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GS Paper: GS1

  • Devasahayam Pillai: first Indian layman to be declared a Saint by Vatican

    Pope Francis canonised Devasahayam Pillai as a Catholic Saint during an event in St Peter’s Basilica.

    Who was Devasahayam Pillai?

    • Devasahayam was born on April 23, 1712 in Nattalam village in Kanyakumari district, and went on to serve in the court of Marthanda Varma of Travancore.
    • After meeting a Dutch naval commander at the court, Devasahayam was baptised in 1745, and assumed the name ‘Lazarus’, meaning ‘God is my help’.

    His works

    • While preaching, he particularly insisted on the equality of all people, despite caste differences.
    • His conversion did not go well with the heads of his native religion.
    • False charges of treason and espionage were brought against him and he was divested of his post in the royal administration.
    • On January 14, 1752, Devasahayam was shot dead in the Aralvaimozhy forest.
    • Since then, he is widely considered a martyr, and his mortal remains were interred inside what is now Saint Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Kottar, Nagercoil.

    Other canonized saints in India

    • Of the eleven, Gonsalo Garcia, born in India to Portuguese parents in Mumbai in 1557, is considered to have been the first India-born saint.
    • In 2008, Kerala-born Sister Alphonsa was declared as the first woman Catholic saint from India.
    • Mother Teresa had a fast track to sainthood when she was canonized in 2016.

     

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  • What is Onset of Monsoon?

    The monsoon is slated to make its earliest arrival in 13 years over Kerala, informs the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

    What does the “Onset of Monsoon” mean?

    • The onset of the monsoon over Kerala marks the beginning of the four-month, June to September southwest monsoon season over India.
    • It brings more than 70 per cent of the country’s annual rainfall.
    • It marks a significant transition in the large-scale atmospheric and ocean circulations in the Indo-Pacific region.
    • The IMD announces it only after certain newly defined and measurable parameters, adopted in 2016, are met.
    • The onset is a significant day in India’s economic calendar.

    How does IMD predict the monsoon?

    • Broadly, the IMD checks for the consistency of rainfall over a defined geography, its intensity, and wind speed:
    1. Rainfall: The IMD declares the onset of the monsoon if at least 60% of 14 designated meteorological stations in Kerala and Lakshadweep record at least 2.5 mm of rain for two consecutive days at any time after May 10.
    2. Wind field: The depth of westerlies should be upto 600 hectopascal (1 hPa is equal to 1 millibar of pressure) in the area bound by the equator to 10ÂșN latitude, and from longitude 55ÂșE to 80ÂșE. The zonal wind speed over the area bound by 5-10ÂșN latitude and 70-80ÂșE longitude should be of the order of 15-20 knots (28-37 kph) at 925 hPa.
    3. Heat: The INSAT-derived Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) value (a measure of the energy emitted to space by the Earth’s surface, oceans, and atmosphere) should be below 200 watt per sq m (wm2) in the box confined by 5-10ÂșN latitude and 70-75ÂșE latitude.
    • The onset is not officially declared until the prescribed conditions (above) are met.

    Factors considered by IMD

    • The IMD uses a specialised model that forecasts the arrival dates within a four-day window.
    • It uses six predictors:
    1. Minimum temperatures over northwest India
    2. Pre-monsoon rainfall peak over south Peninsula
    3. Outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) over the South China Sea
    4. Lower tropospheric zonal wind over the southeast Indian Ocean
    5. Upper tropospheric zonal wind over the east equatorial Indian Ocean, and
    6. OLR over the southwest Pacific region

    Where is the early arrival noticed?

    • The monsoon’s arrival over India is marked by rain over south Andaman Sea, which then advances north-westwards across the Bay of Bengal.
    • In general, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands start receiving monsoon rainfall between May 15 and May 20 every year.
    • And it usually starts raining along the Kerala coast in the last week of May.

    Does an early onset foretell a good monsoon?

    • No, it does not — just as a delay does not foretell a poor monsoon.
    • The onset is just an event that happens during the progress of the monsoon over the Indian subcontinent.
    • A delay of a few days, or perhaps the monsoon arriving a few days early, has no bearing on the quality or amount of rainfall, or its regional distribution across the country.

