TAGORE special

a.       1^st drama: prithvirjaer parajey in 1873

b.      1^st book:sandhya sangit in 1880

c.       1^st public appearance: recited hndumela upohar in 1875

d.      Incomplete study of law at university college of london

e.      1^st musical drama: valmiki pratibha in 1881

f.        Foreign degree: oxford university in 1940

g.       Supported  education in mother tongue

h.      Santiniketan foundation in 1918

i.        Estb vishwabahrati I 1921

j.        Supported constructive n0on cooperation

k.       Gitnajali 1^st published in bengali in 1910

l.        Recevived nobel prize for literature in 1913 for gitanjali and also THE GARDENER,CRESCENT MOON

m.    In 1915 met gandhi at santhiniketan 1^st time

n.      Knighthood in 1913

o.      1916 went on tours to asia, europe , south america, africa, US to raise funds for his vishwa bahrati university

unsafe helicoptering

• Many political leaders oflate have lost their lives in helicopter crashes
• the helicopter in which arunachal CM was travelling belogs to pawan hans, a mini ratna PSU
• the paraliamentary standing committee on transport tourism and culture headed by Yechury pointed out in its altest report that many VVIPs force pilots to take of in inhospitable conditions
• in order to correct this, the committee recommended 
• stringent rules wrt operating aircrafts
• set up an indepndent national transport safety board to investigate accidents in air, water and roads

Historic achievement for palestinians

·         Palestinian liberation organisation formally recongised israel as a state under oslo accord 1993 and gave up its armed struggle against israel

·         Hamas was formed in 1987 and it doesn’t recognise israel and has continued armed struggle

o   It is led by khaled mishal

·         Hamas had won palestinian elections in 2006 but the west opposed it and cut of all aid which is main source of funding for palestine

·         Fatah party is supported by west and it currently rules west bank while hamas is in control of gaza

o   Hamas is backe by iran and syria

·         Following this agreement there is every chance hamas may come to power

·         It remains to be seen how US and EU respond to this new development

·         This new deal has be brokered by egypt

·         Under the unity agreement they have agreed to form a joint caretaker government, with presidential and legislative elections to be held in 2012

Sex ratio, patriarchy and ethics

1.

·         Since 1961, there has been a steady decline in child sex ratio

o   1961- 976  2011-914

·         2011 census indicates that many districts have a sex ratio of elss than 850

·         Another surprising finding is that sex ratio in urban areas is lower than that in rural areas

·         This clearly indicates that prosperity and education are ahving no impact on the value systems of people

·         Medical technology which were aimed towards detecting genetic disorders are being  misused for sex selective abortions

·         The skewed sex ratio in 1991 census led to the enactment of pre natal diagnostic techniques act 1994

·         But it failed to arrest the slide in ratio because of collusion between people and medical fraternity

·         The root cause for this trend lies in the patriarchal society which is supported by religious customs and beliefs

·         It is this that leads to dastardly acts like

o   Female infanticides

o   Dowry

o   Sati

·         There has been an ethical collapse in our society

·         For long government has tried tackling the issue from a medico legal angle

·         But this problem needs to be looked at from socio cultural angle

·         The only way to arrest this trend is to replace patriarchal society with an egalitarian society

caveats to an upbeat outlook

·         released twice a year

·         world GDP to grow at 4.4% in 2011 and 4.5 % in 2012

·         Develoepd countries @ 2.4% and 2.6%

·         Developing countries @ 6.5% in both years

·         India at 8.2% in 2011

Key points

·         Many developing economies are now growing at pre crisis rates

·         Developed economies still recovering

·         In early phase of recovery, growth powered by India and China . but now the growth is more broad based

CHALLENGES

·         Two paced growth makes it difficult for countries to coordinate on global issues

·         Weak sovereign balance sheets

·         Ultra soft monetary policies in develoepd economies may lead to destabilising capital flows into emergin economies

·         Rising food prices

new great game in west asia

·         There is growing sunni –shia rivalry in west asia

·         Who are sunnis and shias?

o   After prophet’s death in 632 AD. There was a divided opinion on succession

o   The sunnis wanted an elected successor while shias wanted the succession to be according to blood line

·         This divide has deepened over the years

·         Islam is fastest growing religion in world

·         Sunnis are a majority, shia make up only 15% of total muslim population

·         Shias are inmajority in iraq, iran, azerbaijan and bahrain

·         Sunni-shia division has deepended over the years

·         For long in iraq, shia majority was suppressed

o   Iraq came into existence in 1932

·         Following american invasion of iraq in 2003, shia came to power and resorted to ethnic cleansing

·         Post US invasion of iraq, iran’s stature in region has strengthened

·         Iran has a key rôle to play in afghan problem

·         Shia poptln in other nations

o   Pakistan-20%

o   Kuwait-25%

o   Lebanon-40%

o   Egypt-negligible

·         In bahrain sunni kingdom rules shias

·         The current revolt in bahrain is being strongly suppressed with help of saudi

·         Saudi is worried coz of shias gain power in bahrain, it might strengthen the say of shia in saudi who mostly live oil rich areas