Gandhi Circuit

Gandhi Circuit is started by Government of Gujarat to retrace the important places related to Mahatma Gandhi's life.

• Kirti Mandir, Porbandar : Birthplace of Gandhi. He was born in blue haveli which is now called as Kirti Mandir. It has been converted into all museum.
• Gandhi Ashram, Sabarmati : It was gandhi's home for several years. Now converted into a museum.
• Kaba Gandhi no Delo, Rajkot : Displays the pictorial tour of Gandhi's everyday routine.
• Gandhi Smriti, Bhavnagar : It is a memorial built in remembrance of Gandhi. it displays a collection of rare photographs.
• Dandi : Gandhi ended his his historic dandi march here by braking salt law.

How Buddhist texts were prepared and preserved

The Buddha (and other teachers) taught orally – through discussion and debate. Men and women (perhaps children as well) attended these discourses and discussed what they heard.

None of the Buddha’s speeches were written down during his lifetime. After his death (c fifth-fourth century BCE) his teachings were compiled by his disciples at a council of “elders” or senior monks at Vesali (Pali for Vaishali in present-day Bihar).

These compilations were known as Tipitaka – literally, three baskets to hold different types of texts. They were first transmitted orally and then written and classified according to length as well as subject matter.

The Vinaya Pitaka included rules and regulations for those who joined the sangha or monastic order;

the Buddha’s teachings were included in the Sutta Pitaka; and

the Abhidhamma Pitaka dealt with philosophical matters.

Each pitaka comprised a number of individual texts. Later, commentaries were written on these texts by Buddhist scholars.

As Buddhism travelled to new regions such as Sri Lanka, other texts such as the Dipavamsa (literally, the chronicle of the island) and Mahavamsa (the great chronicle) were written, containing regional histories of Buddhism.

Many of these works contained biographies of the Buddha. Some of the oldest texts are in Pali, while later compositions are in Sanskrit. When Buddhism spread to East Asia, pilgrims such as Fa Xian and Xuan Zang travelled all the way from China to India in search of texts. These they took back to their own country, where they were translated by scholars.

Indian Buddhist teachers also travelled to faraway places, carrying texts to disseminate the teachings of the Buddha.

Buddhist texts were preserved in manuscripts for several centuries in monasteries in different parts of Asia. Modern translations have been prepared from Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan texts.

Recent steps taken by the Indian Government to check the generation and spread of black money

Recent steps taken by the Indian Government to check the generation and spread of black money.

1. Constitution of a Committee under the Chairmanship of Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb the generation of black money in the country, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery.
2. Commissioning fresh study through top national level institutions for estimation of unaccounted income/wealth both inside and outside the country.
3. Creation of new Directorate of Income Tax (Criminal Investigation).
4. The government will introduce a Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament that will enable confiscation of illegal money.

Electromagnetic spectrum

The electromagnetic radiation is broadly classified into the following classes:

(based on decreasing wavelength and increasing frequency)

1. Gamma radiation
2. X-ray radiation
3. Ultraviolet radiation
4. Visible radiation
5. Infrared radiation
6. Microwave radiation
7. Radio waves

Size of the scanned photograph and the signature for UPSC Civils Prelims exam 2012

• The candidate should scan his/her signature which has been put on white paper with black ink pen.
• Each of the scanned images of the photograph/signature should not exceed 40 KB in size.
• For photograph, the pixel size is 140 pixels height x110 pixels width and 
• For sign it should be 110 pixels height x140 pixels width and 
• also to be ensured that the uploaded photograph/signature are proper.

Quality of acceptable and non acceptable photographs or signatures for submitting UPSC civil services prelims application

Source:  http://upsconline.nic.in/faq.php

Types of Marriages in ancient indian literature and society

Types of Marriages in ancient indian literature :

Endogamy refers to marriage within a unit – this could be a kin group, caste, or a group living in the same locality.

Exogamy refers to marriage outside the unit.

Polygyny is the practice of a man having several wives.

Polyandry is the practice of a woman having several husbands.

kanyadana or the gift of a daughter in marriage was an important religious duty of the father.

Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras recognised as many as eight forms of marriage. Of these, the first four were considered as “good” while the remaining were condemned.

Gotra : Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra were regarded as his descendants. Two rules about gotra were particularly important:

1. women were expected to give up their father’s gotra and adopt that of their husband on marriage and
2. members of the same gotra could not marry.

