Monday, November 29, 2010

Climate change conference in Cancun


This beach resort, swarming with tourists and sports utility vehicles and having opulent hotels and evident unsustainability, may not be the ideal place for a climate change conference but the real issues of climate change are too critical not to be debated anywhere.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference that gets under way here on Monday may not result in much in terms of emission reduction agreements. The main focus could be on forestry issues and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) plus where significant progress could be made.

The response to the conference is lukewarm but no less than 15,000 delegates are expected to attend the deliberations. REDD plus aims to reward the developing nations for protecting, restoring and sustainably managing forests and it offers one of the cheapest options for cutting global greenhouse gases, according to the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Principal climate change scientist at the CIFOR Louis Verchot said that among the key issues likely to be addressed was whether to include REDD plus as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

In India, the mechanism of REDD has not been implemented and there are several issues related to ownership of forests, forest rights and protection. The CIFOR said $ 4.5 billion was promised so far, much of it from Norway in bilateral agreements but money was not the sole consideration. A major breakthrough would be needed in the UNFCC negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government is committed to ensuring that participants' mobilisation and energy consumption during the conference results in the smallest environmental impact, in compliance with its obligations as host of the Sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16) and the Sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol (CMP6).

A statement says one of the main goals of the Mexican authorities is to ensure that a large amount of the energy used during the conference comes from renewable sources, hence, minimising as much as possible the release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere.

In the framework of the Mexican-Italian environmental cooperation programme, the Mexican government is engaged in supplying energy through a system of photovoltaic cells with an estimated output of 130kW. The installation of a wind power generator with a 1.5-MW capacity will contribute to Cancun's electric output through an additional renewable source.

Regarding transportation, delegations of participating countries will be provided with hybrid vehicles for their transfers during the conference.

The Mexican government has implemented a special hotel assessment programme here, aimed at enhancing sustainable operation. Through the programme, Environmental Leadership for Competitiveness, implemented by SEMARNAT, hotels will set eco-efficiency projects to reduce the use of raw materials, energy and water during the conference. It is expected to avoid the consumption of approximately 2,00,000 m {+3} of water and the release of 4,000 tonnes of CO {+2} into the atmosphere.

Measuring emissions

Participants attending COP16/CMP6 will be able to access online and through the booths located at the conference venue a carbon footprint calculator to measure emissions associated to their air and ground transportation, lodging and meals. This calculation will allow the users to mitigate their respective emissions by opting for one of the projects listed in the voluntary Mexican market or those associated to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Indigenous communities' projects in the Mixe and Chinanteca regions of the Sierra Madre in Oaxaca, through the voluntary forest Mexican market are an example of the options available for carrying out this exercise.

Around 10,000 trees and bushes will be planted in Cancun. This will contribute both to carbon capture and sequestration, to further beautify the Luis Donaldo Colosio Boulevard, which is the city's main artery.

A residual waste management programme will operate during the conference. It is aimed at enhancing the processing of different waste materials and their incorporation to productive cycles avoiding their final disposal. The programme includes the placing of recycle bins in the official meeting areas of COP16/CMP6 events, other locations within Cancun.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

UNESCO representative list of India intangible cultural heritage of humanity

The Aalst Carnival in Belgium, the Peking Opera, Spanish Flamenco, the Wayuu normative system in Colombia, the traditional skills of carpet weaving in Kashan in Iran, and falconry, presented by 11 countries, are among the 46 elements inscribed today on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. A UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee, chaired by Jacob Ole Miaron from Kenya and meeting in Nairobi until 19 November 2010, examined and inscribed 46 of the 47 nominations presented.

India - Chhau dance - Chhau dance is a tradition from eastern India that enacts episodes from epics including the Mahabharata and Ramayana, local folklore and abstract themes. Its three distinct styles hail from the regions of Seraikella, Purulia and Mayurbhanj, the first two using masks. Chhau dance is intimately connected to regional festivals, notably the spring festival Chaitra Parva. Its origin is traceable to indigenous forms of dance and martial practices. Its vocabulary of movement includes mock combat techniques, stylized gaits of birds and animals and movements modelled on the chores of village housewives. Chhau is taught to male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities. The dance is performed at night in an open space to traditional and folk melodies, played on the reed pipes mohuri and shehnai. The reverberating drumbeats of a variety of drums dominate the accompanying music ensemble. Chhau is an integral part of the culture of these communities. It binds together people from different social strata and ethnic background with diverse social practices, beliefs, professions and languages. However, increasing industrialization, economic pressures and new media are leading to a decrease in collective participation with communities becoming disconnected from their roots.

India - Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan - Songs and dances are an expression of the Kalbelia community’s traditional way of life. Once professional snake handlers, Kalbelia today evoke their former occupation in music and dance that is evolving in new and creative ways. Today, women in flowing black skirts dance and swirl, replicating the movements of a serpent, while men accompany them on the khanjari percussion instrument and the poongi, a woodwind instrument traditionally played to capture snakes. The dancers wear traditional tattoo designs, jewellery and garments richly embroidered with small mirrors and silver thread. Kalbelia songs disseminate mythological knowledge through stories, while special traditional dances are performed during Holi, the festival of colours. The songs also demonstrate the poetic acumen of the Kalbelia, who are reputed to compose lyrics spontaneously and improvise songs during performances. Transmitted from generation to generation, the songs and dances form part of an oral tradition for which no texts or training manuals exist. Song and dance are a matter of pride for the Kalbelia community, and a marker of their identity at a time when their traditional travelling lifestyle and role in rural society are diminishing. They demonstrate their community’s attempt to revitalize its cultural heritage and adapt it to changing socioeconomic conditions.

India - Mudiyettu, ritual theatre and dance drama of Kerala - Mudiyettu is a ritual dance drama from Kerala based on the mythological tale of a battle between the goddess Kali and the demon Darika. It is a community ritual in which the entire village participates. After the summer crops have been harvested, the villagers reach the temple in the early morning on an appointed day. Mudiyettu performers purify themselves through fasting and prayer, then draw a huge image of goddess Kali, called as kalam, on the temple floor with coloured powders, wherein the spirit of the goddess is invoked. This prepares the ground for the lively enactment to follow, in which the divine sage Narada importunes Shiva to contain the demon Darika, who is immune to defeat by mortals. Shiva instead commands that Darika will die at the hand of the goddess Kali. Mudiyettu is performed annually in ‘Bhagavati Kavus’, the temples of the goddess, in different villages along the rivers Chalakkudy Puzha, Periyar and Moovattupuzha. Mutual cooperation and collective participation of each caste in the ritual instils and strengthens common identity and mutual bonding in the community. Responsibility for its transmission lies with the elders and senior performers, who engage the younger generation as apprentices during the course of the performance. Mudiyettu serves as an important cultural site for transmission of traditional values, ethics, moral codes and aesthetic norms of the community to the next generation, thereby ensuring its continuity and relevance in present times.

World Heritage Sites in India

Agra Fort , Uttar Pradesh ;

Ajanta Caves , Maharashtra ;

Airavatesvara Temple, (Great Living Chola Temples), Tamil Nadu ;

Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh

Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park, Gujarat ;

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Maharashtra ;

Churches and Convents of Goa ;

Elephanta Caves , Maharashtra ;

Ellora Caves, Maharashtra ;

Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh ;

Brihadeeswarar Temple, (Great Living Chola Temples), Tamil Nadu ;

Group of Monuments at Hampi , Karnataka ;

Group of Monuments at Mahabalip

uram, Tamil Nadu ;

Group of Monuments at Pattadakal, Karnataka ;

Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple, (Great Living Chola Temples), Tamil Nadu ;

Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi ; Kaziranga National Park, Assam ;

Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan;

Khajuraho Group of Monuments, Madhya Pradesh ;

Mahabodhi Temple Complex, Bihar ;

Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam ;

Mountain Railways of India ;

Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Park, Uttaranchal ;

Qutub Minar and its monuments, Delhi ;

Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh ;

Red Fort, New Delhi ;

Konark Sun Temple, Orissa ;

Sundarbans National Park, West Bengal ;

Taj Mahal, Uttar Pradesh

HALL TICKET for written examination to the post of: LIBRARIANS IN A.P. INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION SUB-SERVICE NOTIFICATION NO. 43/2008 (General Recruitmen

HALL TICKET for written examination to the post of: LIBRARIANS IN A.P. INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION SUB-SERVICE NOTIFICATION NO. 43/2008 (General Recruitment) CLICK HERE

HALL TICKET for written examination to the post of: ASSISTANT DIRECTOR IN A.P. TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING SERVICE NOTIFICATION NO. 30/2008 (General Rec

HALL TICKET for written examination to the post of: ASSISTANT DIRECTOR IN A.P. TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING SERVICE NOTIFICATION NO. 30/2008 (General Recruitment) CLICK HERE

HALL TICKET for written examination to the post of : Drug Inspector in A.P Drugs Control Administration Service (General Recruitment), Notification No

HALL TICKET for written examination to the post of : Drug Inspector in A.P Drugs Control Administration Service (General Recruitment), Notification No.15/2008 CLICK HERE

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Kiran Kumar Reddy new CM of Andhra Pradesh


Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Konijeti Rosaiah on November 24 stepped down after 14-and-a-half months in office citing “advanced age and work pressure” and Speaker of the Assembly Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy was chosen by the AICC leadership to succeed him.

