechanisms against herbivory. What is moribund capitalism? It’s a concept introduced by Vladimir Lenin, who wrote that when capitalism becomes imperialistic, it is moribund capitalism. He describes the height of imperialist capitalism as ‘‘ripe and rotten-ripe capitalism’’ which will eventually collapse and make way for socialism. The concept was mentioned in his 1916 book ‘Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism’. Who is Hugronaphor? Hugronaphor is a minor Nubian king of Upper Egypt, who ruled from 205 BC to 186 BC. He suc cessfully rebelled against the then king Ptolemy IV in 205 BC and ruled a larger part of Egypt for 19 years and was succeeded by Ankhmakis. What is a chromophore? A chromophore is a group of atoms and electrons (or moiety) i.e. part of organic molecules responsible for its colour. It is an extended delocalised systems of electrons in a compound which gives its colour e.g. chlorophyll’s porphin ring, or an azo dyes benzene ring linked to N=N double bond. When a molecule absorbs certain wavelengths of visible light and transmits or reflects others, the molecule has a colour. A chromophore is a region in a molecule where the energy difference between two different molecular orbitals fall within the range of the visible spectrum. Visible light that hits the chromophore can thus be absorbed by exciting an electron from its ground state into an excited state. In biological molecules that serve to capture or detect light energy, the chromophore is a moiety that causes a conformational change of the molecule when hit by light. In the stock market, what is the concept of grey marketing? Grey marketing is a trade of something legal but through unofficial and unauthorised distribution channels. In contrast, black marketing is a trade of illegal goods or services through illegal channels. The grey market of goods is to import and sell products through market channels which are not authorised by the manufacturers. It occurs when the prices of a product differs significantly in different countries. The grey market of securities markets and IPO (Initial Public Offer) is to buy and sell the shares to be allotted in the future. Once the trading is done in the grey market at a stipulated price, the seller must deliver the sold number of shares to the buyer on the day of listing to honour the commitment. What is unique about the production ‘Dralion’? ‘Dralion’ is an entertainment show produced by Montreal-based company Cirque du Soleil Inc, well known for its circus-based dance dramas. The show ‘Dralion’, which has already toured different parts of the world, is currently located at Sydney and been seen by seven million people. It’s main theme is to project human life as an integral part of nature, and, specifically, to celebrate the harmony between human life and the four natural elements — earth, air, water, and fire. The theme is inspired by Chinese philosophy. It’s dances combine the traditional acts of Chinese circus and the gravitydefying acrobatics unique to Cirque du Soleil. The show presents a highly imaginative and magical perspective. The title is a combination of the two symbols of East and West — the dragon and the lion. What does guyliner refer to? Guyliner is a kohl pencil for men. It is getting popular among men in some western countries after celebrities started sporting it. The most famous examples are Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 3, and Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of the band Green Day. What is the origin of the phrase ‘to gild the lily’? William Shakespeare used a similar expression in his play King John: ‘To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess’. Over the years, the phrase got shortened to just ‘gild the lily’. Gild means to cover with a thin layer of gold. Why did Shakespeare refer to the lily? Because it is a beautiful flower, and covering it with gold to make it more beautiful would be unnecessary. So, the phrase came to mean to spoil something which is already beautiful by adding something extra. What is a SCRAM shutdown and why it is called so? SCRAM shutdown is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor by inserting a large number of negative reactions into the system. It is derived from the World War II usage of the acronym for ‘Safety control rod axe man’, referring to emergency situations wherein a rope was cut to stop operations urgently and to limit the damages arising out of continuance of such operations. The dictionary meaning of scram is to leave a place very quickly so that one is not caught. Why is a transformer core always cubical in shape? It is not true that cores are always cubical. Current Transformers (CTs) and Potential Transformers (PTs) have ring-type cores. Power transformers have cubical cores. The ideal transformer is to have all the magnetic flux produced by one winding linking the other. This is not attained in practical transformers. Flux that does not link both windings is called leakage flux and has the effect of adding an inductance that produces a voltage drop when there is a current. Leakage is affected by the shape of the core and by the arrangement of the windings.To reduce leakage, the core must be compact and the windings close together.
The cores used in the transformer are generally made up of laminated silicon steel with high permeability (to minimise eddy current losses). They are rectangular in shape due to many reasons: i) Their winding requires lesser complexity and, hence, equipment is cheaper; ii) They are robust and need very less maintenance; iii) There is a very small inflow of current when switched on and iv) Central fixing is easy. Due to these reasons, even though toroidal core is better for smaller constructions and due to lesser external magnetic field interference, rectangular cores are preferred. What are BTL advertisements? Below-the-line (BTL) advertisements refer to a marketing technique in which non-conventional, non-media route is taken to promote a product or service. Usually, it has a limited target group. It includes promoting through e- mail, SMSes, ringtones, direct mail, MMS, freebies, quizzes on a particular product, free interactive sessions explaining a product, etc. It is different from above-the-line (ATL) ads which take the media route of TV, radio, podcasts, cinema, banners, newspapers, etc. What is laser photonics fabrication? Laser photonics fabrication is a branch of physics which deals with the manufacture of devices which deploy lasers to transmit, gather and process information. Typical usage would be in optic fiber cables to move data over long distances and sensors to measure temperature in engineering structures. It is a highly specialised area of study and scientists hope to use this to develop high-speed communication devices. What is acrolein? Acrolein, CH2=CH-CHO, is a chemical compound. Its IUPAC name is 2-propenal, and it is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde. It was used as a chemical weapon during World War I. It is, however, not outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Acrolein is a suspected human carcinogen. In October 2006, researchers found connections between acrolein in the smoke from tobacco cigarettes and the risk of lung cancer. What is unique about Bagdad beach? Bagdad beach is located on the gulf coast of Mexico, in the eastern state of Tamulipas, near the mouth of the river Rio Grande. Although an isolated area today, the place played an important role during the Civil War of America which took place in the early 1860s. The town of Bagdad established around the beach in 1848 was an insignificant port till the beginnings of the civil war in the US. When Lincoln blocked US ports for use by the defiant southern states, which formed into the Confederacy, the latter turned to the neutral Mexico for the use of the seaport at Bagdad for their cotton exports. Because of this, the town of Bagdad boomed and expanded during the Civil War. However, with the defeat of the Confederacy and the subsequent ending of the Civil War, Bagdad too declined. Its port was finally closed when the area was hit by a cyclone in 1889. Now, there are no traces of the port town but the beach there is used for recreation and fishing. It is also the centre of an important festival called the Festival of the Sea.
