Alan Watts once said ‘life’s a dance of energy’. In the same way dance is also a way to express the energy of emotions and feelings. So here are my favourite dance forms.

Bihu Dance


By Rohan Gautam 002 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86530098

Bihu is a popular folk dance associated with the state of Assam in India and it is performed generally during the Bihu festival. It is generally performed during the springtime. The energetic dance steps and quick hand movements define the Bihu dance of Assam. A lot of vibrancy can be seen in the dance outfit of Bihu, the male performers of Bihu are dressed in dhotis and gamocha. The women who perform Bihu usually wear traditional Assamese attire for the performance. Women team up their outfits with gaudy and heavy jewelry and they also decorate their braids with pretty flowers that perfectly match the color of the dress worn by them.There are many instruments that are utilized during a Bihu performance namely a Dhol, Pepa, Taal, Toka, Xutuli, Gogona and Baanhi. Watching the Bihu dance is mesmerising, the music enchants the atmosphere while the women and men of Assam joyfully dance.

Samai Dance


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The word samayi means brass. It is called Samai dance because men and women dance with brass lamps or deepak put on their heads. Samai dance is performed by people of Goa during Holi and Shigmo festival. During the Samai dance, the women wear bright and colourful sarees and men wear kurta with pajamas. The men have a head ribbon tied to their heads while taking part in the lamp dance. Women wear gajra in their hair along with other traditional jewelry such as bangles, bindi, earrings, nose pins, and necklaces.The brass lamp used in the Samayi dance is one foot long with burning wicks which dancers need to balance while dancing. Samayi dance consists of very slow dance movements as dancers need to balance lamps on their heads. Dancers dance to traditional folk songs while making exquisite movements.The main instruments used in samai dance are Harmonium, Shehnai, Ghumat, Samel, Surt, and Zanj.

Chhau Dance

The Chhau Dance is a popular form of tribal dance in India that also integrates elements of martial arts into its movements. It is generally performed in in the states of Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand.The dance form has three subtypes; namely Purulia Chhau, Mayurbanj Chhau and Seraikella Chhau, named differently because of the place of their origin.The dance developed a means to portray stories to the audience. The fables revolve around Ramayana and Mahabharata, Puranas and other India Literature with religious themes. Indian instruments – Dhol, Shehnai and Dhamsa make the recital come to life. The male dancers wear brightly colored dhotis with a matching kurta on top. A vast amount of costume jewelry is worn in the form of necklaces. Female dancers, or male dancers depicting female characters, are known to wear colorful sarees.The style and variety of the costume of the dancers largely depends on the characters being portrayed by them. The dancers also use different objects to display weapons.

A virtual currency is a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded and functions as (a) a medium of exchange, and/ or (b) a unit of account, and/or (c) a store of value, but, unlike fiat currency like the rupee, it is not legal tender and does not have the backing of a government. A cryptocurrency is a subset of virtual currencies, and is decentralized, and protected by cryptography.

What are blockchain ?

Imagine a small group of school friends maintaining a list of transactions among themselves, but with a twist: Instead of holding this list in one single computer or in the notebook of one of the group members or authorising some outside authority (say, their class teacher) to maintain (and update) the list, all of them decide to maintain a separate copy of the list in their personal computers. Every time they transact, the rest of the members verify the transaction and once it is verified by all, they update their list. Further, to make sure that none of them changes records of the past transactions in their personal list, they decide to place each transaction as a block, and to stack it one after the other in a sequence. This way, no one can tweak the details of any past transactions because the overall sequence will not match with sequences held by others. Lastly, to make sure that no other child from the school gets to know the details, they devise a code (a cipher) for all their communications related to the list. These blocks are known as Digital ledger technologies (DLT) and bitcoin is special type of DLT.

What is the IMC’s (Inter ministirial commsion) view on DLT and cryptocurrencies?

The first thing to understand is that the IMC recognises the potential of DLT and Blockchain. The IMC accepts that internationally, the application of DLT is being explored in the areas of trade finance, mortgage loan applications, digital identity management or KYC requirements, cross-border fund transfers and clearing and settlement systems. To that extent, it recommends the Department of Economic Affairs (within the Finance Ministry) to take necessary measures to facilitate the use of DLT in the entire financial field after identifying its uses. The IMC also recommends that regulators — RBI, SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA, and IBBI — explore evolving appropriate regulations for development of DLT in their respective areas.

