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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
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Saturday, January 19, 2013
Sen. King reluctant to embrace assault weapon ban
BOSTON (AP) ? U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine said that he's reluctant to endorse a federal ban on the kind of assault weapon used in last month's Connecticut school shooting.
The newly elected senator, an independent, said in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday that he supports universal background checks and limits on high-capacity ammunition clips as proposed this week by President Barack Obama. But he said he hasn't decided whether to embrace the president's call to ban new assault weapons.
"Frankly, the more important aspects of the president's proposal is the expansion of background checks, which I believe is appropriate, and the limitation on the size of magazines," King said, adding that smaller ammunition clips would "most likely ... alleviate the risks associated with whatever the weapon is."
A gunman armed with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators last month at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School. Obama this week proposed a ban on new assault weapons and said he wants to limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds or less.
Asked whether he supported banning new assault weapons, like the one used in the Connecticut attack, King said, "I don't know."
"My friends who hunt in Maine ? virtually everyone uses a semi-automatic hunting rifle," King said, noting that he hasn't seen the president's proposal in writing. "I'd need to see how it's worded and how 'assault weapon' is defined. I think it's impossible to say yes or no until I know exactly what's on the table."
A lopsided 84 percent of Americans back broader background checks, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans want stricter gun laws, the same poll showed, with majorities favoring a nationwide ban on military-style weapons.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said recently it's unlikely an assault weapons ban would actually pass the House of Representatives. Absent action by Congress, all that remains are 23 executive orders Obama announced that apply only to the federal government, not local or state law enforcement.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sen-king-reluctant-embrace-assault-weapon-ban-073846257.html
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Mayor of Israeli settlement of Ariel dies at 70
JERUSALEM ?
Ron Nachman, the mayor of one of Israel's largest settlements in the West Bank, has died. He was 70.
His brother Dan said Nachman succumbed to cancer on Friday.
Nachman, known for his fiery personality and commanding media presence, helped establish Ariel in 1978.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogized the mayor, saying Nachmann was "committed with every fiber of his soul to the revival of the Jews in their country and to building a flourishing city in Samaria."
Samaria is the biblical name for the part of the West Bank where Ariel is located. With 20,000 residents, it's one of Israel's largest settlements.
Palestinians see settlements as a hindrance to a two state solution as the communities are built on land they demand for their own state.
Source: http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2020159298_apmlisraelobitnachman.html?syndication=rss
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Google says Wall Street estimates need adjusting
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc issued a rare advisory to Wall Street on Friday that analyst estimates for its fourth quarter financial results are flawed.
The world's No.1 search engine, which reports its quarterly results on Tuesday, said most analysts have not adjusted their estimates to reflect the pending $2.35 billion sale of the Motorola Home business.
The business must be presented separately from the results of Google's continuing operations under U.S. accounting rules, Google Treasurer Brent Callinicos wrote in a post on Google's investor relations Web page on Friday.
"As of this writing, a majority of Wall Street analysts who cover Google have not reflected the Home business as discontinued operations in their estimates," Callinicos wrote.
The discrepancy means the fourth-quarter net revenue that Google reports on Tuesday could appear to be less than the $12.34 billion average that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S are expecting.
Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler says his fourth-quarter net revenue estimate includes nearly $900 million from the Motorola Home business.
"They're saying that the headline number is going to be less than what most analysts have for Q4," said Kessler.
The advisory is a rare move for Google, which does not provide financial forecasts and typically has limited interactions with analysts. The company has in the past provided accounting advisories to analysts about the Motorola Mobility business, which Google acquired for $12.5 billion in May.
Google bought Motorola Mobility primarily for its large portfolio of communications patents and its mobile phone business.
In December, Google agreed to sell the Motorola Home television set-top box business to Arris Group Inc for $2.35 billion in cash and stock.
Analysts expect Google to report adjusted earnings of $10.56 per share for the fourth quarter.
"It's a little surprising that they're doing this the Friday before the report," said Kessler. "They should have put it out a week ago if they wanted analysts to change their numbers."