Who invented shorthand? Shorthand is believed to have been invented by Tiro, a slave of Marcus Tullius Cicero, to keep pace with the speeches his master delivered. Cicero (January 3, 106 BC - December 7, 43 BC), a statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and philosopher, is considered one of Rome’s greatest orators. His political speeches are well known, and he delivered these in an elaborate and flowery style, which came to be known as the Ciceronian rhetorical style. Tiro perfected a system of Latin shorthand, which served to preserve the speeches. The Tironian notes consisted of word stem abbreviations (notae) and word ending abbreviations (titulae). The original Tironian notes consisted of about 4,000 signs but the number gradually increased to 13,000. After Cicero’s death, Tiro published many of Cicero’s speeches. He is also credited with writing a biography of Cicero, a book on grammar and a book on philosophical questions. What is a lame duck session of Parliament? A lame duck session is conducted after election of new members but before they are installed. Hence, in such a session participants vote for the last time as elected officials because of their failure to get reelected or because they are retiring voluntarily. In the US, it is a term for a person or legislature that continues to hold office after losing an election. The practice in the US of holding presidential elections in November with the winner taking office only in January means that often there are lame duck Presidents. What is the Coriolis Force? The Coriolis Force is an important element in meteorology. It acts on the atmosphere and is caused by the rotation of Earth, which rotates on its own axis from west to east with an angular velocity of 15 degree per hour and gives rise to an apparent force called Coriolis Force or geostrophic force. It acts at right angles to the wind vector, to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. It was first postulated by a scientist named Coriolis. What are T-rays? T-rays stand for terahertz radiation. It is used to scan airline passengers for explosives and illegal drugs. The rays are particularly effective, as they can see through clothing, paper, leather, plastic, wood, and ceramics. They don’t penetrate as well as xrays, but they also don’t damage living tissue. They can read spectroscopic signatures, detecting the difference between, say, hair gel and an explosive. What is the Scopes Trial? The Scopes Trial brought about a prosecution in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. The prosecution was of a high school biology teacher who taught the theory of evolution. The teacher, John T Scopes, was accused of having violated the Butler Act, a Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools because it contradicted the account of creation in the Bible. The press dubbed it the Monkey Trial because, according to popular belief, evolution meant that humans had evolved from monkeys. The defence argued for the scientific validity of evolution and against the constitutionality of the Butler Act, but it did not deny that Scopes had broken the law. He was convicted and fined $100, but the verdict was later reversed on technical grounds by the Supreme Court. The Butler Act remained on the books until 1967. When was the kite invented? The exact date and origin of the kite is not known but it is believed that kites were flown in China more than 2,000 years ago. The earliest written account of kite flying was in about 200 BC when the Chinese general Han Hsin of the Han dynasty flew a kite over the walls of a city he was attacking to measure how far his army would have to tunnel to reach past the defences. Calculating this distance correctly, his troops reached the inside of the city, surprised their enemy, and were victorious. Kite flying was eventually spread by traders from China to Korea, and across Asia to India. Which country has the highest male-female ratio? The male-female ratio is the proportion of males to females in a given population at a specified stage in life, e.g. at conception, at birth and at any chosen stage between birth and death. This is usually expressed as the number of males per 100 females. Qatar has the highest ratio with 187 males to 100 females. However, the ratio for the entire world population is 101 males to 100 females. Qatar’s high male-female ratio is mainly on account of large immigrant labourers staying without families. In Qatar, the ratio goes up to 284 males to 100 females for the population above 65 years on account of aging male immigrants and comparatively higher average mortality rate for females. Why is earthing necessary for electrical appliances? As a safety factor, earthing is essential and mandatory. It is an electrical connection between the exposed metallic parts of an electrical appliance or installation and the earth, regarded to have zero potential. Proper earthing provides an alternative and easy path for leakage or faulty current to flow. It ensures that any exposed conductive part of the appliance does not reach a dangerous level of potential or voltage that endangers the life of the user. A proper earthing system should have least electrical resistance, good corrosion resistance and ability of dissipating high faulty current. What is ethical fashion? Ethical fashion involves taking into consideration the various people involved in making a piece of clothing. For instance, even as one buys a pair of jeans, not many think about the farmers who grew the cotton that went into creating the material, the workers (mainly from poor countries) who helped sew the jeans, the various chemicals used on it and the economics of production. Ethical fashion involves creating clothes that don’t adversely impact people or the environment. What is the Fenian Movement? The Fenian Movement or Fenians is a secret revolutionary society organised in 1858 in Ireland and the United States to achieve Irish independence from England by force. It was known variously as the Fenian Brotherhood, Fenian Society, Irish Republican Brotherhood, and Irish-American Brotherhood. The famine of the 1840s brought to a crisis Irish discontent with English rule, culminating in the abortive Young Ireland uprising of 1848, led by William Smith O’Brien. What is Project Blue Beam? Project Blue Beam is a conspiracy theory about a supposed project whose purpose is to create an artificial Second Coming, in order to control people. As per the alleged theory, the new world order’s purpose is: 1. To abolish all Christian and traditional religions in order to replace them with a one-world religion based on the cult of man. 2. To abolish all national identities and national pride in order to establish a world identity and a world pride. 3. To abolish the family as known today in order to replace them with individuals all working for the glory of the new one-world government. 4. To destroy all individual artistic and scientific creativity to implement a one-world government, one-mindset. Which is the earliest social networking site? The earliest social networking site was classmates.com which was established in 1995. It introduced the concept of user profiles and of short messages sent and received by friends on the website. The basic purpose was to keep in touch with old friends. Sixdegrees.com which came in 1997 is considered to be the first social networking website to have all features in one complete package. What is the Priory of Sion? The Priory of Sion is a very obscure group whose presence has not been established with con crete evidence. Papers relating to their existence were found in 1975 at Paris Bibliothhque Nationale which named da Vinci and Isaac Newton among its Grand Mas ters. According to the most pop ular theory, it is believed that the priory started out as an administrative wing of the Knights Templar. They had some thing (though it is not very clear what that is) that gave them immense power and authority even over the Pope. The most accepted answer among scholars is that they had documents written in the years Christ walked the Earth, which gave evidence that he was married to Mary Magdalene. What is Dragon’s Triangle? The Dragon’s Triangle is at the polar opposite of the Bermuda Triangle. Both triangles are located at 35 degrees west and 35 degrees east latitude and longitude which means if you were to start out at the Bermu da Triangle and travel straight through the centre of the Earth you would come out at the Drag on’s Triangle. This dangerous ocean triangle has reportedly claimed hundreds, if not thou sands, of ships, airplanes, and submarines since it was first written about in the 13th centu ry. This is a result of bad ocean ic conditions or maybe some thing more mysterious. What is bear bile farming? The Chinese practice of extract ing bile from captive bears for use in traditional medicinal products is called bile farming. Many animal welfare groups decry this as inhumane. Bear bile has been prized in the traditional Chinese medicine community for thousands of years. It’s got a reputation as being a sort of wonder drug, and its active ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), is believed to cure a number of ailments — everything from cardiac illness to impotence, according to the Humane Society of the United States. As an unhappy conse quence, more than 10,000 bears are currently held in captivity on bear bile farms in China today according to the Animals Asia Foundation. What is guano? Guano is accumulated dung or excrement and remains of seabirds, bats and seals found along certain coastal areas and caves. It’s found mainly on the coastal islands of Peru, Africa Chile and the West Indies. It con tains about 6% phosphorus, 9% nitrogen, 2% potassium and moisture. Guano is found mixed with feathers and bones and used mainly as fertiliser. Bird guano is comparatively a better fertiliser than bat guano found in caves and seal guano, accumulated on islands off north-western Peru. Since the global reserves of phosphorus will only last another 30 years, the use of guano as a fertiliser is gaining importance. SECOND THOUGHTS What is Coriolis Force? Coriolis Force occurs whenever a rotating body moves along a curved path. Hence, two rotary movements (rotation on its axis and precession about a line) are necessary conditions. Whenever a vehicle in motion takes a turn, the wheels rotate about their axis and the entire vehicle, including the wheels, goes round the bend, resulting in Coriolis Force. This is the most common occurrence of this force. The example in Open Space (Aug 10) is also correct.
