Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Guwahati-Dhaka bus to go on trial run on Wednesday - The Hindu

Guwahati-Dhaka bus to go on trial run on Wednesday - The Hindu

Withdrawal symptoms in Afghanistan - The Hindu

Withdrawal symptoms in Afghanistan - The Hindu

Advent of Aryans

Advent of Aryans. Originally , the Aryans seemed to have lived in steppes strectching from Southern Russia to Central Asia. they spoke Indo-European language though it is difficult to say that earliest Aryans belonged to one race. Names of animals a d plants are similar in most Indo european languages e.g goats, dogs, horses, pine etc.
Their society was male dominated . The horse played the most significant role in their life although they used many animals.
the domesticated horse appears is 6 th millenium BCE in Black Sea and Ural mountain area. Nearly 60,000 horse bones appears in the Ural area around 3000 BCE. Swiftness of horse allowed them to make inroads in Asia from about 2000 BCE.
On their way to India, the Aryans first appeared in central Asiaand Iran, where indo-Iranian lived for a long time.
Rig Veda, the earliest test of the Indo european language, mentions arya 36 times.rig Veda is a collection of prayers offered to Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna and other Gods by the family of sages and poets.It consist of ten mandalas ( books) of which Book II to Book VII form its earliest portions. Book I and Book X seeems to have been added later.
the Rig Veda has many thing in common with Avestha, which is the oldest text in Iranian language. Both Rig Veda and Avestha use the same names for for several Gods and social classes.
earliest specimen of Indo European language is found in an inscription of about 220 BCE from Iraq.In Antolia( Turkey) also such inscriptions have occurred in 19th to 17 th century BCE. Aryan names appear in Kassite inscription ( 1600 BCE) from Iraq and Mitanni inscriptions of 14 th century BCE from Syria. But, no such inscripotions have been found from India so far.
Aryans appeared in India a little earlier than 1500 BCE. They used socketed axes, bronze dirks and swords which have been discovered from north western India. Evidences of horse and horse sacrifice have been found in southern Tajikistan and swat valley ( Pakistan).
The earliest Aryans lived in area bounded by eastern Afghanistan, North west frontier Province, Punjab and fringes of western Uttar Pradesh. Some rivers of Afghanistan like Kubha , Indus and it five branches are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Sindhu is repeatedly mentioned in Rig Veda. Another river Saraswati is called naditaran(the best of the river) in RigVeda. The whole region where the Aryans first settled in Indian subcontinent is called saptsindhu, the land of seven rivers.
The Aryans migrated to India in several waves. rig Vedic people were the first ( around 1500 BCE). They came into conflict with indigenous inhabitants called dasa or dasyus . dasyu have been mentioned in RigVeda as original inhabitant. The aryans were soft towards dasa but hostile towards dasyus. The term dasyu hatya, slaughter of dasyus have been repeatedly mentioned in Rig Veda. The Aryans succeeded in conflict with indigenous people because they possessed chariots driven by horses ( Aryans wre the first to introduce chariots in West Asia and India.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Shipki La

Shipki La is a high mountain pass( in Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh) .The border post on the India-China border is at a height of 18,599 feet above the sea level. The Sutlej river enters India (from Tibet) through this pass. 
The pass, close to town of Khab, is India's third border post for trade with Tibet after Nathu La in Sikkim, and Lipulekh in Uttarakhand.
During recent visit of Chinese President, pople of Himachal were hoping this route to be considered for pilgrimage to Kailas Mansarovar.
Shipkila is an offshoot of the ancient Silk Road

Id-ul-Zuha/ Eid al-Adha

Id-ul-Zuha/ Eid al-Adha is called "Bakr-Id" in India. There is tradition of sacrificing a goat. The festival is celebrated with traditional fervour and gaiety in India. It is a gazetted holiday.
Muslims around the world believe that Allah commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismael, which he did.But his son was unharmed and replaced by a sheep. 
The word "id" means "festival" and "zuha" a "sacrifice".

Indian Air Force

Indian Air Force was founded on  8 October 1932 and has celebrated 82nd raising day.

Nobel Peace Prize for Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Usufzai

Nobel Peace Prize. Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Usufzai share the 2014 Nobel peace prize.
They have been awarded the prize for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. 
Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain. He has also contributed to the development of important international conventions on children’s rights.His organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, has freed over 80,000 children from various forms of servitude and helped in successful re-integration, rehabilitation and education.He has been a member of a UNESCO body and has been on the board of the Fast Track Initiative (now known as the Global Partnership for Education). He has also received Defenders of Democracy Award from US in 2009.
Malala Yousafzay, born 12 July 1997 from Pakistan , has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations. This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances( and she was attacked by Taliban and very critically injured). Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.

