secretariatassistant.com · 433 INDIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS Our Neighbours Name the South Asian regional grouping of countries of India in which India is a member. (a) ASEAN (b) SAARC

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INDIA AND HERNEIGHBOURS

Our Neighbours Name the South Asian regional grouping of

countries of India in which India is a member.(a) ASEAN (b) SAARC (c) APEC (d) D-8Ans: (b) SAARC

The 8 members of South Asian Association ofRegional Co-operation (SAARC) are India,Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka,Maldives and Afghanistan. Its 8th memberAfganistan was admitted to SAARC in 2006.

India is the 7th largest Country and 2nd mostpopulous in the World.

Westernmost State of India is Gujarat,Northernmost State of India is Jammu & Kashmir;Eastern most State is Arunachal Pradesh andSouthernmost State is Tamil Nadu.

South easternmost State of India is Mizoram South easternmost part of India is Nicobar Island. India is the second largest Peninsula in the World. The largest Peninsula is Arabia. Rajasthan is one of the border States of India

sharing India’s frontier with Pakistan on the west

and north west. The Indian State that shares the maximum frontier

with China is Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian States which touch Pak border are

Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan andGujarat in the order from north to south.

PoK is Pak occupied Kashmir. Muzaffarabad is the capital of Pok. LAC : Line of Actual Control. Area of Jammu and Kashmir 2,22236 Sq.km. This

includes 78,114 sq km under illegal occupationof Pakistan, 5180 sq.km illegally handed over byPakistan to China and 37,555 sq.km under illegaloccupation of China.

The States which surround Bangladesh are WestBengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura andMizoram.

The States which share border with Myanmarare Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur andMizoram.

C h in a

Nepal

Bhutan

Myanmar

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

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Tripura is bounded on the North west and Southby Bangladesh.

Teen Begha Corridor has been leased toBangladesh by India for 999 years out ofhumanitarian consideration. The corridorbelongs to West Bengal.

The Indian States which surrounded Nepal areUttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal,Sikkim.

The States which share border with Bhutan areSikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh.

Sir Creek is at Rann of Kuch in Gujarat. Talkbetween Indian and Pakistan is going on toresolve dispute of territory at Sir Creek.

New Moore Island situated in Bay of Bengalbelongs to India.

Nine Degree Channel is in Lakshadweep. Nathula Pass is in Sikkim. This pass was opened

in 2006 for trade between India and China. Earlier China removed Sikkim from its website Maldives lies south of Lakshadweep. Diego Garcia is the American naval base in the

Indian Ocean. The Indian Sub-continent includes India,

Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. McMahon Line separates India from China. The Radcliffe Line separates India from Pakistan. The Gulf of Mannar, Adam’s Bridge and the Palk

Strait separate India from Sri Lanka.

Bhutan Bhutan and India share extensive and mutually

beneficial relations. There is free movement ofpeople and goods between two countries, andthe Indian rupee is a legal tender in Bhutan.

Tara mega project of 1020 mw is a joint hydroelectric project between India and Bhutan whichwas commission in 2006.

Capital : Thimphu Currency : Ngultrum. It is fixed at par with

Indian rupees which is also legaltender in Bhutan.

Bhutan is known as land of Thunder Dragon. India has common borders with Pakistan,

Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladeshand Myanmar.

In December 2004 Bhutan became the first nationin the world to ban the sales of tobacco andsmoking in public.

A few months ago Bhutan Royal Army helpedIndia by driving out and destroying militarycampus run by some of the extremist group likeULFA, to work against India.

China India continue to view bilateral relations with

China in a positive spirit, seeking friendly, Co-operative, good-neighbourly and mutuallybeneficial relations on the basis of the Five

The smallest neighbouring country of India isBhutan. Its capital is Thimpu.

Bhutan is a Monarchy but its recentdevelopment points to its transformation todemocracy. In 2005 march King Wangchukreleased a draft of a new constitution which

outlines plans for the country to shift from anabsolute monarchy to a two party democracy. In2006 the king stepped down from throne to pave

way to appoint his son as the new king.

KING JIGME SINGYE WANGCHUCK

Mao -Tse- Tung

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Principles of peaceful Co-existence(Panchasheel), mutually sensitive to each other’sconcerns and aspirations and equality.

Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru andChinese premier Chou-en Lai signedPanchasheel in 1954.

Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yaxis claimthat Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China in 2006created resentment among India.

China overtook Japan in 2006 to become theCountry with World’s largest foreign reserve.

Tiananmen Square is in china. It was the venueof student uprising in 1989 for political reform,liberalisation and democracy which was putdown by the government.

became a republic in 1911, under Sun Yat Sun. Sun-Yat-Sen is known as father of Chinese

Republic. Peoples Republic of China was proclaimed on

Oct 1, 1949 under Mao-Tse-Tung. Mao-Tse-Tungdied in 1976.

In Late 1978, the Chinese leadership beganmoving the economy from a Soviet style centrallyplanned economy to a more market orientedeconomy. This result in the accelerated growthof economy.

Chinese government follows one child norm andit targets zero population growth by 2010.

Lhasa is the capital of Tibet which is anautonomous region of China.

India has provided political assylum to DalaiLama, the Spiritual leader of Tibet.

Three Gorges at Yangtze (Chang) rivercommissioned in 2006 is the largest Hydroelectric project in the World.

The highest railways in the World wasinaugurated at Lhasa in 2006. It is 5000 meteresabove sea level.

Natu La Pass in Sikkim was opened for tradebetween India and China in 2006.

China became the third country in the world tosend a man in space after Russia and USA. FirstChinese in space is Yangliwi and the secondChinese in space is Fei Julong & Niel Haishengon October 17, 2005.

Nepal Capital : Kathmandu Currency : Nepalese Rupee Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha is in Nepal. An open border of 1860 kilometers between India

and Nepal. Facilitates free movement of goods

Chinese President Hu Jintao was in India inNovember 2006 for a four days visit to strengthen

relationship between the countries.China is the biggest neighbour of India

Capital : Beijing (Peking)Currency : Yuan

The highest railway inthe World, Qinghani-Tibet Railway waslaunched in Golmud cityin north west China’sQinghai Province inJuly 1, 2006.

It was on october 26, 1971 China was admitted amember of UN, displacing Taiwan.

India and China has started serious negotiationsto solve their dispute through bilateralnegotiation. Recently China has dropped Sikkimfrom their official map. Moreover a Chinesedelegation visited India in 2006 and they helddiscussion to solve the dispute at Kumarakam(Kottayam) in Kerala.

China is the most populous Country in the World(1,306, 313, 812) and third largest in area.

The language spoken by largest number ofpeople in the World is Mandarin (Chinese)

The Peoples Republic of China was establishedon October 1, 1949 under Mao -Tse- Tung. China

Nepal adopted a new constitution in 2006. Now itis a secular country. Formerly it was the onlyHindu country in the world. Moreover it hasdrastically cut down the powers of King. Nowparliament has an upper hand over the king whowas reduced to a mere rubber stamp.

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and people. Indian rupee is a legal tender inNepal.

After years of turmoil and uncertainity the sevenparty Alliance (SPA) and Maoist rebels signed alandmark agreement in 2006 to herald a new eraof peace in the Himalayan kingdom.

The Maoist who have been waging an armedstruggle have decided to end their fight and sharepower.

The former King Birendar the Queen and Six othermembers of the royal family were assasinated onJune 1, 2001 by the Prince.

India and Nepal signed two agreements in 1996for sharing of water and electricity from theMahakali River.

Pakistan Capital : Islamabad Currency : Pakistan rupee Pakistan shares boundaries with India, China,

Afghanisthan and Iran. South of Pakistan isArabian Sea.

Samjotha Express and Thar Express are the twotrains which runs between India and Pakistan.

The first Lahore-Amritsar bus service began onJanuary 20, 2006 by the Pakistan Tourism

Development Corporation.

Pervez Musharraf

Durand Line separatesPakistan fromAfghanistan whileRadcliff Line separatesIndia from Pakistan.

Major rivers are Indus,Sutlej, Chenab, Ravi,Jhelum all these riversflows from India toPakistan.

Major cities in Pakistan

are Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad,Multan and Peshwar.

It become a muslim State from Partition of BritishIndia in 14 August 1947 comprising Eastern halfof Bengal Provinces & parts of Assam.

Pakistan became an Islamic republic on 23 march1956.

On May 28, 1998 Pakistan tested five nucleardevices and this was followed on a sixth one onMay 30 at Chagai Hills.

Mohammed Ali Ginnah is known as the Fatherof Pakistan.

Khan Abdul Ghafer Khan is known as frontierGandhi.

Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)is known as the Daughter of East.

The missiles the Pakistan feel proud of includgesGhori. These missile are modelled on SouthKorean Nodong missile.

Agra Summit was help in July 2000 betweenMusharraf and the then India PM Vajpayee tofind a peaceful formula for the disputes betweenthe India and Pakistan.

Vajpayee made his historic visit to Lahore andsigned Lahore declaration in 1999.

India and Pakistan fought two war (1) 1965(2)1971.

Tashkent agreement was signed by Lal BahadurShastri and Ayub Khan in 1966 January 10. Deathof Lal Bahadur Shastri at Thashkant(January 11).

PrachandaCommunist Party of Nepal(Maoist) chairmanPushpakumar Dahal alsoknown as Prachanda. Hismain task will be to re-constitute Royal NepalArmy with a mix of bothmaoists and the existingsoldiers furthermore,making the poverty strickenNepalese realise theirdream of economicdevelopment will be thetop most on Prachanda'sagenda.

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Birth of Bangladesh and Simla Agreement werethe outcome of 1971 war.

Simla agreement was signed in 1972 July by Mrs.Indira Gandhi and Sulfikur Ali Bhutto.

Official language of Pakistan is Urdu. Pakistanbecame independent on 14th August 1947.

Siachen Glacier is the highest battlefield in theWorld where Army of India and Pakistan guardtheir territories with high vigilance.

Pakistan is at present under military rule and itsPresident is General Pervez Musharraf who isalso the Military Chief.

Indian Air Force began air strikes to flush outmilitants from Kargil on May26, 1999.

Pakistan forms the lengthiest continuous borderof India.

India has live boundary dispute with two of ourmain neighbours (1) Pakistan (2) China.

Myanmar Capital : Pyinmana Earliest the capital was Yangoon (Rangoon) Currency : Kyat Military Junta (Council) rules the country. Myanmar (Burma) was separated from British

India in 1935.

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National Leaguefor Democracy (NLD) is presently under housearrest. She won Nobel Prize for peace in 1991.

Myanmar is known as the Rice Bowl of the FarEast.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam recently (2006)visited Myanmar.

Myanmar is a member of ASEAN from 1997.

Sri Lanka Capital : Colomba Currency : Rupee Sirimavo Bandaranaike

is the first woman PrimeMinister of a Countryin the World.

Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE)aims to establish anindependent countryfor ethnic Tamilians inSri Lanka.

On 29 July 1987, IndianPrime Minister RajivGandhi and Sri Lankanpresident Jayawardene signed an accord to endthe ethnic crisis in Sri lanka.

Point Pedro lies in the northern tip of Sri Lanka.Jaffna is also situated in the northern part of SriLanka. Elephant Pass connect Jaffna to Sri Lanka.

Remember Myanmar is not a member of SAARC.

Capital of Myanmar -Pyinmana

Currency - KyatDate of Independence -

4th January 1948Myanmar is known as thericebowl of the fareast

Nobel Peaceprize winner 1991

Aung San Suukyileader of national league for democracy

Myanmar (still in house arrest)

President ofSri Lanka

Mahinda Raj Pakse

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

Maldives Capital : Male Currency : Rufiya ($1 = 12.8) The Republic of Maldives is a group

of 1200 small coral Islands in the IndianOcean.

Tourism is the Major income earner forthe country.

After tourism Bonito (Maldive fish) isthe maine x p o r tcommodity& source

of foreignexchange.

President : MaumoonAbdul Gayoom

An attempted coup

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took place in November 1988. India carried outan army operation named Operation Coctus torescue the government.

BangladeshCapital : DhakaCurrency : Taka

Bangladesh became independent on 16 December1971.

Bangladesh was formerly known as EastPakistan.

Sheik Mujibur Rahman is known as the Fatherof Bangladesh.

Mohammad Yunusthe winner of

2006 NobelPrize for Peaceand Founder of

BangladeshGrameen Bank.

Yunus has launchednew politicalparty named

NagorikShakthi

Mother Language DayFebruary 21

21st February every year is observed asMother Language Day. In order to securesame status for Bengali with Urdu andEnglish, the people of East Pakistan gave astrike call on 21 February 1952. On that daypolice fired a student rally and severalstudents died. To remember the sacrificeevery year on 21 February is observed asMother Language Day.

Begum Khaleda Zia is the leader of BangladeshNational Party (BNP). She was the Prime Ministerof the country in 2006.

Sheikh Hasina Waged is the leader of AwamiLeague. She is the opposition leader.

Bangladesh is the second largest muslim countryin the world. The largest is Indonesia.

Population wise the second largest muslimpopulation is in India. But second largest muslimcountry is Bangladesh since India is not a muslimcountry.

Dhaka is known as City of Mosques (There are2000 mosques ).

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Official Name : Republic of IndiaCapital : New DelhiArea : 32,87,263 sq. kmPopulation : 1027 million (2001 census)Position : Latitudes : 80 4/ N and 370 6/ N

Longitudes : 680 7/ E and970 25/ E

Land Frontier : 15,200 kmCoastline : 7,516.6 km (it includes the

coast line of Islands as well)North-South distance : 3214 km latitudeEast-West distance : 2933 km longitude

India is the seventh largest and the second mostpopulated nation of the World. It lies entirely onthe northern hemisphere.

India is the largest democracy in the World. India has a land frontier of 15,200 km and a

coastline of 7516.6 kms. India is a Union of 28 federal States and 6 Union

Territories and one National Capital Territory (NewDelhi)

The largest State in area ..................Rajasthan The smallest State .................................... Goa The largest Union Territory: Andaman and

Nicobar Islands in Bay of Bengal. The smallest Union Territory : Lakshadweep in

the Arabian Sea. The southernmost State: Tamil Nadu. The southernmost tip of India: Indira Point

(Pygmalion Point) in Nicobar Islands. The north-eastern most State of India: Arunachal

Pradesh. The State known as the heart of India: Madhya

Pradesh. The State with the longest coastline is Gujarat

(1000 km). Second largest maritime State isAndhra Pradesh.

Most populated state .............. Uttar Pradesh Least populated state ........................ Sikkim The design of the flag was orignally mooted by

Madame Bhikaji Rustom Cama in 1907 and wasunfurled for the first time in stuttgart (Germany)

Foodgrain production (2004-05) - 210.44 milliontonne.

Foodgrain production in 2003-04 – 213.46 milliontonnes.

Milk production 2003-04 – 88.1 million tonnes. Per capita availability of milk (2003-04) – 231

gram/day India is the leading producer of milk in the World. Egg production (2003-04) : 40.4 billion currently

India ranks fifth in egg production in the World. Percentage of geographical area under forest

(2005) : 20.55%

India : Social IndicatorsPopulation (million - 2001 Census) ................... 1028Growth Rate ........................................... 1980-2001

1.9%2002-2015 (Projected) ............................ 1.2%

Density (per sq.km) .......................................... 324Sex Ratio (Females per 1000 males) ................... 933

or Female population ........................... 48.1%Literacy Rate .............................................. 64.84%

(Male : 75.85%, Female: 52.1%, Rural : 59.40%,Urban : 80.30%)

Life Expectancy at birthMale ....................................................... 63.9Female .................................................... 66.9

Infant-Mortality (per 1000 live births) ................. 69Crude birth rate (per 1000 people) ....................... 25Crude death rate (per 1000 people) ................. 8.1%National Poverty Ratio (Projection for 2007) . 19.3%

Rural ................................................... 21.1%

INDIA : BASIC FACTS

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AtXm Luck factorAtXm CsX-Ãmtam?

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Nothing SucceedLike Success

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NmÄkv UmÀhnsâ Origin of Species

''A man who daresto waste one hourof time has notdiscovered thevalue of life''.

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Urban ................................................. 15.1%Access to drinking water (of population) ......... 90%Access to Sanitation facilities ......................... 28%Health Expenditure (of GDP) 2000 ................... 4.9%Expenditure on Education (2003-04) .............. 3.74%Total Labour Force (2001) ...................... 460 million

Projected (2010) ............................ 543 millionGrowth rate per annum ...................................... 2%Labour Force Women ..................................... 32%

Indians Abroad January 9 : Pravsi Bharatiya Divas It was on January 9, 1915 Gandhiji ended his

Pravasi life in South Africa and left for Indiapermanently.

First Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was observed onJanuary 9, 2003.

UPA government has created ministry foroverseas Indian Affairs to serve the overseasIndian in a better manner.

Mr. Vayalar Ravi is the present Cabinet MinisterOverseas Indian Affairs.

Around 25 million Indian are living outside India.Roughly two third of them are Non ResidentIndian (NRI) who opted for the passport of thecountry they live, the rest one third still carrytheir Indian passports.

The Indian American Community is now the 3rdlargest Asian American group in the US behindChinese and Filipino Americans.

There are four well known diasphora in the World- the Jewish, the Irish, the Chinese and the Indian

The Indians are found in 136 countries. In fortyCountries Indian population exceeds 50,000.

People of Indian origin constitutes more than30% population in Fiji (47.75%), Mauritius(70.10%), Guyana (30.30%) and Suriname (35.90)Trinidad & Tobago (35.25%).

Mauritius has the largest percentage Indiansliving abround - 70.10% numbering 701.000people.

But the largest number of Indian living onoversea’s is in Nepal - 3900000 which constitutes27.12% of Nepale population.

In order to get the help of overseas Indian forthe development and welfare of the Country theGovernment has decided to allow dual citizenshipto NRIs in some countries.

Brain Drain : Migration of professional fromdeveloping countries like India to developedCountries like USA for better opportunitiesand Professional growth is termed braindrain.

IPO Card : People of Indian Origin Card. Thisscheme was introduced from April 1, 1999.

Those who possess IPO Card can visit Indiawithout a VISA.

India and Gulf Since the mid 1970s a large number of Indian

workers have migrated to the West AsianCountries for employment.

The Report on high level committee has estimatedthe total Indian migrants in the Gulf Countriesviz Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, SaudiArabia, UAE and other as 30 Lakh in 1999.

Saudi Arabia had the largest number of Indianmigrants - 15 lakh among the Gulf region (2000)

The largest number of migrants to gulf countriesis from the State of Kerala. It is followed by TamilNadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthanand Punjab.

The largest NRI migrants in Gulf is in Saudi Arabia15 lakh which is the 7% of the Country'spopulation. Percentage wise UAE has the largestpercentage of NRI migrants. UAE has 9 lakh NRIswhich is 32% of the country’s population.

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National Symbols The cloth of National Flag of India is

(a) silk (b) pure silk(c) cotton poplin (d) khadiAns: (d) Khadi

National Flag

The National Flag of India is a horizontal tri-colour of deep saffron (kesari) at the top, whitein the middle and dark green at the bottom inequal proportions. The ratio of width of the flagto its length is two to three. In the centre of thewhite band is a wheel in navy blue, whichrepresents the Charkha. Its design is that of thewheel (chakra) which appears on the abacus ofthe Saranath Lion Capital of Ashoka. It has 24spokes. The design of the flag was adopted bythe Constituent Assemblyon July 22, 1947.

Saffron colour signifiescourage and sacrifice.White signifies truth andpurity.

Green is the symbol of life,abundance and prosperity.Chakra is the symbol ofprogress and movement.

The National flag of Indiawas designed by PingaliVenkiah.

The National Flag is

governed by the provision of the Emblems &Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act 1950Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act1971.

The design of the Flag was originally mooted byMadame Bhikaji Rustom Cama in 1907 and wasunfurled for the First time in Stuttgart (Germany)for the second International Socialist Congressheld on August 22, 1907. It was adopted by theConstituent Assembly of India on July 22, 1947.

Its use and display are regulated by a code. Itcan now be flown by citizens atop their houseson August 15 & January 26 and even duringother days but only from the sunrise to the sun-set period.

In the State emblem the animals Lion, Horse andBull can be seen. The lion is a symbol of majestyand disciplined strength, the bull ofsteadfastness and hardwork, and the horse ofenergy, loyalty and speed.

Before accepting Tiger as National Animal of India,which of the following was National Animal?(a) Panther (b) Cow (c) Bull (d) LionAns: (d) Lion

When was our National Anthem first sung and where?(a) January 24, 1950 in Calcutta(b) January 20, 1950 in Delhi(c) January 24, 1950 in Calcutta(d) December 27, 1911 in CalcuttaAns: (d) December 27, 1911 in Calcutta

National EmblemThe National

Emblem of India is anadaptation from theSaranath Lion Capital ofAshoka as preserved inthe Saranath Museum.The words SatyamevaJayate (meaning `Truthalone Triumphs') fromthe Mundaka Upanishad are inscribed belowthe emblem in Devanagari script.

Pingali Venkayya(August 2, 1876 -July 4, 1963) wasthe designer of theIndian national flag

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How many Lions are visible in the State Emblemof India(a) Four full (b) Three full(c) Two full and one half (d) Four half onlyAns: (b) Three full

Which of the following statements is correct inrespect of National Emblem of India?(a) It is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion

Capital of Ashoka(b) Only three lions are visible, the fourth is

being hidden from the view(c) Was adopted by the Government of India on

26-1-1950(d) All the aboveAns: (d) All the above

What is common in Indian National Flag andNational Emblem of India?(a) Both are important symbols of the country(b) Both are symbols of freedom and democracy(c) Dharma Chakra(d) Two main coloursAns: (c) Dharma Chakra

Which part of the Ashoka’s Pillar at Sarnath hasbeen taken for National Emblem of India?(a) Central Portion (b) Bottom portion(c) Capital (top part)(d) Complete pillarAns: (c) Capital (top part)

In the State emblem the animals Lion, Horse (left)and Bull (right) can be seen.

The State emblem was adopted by theGovernment of India on 26 January, 1950.