What is xeriscaping? The word is derived from the Greek word xeros, meaning dry. It refers to landscaping which doesn’t require additional water. It uses plants which are suited to the local climate, and practitioners ensure that water doesn’t evaporate or run off. Xeriscaping is also referred to as water-conserving landscapes, zeroscaping, drought-tolerant landscaping, and smartscaping. It was developed by the water department of Denver, Colorado. What is Maniole? Maniole is a place in Zaire, currently called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The average annual temperature here is about 250 degrees Celsius. From 1967, its currency is Zaore. What is the difference between creepers and climbers? Both creepers and climbers are weak-stemmed plants and, hence, cannot grow erect without support. The difference is that creepers spread horizontally along the soil. At the nodal regions — where leaves grow — they produce fibrelike roots arising from the base of the stem, which get fixed and grow further. Such weak stems in creepers are called prostrate stems. Climbers take the support of an object for climbing. Some climbers simply twine around certain supporting plants in a spiral manner; some of them produce hooks to climb, and some others produce special roots serving as holdfasts to climb. What is the ‘plum pudding’ model of an atom? The ‘plum pudding’ model of the atom was proposed by JJ Thomson, who had also discovered the electron. It was put forth before the discovery of the nucleus. According to this model, the atom is a sphere of positive charge, and negatively charged electrons are embedded in it to balance the total positive charge. The electrons are like plums in a pudding. However, this model was discarded when Rutherford performed the famous alpha particle scattering experiment and put forth his model of the atom, which was similar to our solar system, with electrons revolving around a positively charged, dense nucleus. What is the Latur pattern of study? The Latur pattern of study involves continuous and methodical practice of model question papers months before the board exams. This method was devised by principal Aniruddha Jadhav of Rajarishi Shahu College in Latur, who felt this mechanical methodology of continuous study helps students in providing point-topoint answers to questions which could be expected in the examination. This methodology, however, has been lambasted by educationists who consider it a tool to gain temporary advantage that does not aim to prepare them for advanced learning. Who is the youngest Olympic gold medallist? The youngest individual Olympic gold medallist is Marjorie Gestring of the United States. She was 13 years and 268 days old when she won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, in the 3-metre springboard diving competition. As the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were not held due to World War II, she didn’t get a chance to defend her title. An interesting aspect about her victory is that it was watched by Adolf Hitler. Marjorie Gestring was also included in the International Swimming Hall of Fame and a member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. She came back in the 1948 London Olympics. Danish swimmer Inge Sorensen won the bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke, aged 12 years, 24 days. She remains the youngest-ever competitor to win an Olympic medal in an individual event. What is molecular phylogeny? In Greek, phyle means tribe, and genesis means birth. Molecular phylogeny is the attempt to reconstruct the lineage of species through study of amino acid sequences in fossils. The result of a molecular phylogenetic analysis is expressed in a phylogenetic tree
Who was King Frederic II? Frederic II (1712-1786) was the king of Prussia during 1740-1786. Dur ing his reign, Prussia prospered greatly and doubled in area. For his military prowess and welfare orientation, he was affectionately called Frederic the Great by his countrymen. He was the son of Frederic William-I and Sophie Dorothia von Hannover. As a crown prince, he disliked military affairs, but as soon as he became the king, he exhibited great mili tary genius by waging and win ning many wars against neigh bouring countries like Austria Russia, and France. Declaring him self to be the first servant of his people, he achieved remarkable economic and social development of Prussia, by taking several pro gressive and reformatory steps He believed in enlightened abso lutism, showed great religious tol erance, and fostered the arts, sci ences, and education. Besides be ing a powerful and benevolent monarch, he was deeply interest ed in philosophy and music. He au thored books on a variety of sub jects, and befriended intellectuals like Voltaire, D’Alembert, and La grange. As he was childless, he chose his nephew, Frederic William-II, as his successor. What is the Giri Raja chicken? It’s a breed of chicken developed in Bangalore that can be used to produce both meat and eggs. Typ ically, poultry is reared specifical ly for one of these purposes. Ani mal-welfare experts believe that using this breed will be more hu mane, since the birds won’t devel op health problems because of in tensive breeding. Also, male lay ing birds needn’t be slaughtered since this breed can be used to produce both eggs and meat. What is the Beer Google effect? The Beer Google effect refers to the tendency to google information on someone we meet for the first time This generally happens when one consumes alcohol, and under its influence, he looks up the person on the internet. For example, I met Geeta at ABC bar for the first time and she tells me that she works for XYZ Inc. Immediately on return ing home, I beer-google her using the search string ‘Geeta XYZ Inc’ — What is the principle of a voltage stabilizer? A voltage stabilizer is an electri cal appliance used to feed constant voltage current to costly electrical gadgets like ACs and computers and protects them from damage due to voltage fluctuation. A volt age stabilizer works on the prin ciple of a transformer, where the input current is connected to pri mary windings and output is re ceived from secondary windings Whenever there is a drop in in coming voltage, it activates elec tromagnetic relays which add to more number of turns in the sec ondary winding, thus giving high er voltage which compensates for loss in output voltage due to drop in incoming voltage. When there is rise in the incoming voltage, the reverse happens, and, thus, the voltage at the output side remains almost unchanged. What is HAARP? HAARP is an acronym for the High Frequency Active Auroral Re search Program, a research ini tiative aimed at studying the effect on the performance of communi cation, navigation and surveillance systems by simulated heating of the ionosphere. It was started in 1993 and is expected to continue till 2013. It is defence oriented and funded by various US defence agen cies, including the air force and the navy. A powerful HF signal is transmitted to heat a limited area of the ionosphere for a specified time. Scientists then record the ef fects of temporarily altered con ditions through advanced instru ments. It’s been at the centre of controversies, with some organi sations claiming that the trans mission antennae may be used as weapons. What is argemone oil? Argemone oil is extracted from argemone seeds. It is mixed with sunflower oil and sesame oil to raise their quantity. Consumption of this oil leads to health disorders among children. To avoid this, we must check the contents of the cooking oil. Many oil brands mention ‘no argemone oil’ on their packs. — KM Swathi, What is switchgrass? Switchgrass, known in Botany as Panicum Virgatum L., is the peren nial tall grass found in the prairies of North America and many parts of Mexico. Its height varies from 5 ft to 12 ft, and the diameter of its stem at ground level is about 20 inches. It can grow easily even in poor-quality soil, with low re quirement of inputs like fertilis ers, and can tolerate hostile envi ronmental conditions, including floods and drought. The grass has both main roots that penetrate deep into the soil, and many tem porary fine roots, which enable it to conserve the soil in which it grows, and make the soil nutri tionally rich. Therefore, switch grass has been grown traditional ly for soil conservation and to serve as fodder. Since the 1990s, interest in this plant has increased because it generates a lot of biomass, which can be used for producing fibre ethanol, electricity, and other chemicals. Which compound is used in making bulletproof jackets? Bulletproof jackets were being manufactured with ballistic nylon material till the 1970s. In 1965 a compound — poly-para phenyleneterephthalamide — was invented with the brand name Kevlar. This is a liquid polymer which can be spun into fibre and woven into cloth. Kevlar was orig inally developed for tyres and, lat er, for ropes, gaskets and various parts of planes and boats. The ef ficacy of the material led to its us age for the manufacture of bullet proof jackets. Another product with the brand name Spectra was developed in 1989 as a competitor for Kevlar. Spectra is a polyethyl ene fibre originally developed as a sail cloth and, later, used to make stronger and lighter non-woven material for bulletproof jackets. Who invented the board game Monopoly? Charles Darrow, a US citizen, in vented Monopoly in 1931, during the Great Depression. Out of work Darrow earned a living doing part time jobs and inventing puzzles and games to sell to toy-makers With some difficulty, he sold Mo nopoly to Parker Brothers on a roy alty basis. The game sold so well that Darrow soon became a mil lionaire. The original game had properties named after streets, ho tels, etc. in Atlantic City, where Darrow lived. In India, we initial ly played with the British version containing London-based names like Old Kent Road and Piccadilly Later, an Indian version was re leased; it was called Trade and fea tured sites in Mumbai, such as Churchgate Station and Byculla. SECOND THOUGHTS What is Maniole? The average temperature in Maniole is perhaps 25 degrees Celsius (Aug 24).
Who is a wardriver? A wardriver is someone who ac cesses an unsecured wireless con nection through a PDA or laptop in a moving vehicle. It’s derived from the word wardialling from the film WarGames. Other related concepts are warbiking (accessing a wi-fi connection on a motorbike or bicy cle) and warwalking/ jogging (do ing the same while on foot). While there are several softwares to en able wardriving, they can be easily misused as well. In India, terror e mails were sent by wardrivers who accessed an unprotected wireless connection.