However, the IMC has recommended a ban on “private” cryptocurrencies. In other words, it is open to a cryptocurrency that the RBI may unveil. The IMC’s view is that it “would be advisable to have an open mind regarding the introduction of an official digital currency in India”. It noted that the RBI Act has the enabling provisions to permit the central government to approve a “Central Bank Digital Currency” (CBDC) as legal tender in India.

It recommended ban on private use of cryptocurrency.

Why have private cryptocurrencies attracted a ban?

While it is true that the technology used in virtual currencies has immense potential, without a central regulating authority, they can have numerous downsides.

The IMC’s first concern is that non-official virtual currencies can be used to defraud consumers, particularly less informed consumers or investors. The IMC gives the example of the Rs 2,000 crore scam involving GainBitcoin in India where investors were duped by a Ponzi scheme.

Second, the IMC is worried that if private cryptocurrencies are allowed to function as legal tender, the RBI would lose control over the monetary policy and financial stability, as it would not be able to keep a tab on the money supply in the economy.

Third, the anonymity of private digital currencies make them vulnerable to money laundering and use in terrorist financing activities while making law enforcement difficult.

Fourth

there is no grievance redressal mechanism in such a system, as all transactions are irreversible.

It is for these broad reasons that the IMC singled out private cryptocurrencies for a ban.

NASA decided to share some interstellar fireworks to end an unforgettable year.

The agency posts an “image of the day,” every day, and the final image of 2020 did not disappoint.

A canvas of color, NASA’s December 31 image of the day depicts a composite image of the Orion Nebula, captured by the Hubble Space and Spitzer Space Telescopes.

It’s located more than 1,500 light-years away from Earth.

Nebulae like this one are interstellar nurseries – giant clouds of gas and dust in space that cradle infant stars as they’re born. Some nebulae form as stars die: As a star’s core cools, it starts to shed its outer layers, which disperse to form gaseous clouds

A rainbow canvas

When space telescopes like the Hubble image the hydrogen, sulfur, and carbon molecules that make up nebulae like Orion they don’t capture color. Rather, Hubble records particles of light, which NASA can then view through different filters that only let in certain wavelengths of color. Then they assign color to the particles that come through those filters (light than came through the red filter is assigned a red color, for example.)

By combining images of the same nebula viewed with different filters, the agency can create a composite, color image like the ones shown above

“We often use color as a tool, whether it is to enhance an object’s detail or to visualize what ordinarily could never be seen by the human eye,” NASA said.

There are roughly 3000 nebulea in our galaxy.

The closest known nebula to our planet is the Helix Nebula, the cosmic remnant of a dying star. It’s about half the distance from Earth as the Orion Nebula is – 700 light-years (so if you traveled at the speed of light, it’d take you 700 years to get there).

The Hubble Space Telescope has been imaging nebulae for 30 years, and these images help scientists learn more about how these cosmic clouds evolve, or even dim and shrink, over time.

The international study, led by Professor John Paterson from the University of New England Research Centre, in collaboration with the University of Adelaide, the South Australian Museum and The Natural History Museum (UK), found that radiodonts developed sophisticated eyes over 500 million years ago, with some adapted to the dim light of deep water.

“our study provides critical new information about the evolution of the earliest marine animal ecosystems,” Professor Paterson said. “In particular, it supports the idea that vision played a crucial role during the Cambrian Explosion, a pivotal phase in history when most major animal groups first appeared during a rapid burst of evolution over half a billion years ago.”

Radiodonts, meaning “radiating teeth,” are a group of arthropods that dominated the oceans around 500 million years ago. The many species share a similar body layout comprising of a head with a pair of large, segmented appendages for capturing prey, a circular mouth with serrated teeth, and a squid-like body. It now seems likely that some lived at depths down to 1000 meters and had developed large, complex eyes to compensate for the lack of light in this extreme environment.

“When complex visual systems arose, animals could better sense their surroundings,” Professor Paterson explained. “That may have fuelled an evolutionary arms race between predators and prey. Once established, vision became a driving force in evolution and helped shape the biodiversity and ecological interactions we see today.”

Some of the first radiodont fossils discovered over a century ago were isolated body parts, and initial attempts at reconstructions resulted in “Frankenstein’s monsters.”

But over the past few decades many new discoveries — including whole radiodont bodies — have given a clearer picture of their anatomy, diversity and possible lifestyles.