    Back2Basics: Long Period Average (LPA)

    • The IMD predicts a “normal”, “below normal”, or “above normal” monsoon in relation to a benchmark “long period average” (LPA).
    • The LPA of rainfall is the rainfall recorded over a particular region for a given interval (like month or season) average over a long period like 30 years, 50 years, etc.
    • LPA refers to the average rainfall recorded from June to September for the entire country, the amount of rain that falls every year varies from region to region and from month to month.
    • The IMD’s prediction of a normal monsoon is based on the LPA of the 1971-2020 period, during which India received 87 cm of rain for the entire country on average.
    • It has in the past calculated the LPA at 88 cm for the 1961-2010 period, and at 89 cm for the period 1951-2000.

    Why LPA is needed?

    • The IMD records rainfall data at more than 2,400 locations and 3,500 rain-gauge stations.
    • Because annual rainfall can vary greatly not just from region to region and from month to month, but also from year to year within a particular region or month.
    • An LPA is needed to smooth out trends so that a reasonably accurate prediction can be made.
    • A 50-year LPA covers for large variations in either direction caused by freak years of unusually high or low rainfall, as well as for the periodic drought years.
    • It also takes into account the increasingly common extreme weather events caused by climate change.

    Range of normal rainfall

    The IMD maintains five rainfall distribution categories on an all-India scale. These are:

    1. Normal or near normal, when the percentage departure of actual rainfall is +/-10% of LPA, that is, between 96-104% of LPA;
    2. Below normal, when departure of actual rainfall is less than 10% of LPA, that is 90-96% of LPA;
    3. Above normal, when actual rainfall is 104-110% of LPA;
    4. Deficient, when departure of actual rainfall is less than 90% of LPA; and
    5. Excess, when the departure of actual rainfall is more than 110% of LPA.

    Also read

    Various terms related to Indian Monsoon

     

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  • Iron in Tamil Nadu 4,200 years ago: A new dating and its significance

    Carbon dating of excavated finds in Tamil Nadu pushes evidence of iron being used in India back to 4,200 years ago, the Tamil Nadu government announced this week on the basis of an archaeological report.

    What is the news?

    • Before this, the earliest evidence of iron use was from 1900-2000 BCE for the country, and from 1500 BCE for Tamil Nadu.
    • The latest evidence dates the findings from Tamil Nadu to 2172 BCE! Much older.
    • The results of dating, used accelerator mass spectroscopy.

    Where were these objects found?

    • The excavations are from Mayiladumparai near Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, about 100 km south of Bengaluru.
    • Mayiladumparai is an important site with cultural material dating back between the Microlithic (30,000 BCE) and Early Historic (600 BCE) ages.
    • The site is situated in the midst of several archaeological sites such as Togarapalli, Gangavaram, Sandur, Vedarthattakkal, Guttur, Gidlur, Sappamutlu and Kappalavadi.

    Outcome: Varying span of Iron Age

    • The dates when humans entered the Iron Age vary from one region of the world to another.
    • In India, too, the date has been revised with successive findings over the decades.

    When the Iron Age is considered in India?

    • In 1979, use of iron was traced to 1300 BCE at Ahar in Rajasthan. This is what we have been reading in NCERTs.
    • Later, samples at Bukkasagara in Karnataka, indicating iron production, were dated back to 1530 BCE.
    • The date was subsequently pushed back to 1700-1800 BCE with excavations finding evidence of iron smelting at Raipura in the Mid-Ganga valley.
    • It was then to 1900-2000 BCE based on investigations in sites at Malhar near Varanasi and Brahmagiri in North Karnataka.
    • A series of dating results on finds from various parts in India have shown evidence of iron-ore technology before 1800 BCE.
    • Before the latest discovery, the earliest evidence of iron use for Tamil Nadu was from Thelunganur and Mangadu near Mettur, dating back to 1500 BCE.

    Historical significance

    • Iron is not known to have been used in the Indus Valley, from where the use of copper in India is said to have originated (1500 BCE).
    • But non-availability of copper for technological and mass exploitation forced other regions to remain in the Stone Age.
    • When iron technology was invented, it led to the production of agricultural tools and weapons, leading to production required for a civilisation ahead of economic and cultural progress.
    • While useful tools were made out of copper, these were brittle and not as strong as iron tools would be.
    • With the latest evidence tracing our Iron Age to 2000 BCE from 1500 BC, we can assume that our cultural seeds were laid in 2000 BCE.
    • And the benefit of socio-economic changes and massive production triggered by the iron technology gave its first fruit around 600 BCE — the Tamil Brahmi scripts.