What is gene doping? Gene doping involves modifying an athlete’s DNA, or having him inject or inhale foreign DNA, to make him bigger, stronger and faster. It’s hard er to detect than most drugs, which makes it all the more desired by cheaters looking to prosper. It is sus pected that gene doping is already happening and is being done un ethically and with immature tech nology, thereby making it inherently dangerous. However, work is on to develop marketplace testing proce dures to detect gene doping. — Dipti Jain Mumbai What are the Cod Wars? The three Icelandic Cod Wars that took place in 1958, 1973 and 1975 were precipitated by concerns on the part of Iceland that the stocks of cod fish were being seriously depleted by over-fishing. With timber, agricul ture, fuel or mineral deposits being the few natural resources in Iceland the country relies heavily on its stocks of cod fish and the Cod Wars have been vital in protecting this industry. In 1958, the first Icelandic Cod War took place after it extend ed its fishing limits from 4 miles to 12 miles off Iceland’s coast. In 1972 Iceland further extended its limits to a 50-mile radius which prompt ed a hostile response from other na tions, not least Britain, and the sec ond war took place. An agreement was reached in 1973, when Britain agreed to limit fishing for cod to des ignated areas within the 50-mile ra dius. What further instigated the third war, apart from the expiry of the agreement made at the end of the second war, was Iceland’s move to extend the radius to 200 miles. — Sandhya Jane, New Jersey What is the Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (KH) or Friendship Highway or N35 con nects the Kashgar town in Xinjiang region in China to Havelian (Ab bottabad district) in Pakistan, which extends further to the junction of Grand Trunk (GT) Road at Hasan Abdal in Pakistan. KH is the world’ highest paved international road constructed across the Karakoram mountain range and through the Khunjerab Pass located at an alti tude of 4,877 metres. It was built by the governments of China and Pak istan between 1966 and 1986. KH has given a boost to adventure tourism by giving easier access to high mountains, five major lakes and gla ciers like Baltoro for mountaineers and adventure-seekers. KH is some times referred to as the Ninth Won der of the World because of its high altitude and difficulties encountered in construction. — V K Handa, Kolkata What is Magic Acid? Magic Acid, H2SO3F+, is one of the inorganic superacids.This extremely strong acid has a pKa of 20 and is strong enough to protonate saturat ed alkanes to form carbonium ions Magic Acid is made by mixing anti monypentafluoride (SbF55) and flu orosulphonic acid. It is considered a superacid and is called Magic Acid because of its strength. It can dis solve a wax candle, something that even sulphuric acid cannot do. What is the alphabet of genetics The alphabet of genetics consists of four letters ATC and G each repre senting the corresponding nitroge nous base, e.g., A for adenine, T for thiamine, C for cytosine and G for guanine (in case of RNA, T is re placed by U which stands for uracil) These are constituents of a nu cleotide monomer along with pen tose sugar and phosphoric acid. In the double helical structure of the DNA, the two nucleotide polymer chains are linked by H-bondings be tween these bases. These four let ters constitute all kinds of genetic codes in the entire biological world What is Enneagram Personality The term enneagram is derived from two Greek words, ennea (nine) and grammos (something written or drawn). The Enneagram is a nine pointed figure inscribed in a circle The meaning of the symbol, to gether with the personality types or ganised around the nine points, con veys a system of knowledge about nine distinct but interrelated per sonality types, or nine ways of see ing and experiencing the world. The enneagram of personality is gener ally presented as a psycho-spiritual system for mapping the nine possi ble personalities, like nine facets of a stone that develop through the nat ural growth of the human psyche.
What is the Bossa Nova? The Bossa Nova is a type of Brazil ian music system, innovated in 1958 The system merges the samba rhythms, typical to traditional Brazilian dance music, with the melodies of jazz. Catching the fan cy of college students, this system of fusion reached the peak of pop ularity between 1958 and 1963. The system contributed a lot of popular songs to the standard set of jazz compositions of that era. Later Bossa Nova underwent many mod ifications and enhancements giving rise to several variants. In Europe electronic music was incorporated in Bossa Nova, producing a new musical system called Bossa Elec trica. The term Bossa Nova in Por tuguese language means ‘new way’
What is a FitBit tracker? It’s a tiny fitness gadget which constantly monitors if you’re eat ing right, exercising enough and sleeping adequately. The ration ale is to motivate people to lead healthy lifestyle. The FitBit track er is wireless and functions with the help of a motion sensor called accelerometer, which keeps tabs on movements. When a person walks by a wireless base station the information thus collected is uploaded on to the website fitbit.com. Do magnets work in space? A magnet works on the principal of electromagnetism. Magnetic force is independent of the Earth’ gravitational force. Therefore, magnet will work in space. As the Earth is also a big magnet with two poles (south and north) it too exerts a force on other astronomical bodies. What is an atomic pile? The atomic pile is an early model of a nuclear reactor whose core consisted of layers of graphite blocks interspersed with urani um, designed to create a sustained fission reaction. The first atomic pile was created by Ernico Fermi and his colleagues at Columbia in 1942. It consisted of a stack of pure graphite bricks surrounding a neutron source. This first step enabled the examination of graphite’s effect on neutron ac tivity: absorption and re-emission quantities, fissions. Later, they added uranium pieces in some of the graphite bricks. What is Chi-x? Chi-x Europe Limited has received recognition as a Multilateral Trad ing Facility (MTF) from the Fi nancial Services Authority (FSA and is authorized to provide serv ices to firms throughout Europe Established in response to clients demands for a faster, cheaper and higher capacity alternative to trading, Chi-x is the first order driven, pan-European matching engine and central limit order book. It is up to 10 times faster and cheaper than trading equities on traditional equity exchanges. Live trading in European equities start ed on March 30, 2007.Which is the strongest indus trial glue? There are many adhesives and they are used depending on the application and material to be bonded. The most common one is e-600 series, a high-performance elastomeric adhesive, which bonds a broad range of materials. What is sweet crude oil? If the percentage of sulphur is less than 0.5% in petroleum, then it is called sweet crude oil. It came to be called ‘sweet’ because the low level of sulphur gives the oil mildly sweet taste and pleasant smell. It also contains a small amount of hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide. Who invented the pen drive? A pen drive is another term for USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drive and is basically a data stor age device. The pen drive was in vented in 1998 by IBM, with the intention of replacing the floppy drive in its ThinkPad line of prod ucts. The first flash drive was manufactured by M-systems un der contract with IBM and was called the disgo. The disgo came in various sizes: 8 MB, 16 MB, 32 MB and 64 MB. Following the launch of disgo, a number of pen drives of different sizes, types and brands came into the market. To day, pen drives are used in a range of devices such as mobile phones video-game consoles and digital music players. —
What is confessionalism? The word confessionalism occurs in the fields of religion, politics and poetry, each having a differ ent meaning. In religion, particu larly in Christianity, confession alism refers to the belief that a tru ly religious person should accept the entire teaching of the religion both its values and rituals. It lays a lot of emphasis on religious dogma and does not allow for alternative interpretations of the religion. Non-confessionalists, on the other hand, believe that shared values and religious spirit and religious experience are more important than ritual and dogma of a religion. In the field of politics, it signifies a system of government which apportions seats in its legislature and various government jobs to different groups of people strictly based on demographic composition. For instance, the government of Lebanon is based on the confessionalist model. In poetry, confessionalism refers to a movement, which became popular in the 1950s and ’60s. In this form of poetry, the work focuses on intimate details of the poet’s life, however unpleasant they may be.