Nobel Prize Literature 2014

Nobel Prize Literature 2014. Patrick Modiano of France has won the Nobel Prize for Literature2014. Modiano has studied Nazi Occupation and its effect o his country throughout his life.His novel, 
'Missing Person' won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1978. ring of Roads; a Novel, Villa Triste, A Trace of Malice , Honeymoon are some of his famous work out of about more than 40 works in French.
Jewishness, the Nazi occupation and loss of identity are recurrent themes in his novels.

East West Road in Arunachal alo9ng Mc Mohan Line

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has said that a 2000 Km road is in a conceptual stage. The road will be in East- West axis along Mc Mohan Line, between Mago-Thingbu in Tawang to Vijaynagar in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Joint Military Exercise India- China

Military authorities of India and China are decided to conduct a four-day joint military exercise, called 'Hand-in- Hand' exercise from 3 November at Pune.The original venue of the exercise was Bathinda in Punjab.

This will be the fourth edition since it started in 2007 with Kunming in China hosting the first edition, followed by an exercise in Belgaum Karnataka in 2008. The third edition was hosted after five years at Miaoergang in China.The gap was due to India calling off all after China had refused a visa to a Lt General on the premise that he was serving in J&K.

Acids

Acid.
1. Naturally Occurring Acids. These are weak acids. the word 'acid' comes from Latin word 'acidus' which means sour. Acids have a sour taste.
Acid Present In
Citric Acid- Citrus fruits ( oranges, lemons)
Lactic Acid- Milk, curd
Acetic Acid- Vinegar
Tartaric Acid-Tamarind,grapes, unripe mangoes
Amino Acids-Proteins
Tannic Acid- Tea
Malic Acid-Apple 
Carbonic Acid-carbonated drinks like coke,Pepsi etc
2.Strong Acid. Some acids are strong and dangerous to handle and cause serious skin burns.
Sulphuric Acid is one of the strongest acids and widely used in industry.Nitric acid and Hydrochloric acid are other strong acids. Our stomach also produes Hydrochloric acid which help us in digesting food.
An acid turns blue litmus red. Litmus is a natural indicator obtained from lichens.
The naturally occurring acids present in human and plants are organic acids but hydrochloric, sulphuric and nitric acids are mineral acids.Todilute an acid, acid must be added to water slowly and not otherwise.
Aqua Regia,made of 3 parts of HCL and 1 part of Nitric Acid, can dissolve even gold and platinum.
The pH scale measures how acidic or basic a substance is. It ranges from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral, so pure water has a pH of 7. A pH less than 7 is acidic, and a pH greater than 7 is basic.

Each whole pH value below 7 is ten times more acidic than the next higher value.

The WTA Finals in Singapore

Sania Mirza and Cara Black won the WTA Tennis Finals  trophy  in Singapore.

 Sania and Black, who ran through their opponents, Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China - the second seeds and defending champions -  like a hot knife through butter, winning 12 straight games, won 6-1, 6-0 in just under an hour. 

Satpura Range

Satpura Range,meaning seven folds, is a range of hills, in Deccan plateau, stretching 900 km across Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh states. It has the Mahadeo Hills to the north, the Maikala Range to the east, and the Rajpipla Hills to the west.

The Maikal Hills are located in Chhattisgarh and The Mahadeo Hills are in Madhya Pradesh, forming the central part of the Satpura Range.

question SSC
Which of the following statement is correct
a. Mahadeo Hills are in the West of Maikala Hills.
b. Mahadeo Hills are the part of Karnataka Plateau.
c. Mahadeo Hills are in the East of Chotanagpur Plateau.
d. Mahadeo Hills are the part of Aravali ranges.
Your take ?

Cyclone Nilofar

Cyclone Nilofar, after HudHud, was a cyclone that hit the coast of Gujrat

Radiometric dating technique

Radiometric dating technique was first invented by Bertram in 1907. Boltwood. It is often called radioactive dating.It is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates.
The technique is now the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks, age of the Earth, fossils, archaeological materials, including ancient artifacts and to date natural and man-made materials. 
Radiocarbon dating, Potassium-Argon dating and Uranium-Lead dating are among the best-known techniques of Radiometric dating.