National Anthem: The song Jana-gana-manacomposed by Rabindranath Tagore is the NationalAnthem of India. The song was first sung at theCalcutta session of the Indian National Congresson December 27, 1911. It was adopted by theConstituent Assembly of India on January 24, 1950.It was earlier known as Bharat Vidhatha. Thecomplete song consists of five stanzas but only thefirst stanza constitutes the full version of the NationalAnthem. The playing time of the full version of theNational Anthem is about 52 seconds.

Playing time of the short version consisting ofthe first and last lines of the stanza isapproximately 20 seconds. Usually, it is playedon ceremonial occasions.

The song ‘Jana gana mana’ was first publishedin1912, under the title ‘Bharat Vidhata’ in theTatva Bodhini Patrika.

The National Anthem was translated into Englishby Tagore in 1919, under the title Morning Songof India.

Tagore composed National Anthem ofBangladesh (Amar Sonar Bangla) also.

National Anthem was originally composed inBengali.

National SongVande Mataram, composed by Bankim ChandraChatterji, is the national song of India. It wasfirst sung at the 1896 at Calcutta Session of theIndian National Congress. The song is taken fromthe book Anand Math published in 1882.

The song ‘Vande Mataram’ composed by BankimChandra Chatterji in Sanskrit language.

The National Song of India was adopted by theConstituent Assembly on January 24, 1950.

Its English translation was rendered by Sri.Aurobindo.

National CalendarThe national calendar of India is based on theSaka Era. Chaitra and Phalguna are the first andthe last months in the calendar. Saka Era beganin 78 AD at the time of King Kanishka.

The days of Saka Calendar permanentlycorrespond to the Gregorian Calendar and Chaitrafalls on March 22nd in a common year and March21st in a leap year. It was introduced in the year1957 from March 22nd, the day on which

``Sare jaham se accha....''is composed by

Mohammed Iqbal.It was originally

composed in Urdu.

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Saka Months No. of days CorrespondingGregorian Dates

Chaitra 30 March 22(31 in leap year) (21 in leap year)

Vaishaka 31 April 21Jyaistha 31 May 22Asadha 31 June 22Sravana 31 July 23Bhadra 31 August 23Asvina 30 September 23Kartika 30 October 23Agrahayana 30 November 22Pausa 30 December 22Maha 30 January 21Phalguna 30 February 20

Kanishka came to the throne. Chakra is the symbol of progress. White colour is the symbol of purity and peace. Lotus is the symbol of culture and tradition. Tiger stands for Power and gorgeousness. National Language: Hindi in Devanagiri script

is the official language of the Govt. of India. The word Satyameva Jayate inscribed in our

State emblem is taken from --------- UpanishadAns: Mundaka

The word Satyameva Jayate inscribed below theabacus of the State emblem is in ----------- scriptAns: Devanagari

National Animal: Royal Bengal Tiger(Panthera tigris)Since November 1972 tiger has been adoptedas the national animal.

National Bird: Peacock (Pavo cristatus)The Government of India declared peacockas the national bird in 1964 and its huntinghas since been banned.

National Flower: Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)It symbolises the truth that a person can riseabove the worldly evils and keep himselfhigh above them.

National Fruit : Mango (Mangifera Indica)is the National Fruit of India.

National Tree: Pepal (Ficus bengalensis)The tree is considered to be immortal.

National Game: Hockey National Fruit : Mango

The National Anthem was first published byTagore in(a) Swaraj (b) Tattvabodhini Patrika(c) The Hindu (d) Anand MathAns: (b) Tatvabodhini Patrika

Who gave the English Translation of ourNational song?(a) Subhash Chandra Bose(b) Rabindra Nath Tagore(c) Aurobindo (d) Mahatma GandhiAns: (c) Aurobindo

Which of the following rivers is mentioned inthe National Anthem of India?(a) Narmada (b) Krishna(c) Cauveri (d) JamunaAns: (d) Jamuna

National AnimalTIGER

National BirdPEACOCK

National FlowerLOTUS

National FruitMANGO

National TreePEPAL

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POPULATION &CENSUS

In terms of the number of population India is thesecond largest Country in the World; only Chinais the largest.

The population of the World as on August 1,2001, was 6,163,890,100 (6163 million) and thegrowth rate was 1.3%.

India's population constitutes nearly 16.89% ofthe total world population in 2.4% of the worldarea. China supports 20% of the world population.

The first regular all India census was conductedin 1881 during the period of Lord Ripon andthereafter every 10 years. The last census wastaken in 2001. Next census will be held in 2011.

First Census was held in 1872.

On May 11, 2000 Indian population crossed the1 billion mark. World population crossed 6 billionmark on October 12, 1999. World population in2000 was 6080 million.

According to 2001 census Indian population is1,02,87, 37, 436.

The other name of census - Kaneshumari

First Census held in USA in 1790.

World Population Day : July 11.

The 5 billion population mark was reached onJuly 11, 1987 when the first World PopulationDay was celebrated to build awareness ofpopulation issues and to highlight the impact theyhave on development and the environment.

2001 Census Highlights The Most populous state - Uttar Pradesh (16

crores) The least populous State - Sikkim (5.4 lakhs) The most literate State - Kerala (90.92%) The least literate State - Bihar (47.53%) The most densely populated State - West Bengal

(904) The least densely populated State - Arunachal

Pradesh (13) The State with highest sex ratio - Kerala

(1,058) The State with lowest sex ratio - Haryana (861)

The United States with 281.4 million and Indonesiawith 212.1 million are the third and fourth mostpopulous nations in the World.

The average daily increase in the World'spopulation has been estimated at about 210,327or an average of approximately 247 per minute.

''A Passage to Hope: Women and InternationalMigratin'', is World Population report 2006 byUNFPA.

Thomas Malthus iscredited with the

well knownTheory of

population.

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Religious break up of IndianPopulation

Religion Population Percentage

Hindus 82.7 crore 80.5%Muslims 13.8 croree 13.4%Christians 2.4 crore 2.2%Sikhs 1.9 crore 1.7%Buddhist 79 lakh .71%Jains 42 lakh .38%Others 66 lakh .58%

The 2001 census report on religion released onSeptember 6, 2004 shows that while Hindu growthrate declined from 25.1% during 1981 - 91 to 20.3%between 1991 - 2001, that of Muslims increasedfrom 34.5% to 36% during the same comparableperiod. The growth rate of Christians increasedfrom 21.5% to 22.6% during the period.

2001- Census Features The census moment, the referral time at which the

snapshot of population is taken was 00.00 hoursof march 2001.

Total Population ....... 1,0287,37,436 (1.027 million)Males ......................................... 531,277,078Females ...................................... 495,738,169Rural Population .............. 742 million (72.2%)Urban Population ............. 285 million (27.8%)

Sex Ratio Sex ratio at present (2001) in India is 933. The sex ratio according to the 1991 census was

927 females per 1000 males. The sex ratio is the number of females per 1000 males. The state with the highest female population rate

is Kerala, 1058 females per 1000 males.In 1991 it was 1036 females / 1000 males.

Kerala is the only state in India in which femalesout number males.

Puthucherry is the only union territory in Indiain which females out number males (1001 femalesper 1000 males)

The state with the lowest sex ratio is Haryana861/1000. In 1991 it was Arunachal Pradesh (859females/1000 males).

Decadal growth The decennial growth rate of population was

21.54% during 1991-2001. It was 23.86 percent during 1981-91. The annual average during 1991-2001 is 1.93%

as against 2.14 during 1981-91. The State with the lowest decadal population

growth rate is Kerala 9.42%. In 1991 it was 14.32%. The State with the highest decadal population

growth rate is Nagaland 64.41%. In 1991 it was56.86%.

Literacy (2001) Total Literacy rate in India- 65.38% Male Literacy .................................... 75.85% Female Literacy.................................. 54.16% The State with the highest literacy rate is Kerala

90.92 (2001) On April 18, 1991 Kerala was declared India's

first fully literate state. (94.20% men and 87.86%women). Kerala is also the first state to have totalliteracy among the tribals.

The second most literate State is Mizoram 88.80%. The district with highest percentage of literacy

is Aizwal (Mizoram) 96.64%. The State with the lowest literacy rate is Bihar

(47.13%) in 2001.

Density of Population The average density of population in India is

324. In 1991 it was 267 persons / sq. km. The most densely populated state in India is West

Bengal 904 (in 1991 it was 767). It is followed byBihar 880 and Kerala 819.

The least densely populated state is ArunachalPradesh. 13 persons per sq.km. (In 1991 it was 10persons / sq. km).

The least densely populated Union Territory isAndaman and Nicobar. 43 persons per sq. km. In1991 it was 34 persons / sq. km.

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Population-India 2001State Population Sex Ratio Density of Literacy

Population–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––India 1,02,87,37,436 933 324 65.38Uttar Pradesh 16,61,97,921 898 690 57.36Maharashtra 9,68,78,627 922 315 77.27Bihar 8,29,98,509 921 880 47.53West Bengal 8,02,21,171 934 904 69.22Andhra Pradesh 7,62,10,007 978 275 61.11Tamil Nadu 6,24,05,679 986 478 73.47Madhya Pradesh 6,03,85,118 920 196 64.11Rajasthan 5,65,07,188 922 165 61.03Karnataka 5,28,50,562 964 275 67.04Gujarat 5,06,71,017 921 258 69.97Orissa 3,68,04,660 972 236 63.61Kerala 3,18,41,374 1,058 819 90.92Jharkhand 2,69,45,829 941 338 54.13Assam 2,66,38,407 932 340 64.28Punjab 2,43,58,999 874 482 69.95Haryana 2,11,44,564 861 477 68.59Chattisgarh 2,08,33,803 990 154 65.18Jammu & Kashmir 1,01,43,700 900 99 54.46Uttaranchal 84,79,562 964 159 72.28Himachal Pradesh 60,77,900 970 109 77.13Tripura 31,99,203 950 304 73.66Manipur 23,88,634 978 107 68.87Meghalaya 23,06,069 975 103 63.31Nagaland 19,90,036 909 120 67.11Goa 13,47,668 960 363 82.32Arunachal Pradesh 10,97,968 901 13 54.74Mizoram 8,91,058 938 42 88.49Sikkim 5,40,493 875 76 69.68Delhi* 1,37,82,976 821 9,294 81.82Pondicherry 9,74,345 1,001 2,029 81.49Chandigarh 9,00,914 773 7,903 81.76Andaman &Nicobar Islands 3,56,265 846 43 81.81Dadra & Nagar Haveli 2,20,490 811 449 60.03Daman & Diu 1,58,059 709 1,411 81.09Lakshwadeep 60,595 947 1,894 87.52

* National Capital Territory

Number of Metropolitian cities in India : 35 In Metropolitan cities population is above 10 lakh

Birth Rate & Death Rate During the period 1981-91 the

average birth rate was 31.7against the death rate of 11.

During 1991-2001 the crude birthrate is projected at 24.8 as againstthe crude death rate of 8.9 in 2001.

Life expectancy Child mortality rate was 146 per

thousand birth in 1951. In 2001-2002 it is only 68. Life expectancyhas also risen from 37.2 (male)and 36.2 (female) to 63.87 (male)and 66.9 (female) in 2001-02.

The most populated State inIndia is Uttar Pradesh, followedby Maharashtra and Bihar.

The least populated State isSikkim. The least populatedUnion Territory is Lakshadweep.

The year 1921 is known as the`Year of Great Divide', withregard to population. After thatperiod there was a continuousand rapid growth in India 'spopulation.

Demography is the study ofpopulation.

SC and ST Population(2001)

The Scheduled Castesconstitute 16.20% of Indianpopulation.

Punjab has the highestpercentage of Scheduled Caste28.85% in its population. ButUttar Pradesh has the highestnumber of Scheduled Castes(35148000) which constitutes21.15% of its population.

Nagaland, Mizoram,Lakshadweep and AndamanNicobar Islands have noScheduled Castes in their

449

populations. Scheduled Tribes constitutes 8.20% of Indian

population. Madhya Pradesh has the largest number of

Scheduled Tribes (12233000) which is 20.27% ofits population. But percentage wise the Stateswhich has the largest percentage of populationis Mizoram 94.46% of its population is ScheduledTribes.

SC and ST together Constitute 24.40% of IndianPopulation.

Rural and Urban Population72.2% of Indian population is rural while 27.8%is urban.

Town & City PopulationThere are 178,224 towns in India with more than1 lakh population (2001). There are 35 million pluscities in India. Among them Greater Mumbai hasthe largest population. Kochi (135,5406) is theonly million plus city in Kerala.

VillagesThere are 593,643 inhabited villages in India. UttarPradesh has the largest number of villages 97,942.The number of villages in Kerala is 1364.

The district with highest population in India isMedinapur (West Bengal) - 9638,473 people.

The politician and nowUnion Minister for Rail-ways presented his fourthconsecutive railwaybudget (2007-08). He hadset a record of not risingpassenger fares.MBA Students fromAmerican Universitiestrying to figure out thesecretes of Lalu's Success:

Lalu Prasad Yadav(Management Pandit !)

\jvS-̄ n HmSn-s¡m-­n-cp¶ C´y³ sdbnÂthsb2005-þ2006  20,000 tImSn cq] em`-̄ n-te¡vDbÀ¯n-b-Xnsâ Kp«³kv temI-̄ nse amt\-Pvsaâ vhnZ-Kv²-·msc hsc A¼-cn-̧ n-̈ n-cn-¡p-I-bm-Wv.

Hcp kZ-Ên ]{X-te-J-IÀ Bth-i-t¯msS emep-hn-t\mSv Xnc¡n. CXnsâ cl-ky-sa´v? cmjv{So-b-¡mcpw _p²n-Po-hn-Ifpw hnÍn Ipjvam-­-ambn IW-¡m-¡n-bn-cp¶ emep samgnªp

‘‘Application of common Sense’’

Apply your commonsense at the right time,in right degree and in

right direction and get abig Job

\n§fpwemep-hns\ I­v]Tn-̈ p-sIm-ÅpI

450

First Armed Forces Commander in Chief of Independent India - Gen-

eral Sir Rob Lokhart. Indian Commander-in-Chief of Independent In-

dia - Field Marshal K.M. Kariappa. Chief of Army Staff - General Maharaj Rajendra

Singhji Chief of Naval Staff - Vice Admiral R.D. Katari Chief of Air Staff - Air Marshal C S. Mukherjee. First Field Marshal - SHFJ Manekshaw Second Field Marshal : K.M. Cariappa

First Marshall of the Air force : Arjun Singh

Saras India's first Light Transport Aircraft has rolled out of

the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) Bangaloreon February 4, 2003 has been named as Saras

Seating capacity - 14

Tejas India's Light Combat Aircraft has been named as

Tejas.

DEFENCE Today, India has the 2nd largest army in the

world, the 4th largest Air Force and the 6th largestNavy.

Recently government has set up Integrated De-fence Staff, Defence Intelligence Agency, De-fence, Acquisition Council, Defence TechnologyCouncil, Andaman and Nicobar Command, Stra-tegic Force Command etc to improve the inte-gration of the Indian military set up.

Andaman Nicobar Command is the first tri serv-ice command in the country.

The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forcesin India is the President of India.

The responsibility for national defence,however, rests with the Cabinet.

All important questions related to defence aredecided by the Cabinet Committee on PoliticalAffairs which is presided over by the Prime Min-ister. The Defence Minister is responsible to Par-liament for all matters concerning the Defence

Services. A.K. Antony (former Chief Minister of Kerala) is

the Defence Minister of India. On July 1, 2002, the Defence Ministry was given

the new name of Integrated Headquarters of theMinistry of Defence.

The administrative and operational control of thearmed forces is exercised by the Department ofDefence and the three services Headquarters ofthe Army, Navy and Air Force. The three serv-ices - Army, Navy and Air Force - functionthrough their respective service Headquartersheaded by Chief of Staff.

Army has seven Commands -Navy has threeCommands and Air Force has seven Commands.

DRDO -Defence Research and Development Or-ganization is in Hyderabad

Field Marshal is the highest Rank in Indian Army.S.H.F.J. Manekshaw was the first Field Marshal ofIndia. K.M. Kariappa is the second Field Mar-shal of India.

Naval Academy is being set up at Ezhimala inKannur district in Kerala

The headquarters of Army, Navy and Airforceare located in New Delhi.

A separate post of Chief of Staff Committee wasset up in the light of Kargil infiltration.

The present Chief of Staff Committee is AdmiralArun Prakash.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) -formed Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) in2003. The NCA renamed as Strategic Forces

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Army Navy Air Force

General Admiral Air Chief Marshal

LieutenantGeneral Vice Admiral Air Marshal

Major General Rear Admiral Air Vice-Marshal

Brigadier Commodore Air-Commodore

Colonel Captain Group Captain

LieutenantColonel Commander Wing Commander

Major LieutenantCommander Squadron Leader

Captain Lieutenant Flight Lieutenant

Lieutenant Sub-Lieutenant Flying Officer

Commissioned Ranks

Command (SFC) is responsible for managing Nu-clear Weapons.

Air Marshal Avinash Devdutt Joshi the presentCommander-in-Chief of Strategic Forces Com-mand.

Military Training Institutes forDefence Service

National Defence Academy ....... Khadakvasla Indian Military Academy ............... Dehradun National Defence College .............. New Delhi Defence Services Staff College ......................

............................... Wellington (Tamil Nadu) Armed Forces Medical College ................. Pune Rashtriya Indian Military College ..... Dehradun Indian Naval Academy ....................... Cochin College of Military Engineering .... Kirkee (Pune) College of Defence Management...Secundrabad Officers Training Academy ............... Chennai Army War College ............................... Mhow Infantry School ................................... Mhow High Altitude Warfare School ........... Gulmarg School of Artillary ............................... Deolai Army Air DefenceCollege ................ Gopalpur

Counter Insurgency & Jungle Warefare school..................................... Vairengte (Mizoram)

Army Airborne Training School ............. Agra Army Sports Institute ........................... Pune Army Cadet College .......................Dehradun Days of Defence Navy Day ................................... December 4 Army Day .................................... January 15 National Security Day ...................... March 4 Vijay Divas ............................... December 16 Infantry Day ................................ October 27 NCC Day .................................. November 24 Armed Forces Flag Day............... December 7 Kargil Victory Day.............................. July 26 Air Force Day ................................ October 8

Air force Training Centre Airforce Adminitrative College .... Coimbatore Airforce Academy ........................ Hyderabad Air force Technical College................ Jalahalli Flying Instructor’s School ............. Tambaram Elementary Flying school ...................... Bidar Institute of Aviation Medicine ....... Bangalore Paratroopers Training School ................ Agra

Overseas military BaseIndia’s first air military base is located at Farkhor,10 miles outside Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe.

Army The Chief of Army Staff is the head of the Army

in India. The headquarters is in New Delhi. Army is organised into 7 commands. The seventh command named south western

command was formed on 15April , 2005 withJaipur as its headquarters. Out of this 7 com-mands six of them are operational command andone is a training command with its headquartersin Shimla. Apart from this seven command, In-dian army has a Nuclear and Strategic ForceCommand.

Kerala comes under Southern command and itsheadquarters is in Pune.

India’s first indigenously made Main Battle Tank(MBT) : Vijayanta.

452

February 28 & May 11 National Science Day is observed on February

28. It was on this day in 1928 the Raman Effectwas announced by Prof. C.V. Raman. He wassubsequently awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics(1930) for this discovery.

National Technology Day is observed on May11. It was on this day in 1998 India carried out thesecond set of nuclear explosions and proclaimedto the world that we are a nuclear power.

T-55, T-72 are Russian made MBTs which arealso in use

India’s Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun. It wasdesigned and built by DRDO.

Apart from these India is inducting another tankKaran and a self propelled gun Bheema.

The first indigenously built missile inducted toIndian Army is Prithvi.

'Samyukta' - an indigenous, state of the artIntegrated Electronic Warfare (IEW) system.

'Bhishma' - the newly assebled inducted T-90tank.

The first woman who reached the post of a ViceAdmiral - Punita Arora.

Navy Indian Navy is headed by the Chief of Naval

Staff with headquarters at New Delhi. The Navy is organised into 3 Naval Commands -

Western Command, Mumbai; Eastern Command,Visakhapatanam; and Southern Command, Kochi.

The Navy has two fleets - the Western Fleet andthe Eastern Fleet.

Naval Training CentresI.N.S Venduruthy ........................ CochinI.N.S Circars .................... VisakhapatnamI.N.S. Garuda ............................... CochinI.N.S. Hamla ............................... MumbaiI.N.S Shivaji ....... Lonavala (Maharashtra)I.N.S Angre ................................ MumbaiI.N.S Valsura ............................ JamnagarINS Chilka .................................... OrissaINS Satavahana ............ VishakhapatnamINS Kunjali ................................ MumbaiINS Hansa ....................................... GoaINS Asvini ................................. Mumbai

Sea Bird : India’s biggest naval base being builtat Karwar in Karnataka.

I.N.S Jarwa : A naval organisation at Port Blairin the Andaman Nicobar Islands.

India’s first submarine museum was establishedat Visakhapatnam.

Indian Air Force Air Force is headed by the Chief of the Air Staff

with headquarters in New Delhi. Air Force is organised into seven commands.

Out of this 5 are opertional command and 2 arefunctional command. Kerala comes under theSouthern Command with its headquarters atTrivandrum.

The first woman whoreached the post of Lt: General and Vice

Admiral Punita Arora

Padma Bandopadhyayhas been appointed

India's first woman Vice AirMarshal. She was the firstwoman officer to complete

Defence Services Staff Collegecourse.

453

The Air Force combat fleet is made up of 45squadrons.

Retired Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh has beenmade the first-ever Marshal of Indian Air Force.

Air Force Training CentresAir Force Academy ....................... HyderabadAir Force Administrative College .. CoimbatoreHelicopter Training School ................... AvadiCollege of Air Warfare .............. SecunderabadAir Force Technical College ............... Jalahalli

Aircraft CarriersI.N.S Vikrant : India’s first aircraft-carrier, it wasthe Flagship of the Navy. It was decommissionedin 1997.I.N.S Viraat: The second aircraft carrier of In-dian Navy

Admiral Gorshkov : India's new aircraft carrierfrom Russia.

Warships

INS Shivalik : India's first stealth warship waslaunched in Mumbai on April 18, 2003.

INS Delhi : Indian Navy's largest and most so-phisticated warship.

INS Ranvir : A frontline destroyer ofIndian Navy.