Major Periods in Early Indian Archaeology

2 million BP (BEFORE PRESENT)	Lower Palaeolithic
80000	Middle Palaeolithic
35000	Upper Palaeolithic
12000	Mesolithic
10000	Neolithic (early agriculturists and pastoralists)
6000	Chalcolithic (first use of copper)
2600 BCE	Harappan civilisation
1000 BCE	Early iron, megalithic burials
600 BCE - 400 CE	Early Historic

UPSC Civil Services Online Magazines Free Download and Online Reading

Civil services times
http://www.civilservicestimes.com/


Pratyogita Darpan Online magazine
http://pdeng.pdgroup.in/index.aspx


The Hindu - Frontline Online Magazine
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/


Yojana pdf
http://yojana.gov.in/CMS/%28S%28pchnounohuunqefen3rkcuyf%29%29/Default.aspx


Kurukshetra pdf
http://yojana.gov.in/CMS/%28S%28vjrx5l45jfcyc055mfjil03u%29%29/Default.aspx


Mainstream weekly online reading
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/


Economic and Political Weekly online reading
http://epw.in/epw/user/userindex.jsp

Quality of acceptable and non acceptable photographs or signatures for submitting UPSC civil services prelims application

The candidates may note that in case the quality of photograph/signature is not acceptable/poor, then their application is liable to be rejected by the commission.
 

A sample of quality of acceptable and non acceptable photographs/signatures is given below for the guidance of the candidates.

Acceptable photos / Acceptable Signatures

Acceptable Photo:
Acceptable Signature:

Non Acceptable photos / Non-acceptable signatures

Unacceptable Photo:
Unacceptable Signature:

 Source: http://upsconline.nic.in/faq.php

UPSC IAS - Kurukshetra magazine free download

Please click on the following link to downloadthe Kurukshetra pdf magazines for free.

http://yojana.gov.in/CMS/%28S%28uxjxmk551ytvja241aamrx55%29%29/Default.aspx

for free yojana magazine please click here.

Podcast

Podcast consists of digital media such as audio and video, which can be downloaded using RSS feed readers. Podcasts are generally listened on portable media players such as ipods and mp3 players.

The Hindu news paper is providing its opinions and editorials as podcasts in three Indian Languages: Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. They can be downloaded as mp3s from the following link.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2692465.ece

Quick Response Code (QR Code) and its uses

QR code is two-dimensional code first designed for the use in automotive industry. Invented by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.

QR codes store more data than conventional bar code. QR codes can store URIs, geo codes of the locations, text, numbers, sms etc. They are readily readable by many modern camera phones.

QR codes are increasingly used in marketing campaigns, product information in e-commerce websites, Contact information, sign boards in historical places etc.

The Hindu Opinion and Editorial Podcasts available in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam

The Hindu news paper is providing its opinions and editorials as podcasts in three Indian Languages: Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. They can be downloaded as mp3s from the following link.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2692465.ece

DTH vs Analog Cable TV Technology

Direct To Home (DTH) service is a comparatively new technology, DTH technology covers entire country and provides large number of digital TV channels as compared to the analog cable TV. DTH operators provide individual dish antennas for every home, which means there will be no intermediaries. The DTH technology uses Ku Band to transmit and receive signal. Some DTH operators also allow geographical mobility.

DTH services are also available in HD(High definition) with DVR (Digital Video Recording).

DTH being a digital system offers good picture quality, provides value added services, and also FM radio channels.

The Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act Bill seeks to digitise the cable sector in the country by December 31, 2014. It aims for complete digitisation of analog cable TV in the four metropolitan cities by March 31, 2012. The digitisation provides high quality viewing and also higher number of TV channels.

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Spiders

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Spiders

Rameshwaram Ornamental or Rameshwaram Parachute Spider (Poecilotheria hanumavilasumica)
Found: Arboreal and tend to live in hiding.
Threats: Endemic to India. Spread along the coastal savannah, tropical lowland rain forests and montane forests upto an altitude of 2000 m above mean sea level.

Gooty Tarantula, Metallic Tarantula or Peacock Tarantula (Poecilotheria metallica)
Found: Endemic to India
Threats: They are one of the most expensive spiders in the illegal pet trade. Large areas where the species occurs have been deforested, or subjected to habitat degradation due to local fuel wood collection, leading to decline in its population.

Other Critically Endangered Species of India

birds       mammals        reptiles

amphibians

fish   coral

spiders

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Corals

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Corals

Fire corals (Millepora boschmai)
Found: Indonesia, Gulf of Chiriquí, Panama Pacific Province. Possibly extinct from Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore and Thailand.
Threats: Collected for decoration and jewellery trade. This group is also sensitive to temperature rise, and is thought to have completely disappeared from the majority of marine areas possibly because of growing global warming related bleaching effects.