    Culture and politics

    • The Tamil Brahmi scripts were once believed to have originated around 300 BCE, until a landmark finding in 2019 pushed the date back to 600 BCE.
    • This dating narrowed the gap between the Indus Valley civilisation and Tamilagam/South India’s Sangam Age.
    • This, and the latest findings, are politically significant.
    • The dating of the scripts, based on excavations from sites including Keeladi near Madurai, became controversial when the ASI did not go for advanced carbon dating tests.

     

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  • Citizenship and diversity of India

    Context

    Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.

    Social security

    • An eminent sociologist and former president of the International Sociological Association, T.K. Oommen, has written extensively on the concept of social security.
    • Evolution of nation: He says the principal challenges to the evolution of a nation lie in minimising disparity, eradicating discrimination, and avoiding alienation.
    • Excluded groups in our society: He has listed nine categories of socially and/or politically and/or excluded groups in our society: “Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, cultural minorities — both religious and linguistic, women, refugees-foreigners-outsiders, people [of] Northeast India, the poor and the disabled”.
    • Sources of exclusion in India: He has suggested that “the three sources of exclusion in India — stratification, heterogeneity and hierarchy — create intersectionality.”
    • This insecurity manifests itself in genocide, culturocide and ecocide and in its absence, a society may be conceptualised as secure.
    • The Indian polity, he says, “has the most elaborate set of identities based on class, religion, gender, caste, region, language and their intersectionalities as well as consequent permutations and combinations.
    • Citizenship as a common denominator: Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.
    • This is the point at which fraternity can and should be practiced among equals.
    • Prof. Oommen opines that it is “only through the conflation of state and nation” can our Republic be considered a nation.

    Conclusion

    Cultural monoism and secularism are insufficient, Prof. Oommen says; instead, “the idea of conceptualizing India as a multicultural polity is more amenable than a secular India.” The sheet anchor of this has to be citizenship.

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  • Delhi HC gives split verdict on Marital Rape

    Two judges of the Delhi High Court gave a split verdict on the question of criminalising rape within marriage, leaving the law unchanged.

    Seems like the matter will now be referred to a larger bench.

    What is Marital Rape?

    • Marital rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without her consent.
    • It is no different manifestation of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
    • It is often a chronic form of violence for the victim which takes place within abusive relations.

    What is the news?

    • One of the Judge struck down as unconstitutional the exception to Section 375 of the IPC, which says that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife aged 18 and above is not rape even if it is without her consent.
    • However, another Judge said that issue requires consideration of social, cultural and legal aspects.

    Outcome of the split verdict: Preserving the institution of marriage

    The Centre’s concern that criminalising marital rape may destabilise the institution of marriage is a “legitimate” one, said the HC.

    • Spousal intimacy: In a marriage, conjugal expectation is a two-way street, where “consent is given as a part of spousal intimacy although the will to engage may be absent”.
    • Need for written agreement: If every such case is treated as marital rape, then the only way partners in a marriage may survive would be by drawing up a detailed written agreement.
    • Burden of evidentiary record: This would lead to creating a detailed evidentiary record of every act of intimacy and/or by inviting a third party to act as a witness.
    • Defying marital obligations: The HC said that marriage was accompanied by obligations that the partners had to bear, including conjugal expectations, financial obligations and, finally, duty towards progeny.
    • Sexual liberty of spouses: The bench also underlined the signs of injury on a partner need not necessarily mean there had been non-consensual sex as “in the age of sexual liberation”, injuries could be a sign of “passion”.
    • Cruelty not rape: Forced sexual intercourse between a husband and wife cannot be treated as rape. At worst, it can be treated as sexual abuse found in Section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act.
    • Clash of ego: A wife cannot prescribe a particular punishment that can be imposed on the husband ‘to satisfy her ego’,” the judge said.

    Then what is the remedy for such ‘Marital Rapes’?

    • Section 3 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 provides a definition for domestic violence, which includes physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse.

    General reasons for disapproval of this concept

    • The reluctance to define non-consensual sex between married couples as a crime and to prosecute has been attributed to:
    1. Traditional views of marriage
    2. Interpretations of religious doctrines
    3. Ideas about male and female sexuality
    4. Cultural expectations of subordination of a wife to her husband
    • It is widely held that a husband cannot be guilty of any sexual act committed by himself upon his lawful wife their on account of their mutual matrimonial consent.