Fifty-year-old Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy will be sworn in as the 16th Chief Minister by Governor E.S.L Naraimhan at Raj Bhavan at 12.14 p.m. on November 25. The Governor earlier accepted Mr. Rosaiah's resignation and requested him to continue in office till the formation of a new government.

On a day of swift developments, Mr. Rosaiah declared his intention to quit at a press conference in the Secretariat from where he drove to the Raj Bhavan and submitted his resignation. Mr. Rosaiah succeeded Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on September 3, 2009 after the latter was killed in a helicopter crash.

ANDHRA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTERS LIST

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

SPORTS AND SPORTS TERMS


Badminton

Angled Drive Serve, Backhand Low Serve, Bird, Deuce, Double Droup, Fault, Flick Serve, Forehand Smash, Let, Lob, Love All, net Shots, Rush, Smash.

Baseball

Base, Battery, Bunting, Catcher, Diamond, Hitter, Home Infield, Outfield, Pinch, Pitcher Plate, Pullout, Short Stop, Strike.

Basketball

Ball, Basket, Blocking, Dribbling, Free Throw, Held Ball, Holding, Jump Ball, Multiple Throws, Pivot.

Billiards

Baulk Line, Break, Bolting, Cannon, Cue, Hazard, In-off, Jigger, Long jenney, Pot, Scratch, Screw Back, short Stop, Strike.

Boxing

Ausiliary Point System, Babit Punch, Break, Cut, Defence, Down, Hook, Jab, Lying On, Knock, Seconds out, Slam, Upper Cut, Weight In, Win by Knock-out.

Bridge

Auction, Bid, Chicane, Cut, Declarer, Doubleton, Dummy, Finesse, Grand Slam, Little Slam, Notrumps, Over-trick, Revoke, rubber, Ruff, Shuffle, Suit, Vulnerable.

Chess

Bishop, Capture, Castling, Checkmate, En Passant, Gambit, Grand Master, King, Knight, Pawn, Queen, Rook, Stalemate, Under Promoting.

Cricket

Ashes, Banana, Boundary, Bowling, Caught, Chinaman, Cover Drive, Crease, Doosra, Duck, Duckworth-Lewis Rule, Fine Leg, Follow On, Full Toss, Gardening, Googly, Gully, Hat-trick, Hit Wicket, Inswinger, l.b.w., Leg-break, Leg-bye, Leg Glance, late Cut, maiden Over, No Ball, Off Break, On Drive, Out, Outswinger, Over, Mandatory Over, over Pitch, Popping Crease, Rubber, Run Down, Run Out, Short Pitch, Silly Point, Slip, Square Leg, Stone Walling, Straight Drive, Stumped, Short leg, Spin, Swing, Thirdman, Yorker.

Croquet

Hoops, Mallet, Peg Out.

Draughts

Huff

Football

Advantage Clause, Blind Side, Centre Forward, Corner Kick, Dead Ball, Direct Free Kick, Dribble, Goal kick, Golden Goal, Hat-trick, Marking, OffSide, Penalty Kick, Penalty Shootout, Red Card, Striker, Throw In, Tripping.

Golf

Best-ball Foursome, Bogey, Bunker, Caddie, Dormy, Fairway, Fourball, Foursome, Greed Holes, Links, Niblic, Par, Put, Rough, Stymied, Tee, Threesome.

Gymnastics

A-bars, Ariel, Blocks, Cone of Swing, Dish, Flairs, Giants, Inlocate, Kip, Planche, Tariff, Tumble, Virtuosity, Wrap.

Hockey

Advantage, Back-stick, Bully, Cary, Centre Forward, Corner, Dribble, Flick, Free-hit, Goal Line, Green Card, Halfway Line, Hat-trick, Off-side, Red Car, Roll -in, Scoop, Short Corner, Sixteen-yard hit, Square Pass, Stick, Striking Cirele, Tackle, Tie-breaker, Zonal Marking.

Horse Racing

Jockey, Punt, Steeplechase, Thorough Bred.

Judo

Ashi-waza, chui, Dan, Dojo, Gyaku, Hajime, Ippon, Jigotai, Kaeshiwaza, Koka, Makikomi, Nage-waza, O-goshi, Randori, Scarf, Tani-Otoshi, Uchi-komvi, Waki-gatame, Yoshi, Yuko.

Karate

Age Zuki, Ai-uchi, Aka, Chakugan, Dachi, Encho Sen, Fudotachi, Gedan, Geri, Hajime, Ibuki, Jion, Kakato, Koka, Makiwara, Nidan, Obi, Rei, Sanbon, Shiro, Tobigeri, Ude, Waza-ari, Yoko-geri, Zanshin, Zen-no.

Polo

Bunker, Chukker, Mallet.

Rowing

Bow, Bucket, Cow, Ergometer, Feather, Paddle, Regatta.

Rugby Football

A Trackle, Lines, Scrum, Touch, Try.

Shootng

Bag, Bull's Eye, Marksmanship, Muzzle, Plug.

Skiing

Tobogganing.

Swimming

Breast Stroke, Crawl.

Table Tennis

Anti Loop, Backspin, Chop, Loop, Penhold Grip, Push, Spin, Twiddle.

Tennis

Ace, Backhand Stroke, Deuce, Deep Volley, Deuce, Double Fault, Fault, Ground Stroke, Half Volley, Let, Love, Slice, Smash, Volley

Volleyball

Ace, Base-line, Blocking, Doubling, Foot Fault, Heave, Holding, Jump Set, Lob Pass, Love All, Point, Quick Smash, Scouting, Service, Spike, Tactical Ball, Volley, Windmill Service.

Wrestling

Half-Nelson, Head Lock, Heave, Hold, Rebouts, Scissor.

OLYMPIC GAMES

Sites of Summer Olympic
YEAR CITY
1896 Athens
1900 Paris
1904 St. Louis
1908 London
1912 Stockholm
1920 Antwerp
1924 Paris
1928 Amsterdam
1932 Los Angeles
1936 Berlin
1948 London
1952 Helsinki
1956 Melbourne
1960 Rome
1964 Tokyo
1968 Mexico City
1972 Munich
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing
2012 London (Scheduled)

TROPHIES ASSOCIATED WITH VARIOUS SPORTS & GAMES


Air Racing

Jawaharlal Challenge Trophy, King's Cup, World Cup.

Archery

Federation Cup

Athletics

Charminar Trophy, Federation Cup, World Cup.

Badminton

Agarwal Cup, Amrit Diwan Cup, Asia Cup, Austrelasia Cup, Chadha Cup, European Cup, Harilela Cup, Ibrahim Rahimatollah Challenge Cup, Konica Cup, Narng cup, Sophia Kitiakara Cup, Konica Cup, S. R. Ruia Cup, Thomas Cup, Tunku Abdul Rahman Cup, Uber Cup, World Cup, Yonex Cup.

Basketball

Basalat Jha Trophy, B. C. Gupta Trophy, Federation Cup, S. M. Arjuna Raja trophy, Todd Memorial Trophy, William Jones Cup.

Billiards

Arthur Walker Trophy, Thomas Cup.

Boat Rowing

American Cup (Yacht racing), Wellington Trophy (India).

Boxing

Aspy Adjahia Trophy, federation Cup, Val iBaker Trophy.

Bridge

Basalat Jha Trophy, Holkar Trophy, Ruia Gold Cup, Singhania Trophy.

Chess

Naidu Trophy, Khaitan Trophy, Limca Trophy, Linares City Trophy, World Cup.

Cricket

Anthony D'Mellow Trophy, Ashes, Asia Cup, Benson and Hedges Cup, Bose Trophy, Champions Trophy, Charminar Challenge Cup, C. K. Nayudu Trophy, Cooch-Behar Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Gavaskar-Border Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Gavaskar-Border Trophy, G. D. Birla Trophy, Gillette Cup, Ghulam Ahmad Trophy, hakumat Rai Trophy, ICC World Cup, Interface Cup, Irani Trophy, Jawaharlal Nehru Cup, Lombard World Challenge Cup, McDowells Challenge Cup, Merchant Trophy, Moin-ud-Dowla Cup, NatWest Trophy, Prudential Cup (World Cup), Rani Jhansi Trophy, Ranji Trophy, Rohinton Baria Trophy, Rothmans Cup, Sahara Cup, Sharjah Cup, Sheesh Mahal Trophy, Sheffield Shield, Singer Cup, Sir Frank Worrel Trophy, Texaco Cup, Titan Cup, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Vijay Merchant Trophy, Vizzy Trophy, Wisden Trophy, Wills Trophy, World Series Cup.

Football

African Natons Cup, Airlines Cup, america Cup, Asia Cup, Asian Women's Cup, Bandodkar Trophy, B. C. Roy Trophy, Begum Hazrat Mahal Cup, Bicentennial Gold Cup, BILT Cup, Bordoloi Trophy, Colombo Cup, Confederations Cup, DCM Cup, Durand Cup, European Cup, FA Cup, Federation Cup, G. V. Raja Memorial Trophy, gold Cup, Governor's Cup, Greek Cup, Great Wall Cup, IFA Shield, Independence Day Cup, Indira Gandhi Trophy, Inter-Continental Cup, Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Cup, Jules Rimet Trophy, Kalinga Cup, Kings Cup, Kirin Cup, Lal Bahadur Shastri Trophy, McDowell Cup, Merdeka Cup, Nagjee Trophy, Naidunia Trophy, Nations Cup, NFL Trophy, Nehru Gold Cup, Nizam Gold Cup, Raghbir Singh Memorial Cup, Rajiv Gandhi Trophy, Rovers Cup, Sanjay Gold Cup, Santosh Trophy, Scissors Cup, Sir Ashutohs Mukherjee Trophy, Stafford Cup, Subroto Cup, Supercup Trophy, Todd Memorial Trophy, UEFA Cup, US Cup, Vittal Trophy, Winner's Cup, World Cup.