Other Critically Endangered Species of India

birds       mammals        reptiles

amphibians

fish   coral

spiders

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Fish

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Fish

The Pondicherry Shark (Carcharhinus hemiodon)
Found: Indian Ocean - from Gulf of Oman to Pakistan, India and possibly Sri Lanka. In scattered localities spanning India to New Guinea. Has also been recorded at the mouth of the Hooghly river
Threats: Large, expanding, and unregulated commercial fisheries in inshore localities and habitats. It is probably caught as bycatch, although market surveys have failed to record it.

Ganges Shark (Glyphis gangeticus)
Found: It occurs in India and possibly in Pakistan. The Ganga river system and Hooghly river mouth are its known habitats.
Threats: Major fisheries targeting sharks. Other probable threats include overfishing, pollution, increasing river use and construction of dams and barrages. A few jaws of the species were found to have been traded in the international market during recent years, which testifies that the species is not extinct.

Knife-tooth Sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata)
Found: Widespread in western part of the Indo-Pacific region, including Red Sea.
Threats: The principal threat to all sawfish are fisheries (targeted, bycatch, commercial and subsistence). Their long tooth-studded saw, makes them extraordinarily vulnerable to entanglement in any sort of net gear, including primitive fishing contraptions. When sawfish are caught in by catch, they often end up being traded because of the very high value of their products (meat is high quality and fins and saws extremely valuable in international trade).

Large-tooth Sawfish (Pristis microdon)
Found: Western part of the Indo-Pacific (East Africa to New Guinea, Philippines and Vietnam to Australia). In India, it is known to enter the Mahanadi river, up to 64 km inland, and also is very common in the estuaries of the Ganga and Brahmaputra.
Threats: Same as that for the Knife-tooth Sawfish. There is also an increasing demand for sawfish in aquaria. Major habitat changes include construction of dams over rivers, siltation,

Long-comb Sawfish or Narrow-snout Sawfish (Pristis zijsron)
Found: Indo-Pacific region including Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Threats: This species has been damaged intensively, both as a target species and as incidental bycatch in commercial, sport or shark-control net fisheries, as well as for aquarium display. As a result, it has become severely depleted in recent decades, and now appears to have been extirpated from many parts of its range.

Other Critically Endangered Species of India

birds       mammals        reptiles

amphibians

fish   coral

spiders

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Amphibians

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Amphibians

Anamalai Flying Frog (Rhacophorus pseudomalabaricus)
Found: It is found in Andiparai Shola, Pudothottam and the Anamalai Hills of Tamil Nada and Kerala.
Threats: Conversion of forest to cultivated land (including timber and non-timber plantations) outside the Indira Gandhi National Park, and extraction of wood and timber by local people are the major threats to this species.

Gundia Indian Frog (Indirana gundia)
Found: Known only to exist in Gundia, Kempholey in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka, South India.
Threats: Habitat loss caused due to intensive livestock production, harvesting of wood and timber by local people, road construction, and the development of tourism facilities.

Kerala Indian Frog (Indirana phrynoderma)
Found: Anamalai Hills of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the Western Ghats of south India.
Threats: Habitat loss due to subsistence wood collection is the major threat to this species.

Charles Darwin’s Frog (Ingerana charlesdarwini)
Found: This species is currently restricted to its type locality of Mount Harriet in South Andaman Island and Saddle Peak in the North Andaman Island, India.
Threats:Clear felling of forest.

Kottigehar Bubble-nest Frog (Micrixalus kottigeharensis)
Found: This species is known to occur in Kottigehar, Kadur in the Hassan district and Bhadra in Chikamangalur district, Karnataka, India.
Threats: Habitat loss as a result of conversion to agriculture, including paddy fields and cash crops such as coconut and cashew.

Amboli Bush Frog (Pseudophilautus amboli)
Found: This species has been recorded from its type locality of Amboli forest, Sawantwadi district; and Amba, Kolhapur district of Maharashtra; Londa, Belgaum district, Jog Falls-Mavingundi, Shimoga district, Castle Rock, Uttara Kannada district, Kudremukh- Malleshwaram, Chikamangalur district of Karnataka.
Threats: Habitat loss and fragmentation due to urbanization and tourism development are the major threats to this species.

Chalazodes Bubble-Nest Frog (Raorchestes chalazodes)
Found: All recorded specimens have been from the Western Ghats, India.
Threats:Conversion of forest to intensively cultivated areas.

Small Bush Frog (Raorchestes chotta)
Found: Known only to occur in Ponmudi in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, south India.
Threats: Extensive tea and Acacia plantations threaten the habitat of this species. While the species has been found to occur in abandoned plantations, its decline suggests that this species may not be tolerant to habitat changes or other unknown and less obvious threats.