    Why it must be a crime?

    • Associated physical violence: Rape by a spouse, partner or ex-partner is more often associated with physical violence.
    • Mental harassment: There is research showing that marital rape can be more emotionally and physically damaging than rape by a stranger.
    • Compulsive relationship: Marital rape may occur as part of an abusive relationship.
    • Revengeful nature: Furthermore, marital rape is rarely a one-time event, but a repeated if not frequent occurrence.
    • Obligation on women: In the case of marital rape the victim often has no choice but to continue living with their spouse.

    Violation of fundamental rights

    • Marital rape is considered as the violation of FR guaranteed under Article 14 of the Indian constitution which guarantees the equal protection of laws to all persons.
    • By depriving married women of an effective penal remedy against forced sexual intercourse, it violates their right to privacy and bodily integrity, aspects of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21.

    Global examples

    • Marital rape immunity is known in several post-colonial common law countries.
    • Australia (1981), Canada (1983), and South Africa (1993) have enacted laws that criminalise marital rape.
    • The UK in 1991 arrived at a consensus that a rapist remains a rapist subject to the criminal law, irrespective of his relationship with his victim.
    • However, in 2003 marital rape was outlawed by legislation in the UK.

    Problems in prosecuting marital rape

    • Lack of awareness: A lack of public awareness, as well as reluctance or outright refusal of authorities to prosecute is common globally.
    • Gender norms: Additionally, gender norms that place wives in subservient positions to their husbands, make it more difficult for women to recognize such rape.
    • Acceptability of the concept: Another problem results from prevailing social norms that exist.

    Present regulations in India

    • Indian Penal Code criminalizes rape in most cases, although marital rape is not illegal when the woman is over the age of 18.
    • However, until 2017, men married to those between 15 and 18 could not be convicted of rape.
    • Marital rape of an adult wife, who is unofficially or officially separated, is a criminal offence punishable by 2 to 7 year in prison; it is not dealt by normal rape laws which stipulate the possibility of a death sentence.
    • According to the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act (2005), other married women subject to such crime by their husband may demand for financial compensation.
    • They also have the right to continue to live in their marital household if they wish, or may approach shelter or aid homes.

    However, marital rape is still not a criminal offence in this case and is only a misdemeanour.

    Arguments against criminalization

    • Subjective: It is very subjective and intricate to determine whether consent was acquired or not.
    • Prone to Misuse: If marital rape is criminalized without adequate safeguards it could be misused like the current dowry law by the dissatisfied wives to harass and torture their Husbands.
    • Burden on Judiciary: It will increase the burden of judiciary which otherwise may serve other more important causes.

    Way forward

    • Sanctioning marital rape is an acknowledgment of the woman’s right to self-determination (i.e., control) of all matters relating to her body.
    • In the absence of any concrete law, the judiciary always finds it difficult to decide the matter of domestic rape in the absence of solid evidence.
    • The main purpose of marriage is procreation, and sometimes divorce is sought on the ground of non-consummation of marriage.
    • Before giving a final interpretation, the judiciary must balance the rights and duties of both partners.

     

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  • Places in news: Martand Sun Temple

    After Prayers held at the ruins of the eighth-century Martand Sun Temple in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag is deemed to be a violation of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) rules.

    About Martand Sun Temple

    • The Martand Sun Temple is a Hindu temple located near the city of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley.
    • It dates back to the eighth century AD and was dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity.
    • The temple was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri in a bid to undertake mass conversion and execution of Hindus in the valley.
    • According to Kalhana, the Temple was commissioned by Lalitaditya Muktapida in the eighth century AD.
    • The temple is built on top of a plateau from where one can view whole of the Kashmir Valley.
    • From the ruins the visible architecture seems to be blended with the Gandharan, Gupta and Chinese forms of architecture.

    Why in news now?

    • According to ASI, prayers are allowed at its protected sites only if they were “functioning places of worship” at the time it took charge of them.
    • No religious rituals can be conducted at non-living monuments where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site.

    What are the living/non-living monument?

    • If some activity, like any kind of worship, has been going on for years in the structure, then it is taken over as a living monument.
    • But where no activity has taken place, say an abandoned building, then it is declared a dead monument.
    • The latter is difficult to restore because it is generally covered by a lot of overgrowths.
    • The best-known example of a living ASI monument is the Taj Mahal in Agra, where namaz is held every Friday.