Golf

Canada Cup, Eisenhower Trophy, Inter-Continental Cup, Maekyung LG Fashion Open Trophy, Muthiah Gold Cup, Nomura Trophy, Paralamdi Trophy, President's Trophy, Prince of Wales Cup, Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, Topolino Trophy, Walker Cup, Waterford Crystal Trophy, World Cup.

Hockey

Agha Khan Cup, Allwyn Asia Cup, Azlan Shah Cup, Beighton Cup, Bhim Sain Trophy, BMW Trophy, Bombay Gold Cup, Champions Trophy, Clarke Trophy, Dhyan Chand Trophy, Esanda Champions Cup, European Nations Cup, Gurmeet Trophy, Guru Nanak Cup, Gyanvati Devi Trophy, Indira Gandhi Gold Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Cup, Kuppuswamy Naidu Cup, Lady Rattan Tata Cup (women), Lal Bahadur Shastri Cup, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Gold Cup, Modi Gold Cup, Murugappa Gold Cup, Nehru Trophy, Obaidullah Gold Cup, Prime Minister's Gold cup, Rangaswami Cup, Ranjit Singh Gold Cup, Rene Frank Trophy, Sanjay Gandhi Trophy, Scindia gold Cup, Shriram Trophy, Tunku Abdul Razak Cup, Wellington Cup, World Cup, Yadavindra Cup.

Horse Racing

Beresford Cup, Blue Riband, Derby, Grand Natonal Cup.

Kabaddi

Federation Cup

Kho-Kho

Federation Cup

Netball

Anantrao Pawar Trophy.

Polo

Ezar Cup, Gold Cup, King's Cup, President Cup, Prithi Singh Cup, Radha Mohan Cup, Winchester Cup.

Rowing

Beefeather's Gin.

Rugby Football

Bledisloe Cup; Calcutta Cup, Webb Ellis Trophy.

Shootng

North Wales Cup, Welsh Grand Prix.

Snooker

Team Tournament Asean Cup.

Table Tennis

Asian Cup, Berna Bellack Cup, Corbillion Cup (women), Electra Gold Cup, Gasper-Giest Prize, Grand Prix, Jayalaxmi Cup (women), Kamala Ramanunjan Cup, Marcel Corbillon Cup, Pithapuram Cup (men), Swaythling Cup (men), Travancore Cup (women), U Thant Cup, World Cup.

Tennis

Ambre Solaire Cup, A T&T Cup, Champions Cup, ATP President's Cup, Davis Cup, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Cup, Edgbaston Cup, Evert Cup, Federation Cup, Ghafar Cup, Grand Prix, Grand Slam Cup, Nations' Cup, Watson's Water Trophy, Wightman Cup, Wimbledon Trophy, World Cup, World Team Cup.

Volleyball

Centennial Cup, Federation Cup, Indira Pradhan Trophy, Shivanthi Gold Cup, World Cup, World League Cup.

Weightlifting

World Cup.

Wrestling

Bharat Kesari, Burdwan Shield, World Cup.

Yachting

America Cup

Air Racing

Jawaharlal Challenge Trophy, King's Cup, World Cup.

Archery

Federation Cup

Athletics

Charminar Trophy, Federation Cup, World Cup.

Badminton

Agarwal Cup, Amrit Diwan Cup, Asia Cup, Austrelasia Cup, Chadha Cup, European Cup, Harilela Cup, Ibrahim Rahimatollah Challenge Cup, Konica Cup, Narng cup, Sophia Kitiakara Cup, Konica Cup, S. R. Ruia Cup, Thomas Cup, Tunku Abdul Rahman Cup, Uber Cup, World Cup, Yonex Cup.

Basketball

Basalat Jha Trophy, B. C. Gupta Trophy, Federation Cup, S. M. Arjuna Raja trophy, Todd Memorial Trophy, William Jones Cup.

Billiards

Arthur Walker Trophy, Thomas Cup.

Boat Rowing

American Cup (Yacht racing), Wellington Trophy (India).

Boxing

Aspy Adjahia Trophy, federation Cup, Val iBaker Trophy.

Bridge

Basalat Jha Trophy, Holkar Trophy, Ruia Gold Cup, Singhania Trophy.

Chess

Naidu Trophy, Khaitan Trophy, Limca Trophy, Linares City Trophy, World Cup.

Cricket

Anthony D'Mellow Trophy, Ashes, Asia Cup, Benson and Hedges Cup, Bose Trophy, Champions Trophy, Charminar Challenge Cup, C. K. Nayudu Trophy, Cooch-Behar Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Gavaskar-Border Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Gavaskar-Border Trophy, G. D. Birla Trophy, Gillette Cup, Ghulam Ahmad Trophy, hakumat Rai Trophy, ICC World Cup, Interface Cup, Irani Trophy, Jawaharlal Nehru Cup, Lombard World Challenge Cup, McDowells Challenge Cup, Merchant Trophy, Moin-ud-Dowla Cup, NatWest Trophy, Prudential Cup (World Cup), Rani Jhansi Trophy, Ranji Trophy, Rohinton Baria Trophy, Rothmans Cup, Sahara Cup, Sharjah Cup, Sheesh Mahal Trophy, Sheffield Shield, Singer Cup, Sir Frank Worrel Trophy, Texaco Cup, Titan Cup, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Vijay Merchant Trophy, Vizzy Trophy, Wisden Trophy, Wills Trophy, World Series Cup.

Football

African Natons Cup, Airlines Cup, america Cup, Asia Cup, Asian Women's Cup, Bandodkar Trophy, B. C. Roy Trophy, Begum Hazrat Mahal Cup, Bicentennial Gold Cup, BILT Cup, Bordoloi Trophy, Colombo Cup, Confederations Cup, DCM Cup, Durand Cup, European Cup, FA Cup, Federation Cup, G. V. Raja Memorial Trophy, gold Cup, Governor's Cup, Greek Cup, Great Wall Cup, IFA Shield, Independence Day Cup, Indira Gandhi Trophy, Inter-Continental Cup, Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Cup, Jules Rimet Trophy, Kalinga Cup, Kings Cup, Kirin Cup, Lal Bahadur Shastri Trophy, McDowell Cup, Merdeka Cup, Nagjee Trophy, Naidunia Trophy, Nations Cup, NFL Trophy, Nehru Gold Cup, Nizam Gold Cup, Raghbir Singh Memorial Cup, Rajiv Gandhi Trophy, Rovers Cup, Sanjay Gold Cup, Santosh Trophy, Scissors Cup, Sir Ashutohs Mukherjee Trophy, Stafford Cup, Subroto Cup, Supercup Trophy, Todd Memorial Trophy, UEFA Cup, US Cup, Vittal Trophy, Winner's Cup, World Cup.

Golf

Canada Cup, Eisenhower Trophy, Inter-Continental Cup, Maekyung LG Fashion Open Trophy, Muthiah Gold Cup, Nomura Trophy, Paralamdi Trophy, President's Trophy, Prince of Wales Cup, Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, Topolino Trophy, Walker Cup, Waterford Crystal Trophy, World Cup.

Hockey

Agha Khan Cup, Allwyn Asia Cup, Azlan Shah Cup, Beighton Cup, Bhim Sain Trophy, BMW Trophy, Bombay Gold Cup, Champions Trophy, Clarke Trophy, Dhyan Chand Trophy, Esanda Champions Cup, European Nations Cup, Gurmeet Trophy, Guru Nanak Cup, Gyanvati Devi Trophy, Indira Gandhi Gold Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Cup, Kuppuswamy Naidu Cup, Lady Rattan Tata Cup (women), Lal Bahadur Shastri Cup, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Gold Cup, Modi Gold Cup, Murugappa Gold Cup, Nehru Trophy, Obaidullah Gold Cup, Prime Minister's Gold cup, Rangaswami Cup, Ranjit Singh Gold Cup, Rene Frank Trophy, Sanjay Gandhi Trophy, Scindia gold Cup, Shriram Trophy, Tunku Abdul Razak Cup, Wellington Cup, World Cup, Yadavindra Cup.

Horse Racing

Beresford Cup, Blue Riband, Derby, Grand Natonal Cup.

Kabaddi

Federation Cup

Kho-Kho

Federation Cup

Netball

Anantrao Pawar Trophy.

Polo

Ezar Cup, Gold Cup, King's Cup, President Cup, Prithi Singh Cup, Radha Mohan Cup, Winchester Cup.

Rowing

Beefeather's Gin.

Rugby Football

Bledisloe Cup; Calcutta Cup, Webb Ellis Trophy.

Shootng

North Wales Cup, Welsh Grand Prix.

Snooker

Team Tournament Asean Cup.

Table Tennis

Asian Cup, Berna Bellack Cup, Corbillion Cup (women), Electra Gold Cup, Gasper-Giest Prize, Grand Prix, Jayalaxmi Cup (women), Kamala Ramanunjan Cup, Marcel Corbillon Cup, Pithapuram Cup (men), Swaythling Cup (men), Travancore Cup (women), U Thant Cup, World Cup.

