The Union government on Monday (January 11) announced a new online single window clearance portal for the coal sector to speed up the operationalisation of coal mines. The announcement was made alongside the signing ceremony for the first tranche of coal blocks to be auctioned for commercial use.

What is a single-window clearance portal?

A single window clearance portal is aimed at allowing successful bidders for coal blocks to be able to obtain all required clearances, including environmental and forest clearances, from a single portal with progress monitoring, instead of having to go to multiple authorities.

The portal should allow successful bidders to operationalise coal mines more quickly.

“Presently, about 19 major approvals, or clearances are required before starting the coal mine in the country. In the absence of unified platform for grant of clearances companies were required to approach different departments, leading to delay in operationalization of the coal mines,” Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said, adding that the portal would be operationalised in a phased manner.

How will this help?

Industry sources said that the sector has long sought a single window clearance system to help with quicker operationalisation, as obtaining the requisite clearances was taking over 2-3 years for successful bidders in many cases.

“It is definitely a good move as coal blocks which were auctioned off in earlier tranches used to take more than a 2-3 year period to get operationalised,” said an expert.

The expert added that some coal blocks auctioned as far back as 2015 has still not been operationalised due to delays in obtaining required clearances.

The expert noted that the Parivesh mechanism for forest and environment related clearances would likely be merged into the single window clearance mechanism which is expected to help with the operationalization of the coals blocks that are set to be auctioned in the upcoming auctions.

The third test between India and Australia in Sydney ended up in draw. On any other day this result would be nothing but disappointment but on 11 January 2021 fifth day of third test, India was chasing a mammoth target of 407 runs and have lost two very important wicket previous day for just 98 which means implies that either India bats remaining 97 overs or chase remaining runs. On the other hand, Australia needed just 8 wicket to win the match and take a decisive lead of 2-1. To make situation worse India’s star allrounder Ravindra Jadeja has dislocated his thumb and couldn’t bat. Given the circumstance defeat was inevitable but not for this India team which batted resolutely, aggressively and patiently to deny Australia a comfortable win.

How steep was the degree of difficulty?

India came to this test match with one experience bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Ishant Sharma injured himself during IPL, Mohammad Shami fractured him left arm while batting during 1st test match, Virat Kohli took parental leave and Umesh Yadav hurt his calf muscles during 2nd test match. India’s had Mohammad Siraj playing his 2nd test match and Navdeep Saini making his debut in this match. They lost the toss and had to bowl a big disadvantage in this ground, the racist slurs hurl at them and top of it Ravindra Jadeja was injured during the match.

How Day 5 pan out ?

• India: 100 runs in 35.2 overs (213 balls), Extras 2
• India: 150 runs in 52.3 overs (318 balls), Extras 4
• 4th Wicket: 50 runs in 103 balls (Pujara 13, Pant 35, Ex 2)
• Drinks: India – 152/3 in 53.0 overs (Pujara 26, Pant 35)
• RR Pant: 50 off 64 balls (4 x 4, 3 x 6)
• India: 200 runs in 67.6 overs (412 balls), Extras 5
• 4th Wicket: 100 runs in 197 balls (Pujara 24, Pant 73, Ex 3)
• Lunch: India – 206/3 in 70.0 overs (Pujara 41, Pant 73)
• CA Pujara: 50 off 170 balls (7 x 4)
• India: 250 runs in 78.1 overs (473 balls), Extras 8
• New ball taken after 80th over
• Drinks: India – 262/4 in 84.0 overs (Pujara 70, Vihari 0)
• Over 91.4: Review by Australia (Bowling), Umpire – Reiffel, Batsman – Ashwin (Struck down)
• Tea: India – 280/5 in 96.0 overs (GH Vihari 4, R Ashwin 7)
• Final – 334-5 in 131.0 overs (GH Vihari 23 (164), R Ashwin 39 (128)

Following the draw series remain tied at 1-1 after 3 match the last match of the border gavaskar trophy is to be played at Brisbane from 15 -19 January 2021.

A dwarf giraffe named Nigel, born in 2014, stands with an adult male at an undisclosed location in Namibia on March 26, 2018. Photo: Giraffe Conservation Foundation via Reuters

Being tall is the giraffe’s competitive advantage, giving it the pick of leaves from the tallest trees, so scientists were stunned to find two giraffe dwarves on different sides of Africa.

“It’s fascinating what our researchers out in the field found,” Julian Fennessy, co-founder of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, told Reuters in a videocall on January 8. “We were very surprised.”