Co-author, Associate Professor Diego García-Bellido from the University of Adelaide and South Australian Museum, said the rich treasure trove of fossils at Emu Bay Shale on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island in particular has helped to build a clearer picture of Earth’s earliest animals.

“The Emu Bay Shale is the only place in the world that preserves eyes with lenses of Cambrian radiodonts. The more than thirty specimens of eyes we now have, has shed new light on the ecology, behavior, and evolution of these, the largest animals alive half-a-billion years ago,” A/Prof. García-Bellido said.

This new research published on December 2, 2020.

In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol building, which houses both the US Senate as well as the House of Representatives, there are calls by many to either impeach President Trump or invoke the 25th Amendment.

What is the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution?

This amendment lays out how a US president and vice president may be succeeded or replaced.

According to Cornell Law School, “The Twenty-fifth Amendment was an effort to resolve some of the continuing issues revolving about the office of the President; that is, what happens upon the death, removal, or resignation of the President and what is the course to follow if for some reason the President becomes disabled to such a degree that he cannot fulfill his responsibilities.”

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, while the first section codified the traditionally observed process of succession in the event of the death of the president—that the vice president would succeed to the office—it also introduced a change regarding the ascent of the vice president to president should the latter resign from office.

“In the event of resignation, the vice president would assume the title and position of president—not acting president—effectively prohibiting the departing president from returning to office,” states Britannica.

The second section of the amendment addresses vacancies in the office of the vice president.

The third section of the amendment set forth the formal process for determining the capacity of the president to discharge the powers and duties of office.

If the president is able to declare his/her inability, then the vice president takes over as the acting president.

In case the president is unable to declare his/her incompetence, the fourth section of the amendment requires the vice president and the cabinet to jointly ascertain this and if they do so, then the vice president immediately assumes the position of acting president.

It is this fourth section of the 25th Amendment that many are asking Vice President Pence to invoke against President Trump.

When was it introduced and has it been used in the past?

In the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 25th Amendment was proposed by Congress on July 6, 1965, and ratified by the states on February 10, 1967.

According to Cornell Law School, “The Watergate scandal of the 1970s saw the application of these procedures, first when Gerald Ford replaced Spiro Agnew as Vice President, then when he replaced Richard Nixon as President, and then when Nelson Rockefeller filled the resulting vacancy to become the Vice President.”

However, the fourth section of the 25th Amendment has never been invoked.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, lifestyle of people have changed completely. It has placed the whole world at a standstill where nations are going into lockdowns and facing the crisis. Still there is no specific time and information that when will the situations stabilize and everything will become normal. However, people are learning valuable lessons through this global crisis and life after COVID is sure to change for the better.

People have learned to live with the bare essentials during the lockdown. Healthy home-cooked meals have replaced junk food. Closed shopping malls highlighted the futility of mindless consumerism. As pollution levels went down and nature flourished, people realized the necessity of a sustainable lifestyle for the health of the planet. In the future, more environment-friendly ways to operate will undoubtedly emerge, like remote working to save fuel and online paperless transactions. The people are more likely to get simple yet rewarding lifestyle, reducing consumption, increasing saving as precautions against future income uncertainties. The protection of the earth and the next generation is going to drive a majority of life-choices.

During these difficult times, families are working together to protect all its members from harm. Every member is assisting in household chores, along with caring for the children and the elders and developing stronger bonds. Post-lockdown as well, the virus will take time to be completely eradicated, making social distancing and other measures a part of the long-term future. Rather than going outdoors, people will choose to relax and unwind with their family members. Thus, the lockdown brought the importance of family into focus.

Even after the curve of coronavirus spread flattens, the virus will probably continue to exist. Wearing masks, using hand-sanitizers, and maintaining physical distances will be the new normal. In this situation, to reduce the chances of contamination, educational institutes will need to modernize their teaching techniques with smart technologies. During the lockdown, parents are homeschooling their children efficiently, and schools are taking online classes. As parents will prefer to shield small children from exposures until the coronavirus threat passes, virtual classrooms might take over conventional teaching methods.

As people work together in breaking the chain of coronavirus infection, a better world is emerging. The tough times are sure to pass, leaving behind the wisdom of practicing compassion and caring for what genuinely matters in life, like the welfare of the family members. People have realized the need for precautions and are taking steps against future contingencies to keep the future generations safe.

If you’re feeling lonely, take solace in remembering that there are countless tiny living things floating tens of thousands of feet above your head.