Tennis

Ambre Solaire Cup, A T&T Cup, Champions Cup, ATP President's Cup, Davis Cup, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Cup, Edgbaston Cup, Evert Cup, Federation Cup, Ghafar Cup, Grand Prix, Grand Slam Cup, Nations' Cup, Watson's Water Trophy, Wightman Cup, Wimbledon Trophy, World Cup, World Team Cup.

Volleyball

Centennial Cup, Federation Cup, Indira Pradhan Trophy, Shivanthi Gold Cup, World Cup, World League Cup.

Weightlifting

World Cup.

Wrestling

Bharat Kesari, Burdwan Shield, World Cup.

Yachting

America Cup

AREA/MEASUREMENTS OF VARIOUS SPORTS FIELDS


Badminton

44ft by 20ft. (doubles); 44ft. By 17 ft (singles)

Baseball

Diamond shaped ground; 90ft on each side and 127ft. Along the diagonal

Basketball

85ft by 46ft (maximum dimensions)

Billiards

10ft. Long, 5ft. Side and 3ft. High

Cricket

Ground: Round or oval shaped; Wickets: 22 yds. Apart; Ball: 8 13/14 to 9 inches in circumference and 5 3/4 oz. in weight; Bat: 4 1/4 inches maximum width and 38 inches maximum length; Bowling crease: 8 ft. and 8 inches in length; Popping crease: 4 ft. fro

Derby Course

1 1/2 miles (2.4 km).

Football

Length: 100 yds. To 130 yds.; breadth 50 yds; Goal width: 8 yds., Bar: 8 ft. from ground; Area 6 yds., from each goal-post; Ball: 27 inches to 28 inches in circmference; Duration: 90 minutes maximum.

Golf

Hole 4 1/2 inches; Ball: 1 1/2 oz. in weight.

Hockey

Ground 100 yds. By 55 to 60 yds.; Duration of game: two periods of 30 minutes each plus extra time in case of draw or suspension of game for some reason; Goal perpendicular posts: 8 yds. Apart joined together by a horizontal cross bar 7 ft. from ground; B

Marathon Race

26 miles, 385 yards.

Polo

Ground: 300 yds. By 200 yds.

Table Tennis

9 ft. x 6 ft. x 2 1/2 ft.

Tennis

78 ft. by 28 ft. (singles), 78 ft. by 36 ft. (doubles).

Volleyball

Rectangular 30 ft. by 30 ft.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

PRATIYOGITA DARPAN DECEMBER 2010 MAGAZINE

FOR PRATIYOGITA DARPAN DECEMBER 2010 MAGAZINE CLICK HERE

Human Development Report 2010



The 2010 HD Report by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), titled “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development” celebrates the contributions of the human development approach, which is as relevant as ever to making sense of our changing world and finding ways to improve people’s well-being. The Report is also about how the human development approach can adjust to meet the challenges of the new millennium.

India is ranked 119 out of 169 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) of the UNDP’s 2010 Human Development Report. This marks an improvement of just one rank between 2005 and 2010 though the report, a special 20th anniversary edition, places India among top 10 performers globally in terms of HDI measured on income growth. The category is led by China. India comes 10th after Botswana, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Mauritius.

China has improved eight notches (from 2005 to 2010) to secure the 89th position. In South Asia, Nepal has gained five places to reach the 138th rank. Maldives has risen four places to 107; Sri Lanka at 91 too has pipped India in the rankings though Pakistan has lost two ranks to fall to 125, while Bangladesh is up one at 129.

Though high on GDP growth, India reports severe inequalities (the report for the first time measures inequalities, gender gaps and multidimensional poverty as markers of human development) while several low-income nations have posted huge profits by investing in education and health. Nepal is the only South Asian country, which despite low income, stands as the third best performer in the top 10 movers the report highlights.

While the Congress-led UPA Government can take heart from the fact that India’s HDI value has increased from 0.320 in 1980 to 0.519 in 2010, higher than South Asia’s average of 0.516, India still lags behind among medium HD nations. South Asia, particularly India, post shocking percentage losses in HDI values if inequalities are counted.

South Asia loses 33 per cent of its HDI value if health, education and income disparities are factored in. This is the second largest loss after sub-Saharan Africa’s. India fares particularly poorly here, losing 30 per cent overall on the inequality-adjusted HDI. This loss includes 31.3 per cent loss on inequality-adjusted life expectancy index; 40.6 per cent loss on education but only 14.6 per cent loss in income-adjusted HDI index.

The best HDI ranker in the world, Norway, loses just 6.6 per cent to inequality while China loses 23 per cent and Bangladesh 29.4 per cent.

On all major markers of human development, India’s neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan beat it. India’s life expectancy at birth is among the lowest, 64.4 years as against China’s 73.5; Bangladesh’s 66.9, Pakistan’s 67.2 and Nepal’s 67.5. In mean years of schooling too, India lags behind recording 4.4 years while China has 7.5; Pakistan 4.9 and Bangladesh 4.8. On female labour force participation too, Bangladesh with 61 per cent is much ahead of India, which has just 31 per cent.

The 2010 report uses several new methodologies; hence its indicators are not comparable to those in the earlier reports.

Human development is about sustaining positive outcomes steadily over time and combating processes that impoverish people or underpin oppression and structural injustice. Plural principles such as equity, sustainability and respect for human rights are the key.

Human development is also the expansion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet. People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups. This reaffirmation underlines the core of human development—its themes of sustainability, equity and empowerment and its inherent flexibility. Because gains might be fragile and vulnerable to reversal and because future generations must be treated justly, special efforts are needed to ensure that human development endures—that it is sustainable.

A major contribution of 2010 HDR is the systematic assessment of trends in key components of human development over the past 40 years. This retrospective assessment, an important objective for the 20th anniversary, is the most comprehensive analysis of the HDR to date and yields important new insights.

In some basic respects the world is a much better place today than it was in 1990—or in 1970. Over the past 20 years many people around the world have experienced dramatic improvements in key aspects of their lives. Overall, they are healthier, more educated and wealthier and have more power to appoint and hold their leaders accountable than ever before.

The world’s average HDI has increased 18 percent since 1990 (and 41 percent since 1970), reflecting large aggregate improvements in life expectancy, school enrolment, literacy and income. But there has also been considerable variability in experience and much volatility, themes to which we return below.

Almost all countries have benefited from this progress. Of 135 countries in our sample for 1970–2010, with 92 percent of the world’s people, only 3—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe—have a lower HDI today than in 1970.

Overall, poor countries are catching up with rich countries in the HDI. This convergence paints a far more optimistic picture than a perspective limited to trends in income, where divergence has continued. But not all countries have seen rapid progress, and the variations are striking. Those experiencing the slowest progress are countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, struck by the HIV epidemic, and countries in the former Soviet Union, suffering increased adult mortality.

The top HDI movers (countries that have made the greatest progress in improving the HDI) include well known income “growth miracles” such as China, Indonesia and South Korea. But they include others—such as Nepal, Oman and Tunisia—where progress in the non-income dimensions of human development has been equally remarkable. It is striking that the top 10 list contains several countries not typically described as top performers. And Ethiopia comes in 11th, with three other Sub-Saharan African countries (Botswana, Beninand Burkina Faso) in the top 25.

Not all countries have progressed rapidly, and the variation is striking. Over the past 40 years a quarter of developing countries saw their HDI increase less than 20 percent, another quarter, more than 65 percent. These differences partly reflect different starting points—less developed countries have on average faster progress in health and education than more developed ones do. But half the variation in HDI performance is unexplained by initial HDI, and countries with similar starting points experience remarkably different evolutions, suggesting that country factors such as policies, institutions and geography are important.

Health advances have been large but are slowing. The slowdown in aggregate progress is due largely to dramatic reversals in 19 countries. In nine of them—six in Sub-Saharan Africa and three in the former Soviet Union—life expectancy has fallen below 1970 levels. The causes of these declines are the HIV epidemic and increased adult mortality in transition countries.

Progress in education has been substantial and widespread, reflecting not only improvements in the quantity of schooling but also in the equity of access to education for girls and boys. To a large extent this progress reflects greater State involvement, which is often characterized more by getting children into school than by imparting a high-quality education.

Progress in income varies much more. However, despite aggregate progress, there is no convergence in income—in contrast to health and education—because on average rich countries have grown faster than poor ones over the past 40 years. The divide between developed and developing countries persists: a small subset of countries has remained at the top of the world income distribution, and only a handful of countries that started out poor have joined that high-income group.

Understanding the Patterns and Drivers of Human Development
One of the most surprising results of human development research in recent years is the lack of a significant correlation between economic growth and improvements in health and education. Research shows that this relationship is particularly weak at low and medium levels of the HDI. This is traceable to changes in how people become healthier and more educated. The correlation in levels today, which contrasts with the absence of correlation in changes over time, is a snapshot that reflects historical patterns, as countries that became rich were the only ones able to pay for costly advances in health and education. But technological improvements and changes in societal structures allow even poorer countries today to realize significant gains.

The unprecedented flows of ideas across countries in recent times—ranging from health-saving technologies to political ideals and to productive practices—have been transformative. Many innovations have allowed countries to improve health and education at very low cost—which explains why the association between the income and non-income dimensions of human development has weakened over time.

Income and growth remain vital. Income growth can indicate that opportunities for decent work are expanding—though this is not always so—and economic contractions and associated job losses are bad news for people around the world. Income is also the source of the taxes and other revenues that governments need in order to provide services and undertake redistributive programs. Thus, increasing income on a broad basis remains an important policy priority.

