The new political map of Nepali comprising of the disputed lands of Kalapani, Limpuyadhura, Lipulekh, published on May 20, 2020. Photo: Nepal government The dispute over Kalapani, between India and Nepal, was revived in November 2019 when India published a political map showing the newly created Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Both India and Nepal claim to Kalapani. On May 8, India inaugurated 80 km Darchula-Lipulekh pass link, cutting across the disputed Kalapani area, which is used by Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. On May 22, Nepal has released a new political map that claimed Kalapani, Limpiyadhura, and Lipulekh of Uttarakhand as part of Nepal's territory. The area of Susta (West Champaran district, Bihar) can also be noted on the map. Kalapani territory is an area under Indian administration as part of the Pithoragarh district in Uttarkhand state but is also claimed by Nepal. It also shares a border on the north with Tibet Autonomous Region ...

The twin relationship between population and economic growth has always been a subject of great interest to economists, as population is a resource that supplies the labour force needed for industrialization that symbolises economic growth. However, it is an established principle that labour alone cannot produce anything without the help of other resources. If other resources needed for production are available in sufficient quantity, then a larger lobour force could become a productive asset of a country. Growth Rate of Population At any point of time, all countries have some people living there, the number of these people constitutes the size of population of that country at that time. This number, however, keeps on changing continuously through birth, deaths and immigration. Therefore, increase in the number of people during a fixed period of time, in a country, is called the growth rate of population. The rate of growth of population during a period is estimated as the rati...

Basics of Chinese Currency RMB is an abbreviation for 'Ren Min Bi', which means 'People's money' . Yuan is the base unit of RMB just as Dollar in USD. (1 RMB = 10 jioa = 100 fen) Chinese money comes by two names: Renminbi is the name of the currency and yuan refers to its primary unit. Renminbi is the official currency of China and act as a medium of exchange, but the yuan is the unit of account of the country's economic and financial system. Reasons behind launching e-RMB Replacing the dollar - A soverign digital currency provides a functional alternative to the dollar settlement system and blunts the impact of any sanctions or threats of exclusion both at a country and company level. China has successfully achieved Trade Globalisation, Economic Globalisation, and Military and Geo-strategic Globalisation, but it has failed to achieve Financial Globalisation. Without Financial Globalisation it is not possible to replace the Dollar as the World...

21 st century is marred by the outbreak of various zoonotic diseases. Be it the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola haemorrhagic fever, Nipah virus encephalitis, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Swine Flu (H1N1) or Bird Flu (H5N1). They have resulted in millions of fatalities around the globe. The new addition in this line is the new strain of coronavirus i.e. SARS-CoV2 which has resulted into COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic is notified as 'biological' disaster by the government of India. Hence it is important to understand the meaning of “biological disaster” and assess India’s preparedness with respect to handling of a “biological disaster”. Means to Counter Biological disaster As per the constitutional norm, health is a state subject. The primary responsibility of dealing with the state government. There are a number of legislations that control and govern the nation's health. Government can enforce these legislations to contain the sp...

The truth about inequality The great promise of communism in the 20 th century was the removal of inequalities. However if failed comprehensively by 1991. The worldwide spread of capitalism and LPG wad the next big promise. But sadly data show that the world income inequality has grown and diminished. The seven key truths about income inequalities are: Income inequalities is lowest in Europe and highest in Middle East. The top 10% income share is 37% in Europe, 41% in China and 56% in India. In the Middle East top 10% cornered 61% of National Income. Since 1980s inequality has sharply risen in India, China, Russia, and North America. Regions like Brazil, Middle East and Sub-Sharan Africa are the inequality frontiers, as they never experienced post World War-II egalitarian. In 1980 the top 1% income share was roughly 10% in US and Western Europe, but today it is roughly 20% in US and 16% in Western Europe. The bottom 50% of share in America steeply dropped from 20% in ...

Who came first - Viruses or Humans? Do humans really mark the pinnacle of evolution of viruses? While we’ve evolved along a pathway of ever-increasing complexity, viruses have streamlined, successfully jettisoning all but a handful of essential genes. Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth. They are present everywhere, in our surrounding, the oceans, the soil and in every living being. Retroviruses contributed to about half of our genomic sequences and to the evolution of the mammalian placenta. Contemporary viruses reflect evolution ranging from the RNA world to the DNA-protein world. Viruses and Bacteria both descended from an ancient cellular life form. But while - like humans - bacteria evolved to become more complex, viruses became simpler. Today, viruses are so small and simple, thet can't even replicate on their own. Viruses carry only the essential genetic information they need to be able to slip inside a host cell and coax it into making new ...