     

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  • Literacy and delivery of services, not religion, influences fertility

    Context

    The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 report that was awaited for nearly six months is finally out. And it provides a heartening outlook.

    About NHFS

    • Started in 1992-93, it has culminated in the fifth round 2019-21.
    • The NFHS is a large, multi-round survey that, inter alia, provides information on fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, quality and utilisation of health and family planning services.
    • The surveys provide essential data needed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other agencies for policy and programme purposes.
    • The Ministry assigned the nodal responsibility for the task to the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS), Mumbai.
    • Several international agencies are involved in providing technical and financial assistance, mainly USAID, DFID, UNICEF, and UNFPA.

    Replacement rate achieved

    • Replacement rate achieved: The report shows that India has finally achieved the replacement rate of 2.1TFR (Total Fertility Rate is the total number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime).
    • In fact, it has gone below the mark to 2.0.
    • There are, of course, large interstate variations.
    • The lagging states are UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Meghalaya.
    • Significantly, there were four states which were keeping the figures poor, namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
    • Two states, Rajasthan and MP, have struggled to get out of this group, while Jharkhand and the two northeastern states have replaced them.
    • UP and Bihar because of their sheer size are pulling down the national average.
    • Rajasthan and MP have reached the TFR of 2, which shows the success of their efforts.

    Influencing factors

    • It is not religion as commonly propounded but literacy, especially of girls, income and delivery of family planning, and health services.
    • 1] Delivery of services: The figures would have been even better if all those who have been made aware of the benefits of family planning had received the services they desire.
    • Making people informed of the need and methods of family planning and motivating them to adopt family planning is difficult enough.
    •  Having achieved the difficult task, we are not able to provide the services communities need — the “unmet need” — which is still very high at 9.4 per cent.
    • If we focus on this issue in a mission mode, the family planning performance will dramatically improve.
    • 2] Male attitude towards family planning: They tend to put the onus for birth control on women.
    • As many as 35 per cent men believe that using contraceptives is a woman’s responsibility. They ignore the fact that male vasectomy is a much simpler procedure than female tubectomy.
    • 3] Acceptance of family planning:  Muslim acceptance of family planning has continued through the five surveys spread over three decades at a rate faster than all other communities.
    • Though birth control practice among Muslims is still the least – 47.4 per cent (up from 45 per cent in NFHS-4).
    • Other communities — for example, Hindus — are not far behind with 58 per cent (up from 56 per cent).
    • This means that 42 per cent of the 80 per cent of the population are not practising family planning.
    • Education:  Women who have not attended school have 2.8 TFR as against 1.8 for those who have completed class XII.
    • Poverty: Similar gap of figure one is visible in the context of poverty with the poorest segment having higher TFR than the richest.

    Conclusion

    The time has come to leave politics behind and work together for achieving the goals set by National Population Policy 2000. Instead of misleading narratives, we need to address the real determinants of fertility behaviour – literacy, income generation and improvement of health and family planning services.

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  • In news: Tropical Cyclone Asani

    Severe cyclonic storm ‘Asani’, packing winds above 105 kmph and setting off heavy rain, is likely to make landfall on the eastern coast of India.

    What are tropical Cyclones?

    • A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
    • Cyclones are formed over slightly warm ocean waters. The temperature of the top layer of the sea, up to a depth of about 60 meters, need to be at least 28°C to support the formation of a cyclone.
    • This explains why the April-May and October-December periods are conducive for cyclones.
    • Then, the low level of air above the waters needs to have an ‘anticlockwise’ rotation (in the northern hemisphere; clockwise in the southern hemisphere).
    • During these periods, there is an ITCZ in the Bay of Bengal whose southern boundary experiences winds from west to east, while the northern boundary has winds flowing east to west.
    • Once formed, cyclones in this area usually move northwest. As it travels over the sea, the cyclone gathers more moist air from the warm sea which adds to its heft.

    Requirements for a Cyclone to form

    There are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis:

    • Sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures
    • Atmospheric instability
    • High humidity in the lower to middle levels of the troposphere
    • Enough Coriolis force to develop a low-pressure centre
    • A pre-existing low-level focus or disturbance
    • Low vertical wind shear

    How are the cyclones named?