And as scientists have come to learn more and more about this high-flying life and how it interacts with Earth’s surface, they are beginning to question just how implausible it is to wonder whether similar life could theoretically hide out in the clouds of Venus or still more exotic worlds.

“We humans really are bottom-dwellers underneath an ocean of atmosphere above our head, and we really don’t know where Earth’s biosphere boundary stops at extreme altitudes,” David Smith, who studies life in the atmosphere at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, said at a roundtable event held on Dec. 14 at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held virtually this month. “It seems just about anywhere we sample with NASA aircraft and balloons, we find signatures of microbial life.”

So far, life in Earth’s atmosphere seems to be strictly microbial and a temporary affair, intimately connected to life on Earth’s surface rather than an independent ecosystem. Tiny, hardy organisms are swept up from the thin transition where Earth’s atmosphere meets the planet and carried into the lower layers of the atmosphere on an epic detour.

“Based on what we know, the things are just moving through the atmosphere,” Kevin Dillon, a Ph.D. candidate in microbiology at Rutgers University, said during the panel. “Microbes travel and use the atmosphere almost like a highway, and specifically can hitch a ride in clouds.”

Microbes end up in two layers of the atmosphere. In the lower troposphere, microbes mostly have to contend with the risk of drying out, Diana Gentry, a research scientist at Ames, said during the panel. Hence the appeal of clouds.

“If you are picked up and suspended in the atmosphere, you’re in danger of losing all of your water pretty quickly,” Gentry said. “So clouds in the lower level are great — they’re like these mobile water hotspots that can help keep you wet as you’re picked up and transported around.” In the troposphere, some microbes may survive pretty normally, even.

Life in solar system

Of course, for as many uncertainties as there are when it comes to life in Earth’s atmosphere, they only multiply in atmospheres beyond Earth’s.

One key constraint is that while we know full well Earth’s surface is a paradise from which microbes can take their grand adventure, other planetary surfaces in the solar system are either certainly or likely more hostile to life as we know it, although they may well have been plenty habitable in the distant past. The appeal of someplace like Venus, for example, as a destination in the search for life is in its atmosphere, where some scientists have argued that liquid droplets about 30 to 37 miles (48 to 60 kilometers) up could act as a haven in the acidic, hot environment for which Venus is famous.

And beyond

Just as Earth serves as a template for considering other solar system worlds, our neighborhood offers archetypes to consider for worlds beyond our star — with another step down in how much we know about them, of course. Where Earth is our daily backdrop and the planets are destinations for sophisticated spacecraft, exoplanets are mostly blemishes silhouetted against their stars in astronomical observations.

And it turns out, spotting atmospheric life is tricky, even here on Earth. “Every time we fly through clouds and make cloud water collections, we have this really strong signal of Earth life. And yet, we can’t measure it remotely,” Smith said. “We know life is in those clouds, but we don’t have any instruments that are sensitive enough to detect that without actually collecting the cloud water.”

These things that we talk about can be anything, it can be that argument or a fight or that regretful memory that you just can’t seem to let go of. Too often we keep holding on to these things that subconsciously keep hurting us like a pebble stuck in your shoe. It’s not causing too much pain, but we know it’s there and someway or another our minds keep drifting on to that pebble and as we keep walking we come to realize that this little tinny piece of rock is making it hard to think about anything else. Why do we do that? Like the pebble why do we have these lingering emotions that are’t causing us any harm or good but they keep lingering behind us like shadows.

1.THEY HINDER US– Hinder us from thinking about positive things. Have you ever had a fight with someone and that fight is all you could think about throughout the day or a week and every time your mind drifts in that direction you see yourself getting more and more annoyed or angry. We hate to be hurt we hate to be made fun of, we hate to be unimportant for someone who was very important for us, we hate that our lives aren’t as picture perfect like that of our best friend from childhood. We keep these emotions in, let them broil, let them sit and infest and now we have gotten ourselves infested by a perfect parasite.

2.YOU WILL FEEL HOPELESS AND LOST– Now that those emotions have taken their stand in your mind you will begin feeling drained . You got hurt and now you’re scared that you’re going to get hurt once again. You have lost your trust and you call it commitment issues. Now, every time you see a story of a couple deep in love, the first thought that pops into your parasite infested head is ,” that shit will never happen with me”. It takes away your hopes, it takes away your dreams. It will make you feel inferior with your own goddamn consent. Why would you want that? Why would you want to live your life with such mediocre & substandard dreams? Where once your soul had dreams as high and mighty as sky scrapers is now filled with a village made up of huts. Why?