Eras

Eras 
Eons are divided into smaller time intervals known as eras. Phanerozoic Eon is divided into three eras: Cenozoic, Mesozoic and Paleozoic. 
We live in Cenozoic era, which started 65 million years ago. This was the time, when present shape of earth was acquired( before which they were joined together as Pangaea,on e large large landmass).

Primates

Primates are a subgroup of mammals. They are characterised by body hair, longer gestation period following birth ( baby of a horse almost start jumping immediately after birth, but a human takes about a year to walk), mammary glands, different types of teeth for various functions in eating and the ability to maintain a constant body temperature.

Laika

On this day. On 3 Nov, 1957, Laika, a Soviet dog, was sent into space onboard Sputnik 2 . Laika became one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth. She died within hours.

Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project

Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project is a proposed project that would link Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka by a shipping canal. Sethusamudram is the sea that separates Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka. The proposed canal will pass through Adam's bridge which is a chain of islands and is collectively called Adam's Bridge.

Harappan Weights

Harappan Weights. they were made of a stone called chert( fine grain silica rich sedimentary rock). Weights were cubical in shape and had no markings.Wights were very precise, the lower denomination were binary ( 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc upto 12,800), while the higher denominations followed the decimal system.
Smaller weights were used for weighing jewellery and beads . Metal scale pans have also been found in the Harappan culture.

Kitab-ul-Hind

Kitab-ul-Hind. The book has been written by Al Biruni in Arabic. It is organised in 80 chapters and includes subjects such as religion, philosophy, festival, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and meterology. chapters began with a question followed by description and concluding comparison with other cultures.

Harappan Sites

Harappan Sites. Nearly 1500 Harappan sites are known so far in Indian subcontinent. Two most important urban site-Harappa and Mohenjo-daro ( meaning mound of the dead) in Sind( both in Pakistan) are 483 km apart , linked by Indus river. Chanhu-daro, a third site about 130 km south of Moohenjo-daro in Sind , Lothal, a fourth in Gujrat at the head of gulf of Cambay, Kalibangan, a fifth in Rajsthan, Banawali, a sixth in Haryana near Hissar are also prominent ones. This culture had mud-brick platforms and streets and drains.
Sutkagendor and Surkotada, coastal cities had citadels.
Bhagwanpura, on the banks of Hakra-Ghaghar channel belong to early culture . Rangpur, Rojdi( Kathiawad) , Dholavira of Kutch has later Harappan phase.
Dholavira shows Harappan fortification and all the three phases of Harappan culture. Rakhigarhi, on Ghaggar in Haryana also shows all three pahases and is much larger than Dholavira.

Religious Practices of Harappan Culture.

Religious Practices of harappan Culture. Numerous terracota figurines of women indicates that women were respected and worshipped. In one figurine a plant is shown growing out of an embryo of a woman, representing goddess Earth. Mother goddess of Mohenjodaro is very prominent one. 
the male God is sitting in a yogic position. he is three horned and surrounded by animals such as elephant, rhinoceros and a tiger and a buffalo below his throne. two deer appear at his feet. This idol has been depicted as Pashupati Mahadeva . Numerous symbols of phallus and female sex organs made of stone have been found in Harappa. the Rig Veda speak of non aryan people being phallus worshippers.
Trees and animals were also worshipped. A seal showing a deity sitting under a pipal tree, which is worshipped to this day. Animals such as unicorn , humped bull are found on seals and must have been worshipped.
Amulets have been found in large number which might have been used against ghosts and evil forces.
the Atharva Veda , which is associated with non aryan tradition, contains many charms and spells and recommends amulets for warding off diseases and evil forces.

The Harappan script

The Harappan script. Earliest specimen of script was noticed in 1853 but complete script was discovered in 1923. But the Harappan script has not been deciphered till date. 
Harappan script is not alphabetical but mainly pictographic but includes many abstract signs . There are nearly 4000 specimens of Harappan writing on stone seals and other objects. altogether, there are about 400 pictograph where each picture stands for some sound, idea or object.
The inscriptions may have been mostly written from right to left, but sometimes follows a boustrophedonic style( An ancient method of writing using alternate left-to-right and right-to-left lines).

Harappan Culture : Weights and Measures

Weights and Measures. Numerous articles used for weiths and measures have been found in Harappan region. They show that weighing mostly depended on units of 16 and its multiples like 64,160,320,640.
The tradition of 16 continued in India till recently. 16 annas made a rupee. 
The Harappans knew the art of measuring . Sticks inscribed with measure marks have been found. One of the sticks made of bronze ahs also been found.