    • In 2000, a group of nations called WMO/ESCAP (World Meteorological Organisation/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) decided to name cyclones.
    • It comprised Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, decided to start naming cyclones in the region.
    • After each country sent in suggestions, the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) finalised the list.
    • The WMO/ESCAP expanded to include five more countries in 2018 — Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

    Why is it important to name cyclones?

    • Adopting names for cyclones makes it easier for people to remember, as opposed to numbers and technical terms.
    • It’s easier and less confusing to say “Cyclone Titli” than remember the storm’s number or its longitude and latitude.
    • Apart from the general public, it also helps the scientific community, the media, disaster managers etc.
    • With a name, it is also easy to identify individual cyclones, create awareness of its development, rapidly disseminate warnings to increase community preparedness etc.

     

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  • Is La Nina a fair weather friend of our country?

    This year the La Nina is being blamed for worsening the longest spell of heatwaves from March to April in north, west and Central India.

    In most years, meteorologists considered the La Nina to be a friend of India.

    What is El Nino and La Nina?

    • While El Niño (Spanish for ‘little boy’), the more common expression, is the abnormal surface warming observed along the eastern and central regions of the Pacific Ocean (the region between Peru and Papua New Guinea).
    • The La Niña (Spanish for ‘little girl’) is an abnormal cooling of these surface waters.
    • Together, the El Niño (Warm Phase) and La Niña (Cool Phase) phenomena are termed as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
    • These are large-scale ocean phenomena which influence the global weather — winds, temperature and rainfall. They have the ability to trigger extreme weather events like droughts, floods, hot and cold conditions, globally.
    • Each cycle can last anywhere between 9 to 12 months, at times extendable to 18 months — and re-occur after every three to five years.
    • Meteorologists record the sea surface temperatures for four different regions, known as Niño regions, along this equatorial belt.
    • Depending on the temperatures, they forecast either as an El Niño, an ENSO neutral phase, or a La Niña.

    Impact on India

    • El Nino during winter causes warm conditions over the Indian subcontinent and during summer, it leads to dry conditions and deficient monsoon.
    • Whereas La Nina results in better than normal monsoon in India.
    • It has been established that Indian summer monsoon is a fully coupled land-atmosphere-ocean system and that it is linked to ocean temperature variability.
    • In an agricultural country like India, the extreme departure from normal seasonal rainfall seriously affects the agricultural output and thus the economy of the country.

    Try this PYQ:

    La Nina is suspected to have caused recent floods in Australia. How is La Nina different from El Nino?

    1. La Nina is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in equatorial Indian Ocean whereas El Nino is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
    2. El Nino has an adverse effect on south-west monsoon of India, but La Nina has no effect on monsoon climate.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) Only 1

    (b) Only 2

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”54futt6vd2″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

     

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  • Rakhigarhi skeletons’ DNA samples sent for analysis

    DNA samples collected from two human skeletons unearthed at a necropolis of a Harappan-era city site in Rakhigarhi, Haryana have been sent for scientific examination.

    Why in news?

    • DNA analysis might tell about the ancestry and food habits of people who lived in the Rakhigarhi region thousands of years ago.

    About Rakhi Garhi

    • The ancient site of Rakhi-Khas and Rakhi-Shahpur are collectively known as Rakhigarhi, located on the right bank of the now dried up Palaeo-channel of Drishadvati.
    • It is located in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain in the Hissar district of Haryana.
    • Seven mounds are located here.
    • The site has yielded various stages of Harappan culture and is by far one of the largest Harappan sites in India.
    • The site shows the sequential development of the Indus culture in the now dried up Saraswati basin.

    Major findings at Rakhi Garhi

    • Findings confirm both early and mature Harappan phases and include 4,600-year-old human skeletons, fortification and bricks.
    • Digging so far reveals a well-planned city with 1.92 m wide roads, a bit wider than in Kalibangan.
    • The pottery is similar to Kalibangan and Banawali.
    • Pits surrounded by walls have been found, which are thought to be for sacrificial or some religious ceremonies.
    • There are brick-lined drains to handle sewage from the houses.
    • Terracotta statues, weights, bronze artefacts, comb, copper fish hooks, needles and terracotta seals have also been found.
    • A bronze vessel has been found which is decorated with gold and silver.
    • A granary belonging to the mature Harappan phase has been found here.
    • Fire altars structures were revealed in Rakhigarhi.

     

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