One important aspect is how relationships between markets and States are organized. Governments have addressed, in a range of ways, the tension between the need for markets to generate income and dynamism and the need to deal with market failures. Markets may be necessary for sustained economic dynamism, but they do not automatically bring progress in other dimensions of human development. Development that overly favours rapid economic growth is rarely sustainable. In other words, a market economy is necessary, but not enough.

Regulation, however, requires a capable State as well as political commitment, and State capability is often in short supply. Some developing country governments have tried to mimic the actions of a modern developed State without having the resources or the capacity to do so. For example, import substitution regimes in many Latin American countries floundered when countries tried to develop a targeted industrial policy. In contrast, an important lesson of the East Asian successes was that a capable, focused State can help drive development and the growth of markets. What is possible and appropriate is context specific.

Beyond the State, civil society actors have demonstrated the potential to curb the excesses of both the market and the State, though governments seeking to control dissent can restrict civil society activity.

The dynamics can be virtuous when countries transition to both inclusive market institutions and inclusive political institutions. But this is difficult and rare. Oligarchic capitalism tends to spell its own demise, either because it stifles the productive engines of innovation—as in the failed import substitution regimes of Latin America and the Caribbean—or because material progress increases people’s aspirations and challenges the narrow elite’s grip on power, as in Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea since the 1990s.

Human development is not only about health, education and income. Even when countries progress in the HDI, they do not necessarily excel in the broader dimensions. It is possible to have a high HDI and be unsustainable, undemocratic and unequal just as it is possible to have a low HDI and be relatively sustainable, democratic and equal. These patterns pose important challenges for how we think about human development, its measurement and the policies to improve outcomes and processes over time.

Trends conducive to empowerment include the vast increases in literacy and educational attainment in many parts of the world that have strengthened people’s ability to make informed choices and hold governments accountable. The scope for empowerment and its expression have broadened, through both technology and institutions. In particular, the proliferation of mobile telephony and satellite television and increased access to the Internet has vastly increased the availability of information and the ability to voice opinions.

The share of formal democracies has increased from less than a third of countries in 1970 to half in the mid-1990s and to three-fifths in 2008. Many hybrid forms of political organization have emerged. While real change and healthy political functioning have varied, and many formal democracies are flawed and fragile, policy-making is much better informed by the views and concerns of citizens. Local democratic processes are deepening. Political struggles have led to substantial change in many countries, greatly expanding the representation of traditionally marginalized people, including women, the poor, indigenous groups, refugees and sexual minorities.

Recent years have also exposed the fragility of some of the achievement—perhaps best illustrated by the biggest financial crisis in several decades, which caused 34 million people to lose their jobs and 64 million more people to fall below the $1.25 a day income poverty threshold. The risk of a “double-dip” recession remains, and a full recovery could take years.

But perhaps the greatest challenge to maintaining progress in human development comes from the un-sustainability of production and consumption patterns. For human development to become truly sustainable, the close link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be severed. Some developed countries have begun to alleviate the worst effects through recycling and investment in public transport and infrastructure. But most developing countries are hampered by the high costs and low availability of clean energy.

New measures for an evolving reality
Over the years the HDR has introduced new measures to evaluate progress in reducing poverty and empowering women. But lack of reliable data has been a major constraint. This year HDR has introduced three new indices to capture important aspects of the distribution of well-being for inequality, gender equity and poverty. They reflect advances in methods and better data availability.

Adjusting the Human Development Index for inequality. Reflecting inequality in each dimension of the HDI addresses an objective first stated in the 1990 HDR. 2010 report introduces the Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI), a measure of the level of human development of people in a society that accounts for inequality. Under perfect equality the HDI and the IHDI are equal. When there is inequality in the distribution of health, education and income, the HDI of an average person in a society is less than the aggregate HDI; the lower the IHDI (and the greater the difference between it and the HDI), the greater the inequality.

A new measure of gender inequality. The disadvantages facing women and girls are a major source of inequality. All too often, women and girls are discriminated against in health, education and the labour market—with negative repercussions for their freedoms. A new measure of these inequalities, built on the same framework as the HDI and the IHDI—to better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men—has been introduced. The Gender Inequality Index shows that gender inequality varies tremendously across countries—the losses in achievement due to gender inequality (not directly comparable to total inequality losses because different variables are used) range from 17 percent to 85 percent. The Netherlands tops the list of the most gender-equal countries, followed by Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.

Countries with unequal distribution of human development also experience high inequality between women and men, and countries with high gender inequality also experience unequal distribution of human development. Among the countries doing very badly on both fronts are Central African Republic, Haiti and Mozambique.

A multidimensional measure of poverty. Like development, poverty is multidimensional—but this is traditionally ignored by headline figures. 2010 report introduces the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which complements money-based measures by considering multiple deprivations and their overlap. The index identifies deprivations across the same three dimensions as the HDI and shows the number of people who are poor (suffering a given number of deprivations) and the number of deprivations with which poor households typically contend. It can be de-constructed by region, ethnicity and other groupings as well as by dimension, making it an apt tool for policy-makers.

About 1.75 billion people in the 104 countries covered by the MPI—a third of their population—live in multidimensional poverty—that is, with at least 30 percent of the indicators reflecting acute deprivation in health, education and standard of living. This exceeds the estimated 1.44 billion people in those countries who live on $1.25 a day or less (though it is below the share who live on $2 or less). The patterns of deprivation also differ from those of income poverty in important ways: in many countries—including Ethiopia and Guatemala— the number of people who are multi-dimensionally poor is higher. However, in about a fourth of the countries for which both estimates are available—including China, Tanzania and Uzbekistan—rates of income poverty are higher.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of multi-dimensional poverty. The level ranges from a low of 3 percent in South Africa to a massive 93 percent in Niger; the average share of deprivations ranges from about 45 percent (in Gabon, Lesotho and Swaziland) to 69 percent (in Niger). Yet half the world’s multi-dimensionally poor live in South Asia (844 million people), and more than a quarter live in Africa (458 million).

The impacts of the HDR have illustrated that policy thinking can be informed and stimulated by deeper exploration into key dimensions of human development. An important element of this tradition is a rich agenda of research and analysis. This Report suggests ways to move this agenda forward through better data and trend analysis. But much is left to do.

Three priorities are: improving data and analysis to inform debates, providing an alternative to conventional approaches to studying development, and increasing our understanding of inequality, empowerment, vulnerability and sustainability.

The economics of growth and its relationship with development, in particular, require radical rethinking. A vast theoretical and empirical literature almost uniformly equates economic growth with development. Its models typically assume that people care only about consumption; its empirical applications concentrate almost exclusively on the effect of policies and institutions on economic growth.

The central contention of the human development approach, by contrast, is that well-being is about much more than money: it is about the possibilities that people have to fulfil the life plans they have reason to choose and pursue. Thus, our call for a new economics—an economics of human development—in which the objective is to further human well-being and in which growth and other policies are evaluated and pursued vigorously insofar as they advance human development in the short and long term.

Indigenous Peoples and Inequality in Human Development
An estimated 300 million indigenous peoples from more than 5,000 groups live in more than 70 countries. Some two-thirds reside in China.1 Indigenous peoples often face structural disadvantages and have worse human development outcomes in key respects. For example, recent Mexican government analyses show that while extreme multidimensional poverty is 10.5 percent nationally, it exceeds 39 percent among indigenous Mexicans.

When the Human Development Index (HDI) is calculated for aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, there is a consistent gap of 6–18 percent. Indigenous peoples in these countries have lower life expectancy, poorer education outcomes and smaller incomes. In India 92 percent of people of Scheduled Tribes live in rural areas, 47 percent of them in poverty. In Chhattisgarh, with a sizeable share of Scheduled Tribes, the State-wide literacy rate is 64 percent—but that of tribal peoples is only 22 percent.

Some evidence suggests that a schooling gap between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples remains. In China, India and Lao PDR geography, climate and discrimination based on ethnicity make it difficult to deliver basic infrastructure to remote areas, where many indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities live.

Work in Latin America and the Caribbean exploring access to land and this aspect of discrimination shows that a focus on broad-based economic growth can benefit indigenous peoples but is unlikely to be enough to close the gap. More targeted strategies are needed, as proposed by indigenous peoples and as informed by their views and priorities.

Three Success Stories in Advancing the Human Development Index
Some countries have succeeded in achieving high human development following different pathways.

Nepal—major public policy push. That Nepal is one of the fastest movers in the Human Development Index (HDI) since 1970 is perhaps surprising in light of the country’s difficult circumstances and record of conflict. Nepal’s impressive progress in health and education can be traced to major public policy efforts. Free primary education for all children was legislated in 1971 and extended to secondary education in 2007. Gross enrolment rates soared, as did literacy later on. Remarkable reductions in infant mortality reflect more general successes in health following the extension of primary healthcare through community participation, local mobilization of resources and decentralization. The gap between Nepal’s life expectancy and the world average has narrowed by 87 percent over the past 40 years. By contrast, economic growth was modest, and the lack of jobs led many Nepalese to seek opportunities abroad.

Nepal is still a poor country, with enormous scope to improve human development. It ranks 138th of 169 countries in the HDI. Large disparities in school attendance and the quality of education persist, particularly between urban and rural areas and across ethnic groups. Major health challenges remain, related to communicable diseases and malnutrition.

Oman—converting oil to health and education. Oman has had the fastest progress in the HDI. Abundant oil and gas were discovered in the late 1960s, so our data capture the evolution from a very poor to a very rich country, showing a quadrupling of gross enrolment and literacy rates and a 27-year increase in life expectancy.