Most giraffes grow to 15 to 20 feet (4.5m to 6m), but in 2018, scientists working with the foundation discovered an eight-and-a-half-foot (2.6m) giraffe in Namibia. Three years earlier, they had also found a 9-foot 3-inch (2.8m) giraffe in a Ugandan wildlife park.

They published their findings in the British Medical Journal at the end of December.

In both cases, the giraffes had the standard long necks but short, stumpy legs, the paper said. Skeletal dysplasia, the medical name for the condition, affects humans and domesticated animals, but the paper said it was rare to see in wild animals.

Footage taken by the foundation showed the Ugandan giraffe standing on thick, muscled legs in the dry savanna of Murchison Falls national park in northern Uganda, while a taller animal with the usual long, stick-like legs walked behind it.

“Unfortunately there’s probably no benefit at all. Giraffes have grown taller to reach the taller trees,” Mr. Fennessy said. He added that it would most likely be physically impossible for them to breed with their normal-sized counterparts.

Numbers of the world’s tallest mammal have declined by some 40% over the past 30 years to around 1,11,000, so all four species are classified by conservationists as “vulnerable”.

Apple, Amazon and Google have suspended the social network called parler saying that the platform has not taken enough measures to make sure that content inciting violence remains in check.

What is Parler?
It is a social media platform that is considered to be an alternative to Twitter and is popular with conservatives. The platform describes itself as being the world’s “premier free speech platform”. “Speak freely and express yourself openly, without fear of being “deplatformed” for your views,” the website of the platform says.

Why was it suspended?
The move has come following the events of January 6 when an armed mob of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill and clashed with the police as Congress convened to validate Joe Biden’s presidential win.

The platform is favoured by right-leaning users and as per media reports was actively used by supporters of US President Donald Trump, including several of those who participated in the Capitol Hill siege.

In a letter addressed to the developers of the Parler app by Apple, which was published by The New York Times, the company said that the measures taken by Parler were inadequate “to address the proliferation of dangerous and objectionable content on your app”.

“Parler has not upheld its commitment to moderate and remove harmful or dangerous content encouraging violence and illegal activity, and is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines,” it said in the letter.

Amazon too has given similar reasons for banning the platform and maintains that the “violent content” on the website violates their terms of service.

The suspension means that users can no longer download the app from the Apple app store or the Google play store. Amazon, on the other hand, has suspended the platform from its web-hosting service called Amazon Web Services

A web hosting service is a mechanism through which companies provide space to websites on a physical server where they can store data and other information necessary for their websites to function. Since Parler was not able to find an alternative hosting service, it effectively went offline at 11:59 am PST on Sunday and will not be back up until it is able to find a new hosting service provider.

What does the suspension mean?

Following the siege, Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts were suspended by the two tech giants, a move which some of his critics have lauded. On Friday, Twitter wrote in a blog post “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open,” it added.

Twitter said that two tweets made by Trump on January 8 violated their “Glorification of Violence” policy, as a result of which his account was permanently suspended from the platform.

Even so, these moves taken by the tech giants in the last one week have reignited the debate on the power that tech companies have in censoring content. A report in The Financial Times said that while Trump’s critics have applauded his “deplatforming”, “which many say were long overdue. But others worry that the moves demonstrate how much political power has been built up by a handful of private companies.”

This, however, is not the first time that platforms have taken such an action. In October last year, YouTube announced that it would be taking additional measures to block content related to QAnon, a pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theory or movement. In July 2020, Twitter and TikTok blocked some hashtags and removed some accounts related to it and in August Facebook announced a ban on QAnon groups. Social networking website Reddit also banned one of its largest pro-Trump subreddits (a community forum), citing a violation in its updated policy on hate speech in July last year.

In 2019, the FBI said that fringe political conspiracy theories including QAnon are a domestic threat and likely to “motivate some domestic extremists, wholly or in part, to engage in criminal or violent activity.”

In 2020, Norway further cemented its position as a world leader in renewable technologies, as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) made up more than half of all vehicles sold in the country during the year.

Last year, the market share of BEVs rose to 54 per cent, up from 42 per cent in 2019, as per data released by the Norwegian Road Foundation (OFV). Only a decade ago, BEVs made up just 1 per cent of the overall market.

If hybrid vehicles are included, the share of electric vehicles in 2020 is 83 per cent. Petrol and diesel cars, which commanded a 71 per cent market share in 2015, are now at 17 per cent

Also last year, Germany’s Volkswagen replaced US-based Tesla as the largest electric vehicle producer in the country.

How Norway became a electric vehicles pioneer

Norway, which is the biggest producer of crude oil in Western Europe, has in the recent past made a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. A country roughly the size of Maharashtra in terms of area, it began the electric push in the 1990s in an effort to cut pollution, congestion, and noise in urban centres.