INS Mysore: The second of the most powerfulclass of warship.

INS Kulish : India’s frontline warship commis-sioned in August 2001.

INS Brahmaputra:Indian Navy commissionedthe 3600 tonne frigate on April 14, 2000.

Frigates : Small fast moving escorting ships.

INS Talwar : India's first hightech Stealth Frig-ate. INS Talwar commissoned in St. Petersburg(Russia) on June 18, 2003. Its main attack weaponis the vertical launch club - N missile system.

INS Thrissul is the second stealth frigate com-missioned on June 24, 2003.

INS Savitri : First warship fabricated at the Hindustan

Shipyard Ltd. entered the service in 1990.

INS Ghariyal : It is an indigeneously builtwarship commissioned in 1997.

INS Tillanchang : Commissioned in 2001. It isthe second indigenous warship in the Trinkatclass fast attack craft series.

SubmarinesI.N.S Shalki: First indigenously builtsubmarine commissioned in 1982.I.N.S Chakra : First nuclear powered submarinebased in VisakhapatnamI.N.S Shahkul : Second indigenously built sub-marine of India commissioned in 1994.INS Sindhuvir : Indian submarine, which wasreassembled from Russia.INS Sindhushastra: India’s first missile firingsubmarine. It is the first submarine to be armedwith the anti-ship Klub missile.

Missile Boats

I.N.S Vipul : Second missile boat of India I.N.S Prabal : Indigenously built Indian missile

boat commissioned on April 11, 2002. I.N.S Prahar : The fastest missile boat of India. I.N.S Vibhuthi : India’s indigenously built first

missile boat. INS Jalwa : The first high - tech stealth frigate,

built by Russia for the Indian Navy. INS Nashak : India's third missile boat launched

in 1993. INS Prahar : It packs a powerful punch in the

form of ship-to- surface KT 138 missile. INS Prabhat : Launched in 2000. It belongs to

Nashak class of boats. Its weapon package in-cludes surface-to-surface missiles with associ-ated surveillance system.

INS Tarangini : The first Indianship which cir-cumnavigated the world. The ship set out withthe theme of 'bridging friendship across theoceans.'

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Indian Research and Development OrganisationsName of Organisation LocationCentral Building Research Institute .... Roorkee (UP)Central Drug Research Institute ....... Lucknow (UP)Central Food Technological Research Institute.........

Mysore (Karnataka)Central Institute of Fisheries Technology .........

Ernakulam (Kerala)Central Leather Research Institute ....... ChennaiCentral Marine Fisheries Institute .....................

Mandapam Camp (South India)Central Mining Research Station ........ DhanbadCentral Road Research Institute ....... New DelhiCentral Rice Research Institute ............. CuttackCentral Coconut Research Station ....................

Kayamkulam (Kerala)Indian Institute of Petroleum ........... Dehra Dun

(Uttaranchal)

Name of Organisation LocationIndian Agricultural Research Institute ..... New DelhiIndian Institute of Science .... Bangalore (Karnataka)Indian Textile Institute .......................... KanpurIndian Dairy Research Institute ........ BangaloreNational Aeronautical Laboratory ..... BangaloreNational Dairy Research Institute .. Karnal (Haryana)National Environment Engineering Research

Institute ............... Nagpur (Maharashtra)National Institute of Oceanography...... Panaji (Goa)All India Institute of Medical Sciences .............

New DelhiNational Institute of Communicable Diseases.. DelhiIndian Cancer Research Centre ............ MumbaiNational Institute of Virology.................... PuneNational Institute of Mental Health ... BangalorePasteur Institute ................................. Koonoor

Missiles A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is the Father of Indian Mis-

sile Programme. He is behind the developmentof Prithvi, Agni etc.

Prithvi : India’s surface-to-surface missile-range 250 km.

Agni : Long range surface-to-surface missile.India’s first Intermediate Range Ballistic Mis-sile (IRBM)-Range 2500 km. Now different ver-sions of Agni I, Agni II etc. are being devel-oped.

Trishul : Short range surface-to-air missile-Range 9 km.

Akash : Medium range surface-to air missile -Range 25km, designed to destroy 5 or more tar-gets at a time.

Pinaka : India’s multi-barrel rocket launcher.Which is used for ‘saturation fire. Pinaka canfire 12 solid missiles within seconds.

Nag : Anti-tank missile; Range 4 km. Ghori and Shaheen are missiles developed by

Pakistan. Arrow Missiles are missiles developed by Is-

rael.

Patriot : Anti-missiles used by U.S.A. duringthe Gulf war (1991) to destroy Iraq’s scud mis-siles.

Astra : India's air to air missile. Its range is from10-25 km.

Others Phalcon Radar : India has bought Phalcon radars

from Israel. Vajra Squadron : The name given to the squad-

Dhanush :India’s first

indigenouslydeveloped

ship- to-shipmissile testfired

from off thecoast of Orissa– 150 km range.

455

ron of Mirage 2000 fighter planes received fromFrance.

Gajraj : Name given to the long range heavytransport aircraft acquired by the IAF from formerUSSR.

Arjun : India’s Main Battle Tank (MBT) Lakshya : Pilotless target aircraft developed by

India Nishant : Indigenously built unmanned air ve-

hicle of India for surveillance. INS Aditya : Indigenously built fleet replenish-

ment tanker of Indian Navy. The highest galantry award in India is Param

Vir Chakra, while the highest civilian award isBharat Ratna.

India bought Mirage -2000 fighter planes fromFrance, Jaguar fighter planes from England andMIG-29 from Russia. Sukhoi-30 was boughtfrom Russia. USA has offered to India its warplane F-16.

F-16 is the fighter plane Pakistan bought fromUSA.

India is manufacturing Sukhoi Engine at HACfactory at Sunabeda (Orissa).

ISI -Inter Service Intelligence is the spy agencyof Pakistan. RAW (Research and Analysis Wing)and Mossad are spy organizations of India andIsrael repectively. KGB was the Russian spyagency and MI5 (Ministry of Information De-partment No.5) is the British spy agency. CIA -Central Intelligence Agency is the secret policeof USA. Gestapo was the secret police of NaziGermany.

AK-47 is the name of Soviet made machine gun RDX (Research Department Explosive) is the

name of powerful explosive. PETN (Penta Erythritol Tetra Nitrate) is more le-

thal and dangerous than the RDX. Interpol is the International Criminal Police Or-

ganization. Its headquarters is in Lyons, France.Formerly it was in Paris. CBI represents Interpolin India. Established in 1923.

K. Subramanyam Committee probed the Kargilintrusion by Pak-backed militants.

PoW is Prisoner of War Russian built surface-to-air missile OSA was suc-

cessfully testfired from the Interim Test Range atChandipur, Orissa.

Darshak, an indigenously built hydrographic sur-vey ship, has been commissioned in Indian Navy.

The strength of the Indian Navy has increasedwith the induction of two new ships namely, INSMumbai and INS Kirch.

The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is the smallest,lightweight, supersonic fighter aircraft.

The Supersonic Cruise Missile which was jointlytest fired by India and Russia

Rani Padmavathi : The second ship which wasbuilt by the ship building yard of Kochi. (Firstship was 'Rani Padmini.')

Hatf -V is the indigenously developed mediumrange surface-to-surface ballistic missile testfiredby Pakistan.

Lt. General Pankaj Joshi is India’s first everChief of the Integrated Defence Staff (CIDS).

AWACS - Airborne Warning and Control System. The World’s highest airfield is situated in Leh. The indigenously built missile vessel, INS

Pralaya, was commissioned in the Indian Navyon the eve of the Goa Liberation Day onDecember 18, 2002.

India’s first naval academy being built at Ezhimalain Kannur. It is said to be the biggest academy inAsia.

HARAM - High Speed Anti - Radiation Missile. The indigenously built multi-role light transport

vehicle has been named Saras. ICBM : Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. IRBM : Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile. Star war was the American defence programme

for destroying missiles of the enemy country inthe space when they are launched.

‘Mera Bharat Mahan’is the new theme song of the

Indian army.

456

NMD National Missile Defence is a new pro-gramme to replace star war programme earlierscrapped by the NASA.

India’s missile launching pad is at Chandipur -on-sea (Orissa); rocket launching centre is atThumba and satellite launching centre is atSriharikotta.

Brahmos cruise missile is jointly developed byIndia and Russia. Brahmos is the short form forBrahmaputra and the Mosaka River in Moscow.Its range is 300 km. Brahmos is the first and onlysupersonic cruise missile that uses liquid ram jettechnology.

As part of Indo US defence co-operation Indianvessels have started escorting US ships throughthe Malacca Strait.

India has decided to buy the firefinder batteryradar from USA. Firefinder can locate artilleryguns at a maximum range of 50 km.

National Defence University World’s third Defence University only China and

USA have such universities. Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was passed

by the Parliament 2002 aims to suppress terroristactivities in India.

TADA [Terrorist and Disruptive Activities(Prevention Act] was passed in 1987.

Smerch is a longrange Russian rocket systempresently in trial in India.

LCA is India’s Light Combat Aircraft. SU-30 MKI has been inducted to the Indian Air

Force on setember 27, 2002. The Technology Demonstrator-version of the

Light Combat Aircraft, 'Tejas' , achieves milestoneby crossing Mach 1.4 at a speed of 950 kmphapproximately at 11 km altitude.

Hawk : The Government has decided to acquiredthe Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer from Britain.

INS KADAMBA : The Navy’s long awarted, fu-turistic, state of the art operational base on thewestern seaboard at Karwar (Karnataka) wascommissioned on May 31, 2005. It is the 3rd op-erational base after Mumbai and Vishakapatnam.

Nilgiri : India launched the first of its indigenuosstealth warship Niligiri. It was built at theMazgaon Dock.

Sarojini Naidu : The coast Guard has inducted anew fast vessel Sarojini Naidu for its operational.

Paramilitary Forces Assam Rifles (1835) is the oldest paramilitary

force in India and the youngest is Rashtriya Ri-fles (1994)

The only paramilitary force which has an exclu-sive Mahila Battalion is CRPF (Central ReservePolice Force) Batch -88.

Police is a state subject under the constitution.

CRPF is Central Reserve Police Force. It was raisedin 1939. Its headquarters is New Delhi and pri-mary objective of the force is maintenance of lawand order.

CRPF was raised at Neemuch, Madhya Pradeshand called ‘Crown Representative’s Police’,which after independence became the CentralReserve Police.

The paramilitary force of India set up to providesecurity to industrial undertakings owned by thegovernment was

(a) CRPF (b) CISF(c) BSF (d) ITBPAns : (b) CISF

CISF is Central Industrial Security Force wascreated in 1969

Protection of Taj Mahal VIPs, airports now restswith CISF.

The objective of BSF (Border Security Force)vigilance of international border in the northeastand countering insurgency in NortheasternStates. BSF was established in 1965.

Coast Guard Indian coast Guard was set on 19 August1978. Indo - Tibetan Border Police was formed in 1962

Protection of Indo-Tibetan Border as well as VIPsnow rests with ITBP.

Which of the following is a voluntary part-time

457

force?(a) Coast Guard (b) Home Guard(c) Territorial Army (d) NCCAns : (c) Territorial Army

Territorial Army was formed in 1949.

NCC (National Cadet Corps) was establishedin 1948.

The motto of NCC is 'Unity and Discipline.'

To protect the maritime and other national inter-ests in the maritime zones of India for this pur-pose the Coast Guard was constituted as anarmed force of the Union under the Coast GuardAct 1978.

Home Guards was Formed in 1962 its main objec-tive as to help Police Force when Natural Disas-ter occurs and epidemic diseases spread out.

Civil Defence: It aims at saving life, minimisingdamage to property, and maintaining continuity

of industrial production in the event of an attack.

World’s highest warfare school was opened atTso Morriri by ITBP (Indo Tibetan BorderPolice).

FPV - Fast Patrol Vessel.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) was established in 1920.(IB was originally set up as Central SpecialBranch (CSB) in 1887 and renamed IntelligenceBureau in 1920).

The objectives of IB is to collect secret informa-tion relating to country’s security.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) wasestablished in 1986.

What is the number of the Mahila Battalian ofthe Central Reserve Police?

(a) BN 81 (b) BN 85

(c) BN 88 (d) BN 28Ans: (c) BN 88

458

Atomic Research The Atomic Energy Commission was set up in

1948 with Dr.H.J.Bhabha as its first chairman. Itspresent Chairman is Anil Kakodkar.

Indo - US nuclear PactIndia and USA signed a historic nuclear agree-ment when the US president visited India inMarch 2005.

India’s first underground nuclear explosion wascarried out on May18, 1974 at Pokhran inRajasthan (Thar) desert. With this India becamethe sixth nuclear power in the world.

The code name used to convey the success ofthe test to the then Prime Minister, Indira Gan-dhi, was 'Buddha is Smiling'.

The second and third nuclear explosions were alsocarried out at Pokhran on May 11 and 13 in 1998.

The tests conducted were with a fission device,a low yield device and a thermonuclear device. thecode name of these tests was 'Operation Shakti'.

Pakistan carried out its nuclear explosions in May1998 at Chagai Hills.

BARC - Bhabha Atomic Research Centre wasset up in 1957 at Trombay and it is India’s larg-est atomic research centre. There are five researchreactors in operation.

Apsara is India’s first atomic reactor. Functionedat 1956 Apsara was Asia’s First research reactor.

'Circus' is a 40 MW research reactor. 'Zerlina'is a zero energy experimental thermal reactor'Purnima-II' is a homogeneous reactor whichuses Uranium-233 fuel in the form of a solution.

Kamini is India’s first fast breeder neutron reac-tor at Kalpakkom.

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research(IGCAR) was set up in 1971 at Kalpakkam.

Dhruva, India's fifth Research Reactor, was com-missioned in 1985.

FBTR is Fast Breeder Test Reactor. FBTR atKalpakkam was commissioned in 1985.

Today, India is the 7th Country in the World andthe first developing nation to have the distinc-tion of mastering fast breeder technology. Theother six nations are the US, the CIS, France,Britain, Germany and Japan.

India's first presurised Heavy Reactor (PHWR)is Rajasthan Atomic Power Station -1 (RAPS-1).

Atomic Power Plants Narora Atomic Power Station ... Uttar Pradesh Kakrapara Atomic Power Station ........ Gujarat Kaiga Atomic Power Station .......... Karnataka Kota .............................................. Rajasthan Rana Pratap Sagar Atomic Power Plant is in Kota

in Rajasthan. Kalpakkam ...................................Tamil Nadu Koodamkulam .............................. Tamil Nadu Koodamkulam is being built with the help of Russia.

It is the second atomic power project in Tamil Nadu. India’s first Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

plant (OTEC) is being set up at Tuticorin.

Atomic Power ProductionCurrently (2006 April 1) the total power gener-ated from 15 operating atomic reactor in the coun-try is 3300 MW.

With the commissioning of Tarapur Atomic Powerstation - 3rd unity in May 2006 (Capacity - 540MW) it will increase to 3840 MW.

The Russian aided 1000 MW light water reactorat Koodamkulam (TN) will become operationalin 2007 and 2008.

Nuclear Research Institutions Atomic Energy Commission .............. Mumbai Indian Rare Earths Ltd. ...................... Alwaye Radio Astronomy Centre ............. Ottacamund Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics ..... Kolkatta Tata Institute of Fundamental Research .. Mumbai

459

Space Programme Indian Space Research started in 1961 under

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. Indian Space ResearchOrganization (ISRO) was set in 1969 withBangalore as the headquarters. In 1972 SpaceCommission was established.

India launched its first satellite ‘Aryabhatta’ in1975, April 19.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) -Trivandrum -established in 1963 for developmentof satellite launch vehicles such as SLV, ASLV,PSLV and GSLV. (A = Augmented ; P = Polar : G =Geosynchronous)

Sriharikotta Rocket Range - A satellitelauching station set up in Andhra Pradesh.

Space Application Centre - Ahmedabad.

India’s Space Missions

SLV 3 : India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle,launched Rohini Satellite, on July 18,1980, from Sriharikotta. It was fabri-cated at Vikram Sarabhai Space Cen-tre., Trivandrum.

ASLV : Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle- pay load capacity: 50-150kg

PSLV : Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle

GSLV : Geosynchronous Space

Launch Vehicle

INSAT : Indian National Satellite

IRS : Indian Remote Sensing satellite

INSAT -2A : India’s first indigenously builtsecond generation communicationsatellite

Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma was the firstIndian to go to space . He was launched abroadSoyuz T-II space ship from BaikonourCosmodrome in Kazhakhstan (former USSR). In-dia is the 14th nation in the world to have sent a

man into space on April 3, 1984.

Dr. Kalpana Chawla, an Indian or Indian Ameri-can woman, became the first Indian woman to gointo the space on November 19, 1997 on a 16 daymission on NASA’s Columbia shuttle as a Mis-sion Specialist to study the outer atmosphere ofSun But on her second space mission in January2003 abroad Columbia, she was killed along with6 other astronauts on February 1, 2003 due tobreaking up of the space shuttle minutes beforelanding. In the memory of Kalpana Chawla Indiahas renamed METSAT, its first meteorologicalsatellite as Kalpana - I.

Columbia Space Shuttle Commander - EleenCollins. She was the first woman commander ofa space shuttle.

The first sounding rocket was launched fromThumba in 1963.

TERLS is Thumba Equitorial Rocket LaunchingStation. TERLS dedicated to united nations in1968.

Aryabhatta, India's first satellite was launchedin April 19, 1975 and Bhaskara I was launched onJune 7, 1979. Aryabhatta and Bhaskara - I werelaunched from the Soviet Union.

With the launching of APPLE on June 19, 1981India entered the domestic satellite communica-tion era.

APPLE : Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment.

First and Second Generation INSAT series weremainly aimed at improving Indian telecommunica-tion and telecast services and remote sensing.

IRS -IB, the second remote sensing satellite,launched by the Russian Mostok rocket fromBaiknour Cosmodrome in 1991.

First Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-IA)was launched on March 19, 1988.

IRS-P4 was put into orbit on May 26, 1999 byPSLV-C2. Along with IRS-P4, PSLV-C2 carried oneKorean Satellite (KITSAT) and a German Satel-

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lite (TUBSAT) and this heralded the commer-cialisation of Indian space programme.

INSAT-3B launched the first of India’s third gen-eration satellite. INSAT-3B was successful.

The second third generation satellite INSAT-3Cwas launched on January 16, 2002 on board anAriane -4 launch vehicle from the FrenchGuayanese Space Port Kouru.

INSAT-3E, the communication satellite of theIndian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), waslaunched from Kourou, by a European Ariane 5launch vehicle on September 28.

ISRO is getting ready to launch its newest In-dian Remote Sensing Satellite, the IRS-P6 orResourcesat.

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles(GSLV-D1). put GSAT-I into orbit on March 28,2001.

Indian Scientific Satellite Project - Bangalore

The Indian Space Research Organisation’slaunching centre at Sriharikotta has been re-named as Sathish Dhawan Space Centre.

On October 22, 2001, ISRO’s Polar SatelliteLaunch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully launchedthree satellites - Technolgy Experiments Satel-lite (TES) of India, Bispectral Experiments,De-tection Satellite (BIRD) of Germany and Projectfor on Board Autonomy (PROBA) of Belgium.

The high altitude space telescope of India hasbeen set up at Hanle in Ladak.

SITE - Satellite Instructional Television Experi-ment.

STEP - Satellite Telecommunication ExperimentProject.

G. Madhavan Nair is the Chaiman of ISRO. TheISRO successfully test fired an indigenously builtcryogenic integrated engine at its Liquid Pro-pulsion System Centre (LPSC), Mahendragiri.The Cryogenic engine is a very complex system

handling liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen aspropellants.

METSAT now known as Kalpana I is India’sfirst climate satellite.

India’s First Full - Fledged meterological satel-lite METSAT was successfully launched on Sep-tember 1, 2002 from the Satish Dhawan SpaceCentre at Siharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

INSAT-3C launched on .......................... 2002

INSAT-3A launched on ................ April 2003

INSAT 3A is India’s biggestspace craft with a12 year mission life.

ISRO’s second master control facility

ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair inagurated thenewly set up master control facility (MCF) ofISRO at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) on April11,2005.

This is India’s second MCF after the First inHussan in Karnataka.

Edusat : India’s exclusive satallite for educa-tional purpose was launched on September 20,2004 by GSLV - FO1 from Sriharikota.

Carto Sat - 1 India’s first satellite for mappingwas launched on may 5, 2005 by PSLV -C6 fromSriharikota. PSLV - C6 also carried HAMSATalong with Catro Sat - 1

INSAT - 4A - India launched first of the fourthgeneration satellite used for communication fromKourou, French, Guyana on December 22, 2005.It is the heaviest satellite, India has launchedso far (3080 kg)

Chandrayan -1Chandrayan is India’s first unmanner

moon exploration. The project is beingunplemented by ISRO in association with

other countries space agency includingNASA.

463

Oceanographic Research The first Antarctic expedition was launched in

December 1981 under the leadership of Dr. S.Z.Quasim. So far India has undertaken 24 expedi-tions to Antarctica.

The 25th expedition is on its way to Antartica inJanuary 2006. It leader is Dr. M. Sudhakar.Malayalee member of the team is Dr. N. AnilKumar.

The first permanent station of India at Antarc-tica, ̀ Dakshin Gangotri', was established in 1984.India's second permanent station, `Maitri' wasconstructed in 1989.

The 3rd permanent station is being set up atLarseman Hill by the Antartican expeditionwhich left India in January 2006.

Thrishna-the fibreglass yacht-sailed around theworld in 1985. This was the first expedition un-dertaken by Indian sailors to circumnavigateEarth.

National Institute of Oceanography is at Panaji(Goa).

Sirohi Point: Sirohi Point or the peak ofBeardmore glacier is named after Dr. G.S. Sirohi,former head of physiological division of IARI,for the contribution to physiological science.

The expedition to Antartica is organised everyyear by National Centre for Antartica and OceanResearch (NCAOR) which is situated at Goa.

National Insitute of ocean Technology : Chennai

Indian National centre for ocean and Informa-tion services - Hyderabad

Centre for marine living Resources and Ecology: Kochi

The oceanographic Research Institute : Panaji, Goa

Every country has the complete sovereignityover its territorial sea up to 12 nautical mile.