(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic. Editing by Andre Grenon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-says-wall-street-estimates-adjusting-185234534--sector.html
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Friday, January 18, 2013
[Windows 8] Cumulo integrates Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box, and Sugarsync into one app
Cumulo allows integrating different cloud services, such as Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box, and SugarSync in a single and unified view. This app is very useful for people who have accounts across many different services. Cumulo is a unique app providing a game changing service.
What is it and what does it do
Main Functionality
Cumulo is an app which integrates all your cloud storage services into a unified and simple view.
Pros???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
- Integrates DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box, and SugarSync into a unified view ? download/upload files
- Provides a transfer manager to download and upload files to all registered storages
- Play video and audio files directly from the application
- Combine photos from different providers and view them in a slideshow
- Open a file using the browser
- Take photos and videos directly from the app and upload them to any provider
Cons
- Shows all storage under one folder as opposed to separate folders for each account
- The integration with Box is faulty
- Ad supported
- You can?t download whole folders
Discussion
Cumulo makes me feel like I have one big hard drive on the internet. All my fragmented cloud storage under one folder. What makes the app more awesome is it is one of the few app which provide this service. Well, to begin with it provides integration of Dropbox, SugarSync, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and Box in a unified view.
It provides a transfer manager to download and upload all files, and it has an option to open the files in a browser. Using a lot of cloud services, one of the main problems one would come across is the many folders and duplicate directories that are created across. This clears all that problems.
Also, you can directly open and play files from the app itself. You can also combine the images from all your different services and view them in a slide show. And a very useful feature is taking of photographs directly from the app itself and uploading it. Also, the usual features like sharing and searching via the charms bar is also available.
The app makes a single root directory for all drives. Instead of this if they made a separate one for each drive organization would be easy to use. Also, I had problems while using my Box account, I guess there are a few bugs that need to be ironed out.
The app is ad supported and at times it does get irritating. And in the end an option to download folders would have been great.
Conclusion and download link
Cumulo is a great app for all users who have their digital storage fragmented over the cloud. Its integration is pretty strong and supports all the major players in the game. Productivity rates are bound to shoot up after downloading. The app has a few cons but you can ignore them as they really don?t come in the way of working of the app. In the end it is a great app to download.
Price: Free
Supported OS: Windows 8, Windows RT
Supported architectures: x86, x64, ARM
Cumulo on Windows Store
About the author: Varun View all posts by Varun
Varun H Suresh is a 18 something tech blogger, avid quizzer, self proclaimed hip-hop star, and the president of Ouagadougou. Yes, he is just another random teenager on the internet.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dottechdotorg/~3/y-CmI7fc9sc/
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Australian Scientists Discover Potential Aids Cure
That about sums it up as best I can tell from the article.
Its a different approach to than that used by most of the other drugs in that (if they can be believed)
they have found one protein that is critical in many different stages in the virus life cycle.
Yet to be seen is if people can tolerate the drug, and any side effects.
I wonder if this protein is so central to HIV that it can't mutate around it, and how they can eliminate
any natural occurring versions (the ones they haven't fiddled with) of this prote
Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/4SI7zJzfz9c/story01.htm
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Union: Philly papers' owners threaten liquidation
PHILADELPHIA -- The union representing journalists at Philadelphia's two major newspapers says the papers' owners might liquidate the company if they can't get new labor contracts.
Newspaper Guild leaders are meeting Thursday with executives of the group that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
Guild officials say Interstate General Media threatened to sell assets or liquidate the company unless it gets new agreements with all 11 unions by Friday.
Ten unions have been working without contracts since October. The current Guild contract expires next October.
Several powerful local business leaders formed Interstate General Media to buy the financially troubled newspapers in April. It's the fifth company to own the media outlets since 2006.
A spokesman for Interstate did not immediately return a request for comment.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/17/3187202/union-philly-papers-owners-threaten.html
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Thursday, January 17, 2013
You Are NOT An Accountant ? But You Play One In Your Business ...