But even in Oman economic growth is not the whole story. Although first in HDI progress, it ranks 26th in economic growth since 1970, when it had three primary schools and one vocational institute. Its initiatives to convert oil wealth into education included expanding access and adopting policies to match skills to labour market needs. Health services also improved: from 1970 to 2000 government spending on health rose almost six-fold—much faster than GDP.

Tunisia—education a policy focus. Tunisia’s success extends to all three dimensions of the HDI, with education a major policy focus. School enrolment has risen substantially, particularly after the country legislated 10 years of compulsory education in 1991. There has also been some progress in gender equity: about 6 of 10 university students are women. But large inequalities persist, as Tunisia’s modest (56th of 138 countries) ranking on our new Gender Inequality Index demonstrates.

Rapid decline in fertility and high vaccination rates for measles and tuberculosis have yielded successes in health, as has eradication of polio, cholera, diphtheria and malaria. Annual per capita income growth has been around 3 percent over the past 40 years, linked to fiscal and monetary prudence and investment in transport and communication infrastructure.

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) of 2005, the world’s largest public works programme ever, provides basic social security for rural workers: a universal and legally enforceable right to 100 days of employment per rural household on local public works at minimum wage. Labourers who are not given work within 15 days of asking for it are entitled to unemployment benefits.

The act has other noteworthy features:
  • Encouraging women’s participation. A third of employment generated is to be set aside for women and provided within 5 kilometres of their village; child care facilities (if required) must be provided at the work-site.
  • Decentralizing planning and implementation. At least half of allocated funds are to be spent by elected local councils; village assemblies are to select and prioritize projects.
  • Creating rural assets. People are to be employed to create public assets (such as roads and check-dams) as well as assets on private lands (such as land improvement and wells).
  • Imposing strict norms for transparency and accountability. All documents are to be publicly available, with proactive disclosure of essential documents (such as attendance records), and periodic audits are to be carried out by village representatives. In fiscal year 2009/2010 India spent almost $10 billion (approximately 1 percent of GDP) on the programme, and 53 million households participated.

On average, each participating household worked for 54 days. Disadvantaged groups joined in large numbers; a majority of workers were members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, and more than half were women.

Payments of minimum wages and improved work conditions at NREGA work-sites have created pressure for similar improvements in the private labour market, benefiting all rural workers. Distress migration to urban areas has slowed. And for many rural women programme earnings are an important source of economic independence. As Haski, a tribal woman from Rajasthan, said when asked who decided how programme wages should be spent: “Main ghar ki mukhiya hoon” (I am the head of the household).

Refining the Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) remains an aggregate measure of progress in three dimensions—health, education and income. But in 2010 report the indicators used to measure progress in education and income have been modified, and the way they are aggregated has been changed.

In the knowledge dimension mean years of schooling replaces literacy, and gross enrolment is recast as expected years of schooling—the years of schooling that a child can expect to receive given current enrolment rates. Mean years of schooling is estimated more frequently for more countries and can discriminate better among countries, while expected years of schooling is consistent with the reframing of this dimension in terms of years. Ideally, measures of the knowledge dimension would go beyond estimating quantity to assessing quality, as several National and Regional Human Development Reports (HDRs) have done.

To measure the standard of living, gross national income (GNI) per capita replaces gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In a globalized world differences are often large between the income of a country’s residents and its domestic production. Some of the income residents earn is sent abroad, some residents receive international remittances and some countries receive sizeable aid flows. For example, because of large remittances from abroad, GNI in the Philippines greatly exceeds GDP, and because of international aid, Timor-Leste’s GNI is many times domestic output.

A key change was to shift to a geometric mean (which measures the typical value of a set of numbers): thus in 2010 the HDI is the geometric mean of the three dimension indices. Poor performance in any dimension is now directly reflected in the HDI, and there is no longer perfect substitutability across dimensions. This method captures how well rounded a country’s performance is across the three dimensions. As a basis for comparisons of achievement, this method is also more respectful of the intrinsic differences in the dimensions than a simple average is. It recognizes that health, education and income are all important, but also that it is hard to compare these different dimensions of well-being and that we should not let changes in any of them go unnoticed.

Income is instrumental to human development but higher incomes have a declining contribution to human development. And the maximum values in each dimension have been shifted to the observed maximum, rather than a predefined cut-off beyond which achievements are ignored.

OBJECTIVE INDIAN HISTORY QUESTIONS

1. ‘Charak’ was the famous court Physician of—
(A) Harsha
(B) Chandragupta Maurya
(C) Ashoka
(D) Kanishka
Ans : (D)

2. Who was the greatest Bhakti poet of Maharashtra ?
(A) Ramdas
(B) Tukaram
(C) Namdeva
(D) Eknath
Ans : (C)

3. The foreign traveller who visited India during the Mughal period and who left us an expert’s description of the Peacock Throne was—
(A) Geronimo Verroneo
(B) ‘Omrah’ Danishmand Khan
(C) Travernier
(D) Francisco Palsaert
Ans : (C)

4. Who founded the Home Rule League in Calcutta in 1916 A.D. ?
(A) Bipin Chandra Pal
(B) Arvind Ghosh
(C) Lokmanya Tilak
(D) Mrs. Annie Besant
Ans : (D)

5. The dead body of Babur by his own choice lies buried in—
(A) Agra
(B) Farghana
(C) Samarqand
(D) Kabul
Ans : (D)


6. The Government of India Act, 1919 is known as—
(A) Morley—Minto Reforms
(B) Montagu—Chelmsford Reforms
(C) Regulating Act
(D) Pitts India Act
Ans : (B)

7. Who is called the ‘Father of the Indian National Congress’ ?
(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) A.O. Hume
(C) Lokmanya Tilak
(D) Surendranath Banerjee
Ans : (B)

8. ‘Ashtangika Marg’ the path for the elimination of human misery, was propounded by—
(A) Mahavira
(B) Gautam Buddha
(C) Adi Shankaracharya
(D) Kabir
Ans : (B)

9. The number system ‘Zero’ was invented by—
(A) Ramanujam
(B) Aryabhatta
(C) Patanjali
(D) An unknown person
Ans : (B)

10. Mahatma Gandhi owed his inspiration for civil disobedience and non-payment of taxes to—
(A) Thoreau
(B) Leo Tolstoy
(C) John Ruskin
(D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Ans : (B)

11. Satyashodhak Samaj was formed by—
(A) Raja Rammohan Roy
(B) Shri Narayana Guru
(C) Jotirao Govindrao Phule
(D) Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ans : (C)

12. Partition of Bengal was done by—
(A) Lord Dalhousie
(B) Lord Curzon
(C) Lord Warren Hastings
(D) Lord Ripon
Ans : (B)

13. National song ‘Vande Mataram’ was composed by—
(A) Rabindra Nath Tagore
(B) Ram Prasad Bismil
(C) Sarojini Naidu
(D) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Ans : (D)

14. Ghoomar is a dance form from—
(A) Jammu and Kashmir
(B) Punjab
(C) Himachal Pradesh
(D) Rajasthan
Ans : (D)

15. The words ‘Satyameva Jayate’ inscribed below the base plate of the emblem of India are taken from—
(A) Ramayana
(B) Mundak Upanishad
(C) Rigveda
(D) None of these
Ans : (B)

16. Who among the following established the Central Hindu College at Benaras, in 1898 which later formed the nucleus of the Benaras Hindu University ?
(A) Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya
(B) Lord Dufferin
(C) Annie Besant
(D) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ans : (A)

17. Which one of the following is not correctly matched ?
(A) Pandit Krishan Maharaj : Tabla
(B) Pandit Birju Maharaj : Sarod
(C) Ustad Bismillah Khan : Shehnai
(D) Ustad Vilayat Khan : Sitar
Ans : (B)

18. Under whose patronage was the Khandariya Mahadeo Temple at Khajuraho built ?
(A) Solankis
(B) Rashtrakutas
(C) Tomaras
(D) Chandellas
Ans : (D)

19. Who among the following Mughal rulers granted the English Company Diwani over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa by Treaty of Allahabad ?
(A) Ahmad Shah
(B) Alamgir II
(C) Shah Alam II
(D) Akbar Shah II
Ans : (C)

20. During the Indian freedom struggle, what accusation was made against Master Amir Chand, Awadh Bihari, Bal Mukund and Basant Kumar Biswas ?
(A) Assassination of the Commissioner of Poona
(B) Throwing a bomb on ‘Viceroy’s procession in Delhi
(C) Attempt to shoot the Governor of Punjab
(D) Looting an armoury in Bengal
Ans : (B)

OBJECTIVE INDIAN HISTORY QUESTIONS

1. Which among the following is referred to as the Montague Chelmsford Reforms ?
(A) Indian Council, 1909
(B) Government of India Act, 1919
(C) Rowlatt Act
(D) Government of India Act, 1935
Ans : (B)

2. Who was the Governor General when the Revolt of 1857 started ?
(A) Lord Canning
(B) Lord Cornwallis
(C) Lord Dalhousie
(D) Lord Ellenborough
Ans : (A)

3. Under whose governor-generalship Punjab was annexed by British rulers ?
(A) Lord Bentinck
(B) Lord Dalhousie
(C) Lord Cornwallis
(D) Lord Canning
Ans : (B)

4. In which dance form did Birju Maharaj achieve his eminence ?
(A) Bharatnatyam
(B) Kuchipudi
(C) Kathak
(D) Odissi
Ans : (C)