Exclusive Economic Zone extends to 200 nauti-

cal mile for each Country, where it has sovereignright over natural resources both living and nonliving.

India’s Arctic ExpeditionAfter Antartica, India is now planning an Arcticexpedition. The National Centre for Antartica &Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa has been fastedto set up an observation facility and possibly astation in Arctic in collaboration with Norway.

Medical Research An International panel in 2000 declared India a

guineaworm free country. India’s first successful liver transplant was car-

ried out at the Apollo Hospital, Chennai. India’s first skin bank is proposed to set up at

the government Medical College, Chennai.

India’s first organ bank was set up at the AllIndia Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

NACO is National AIDS Control Organisation. Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme aims at to-

tal eradication of polio from the country.

Elisa Test is done to detect AIDS. Shanvac -B is India's first genetically engineered

vaccine for Hepatitis B.

1. Kandla

2. Mumbai

3. Nhava Sheva

4. Goa

5. Mangalore

6. Kochi

7. Tutucorin

8. Chennai

9. Ennore

10. Vishakapatnam

11. Paradweep

12. Kolkatta

Major Ports of India

464

World Diabetes Day is on November 14. Alzheimer's Day is on September 21. Plague affected Surat in Gujarat and dengue Fe-

ver affected Delhi. World Leprosy Day is on January 30. Batistia Operation is a radical procedure that

could help heart patients avoid transplants. Forthe first time it was done in India at the Instituteof Cardiovascular Diseases, Madras MedicalMission.

Aspirin is a one hundred year old analgesic,which was discovered on August 10, 1897 byFelix Hoffman. The chemical name of aspirin isacetyl salicylic acid.

India’s first heart transplantation was carried outat the All India Institute of Medical Sciences,New Delhi, by Dr. P. Venugopal in August 3, 1994.

The Former Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, hasdeclared August 3 every year as the HeartTransplantation Day.

India's first test tube baby, Baby Harsha, was

born on April 6, 1986 in Mumbai. International Nurses Day : May 12. World Heart day -It Falls on last Sunday of Sep-

tember. 2006 World Heart Day - September 24 The infant motality rate in India has cosiderably

reduced from 134 in 1946 - 1950 to 63 in 2002. Child death rate has declined from 25 per 1000

population in 1951 to 8.1 in the year 2002. The National Rural Health Care Mission

(NRHM) was launched on 12 April 2005. Crude birth rate was 40.8 in 1951 and in 2002 it is

only 25. Avian Flu finally arrived in India. The virus was

first detected in Nandurbam in Maharashtra,andlater in Gujarat its virus is termed H5NI.

The national Institute of communicable diseases: New Delhi.

The National Institute of virology : Pune(Maharashtra).

BRILLIANCE COLLEGE

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465

Railways Indian Railway is the biggest emoployer in the

World. Indian Railways is Asia’s largest and the World’s

second largest railway system under single man-agement. It is the biggest public sector under-taking and the largest single employer in India.

The first train in India steamed off from Bombayto Thane, a stretch of 34 km in 1853, during thereign of Lord Dalhousie. The first electric trainin India, ‘Deccan Queen’, was introduced in 1925between Kalyan and Pune. Indian Railways isthe second biggest electrified railway system inthe World after Russia.

Indian Railways operate in three different gauges -broad gauge (1.676 metre width) metre gauge (1.m)narrow gauge (0.762 m and 0.610 m). On July 3,1992, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao dedicatedProject Unigauge to the Indian Railways .Theproject envisaged to convert total gauge rail trackto broad gauge under the 8th Plan.

Indian Railways till 1996 was divided into 9 zonesin India. The Government later formed seven newzones. With this total number of Railway zone is16 and there are 67 railway divisions.

Headquarters of the newly formed south west-ern railway is Bangalore.

Central Eastern zone was formed in 1998 Sep-tember 9. Headquarter of the Central Eastern zoneis Bilaspur.

Vigyan Rail : This is a special train designed bythe Science and Technology ministry in collabo-ration with the Railway ministry to create publicawareness on the progress made by India inscience and technology. 2004 is observed as'Science Awareness Year by Indian Railway

'e-Rail' is the online railway reservation systemlaunched by the State Bank of India (SBI). Thefacility allows internet banking customers to makeonline booking of railway tickets.

Railway Production UnitsChittaranjan Locomotives Works ........ ChittaranjanIntegral Coach Factory ....... Perambur (Tamil Nadu)Diesel Locomotive Works ........................ VaranasiWheel and Axle Plant ............................ BangaloreRail Coach Factory .............................. KapurthalaDiesel Component Works ............. Patiala (Punjab)

Important TrainsShatabdhi Express ........................... Bhopal - DelhiMaveli Express ........... Mangalapuram - TrivandrumGurudev Express ...................... Nagercovil - HowraNetravati Express ....... Trivandrum - Lokmanya Tilak

(Mumbai-Kurla)Pink City Express ............................... Delhi - JaipurKerala Express ............................ Delhi-TrivandrumMarusagar Express ......................... Jaipur - CochinAmritha Express .................. Palakkad - TrivandrumTaj Express ...................................... Delhi - GwaliorMangala Express ...............Nizamuddin - ErnakulamPurushottam Express ............................ Delhi - PuriCoromandal Express ................... Howrah - ChennaiHimasagar Express ........ Jammu Tawi - KanyakumariSarvodaya Express .............Ahmedabad-Jammu TawiGitanjali Express .......................... Howrah-Mumbai

Railway ZonesZone Headquarters

1. Southern .................................... Chennai2. South-Central ....................Secunderabad3. Central ............................... Mumbai CST4. Western ................. Mumbai Church Gate5. Northern .................................New Delhi6. Eastern ..................................... Kolkatta7. North-Eastern ........................ Gorakhpur8. North-East Frontier .... Maligaon (Guwahati)9. South-Eastern ........................... Kolkatta10. East Coast ........................ Bhubaneswar11. East Central ................................ Hajipur12. North Central ..........................Allahabad13. North Western .............................. Jaipur14. South Western ........................ Bangalore15. West Central ............................. Jabalpur16. Central Eastern ........................... Bilaspur

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August Kranti Express .................... Mumbai-DelhiG.T. Express ..............................New Delhi-ChennaiCharminar Express .................. Chennai-HyderabadPerl City Express ...................... Chennai to tuticorinAhilyan Agari Express .............. Indore-TrivandrumCannanore Express ........... Trivandrum - CannanoreKaveri Express ............................Mysore - ChennaiHimagri Express ...................... Howra - Jammu TawiNilgiri Express................... Chennai - Mettupalayam Railway Staff College is at Baroda. Shatabdi Express running between New Delhi

and Bhopal is the fastest train in India with aspeed of 140km/ hr.

A number of trains connecting different destina-tions are running in India in the name of ShtabdiExpress Train, Janshatabdi Express Train,Rajadhani Express Train, Samparak Kranti Ex-press train are Super Fast Trains.

In 1991, Indian Railways introduced the world’sfirst hospital on wheels called ‘Life Line Ex-press’ (Jeevan Rekha) to provide medical aid inrural areas.

‘Palace on Wheel’ is the first private train inIndia.

First metro rail in India was opened in 1984-85 in

Calcutta. The second metro rail system was built in 2002 in

New Delhi.Dr. Manmohan Singh laid the foundation for the3rd Metro Rail Project at Mumbai on December22nd 2006 it was commence function from 2011.

Mass Rapid Transit System was introduced inChennai in 1995.

The Konkan Railway, the 760 km rail system, wasdedicated to the nation in 1999. It linksMangalore with Roha in Maharashtra.

The year 1999-2000 was declared by the Govern-ment as ‘Passengers Year.’

India’s longest railway tunnel so far 6.5 kms longfalls on Kharbude in Konkan railway.

World longest railway platform Kharagpur Sta-tion in West Bengal. 833 m (2,733ft)

Himasagar Express running between Jammu Tawiand Kanyakumari is the longest distance travel-ling train in India (3,730 Km).

Prayagraj Express running between New Delhiand Allahabad is the longest train with 24 Com-partment.

'Baaz' India's first indigenously air conditioned

Golden Quadrilateral

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Jhansi

Cape Camorine

Golden QuadralateralGolden Quadralateral is aproject under taken under Na-tional Highway DevelopmentProject to link the four metrocities of India with four to sixlane highway. The city getl inked by GoldenQuardralateral are Mumbai,Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai.

The Red Fort was under thecontrol of the Indian Army for56 years. Now its control hasbeen taken over by the Tour-ism Department of India.

467

low engine. It is going to be introduced in theKonkan Railway. Its fastest speed is 150 kmph.

Meghalaya and Sikkim are the two States inIndia which have no railway.

Computer Railway Reservation System was in-troduced by the Indian Railways in 1988.

India’s first online rail reservation facility wasinaugurated in New Delhi.

Fairy Queen is the World’s oldest working steamlocomotive engine. Fairy Queen runs in India fortourism promotion.

The Mascot of Indian Railways, which celebratedits 150th anniversary on April 16th 2002 is anelephant called Bholu which represents the workof a guard.

The first rail archives was inaugurated at the Na-tional Rail Museum in New Delhi.

Northern Railway is the largest Railway zone. Baroda House is the headquarters of Indian Rail-

ways in New Delhi. Project Unigauge was launched on Ist April 1990

to develop backward regions and to connectimportant places with broadgauge network.

Skybus ProjectWorld's first commercial prototype skybus tech-nology demonstration project was launched inMargao (Goa), which is expected to revolution-ize the mass rapid transport system. The eco-friendly project was developed by the KonkanRailway Corporation at a cost of Rs. 7 crores.

Deccan OdysseyMaharashtra Tourism Department and Indianrailway jointly started Deccan Odyssey the luxu-rious Train for Tourism purpose.

Indian Rail is the monthly magazine of IndianRailways.

The Nehru Setu over the Zone river is the long-est rail bridge in India.

The longest railway tunnel in India is on theKonkan Railway runs to 6.5 km.

The name given to Railways drinking waterProject - Railneer.

Ocean Transport Shipping play a vital role in India with a vast

coastline of about 7516km and over 2 millionsq.km of exclusive economic zone (EEz)Approximately 90% of the country’s trade vol-ume (77% in terms of value) is moved by sea.

There are 12 major ports in public sector and onemajor port in private sector in the country. Ma-jor ports on the West Coast - Kandla (Gujarat),Marmugao (Goa)

Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru Port earlier calledNhava Sheva Port (Maharashtra), Cochin(Kerala), and Mangalore (Karnataka) on the EastCoast -Tuticorin, Chennai and Ennore (TamilNadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh),Paradeep (Orissa), Kolkatta (West Bengal) arethe twelve major ports in public sector. EnnorePort is the only major port in the country in pri-vate sector. It is the 12th major port of India.

There are 4 major shippyards in India.(1) Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers

Ltd., Kolkatta.(2) Mazagaon Dock Ltd., Mumbai.(3) Hindustan Shippyard Ltd., Vishakapattanam(4) Cochin Shippyard, Cochin.

Mumbai is the biggest port, handling one fifth of

First US President to visit India ................ DwightEisenhower

First Pope to visit India ..............Pope Paul VI

First Pope to visit India twice .... Pope John Paul-II

First Chairman of People’s Republic of China

............................................... Mao Tse-tung

First European invader ...................Alexander

First Chinese Pilgrim to visit India ....... Fa-hien

First British Ruler to visit India ...... Queen Victoria

First Russian Prime Minister to visit India .......Bulganin

First British Prime Minister to visit India .........Harold Macmillan

First to visit India

468

the total traffic of all the ports. It is a naturalharbour.

Kandla is a tidal port and a free trade zone. Marmugao is a natural port and an important

naval station. India's most modern sea port is Nava Sheva. Calcutta is the largest terminal port in South Asia. Visakhapatnam is the deepest port. It has a big

ship building unit Chennai is one of the oldest ports in India. It is

an artificial harbour and third largest in India. Submarine building yard in India is at

Visakhapatnam. Kochi is a natural harbour built with financial

assistance from Japan. Kandla (Gujarat) is the first port developed soon

after independence. In the year 1936, Cochin port declared as a

major port. Name the only state in India having three major

ports - Tamil Nadu Which of the following is the oldest ports on

the east coast?(a) Vishakapattanam (b) Chennai(c) Paradeep (d) KolkattaAns : (b) ChennaiWhich one of the following major port of Indiahandles maximum traffic?(a) Kandla (b) Cochin(c) Vishakapattanam (d) MumbaiAns : (d) Mumbai

Which of the following part specially developedfor expert of Kundermukhi iron ore?(a) Mormugao (b) New Mangalore(c) Cochin (d) VishakapattanamAns: (b) New Mangalore

National Ship Design and Research Centre(NSDRC) is situated in(a) Kolkatta (b) Mumbai(c) Cochin (d) Vishakhapattanam

Ans : (d) Vishakhapattanam In 1906, one of the greatest freedom fighters of

India, Mr. V.O. Chidambaram Pillai launched thefirst Swadeshi Ship 'S.S. Gaelia' in British India.

The Hindustan Shipyard Limited,Vishakhapattanam was set up in 1941 and it be-came the first ship building yard in the countryto get the ISO : 9001 certification.

The total length of India’s coastline in 7,516.6 km. The Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced

Maritime Studies and Research is situated inMumbai.

Marine Engineering and Research Centre(MERI) is situated in Kolkatta.

Sethumamudram ProjectThe Sethusamudram project aims to buildup a shipping channel between India andSri Lanka so that big ships can travel fromwestern coast of India to Eastern coastwithout travelling around Sri Lanka. It cansave time and fuel.

International Container Transhipment Termi-nal (ICTT) at VallarpadamOn February 16, 2005 the Prime Minister had

National Institute of Ayurveda .............. JaipurNational Institute of Homoeopathy ... KolkattaNational Institute of Unani Medicine ..... BangaloreNational Institute of Siddha ............... ChennaiNational Institute of Naturopathy ...........Pune

InstitutesVishakhapattanam harbour isprotected by a rocky head land

called “Dolphin’s Nose’’

469

laid the foundation stone for the constructionICTT at Vallarpadam, in kochi.

The Dubai Port International will built up, theproject on (build, operate Transport) BOT Basis

National Waterways NH-3 aims to link kollam toKottapuram (168 km)

NW - 1 links Allahabad to Haldia (1620km)

Civil Aviation JRD Tata was the first to make a solo flight from

Bombay to Karachi in 1931. Indian Airline dropped the word Airlines and

now it is known as Indian from the 2005. The logof the orange tail (IA) has been replaced by apartly visible blue ‘wheel’ inspired by the SunTemple at Konark. Blue wheat in orange surface.

There are 19 International airports, 88 domesticaerodromes and 28 Civil enclaves in the Coun-try. The International Airports are Ahmedabad,Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai (Meenambakom)Coimbatore, Delhi (Indira Gandhi) Gaya, Goa,Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata (Dum Dum)Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai (Sahar),Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram andVaranasi. Nagpur airports is also being upgradedas International Airport.

Bangalore, Coimbatore, Gaya, Jaipur, Kozhikode,Lucknow, Tirunchirapalli, Varanasi are the newInternational Airports.

The operation, management, maintanance, plan-ning and development of international Airports Au-thority of India (IAAI). Which was set up in 1972.

The functions of domestic aerodromes are nowlooked after by the National Airport Authorityof India (NAAI) which was set in 1986.

The Government has already gave sanctions for theprivatisation of Mumbai and New Delhi airport

Amritsar airport is called Raja Sansi. Kandahar airport is in Afghanistan. Thribhuvan airport is in Kathmandu in Nepal. ImTva-WvUp-hnse Xr`p-h³ hnam-\-̄ m-h-f-̄ nÂ

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Port Blair airport has been renamed Veer SavarkarAirport.

Dum Dum Airport (Calcutta) is renamed SubhashChandra Bose Airport.

Mumbai domestic airport (Santa Cruz Airport) isnow known as Jawaharlal Nehru Air port.

Highest Airport - Leh Airport in Ladakh. Busiest Airport - Mumbai Airport (Sahar [In-

ternational] and Santacruz [Domestic] ) IATA - International Air Transport Association. “Wings of Freedom” is a new scheme intro-

duced by Indian Airlines. For which year Air India was established - 1953 In which Pakistani city was the hijacked Indian

Airlines plane blown upon 30 January 1971?Lahore

National Institute of Aviation Management andResearch (NIAMAR) is situated at Delhi.

Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited is the public sectorhelicopter company of Government of India.

The Open Sky Policy came into operation in 1990.The policy allowed air taxi operators to operateflights from any airport, both on a charter andnon charter basis.

Road Transport The Indian road network is one of the largest in

the world. The total length of roads in India was33,19,644 km in 1996. Longest system of road is inthe state of Maharashtra. (3,59,262 kms)

G.T. Road (Grand Trunk Road) originally built bySher Sha Suri is India’s longest road. Now it runsfrom Calcutta to Amritsar

NH-7 is the longest national highway (2369km).It connects Varanasi and Kanyakumari.

The shortest national highway is NH 47 (A)which links Wellington Island with Kochin By-pass (6 km)

NH1 connects Delhi with Amritsar.

470

The Central Road Research Institute is in NewDelhi. NATPAC - National Transportation Plan-ning and Research Centre.

Government has planned to link major metropoli-tan cities with super highways. The scheme isknown as Golden Quadralateral.

The new super high way linking India, North-South and East - West will have the followingterminals.North-south: Kanyakumari - SrinagarEast-West : Silchar (Assam) - Porbandar (Gujarat)

These two Super Highways meet at Jhansi inMadhya Pradesh.

Pradhanmanthri Gram Sadak Yojana, a new ruraldevelopment scheme aims to connect all habita-tion with 500 plus population through roads.

National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) setup in 1989. It is an autonomous body entrustedwith the responsibility of development, mainte-nance and operation of National Highway.

At present, India has 5 express highways. Theyare Western, Eastern, between Kolktta and Dum-

dum, between Sukinda mines and Paradweep,between Durgapur and Kolkatta.

PMBJP: Pradhan Mantri Bharat JodoPariyojana.

It will cover the entire nation, particularly StateCapitals and trading centres, in a comprehen-sive way with four-lane highways. It converts10,000 km of high density roads into four laneroutes.

Border Roads Development Organisation (BRO)was set up in may 1960.

Asian Highway NetworkIndia signed a historic agreement for complet-ing a 140,000km long Asian Highway Network(AHN) which is projected to be completed by2010 AD. Pakistan, China, Iran, Indonesia, Ja-pan, Mongolia, Kazakhistan, South Korea, Tur-key and Vietnam are other signatories.

The Amritsar - Nankana Sahib Bus was flag offon March 24, 2006, in king the two holiest Shrinesof Sikhs the Golden Temple and Nankana Sahib.

Classical DancesManipur .............................................. ManipuriTamil Nadu ................................... BharatnatyamKerala ................................................. Kathakali

MohiniattamOrissa ..................................................... OdissiU.P ......................................................... KathakOrissa, Bihar, West Bengal ..................... ChchauKarnataka ........................................Yakshagana

Folk DancesGujarat ........................................... Garba / RasaMaharashtra ........................................ TamashaRajasthan ............................ Thumar or GangoreUttarpradesh ......................................... NotankiWest Bengal ............................................. KathiAssam ........................ Baisakhi Bihu/Khel GopalTamil Nadu ...................Kolattam/Kummi/KavadiKerala ............................ Kaikottikali/Tattam kaliAndhra Pradesh ........................Ghanta Mardala

Important Regional Dances Bihu (Assam) A post harvest folk dance. Ottam Thullal (Kerala) Solo dance known as poor

man’s kathakali - Kunjan Nambiar evolved it. Yakshagana : Well known dance form of Karnataka.

Dr. ShivaramaKaranth revived itin modern times.

Bhangra: Folkdance of harvestseason in Punjab. Itcoincides with thefestival of Baisakhi

Tamasha - (Maharashtra), Nautanki (U.P) Garba(Gujarath), Chow (Orissa, Bihar) are other well knownfolk dances.

Gidda - Punjab Kummi - Tamil Nadu Khayal - RajasthanLota - Madhya Pradesh Ruslila - Gujarat

471

En v i r o n m e n t UNEP : United Nations Environment Programme UNEP was established in 1972 with H.Q. at Nai-

robi. UNEP provides machinery for International Co-

operation in Matters relating to Human Environ-ment.

The Botanical Survey of India (BSI) was estab-lished in 1890. Its headquarters is in Kolkatta.

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) was estab-lished in 1916. Headquarters: Kolkatta.

Botanical Survey of India (BSI) was establishedon 1890. Head quarters at Kolkatta.

Mashelkar Committee This committee was formedunder the chairmanship of R.A Mashelkar, Di-rector General, Council for Scientific and Indus-trial Research (CSIR), New Delhi to recommendan auto fuel Policy for the Country together witha road map for its implementation.

Jala SahodariyamJala Sahodariyam a new project introduced byfamous environmentalist Rajendra Singh for rob-bing drinking water by multinational company.

Biosphere Reserve Network Programme waslaunched in 1971 by UNESCO under the aegis ofits Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, toprovide a global network of protected areas forconserving natural communities.

India posses 60 to 70% of worlds biodiversity.Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972.

Chipko movement was started in 1973 in theChamoli district of Uttaranchal. SunderlalBahuguna was the leader of the movement.

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). A movementagainst the construction of Dam over Narmadawhich will ultimately results in flood and waterlogging.

HEALTH INDICATORS1. Crude Birth Rate 25.0 (2002)

(Per 1000 population)2. Crude Death Rate 8.1 (2002)

(Per 1000 population)3. Total Fertility Rate 3.2 (1999)

(Per women on average)4. Maternal mortality Rate 407 (1998)

(Per 100,000 live birth)5. Infant mortality Rate 63

(Per 1000 live birth)6. Life Expectancy at Birth (Years)

Males 63.87 (2001 - 2006)Females 66.91 (2001 - 06

India is committed to become polio-free coun-try by 2007

World Environment Day : June 5

FINE FORHIMACHAL PRADESH

India’s Supreme Court has imposed its highestever fine for ecological damage on the State ofHimachal Pradesh for allowing advertisementsto damage spectacular Himalayan scenery. Thecourt imposes penality on the State for permit-ting rocks to be defaced by advertisement forPepsi and Coco Cola and local firms. The ad-vertisements are spread along more than 50kilometres of highway in the Manali - RohtangPass, destroying morass which support a sen-sitive eco systems.

