Articles

It is a tribute to the wisdom and foresight of the makers of the Constitution that they presented to the nation a document that enshrined fundamental values and highest aspirations shared by the people. This is one of the reasons why this most intricately crafted document has not only survived but become a living reality, when so many other constitutions have perished with the paper they were first written on.

Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. He led the Congress to a massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections held immediately thereafter in 1984. As the decade of the eighties came to a close, the country witnessed five developments that were to make a long-lasting impact on our politics.

1980s may be seen as a period of rising regional aspirations for autonomy, often outside the framework of the Indian Union. These movements frequently involved armed assertions by the people, their repression by the government, and a collapse of the political and electoral processes.

India was born as an independent nation-state in a very trying and challenging international context. The world had witnessed a devastating war and was grappling with issues of reconstruction; yet another attempt to establish an international body was underway; many new countries were emerging as a result of the collapse of colonialism; and most new nations were trying to come to terms with the twin challenges of welfare and democracy.

Almost everyone agreed that the development of India should mean both economic growth and social and economic justice. It was also agreed that this matter cannot be left to businessmen, industrialists and farmers themselves, that the government should play a key role in this.

The first few years in the life of independent India were full of challenges. Some of the most pressing ones concerned national unity and territorial integrity of India.

Globalisation as a concept fundamentally deals with flows. These flows could be of various kinds - ideas moving from one part of the world to another, capital shunted between two or more places, commodities being traded across borders, and people moving in search of better livelihoods to different parts of the world.

The mighty Himavant is ours-
there’s no equal anywhere on earth.
The generous Ganga is ours-
which other river can match her grace?
The sacred Upanishads are ours-
what scriptures else to name with them?
This sunny golden land is ours-
she’s peerless, let’s praise her!

When I was a girl of about twelve, I used to stay in a village in north Karnataka with my grandparents. Those days, the transport system was not very good, so we used to get the morning paper only in the afternoon. The weekly magazine used to come one day late. All of us would wait eagerly for the bus, which used to come with the papers, weekly magazines and the post.

A sequence is an ordered list of numbers. Each number in the list is called a term.

Probability is a type of measurement, similar to how we measure quantities like length, area, or volume. However, instead of measuring physical quantities, probability is used to measure the likelihood of events.

Perimeter is the total length around its border. A square with side a units has perimeter 4a units. An equilateral triangle with side a units has perimeter 3a units.

Every circle has a centre. All points on the circle are at equal distance from the centre.

Algebraic identities are special mathematical rules that not only make it easier to simplify complicated calculations but also help us work efficiently with algebraic expressions.

Natural Numbers (ℕ) are the counting numbers {1, 2, 3, ... } that emerged at least tens of thousands of years ago due to humanity’s need to count.

An algebraic expression combines numbers, variables, and ­operation symbols. For example, 2x² + 5xy - 3y² is an algebraic expression in the variables x and y. 2x², 5xy and -3y² are the terms of the algebraic expression, and the numbers 2, 5 and -3 are coefficients of the terms.

The two-dimensional coordinate system uses two lines at right angles to each other to mark points in two-dimensional space (2-D space). The horizontal line is called the x-axis and the vertical line is called the y-axis.

At its most basic, security implies freedom from threats. Human existence and the life of a country are full of threats.

International organisations are not the answer to everything, but they are important. International organisations help with matters of war and peace. They also help countries cooperate to make better living conditions for us all.

Everything in nature is in motion, from massive astronomical objects to subatomic particles. When an object moves in a straight line, its motion is called linear motion.

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all living organisms. All living organisms are made up of cells. The cell represents the basic level at which life exists.

When India and Pakistan joined the club of nuclear powers, this region suddenly became the focus of global attention. The focus was, of course, on the various kinds of conflict in this region: there are pending border and water sharing disputes between the states of the region.

The Berlin Wall, which had been built at the height of the Cold War and was its greatest symbol, was toppled by the people in 1989. This dramatic event was followed by an equally dramatic and historic chain of events that led to the collapse of the ‘second world’ and the end of the Cold War.

Natural Hazards are elements of circumstances in the Natural environment that have the potential to cause harm to people or property or both. These may be swift or permanent aspects of the respective environmental settings like currents in the oceans, steep slope and unstable structural features in the Himalayas or extreme climatic conditions in deserts or glaciated areas.