What is the Snow White Project? Installation artist Catherine Bay obviously feels rather strongly about consumerism. In her recent work, the Snow White Project, currently on display in New York, she makes a grand statement against it by showcasing several avatars of the fairytale character Snow White. They are clad in various costumes and hold placards proclaiming ‘I Am An Everyday Consumer Product’ and ‘My Life Depends On People Wanting To Use Me’. It’s a tree, and as the name implies, an ironwood is an extremely dense hardwood. The ironwood tree is an evergreen and grows only in the Sonoran Desert, and can live for over 1,000 years. Its wood is very hard and very heavy, and doesn’t rot easily. The terms Bimmer, Beemer or Beamer refer to BMW vehicles. However, Bimmer is the correct term for BMW cars while Beemer and Beamer are used for BMW motorcycles. Why all these different terms? BMW started big in motorcycles and was very active in motorsports then. One of its biggest competitors at the racing track was BSA, which was also a big name in motorcycles. Since BSA motorcycles were known as Beesers, BMW fans decided to call BMW motorcycles Beemers. Over time, different people (who couldn’t spell very well and didn’t take the trouble to find out) started to use the term Beamer. BMW went on to design and manufacture cars which subsequently outshone their two-wheeler cousins. The BMW car enthusiasts wanted a new term to differentiate cars from motorcycles and coined the term Bimmer. To understand the inert pair effect, we need to understand the periodic table. There are some inherent properties of elements in the table. The inert pair effect is nothing but the extra stability concept. Generally p-block elements belonging to 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, etc. show variable valency. For example, Sn element of group 4A shows +4 and +2 oxidation state. The higher oxidation state is called the group number oxidation state and +2 oxidation state is called the lower oxidation state which is equal to Group-2. Consider the configuration, if the electrons are lost from ns and np level, then group oxidation state of +4 is obtained while np electrons are only lost then +2 oxidation state is obtained due to its extra stability of ns electrons which are called inert pair. The effect is the inert pair effect. The term AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode/ Device/ Display. An Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED), also Light Emitting Polymer (LEP) and Organic Electro Luminescence (OEL), is any Light Emitting Diode (LED) whose emissive electroluminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds. The layer usually contains a polymer substance that allows suitable organic compounds to be deposited. They are deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple printing process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colours. Yes, an electric field affects plant growth. In the presence of an electric field, the height of the stem and the length of the roots are greater than those without an electric field. The change in growth rate depends on electric field, temperature and humidity. Experiments show that if an electric field intensity of 25 kv/m is applied and temperature and humidity are controlled at 28 degree Celsius and 65% respectively, then the height of the stem increases by 24% and length of roots by 33%. Air hunger is the urge to breathe, which is caused by the detection of high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood by sensors in the carotid sinus. It is one of the body’s homeostatic mechanisms to ensure proper oxygenation. Air hunger may be caused by insufficient pulmonary minute ventilation, a sustained breath-hold constriction of the alveoli of the lungs, as in asthma, or high ambient levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Air hunger can be very distressing and triggers strong reactions to restore breathing. Air hunger is caused due to excess of carbon dioxide rather than lack of oxygen. Alfred Aquilizan and his wife Isabel specialise in installation art works comprising articles of dayto-day use and ownership. Their work Address’ is made of articles such as books, clothes, bedsheets, blankets, CD/ DVDs, PC keyboards, toys, printers, fake flowers, etc.
What are wave snakes? Wave snakes are long red tubes that help convert the motion of waves into electricity and form part of a commercial wave power station. It was developed by a British company and took 10 years to create. Currently, the pilot wavepower project has been launched off the coast of a Portuguese town called Agucadoura, and aims to power 1,000 families homes in its initial phase. What is summer ploughing? Ploughing one month in advance i.e. in the month of May for kharif crops is known as summer ploughing. There are the three usual harvests known as the kharif or autumn (June-September), the rabi or spring (October-March) and zaid or extra harvest (March-June). Summer ploughing helps to kill weeds, hibernating insects and diseasecausing organisms by exposing them to the summer heat. Summer ploughing of groundnut is always advantageous. What is the God Particle? God Particle is the nickname given to Higgs boson particle, so far a hypothetical sub-atomic particle believed to impart mass to the atom and, eventually, to all matter in the universe. The particle has come to the limelight in the wake of the ongoing Big Bang experiment in the Large Hadron Collider at Geneva, which expects to verify the very existence of the particle for the first time. What is Munchausen Syndrome? Munchausen Syndrome, also known as hospital addiction, factitious illness, afflicting those referred to as professional patients, is a repeated fabrication of clinically convincing simulations of disease for the purpose of gaining medical attention. It refers to patients who wander from hospital to hospital feigning acute medical or surgical illness and giving false and fanciful information about their medical and social background for no apparent reason other than to gain attention. The cause is unclear, prognosis poor and treatment often unsuccessful in these psychiatric patients. What is Einstein's Rule of 72? The rule of 72 is a rule of thumb (credited to Albert Einstein) that in vestors use to approximate the time it takes for money to double at a giv en rate of return. It states that if you divide the number 72 by any given rate of return, the answer you get is the time it takes for money to double at that given interest rate (assuming you can get the same rate each year and it is compounded an nually). For example, if you earn 10% on your money it would dou ble in 7.2 years (72 divided by 10 = 7.2). The value 72 is a convenient choice of numerator, since it has many small divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 12. It provides a good approxi mation for annual compounding, and for compounding at typical rates (from 6% to 10%). The ap proximations are less accurate at higher interest rates.
What is concentrated solar power plant? Concentrated solar power plants (CSPs) generate electricity by using the sun’s energy to convert water into steam to run turbines con nected to generators. Such a power plant consists of large sun-tracking mirrors (heliostats) to focus sun light on a receiver at the top of a tower. The receiver uses solar pow er to heat up a heat-transfer fluid to generate steam which, in turn, is used in a convection turbine gen erator to produce electricity. Such plants are similar to those of coal or gas-based plants. Nowadays molten ammonium nitrate salt is used as a heat-transfer fluid, which can store heat inside it. Hence, these plants can even work at night or on a cloudy day.
Which is the first company to use barcode for sales? On June 26, 1974, a 10-pack Wrigley’s chewing gum was the first product logged in a grocery store by a bar coding system using the modern universal product code. Later that year, the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council became the UPCC which regulates the issue and use of all universal product codes. At the same time, companies pursued the use of barcodes in industrial and other applications. In 1971, the Plessey Company developed a bar code scanner and tracking system for library book checkout. The Cod abar barcode was developed by Monarch Marking Systems around the same time for blood collection and book tracking applications. In termec developed Code 3 of 9, a bar code that could store alphanumer ic information. All other codes pri or to this could only represent nu meric digits.What does Acropolis mean? Acropolis is a Greek term and refers generally to an elevated area in the centre of a city, acting as its focal point for cultural, religious and civil activities. In particular the term refers to the rocky hill at the centre of Athens, Greece, on which are located several ancient monuments, including the famous Parthenon, the temple for the God dess Athena constructed around 5th century BC. In Greek, ‘acro means high and ‘polis’ means city All ancient cities were supposed to have been first set up on elevat ed areas, primarily for defence Even after a city grew around the initial elevated area, the elevated area continued to act as a nucleus for the city’s growth and culture By generalization, the term acrop olis is now used to refer to a central complex of structures in some cities. What is round tripping? Round tripping has several meanings. In finance, it refers to money that leaves the country, often routed to the diaspora, making its way back to the country in the form of foreign direct investment. It also refers to a company that sells an unused asset to another company, while agreeing to buy it or a similar asset at the same price. This is also referred to as Lazy Susans. In technology, round tripping refers to the repeated conversion of a document from one format to another -- for instance, a rich text format to a doc format and so on. This sort of round tripping may affect the quality of the content. What is creative capitalism? It is a new idea that aims to achieve both the goals of generating profits as well as solving the problem of inequality between the rich and poor by using market forces in a better way. Several companies around the world have adopted this concept by integrating philanthropic motives with product development, and treating the poor as a new class of customers. It involves a systematic approach to research, product design, distribution, partnership and profit models to help this new class of customers which businesses have traditionally ignored. What is the Kit-Cat Club? Kit-Cat Club was London's political and literary club, active between 1700 and 1720. The four dozen members included leading Whig politicians and London's best young writers. Among them were Charles Seymour, the sixth duke of Somerset; Sir Robert Walpole; Thomas Pelham-Holles, the duke of Newcastle; William Congreve; Joseph Addison; Sir Richard Steele; and Sir Godfrey Kneller, who did portraits of the members. The club was the centre of opposition during Queen Anne's Tory ministry (1710-14). What is the CAPTCHA Project? CAPTCHA refers to a category of information technologies used to ensure that a human rather than a computer is making an online transaction. It is an acronym for Completely Automated Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart and patented by Carnegie Mellon University. It is a challengeresponse test used in computing to determine whether the user is a human. A typical CAPTCHA requires a user to type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appear on the user's screen. The origin of the CAPTCHAs was to counter the characteristics of software agents (bots) that automatically fill up web forms as individual users. What is a false vacuum? False vacuum and true vacuum form a metastable system. Metastable state is a state which does not change with time but is susceptible to falling into lower-energy states with only slight interaction. It is analogous to being at the bottom of a small valley when there is a deeper valley close by. True vacuum is the name applied to a condition of the true lowest energy state of the vacuum. False vacuum refers to a condition with an elevated vacuum energy