Well, the lockdown/ curfew has barely begun, and people are already bored. As restaurants, bars, beaches, parks, and pretty much everything else has been closed, all you can do it get out and got to a general store to buy necessary items. As the total number of cases around the globe are increasing day-by-day, I think it was a necessary step that was required to contain the spread of the pandemic Coronavirus. However, thinking out of the box, the 21 day isolation may very well present us with the opportunities to try out our hands at something new or even get things done around the house which we have been putting off. without further ado, let us now take a look at the top 8 things we can do during a lockdown: 1. EXERCISE A complete lockdown behind the doors can take a took on the mental health as well as the physical health, and lockdown can easily translate to a week of slouching on the couch. At a time like this, it becomes to get the blood circulation and retain health...

All the 4 convicts of Nirbhaya Rape Case were hanged on the 20 th March at 05:30 AM (IST). It seemed like Justice has been served to the Nirbhaya, but is it really the true justice? True justice is something which is meant to be handled at the present moment, but in this case the Justice has been served 7 years 3 months and 4 days or, 2651 days later. Nobody could understand the frustration which was dealt by the family members during the trial period, waiting, waiting and just waiting for the justice to be served. Why the judiciary took so much time for the justice to be served? There are many possible reasons for this delay, as indicated by the experts. These reasons will be discussed later in the article. But first of all, Justice is one of civilisation’s foundational Right . Securing justice – social, economic and political – to all citizens is one of the key mandates of the Indian Constitution . This has been explicitly made so in the Article 39-A of the Constitution ...

Nirbhaya Case History: 16 th December of 2012 was the day when India witnessed a horrific incident. Because of the heinous incident, India lost a daughter once again, but the daughter had to go through more than what is called heart-wrenching. It was the night when Jyoti Singh was gang raped and her friend Awindra Pratap Pandey was almost beaten to death. Though, he somehow escaped the fury of death. Jyoti, was fighting for her life after she had been brutally assaulted by six men. The six men (Ram Singh, the bus driver, Mukesh Singh, his brother, Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor, Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller, Akshay Thakur and a Juvenile) were already present in a bus that Jyoti along with her male friend boarded. It is believed that the men on the bus passed some comment to which Jyoti and her friend reacted. After this, the men couldn’t stand that a woman raised her voice. In order to satisfy their ego, they raped Jyoti. One of them was a juvenile too and is said t...

What is Article 370? Article 370 of the Indian Constitution used to give special status to the region of Jammu and Kashmir. The article was drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution: Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions. Under this article all the provisions of the constitution which are applicable to other states are not applicable to J&K. For example, till 1965, J&K had a Sadr-e-Riyasat for governor and prime minister in place of chief minister. This article along with Article 35A defined that the J&K state's resident live under separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to resident of other Indian states. As a result of this provision, Indian citizens from other states cannot purchase land or property in Jammu and Kashmir. History of Article 370 In October, 1947, after signing on the Instrument of Accession by the then Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, three subjects on...

What is Unemployment? Unemployment refers to a situation in which the workers who are capable of working and willing to work do not get employed or fail to secure work or any other activity which gives them income or means of livelihood. People who are unfit for work due to physical reason or do not want to work are excluded from the category of unemployment. Basic Definitions 1. Workforce: A worker is one who participate in any economic activity. 2. Labour Force: It refers to the segment of population which supplies or offers to supply labour for production and therefore includes both employed and unemployed persons. 3. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): It is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population. 4. Work Participation Rate: It is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population. 5. Unemployment Rate: Is is defined as a number of unemployed people divided by th...

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2019-20 on 05.07.2019 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman became second women in the history of Independence India to present the Union Budget . She presented the maiden budget of Narendra Modi 2.0 government in the Lok Sabha. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE BUDGET 10-POINT VISION FOR THE DECADE Building Team India with Jan Bhagidari : Minimum Government Maximum Governance Achieving green Mother Earth and Blue skies through a pollution-free India Making Digital India reach every sector of the economy Launching Gaganyan, Chandrayan, other Space and Satellite programmes Building physical and social infrastructure Water, water management, clean rivers Blue Economy Self-sufficiency and export of food-grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables Achieving a healthy society via Ayushman Bharat , well-nourished women & children, safety of citizens Emphasis on MSMEs, Start-ups, defence manufacturing, automobiles, el...