472

Bt. Cotton Approved On March 26, 2002 the Genetic Engineering Ap-

proval Committee (GEAC) under Union Environ-ment and Forest Ministry approved the use ofthe genetically modified Bt. Cotton in IndiaBt : Bacillus thuringiensis.The first genetically modified. Cottonseed in In-dia Bt. Cotton has been introduced to addressAmerican bollworm infestation incotton plants.Not only did the Bt. Seed not project the plantfrom holloworm attack but the plant was subjectto attacks by non-target pests Bt. Plants also Fellpery to Fungal disease, Apart from low yield theFibre harvested was very short and fetched poorprices. This leads to heavy loss to poor Farmers.

Biosphere Reserves The Biosphere Reserves are multi-purpose pro-

tected areas to preserve the genetic diversity inrepresentative eco-system.

So far 14 Biosphere Reserves have been set upin India. They are Nilgiri, Nanda Devi, Nokrek,Great Nicobar, Gulf of Mannar, Manas,Sunderbans, Similipal, Dibru Daikhowa, DehongDeband, Pachmarhi, Kanchanjanga andAgasthyamalai and Anchamukmar Amartakantak(Madhya Pradesh). Out of this 14, four have beenrecognised on world Network of Biosphere Re-serves by UNESCO. They are Nilgiri ,Sunderbans, Gulf of Manar and Nanda Devi.

Out of this 14, there is only one Biosphere re-serve in Kerala and it is Agasthyamalai.

Mangroves Plants are those that survive highsalinity, tidal extremes, strong wind and velocityhigh temperature and muddy anaerobic soil.

National Botanical Garden - New Delhi India’s first Biological Park will set up in Agastyar

Koodam.

Forest Area The total estimated forest area in India is

678,333sqkm million hectares. This is only20.64% of the Country’s geographical area(2005).

The total Forest area in Kerala is 10,33 sqkm.This is only 26.59% of the States geographicalarea.

National Forest Policy envisages to increasethe forest cover upto 33% of the geographi-cal area.

Project Tiger in 1973 was the biggest wild lifeProject ever launched in the World.

Wild Life Institute of India - Dehradun Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural His-

tory : Coimbatore Forest Research Institute : Dehradun The National Museum of Natural History :

New Delhi Afforestation : turn into forest Deforestation : to remove forests Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy is lo-

cated at Dehra Dun. Headquarters of World Wild Life Fund - Morges

(Switzerland). Institute of Arid Zone Forestry Research in

Jodhpur (Rajasthan). World Day for Save Animal: April -24. The place of Garden Tourism Festival is at

Talkatara Gardens in Delhi. The Supreme Court has directed all the State

Governments and educational agencies to in-troduce environment as a compulsory subjectin schools up to the higher secondary level fromthe academic year 2004-05.

Wild Life Conservation Project Tiger launched in 1973, is the most suc-

cessful wild life conservation project ever un-dertaken by the World.

Project Elephant - 1992 Gir Lion Project - 1972 Crocodile Breeding Project - 1974 Rhino Conservation - 1987 Sansar Chand, the notorious tiger part smug-

gler and trader was arrested in 2005. Veerapan the notorious elephant poacher and

Sandalwood smuggler was gunned down inlate 2004.

Salmankhan is the Hindi Film star who was sen-tenced to 4 years imprisonment for killing a deerfor hunting down a deer.

473

National Parks & Wild life Sanctuaries There are 92 existing national parks in India

covering an area of 37,921.66 sq.km which is1.15% of the geographical area of the country(2004)

Madhya Pradesh (9) and Andaman Nicobar (9)have the largest numbers of National parks.

There are 4 national parks in kerala There are 492 existing wildlife sanctuaries in In-

dia covering an area of 117077.41 sq.km which is3.5% of the geographical area of the country.

Andaman Nicobar (96) and Maharashtra (36)have the largest numbers of wildlife sanctuariesin India.

Health and Family Welfare The National Anti-Malaria Programme is the

world’s biggest Health Programme against asingle communicable disease.

Japanese Encephalitis is caused by virus and isspread by culex group of mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is caused by the bites of femaleAedes aegypti mosquitoes.

The National Tuberculosis Control Programme(NTCP) was launched in 1962.

The National Filaria Control Programme is beingimplemented in the country since 1955.

The National Leprosy Eradication Programme(NLEP) was launched in 1988.

The following vaccines are included in the im-munization programme:- Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) Diphtheria Pertussis and Tetanus (DPT)

B C G Measles Diphtheria Tetanus (DT) Tetanus Toxoid (TT) Hepatitis B.

Gähpw Ah-km\w DÄs¸ -Sp -¯n -b -XmWvHepatitis B.

World Yoga Day : September 2 World Health Day : April 7 Universal Health Insurance Scheme is a commu-

nity based scheme that would offer health pro-tection and good medical services to be less privi-leged, It provides medical cover for a premium ofRe. 1 a day.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR): New Delhi.

The National Population Policy of 2000 aims tostabilise Indian population by 2045.

The Chairman of National Population Commis-sion is the Prime Minister.

The largest number of AIDS cases in India is in

The Statesman ......................................... KolkataThe Times of India ........... Mumbai, New Delhi etc.The Hindustan Times .......................... New DelhiThe Pioneer ........................................... LucknowThe Bombay Samachar ........................... MumbaiDawn ...................................................... KarachiIzvestia ................................................. MoscowPravda ................................................... MoscowPeoples Daily ........................................... BeijingThe Hindu ..Chennai, Coimbatore, Trivandrum etc.

S om e im po r ta n t N e ws p a pe r s a n d p lac e s o f pu b l ic a t io nThe Anand Bazar Patrika ......... CalcuttaThe Patriot .......................... New DelhiThe Tribune ...................... ChandigarhThe Times .............................. LondonAl Ahram ................................... CairoThe Daily News .................... New YorkMerdeka ................................... JakartaLe Monde ................................... ParisThe New Indian Express .. Mumbai, New Delhi, Kochi,

Kozhicode, Trivandrum etc.

World Alzheimer's Day - September 21.Its slogan is ('In Perfect Partnership'.)

474

Tamil Nadu. NACO is National AIDS Control Organisation. World AIDS Day : December 1

November 14 : World Diabetes Day.

Medical Research and AdvancementFirst Test Tube Baby:Born on - August 6, 1990Hospital - King Edward Memorial

Hospital, MumbaiDoctor - Indira HindujaName of the Baby - Baby HarshaParents - Mani (mother ) and

Shyamji Chawla

First Heart TransplantDate of operation - August 3, 1994Hospital - All India Institute of

Medical Science(AIIMS) New Delhi atCardio-Thoracic Vascu-lar Surgery Department.

Doctor - P. Venugopal

First Kidney TransplantDate of Operation - December 1, 1971Hospital - Christian Medical Col-

lege and Hospita l ,Vellore

Name of Patient - Shanmugham (35 years)

Open Heart Surgery:Date of Operation - July 6, 1959Hospital - N. Gopinath and P.H.

BettsName of Patient - Beulah (now Mrs Beulah

Samuel)The operation was performed when Beulah was a12 year child. First Test Tube Calf - NDRI, Karnal created

history in December 1990 with the birth of theWorld’s first test tube calf name ‘Pratham’.

First Thalassemia Operation : The bone mar-row transplant, the only medical treatment forthalassemia was performed for the first time in

India by Dr Mammen Chandy at CMC, Vellore.Dr Chandy performed four such operationsin 1992.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)an autonomous organization under the Minis-try of Health and Family Welfare, is the apexbody for the formulation, co-ordination and pro-motion of biomedical research in India.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) was estab-lished as a statutory body and the main func-tions of the council are maintenance of uniformstandard of medical education both at the un-der graduate and the post graduate level.

The Child Survival and Safe Motherhood(CSSM) Programme introduced in 1992 hasbrought about great improvements in the fieldof immunization.

Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and druglles therapieslike Yoga and Naturopathy are the Indian Sys-tems of Medicines.

Janani Suraksha Yojana: Under this yojana,the mother gets Rs. 1000 on the birth of a girland Rs. 500 on the birth of a boy for supportingbetter nutrition for the mother and the child. TheScheme aims to reduce death rate and take careof pregnant women it also give Free medicalcheck up for pregnant woman below povertyline. April 11 is celebrated as 'Janani SurakshaDivas'. It is the birthday of Kasturba Gandhi.

AIIMS- All India Institute of medical sciencesis in New Delhi.

The National Rural Health mission (NRHM) waslaunched on 12 April 2005.

The Universal Immunisation programme (UIP)was launched in 1985 to reduce infant, child andmaternal mortality by protecting against six vac-cine preventable diseases namely Tuberculo-sis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio andMeasles.

Vande Mataram Scheme was launched on 9 Feb-ruary 2004. The scheme aims to reduce maternalmortality and improving health of women

475

particualrly during pregnancy and child birth. Iodine is an essential micronutrien with an aver-

age daily requirement of 10 - 150 micro grams fornormal human growth - and development.

Deficiency of Iodine may cause goitre. WHO hascertified India as guinea worm disease free coun-try in February 2000.

In 1952, India was the first country to launchFamily Planning Programme in the World.

National Population Policy : 2000 National AIDS Control Programme 1999.

New Generation Diseases AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is

caused by HIV virus which destroys human im-munity

Ebola virus : The disease only reported in Africa. SARS : Severe Acute Respiration Syndrome. This

virus affect lungs. Avian Flue or Bird flue : H5N1 virus cause dis-

eases in poultry. The disease struck in the state of Maharashtra

and Gujarat in 2006.

Social Welfare Day of the Elderly : October 1 International Year of the Elderly : 1999 2001 was observed in India as the Year of

Women’s Empowerment. International Day of Disabled Persons :

December 3 The Government has notified five communities

namely, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists andZoroastrians as minorities at the national level.

2001þse sk³kkv A\p-k-cn¨v C´y-bnÂ\yq\]£ kap-Zm-b-§-fpsS iX-am\w P\-kw-Jy-bpsS 17.17 BWv. ]«n-I-PmXnþ]«n-I-hÀ¤w Hcp-an¨v C´y³ P\-kw-JybpsS 24.40 iX-am\w hcpw.

The National Commission for Women (NCW)was set up in 1992 by an Act of Parliament.

Chairperson; National Commission for women isGirija Vyas.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)was launched in 1975. It is a centrally sponsoredscheme.

According to 2001 census 15.37% of populationis below 6 years (157.86 million) childrens.

Minorities Right Day (India) : December 18 Government has decided to set up a National

Commission for Children, a statutory body forthe protection of children's right.

The ministry of welfare was constituted on 25September 1985 and was renamed as minis-try of Social Justice and Empowerment on 25may 1998.

Help-Age India: It is a centrally sponsoredprogramme instituted in 1978 and its headquarters is in New Delhi.

Housing VAMBAY is Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yogana. It

is a new centrally sponsored housing schemeannounced on 15 August 2001 to help urban slumdwellers living below poverty line.

National Building Organisation (NBO) was es-tablished in 1954.

HUDCO is Housing and Urban DevelopmentCorporation Limited.

CPWD is Central Public Works Department. World Habitat Day is observed on October 6,

2003.2006 - October 2 falls on First monday of Octo-ber.

On February 1, 2003, Prime Minister Vajpayeelaunched the National Mission for Manuscripts.Its objective is to locate, enumerate and preservemanuscripts and to increase their access.

Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas(PURA) Programme to be implemented in 5000rural clusters across the country in the next 5years.

Labour May 1 : World Labourers Day (Worker’s Day) Minimum Wages Act 1948 The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 Bachawat Award is related to wages of journalists.

476

The first National Commission on Labour wasconstituted in 1966.

The Second National Commission on Labourwas set up under the chairmanship ofRavindra Varma.

On January 14, 2004, India and InternationalLabour Organisation jointly launched 50 newNational Child Labour Projects. India had13.6 million child labourers in 1981 and 11million in 1991. According to the latest sur-vey, the number had come down to 10 mil-lion. By the end of Tenth Five Year Plan in2007, India hopes to free all child labourers fromhazardous occupations and equip them withvocational skills.

GOI enacted the law for the abolition of childlabour on 2006.

National Safty Day : March 4 According to NSSO survey 1999 - 2000, of the

total labours in India 8% are in organised sectorwhile 92% are in unorganised sectors.

Prime Ministers Shram Awards are given to bestworker of public sector units.

Per cent of female population as workers to to-tal female population - 25.6% (2001).

Chief justice Rajkumar Manisan Singh was ap-pointed to Chair the wage Boards for the work-ing journalist.

Deemed UniversityUnder the section 3 of the UGC Act, an institutionof higher education “doing work of very highstandard in a specific area’’ be declared DeemedUniversity. Such institution will enjoy theacademic status and previleges of a university andbe able to strengthen the activities in the area oftheir specification instead of becoming a multi-faculty university. The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

- Mumbai Symbiosis International Education Centre -

Pune Rashtriya Sanskrit Samsthan - New Delhi

Cultural and Literary Activities Akademies : Three Akademies -Sangeet Natak

Akademi (1953), Lalith Kala Akademi (1954),Sahitya Akademi (1954) are located in New Delhi.The National School of Drama was set up bySangeet Natak Akademi in1959.

Lalit Kala Akademi Established : 1954 : Headquartered in New

Delhi. Since its inception, the Academi hasbeen a nerve centre of creative and culturaldiscussions and there is hardly any artist orartistic impulses, conflicts, contradictions andlimitations, the Akademi has been functioningwith a panoramic view to involve genres of crea-tivity in its activities.

Regional Centres : Chennai, Lucknow, Kolkataand Bhubaneshwar and Garhi Artist Studies,Delhi.

Function : Promotion and development of lit-erature in all the 22 languages of India. Alsogives Sahitya Akademi Awards for outstand-ing literary work in Indian languages. TheSahitya Akademi ceaselessly endeavours todevelop literary culture through the publica-tion of journals, monographs, individual crea-tive works of every genre, Anthologies, Ency-clopaedias, Dictionaries, Bibliographies,Who’s who and Histories of literature.

Sangeet Natak AkademiEstablished : It was established on January28, 1953 by a resolution of the Ministry of Edu-cation headed by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azadsigned on 31st May 1952. Headquarter – NewDelhi; The Sangeet Natak Akademi - India’sNational Academy for Music, Drama – is thefirst Academy of the Arts, set up by the Re-public of India. It encourages the forms ofDance, Drama and Music, offers Scholarshipsto Artists and Teachers of Traditional arts andgives awards to outstanding Artists. TheAkademi Awards are the highest National rec-ognition conferred on participating artists. The

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Akademi also confers Fellowships and Schol-ars, their numbers being restricted to 30 liv-ing recipients. The Fellowship and Awardscarries a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 a shawl and‘Tamrapatra’.

National School of DramaIt is one of the foremost theatre institutionsof the World and the only one of its kind inIndia. It was set up by Sangeet Natak Acad-emy in 1959, later in 1975 it became an au-tonomous body, totally financed by Depart-ment of Culture. The objective of NSD is totrain students in all aspects of theatre, includ-ing Theatre History Production, Scene Design,Costume Designs, Lighting, Makeup etc.

MuseumsNational Museum

Established : 15th August 1949,functioningas a subordinate Office under Ministry of Cul-ture since 1960, formally inaugurated on 18December 1960.Location : In the Darbar Hall of the RashtrapatiBhawan, New Delhi.Activities Acquisition of art objects, their exhi-bition and conservation. Coordinates the ‘Fes-tival of India’ in various countries. It has now26 galleries with new addition of Buddhist Artgallery, Decorative Arts gallery, Jewellery Gal-lery, Tanjore and Mysore School of Painting,Evolution of Indian Scripts and Coins, Galleryetc.

Indian MuseumEstablished : 2nd February 1814, Location:KolkataIt is the ninth oldest regular museum of theworld, a second oldest Institution its kind inAsia Pacific Region and repository of the larg-est museum objects in India. It has more than1 million exhibits having the richest collec-tion on Art, Archeology, Anthropology, Ge-

ology, Zoology and Botany.

Nehru Memorial Museum and LibraryIt maintains a Personalia museum on the lifeand times of Jawaharlal Nehru. The library hasa pre-eminent position among Social sciencelibraries in the Country.

Allahabad MuseumEstablished : 1931 (declared as an institutionof national importance by Central Governmentin 1985)It preserves and displays Historical Art andArchaeological objects like sculptures, paint-ing, Rare coins of gold, Silver, Copper andLead. It also has paraphernalia and family heir-looms of the Nehrus, including manuscriptsin Persian, Arabic and Urdu.

LiteratureNational Book TrustEstablished in : 1957Headquarters : New DelhiFunctions Its main function is to encouragethe production of good literature and makebooks available at moderate prices to librarieseducational institutions and the public. TheMinistry of Information anal Broadcasting isthe principal publishers of the trust.

National Library The National Library is lo-cated in Calcutta. It is India’s largest librarywith a collection of over 190 million volumesof reading and information material.

National Educational Resources Centre(NERO) The centre was established in 1972and is also known as ‘Raja Rammohan Roy’National Educational Resource Centre. Itsmain function is to promote Indian Author-ship, Indigenous production of UniversityLevel Books and to provide Documentation

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and Statistical analysis of printed material. Itranks 3rd in the world after USA and UK inthe publishing of English books.

Asiatic Society Asiatic Society, Kolkata, wasfounded in 1776 by Sir William Jones (1764 -1794) an eminent indologist, with the objec-tive of inquiring into the History, Science, Artsand Literature of Asia. It has contributed tothe growth and development of most of themajor Antiquarian, Scientific and Literary in-

stitutions of India. Its historic importance wasrecognized and the government declared it aninstitution of ‘‘National Importance’’ in 1984.The soceity maintains a museum which con-tains approx. 47000 manuscripts in various lan-guages. With its library of printed books, ar-chives and the collection of manuscripts, it isone of the leading centres of study ofindology in the world.

Important Monuments : IndiaName Location FeaturersAjanta Caves Aurangabad, Maharashtra Originally Budhist monasteries having

unique architecture, sculpture and paint-ing

Elephanta Caves Island near Mumbai Consisting of seven caves famous for theTrimurti and other scultptures

Ellora Caves Aurangabad, Maharashtra Ancient cave temples especially famous for‘Temple of Kailash’

Jalianwala Bagh Amritsar, Punjab Famous for indiscr iminate fir ing byGen -O Dyer on April 13, 1919 on Congressmeeting demanding independence.

Lothal Gujarat Archaeological excavations revealed exist-ence of Indus Valley civilisation

Nalanda Near Patna, Bihar Ruins of ancient Buddhist Universityfounded by Kumaragupta in 427 AD

Sanchi Near Bhopal Ancient Buddhist monastery famous forMadhya Pradesh ‘Great Stupa’

Sarnath Varanasi Famous for Stupas where BuddhaUttar Pradesh preached his first sermon

Nalanda Jalianwala Bagh

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Memorials and Monuments

Akbar’s Tomb Sikandra, Near Agra Famous for its carvings and architectureUttar Pradesh of Hindu and Mughal art.

Anand Bhawan Allahabad Ancestral house of the Nehru family which

Uttar Pradesh Mrs. Indira Gandhi gifted for conversioninto a national memorial.

Bibi-ka-Maqbara Aurangabad, Mausoleum built by Aurangzeb in 1660Maharashtra AD in memory of his wife Rabia Durrani.

Gandi Sadan in 1948 New Delhi Birla House where Mahatma Gandhi wasassassinated

Jamia Milia Delhi Muslim University founded by Dr ZakirHussain

Kranti Maidan Mumbai Historical venue where Gandhiji gave QuitIndia call in 1942.

Rajghat New Delhi Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi on the banksof the Yamuna.

Shakti Sthal New Delhi Situated on the banks of Yamuna whereMrs. Indira Gandhi was cremated

Shantivana New Delhi Near Rajghat where Pt Jawaharlal Nehruwas cremated.

Teenumurti House New Delhi Residence of the first Prime Minister ofIndia, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru now convertedinto a national memorial.

Tomb of Ahmed Shah Ahmedabad, Gujarat Domed structure famous for paving of mul-ticoloured marble.

Tomb of Sher Shah Suri Sasaram, Bihar Domed structureVijay Ghat New Delhi Samidhi of Lal Bahadur Shastri on the bank

of the Yamuna.

Important Temples and MosquesAhmed Shah’s Mosque Ahmedabad Built in 1414 AD, its pillars have Hindu

emblems.Bodh Gaya temple Bodh Gaya, Bihar 60 m high temple built by Ashoka the

Great, site where Buddha attained enlight-enment.

Name Location Featurers

Rajghat Ahmed Shah’s Mosque

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Bhubaneswar Temples Bhubaneswar, Orissa Stone templesDilwara Temple Mt. Abu, Rajasthan Lavishly decorated with carvings, Jain

temples.Golden Temple Amritsar,Punjab Sacred shrine of the SikhsJagannath Temple Puri, Orissa Dedicated to Lord Jagannath, an incarna-

tion of VishnuJama Masjid Delhi Biggest mosque in India built by Mughal

Emperor ShahjahanKhajuraho Temples Khajuraho, Famous sculptures depicting art of love

built some time.Madhya Pradesh in 950 AD – 1050 AD

Mahabalipuram Temples Mahabalipuram Tamil Nadu Also called ‘Seven Pagodas’Mahakali Temple Ujjain Shiva MandirMeenakshi Temple Madurai, Tamil Nadu Dedicated to the Goddess MeenakshiMoti Masjid Agra, Uttar Pradesh Built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan

Sun Temple Konark, Orissa The mythological conception of the SunGod riding a Konark Temple twenty - fourwheeled chariot drawn by seven horses,carved in stone.

Omkar Temple Omkarji, Madhya Pradesh Shiva Temple on an island in the Narmadariver, also called ‘Black Pagoda’.

Other Structures - Gates / Towers / PillarsBuland Darwaja Fatehpur Sikri, Agra 38 m high gate built by Akbar, is India’s

highest gateGateway of India Mumbai, Maharashtra Built in 1911 AD to commemorate the visit

of King George V of UKQutab Minar New Delhi 72.5m high stone tower, tallest minaret in

India built by Qutab-ud-din Aibakas a Victory Tower

Gol Gumbaz Bijapur, Karnataka India’s largest dome built on the tomb ofSultan Mohammed Adil Shah covering anarea of 1630 sq m

Name Location Featurers

Gateway of India Qutab Minar

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Sanchi Stupa Sanchi, Bhopal One of the earliest stupas, 17 m high and36.5 m in diameter, made of bricks and sand-stone.