density. The two conditions are separated by some energy barrier — which is why they form a metastable system. If the current universe is in a state of false vacuum, it is conceivable that some experiment would concentrate enough energy into a small enough place to coax the vacuum over the energy barrier and into the true vacuum state. This could perhaps be catastrophic. What is Dissociative Identity Disorder? Dissociative Identity Disorder is defined as the occurrence of two or more personalities within the same individual, each of which, during some time in the person's life, is able to take control. This is not often a mentally healthy thing when the personalities vie for control. It's also known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV replaced the acronym MPD with dissociative identity disorder (DID). Why does the moon appear upside down in the southern hemisphere? The moon orbits near the equator of the Earth. In the southern hemisphere, we are standing at the opposite side of the globe, from a person who is standing in the northern hemisphere. So, we are literally standing upside down with relation to the person at the other end. We, therefore, see the moon from a completely different vantage point. So, if a man sees the moon crescent facing up in the northern hemisphere, it'll appear upside down to a person in the southern hemisphere. Which is the world’s hottest pepper? The bhut jolokia variety which grows in north-eastern India, was given a rating of 8,55,000 Scoville heat units by Ritesh Mathur and his colleagues at the Defence Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior. They reported their finding in an August 2000 issue of Current Science. The scientists tested a Tezpur variety of the bhut, or Capsicum Frutescens var. (botanists know it as Nagahari). The Guinness Book of World Records recently certified the bhut jolokia as the world's hottest chilli pepper. The chilli probably gets its name owing to its demonic bite — bhut means ghost and jolokia means chilli. A single seed of the bhut can cause intense spicy sensations in the mouth for up to 30 minutes. Smeared on fences, they are also employed to scare off wild elephants. What is Iceland’s HDI ranking? With a ranking of 0.968, Iceland had the highest Human Development Index (HDI) ranking in 2007. The HDI ranking takes into consideration a country’s life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment and GDP per capita. Currently though, Iceland’s top-ranking status is rather ironic, considering the global financial crisis has almost wiped out its economy and the country is virtually bankrupt. What is the Aufbau Principle? The Aufbau Principle states that in the ground state of an atom, an electron enters the orbital with lowest energy first and subsequent electrons are fed in the order of increasing energies. The word ‘aufbau’ in German means ‘building up’. Here, it refers to the filling up of orbitals with electrons. What is Chargaff’s rule of base equivalence? Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the genetic material found in the chromosomes of all animals and plants. It is made up of only four types of organic nitrogenous bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T) and cytosine (C). Of these, A and G are the purines and T and C are the pyrimidines. Chargaff gave the base pairing rule or the rule of base equivalence which states that only one purine can combine with one pyrimidine. That means A can combine with T and G with C. Two purines or two pyrimidines cannot combine with each other; if they do so, there will be a sudden change in the characteristic of an organism. This sudden change is called mutation.
Why are acentric chromosomes genetically inactive? Acentric chromosomes are formed as a result of inversion of genes in one of the chromosomes in a homologous pair. This is a type of chromosomal aberration. Homologous loci are paired at meiosis. The meiotic anaphase will contain a chromatid connecting the two centromeres, called a chromatid bridge; a chromatid lacking a centromere altogether is called an acentric fragment. Neither of these behaves normally in cell division and both are eventually lost. The only viable products of meiosis in inversion heterozygotes are the chromatids that underwent no crossing over within the inverted section. Thus, the acentric chromosomes are genetically inactive due to absence of centromere. What are auroras? The beautiful patterns of green and blue lights that occur in the atmosphere of the polar region are known as auroras. Although there are several mythological stories related to auroras, perhaps the first scientific research on auroras began in Europe in 1716. They occur in the mesosphere, which is present about 50 to 80 miles above sea level. They are known as Aurora Borealis or northern lights, and Aurora Australis or the southern lights, in northern and southern hemisphere respectively. Auroras are natural phenomena and occur when a flow of charged particles from the sun (called solar wind) collide with air molecules in the atmosphere. Ionization takes place and this produces coloured light. Although such collisions only take place near magnetic poles of the Earth, auroras are also visible in mid-latitude regions in case of intense solar activity. Who invented the board game Snakes and Ladders? The board game, today called Snakes and Ladders, originated in ancient India, where it was known with the name Mokshapat or Moksha Patamu. It’s not exactly known when or who invented it, though it’s believed the game was played at a time as early as 2nd century BC. According to some historians, the game was invented by Saint Gyandev in the 13th century AD. Originally, the game was used as a part of moral instruction to children. The squares in which ladders start were each supposed to stand for a virtue, and those housing the head of a snake were supposed to stand for an evil. The snakes outnumbered the ladders in the original Hindu game. The game was transported to England by the colonial rulers in the latter part of the 19th century, with some modifications. The modified game was named Snakes and Ladders and stripped of its moral and religious aspects and the number of ladders and snakes were equalized. In 1943, the game was introduced in the US under the name Chutes and Ladders. Who are NEO consumers? The NEO consumers are new highvalue consumers of the new economic order (NEO). It is a newly emerging segment of customers from all age groups, ethnicities, income bands, locations and have high propensity to spend their income on disposable goods. NEO consumers are valuable as they consume constantly and favour a sense of investment, discretionary choices and value-added services. They seek rich information and authenticity; are motivated by choice, options and quality; sceptical about whether deals and discounts will deliver to their expectations; loyal to brands that understand them and comfortable with calculated risk. What is Pansori? Pansori is a folk art which has lasted since the 17th century in Korea. Singers sing and gesture according to the beats of the traditional Korean drum, tambour. Pansori consists of 12 episodes and is based on classical literature. It typically takes a few hours to complete a Pansori performance. Most young Koreans don’t go see to see it now. It is aired on television on traditional Korean holidays like the lunar new year day and Korean thanksgiving day called ‘Chuseok’.
What is skinflation? It refers to the increase in marketing of beauty products, which use scientific jargon that confuses consumers. Such marketing works on the premise that using words that sound scientific may be considered more effective by the consumer, and help justify high prices. How does a laser mouse work? A laser mouse is a type of optical mouse. It uses a laser beam which is invisible, or nearly invisible, to the human eye. The beam emitted by the laser mouse moves with the user’s hand, triggering an optical sensor system. It works in tandem with a system which tracks how far the mouse has moved by bouncing hundreds of images every second, constantly updating the position of the mouse and the subsequent position of the cursor on the screen. What is love bombing? Whenever an individual or a group of individuals overtly convey to another individual or group their concern and affection frequently, consistently and profusely, then the former is said to be love bombing the latter. There is a controversy on whether love bombing indicates genuine affection. Love bombing is said to be practised by members of several religious organizations and cults. Critics of cults feel that love bombing is a ploy to lure recruits. Members of Unification Church, where the above term was said to have originated, oppose this view. According to them, love bombing involves giving a lot of positive attention, thereby fulfilling the basic human need for self-esteem and love. What are the speeds of diesel and electric locomotive engines? Diesel locomotive engines are classified as diesel-mechanical (DM), diesel-electric (DE) and diesel-hydraulic (DH) engines. DM engines run at an average speed of 60 kmph, while DE engines travel at an average speed of 80 kmph, also the average speed of an electric engine. The DH engines are heavy-duty ones and maintain an average speed of 120 kmph. Who is Capeta? It’s a sport anime about cart racing. Capeta is a 10-year-old boy with a single-parent. His father works for a paving company. While working on a go-karting track, his father gets broken pieces out of a trash pile and cobbles together a kart. A determined Capeta masters the mangled kart and impresses the manager of a racing team, who helps him gain entry into the world of racing, secretly as a rival to her son. What is a carrom ball in cricket? It is a form of bowling. The ball is held between the thumb, forefinger and the middle finger, and instead of a regular release, the ball is squeezed out of the fingers. It could result in an off-break, a leg-break, or a googly. Like in carrom, one never knows where the ball will land.What is pork barrel politics and why is it called so? Pork barrel politics refers to government spending intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for his or her political support, either in the form of campaign contribution or votes. Typically, it involves funding for government programmes whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public projects and agricultural subsidies are the common examples. This has been associated with US politics, where legislators seek to base military or transport facilities, and government agencies, in their constituency. Pork barrel originally referred to American slaves’ rushed attempts to obtain some of the pork given to them as a group in large barrels. Electoral prospects, especially for Congressmen, often depended on how much pork they could divert to their home district. How is an Amur tiger different from a Bengal tiger? An Amur tiger lives in the Siberian plateau covered with snow, while the Bengal tiger lives in marshes and grasslands of the Indian subcontinent. The Amur tiger is much fatter than the Bengal tiger. It also has more fur than its Bengal cousin to keep it warm. Owing to its weight, the Amur tiger can’t run faster than the Bengal tiger. The Bengal tiger’s coat is more golden, while the Amur tiger’s coat on its belly is more white and its stripes are paler. Both belong to the Panthera group of cats. The Bengal tiger is Panthera tigeris while the Amur tiger is Panthera tigeris altaica. SECOND THOUGHTS Who invented the board game Snakes and Ladders? A complete Sanskrit name for Snakes and Ladders — ‘Parama Pada Sopana Patam’— means the chart showing the ladder that leads to the ultimate state. Such blockprinted charts on rough paper were sold at fairs or market streets leading to the main doors of the temples of south India. An important aspect of the game is that when you get to the higher stage of spiritual attainment, only certain falls of the dice will entitle you to move to the next house, illustrating the difficulty of spiritual practice needed for attaining moksha, the ultimate release. The game was a way to teach the young, in an entertaining way, the principles of ancient Indian thinking on proper living.