3.YOU WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT IT– Ever meet those people who keep on repeating that same horrific story over and over again. They keep on running you through the details on how they got into that horrific accident and now that story has completely brought down your mood and now you’re scared of ever sitting in a car. Yes, that’s the kind of person you will become. You’ll not only ruin your mood you will be ruining everyone else’s mood as well.

4. LONELY MUCH? You’ve been sitting on those emotions for far too long. You’ve told everyone you know about that horrific incident and now there’s no one left. More like no one cares.You feel like talking about them but no one really wants to anymore. Everyone for you will seem bunch of people with lovely smiles on their faces while you’re sitting alone in your room dwelling and stinking of rotten feelings that haven’t been disposed of yet. Misery loves company and too many miserable people together might solve the overpopulation crisis.

5.SUCCESS?HAPPINESS? WHAT’S THAT? – This is obvious but can you really give everything to something when you have a goddamn pebble in your brain which you keep pondering about every time your mind is free? NO! Giving 100% is giving 100%, mind, body and soul included. Keep wondering about your ex’s new girlfriend and find yourself missing a promotion or flunking that test. Some guy pushed you in the train this morning and now you’ve mentally devised a 100 line speech which you’re going to recite the next time you meet him. If only those thoughts went to somewhere productive. Tell me, how can you be happy failing at something?

6. LESS ATTRACTIVE – Only fools rush in to love by looking at someone’s looks. Attractiveness has nothing to do with your looks and everything to do with how you carry yourself. Ever find yourself attracted to that guy with a ponytail playing the guitar and being applauded by 500 people? YEAH! that’s called personality. It’s how you interact with people, by your skills or persona or by your fascinating stories. It’s how you open your heart for others to see, when someone is talking to you it’s up to you to be insecure about your looks or be the most confident asshole telling the most ridiculous stories and somehow still having a grip over them. Now, you have decided to not go out, to not interact with people to completely shut yourself out because you think no one gets you because you can’t get over those emotions and you feel like not being happy and that has made your personality equivalent to a sloppy warm ice cream that no one wants. Get a grip over yourself.

NASA has warned that a monstrous 220-meter asteroid is headed Earth’s way early in the new year.

Year 2020’s final asteroid, 2020 YB4, measuring just 36 metres in diameter or roughly half the wingspan of a 747,

passed by the Earth shortly after 6 am UTC at a distance of 6.1 million kilometres.

Keeping up with the trend, in the first days of January, three additional, small Near Earth Objects (NEOs) will grace

the Earth with their presence. 

The 15-metre asteroid 2019 YB4 will fly by at a safe distance of 6.4 million kilometres. It will be followed up by two

more chunks of cosmic debris in the form of the 15-meter 2020 YA1 and the 21-meter 2020 YP4, which will pass by at

1.5 and 2.1 million kilometers respectively, the next day.

A bigger asteroid will shoot past Earth on January 3, as the relatively mountainous 2003 AF23, measuring an

impressive 220m in diameter or about as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge is tall, at 6.9 million kilometers.  

Stress is the feeling of intense mental pressure that renders us unable to comprehend what the hell is going on. We all face stress, we all know how it feels when the deadlines are near or to prepare for that test overnight and so on. Often times you might have wondered why am I under such intense pressure? How did it get like this? Why didn’t I begin sooner or why the hell did I wait. Exactly! Why did you wait? What’s causing you to get under stress repeatedly , where you find yourself in the same exact situation over and over again.When you try to change but the situation is still remains the same.

The cause of our stress can be anything or anyone or any situation that is disturbing our mental peace. It can be that pile of work lying on your desk or it can be an ill loved one you’re worried about. In our lives we often encounter problems that take away our control from our own lives. They take away the power from our minds to think rationally and make sound decisions and these are the times when our patience and mental strength is truly tested.

1. Know the cause of your stress and do something about it
2. If it is something that you have no control over then move on and focus on whatever you can do at the present
3. You’re not the only one going through tough times and having bad experiences. During times like these look at those who are less fortunate than yourself and take inspiration from them
4. Work your body – exercise, meditate, do yoga
5. Distract yourself from stressful situations and conflicts
6. Be hopeful rather than stressful
7. Know the implications and side effects of long term stress
8. Know when to ask for help

We all are humans we all have those days when we lose it. We lose that little temper we had and end up saying or doing things that we regret and then we keep running around justifying our actions to the world. Getting angry isn’t all that bad but from my personal experience anger surmounts to absolutely nothing. You get angry you shout at something and someone and then you end up wishing you hadn’t and then you feel even more miserable. So, how should we stop it? How should we make our nature more likable?