Harappan Pottery

Harappan Pottery. Harappans were great expert in use of potter's wheel. Numerous pots painted in various design have been found. They were generally decorated with the designs trees and circles.the images of men also appear on some pottery fragments.

Harappan Seals

Harappan Seals are the greatest artistic creations. About 2000 seals have been found. Great number of seals carry short inscriptions and picture of one horn bull, the buffalo, the tiger, the rhinoceros, the goat and the elephant

Harappan Images

Harappan Images. The Harappan artisans made beautiful images of metal. A woman dancer, naked except for a necklace, is the best specimen made in bronze. Few pieces of Harappan stone sculptures have been found. In one steatite statue, wearing an ornamented robe over the left shoulder under the right arm with short locks at the back of the head is shown. Locks are kept tidy by a woven fillet( a band or ribbon worn round the head, especially for binding the hair).

World Chess Championship 2014

World Chess Championship 2014
Sochi. World No 1 Magnus Carlsen has defended won the world championship title after defeating the Indian chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand,44, in the 11 th round. 
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen,23, has won the championship for the second year in a row.
Garry Kasparov has a record of remaing the world number one for 19 years in a row.
Viswanathan Anand has won the World Chess Championship five times i.e. 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. He was the undisputed World Champion from 2007 to 2013 till he lost to Magnus . 
Anand has won the following awards:-
Chess Oscar, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award for Chess, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan.

Terracota figurines of Harappan Culture

Terracota figurines of Harappan Culture. figurines made of fire baked earthen clay is called terracotta. These figurines were either used as toys or objects of worship. They represent birds, dogs, sheep, cattle and monkeys. Men and women ( women more in number) figurines are also available. The seals and images were made with great skill but terracotta pieces were unsophisticated art works. It appears that seals and images were used by members of upper class and terracotta by common people.
Masonary work were poor in Harappan culture and massive work of art in stone is not found as is found in ancient egypt and Mesopotamia.

Origin of Harappan Culture

Harappan Culture.
Origin.It is difficult to explain its origin. Harrapan culture is mainly of Indian origin and it has no similarity with Mesopotamian culture. Several pre Harrappan settlements have been found in lower Sind,Baluchistan and Kalibangan( Rajasthan) but connection between them and Harappan culture is not clear. Harappan culture may have evolved out of these indigenous settlement.

Mature Harappan culture existed between 2550 BCE to 1900 BCE.Thoughout this period, town planning, same kind of seals, tools, houses, terracotta works have been noticed. Towns were planned with their chess board system, street, drainage, rectangular houses with brick lined bathrooms and wells together with their stairways.

End of Harappan Culture . Harappaqn culture disappeared around 1900 BCE. Again , it is difficult to explain the end of Harappan culture.decrease in rainfall in early part of second millenium BCE may have adversely affeated agriculture and animal breeding. expansion of neighbouring desert may have also contributed to the decline.Earthquake and floods also may have been a reason. Still, other points out that Harappan culture was destroyed by the aryans but there is little evidence for this.

The mature urban phase was marked by systematic town planning, extensive brickwork, art of writing, standard weights and measures, distinction between the citadel and the lower town, use of bronze tools and red ware pottery painted with black designs.

Pugilist

Pugilist is a boxer, especially a professional one.

Arjuna Award for Manoj Kumar

Manoj Kumar is a pugilist who has been awarded Arjuna Award, after taking legal route and winning case in Delhi High Court. He won the gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. 
Manoj was earlier denied the award by the Kapil Dev-led selection committee and a review petition was also ignored.

Hosni Mubarak

Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak,86,was sentenced to life in prison in 2012. The award for sentence was over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising ( the Tahrir Square 18-day revolt) that ended his 30-year rule.
An Egyptian court has dropped its case against Mubarak and said criminal charges should never have been brought against Mubarak in the case.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is marked globally on 01 December.

PV Sindhu

PV Sindhu defended the USD 120,000 Macau Grand Prix Gold Badminton Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton defeating Kim Hyo Min of Korea in the women's singles thus winning the championship two years in a row.
World No. 11 Sindhu was the bronze-medallist at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, 2014.