Who are carborexics? Carborexics are people who take ecoconsciousness to the extreme,almost bordering on obsessive compulsive behaviour. Such people are also referred to as dark green carborexics as they constantly worry about their carbon footprint, which is the impact a person’s activities has on the environment. Some carborexics use their lawn as the toilet so they don’t waste water by flushing; and some sleep huddled together, so that their body heat keeps them warm and they won’t have to turn on the heater. These are but a few examples of what carborexics do in their effort to be environment-friendly. What is a golden parachute? A golden parachute is a lucrative contract given to top executives in the event of the company being taken over by another corporation, resulting in job losses. The contract usually includes a large severance pay, stock options, and a bonus. Golden parachutes are usually a part of an anti-takeover strategy. What is the choking game? The choking game — also known as airplaning, America dream game, black out game, breath play, breathing the zoo — is not technically a game but a schoolyard activity which involves deliberately inducing unconsciousness or near-unconsciousness by restricting the supply of oxygenated blood to the brain. According to demographics, mostly teenagers and adults of both sexesdo this. The activity has been responsible for a large number of juvenile deaths and permanent neurological disabilities. The attractions are manifold: it is done as a dare, it can induce a brief sense of euphoria, it is reported to enhance erotic feelings, it may be amusing to some to watch others losing consciousness or behaving erratically, the prospect of an altered state of consciousness, or even emulating such acts depicted in films. It is also popular as it is legal and appears innocuous to those without a proper understanding of the mechanism involved in cerebral hypoxia and cerebral anoxia. What is convexification? A globally convergent (the so-called convexification) algorithm was previously developed for coefficient inverse problems (CIPs) with time/ frequency-dependent data. The convexification is extended to the case of a CIP for an elliptic equation with the data generated by the source running along a straight line. The data are incomplete, since they are given only at a part of the boundary. Applications to both electrical impedance and optical tomographies are feasible, which particularly include imaging of landmines and underground bunkers, as well as diffuse optical imaging of targets on battlefields through smogs and flames. What is a wistar rat? A wistar rat is an outbred strain of the albino or white rat belonging to the species Rattus norwegicus. It is characterised by its wide head, long ears and a tail leg length that is always less than its body length. This is currently one of the most popular rat strains for laboratory research. It was developed by the Wistar Institute for use in biological medicinal research by American physiologist Henry Donaldson. What is a dry port? A dry port, also called sometimes an inland port or multimodal logistics centre, is an inland terminal connected to a seaport by rail or road. It serves as a transhipment point in the transport of export/ import goods. A dry port is called so because it is very similar to a seaport in the services offered to exporters and importers, except that it is not near a sea. A dry port is also employed to relieve a major seaport of some work load and congestion. A dry port consists of facilities like container yards, warehouses, railway sidings, truck parking, cargo-handling equipment, and administrative services for export and import clearances. What is a cantenna? Cantenna stands for Can + Antenna. In order to increase the range of communication, an amateur radio enthusiast had attempted to use a tin can of a popular potato chips brand as a directional element in addition to a basic yagi antenna operating at 2.4 GHz frequency. This helped in directing more of the transmit power towards the receiver, thereby improving the communication range. Due to the cheapness of this solution and also because the required raw material, like a tin can, was easily available, this design became very popular. Later, a company called Heathkit produced it commercially and named it Cantenna. —
What form of government is practised in Thailand? Thailand is a constitutional monarchy.Its current monarch is King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or King Rama IX, the ninth king of the Chakri dynasty. The king has reigned for more than half a century, making him the longest reigning Thai monarch. He is recognised as the head of state, head of the armed forces, upholder of the Buddhist religion and upholder of all religions. Due to this form of government, Thailand is the only country in South-East Asia that has never been colonised or taken over by a European power. What does precycling mean? Precycling is a form of waste minimisation. It involves reducing the use of outer packaging and instead opting directly for what’s inside. This would involve buying things loose instead of opting for a pre-packaged product, bringing your own container to the store and shopping for locally-produced things. The rationale is to accumulate less waste. What is Strepulsion Physics? In the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton discovered the universal gravitational force. In the 21st century, Navinchandra K Shah, Prof. P N Jain and Prof. P P Jain of Hubli discovered a universal repulsion force (URF). It’s an astronomical force exerted by the sun and stars and therefore called stellar repulsion force (SRF). The science which deals with repulsive phenomena of stellar universe and the strepulsion force of stars is Strepulsion Physics. Why is an august gathering called so? The word ‘august’ in itself means magnificent or majestic. The term ‘august gathering’ refers to a gathering marked by dignity or grandeur. August originates from Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. The month of August, earlier known as Sextilis, was also named so in his honour. What is anthropophagy? Anthropophagy means cannibalism — the practice of human beings eating other human beings. The word is a combination of Greek words: anthropos meaning human being, and phagein meaning to eat. Cannibalism might involve eating other humans after killing them intentionally or eating body parts of those whose death has occurred due to other causes. The practice of eating humans of one’s own community is called endocannibalism and eating humans of other communities is called exocannibalism. According to anthropologists, cannibalism might have been more common in the early human evolution than in modern societies. Today, it is rumoured to be practised by tribals in different parts of the world as part of their rites. Due to the extreme stigma associated with such things, evidence and claims related to cannibalism are highly unreliable. If it has existed, the causes must be the following: 1. Situations of extreme food scarcity, such as famine; 2. Insanity; 3. Superstitions such as the belief that eating of another’s brain would serve to increase one’s own powers and 4. In wars, to show one’s power over the enemy. The universal symbol of cannibalism is a lolling tongue. What are Codd’s Rules? Codd’s Rules that are 12 in number specify what a database must support in order to be relational. The rules were defined by Edgar F Codd in a paper published in 1985. Hence, they are known as Codd’s Rules. For example, data are represented only one way; as values within columns and rows. Every value can be assessed by providing table name, column name and key, and all data are unique.
Who is a troglodyte? Originally, troglodyte referred to a prehistoric cave dweller. The name was also used to denote an anthropoid ape such as a gorilla. Now, it often refers to an old-fashioned person or to one who is a wilfully brutal obscurantist. What is the origin of the name Belarus? The word ‘Belarus’means ‘white Russians’. The Scandinavians who moved in the east were called ‘Rus’ and from them came the word ‘Russia’. During the Mongol era, the Russians were classified into three different groups: Belarussians, little Russians, and great Russians. The name ‘Belarus’ and the country evolved from Belarussians.