Samath Stupa Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 22m high and 28 m in diameter, stone struc-ture built on the spot where Lord Buddhadelivered his firs sermon.

Forts, GardensAgra Fort Agra, Uttar Pradesh Originally built by Akbar and additions

made by Shahjahan containing famousbuildings like Royal Palace Shish Mahal,Moti Masjid, Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan -i-Khas

Gwalior Fort Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh One of the biggest forts containing famousbuilding like Man Mandir, Palace of ManSingh, etc.

Hawa Mahal Jaipur, Rajasthan Multi-storeyed pink coloured buildingHindodla Mahal Mandu, Madhya Pradesh The walls sloping at an angle of over 770

create an illusion that the entire buildingsways.

Jantar Mantar New Delhi Ancient observatoryRed Fort New Delhi Built by Shahjahan, made of red stoneRashtrapati Bhawan New Delhi India’s biggest residential buildingMoghul Gardens New Delhi Garden of Rashtrapati BhawanShalimar Gardens Srinagar, J & K Pleasure resort in KashmirVrindaban Gardens Mysore, Karnataka Unique gardens adjacent to the

Krishnarajasagar DamRamanathaswamy Rameshwaram, India’s longest corridor - 1,220 m longCorridor Tamil NaduGomateswara Sravanabelagola India’s tallest stone statue of the Jain

Statue Karnatak Sage Gomateswara

Name Location Featurers

Rashtrapati Bhawan Gwalior Fort

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Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library estab-lished in 1891 in Patna has a rich collection ofArabic and Persian manuscript and Rajput andMughal paintings.

The Asiatic Society was founded by Sir WilliamJonas in 1776.

World Heritage Day is observed on April 18. World Tourism Day is on September 27. "Incredible India'' is the new slogan coined by

the Union Tourism Ministry to attract overseasand domestic ministors.

‘Athithi Devo Bhava' is the logo of Tourism De-partment.

Classical Dances Bharatnatyam : (Tamil Nadu) follows the princi-

ple of Natya Shastra. Rukminidevi Arundalegave it a new life and revived it by establishing‘Kalakshetra’ at Adayar, Chennai.

Bharatnatyam is popularly called Poetry inMotion.

Famous personalities of Bharatnatyam : YaminiKrishnamurthy, Sonal Mansingh, PadmaSubramanyam, Mirnalini Sarabhai, Santa Rao.Indrani Rehman, T. Bala Saraswathi, LeelaSamson

Mohiniyattom dancers : Bharati Sivaji, RanginiDevi, Shanta Rao, Gita Nayak, Kala Devi, HemaMalini

Manipuri dancers : Savitri Mehta, Uday Shankar,Rita Devi.

Kathakali & Mohiniyattam : (Kerala) PoetVallathol revived Kathakali and Mohiniyattam byestablishing Kerala Kalamandalam atCheruthuruthi, Thrissur in 1930.

Kathak : North Indian classical dance form. Birju Mahraj, Gopi Krishna and Shambu Maharaj

are the famous exponents of Kathak. Odissi : Classical dance form of Orissa. Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra is at the forefront of

the greatest of Odissi exponents. Sonal Mansingh,Samyukta Panigrahi are other dancers.

Kuchipudi is the dance form of Andhra Pradesh. Vendantham Sathyanarayan, Swapna Sundari

Rao are exponents of Kuchipudi.

Swati Puraskaram is given to musicians inmemory of Swati Tirunal, the King of Travancore.

April 29 : International Dance Day.

Musical InstrumentalistsMridangam: Palakkad Mani Iyer, T.R. Murthy,

Guruvayoor Doraiswami, KaraikudiR.Mani, Umayalpuram Shivaraman,Velloor A. Ramabhadran, MavelikaraKrishnan Kutty Nair.

Sitar : Ravi Shankar, Mushtaq Ali Khan, VilayatKhan, Uma Shankar Mishra, NikhilBanerjee, Raiz Khan, HarashankarBhattacharya, Budhaditya Mukherjee,Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan.

Sarod : Amjad Ali Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, RajivTaranath

Violin : V.G. Jog, Lalgudi Jayaraman, T.N.Krishnan, Yehudi Mennuhin, M. S.Gopalakrishnan, KunnukkudiVaidyanathan, Kalyana KrishnaBhagavatar, L. Subramaniam,Chandayya, Kantha Devi, Gajannan RaoJoshi (Hindustani), Zubin Mehta(Western).

Santoor : Shiv Kumar Sharma, Tarun Bhattacharya,Bhajan Sopperi.

Flute : N.Ramani, Hariprasad Chaurasia, T.R.Mahalingam, Pannalal Ghosh, T. S.Shankaran, Sikkil Sisters

Mandolin : U. Srinivas, S. Balamurali Krishna.

Piano : Surojeet Chatterji, Kaikhosh Shapurji,Sorabjee.

Shehnai : Bismillah Khan, Bagheshwari Gamar,Bade Gulam Ali.

Tabla : Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussian, ShankarGhosh, Abad Mistry, Rimba Shiva,Santha Prasad, Sheikh Dawood,Sharafat Ahmed Khan, Kishan Maharaj,Ahmed, Tirkuva, Pt. Samta Prasad.

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Veena : Chitti Babu, Mysore DoraiswamiIyankar, Azad Ali Khan (Hindustani),Badik Ali Khan, Kumara Swami Iyer(Carnatic), Kalpakkom Swaminathan,Kalyana Krishna Bhagavatar, S.Balachander.

Sarangi : Pandit Ram Narayan, Sultan Khan, SabriKhan.

Clarnet : Sheikh Mohammed Arif.

Indian VocalistsCarnatic : M.S. Subbulakshmi, Balamurali Krishna,

Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar,Semmangudi Sinivasa Iyer, M.L.Vasantha Kumari, M.D. Ramanathan,G.N. Balasubra-maniam, AriyakudiRamaniya Iyyengar.

Hindustani : Bhimsen Joshy, Mallikarjun Mansur,Pandit Jasraj, Parveen Sultana, NainaDevi, Siddheswari, Girija Devi, KumarGandharva.

Radio And Television Radio Broadcasting started in India in 1920’s.

The first programme was broadcasted in 1923 bythe Radio Club of Bombay.

Radio broadcasting started in India in 1927 withprivately owned transmitters at Mumbai and Cal-cutta. In 1930 Government took over the trans-mitters started operating them under the nameIndian Broadcasting Service.It was named All In-dia Radio (AIR) in 1936 and it has become knownas Akashvani since 1957.

The experimental telecast ofDoordarshan started in Delhiin September 15, 1959. Thenational programme andother transmissions startedin 1982. Doordarshan Com-mercial Service started in1986.

The Prasar Bharathi givingautonomy to AIR andDoordarshan, came into

force on November 23, 1997. The well known jour-nalist Nikhil Chakra-varthy was the first Chairmanof Prasar Bharathi.

Now Brijeswar Singh is the Chairman of PrasarBharathi.

Radiocity, India’s first private F.M. radio station,promoted by Music Broadcast Private Ltd, islaunched in Bangalore.

International Children's Day of Broadcasting -December 10

The first University in India to have a radio sta-tion of its own is Sardar Patel University. It hasreceived permission from Prasar Bharati, and theGujarat Govt.

DoordarshanIndia’s first television centre came into being onSeptember 15, 1959 as a pilot project. It was anexperimental service organised as a part of AllIndia Radio.August 1965 that the first general service startedfrom Delhi on a regular basis. In 1976, televisionset up delinked from the AIR and given a sepa-rate status and name of Doordarshan. The AsianGames in 1982 saw another landmark in the his-tory of Doordarshan when colour television wasintroduced in India. Now Doordarshan has gorwninto one of the biggest television networks inthe world. Doordarshan - India the InternationalChannel is in operation from 1995 and reachingabout 50 Countries in Asia, Africa and Europeand has plans to have a round - the clock trans-mission reaching the entire World

ASC Enterprises has become India's first Direct-to-Home (DTH) television service provider, withthe Information and Broadcasting (I & B) Minis-try issuing it the necessary licence. The licenceis valid for 10 years.

Doordarshan (DD Direct Plus) has been launchedon December 16th 2004. It presently covers 33TV changes & 12 Radio Channels.

New Satellite Channel like DD Lok Sabha & DDRajya Sabha has also started.

The I & B Ministry allowed uplinking rights for adecade to Rupert Murdoch's 'Star News'. It is thefirst wholly foreign owned News Channel touplinked from India.

Asianet is India’s first Private Channel.Brijeswar Singh

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Indian Newspapers The first newspaper in India was James A. Hickey's

Bengal Gazette published in 1780 in Kolkata. The largest number of newspapers are published

in the State of Uttar Pradesh and the language inwhich the maximum number of newspapers arepublished is Hindi.

The financial daily 'Business Standard' will be-come the first Indian newspaper to secure For-eign Direct Investemt (FDI).

The first Electronic News Paper Booth in Indiawas opened at Hotel International Park Royal.

The oldest existing newspaper in India is BombaySamachar published in 1822 in Gujarati. The oldestexisting English daily is the Times of India (1838).

'Dainik Bhaskar' published in Hindi (18 editions)had the largest claimed circulation. For singleedition dailies 'Hindustan Times', claimed topmost position.

There are four main news agencies in India. Theyare (1) Press Trust of India (PTI), (2) United Newsof India (UNI), (3) Samachar Bharati and (4)

Hindustan Samachar. PTI and UNI supply newsin English and the other two are operating throughthe medium of Hindi and other Indian languages.

PT1 was founded on August 27, 1947. It beganfuncting from February 1, 1949.

It has bilaterial news exchange arrangement withSeveral news agencies of Countries of Asia, Af-rica, Europe & Latin America.

The Press Trust of India was the first newsagency in India.

R. Lakshmipathi is the Chairman of Press Trustof India.

Fourth estate means the Press. Tushar Kanthi Ghosh is known as the Grand

Old Man of Indian Journalism. Father of Indian Journalism is Chalapathi Rao. Justice G.N. Ray is the Chairman of the Press

Council of India. PIB - Press Information Bureau. ABC - Audit Bureau of Circulation. Chairman ABC Ms. Shobhana Bhartia Anand Bazar Patrika has the largest circulation

among single edition dailies. Press Freedom Day : May 3 India’s first ever distance electronic journal has

been inaugurated by IGNOU. Manisana Singh Wage Board recommendations

are related to press. The 125th anniversary celebrations of 'The Hindu'

daily were held in Chennai. The editor-in-chief ofThe Hindu is N. Ram.

United News of India started functing from March21st 1961. It was incorporated under the Compa-nies Act on December 19, 1959.

Mr. Ravindra kumar, Chairman United News ofIndia.

Postal System in India Postal system was established by Robert Clive

in 1766, & it was further developed by WarrenHastings by establishing G.P.O Calcutta in 1774.

PIN - Postal Index Number: The system was in-troduced in 1972. The postal index number con-sists of six digits. The extreme left first digit rep-

No newspapers are published fromArunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep.

485

resents the zone in the country, the second rep-resents the sub-zone, the third the sorting dis-trict. The first three digits together indicate theprecise sorting district. The last three digits indi-cate the delivery post office. There are 8 postalzones in India. Kerala, Tamil Nadu andLakshadweep are included in Zone No: 6.

EMS - Emergency Mail Service, SATMO isSatellite Money Order and E-Mail is ElectronicMail Service.

The first telegraph line in India was betweenCalcutta and Diamond Harbour during the ten-ure of Lord Dalhousie in 1851.

TELEX is Teleprinter Exchange, STD isSubscriber Trunk Dialling and ISD isInternational Subscriber Dialling.

EPABX is Electronic Private Automatic BranchExchange.

World Post Office Day is observed on October9. But National Postal Day is on October 10. Itwas on October 9, 1875, the UPU (UniversalPostal Union) was set up become a specialisedagency of UN since 1947. The headquarters ofUPU is in Berne, Switzerland. APPU is AsiaPacific Postal Union.

India become the member of UPU since 1870 &the APPU in 1964.

TRAI - Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indiawas established in 1997 under Telecom Regula-tory of India Act 1997.

The first telephone exchange in India was set up inMumbai.

The first automatic telephone exchange in Indiawas set up in Shimla in 1914.

First State to issue a stamp was Kathiawar inSaurashtra (now Gujarat State)

First Post Office outside the country set up byIndia was at Dakshin Gangotri in Antarctica.

First stamp designer was Captain H.L. Thuillier,Deputy Surveyor General, Calcutta.

First stamp honouring a national leader, Ma-hatma Gandhi, was issued on August 15, 1948.

First airmail service from Allahabad to Nainitalon February 18, 1911.

‘Meghdoot’ is the Mobile Postmen Scheme whichwas introduced by BSNL recently.

The ‘Extra Departmental Agents (EDA’s) work-ing in the Department of posts is to be known as

Gramin Dak Sewaks. Bombay & Madras Presidencies started the

GPO’s is the year 1786 & 1793. The Act of 1837 first regulated the Post Office

on an uniform basis & united the 3 presidenciesinto one all- India Service.

The Post Office Act of 1854 reformed the entire Postalsystem, & Post Office of India on the present formcame into existence from October 1, 1854.

Money Order Service was introduced in 1880. Upto Rs. 5000 can be made through each money

order. Satellite Based Money Order Service was intro-

duced in 1994 for speedy transmissions of MoneyOrder.

VSAT - Very Small Apeture Terminals were es-tablished for Satellite MOS.

ESMO’s - Extended Satellite Money Order sta-tions.

TMO’s - Transit Mail Offices. The Postal Department introduced two Internet

based value added service named e-Post, e-BillPost.

e-Post electronic message are booked at any Postoffice in the Country and are downloaded at anidentified Post Office & delivered to the recipi-ents as hard copies.

e-Bill Post allows the customer to pay their util-ity bills like Telephone, Mobile phone. Electric-ity, Water Supply etc at one window throughPost Office Counters.

Speed Post system was introduced on 1 August1986.

International EMS was started in 1986. Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced in

1884. Electronic Fund Trnasfer (EFT) was launched in

2001. World's first Postage Stamp was issued in 1840

by great Britain. In USA the first stamp appeared in 1847, July 1. In India it was in 1852. Rowland Hill of England is considered as the

Father of Philately. Philately - Collection of stamps. 1850, stamp collection began as a hobby.

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Indian Languages The Eighth Schedule of our Constitution con-

tain 22 language of India. In 2004 besides 18 lan-guages 4 languages was added by the 92ndamendment Act 2003. These are Bodo, Dogri,Maithili & Santhali

India has 22 Officially recognised languages.Which are included in the 8th Schedule of theIndian Constitution.

India is the Country where largest number of lan-guages are spoken. The Fact that as many as1,652 languages and dialicts including 63 non-Indian languages are Spoken in India.

The languages of India have two major linguis-tic divisions which are Aryan and Dravidian.The outstanding languages of the Dravidiangroup are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada andMalayalam.

Tamil, the State language of Tamil Nadu, is theoldest among the Dravidian languages and theyoungest among them is Malayalam.

Telugu, the State language of Andhra Pradesh,is the most spoken Dravidian language.

The most spoken Indian language is Hindi, fol-lowed by Bengali and Telugu.

Hindi in Devanagari script is the Official lan-guage of India.

Urdu is the State language of Jammu and Kashmirand the mother tongue of Nagaland is English.

Sanskrit is the Classical language of India andalso the oldest in the World.

Malayalam language was derived from Tamil. Mani Pravalam is a mixture of Malayalam and

Tamil Languages. Mandarin (Chinese) language is spoken by the

largest number of people in the World.

Computer Technology in India Computer technology has opened new avenues

for the hard working Indian youth. Hi-tec city of India is Hyderabad. Silicon valley of India is Bangalore.

The original silicon valley is in California, the USA. India’s first technopark was inaugurated in

Trivandrum. Computer Networks are LAN, MAN, WAN. LAN - Local Area Network gained performance

in 1980. MAN - Metropolitan Area Network. WAN - Wide Area Network C-DAC is Centre for the Development of

Advanced Computing. It is a Central Governmentorganisation based at Pune. India developed itsown super computer technology. They arePARAM (for CDAC) ANUPAM (BARC) MTPPS(BARC) PACE (Anurag) CHIPPS (CDOT) andFLOSOLVER MK 5 (NAC) India’s only crayXMP is used for Climatic research.

ISP is the Internet Service Provider. VSNL is the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited. It

was the first ISP in India. Satyam was the first private ISP in India. STPI is Software Technology Park of India. The Centre of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

is in Bangalore. The Biggest robot in India - Natraj India’s first Cyber Crime Police Station was set

up in Bangalore. Computer literacy programme started by Madhya

Azim Premjiis the chairman of WIPRO. He has been

identified as the richest man in India.

487

Pradesh Government is named Headstart. Global Internet firm, Yahoo is to set up its first R

& D Centre outside USA in Bangalore in Aug.2003 with focus on production innovation andcutting edge technology for the Company's cus-tomers World wide.

Madhya Pradesh plans to open the country'smaiden University on Information Technology,in collaboration with NIIT.

The Krishi television channel was launched onthe platform of the satellite cable television chan-nel on IGNOU.

Pol Net - Polnet is a satellite based communica-tion channel, exclusively for the use of Policerelated organisations. Messages/Fax are sent tovarious State/ District Police Headquarters.Extenson of Polnet phones has been providedto all the divisional heads and most of the branchheads of NCRB. They can talk to various States/districts over the Polnet.

The 64 bit power Mac G5, Apple's latest per-sonal computer the most powerful and arguablythe World's fastest desktop `machine, waslaunched in India on Aug. 20, 2003.

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Education in India Education is included in the Concurrent list by

the Constiutional Amendment of 1976. Before1976 Education was a State List.

Lord Macaulay’s Minute (1835): This Made Englishthe medium of instruction in government schoolsand colleges.

Which of the following educational initiativesis called the Magna Carta of English Educationin India?

a) Macaulay’s Minute

b) Wood’s Despatch

c) Hunter Commission

d) Kothari Commission

Ans : b) Wood’s Despatch

Wood’s Despatch of 1854 was the firstcomprehensive plan for the spread of educationin India. It made medium of instruction Englishfor Higher studies and vernacular at schoollevels.

The Universities of Calcutta, Bombay, Madraswere set up in 1857.

Punjab University was set up in 1882.

Allahabad University was set up in 1887.

Hunter Commission (1882-83) was appointed

to study about Primary and Secondaryeducation.

Radhakrishnan Commission (1948-49) wasappointed to reform the University Education inthe Country. It recommended 12 years of Pre-University Education.

Which Commission was responsible for theintroduction of 10 + 2+ 3 education scheme?

Ans : Radhakrishnan Commission

Which Commission was responsible for threelanguages formula for education?

Ans : Kothari Commission

Kothari Commission (1964-66) was set up toadvices on the national pattern of education. Itrecommended free, universal and compulsoryeducation upto age of 14; three language formula- Mother tongue, Hindi and English anddevelopment of Regional languages.

In 1976 Education was placed on concurrent list.

New policy of Education was announced in 1986.

University Grants Commission was set up in 1953as recommended by

a) Kothari Commission

b) Radhakrishnan Commission

c) Hunter Commission d) None of these

Ans : (b) Radha Krishnan Commission

DPEP - District Primary Education Programmewas launched in 1994. Sarva Shiksha Abliyam(SSA) launched in 2001 replaced DPEP.

NEEM is National Elementary Education Mission.Formed in 1995 aims at Universalisation ofElementary Education.

IGNOU is Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity. It was set up under an Act ofParliament in 1985.

UGC will soon be renamed as Higher EducationDevelopment Council.

NCERT is National Council for Educational

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Place .................................................... PersonRajghat ................................. Mahatma GandhiSanthivan ............................. Jawaharlal NehruChaithrabhoomi ........................ B.R. AmbedkarShakthisthal ............................... Indira GandhiEkthasthal ........................................Zail SinghKisanghat .................................. Charan Singh

Where they restPlace .................................................... PersonVeerbhoomi ..................................Rajiv GandhiAbhyaghat ................................. Morarji DesaiNarayanghat .......................... Gulzarilal NandaSamathasthal ............................... Jagjivan RamVijayghat ............................... Lal Bahadur ShastriNigam Bodhghat .......................... Kishan KantUdayabhumi............................ K.R. Narayanan

Research and Training. Formed in 1961.

SCERT- State Council for Educational Researchand Training.

National Book Trust (NBT) was set up in 1957.

There are 7 Indian Institute of Technologies(IITs) in India. They are at Mumbai, Chennai,Kanpur, Delhi, Kharagpur, Roorkee andGuwahati.

There are 6 Indian Institute of Managements(IIMs). They are at Ahmedabad, Bangalore,Calcutta, Lucknow and Kozhikode.

Operation Blackboard was launched in 1987-88to bring about substantial improvement inPrimary Schools by providing all basic amenities.

Three Rs in education are Reading, Writing andArithmetics.

The 86rd Constitutional Amendment Bill has beenintroduced in Parliament to make the right toelementary education a fundamental right and afundamental duty.

The Central Institute of English and otherForeign Languages is in Hyderabad.

University Grants Commission (UGC) wasestablished on December 28. It became aStatutory Organ by an Act of Parliament in 1956.1953. The present Chairman is Mr. SukhadeoThorat.

ISBN is International Standard Book Numbering.It was started in 1985 in India.

International Mother Language Day is on February21.

World Book Day : April 23.

World Literacy Day is observed on

(a) September 5 (b) September 8

(c) February 28 (d) June 5

Answer: (b) September 8

September 5 - Teacher’s Day

February 28 - National Science Day

NLM was launched in the year

(a) 1988 (b) 1980 (c) 1995 (d) 1992

Answer: (a) 1988

NLM - National Literacy Mission was launchedon May 5, 1988.