INTROSPECTION – before doing anything or saying anything take a deep breath and ask yourself why? Why am i so damn angry? Maybe it’s because you’re having a bad day or maybe you didn’t sleep well or maybe you’re just hungry or thirsty.Maybe you’re letting someone’s words get to you. So are you technically really angry or are you just venting at somebody else for no damn reason? Sit down and begin asking some serious questions.

JUST STOP REACTING– There are some people in this planet that are the epitomes of devils. They are born just to torment us and make us irritated as hell and are the true test of our patience. As easy as it sounds it’s awfully hard to control our emotions from overflowing on their face but we are the individuals who want to change ourselves so instead of just giving them a piece of our mind and telling them to bugger off which usually doesn’t work we will now use a different approach we’ll just smile and ignore. Just let them be. Let them say what they want to say let them make fun of us just stop reacting the way they want us to react. Someone threw coffee at your white shirt just say “i look prettier like this”. someone’s driving rashly just say “God is watching rest in piece”. Instead of always shouting at your kids just laugh it off for once just close your eyes to the world and become comatose and stop reacting.

LET IT OUT PRODUCTIVELY : If you want to live a happy life learn how to vent in different ways. Learn how to calm your mind and how to use that pent up anger for someone or something in a way that helps you to move on. The best way is to play sports, to start running and just don’t stop till that image of you shooting your neighbor with a gun doesn’t disappear from your brain or just write it down write all the emotions on a piece of paper and torch it. Burn it and feel good it is much better than burning that house down.

BE A SAINT – If something is happening to you repeatedly just tell them. Tell them how you feel in the nicest way possible almost like a speech.Tell them that their dog pooping in front of your house is NOT COOL. Their kids breaking your windows and making so much noise is not cool or that person who keeps parking in your space is definitely NOT COOL. Try to solve a problem with a nice tone first. Pen is mightier than a sword, be cunning be innovative you’re not a beast who lunges at anyone who disturbs you. You were with God’s grace made a human use your brain instead of your fists. Every problem can be solved if one tries to solve it patiently.

SAY SORRY – What about the times when you mess up? When you were the one who broke the headlights of that car and it’s owner is shouting his brains out at your face with no signs of mercy or that irritating guy who has brains smaller than that of an ant and gets angry at everything, what should you do? Bow down and say you’re sorry. Instead of getting angry just listen to their words that are sharper than a jagged glass and try to not let them pierce your heart. Be brave and just apologize there’s no point in two men/women shouting at each other because the quarrel will never end. You have to take the first step and just finish it for the sake of your sanity.”Fighting doesn’t prove which one is stronger but avoiding a fight definitely proves which one of is smarter”

Introduction

A superconducting fusion device, also known as the Korean artificial sun, set the new world record as it successfully maintained high temperature over 100 million degrees (Celsius) for a record 20 seconds.

Comfortably setting a new world record for fusion, South Korea managed to light up an artificial sun at over 100 million degrees for a record 20 seconds. In comparison, the core of the Sun burns at only 15 million degrees Celsius.

According to reports, a team of South Korean physicists used an “artificial sun” — a superconducting fusion device known as KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) for the experiment. For the fusion, scientists obtained a plasma (one of the four fundamental states of matter) from hydrogen composed of hot ions that exceeded the 100 million degrees temperature. To retain the ions, it is necessary to maintain incredibly high temperatures.

The researchers established a world record by turning this national artificial sun nuclear fusion reactor on and maintaining the high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds with an ion temperature over 100 million degrees (Celsius).

This fusion surpassed last year’s plasma operation that worked for 8 seconds. In 2018, KSTAR had reached a temperature of 100 million degrees for the first time, but only managed to keep it running for around 1.5 seconds.
The goal of the institute is to achieve fusion ignition for 300 seconds at a time by 2025, the report said.

Tokamak devices like KSTAR are used to recreate fusion reactions that occur in the Sun, here on Earth. According to the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), there are about 250 tokamak devices around the world, the report said.