Green-eyed Bush Frog (Raorchestes chlorosomma)
Found: Known only to occur in the type locality of Munnar, Idukki district, Kerala in the Western Ghats of South India.
Threats: Extensive degradation of habitat by large-scale tea, eucalyptus and wattle plantations. The expanding tourism industry is also becoming a cause of concern. Though the species seems to be adaptable, its tolerance to degraded habitats is not precisely known.

Kaikatt’s Bush Frog (Raorchestes kaikatti)
Found: Known only to occur in the type locality Kaikatti-Nelliyampathi in Palakkad district of Kerala, south India. It is believed to be endemic to the Nelliyampathi Hills.
Threats: Habitat loss and fragmentation due to small and large-scale agricultural practices and infrastructure development for tourism over the past five years.

Mark’s Bush Frog (Raorchestes marki)
Found: Currently known to occur only in Kaikatti-Nelliyampathi in Palakkad district, Kerala, India.
Threats: Habitat loss and fragmentation due to small and large-scale agricultural practices, infrastructure development and construction for tourism over the last five years. However, adaptability of this species to disturbed environments is not known.

Large Ponmudi Bush Frog (Raorchestes ponmudi)
Found: Ponmudi and Agasthyamala Hills, Thiruvananthapuram district, Gavi, Pathanamthitta district, Vagaman, Idukki district., Wayanad Plateau, Kalpetta, Mananthavady and Sultan’s Battery, Wayanad district of Kerala; Anamalai Hills and Valparai, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu.
Threats: Habitat decline and the rate of forest loss is likely to further intensify due to the

Resplendent Shrub Frog (Raorchestes resplendens)
Found: Currently known to occur in Anamudi Summit, Eravikulam National park in the Idukki district, Kerala.
Threats: Occurs in a highly protected national park with secure habitat. Cause for observed declines remains unknown in view of its protected habitat.

Sacred Grove Bush frog (Raorchestes sanctisilvaticus)
Found: Known only to occur in Kapildhara Falls, Amarkantak, Jabalpur District, Madhya Pradesh.
Threats: Habitat loss due to harvesting of wood for subsistence purposes, infrastructure development for tourism, and occurance of fires are the major threats to this species.

Sushil’s Bush Frog (Raorchestes sushili)
Found: Known only to occur in Valparai and its vicinity, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu.
Threats: Habitat loss due to small and largescale agricultural activities such as tea and coffee cultivation in the Anamalai Hills.

Shillong Bubble-nest Frog (Raorchestes shillongensis)
Found: Currently known to occur in the type locality of Malki Forest, Shillong, Meghalaya and in Mizoram.
Threats: Selective logging, collection of wood for subsistence use and urbanization are major threats to the habitat of this species.

Tiger toad (Xanthophryne tigerinus)
Found: Found only in Amboli, Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra.
Threats: Loss of forest and habitat fragmentation.

Other Critically Endangered Species of India

birds       mammals        reptiles

amphibians

fish   coral

spiders

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Reptiles

Critically Endangered Animal Species of India 2011 - Reptiles

Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus)
Found: Only viable population in the National Chambal Sanctuary, spread across three states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in India. Small non-breeding populations exist in Son, Gandak, Hoogly and Ghagra rivers. Now extinct in Myanmar, Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Threats: The combined effects of dams, barrages, artificial embankments, change in river course, pollution, sand-mining, riparian

Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
Found: In India they are found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the coast of Tamil Nadu and Orissa.
Threats: Turtle shell trade, egg collection, slaughter for meat, oil pollution and destruction of nesting and foraging habitats.

Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
Found: Found in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
Threats: High sea fishing operations, harvesting of eggs, destruction of nests by wild predators and domesticated species such as cats, dogs and pigs. Artificial lighting disorients hatchlings and adults and causes them to migrate inland rather than towards the sea. Threats to habitat include construction, mining and plantation of exotics.

Four-toed River Terrapin or River Terrapin (Batagur baska)
Found: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Threats: Use of flesh for medicinal purposes, demand for eggs, which are considered a delicacy.

Red-crowned Roofed Turtle or the Bengal Roof Turtle (Batagur kachuga)
Found: Found in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In India it resides basically in the watershed of the Ganga.
Threats: Water development projects, water pollution, human disturbance and poaching for the illegal wildlife market.

Sispara day gecko (Cnemaspis sisparensis)
Found: Endemic to Western Ghats, and found in Sispara, Nilgiris, Kavalai near Cochin.
Threats: Habitat conversion and modification.

Other Critically Endangered Species of India

birds       mammals        reptiles

amphibians

fish   coral

spiders