Post Urban Phase of Harappan Culture

Post Urban Phase of Harappan Culture. It is also known as sub Indus culture in which stylistic homogenity of urban phase disappeared. some traits of post urban phase culture are found in Pakistan and in central and western India , in Punjab, in rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir , Delhi and wetern Uttar Pradesh . they broadly cover the period from 1900 BCE to 1200 BCE. They are primarily chalcolithic who lived in villages living on agriculture, animal breeding, hunting and fishing.
Prabhas Patan ( Somnath) and Rangpur both in Gujrat are direct descendants of Harappan culture but Ahar near Udaipur shows only a few element of Harappan culture. 
No object for measuring length have been noticed.

Khurram Khan

Khurram Khan. United Arab Emirates (UAE) captain Khurram Khan became the oldest player( 43 Years plus) to score a century in the One-Day International (ODI). He scored the winning century( unbeaten 132 runs) against Afghanistan in Dubai on 30 November 2014. Sanath Jaysurya of SriLanka had held the earlier record.

The Hornbill Festival

The Hornbill Festival is a Naga tribesmen festival which showcases a mélange of cultural displays under one roof. This festival usually takes place between the 1st and the 7th of December every year at Naga Heritage Village,Kisama, near Kohima. The festival is organised by the State Tourism and Art & Culture Departments.
The aim of the festival is to revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its extravaganza and traditions. This year's festival was inaugurated by PM.

Advent of Aryans

Advent of Aryans. Originally , the Aryans seemed to have lived in steppes strectching from Southern Russia to Central Asia. they spoke Indo-European language though it is difficult to say that earliest Aryans belonged to one race. Names of animals a d plants are similar in most Indo european languages e.g goats, dogs, horses, pine etc.
Their society was male dominated . The horse played the most significant role in their life although they used many animals.
the domesticated horse appears is 6 th millenium BCE in Black Sea and Ural mountain area. Nearly 60,000 horse bones appears in the Ural area around 3000 BCE. Swiftness of horse allowed them to make inroads in Asia from about 2000 BCE.
On their way to India, the Aryans first appeared in central Asiaand Iran, where indo-Iranian lived for a long time.
Rig Veda, the earliest test of the Indo european language, mentions arya 36 times.rig Veda is a collection of prayers offered to Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna and other Gods by the family of sages and poets.It consist of ten mandalas ( books) of which Book II to Book VII form its earliest portions. Book I and Book X seeems to have been added later.
the Rig Veda has many thing in common with Avestha, which is the oldest text in Iranian language. Both Rig Veda and Avestha use the same names for for several Gods and social classes.
earliest specimen of Indo European language is found in an inscription of about 220 BCE from Iraq.In Antolia( Turkey) also such inscriptions have occurred in 19th to 17 th century BCE. Aryan names appear in Kassite inscription ( 1600 BCE) from Iraq and Mitanni inscriptions of 14 th century BCE from Syria. But, no such inscripotions have been found from India so far.
Aryans appeared in India a little earlier than 1500 BCE. They used socketed axes, bronze dirks and swords which have been discovered from north western India. Evidences of horse and horse sacrifice have been found in southern Tajikistan and swat valley ( Pakistan).
The earliest Aryans lived in area bounded by eastern Afghanistan, North west frontier Province, Punjab and fringes of western Uttar Pradesh. Some rivers of Afghanistan like Kubha , Indus and it five branches are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Sindhu is repeatedly mentioned in Rig Veda. Another river Saraswati is called naditaran(the best of the river) in RigVeda. The whole region where the Aryans first settled in Indian subcontinent is called saptsindhu, the land of seven rivers.
The Aryans migrated to India in several waves. rig Vedic people were the first ( around 1500 BCE). They came into conflict with indigenous inhabitants called dasa or dasyus . dasyu have been mentioned in RigVeda as original inhabitant. The aryans were soft towards dasa but hostile towards dasyus. The term dasyu hatya, slaughter of dasyus have been repeatedly mentioned in Rig Veda. The Aryans succeeded in conflict with indigenous people because they possessed chariots driven by horses ( Aryans wre the first to introduce chariots in West Asia and India.

GSAT-16

GSAT-16.
ISO's satellite is being put into orbit from French Guiana on December 5. It is a communications satellite . It will significantly improve the national space capacity with 48 transponders( the highest number of transponders packed into an Indian spacecraft so far) .
ISRO Chairman, K.Radhakrishnan said that the launch was advanced by six moths to meet user needs.
This is also the highest number of transponders packed into an Indian spacecraft so far.