Tokamak is an acronym for the Russian term “toroïdalnaïa kameras magnitnymi katushkami” or “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”.

However, “none of them broke the barrier of maintaining the operation for 10 seconds or longer. It is the operational limit of the normal-conducting device and it was difficult to maintain a stable plasma state in the fusion device at such high temperatures for a long time,” a report in Phys.org said.

Earlier in this month, China turned on its ‘artificial sun’ which managed to operate at 150 million degrees Celsius, a local report cited the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

In November 2018, the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, China, had announced that an Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (East) device had reached a milestone temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius and heating power of 100Mw.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (East) is an experimental fusion reactor built at the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, China, on behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. his temperature was sustained for 10 seconds.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

Planning can be considered to be one of the most important aspects that might control certain events in your life. This only helps an individual to concentrate if future but also encourage growth.

Planning also prepares us to overcome challenges and catching up with things during a limited period of time. It can not only help us to get our things done but also make us productive in fulfilling our day to day lists of work specially during this time of pandemic where being at home and completing online assignments and meeting can be a stressful task. Therefore, planning up the schedule can not only give you an incentive to be active but aslo encourage one to stay in the moment.

What are the benefits of planning –

> Motivates to accomplish goals – planning helps an individual to maintain a schedule and completing the pending assignments. And even if someone is unavailable to accomplish the goals , one can have a record of the backlogs.

>You can measure both success and failure- planning helps one to keep a track on their success ti catch up with the task one has assigned for themselves, at the same time can help in identifying the failure and work for the betterment.

>Proper management of task- breaking down your activities , you can have higher success rates. By creating monthly milestones of a project, one can get close to achieving higher goals.

>Cuts down unnecessary budget- by moving forward with a planned budget might be good for your pocket as well. By planning ahead you can save up in bits and pieces from your monthly budget at the same time it can fetch you time that can later be used to get things at cheaper rates.

Therefore, with the new year approaching this week, it will be great to start something new and make the year 2021 one full of productivity and success. Happy New Year.

Food is any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth. We all need food and water. It is consumed to provide nutritional support to the body. It consists of essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism’s cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Different species of animals have different feeding behaviours that satisfy the needs of their unique metabolisms.

TYPES OF FOOD

a) Adulterated Food- Adulteration is a legal term meaning that a food product fails to meet the legal standards. One form of adulteration is an addition of another substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which may result in the loss of actual quality of food item. Among meat and meat products some of the items used to adulterate are water or ice, carcasses, or carcasses of animals other than animal meant to be consumed.

b) Camping Food- Camping food includes ingredients which are used to prepare food suitable for backcountry camping and backpacking. The foods differ substantially from the ingredients found in a typical home kitchen. The primary differences relate to camper’s and backpacker’s special needs for foods that have appropriate cooking time, perishability, weight and nutritional content.

c) Diet Food- Diet food is also known as dietetic food. It refers to any food or beverage whose recipe is altered to reduce fat, carbohydrates, adhore sugar in order to make it part of a weight loss program or diet. Such foods are usually intended to assist in weight loss or a change in body type, although bodybuilding supplements are designed to aid in gaining weight or muscle.

d) Finger Food- Finger food is meant to be eaten directly using the hands, in contrast to foods eaten with a knife and fork, spoon, chopsticks, or other utensils. In some cultures food is almost always eaten with the hands.

e) Fresh Food- Fresh food is that which has not been preserved and not spoiled yet. For vegetables and fruits, this means that they have been recently harvested and treated properly postharvest. Dairy products are fresh and will spoil quickly. Thus, fresh cheese is cheese which has not been dried or salted for aging. Sourced cream may be considered fresh. Fresh food is not dried, smoked, salted, frozen, canned, pickled or otherwise preserved.

f) Frozen Food- Frozen food preserves from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows down decomposition by turning residual moisture into ice. Preserving food in domestic kitchens during modern times is achieved using household freezers.

g) Healthy Food- Healthy food is food marketed to provide human health effects beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. Foods which are considered as healthy may be part of one or more categories such as, natural foods, organic foods, whole foods, vegetarian foods or dietary supplements. A healthy diet is a diet that helps to maintain or improve overall health. It provides the body with essential nutrients, macronutrients, micronutrients, and adequate calories.

h) Natural Food- Natural foods are widely used terms in food labelling and marketing with a variety of definitions. The term is often assumed to imply on foods that are not processed and whose ingredients are all natural products. They do not contain any food additives such as antibiotics, sweeteners, food colors or flavorings.

i) Organic Food- Organic food is food produced by methods that comply with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming in general features practices that strive to cycle resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity. In general, organic foods are also usually not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents or synthetic food additives.

j) Traditional Food- Traditional foods are those dishes which are passed through generations or which have been consumed by many generations. They are traditional in nature and may have historic precedent in a national dish, regional cuisine or local cuisine. It may be produced as homemade, by restaurants and small manufacturers, and by large food processing plant facilities.