5. Which of the following domesticated animals were absent in the terracottas of Indus civilization ?
(A) Buffalo
(B) Sheep
(C) Cow
(D) Pig
Ans : (C)


6. Which among the following is the sacred book of the Buddhists ?
(A) Upanishad
(B) Vedas
(C) Tripitaka
(D) Jatakas
Ans : (C)

7. The greatest development in the Kushana period was in the field of—
(A) Religion
(B) Art
(C) Literature
(D) Architecture
Ans : (B)

8. Mughal presence in the Red Fort ceased with the fall of—
(A) Aurangzeb
(B) Muhammad Shah
(C) Shah Alam
(D) Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’
Ans : (D)

9. Who was the first known Gupta ruler ?
(A) Srigupta
(B) Chandragupta I
(C) Ghatotkacha
(D) Kumaragupta
Ans : (A)

10. Who from the following leaders was not assassinated ?
(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) Liaqat Ali Khan
(C) Muhammad Ali Jinnah
(D) Lord Louis Mountbatten
Ans : (C)

11. Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched ?
(A) Gol Gumbaz : Hyderabad
(B) Tomb of Itmad-ud-daula : Agra
(C) Tomb of Shershah : Sasaram
(D) Tomb of Rani Rupmati : Ahmedabad
Ans : (A)

12. Which one of the following places did Gautam Buddha attain Parinirvana ?
(A) Gaya
(B) Kushinagar
(C) Rajgir
(D) Shravasti
Ans : (B)

13. Who among the following was the contemporary of the famous poet Amir Khusro ?
(A) Iltutmish
(B) Ala-ud-din Khalji
(C) Ibrahim Lodi
(D) Akbar
Ans : (B)

14. Who among the following Delhi Sultans made Agra the capital of his Empire ?
(A) Iltutmish
(B) Balban
(C) Feroz Shah Tughlaq
(D) Sikander Lodi
Ans : (D)

15. In Indian history, Lord Macaulay is known for his contribution to which one of the following areas ?
(A) Army
(B) Land revenue
(C) Railways
(D) Education
Ans : (D)

16. At which one of the following congress sessions did Dadabhai Naoroji announce that the Swaraj was the goal of India’s political efforts ?
(A) Karachi Session
(B) Lahore Session
(C) Lucknow Session
(D) Calcutta Session
Ans : (D)

17. Who among the following was not associated with the Indigo Rebellion ?
(A) Harishchandra Mukherjee
(B) Digambar Biswas
(C) Dinabandhu Mitra
(D) Keshab Chandra sen
Ans : (D)

18. Who was the President of the Indian National Congress at the time of partition of India ?
(A) Rajendra Prasad
(B) Jawaharlal Nehru
(C) J. B. Kriplani
(D) Vallabhbhai Patel
Ans : (C)

19. Firing in Jallianwala Bag was ordered by—
(A) Lord Simson
(B) Rowlatt
(C) O’Dwyer
(D) Curzon–Wyllie
Ans : (C)

20. The capital of the Mughal Empire was shifted from Agra to Delhi by—
(A) Jahangir
(B) Aurangzeb
(C) Humayun
(D) Shahjahan
Ans : (D)

OBJECTIVE INDIAN HISTORY QUESTIONS

1. In 1757, Siraj-ud-daula was defeated by—
(A) Canning
(B) Hastings
(C) Clive
(D) Conrwallis
Ans : (C)

2. When Akbar was young his guardian was—
(A) Hemu
(B) Faizi
(C) Abul Fazal
(D) Bairam Khan
Ans : (D)

3. The foundation of Lingraj temple was laid by—
(A) Yayati Keshari
(B) Lalitendu Keshari
(C) Narasimha Dev
(D) Pratap Rudra Dev
Ans : (A)

4. Subhash Chandra Bose set up the provisional Government of Free India in—
(A) Burma
(B) Singapore
(C) Thailand
(D) Indonesia
Ans : (B)

5. The World’s first drainage system was built by the people of—
(A) Egyptian Civilization
(B) Indus Valley Civilization
(C) Chinese Civilisation
(D) Mesopotamiam Civilization
Ans : (B)


6. Which of the following was the capital of the Chola Kings ?
(A) Vanchi
(B) Tanjore
(C) Madurai
(D) Trichirapally
Ans : (B)

7. The most significant Act which declared that the sovereignty of the British Empire in India was in the hands of the British Crown was—
(A) The Company’s Charter Act of 1833
(B) The Company’s Charter Act of 1853
(C) The Indian Council Act of 1861
(D) The Indian Council Act of 1892
Ans : (A)

8. The Indian National Congress was formed during the Governor Generalship of—
(A) Lord Ripon
(B) Lord William Bentinck
(C) Lord Dufferin
(D) Lord Curzon
Ans : (C)

9. To take care of the conquered lands, Mohammad Ghori left behind his trusted General—
(A) Nasiruddin
(B) Iltutmish
(C) Qutubuddin Aibak
(D) Malik Kafur
Ans : (C)

10. The famous city of Bhopal was founded by the Rajput ruler—
(A) Prithviraj Chauhan
(B) Dharmapala
(C) Raja Bhola
(D) Jaichand
Ans : (C)

11. Who among the following was the wife of emperor Ashoka who influenced him ?
(A) Chandalika
(B) Charulata
(C) Gautami
(D) Karuwaki
Ans : (D)

12. Chand Bibi, the famous Muslim ruler, belonged to which of the following kingdoms ?
(A) Bijapur
(B) Golconda
(C) Ahmednagar
(D) Berar
Ans : (C)

13. The famous Kailasa temple cut out of the solid rock at Ellora was built under the patronage of the—
(A) Cholas
(B) Kadambas
(C) Pallavas
(D) Rashtrakutas
Ans : (D)

14. The temple which is called the “Khajuraho of Assam” is—
(A) Kamakhya
(B) Tirupati Balaji
(C) Madankamdeva
(D) Umananda
Ans : (C)

15. The first battle of Panipat was fought between—
(A) Humayun and Shershah
(B) Rana Sanga and Babur
(C) Akbar and Hemu
(D) Ibrahim Lodhi and Babur
Ans : (D)

16. Ras Leela, Yaosang, Lai Haraoba are the festivals of—
(A) Assamese people
(B) Karbi people
(C) Manipuri people
(D) Bodo people
Ans : (C)

17. The pioneer of Indian Renaissance was—
(A) Swami Vivekananda
(B) Swami Dayananda Saraswati
(C) Dadabhai Nauroji
(D) Raja Rammohan Roy
Ans : (D)

18. The famous ‘Satriya dance’ of Assam got national recognition in the year—
(A) 1999
(B) 2000
(C) 2001
(D) 1998
Ans : (C)

19. Which of the following is the most important statement which shows the real greatness of Akbar as a ruler ?
(A) He tried to encourage inter-religious marriages
(B) He set up a revenue system based on average crop estimates
(C) He established Din-i-illahi incorporating the principles of many religions
(D) He tried to unite India into a single nation
Ans : (D)

20. Which of the following has been the field of activity of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi ?
(A) Literature
(B) Classical music (Vocal)
(C) Education
(D) Journalism
Ans : (B)

OBJECTIVE INDIAN HISTORY QUESTIONS

1. Which among the following is a martial dance ?
(A) Kathakali
(B) Bamboo dance of Meghalaya
(C) Chhau of Mayurbhanj
(D) Bhangra of Punjab
Ans : (C)

2. Where did the dance form ‘Mohini Attam’ develop ?
(A) Manipur
(B) Kerala
(C) Karnataka
(D) Tamil Nadu
Ans : (B)


3. Kabir was a pupil of which personality ?
(A) Vallabhacharya
(B) Ramanand
(C) Chaitanya
(D) Madhvacharya
Ans : (B)

4. India and Pakistan were partitioned under which of the following plans of the British colonial government ?
(A) Mountbatten Plan
(B) Cripps Plan
(C) Chelmsford Plan
(D) Wavell Plan
Ans : (A)

5. With which of the following religions are monastries, temples and stupas associated ?
(A) Buddhism
(B) Jainism
(C) Hinduism
(D) Christianity
Ans : (A)


6. Which of the following works of historical significance was composed by Kautilya ?
(A) Arthasastra
(B) Darshanshastra
(C) Samajsastra
(D) None of these
Ans : (A)

7. Which of the following musical instruments is a wind instrument ?
(A) Sitar
(B) Shehnai
(C) Santoor
(D) Veena
Ans : (B)

8. Which of the following is a fundamental tenet of Buddhism ?
(A) Right conduct
(B) Idol worship
(C) Belief in one God
(D) Right knowledge
Ans : (A)

9. Two principal monuments of Ala-ud-din Khilji’s reign the Jamaat Khana Masjid and Alai–Darwaja were constructed at—
(A) Hyderabad
(B) Mysore
(C) Delhi
(D) Agra
Ans : (C)

10. Which of the following materials was mainly used in the manufacture of Harappan seals ?
(A) Teeracotta
(B) Bronze
(C) Copper
(D) Iron
Ans : (A)

11. Which type of ancient script did the Harappans use ?
(A) Pictographic
(B) Linear
(C) Hieroglyphic
(D) Symbolic
Ans : (A)

12. In which state is the ‘Modhera’ sun Temple located ?
(A) Gujarat
(B) Andhra Pradesh
(C) Maharashtra
(D) Madhya Pradesh
Ans : (D)

13. At which of the following places, the Buddhist council was not held ?
(A) Vaishali
(B) Pataliputra
(C) Rajagriha
(D) Kannauj
Ans : (D)