First town to achieve full literacy was Kottayam(1989) and the first District to achieve full literacywas Ernakulam (1990) and the first State tobecome fully literate was Kerala (1991)

Literacy rate in India 52.21% (1991)

Literate in India is 65.38% (2001)

DPEP was launched in

(a) 1990 (b) 1994

(c) 1993 (d) 1995

Answer: (b)

District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)was launched in 1994 as a major intiative toachieve the objective of the Universalisation ofPrimary Education.

Operation Black Board aims to improve(a) the primary education

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(b) pre-primary education(c) upper primary education(d) informal eduactionAnswer: (a)

Swami Vivekananda founded the Rama-krishnaMission.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded Brahma Samajin 1828.

Swami Dayananda Saraswathi founded AryaSamaj.

Kesab Chandra Sen founded Prarthana Samaj. Madan Mohan Malaviya founded Banares

Hindu University. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan started Aligarh

Movement in 1875. Jaya Prakash Narayan started Sarvodaya

Movement. Vinobha Bhave started Bhoodan Movement. The Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) is a

Programme launched by the State of MadhyaPradesh.

Netaji Subhash Saksharata Mission waslaunched to eradicate illiteracy in the Country.

The controversial District Primary EducationProgramme (DPEP) was replaced by the SarvaShiksha Abhiyan (SSA). SSA was launched onOctober 10, 2001. The SSA is a World Bank aidedproject aimed at the Universalisation of Elemen-tary Education and improving the quality of ba-sic education.

The first step taken by the Government in thespread of Modern Education was in

(a) 1757 (b) 1813 (c) 1854 (d) 1857

Ans : (b) 1813

In 1813, through the Charter Act, the British gov-ernment sanctioned to the Company a lakh ofrupees for educational development.

65.38% is the literacy rate of 2001 census.

Kerala is the highest literate State in India

(90.92%). Second place goes to Mizoram.

The National Green Crops Programme which aimsto set up echo clubs in schools to strengthen envi-ronmental education was launched in the State ofKerala.

President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam gave his as-sent to the Constitutions 86th ConstitutionalAmendment on December 14, 2002 which man-dates Free and Compulsory Education. For allChildren in the age group of 6-14 as a Funda-mental Right.

EDUSAT - The Educational Satellite designed tobeam down programmes in different languagesto students at all levels in all Fields, the conceptof Education to Home (ETH) became a possibil-ity on September 20, 2004. It would open up anew age in which a learner whether aspiring for atechnology degree or basic literacy could justswitch on the television and learn at home itself.

IGNOU launched a Technology Education TVChannel for disseminating IIT Programme to dis-tant learners.

Gyan Darshan is the educational TV Channel ofIGNOU telecasting two 24 hours Channel.

The Central Advisory Board of Education(CABE) the highest Advisory Body establishedin 1920.

CABE advice the Central & State Govt. in thefield of Education.

The Resolution on National Policy on Educa-tion was adopted in 1986, which was revised in1992 aims at Universlisation of Elementary Edu-cation populary known as Sarva ShikshaAbhiyan.

There are 7 IITs and 6 IIM in India.

Worlds first Petroleum & Energy studies Uni-versity is at Uttaranchal. Set up by the Hydro-carbons Education & Research Society NewDelhi.

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National Council for Teacher Education was es-tablished in 1995 to achieve planned & Co-ordinated development of teacher Educationsystem.

National Bal Bhavan was founded by Pt.Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956, it is under Ministry ofHuman Resource Development for Children inthe age group 5 - 16 years.

The National Programme of Nutritional supportof Primary Education (NPSPE) popularly knownas Mid-Day Meal Scheme was launched in Au-gust 15, 1995 to give a boost to Universalisationof Primary Education.

‘Lok Jumbish’ in a Swedish International Devel-opment Agency project launched in Rajasthanto achieve education for all through peoplesmobilisation & their participation.

Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Introductionof Yoga in Schools was launched in 1989 -90.

Co-educational residential schools calledJawaharlal Navodya Vidyalaya was establishedby the National Policy on Education in 1986.

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangham was approved byGovt. in 1962 in the reccommendation of II PayCommission.

In 1962, of antonomous body called kendriyaVidyalaya Sangatham was established with theobject to cater the educational needs of the chil-

dren of transferable Central Govt. employees

NCERT an apex institution which provides tech-nical resources support for school education.

Central Institute of English & Foreign Lan-guage (CIEFL) is at Hyderabad.

Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved VidyaPrathisthan, Ujjain.

Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi estab-lished by Government in 1970.

Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Thirupathi.

Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya SanskritVidyapeetha , New Delhi.

Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR)New Delhi set up in 1972.

The Indian Council of Philosophical Research(ICPR), New Delhi functioned from 1977.

The Indian Institute of Advanced studies (IIAS)Shimla, Set up in 1965.

The Indian Council of Social Science Research(ICSSR) New Delhi.

The National Council of Rural Institute (NCRI)Set up in 1995.

IGNOU was established in 1985 for the pro-motion of Open University & Distance Edu-cation. Present Vice Chancellor of IGNOU

V.N. Rajesekharan Pillai

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Dr. Rajendra Prasad26.1.1950 - 13.5.1962

Dr. S.Radhakrishnan13.5.1962 - 13.5.1967

Dr. Zakir Hussain13.5.1967 - 3.5.1969

V. Venkatagiri24.8.1969 - 24.8.1974

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed24.8.1974 - 11.2.1977

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy25.7.1977 - 25.7.1982

Giani Zail Singh25.7.1982 - 25.7.1987

R. Venkataraman25.7.1987 - 25.7.1992

K.R. Narayanan25.7.1997 - 24.7.2002

PRESIDENTS OF INDIA

Dr. S.D. Sharma25.7.1992 - 25.7.1997

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam25.7.2002 - ...........

2nd 3rd

4th 5th 6th

7th 8th 9th

10th 11th

Ist

Indian Presidents Longest serving President:

Dr. Rajendra Prasad (12 years 2months, 18 days)

First Elected President :Dr. S. Radhakrishnan became thePresident of India in 1962.

President for shortest term :Dr. Zakir Hussain. (May 13, 1967 toMay 3, 1969)

First President to die in harness: Dr.Zakir Hussain (on May 3, 1969)

First Vice President to die in harnes:Krishan Kant (on July 28, 2002)

Oldest President of India:R. Venkataraman (at the age of 76years, 7 months, 21 days)

Youngest President of India:N. Sanjeeva Reddy (at the age of 64years)

Philosopher President : Dr. S.Radhakrishnan

First M alayalee to become IndianPresident :K.R. Narayanan

The Kerala Governor who later be-came the President of India: V.V. Giri

First President to vote in the Legis-lative Assembly is A.P.J. AbdulKalam.

First President to travel in fighterjet and in a submarine Dr. APJ.Abdul Kalam

Lok Sabha Speaker who became thePresident Neelan Sanjeeva Reddy.

The First Acting President - V.V. Giri

Books Written by Indian Presidents India Divided , Satyagraha at Champa

ran,Atmakatha, Bapu ke Kadmoncin: RajendraPrasad

A Hindu View of Life, The Ethics of Vedanta,Essentials of Psychology, East and West Reli-gion, Freedom and Culture, Contemporary In-dian Philosophy, Eastern Religious and West-

ern thought : Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Indian Philosophy : Dr. S. Radhakrishnan A Million Jobs : V.V. Giri My Presidential Years, A million years

: R. Venkataraman The Wings of Fire, Guidng Souls, India 2020, A

vision for the new Millennium, Ignited minds,India - My dreams.: Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam.

493

Indian Prime Ministers Prime Minister for the longest period : Jawaharlal

Nehru (17 years) The first woman Prime Minister:Indira Gandhi Prime Minister for shortest term : Charan Singh

(5 months, 16 days) The oldest Prime Minister to assume office :

Morarji Desai (at the age of 81) The youngest Prime Minister to assume office :

Rajiv Gandhi (at the age of 40) The first Prime Minister to lose election : Indira

Gandhi (in 1977) The first Prime Minister to resign : Morarji Desai The first Prime Minister to die in harness :

Jawaharlal Nehru The first Prime Minister to die in harness abroad:

Lal Bahadur Shastri (at Tashkent in 1966) The first Prime Minister to get assassinated :

Indira Gandhi (1984) The first acting Prime Minister of India : Gulzarilal

Nanda The Prime Minister who never faced the Parlia-

ment : Charan Singh The first Prime Minister to lose a vote of confi-

dence: V.P. Singh The Prime Minister of the second shortest term

S. Chandrasekhar The Prime Minister of the shortest term in one

spellA. B. Vajpayee (16 May 1996 - 01 June 1996)

First Indian Prime Minister from KarnatakaDeva Gowda

Who became the Prime Minister of India afterthe resignation of Deva Gowda who lost the con-fidence Motion in ParliamentI.K. Gujral

First Prime Minister from BJPA.B. Vajpayee

How many times Vajpayee became the PrimeMinister of IndiaThree Times (1996, 1998, 1999)

The Prime Minister who made Lahore bus journeyA.B. Vajpayee

The Indian Prime Minister to attend Agra sum-mit

A.B. Vajpayee Who was the Prime Minister of India at the time

of Kargil War?A.B. Vajpayee

First Indian Prime Minister to speak in Hindi inUN General AssemblyA.B. Vajpayee

Who is the 14th Prime Minister of IndiaDr. Manmohan Singh

The RBI Governor who become the Prime Min-ister of IndiaDr. Manmohan Singh

The first Prime Minister from Sikh CommunityDr. Manmohan Singh

Books written by Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru : ‘The Discovery of

India’, ‘Glimpses of world History’, ‘An Autobi-ography’, ‘A bunch of old letters’.

Indira Gandhi : My Truth, The Eternal India. Chandra Sekhar : Dynamics of Social Change P.V. Narasimha Rao : The Insider, Ayodhya 6th

December 1992. Atal Bihari Vajpayee : ‘New Dimension of In-

dia’s Foreign Policy’.

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Important Projects Chipko Movement - Launched by Sunderlal

Bahuguna, a save-the- tree movement. Telugu Ganga Project: Brings drinking water

to Chennai from Krishna River in AndhraPradesh.

Project Unigauge - Launched by Indian Rail-ways to convert all metergauge rail tracks tobroadgauge.

Operation Flood - Development of dairy farm-ing for the supply of milk to metropolitancities.

Antyodaya Programme - Started by JayaPrakash Narayan and aimed at the upliftmentof the rural poor. It aims to help the poorest ofthe poor.

White Revolution - Increased production ofmilk; initiated by Varghese Kurian, the fatherof White Revolution in India.

Garland Canal Project - It was launched toconnect North-South rivers in India. Its tar-get year is 2016.

Operation Blackboard - Gives essential mini-mum education to children up to the age of 14and improvement of primary education, incor-porated in the New Education Policy.

Project Elephant - A wild life protection pro-gramme under the Eighth Plan period.

Project Tiger - The most successful wildlifeprotection programme ever undertaken. It waslaunched in 1973.

Enron Project - 740 MW gas based DabholPower project located in Maharashtra.

Bhoodan - Acharya Vinobha Bhave launched theMovement to provide land to the landless labourers.

Sreeniketan Project - Started byRabindranathTagore.

Sevagram Project-Started by Mahatma Gandhi. Nirmithi Kendra : Provides low cost construc-

tion technology. IREDA : Indian Renewable Energy Develop-

ment Agency.

ANERT : Agency for Non Conventional En-ergy and Rural Technology.

VAMBE : Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana. Hous-ing project for the poor in the Urban area.

Sagar Mala Project for expansion and up-grading of maritime infrastructure. This willsupplement the on-going Prime Minister'sRural Roads Programme and the National RailVikas Yojana.

National Horticultural Mission launched withthe objective of encouraging cultivation offruits, vegetables, flowers, spices etc. Themissions target would be to double horticul-ture production by 2010.

Chandrayan -1

Chandrayan is India’s first unmanner moonexploration. The project is being implementedby ISRO in association with other countriesspace agencies including NASA.

Sethusamudram Project

The Sethusamudram project aims to build upa shipping channel between India and SriLanka so that big ships can travel from west-ern coast of India to east coast with out trav-elling around Sri Lanka. It can save time andfuel.

Golden Quadrilateral

Golden Quadralateral is a project under takenunder National Highway Development Projectto link the four metro cities of India with fourto six lane highway. The city get linked byGolden Quardralateral are Mumbai, Delhi,Kolkata and Chennai.

Operation Oliver was launched by the coastGuard for protecting the Oliver Ridley Turtleswhich came to three different sites in Orissa.Gahirmatha, Debi river coast in Kendraparadistr ict and the Ruskilya coast for massnesting.

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Atomic Energy CommissionAtomic Energy Commission (AEC) was set upin August 1948 to look after atomic energy ac-tivities in the country.

The government of India has set up a separatedepar tmen t - Depar tmen t of AtomicEnergy (DAE) for promotion of atomicresearch. It has five research centres1. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),

Mumbai2. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research,

(IGCAR) Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu3. Centre for advanced Technology (CAT) Indore4. Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC)

Kolkata5. Atomic Minerals Directorate for Explora-

tion and Research (AMD) Hyderabad.

Commissions for Agricultural Costsand Prices (CACP) CACP was earlier known as Agricultural prices

Commission CACP advices the government about the minimum

support prices for the agricultural produce.

Census Commission Census Commission functioned on temporary

basis till 1964. It was in that year the office ofthe Registrar General and census commis-sioner of India was established.

The first All India census was taken in 1872. Regular census began from 1881 onwardsCentre Water Commission (CWC) CWC is responsible for initiating and co-

ordinating in consultation with state govern-ments, schemes for control, conservation andutilisation of water resources for purposesof irrigation, navigation flood control thethroughout the country.

Election CommissionElection Commission is a statutory body es-tablished under article 324 of the constitu-tion. The functions of the Election Commis-sion include Preparation of electrol rolls, theconduct of election to Parliament, State leg-islatures and election to the offices of presi-dent and Vice President of India. The EC hasalso (i) to lay down generals rules of election(ii) to determine constituencies (iii) to giverecognation to political parties (iv) to alloteelection symbols etc.

EC consist of 3 member including Chief Elec-tion Commissioner.

The present Chief Election Commissioner -N.Gopalaswami.

Election Commissioner's Navin B Chawla &S.Y. Quaraishi

Finance CommissionUnder Article 280 of the Constitution, a Fi-nance Commission is to be constituted everyfifth year to make recommendation to Presi-dent as to distribution between the Union andthe States of the net proceeds of taxes andsharing of other revenues so far 12 FinanceCommissions have been constituted.

The Chairman of the XII FC is Dr. C.Rangarajan.

Indo - Bangladesh joint Rivers Commission

COMMITTEESAND COMMISSIONS

496

was established in 1972 for sharing of waterbetween two countries.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC) , was established in 1957. It plan or-ganise and implement programme for the de-velopment of Khadi and village industries.

Law Commission : The Law Commission wasfist constituted in 1955.

17th Law Commission was constituted in Sep-tember 2003 with Justice Jagannadha Rao asits Chairman. Vice Chairman Dr. N.M. Ghatate.

Mandal Commission was appointed to lookinto the grievances of the backward classes.It has recommended 27% of seats in academicinstitutions and job in government organisa-tions for these classes.The recommended reservation is in additionto the existing 22.5% per cent job reservationfor the Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes.

National Commission on FarmersM.S. Swaminathan heads the National Com-mission on Farmers.

National Knowledge CommissionNational Knowledge Commission has beenconstituted with Sam Pitroda as its head. TheCommission will advice the Prime Minister onissues concerning institutions of knowledgeproduction and the use and dissemination ofknowledge.Vice Chairman - P.M. Bhargava

National Statistical CommissionAs per the recommendations of the Rangarajancommittee the union cabinet approved on may19, 2005. The setting up of National statisticalCommission.

Planning CommissionThe Planning Commission at the centre is theapex body in the planning machinery of thecountry. The Planning Commission was setup in March 1950 by a Resolution of Govern-ment of India.

Information Commission

The Union Government has constituted TheCentral Information Commission (CIC) underthe Right to Information (RTI) Act, which cameinto force on October 13, 2005 WajahatHabibullah is its Chairman.

State Chief Information Commissioner is PalatMohandas.Volcker Committee : was appointed by UNSecretary General on April 21, 2004 to lookinto the irregularities found in Food for OilProgramme for Iraq ( 1996 - 2003) Indian For-eign Minister Natwar Singh resigned from thepost due to adverse reference in Volcker Com-mittee Report.Basal Committee : was set up to look into thematter of taking bribe to ask question in Par-liament by MPs. Based on the Basal Commit-tee Report MPs were expelled from the Parlia-ment (10 MPs from Lok Sabha and one MPfrom Rajya Sabha)

University Grants Commission (UGC)The UGC was set up in 1953 to promote andco-ordinate University Education and to de-termine and maintain standard of teaching ex-amination and research in the Universities.

Subramanyan Committee : To probe in toevents leading to the Kargil War.

Justice Jain : into the conspiracy aspects ofRajiv Gandhi assassination.

J.S. Verma : in to the security lapses that ledto the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

Dr. D.R. Karthikeyan : led the special inves-tigation team of the Central Bureau of Investi-gation (CBI) which enquired into the assassi-nation of Rajiv Gandhi.

Vohra Committee : Studied about the nexusbetween criminals and politicians in India.

Murari Committee : Reviewed Deep Sea Fish-ing Policy.

Leila Seth Commission : Probed into thedeath of Rajan Pillai in Tihar Jail.

Nanavati Shah Commission: Godhra riot. Justice S.N. Phukan: Tehelka probe. Justice

497

Venkataswami first enquired about Tehelka. Kelkar Committee : Direct and Indirect Tax Nanawati Commission : Enquires into anti

Sikh riot of 1984 in Delhi. BJP lead NDA govern-ment appointed the enquiry Committee in 2000.

Justice Venkitachallaih Panel was appointedto review the Constitution of India.

Indrajit Gupta Committee: State Funding ofelection.

Balwant Rai Mehta Committee - PanchayatiRaj was introduced in the country on the ba-sis of this report.

Raja Chellaiah Committee - Tax Reforms sug-gested various means for eradicating blackmoney.

Kudal Commission - It was set up to look intothe affairs of Gandhi Peace Foundation.

Justice Ram Nandan Prasad Committee - Toidentify the creamy layer among the sociallyand economically weaker sections of the back-ward classes to be excluded from Mandal ben-eficiaries.

Narasimham Committee-Banking sector re-forms.

Malhotra Committee - Prepared report aboutthe insurance sector reforms.

Yaspal Committee - Suggested the abolitionof admission tests and interviews for the ad-mission to pre-primary classes.

Goswami Committee-It is related to sick indus-tries.

Sri Krishna Commission - It enquired intothe communal riots in Mumbai.

Railway Safety Committee - Headed byM.L.C.L. Kaw, it recommended expeditiousgrant of relief to victims of railway accidents.

Commission on Labour Standards - Headedby Dr. Subramaniam Swamy. It recommendeda National Policy on child labour and sug-gested a comprehensive labour law.

R.S.Sarkaria Committee-Centre-State Relations. Dinesh Goswami Committee-Electoral Reforms. Udayabhanu Commission-Jail reforms in Kerala. Swaminathan Committee - Population policy.

Dhebar Committee-To enquire into the tribal ar-eas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Sen Committee - Decentralisation of powerto Panchayati Raj Institutions in Kerala.

Banu Pratap Singh Committee - Policies andProgrammes of Agriculture.

C.V.K Rao Committee - Strengthening BlockLevel Administration.

Asoka Mehta Committee - Suggested reformsin Panchayati Raj.

K.J. Joseph Committee - was appointed tofind the creamy layer in Kerala.

K.K. Narendran Commission is also ap-pointed to identify creamy layer in Kerala.

Liberhan Commission - Enquiring intoAyodhya issue.

Y.K. Alagh Committee - Redesign the recruit-ment to the elite All India Services.

Nanavati Commission - Anti Sikh riot of 1984in New Delhi.

Parikh Commission - To enquire into clinicaltrails on cancer patients at the Regional Can-cer Centre at Thiruvananthapuram.

Mashelkar Committee - Recommendation onauto fuel policy to control pollution.

N.K. Singh Committee - Foreign DirectInvestment.

Justice K. Venkataswami first probed Tehelka rev-elations. Later when he resigned the post S.N.Phukan was appointed to head Tehelka panel.

Chandra Sekhara Das Commission : hasbeen appointed to investigate the liquor trag-edy in Kollam district.

L.C. Gupta Committee has been appointedto probe into the trading of shares.

Naresh Chandra Committee has been ap-pointed to suggest further amendments to theCompanies Act and the creation of a new cat-egory of companies.

Rakesh Mohan Committee has been ap-pointed to review the disparity of paymentamong sailors of ships.

A.N. Mukherjee Committee : To enquire intoNetaji's mysterious disappearance.

Lakdawala Commission studied about the

498

Various Military Operations Operation Cactus : In November 1988, the

timely action of Indian Army in Maldivessaved the democratic government which wasdismissed by the military coup.

Operation Red Dawn : It was launched by USarmy to capture Saddam Hussain.

Operation All clear : It was launched by theRoyal Bhutan Army (RBA) on December 15,2003 to clear terrist. camp of ULFA, NDFB andKLD operated in the territory of Bhutan.

Operation Vijay : Launched (1999) to flushout Pakistani infiltrators from Kargil and Dras

Sectors of Jammu and Kashmir.

Operation Blue Star : Launched in Punjab. Itwas the military action in Amristar at the GoldenTemple.

Operation Riviresa (Sunshine) : Sri LankanGovernment took control of Jaffna, the LTTEbase after this massive military campaign.

Operation Desert Storm : Military action ofAmerica and allied countries against Iraq dur-ing Iraq-Kuwait war.

Operation Desert Fox : Military action againstIraq by USA and it allies for not allowing armsinspection.

Operation Enduring Freedom: Military Opera-tion launched by America, UK and its allies todislodge Taliban from power in Afghanistan.

Operation Anaconda: The extension of Op-eration Enduring Freedom.

Operation Sarpvinash: The code name givento the operation carried out in the Surankotehills of Jammu to flush out militants.

Operation Pawan: This was started to wipeout LTTE establishment in Sri Lanka in theyear 1987, by Indian Army.

Operation Black Thunder: On May 18, 1988,it was started to free 'The Golden Temple' fromthe anti-national forces and terrorists.

Operation Vajrashakthi: The code namegiven to the commando operation by NationalSecurity Guards in the Akshardham templecomplex.