In 2017, Norway’s parliament set a non-binding goal to ensure that all cars sold should be zero emissions by 2025. The UK and Germany plan to do this by 2030, and France by 2040. In India, the government has set a target of 30 per cent vehicles becoming EV by 2030.

To achieve its target, Norway has been giving tax incentives for fully electric vehicles, which make them cheaper to buy compared to similar internal combustion (IC) engine models. Norway also taxes IC engine cars more heavily than most European countries.

The government lets electric cars run on bus lanes, while toll roads are free for them. Parking lots offer a free charge, and new charging stations are continuously being built on the nation’s highways — a mix of regular charging stations and fast-chargers. At the moment, Norway has 10,000 publicly available charging points.

Currently, Norway has the highest per capita all-electric (battery only) cars in the world – over 1,00,000 in a country of just over five million people. The country does not manufacture cars (with the exception of a Norwegian city electric car called Buddy produced by a homegrown firm Buddy Electric) and pretty much all of its vehicle fleet is imported.

The country’s policies have also encouraged carmakers to use Norway as a testing ground. As per the CNN report, Volkswagen’s luxury brand Audi was the market leader in 2020, selling 9,227 units of its e-tron model, followed by Tesla’s Model 3, which sold 7,77o units. Volkswagen’s ID.3 came third at 7,754.

Among fossil fuel-driven cars too, Norway has encouraged petrol cars over diesel ones. To do this, some of the country’s regions began charging higher road tolls for diesel cars than for petrol vehicles. Because of such policies, the share of diesel vehicles fell from 75.7 per cent in 2011 to 8.6 per cent in 2020.

As per a Reuters report, although BEVs had in the past crossed the 50 per cent mark in market share in individual months, 2020 was a special achievement since these cars crossed the combined share of models with IC engines for a year as a whole.

Now, alongside its advances in electric vehicles, Norway is also pushing for the next frontier — hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Experts, however, say Norway’s policies are difficult to replicate in other parts of the world, mainly because the country can offer generous subsidies thanks to its revenues from oil and gas production.

Thanks to its hydrocarbon wealth, Norway has been able to build the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, currently valued at $1.3 trillion.

Indian export growth has remained low mainly due to low scale of production, low productivity of labour, institutional friction. Any policy from government must encourage greater scale, specifically labour reform that allows easier separation from firms and workers. Textile, mobile and electronic industries can be catalyst for growth and employment if one encourage scale. Micro policy like trade agreement, simpler documentation procedure at port, improved credit access and infrastructure up gradation will help. The ongoing strain between United States of America and People Republic of China may be an opportunity as firms seek an alternative trade relationship. Labour abundantly India could be a good alternative.

Problems In Export Sector.

In the twenty five years since 1992, when India began liberalizing its trade regime, India’s share of world export rose from 0.5% in 1992 to 1.7% in 2017. The export share of India’s much celebrated export increases from 0.5% in 1992 to 3.4% 2017. To put these number in context, over the same period the Chinese share of merchandise export increases from 1.8% to 12.8%. Bangladesh also increases its share of merchandise export from 0.09% to 0.2% over the same period. Moreover, world export are 30% of its GDP while for India share of export to India’s GDP is 20%.

Lethargic pace of India’s export growth has constraint India’s growth potential as it failed to tapped into the global demand and supply. Many exporters especially in textile and other small and medium enterprises which provide huge jobs in the economy lags behind in technology and innovation to compete in global competition. India’s labour force lacked sufficient skills and labour regulation makes it hard for the firms to operate and employ labour. Lastly, our transport system are outdated, insufficient and badly planned and bureaucratic red tape makes it even worse to compete in global competition.

What’s need to be done?

The solution to low export lies in fixing both micro and macro issues. Macro refers to the issue with export while micro refers what need to be done at the lower level to boost the export.

Macro Issue Solution.

Scale – It is successful for a export sector. Hurdle to land acquisition, labour regulation, inadequate power and other infrastructure support must be provided to the firms as it promotes the firms to increase the scale of production which not only leads to the growth of economy, exports but also provides employment.

Fundamental labour reforms – Reforms are needed to encourage large scale, labour incentive production while maintaining the workers right. This will help tradition industries like textiles, footwear, leatherworks and wood products and boost employment in the economy.

Better transportation infrastructure – The government need to work on improving the integration of different mode of transportation with each other, introducing modern warehousing, custom and improving integration with logistics and industrial park.

Micro Issue Solution

Improving credit access – Credit flows to exporters have to be encouraged to grow in order to facilitate export. The majority of India’s exporters are SME’s with limited access to external financing. Bank credit is often their only source of financing. These flows must be stable, so that SMEs can plan their production properly.