Infrastructure sectors are consider to be bedrock of any economy and Indian economy is no different. Infrastructure is not only vital for growth of Indian economy but also for overall development of an economy. Any growth in an infrastructure sector has a multiplier effect on overall economy growth as it soars manufacturing and industrial growth which in turn increase consumer demand and overall standard of living. The infrastructure sector is often comprises of : Road, Railways, Power, Urban Infrastructure.

Over the years investment deficit has soars as infrastructure investment rate has decline since the highs of 2011-12. This has led to many stalled projects, delays, cost overrun and financially its been a nightmare because infrastructure project requires huge loans and these loans have fixed repayment schedule. If the project get finished on time, revenues from project finance the loans. But if the project gets delayed by months, years it gets bad. Its even worse if the project are unable to operates due to change in land acquisition policy, legal cases, abruptly changes environment regulation.

Its important to get infrastructure on the right track because its a key for an economy as it generation of huge employment which in turn increases income level, which results in increase in consumer demand which shoot up aggragte demand which leads higher level of output hence, higher growth of an economy. So, here are few general decision government should take.

Maintain Macroeconomic stability

Maintaining the macroeconomic stability is key for creating an environment that attract huge investment. There are two imporatnt macroeconomic indicator.

1. Fiscal consolidation – It means government should take policy decision that reduces its fiscal deficit. It will leads to reduce in inflation rate which in turn leads to low interest rate in an economy. Low interest rate means that loans are cheaper as compared to before therefore it’ll more and more people to invest in economy. At the same government should maintain a healthy stock of savings to channelize into investment.

1. Stability of inflation rate – It means there is no volatality in inflation rate which helps investor to know how much they are getting return for their investment.

It has often found that unstable macroeconomic indicator discourage investment whereas well articulated policy that maintain macroeconomic indicator invites many investors from all over the world.

Reform Public Finance

The government must scale up investment but in fiscal responsible way. There are few ways of doing it. Firstly, Reducing the government expenditure from current expenditure and increase the investment in capital good without raising national debt doing so will leads increase in capital formation in an economy and leads to higher growth. Raising GST by simplyfing, encouraging people and better targeting. Disinvest the non perform public sector enterprisis and monetize government holding and using process to invest in new infrastructure.

Declutter stalled projects

The number of stalled project sky rocketed in recent years. Majority of these stalled project are due to government policy. Here are few things that government can do.

Land Acquisition – Since the enactment of Land Acquisition, Rehablitation and Resettlement (LARR) in 2013, many states have explored some creative method acquiring land without invoking LARR. For example Andhra Pradesh introduced land pooling method to acquire the land for state capital Amravati. Under which 25000 farmer pooled 33000 acre of land by giving them alternative form of compensation in this case a share of developed land.

Environmental Clearance – The Environmental regulation agency should strengthened to ensure smooth functioning and transparency and enable them to take decision backed by data. This institution should also be headed by someone who has great knowledge about this sector.

Private Public Partnership (PPP) – The government should invite private sector to participate in reviving the stalled project. The government should give incentive to motivate them to invest in stalled projects.

Corporate Bond

While the bank remain an important instrument to finance any long term project or to increase any capital requirement its not the only option . It should promote usage of corporate bond . It refer to bonds issued by corporation to raise money to finance the projects.

While these some ways in which government can revitalize the infrastructure sector. Recently, government took great interest as well measure for resurgence of infrastructure sector. From road and highways construction to development of inland waterways as a new mode of transportation. The new policy is being formed for railways, aviation, coal, urban sector. Recently, government has National infrastructure Pipeline. National Infrastructure Pipeline Project will  play a crucial role in pulling the country out of impact of Covid 19.  NIP is a project that will revolutionize India’s infra creation efforts. Many new jobs will be created , our farmers , youngsters , entrepreneurs will benefit. If India has to transform it should invest hugely in its infrastructure.