Operation Black Sea: The code name givenby the Intelligence Bureau to gather evidenceof corruption against former Chattisgarh ChiefMinister Ajit Jogi.

Operation Duryodhan : Operation carried outby Aaj Tak : Cobra Post. Com to expose MPsreceiving bribe to ask question in the Parlia-ment.

percentage of people living Below PovertyLine (BPL) in India.

K. Sukumaran Commission probed into theIdamalayar corruption case in Kerala.

Saikia Committee consider the proposalto make free and compulsory education afundamental right.

Wancho Committee : (Direct taxes EnquiryCommittee ). set up in 1971.

Chakravarthy Committee : (1982) : RBI ap-pointed a committee under the Chairmanshipof Prof. Sukhamoy Chakravarthy to review theworking of Indian Monetary system. The Com-mittee submitted its report in 1985.

The Chairman of the first Finance Commis-sion : 1952 K.C. Neogy (1952-57)

Chair of Ninth Finance Commission : 1987N.K.P. Salve (1990 - 95)

Chairman of Tenth Finance Commission -1994 : K.C. Pant (1995 - 2000)

Chairman of Eleventh Finance Commission :1998 - A.M. Khusro (2000 - 2005)

Chairman of Twelth Finance Commission :2002 : C. Rangarajan.

Dr. Radhakrishnan Commission (1948) : Itis also known as University Education Com-mission.

Kothari Commission (1964 ) : Education re-forms it is headed by Dr. D. S. Kothari.

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World Records Held by IndiaIndustry andTrade Indian Railways is the World’s largest em-

ployer Largest exporter of Tea Largest manufacturer of cycles (Hero cycle) Largest exporter of cut Diamonds (World’s

68% cut diamonds come from India) Largest producer of Sugar by achieving a

production of 85 lakhs tonnes. India tops the World in film production Reliance Group of companies in India has more

number of shareholders than any other com-pany in the world.

Agricultural/ natural resoruces1. Largest producer of millet in the World.2. Largest producer of Tea3. Leads in the world in irrigated area (56 million

hectares)4. Leads in the World in Cattle population.5. Largest producer of Cardamom: Kerala pro-

duces 60% of the total World production.6. Largest exporter of Spices7. Largest Turmeric production, 76%8. Highest yield of Potato 46, 797 kg/ha9. Largest Ginger production 64%10. Largest Sugarcane production11. Largest grower of Pulses, 23%12. Productivity of Grapes 22 tonnes/ha13. Highest Rice yield 17,862 kg/ha

Buildings / roads/ bridges First hospital on wheels in the World - Jeevan

Rekha (Life Line) express. Khardungla Road at Leh Manali sector is the

World’s highest road (5,602 m above sea level) All India Radio, Leh, is the World’s highest

radio station. Qutab Minar is the world’s tallest minaret. Mahatma Gandhi Setu (over the Ganga at

Patna) is the World’s longest river bridge. Kharagpur Railway Platform is the World’s

longest railway platform (833 m) Farakka River Barrage (Kolkatta) is the World’s

largest river barrage.Miscellaneous1. The Ganges and Brahmaputra Del ta

(Sunderbans) form the World’s (7,500sq km)largest Delta.

2. Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has emerged as the world’s largestOpen University.

3. India has the World’s largest reserve (approxi-mately one-fourth of the World’s known re-serves) of iron.

4. India has the largest deposits of mica in theWorld and contributes about two-third ofWorld’s production.

5. South Point High School, Kolkata is theWorld’s largest school.

6. World’s highest Post Office at Spiti Valley inHP (15000 ft height)

Individual achievements Lata Mangeshkar holds the World record for

maximum number of song recordings. Mrs Shakuntala Devi holds the World record

of fastest computing - faster than a Computer. Dr. Rajinder Singh of Himachal Pradesh holds

the World record of accurate and fastest typ-ing (96.8 words per minute, 1988)

Dr. M.C. Modi holds the World’s record forperforming maximum eye operation @ 40 op-erations per hour.

Mihir Sen of Kolkata holds the World recordfor long distance swimming.

Capt Durba Bannerjee is the World’s firstwoman air pilot holdings the record of maxi-mum flying hours.

Dicky Dolma from Manali holds the Worldrecord as the youngest Mount Everest climberat the age of 19.

Ms Santhosh Yadav holds the record to climbMount Everest twice (among women)

Indian SuperlativesStructuresHighest Tower (Minaret) ...................Qutab MinarHighest Gateway ....... Buland Darwaja(Fatehpur Sikri)

500

Important Tribes and Their HabitatName of Tribe Found inAbors Assam, Arunachal PradeshAngami Nagaland, AssamAo Nagaland, AssamApatamis Arunachal PradeshBadagas Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri Hill)Baiga Madhya Pradesh, ChhattisgarhBhils Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,

GujaratBhotias Uttaranchal (Garhwal and

Kumaun)Birhor Hazaribagh, JharkhandChenchus Andhra Pradesh, OrissaGaddis Himachal PradeshGallong North - East Himalayan TractGaros MeghalayaGonds Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand,

Chhatisgarh, Orissa, AndhraPradesh

Khas Uttar PradeshKhasis Assam, MeghalayaKhonds OrissaKol Madhya Pradesh, ChhatisgarhKolam Andhra PradeshKotas Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri)Kuki ManipurLahora Nagaland, AssamLepchas SikkimLushais TripuraMina RajasthanMikirs AssamMonpa Arunachal PradeshMundas JharkhandMurias Madhya PradeshOaraons ofKurukh Jharkhand, OrissaOnges Andaman and NicobarSanthals West Bengal, Jharkhand and

OrissaSema Nagaland and AssamSentinelese Andaman and NicobarShoemens Andaman and NicobarTangkhul Nagaland, Assam

Highest Dam .......................................Bhakra DamHighest Bridge .............................Chambal BridgeLargest City.............................................. KolkataLargest Lake ........................................ Wular LakeLargest Residence ................ Rashtrapati BhawanLargest Cinema Hall ..............................................

Thangam (Madurai) - capacity over 2500 seatsLargest Museum ........... Indian Museum, KolkataLargest Tunnel ............................. Jawahar TunnelLargest River Barrage ................. Farakka BarrageLongest Dam .................................... Hirakud DamLargest Zoo .... Zoological Garden, Alipur (Kolkata)Largest Cave Temple .................................... ElloraLargest Gurudwara ........... Golden Temple, AmritsarLargest Auditorium .................................................

Sri Shanmukhanada, Mumbai (3012 seats)Largest Church ..................... The St Cathedral, GoaLargest Mosque ........................ Jama Masjid, DelhiLargest Dome ...........Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur (Mysore)Largest Cantilever Bridge ................Howrah BridgeLongest River Bridge........ Mahatma Gandhi Setu, PatnaLongest Corridor .... Rameshwaram Temple CorridorLongest Platform (Rly) ...... Kharagpur (World’s longest)Longest Road Bridge .............. Sone Bridge, BiharLongest Road .......................................... GT RoadLargest Desert ............................ Thar (Rajasthan)Biggest Fort .................................. Red fort, DelhiTallest Light House ............ Prongs Reef, MumbaiTallest Statue.......... Gomateshwar Statue, MysoreTallest ChimneyThermal Power Station of Tata Elec-tric Co.Mumbai (275m high)Largest man- made Lake ....Govind Sagar (Bhakra)Largest Delta .............. Sunderbans (West Bengal)

StatesLargest State ......................................... RajasthanSmallest State ................................................. GoaLargest Union Territory ........................................................................... Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Smallest Union Territory ................. LakshadweepState having Maximum Cities .......... Uttar PradeshMost densely populated State ......... West Bengal

State with maximum Forest Area ...... Madhya PradeshState with Highest Cattle Population .... Uttar PradeshState having Maximum Paper Mills ...... Uttar PradeshState producing Maximum Sugar .... Uttar PradeshState with Highest Mineral Output ...... JharkhandState having Highest Literacy Rate ........... KeralaUnion Territory having Highest Literary Rate ................................................... Lakshadeep 87.52%

Most Populous State ...................... Uttar Pradesh

501

First In India Architect: Maha Govinda (5th B.C) Aryabhatta Medal Winner K.R. Ramanathan (1977) Bharat Ratna Award winner : C. Rajagopalachari

(1954); Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (1954) ; Dr.C. V. Raman(1954)

Actress of the talkies : Zubeida, Alam Ara (1931). Actress to win Padma Shri Award : Nargis Dutt

(1958) British Governor - General of Free India : Lord Louis

Mountbatten (Aug. 15, 1947 - June 20,1948) Captain of Test cricket : C.K.Nayudu (1932) Century in Test cricket : Lala Amarnath (1933 - 1934) Chairman of Rajya Sabha : Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

(1952- 1962) Chevalier Award winner : Sivaji Ganesan (1995) Chief Election Commissioner : Sukumar Sen (1950-

1958) Chief Justice of India : Hiralal J. Kania (1950 - 1951) Chief of Air Staff : Sir Thomas Elmhrist (1947 - 1950) Chief of Army staff to die in harness : B.C. Joshi

(1994) Chief of Air Staff to die in harness : S.Mukherjee

(1960 in Japan) Chief of Coast Guard : V.A. Kamath (1978 -1980) Chief of Naval Staff : R. D. Katari (1958-1962) Commander-in-chief. K.M. Cariappa (1949 - 1953) Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner : Devika Rani

Roerich (1969) Deputy Prime Minister : Vallabhbhai Patel (1947-

1950) Deputy Prime Minister to die in harness :

Vallabhbhai Patel (1950) Elected President: Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1950 - 1962) English Song : My Heart is Beating ... from Julie

(1974) Field Marshal : S.H. F.J Manekshaw (1973) Film Star Chief Minister : M.G. Ramachandran (Tamil

Nadu, 1977) Finance Minister of Free India : R.K. Shanmugham

Chetty (1947) Finance Minister to present the Budget three times

in a row : Manmohan Singh (1993, 1994, 1995). Finix Award winner : Sr. P.C. Sorcar ( ) Geometer : Baudhayana, Sulva Sutras (800 BC) Governor - General of British India : Warren

Hastings (1773 - 1785) Grammarian : Panini, Ashtadhyaayi (6th C. B.C) Helms Award winner : Kunwar Digvijay Singh Babu

(1952) Home Minister : Vallbhbhai Patel (1946) ICS Officer : Satyendranath Tagore (1864) Indian Chief of Air Staff : S. Mukherjee (1954 - 1960) Indian Chief of Army Staff : M. Rajendra Sinhji

(April 1, 1955 - May 14, 1955) Indian Governor - General of Free India : C.

Rajagopalachari (june 1948 - Jan. 1950) Indian Woman President of Indian National Con-

gress : Sarojini Naidu (1925) J.C. Bose Medal winner : V. Ramalingaswami (1977) Jain Trithankara : Rishabha Dev (300 B.C) Jnanpith Award winner : Govind Sankara Kurup,

Odakkuzhal (1965 ; Malayalam) Lady of the Indian film : Devika Rani Reoerich Lata Mangeshkar Award winner : Naushad (1984) Lawgiver : Manu, Manu Smriti (3100 BC)

Managing Director of World Bank : Gautam Kaji(1995)

502

Marshal of the Air Force : Air Chief Marshal ArjanSingh)

Member of British Parliament : Dadabhai Naoroji(1862)

Member of Viceroy’s Executive Council : SirS.P.Sinha (1909)

Miss Universe Sushmita Sen (1994)

Miss World : Reita Faria (1966)

Musician to get Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushanand Bharat Ratna : M.S. Subbulakshmi (1954, 1975&1998)

Musician to get Ramon Magsaysay Award : M.S.Subbulakshmi (1974)

Missile - firing Submarine : INS Sindhushastra (july19, 2000)

Nishan -i-Pakistan Award winner : Morarji Desai(1991)

Nobel Prize winner : Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali(1913)

Olympic Medal winner : Norman Pritchard, Silver(1900)

Pilot : J.R. D. Tata, Tata Airlines (1929)

Presentation of Budget : R.K. Shanmugham Chetty,Finance Minister (1947)

President of International Court of Justice :Nagendra Singh (1970)

Presentation of General Budget : C.D. Deshmukh,Finance Minister (1952)

President : Rajendra Prasad (1950 - 1962)

President of Indian National Congress : W.C.Bannerjee (1885)

President to die in harness : Zakir Hussain (1967 -1969)

Prime Minister : Jawaharlal Nehru (1947 - 1964)

Prime Minister assassinated : Indira Gandhi (1984)

Prime Minister to die in harness : Jawaharlal Nehru(1964)

Prime Minister to head a minority government :

Choudhary Charan Singh (July 28, 1979 - Jan. 1980)

Prime Minister to resign from office : Morarji Desai(1979)

Prime Minister who did not face Parliament :Chaudhary Charan Singh (July 28, 1979, Jan. 14,1980)

Ramon Magsaysay Award winner : Vinoba Bhave(1958)

Recipient of Stalin Peace Prize : Dr. SaifuddinKitchelew (1954)

Recipient of World Food Prize : M.S. Swaminathan(1987)

Speaker in Hindi at the UN : Atal Bihari Vajpayee(1977)

Speaker of Lok Sabha : Ganesh VasudevMavalankar (1952-1957)

Test-Tube baby: Baby Harsha or Indian (1986)

Vice President : S.Radhakrishnan (1952 - 1962)

Woman (Muslim) Ruler of India : Razi Sultana (1236- 1240)

503

First Indian to swim across the English Channel ................................................................ Mihir Sen (1966)First to climb Mount Everest ..................................................................................... Tenzing Norgay(1953)First to climb Mount Everest without oxygen .................................................................... Phu Dorjee(1984)First India to join I.C.S. (ICS now is IAS) ....................................................... Satyendra Nath Tagore (1864)First Indian to get Nobel Prize ........................................................................... Rabindra Nath Tagore(1913)First Indian in Space (first Indian cosmonaut) ............................................... Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma (1984)First British Governor General .................................................................................. William Bentinck (1828)First Governor General of Free India ...................................................................... Lord Mountbatten (1947)First Viceroy of India ................................................................................................... Lord Canning (1956)First and the last Governor General of free India .......................................... C. Rajagopalachari (1948 - 1950)First President of India ....................................................................................... Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1950)First Vice-President of India .............................................................................. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (1952)First Muslim President of India ............................................................................... Dr. Zakir Hussain (1967)First Sikh President of India ...................................................................................... Giani Zail Singh (1982)First Speaker of Lok Sabha ......................................................................................... G.V. Mavlankar (1952)First Dalit Speaker of Lok Sabha ............................................................................... G.M.C. Balayogi (1998)First Chief Justice of India ..................................................................................... Justice H.L. Kania (1950)First President of Indian National Congress ............................................................... W.C. Bannerjee (1885)First Indian to become member of Viceroy’s Executive Council ..................................... Lord S.P. Sinha (1909)First Emperor of Moghul Dynasty: .......................................................................................... Babur (1526)First Field Marshal ............................................................................................. S.H.F.J. Manekshaw(1973)First Indian Commander in chief of India ............................................................ Gen. K.M. Kariappa (1949)First Chief of the Army Staff (Indian) ................................................. Gen. Maharaja Rajendra Singhji(1955)First Chief of the Naval Staff (Indian) .......................................................... Vice-Admiral R.D. Katari (1958)First Chief of the Air Force Staff (India) ................................................................ Subroto Mukherjee(1954)First Indian in British Parliament ............................................................................. Dadabhai Naoroji (1862)First Indian to circumnavigate the globe ................................................................ Lt. Col. K.S. Rao ( )First Indian to reach the South Pole ............................................................................. Col. J.K. Bajaj (1989)First Indian High Court Judge (1878) ............................................................. Justice Syed Mehamood (1878)First Indian to make a solo air flight ...................................................................................... JRD Tata (1931)First Indian to visit England .................................................................................. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1832)First Indian Member of Houseof Lords (British) .......................................................... Lord S.P. Sinha (1909)First Chairman of Rajya Sabha (1952-62) ...................................................... Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (1952 - 62)First Indian Test Cricketer ................................................................................... K.S. Ranjit Singhji ( )First Air Chief Marshal ................................................................................................... Arjan Singh (1964)First Judge to face impeachment in the Lok Sabha (1993) ...................................... Justice V. Ramaswami (1993)First Governor General of Indian Union ................................................................ C. Raja Gopalachari (1948)First Indian to get an Oscar ....................................................................................... Bhanu Athaiya (1982)First Magsaysay Award winner ................................................................... Acharya Vinobha Bhave (1958)First Nobel Prize winner .................................................................................... Rabindra Nath Tagore(1913)Man to reach south pole ..................................................................................................... J.K. Bajaj (1989)Man to climb Mount Everest without oxygen .................................................................... Phu Dorjee (1984)Man to climb Mount Everest ..................................................... Tenzing Norgay (with Edmund Hillary, 1953)First Man to make solo flight (from US to India) ............................................................ Satish Soman (1994)First Man to reach South Pole .............................................................................................. J.K. Bajaj (1989)First Man to swim across English Channel ......................................................................... Mihir Sen (1966)First Man to swim several Straits in one calendar year ........................................................ Mihir Sen (1966)Man to win individual Olympic Medal ............... K.D. Jadhav (Bronze in Wrestling - Helsinki Olympics, 1952)

First men in India

504

First women in IndiaFirst woman Prime Minister .............................................................................................. Mrs. Indira Gandhi

First woman Chief Minister of a State .................................... Mrs. Sucheta Kripalani (Utter Pradesh 1963 - 67)

First woman Minister of a state...................................................... Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit (Uttarpradesh 1937)

First woman Central Minister ........................................................................................ Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

First woman Governor of a State........................................................... Mrs. Sarojini Naidu (Uttar Pradesh) (1947)

First Indian woman president of Indian National Congress ............................................. Annie Besant (1917)

First women Ambassador .................................................................... Vijayalekshmi Pandit (USSR - 1947-49)

First woman President of UN General Assembly........................................... Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit (1953)

First Muslim woman to sit on the throne of Delhi ................................................... Razia Sultana (1236 - 1240)

First woman to swim across the English Channel .......................................................... Miss Arti Saha (1959)

Woman to swim across the strait of Gibraltar ............................................................................... Arti Pradhan

First woman to climb Mount Everest ............................................................................. Bachhendri Pal (1984)

First woman to circumnavigate (sail round the world) .................................................................... Ujwala Rai

First woman IAS officer .................................................................................... Anna George Malhotra (1950)

First woman IPS officer ........................................................................................................ Kiran Bedi (1974)

First woman Advocate .......................................................................................................... Cornelia Sorabji

First woman Judge .................................................................................................................... Anna Chandi

First woman Judge of High Court .................................................................................................... Anna Chandi

First woman Judge of Supreme Court ........................................................................ M. Fathima Beevi (1989)

First woman Chief Justice of High Court .................................................. Leila Seth (Himachal Pradesh -1991)

First woman Doctor .......................................................................................................... Kadambini Ganguli

First woman Chief Engineer ................................................................................................. Mrs. P.K. Thresia

First woman to receive a Sena Medal .......................................... Constable Bimla Devi (88 BN of CRPF)-1990

Youngest woman to Climb Mount Everest ..................................................... Dicky Dolma from Manali - 1993

Youngest woman to Climb Mount Everest two times ................................... Santosh Yadav (ITBP Officer)-1993

First Lady Magistrate ................................................................................................. Mrs. Omana Kunjamma

First woman to win Nobel Prize ......................................................................................... Mother Teresa (1979)

First to be crowned Miss India ...................................................................................................... Reita Faria

First to be crowned Miss Universe .......................................................................................... Sushmita Sen (1994)

505

First to be crowned Miss World .............................................................................................. Reita Faria (1966)

First woman mayor in India ......................................................................................................... Tara Cherian

First woman pilot ........................................................................................................................ Prem Mathur

First woman Judge of Supreme Court ........................................................................................ Fathima Beevi

First woman won Bharat Ratna ................................................................................................. Indira Gandhi

First woman won the Magsaysay Award ................................................................................. Mother Teresa

First woman to win the Booker Prize ............................................................................... Arundhati Roy (1997)

First Actress of the talkies ............................................................................. Zubeida (Film : Alam Ara - 1931)

First Actress to win Padma Shri Award ............................................................................... Nargis Dutt (1958)

First woman to receive the Sahithya academy Award ....................................... Amrita Pritam - (Sunebre 1956)

First woman speaker of Lok Sabha ......................................................................................... Susgula Nayyar

First woman to win an Asia Gold ................................................................................. Kamaljit Sandhu (1970)

First woman to go into space ....................................................................................... Kalpana Chawla (1994)

First woman to win Jnanpith Award ............................................................................ Asha Purna Devi (1976)

First woman to win Urvasi Award ................................................................................................. Nargis Datt

First woman Election Commissioner ......................................................................................... V.S. Rama Devi

First woman to win an olympic gold medal ................... Karnam Malleswari (Bronze weight lifting sidney 2000)

First woman olympic finalist ............................................................................................................ P.T. Usha

First woman Speaker of State Assembly...................................................................................... Shanno Devi

Indian Women President of Indian National Congress .................................................... Sarojini Naidu (1925)

Woman (muslim) Ruler of India .............................................................................. Razia Sultana (1236 - 1240)

Woman advocate .........................................................................................................Cornelia Sorabji (1894)

Woman at Antartica .........................................................................................................Meher Moos (1976)

Woman (Deputy) Foreign Minister ................................................................ Lekshmi N. Menon (1957 - 1966)

Women DGP........................................................................ Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattachariya (Uttaranchal)

Woman Lt. General ..................................................................................................................... Punita Arora

Woman Secretary General of Rajya Sabha ...................................................................... V.S. Rama Devi (1993)

Woman Jet Commander ................................................................................................. Saudamini Deshmukh

Woman Missionary ............................................... Sanghamitra, daughter of King Ashoka (Sri Lanka 3rd BC)

Woman pilot (commercial) ..................................................................... Prem Mathur (Deccan Airways 1951)

Woman Pilot (Indian Airlines) ............................................................................. Durba Banerjee (1966 - 1988)

First Woman Mayor of Delhi ................................................................................................... Aruna Asif Ali

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508

Remember the great adage - fortune favours the bold. Be bold and agressive to grabknowledge, empower yourself and get the badly needed job.

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509

Low ambitionis a crime

- Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Steve Irwinin action