Simplify the GST refund – GST refund to the small and medium enterprises must be robust to help the exporter. Refunds are still slow. This means that SMEs are typically under pressure because they may not have enough capital. SMEs are typical labour intensive and constitute percentage of total export have performed very poorly recently.

Tariff – Resists temptation to raise tariff rates in response to economic pressure such as sudden increase in import. As most exporter use imported inputs, tariff reduces the competitiveness of Indian exporter.

Global Integration of Electronic Industry – This industry has one of the fastest growing global supply chains one that India’s has not been able to take advantage unlike China, Indonesia, Taiwan. According to world bank India’s entry to global supply chain faces many hurdles like : (1) poor transportation infrastructure (2) low skill of workforce due to huge investment needs to be done on training of labour (3) complexity of land acquisition (4) lengthy and unpredictable import clearance.

Export is one of the very important components of economy and plays a very important role in economic growth of the country. It also provides immense employment and uplift millions of Indians from poverty. India’s has underperformed in export sector since liberalization in 1992 but all is not lost several needs to be taken so that we can perform to our potential in coming decade.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) in Paris announced in July last year that no “leap second” would be added to the world’s official timekeeping in December 2020.

Scientists think days are getting shorter than 24 hours because the planet is spinning faster than it has in 50 years and a full day has been taking less than normal since last year. According to the Daily Mail, July 19, 2020, was the shortest day since scientists began keeping records in the 1960s – 1.4602 milliseconds shorter than the full 24 hours. It is a retreat from previous records showing that for decades, the Earth took slightly longer than 24 hours to complete a rotation.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) in Paris announced in July last year that no “leap second” would be added to the world’s official timekeeping in December 2020. Leap seconds are time adjustments like leap years and timekeepers at IERS have added leap seconds to 27 days since the 1970s, with the most recent on December 31, 2016. According to the Daily Mail, they keep atomic time in line with solar time, thereby keeping satellites and communications equipment in sync. The next possible date for a leap second is June 30, 2021, as  leap seconds are always added on the last day of June or December.

According to scientists, the days are on average about 0.5 seconds shorter than 24 hours. Though the time difference is noticed only at the atomic level, experts say its impact could be significant. World timekeepers are debating whether to delete a second from time — called a “negative leap second” — to account for the change and bring time passage back into line with the rotation of the Earth.

Peter Whibberley of the National Physical Laboratory in the UK said, while speaking to the Telegraph, that the Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the last 50 years. “It’s quite possible that a negative leap second will be needed if the Earth’s rotation rate increases further, but it’s too early to say if this is likely to happen. There are also international discussions taking place about the future of leap seconds, and it’s also possible that the need for a negative leap second might push the decision towards ending leap seconds for good,” Whibberley, a senior research scientist, said.

Peter Whibberley of the National Physical Laboratory in the UK said, while speaking to the Telegraph, that the Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the last 50 years. “It’s quite possible that a negative leap second will be needed if the Earth’s rotation rate increases further, but it’s too early to say if this is likely to happen. There are also international discussions taking place about the future of leap seconds, and it’s also possible that the need for a negative leap second might push the decision towards ending leap seconds for good,” Whibberley, a senior research scientist, said.

A study published in Science Advances in 2015 suggests global warming may be the reason behind the Earth’s speedier rotation.A study published in Science Advances in 2015 suggests global warming may be the reason behind the Earth’s speedier rotation.

BTS is a Korean band which is also known as Bangtan Boys. It is a seven member South Korean boys band that was formed in 2010 and debuted in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. It is composed of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook who write and produce much of their own output. It is a hip hop group. Their lyrics are very heart touching and are often focused on personal and social commentary. They touch on the themes of mental health, troubles of school-age youth, loss, the journey towards loving oneself and individualism.

After debuting in 2013 with their single album 2 Cool 4 Skool, BTS released their first Korean-language studio album, Dark and Wild, and Japanese-language studio album, Wake Up in 2014. The group’s second Korean studio album, Wings (2016), was their first to sell one million copies in South Korea. By 2017, BTS crossed into the global music market, leading the Korean Wave into the United States and breaking numerous sales records. They became the first Korean group to receive a certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for their single “Mic Drop”. They topped the US Billboard 200 chart with their first Korean act with their studio album Love Yourself: Tear (2018). BTS has become the fastest group.

BTS has sold over 20 million albums on the Gaon Music Chart. It is the best selling artist in South Korean history and hold the best selling album in South Korea. You must listen to their songs as they are very heart touching and people can relate to it. You will feel calm and relaxed.