Belarus was known as Belorussia or Byelorussia in the days of Russian monarchy headed by tsars to underscore the extent of their empire. Russians occupied this country in 1919 and then it came to be known as Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Later, BSSR was a founding member of the USSR in 1922. This status continued till July 27, 1990 when BSSR issued a declaration of state sovereignty. In 1991, the Supreme Soviet of BSSR decreed by law that the independent country be called Belarus, henceforth, in Russian and all other languages and its language be known as Belarussian. The country’s name was changed to Republic of Belarus on August 25, 1991. The heads of state of Belarus along with those from Russia and Ukraine jointly announced the dissolution of the USSR and formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991. What is a Pipestone Pipe? A Pipestone Pipe, also called a peace pipe, calumet or medicine pipe is a ceremonial smoking pipe used by many native American tribes, traditionally as a token of peace. The most common and sacred thing smoked was tobacco. A prayer would be said to each of the four directions as well as ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘Father Sky’ as they filled the pipe. Also, some tobacco would be sprinkled on the ground. To show respect, smoke would be blown into one’s face. Captives would, at times, take this the wrong way, but it was actually a sign of kindness or respect.Who is the world’s youngest monarch? Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk of Bhutan is at 28 the world’s youngest king. This Oxford-educated monarch took over from his father Jigme Singye Wangchuk on November 6. His coronation took place at the Golden Throne Room in Tashichhodzong, a fortress and the power centre of Bhutan. Why are the people of Japan also known as Nipponese? Nippon is the Japanese name for Japan. It literally means ‘the sun’s origin’, which is translated as the land of the rising sun. The Japanese name Nippon is used mostly for official purposes, including on the currency, in the constitution, on postage stamps and at many international sporting events. Nippon first appeared in history only at the end of the 7 th century in the Old Book of Tang which said that the Japanese envoy disliked his country’s then name Woguo and changed it to Nippon. Another 8 th -century chronicle, True Meaning of Shiji states that the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian ordered a Japanese envoy to change the country’s name to Nippon. And hence, people of Japan are also known as Nipponese. What is a go-go fund? It’s a mutual fund that invests in highly risky but potentially rewarding stocks. During the 1960s, many go-go funds shot up in value, only to fall dramatically. In some cases, they even went out of business. What is the meaning of ‘kemo sabe’? The phrase ‘kemo sabe’ is often heard in the American radio and TV serial Lone Ranger. Its hero, a Texas Ranger, and his assistant, an American Indian called Tonto, keep calling each other ‘kemo sabe’. In an early episode, these characters run into each other for the first time. When they recognise each other as childhood friends, they utter the phrase ‘kemo sabe’. This phrase is not found in English or Spanish. Therefore, it is likely that the series writer coined the phrase based on some words in American dialects. According to many, the director of the radio version of Lone Ranger derived it from a Michigan dialect and suggested it to the writer. Apparently, in this dialect, the phrase means faithful friend or trusty scout. There are other theories related to ‘kemo sabe’ as well. What is the Cuban Wushu? The term ‘wushu’ consists of two Chinese characters: ‘wu’ meaning martial or military and ‘shu’ meaning skill or method. Together, it translates as martial art. Bruce Lee films brought the first images of kung fu to Cuba. Since then, martial art fans in Cuba started discovering the harmonic, philosophical and therapeutic bases of what is known as Wushu today — a combination of Chinese martial art. In 1990, Roberto Vargas Lee, a fifth Dan black belt holder in Jyoshinmon karate went to China to learn the secrets of Wushu and later developed it in Cuba. He later established the Cuban school of Wushu.
What is the Network Relief Kit? It’s a portable device that provides steady internet access in remote areas. It was used in Banda Aceh, Indonesia when a tsunami destroyed communication infrastructure on the island. NetHope, a collaboration between NGOs and technology companies, created this contraption that is powered by solar energy. What is a volantor? A volantor is a prototype of a flying saucer-style hovercraft. It is also known as VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) craft. It was invented by Paul Moller. It is currently under development. ‘Volantor’ is a term coined by Moller meaning: a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that is capable of flying in a quick, nimble and agile manner. It has ducted fans powered by Wankel rotary engines. The fans allow for vertical take-off and landing and, once the vehicle is aloft, it relies on the ground effect to create a cushion of air that the vehicle sits upon while flying. The vehicle has only two controls, one for speed and direction and the other for altitude. The driver does not need to know flying but only needs to know how to control speed, direction and altitude. What is a Bolero? It’s a Spanish dance and song in moderate tempo and triple metre that was popular at the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century. Its rhythms are closely related to the polonaise, a Polish slow dance. The Cuban Bolero, which superseded the Spanish version in Latin America, is in double time. Beethoven wrote the ‘Bolero a solo WoO 158’. Later examples in classical music include those by Berlioz, Chopin and Ravel. What is vishing? Vishing, coined from the words voice and phishing, is a criminal practice of using voice over phone to gain access to details about PIN, date of birth and expiry date of credit card holders and using it for fraudulent activities. The criminal configures the system to pretend that the questions asked are for either verification or statistical purposes and records the information so gained for committing financial fraud. Why is Wuhan called the ‘thoroughfare of the nine provinces’? Wuhan is the capital of the Hubei province in the central part of China and is one of the largest and most populous cities of the region. It is also an important centre for trade, finance, industry, and information technology. Wuhan is also the place where the river Hans joins Changjiang, the third largest river of China. Three major railways meet and two major expressways intersect here. For these reasons, the city has always acted as a major transportation hub in central China. That’s why since the 14th century, Wuhan has been known as the ‘thoroughfare of nine provinces’. The term nine provinces stands for multiple directions. What is mooching? Mooching refers to aimlessly wandering around, begging or sponging off others. Due to market crises all over the world, families in the US have taken to mooching others as a means to cut costs on a daily basis. This includes bumming rides from friends more frequently than before, asking colleagues if they need their wallet when going out for lunch and not meeting the bellboy’s eyes to avoid tipping. What is the Hadrian Wall? Hadrian Wall was a frontier that began to be built in 122 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian. It is located in northern Great Britain. It stretched for 120 km, was 15 feet high and 10 feet wide. It ran from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway in the west to the Tyne River near Newcastle in the east. It was established to prevent military raids on Roman Britain by the Pictish tribe in the north, to improve economic stability and provide peaceful conditions in Britain. It is thought that the gates of the wall would also have served as customs posts to allow trade taxation. A significant portion of the wall still exists. One of the most popular tourist attraction in northern England, it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Which is the oldest lighthouse in the world? The first definite and documented lighthouse in the world was the Pharaohs of Alexandria built in 200 BC, although beacons were certainly used before that. The oldest working lighthouse in the world is at La Coruqa in north-west Spain near the town of Ferol. A lighthouse has been on this site since the time of the Roman emperor Trajan. The world’s first stone lighthouse tower at sea was the Smeaton Eddystone lighthouse built in 1756-9. Smeaton is today known as ‘the father of civil engineering’. When his lighthouse was finished, it was lit with just 24 candles. Today, the power of lighthouse lights can be equiva lent to as many as several million candles. How is an atom’s mass measured? The atomic mass of a specific atom or molecule is determined by using an experimental technique called mass spectrometry. This technique separates different isotopes of atoms to allow determination of the percent abundance or isotopic composition of the element in the given sample. Each isotope of the element appears as a peak in the mass spectrum. The intensity (height) of each peak depends on the abundance of that isotope in the sample and the unique location of the peak on the x-axis indicates the massto-charge ratio of the isotope. Knowing the charge on the isotope, we can calculate the mass of the isotope and from the relative abundance of different isotopes of the elements, the average relative atomic mass is calculated. What is Bowman’s Capsule? Each human kidney contains about 1 million filtering units called nephrons. The nephron has a renal tubule and dilated blind end like a funnel. This dilated funnel like part is called Bowman’s Capsule. It has a tuft of capillaries. The fluid which comes out of these capillaries is filtered by Bowman’s Capsule. The renal tubules do further processing to make 1.5 litres of urine out of 180 litres of filtered fluid in 24 hours. What are the bellows in the accordion? The bellows are the flexible part which controls the air for musical notes in an accordion. This is made of leather, rexine, etc. Bellows are also used by goldsmiths for gilting purposes and shaping metals by heating as the air let out of the bellows fans the fire.