14. Who among the following has composed the song ‘Ay Mere Watan Ke Logon’ ?
(A) Jai Dev
(B) Anil Biswas
(C) C. Ramchandra
(D) Madan Mohan
Ans : (C)

15. Who was the founder of sultanate of Gujarat ?
(A) Ahmad Shah
(B) Muhammad Shah
(C) Dilawar Khan
(D) Zafar Khan
Ans : (D)

16. The ‘Ajivikas’ were a—
(A) Sect contemporary to the Mahavira
(B) Breakaway branch of the Buddhists
(C) Sect founded by Charvaka
(D) Sect founded by Shankaracharya
Ans : (A)

17. The Indian Universities were first founded during the time of—
(A) Macaulay
(B) Warren Hastings
(C) Lord Canning
(D) Lord William Bentinck
Ans : (C)

18. The most important sufi shrine in India is located at—
(A) Pandua
(B) Bidar
(C) Ajmer
(D) Shahjahanabad
Ans : (C)

19. Which of the following is associated with Sufi Saints ?
(A) Tripitaka
(B) Dakhma
(C) Khanqah
(D) Synagogue
Ans : (C)

20. Which of the following treaties brought an end to the independent existence of Peshwa Baji Rao II ?
(A) The Treaty of Purandhar
(B) Convention of Wadgaon
(C) Treaty of Bassein
(D) Treaty of Salbai
Ans : (C)

OBJECTIVE INDIAN HISTORY QUESTIONS

1. Which Indian statesman used these, magic words, “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge……” ?
(A) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(B) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
(C) Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
(D) Jawaharlal Nehru
Ans : (D)

2. The organic relationship between the ancient culture of the Indus Valley and Hinduism of today is proved by the worship of—
(A) Pashupati, Indra and the Mother Goddess
(B) Stone, trees and animals
(C) Vishnu and Lakshmi
(D) Siva and Sakti
Ans : (B)

3. The Muslim League advocated a separate Muslim State—
(A) At its birth in 1906
(B) During the Khilafat Movement
(C) In 1930, when it opposed the Civil Disobedience Movement
(D) At the Lahore Session of 1940
Ans : (D)

4. Ranthambhor was—
(A) A Mughal Palace
(B) A Rajput fort
(C) Capital of the Khaljis
(D) A Buddhist pilgrimage centre
Ans : (B)

5. Satyagraha finds expression in—
(A) Sudden Outbursts of Violence
(B) Armed Conflicts
(C) Non-Cooperation
(D) Communal riots
Ans : (C)


6. ‘Quwwat-ul-Islam’ Mosque was built by—
(A) Qutub-ud-din Aibak
(B) Alauddin Khilji
(C) Iltutmish
(D) Mohammad Adilshah
Ans : (A)

7. The Pallavas ruled from—
(A) Kanchipuram
(B) Madurai
(C) Tanjore
(D) Tiruchendur
Ans : (A)

8. Krishnadevaraya maintained friendly relations with the—
(A) French
(B) British
(C) Portuguese
(D) Dutch
Ans : (C)

9. The guerilla warfare was pioneered by—
(A) Aurangzeb
(B) Akbar
(C) Shivaji
(D) Balaji Rao
Ans : (C)

10. Panini was a famous scholar of—
(A) Language and grammar
(B) Ayurveda
(C) Astronomy
(D) Biology
Ans : (A)

11. The Gandhara school of sculpture was a blend of—
(A) Indian and Greek styles
(B) Indian and Persian styles
(C) Purely Indian in origin
(D) Indian and South East Asian style
Ans : (A)

12. Which one of the following languages is used in Tripura ?
(A) Hindi
(B) Mizo
(C) Khasi
(D) Bengali
Ans : (D)

13. Who composed the State Anthem of Assam ?
(A) Lakshminath Bezbaruah
(B) Gopinath Bordoloi
(C) Bhupen Hazarika
(D) Shankar Dev
Ans : (A)

14. What was the original name of the ‘Shaheed Minar’ in Kolkata ?
(A) Victoria Memorial
(B) Ochtorloney Memorial
(C) Hastings Square
(D) Chouranghee
Ans : (B)

15. The East India Company was formed in—
(A) 1600
(B) 1601
(C) 1623
(D) 1595
Ans : (A)

16. Which of the following sites/monuments in India is not on the UNESCO’s list of World Cultural Heritager ?
(A) Tirupathi-Tirumala Temples
(B) Agra Fort
(C) Humayun’s Tomb at Delhi
(D) Keoladeo National Park
Ans : (A)

17. The city of Dhillika (Delhi) was founded by—
(A) Chauhans
(B) Tomaras
(C) Pawaras
(D) Pratiharas
Ans : (B)

18. Prince Elara conquered Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the 2nd Century BC. To which Dynasty of the Dravidian rulers did he belong ?
(A) Chera
(B) Chola
(C) Pandya
(D) Pallava
Ans : (B)

19. Which among the following is a folk dance of India ?
(A) Manipuri
(B) Garba
(C) Kathakali
(D) Mohiniattam
Ans : (B)

20. Indian Classical Dance has been popularised abroad by—
(A) Malaika Arora
(B) Gopi Krishna
(C) Uday Shankar
(D) Yamini Krishnamurthy
Ans : (C)

OBJECTIVE INDIAN HISTORY QUESTIONS

1. The oldest form of composition of the Hindustani Vocal Music is—
(A) Ghazal
(B) Dhrupad
(C) Thumri
(D) Khayal
Ans : (D)

2. Frontier Gandhi was the nickname of—
(A) Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan
(B) Vinoba Bhave
(C) None of these
(D) Mahatma Gandhi
Ans : (A)

3. Who founded the Indian National Congress ?
(A) A. O. Hume
(B) Sardar Patel
(C) Subhash Chandra Bose
(D) W.C. Bannerjee
Ans : (A)

4. The Revolt of 1857 was—
(A) A British conspiracy
(B) A revolt by rulers and landlords
(C) The first war of independence
(D) A sepoy mutiny
Ans : (D)

5. Which one of the following Indian languages does not have a Dravidian Origin ?
(A) Kannada
(B) Marathi
(C) Malayalam
(D) Telugu
Ans : (B)


6. Which of the following is a popular festival of Assam ?
(A) Durgapuja
(B) Bihu
(C) Onam
(D) Baisakhi
Ans : (B)

7. Who among the following was the exponent of Visistadvaita philosophy ?
(A) Vallabhacharya
(B) Sankaracharya
(C) Ramanujacharya
(D) Madhvacharya
Ans : (C)

8. Which of the following powers did not fight for the Tungabhadra Doab ?
(A) Pallavas and Chalukyas
(B) Cholas and later Chalukyas of Kalyana
(C) Golconda and Ahmadnagar Sultanates
(D) Vijaynagar and Bahmani Kingdoms
Ans : (C)

9. Where was the first university in modern India founded ?
(A) Bombay
(B) Calcutta
(C) Lahore
(D) Madras
Ans : (B)

10. Which one of the following is the correct chronological order of the invasions of north-west India after the fall of the Mauryas ?
(A) Bactrian Greeks—Parthians—Kushans—Hunas
(B) Bactrian Greeks—Kushans—Parthians—Hunas
(C) Parthians—Bactrian Greeks—Hunas—Kushans
(D) Parthians—Hunas—Bactrian Greeks—Kushans
Ans : (A)

11. Which of the following events made the English East India Company the legitimate masters of the Bengal Subah ?
(A) Battle of Buxar, 1764
(B) Battle of Plassey, 1757
(C) Farrukh Siyar’s Farman, 1717
(D) Ibrahim Khan’s Farman, 1690
Ans : (C)

12. Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched ?
(A) Janjira Fort : Maharashtra
(B) Asirgarh Fort : Madhya Pradesh
(C) Daulatabad Fort : Rajasthan
(D) Gingee Fort : Tamil Nadu
Ans : (C)

13. Our National song has been taken from :
(A) The essay ‘Bharat Vidhata’ written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya
(B) The magazine ‘Tatva Bodhini’ edited by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore
(C) The novel ‘Durgesh Nandini’ written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
(D) The novel ‘Anand Math’ written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Ans : (D)

14. Who designed the National Flag of independent India ?
(A) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
(B) Rabindranath Tagore
(C) Mahatma Gandhi
(D) Pingley Venkayya
Ans : (D)

15. Who is believed to have composed the treatise ‘Nratya Shastra’ ?
(A) Brihannala
(B) Menaka
(C) Bharata
(D) Rambha
Ans : (C)

16. Who is considered as the greatest of all the Vijayanagar rulers ?
(A) Krishnadeva Raya
(B) Vira Narasimha
(C) Sadasiva Raya
(D) Rama Raya
Ans : (A)

17. Which was the only Indus site with an artificial brick dockyard ?
(A) Lothal
(B) Kalibangan
(C) Harappa
(D) Mohenjo-Daro
Ans : (A)

18. Nalanda University was a great centre of learning, especially in—
(A) Buddhism
(B) Jainism
(C) Vaishnavism
(D) Tantra
Ans : (A)

19. ‘Lakh Baksh’ was a title given to the ruler—
(A) Iltutmish
(B) Balban
(C) Raziya
(D) Qutub-ud-din Aibak
Ans : (D)

20. The Rathas of Mahabalipuram was built during the reign of the—
(A) Palas
(B) Cholas
(C) Rashtrakutas
(D) Pallavas
Ans : (D)