Pokemon Detective Pikachu is a 2019 mystery film directed by Rob Letterman. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures in association with Toho. It is the first live-action Pokemon film. The story was written by Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Nicole Perlman. Ryan Reynolds stars as the voice and facial motion capture of Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy in live-action roles.

The plot follows aspiring trainer Tim Goodman and the titular Pokemon as they attempt to uncover the mysterious disappearance of Tim’s father, Harry. In the Pokemon Universe, Tim Goodman is a 21-year-old insurance adjuster who gave up his dream being a Pokemon trainer following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father Harry, a police detective. Tim is contacted by the police of Ryme City, a city where humans and Pokemon battles are illegal. He is informed by Harry’s friend, Detective Hideo Yoshida, that Harry was killed in a car accident. Tim goes to Harry’s apartment to sort things out and meets Harry’s police partner, a deerstalker-clad amnesiac talking like Pikachu whom only Tim can understand while all others could only hear him saying “Pika-Pika”. Tim accidentally releases a mysterious purple gas from a vial he finds in Harry’s office. The pair escape from there and then Pikachu explains that after losing his memory following the crash, he believes that Harry also survived the crash as police never found his body. The rest what follows is thrilling as the pair tries to find out Harry. You should surely watch the action-packed movie and see whether they are successful in their mission or not.

Music has been given by Henry Jackman. The cinematography has been done by John Mathieson. The movie has been edited by Mark Sanger. The budget for the movie for $150 million and the box office has reached about $433 million. The ratings for this movie is extremely good and it is a must watch. You would enjoy and love watching this.

Last year, the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) announced that a hole in the Arctic ozone layer, believed to be the biggest reported, has closed.

The ozone hole’s closing was because of a phenomenon called the polar vortex, and not because of reduced pollution levels due to Covid-19 lockdowns around the world, reports said.

The hole in the North Pole’s ozone layer, which was first detected in February, had since reached a maximum extension of around 1 million sq km, according to scientists at the German Aerospace Center.

The European agency tweeted on April 23, “The unprecedented 2020 northern hemisphere #OzoneHole has come to an end. The #PolarVortex split, allowing #ozone-rich air into the Arctic, closely matching last week’s forecast from the #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service.”

The importance of the ozone layer

Ozone (chemically, a molecule of three oxygen atoms) is found mainly in the upper atmosphere, an area called the stratosphere, between 10 and 50 km from the earth’s surface. Though it is talked of as a layer, ozone is present in the atmosphere in rather low concentrations. Even at places where this layer is thickest, there are not more than a few molecules of ozone for every million air molecules.

But they perform a very important function. By absorbing the harmful ultraviolet radiations from the sun, the ozone molecules eliminate a big threat to life forms on earth. UV rays can cause skin cancer and other diseases and deformities in plants and animals.

Ozone holes

The ‘ozone hole’ is not really a hole — it refers to a region in the stratosphere where the concentration of ozone becomes extremely low in certain months.

The ‘ozone holes’ most commonly talked about are the depletions over Antarctica, forming each year in the months of September, October and November, due to a set of special meteorological and chemical conditions that arise at the South Pole, and can reach sizes of around 20 to 25 million sq km.

Such holes are also spotted over the North Pole, but owing to warmer temperatures than the South Pole, the depletions here are much smaller in size. Before this year, the last sizable Arctic ozone hole was reported in 2011.

Why this year’s Arctic ozone hole was massive

This year, the ozone depletion over the Arctic was much larger. Scientists believe that unusual atmospheric conditions, including freezing temperatures in the stratosphere, were responsible.

As per a European Space Agency report, cold temperatures (below -80°C), sunlight, wind fields and substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were responsible for the degradation of the Arctic ozone layer.

Although Arctic temperatures do not usually fall as low as in Antarctica, this year, powerful winds flowing around the North Pole trapped cold air within what is known as the polar vortex— a circling whirlpool of stratospheric winds.

“By the end of the polar winter, the first sunlight over the North Pole initiated this unusually strong ozone depletion—causing the hole to form. However, its size is still small compared to what can usually be observed in the southern hemisphere,” the report said.

Scientists believe that the closing of the hole is because of the same polar vortex and not because of the lower pollution levels during the coronavirus lockdown.

Ozone recovery

As per the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion data of 2018, the ozone layer in parts of the stratosphere has recovered at a rate of 1-3 per cent per decade since 2000. “At these projected rates, the Northern Hemisphere and mid-latitude ozone is predicted to recover by around 2030, followed by the Southern Hemisphere around 2050, and polar regions by 2060,” the report said.

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


https://udaipurblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/shilp331.jpg

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.