Natural vegetation refers to a plant community that has been left undisturbed over a long time, so as to allow its individual species to adjust themselves to climate and soil conditions as fully as possible.

Monsoon connotes the climate associated with seasonal reversal in the direction of winds. India has hot monsoonal climate which is the prevalent climate in south and southeast Asia.

Based on the variations in its geological structure and formations, India can be divided into three geological divisions.

The mainland of India, extends from Kashmir in the north to Kanniyakumari in the south and Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Gujarat in the west. India’s territorial limit further extends towards the sea up to 12 nautical miles (about 21.9 km) from the coast.

The ocean water is dynamic. Its physical characteristics like temperature, salinity, density and the external forces like of the sun, moon and the winds influence the movement of ocean water.

Air expands when heated and gets compressed when cooled. This results in variations in the atmospheric pressure. The result is that it causes the movement of air from high pressure to low pressure, setting the air in motion.

Air is essential to the survival of all organisms. Some organisms like humans may survive for some time without food and water but can’t survive even a few minutes without breathing air.

After weathering processes have had their actions on the earth materials making up the surface of the earth, the geomorphic agents like running water, ground water, wind, glaciers, waves perform erosion.

Continents cover 29 per cent of the surface of the earth and the remainder is under oceanic waters. The positions of the continents and the ocean bodies have not been the same in the past.

The interior of the earth can be understood only by indirect evidences as neither any one has nor any one can reach the interior of the earth.

The people are very important component of a country. India is the second most populous country after China in the world. India’s population is larger than the total population of North America, South America and Australia put together.

International Trade is mutually beneficial as no country is self-sufficient. India’s international trade has undergone a sea change in recent years in terms of volume, composition as well as direction.

Human Settlement means cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live. For this purpose, people may erect houses and other structures and command some area or territory as their economic support-base.

Since life originated on earth nearly 3.8 billion years ago, there had been enormous diversification of life forms on earth. Biodiversity refers to the sum total of diversity that exists at all levels of biological organisation. Of particular importance is the diversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels and conservation efforts are aimed at protecting diversity at all these levels.

An ecosystem is a structural and functional unit of nature and it comprises abiotic and biotic components. Abiotic components are inorganic materials- air, water and soil, whereas biotic components are producers, consumers and decomposers.

As a branch of biology, Ecology is the study of the relationships of living organisms with the abiotic (physico-chemical factors) and biotic components (other species) of their environment. It is concerned with four levels of biological organisation-organisms, populations, communities and biomes.

Biotechnology has given to humans several useful products by using microbes, plant, animals and their metabolic machinery. Recombinant DNA technology has made it possible to engineer microbes, plants and animals such that they have novel capabilities.

Biotechnology deals with large scale production and marketing of products and processes using live organisms, cells or enzymes.

Microbes are a very important component of life on earth. Not all microbes are pathogenic. Many microbes are very useful to human beings. We use microbes and microbially derived products almost every day.

Health is not just the absence of disease. It is a state of complete physical, mental, social and psychological well-being. Diseases like typhoid, cholera, pneumonia, fungal infections of skin, malaria and many others are a major cause of distress to human beings.

The origin of life on earth can be understood only against the background of origin of universe especially earth. Most scientists believe chemical evolution, i.e., formation of biomolecules preceded the appearance of the first cellular forms of life.

Nucleic acids are long polymers of nucleotides. While DNA stores genetic information, RNA mostly helps in transfer and expression of information. Though DNA and RNA both function as genetic material, but DNA being chemically and structurally more stable is a better genetic material. However, RNA is the first to evolve and DNA was derived from RNA.

Genetics is a branch of biology which deals with principles of inheritance and its practices. Progeny resembling the parents in morphological and physiological features has attracted the attention of many biologists.

She was one of those pretty, young ladies, born as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. She was simple, but she was unhappy.

At the age of twenty-two, a former ‘scout of the year’ excited the scientific world with a new theory on how cells work. Richard H. Ebright and his college room-mate explained the theory in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

THE two boys started in surprise at the fresh muddy imprints of a pair of bare feet. What was a barefooted man doing on the steps of a house, in the middle of London? And where was the man?