[by Kimberly Blom-Roemer]
One of the biggest dreads in my business is accounting. I hate it. I can?t even describe how much I hate it. First on my list of items to outsource IS my accounting.
But until then. I have to do it myself.
Most Important Accounting Task. Have a separate business bank account. This is of critical importance, even when just starting out. First, the IRS strongly frowns on co-mingling your personal and business finances (which degrades your credibility as a ?serious business? in an audit). But second, it makes your accounting SO MUCH easier!
Software. I use QuickBooks. This allows for direct download of all my transactions from my bank directly into the software. Score! No more data entry. It is reasonably easy to use. It also has the ability to grow with the business, unlike Quicken, IMHO.
The latest version of Quickbooks for Mac even has a feature that lets you attach scanned receipts to specific transactions within the software.? NO MORE PAPER RECEIPTS. And yes, the IRS accepts scanned receipts!
Software Set Up. My Chart of Accounts within Quickbooks (categories such as Office Supplies, Advertising, etc.) closely match the categories on the Schedule C in the tax form. This is key to keeping everything clean and simple, and the way the IRS wants to see it. It also makes doing your taxes easier.
Biggest Advice. Have a receipt for everything, period, even the tiniest expense. If you don?t have a receipt DON?T log it as a business expense. OK, that may mean you?re ?eating it? but, that is better than paying interest and penalties to the IRS if you?re audited.
Why do I say this? I was audited, for two years, at the same time. I took at $17K tax bill to $368 because I had receipts for absolutely everything, except one item. And, because I have evidence I had indeed taken the trip with the missing receipt, and I was so meticulous otherwise, I was given the benefit of the doubt. The only reason I had a bill at all is because I switch two numbers on a 1099 ? whoops.
How to Minimize the Pain. Do a little bit at a time. Monday mornings, among my other tasks, is accounting for the previous week. That sure is a whole lot better than trying to do a year?s worth in January? which inevitably slides to March? and panic and working weekends.
Kimberly Blom-Roemer is a Gulf Coast based Architectural and Aerial Photographer who wants to make sure you know that the above information is for reference only, and should not be construed as professional accounting advice. See, I can sound like I am a lawyer too!
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Home Improvement Store Worker's Purse, Car Stolen - SCV News
A structure fire was reported at Siam Rice in Canyon Country is under control and no other structures are threatened.
See the ?Home of Ramona? including the 1853 adobe, 1867 chapel and winery, 1930 schoolhouse, and beautiful grounds, and then view the 1910 silent film ?Ramona? that was filmed on location at Rancho Camulos.
Westfield LLC put its plans for a Walmart grocery store at the Valencia Town Center on hold again, when it learned the city of Santa Clarita?s planning staff was going to ask the Planning Commission to deny the project.
In February, students and community members will have the opportunity to audition their talents for a chance to be featured in the casts of three upcoming spring semester productions.
The Santa Clarita WorkSource Center is hosting a series of recruitment events this month to identify candidates for available positions with companies including LAPD, American Business Machines and Staffmark.
The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation and College of the Canyons are proud to present the 2013 Santa Clarita Valley Economic & Real Estate Outlook conference.
In this episode: Santa Clarita officials, business owners and residents joined more than 150 voices to speak out against a proposed clean water tax at a public hearing in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday; A Canyon Country restaurant literally went up in flames Tuesday morning; more.
At a public hearing of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, county residents offered strong words of protest against the proposed Los Angeles Clean Water, Clean Beaches Measure.
College of the Canyons head football coach Garett Tujague announced his resignation on Tuesday, to take the offensive line assistant coaching position at Brigham Young University.
A benefit concert organized by the friends of Sarah Alarid will be held Saturday, Jan. 19, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. at 15408 Sierra Highway in Canyon Country to continue raising funds for Alarid?s memorial service.
This week's Wendy's of Santa Clarita and SCVTV Student Athlete of the Week is Matthew Edwards of Canyon boys basketball. Matthew has a 4.3 GPA and scored 2010 on the SAT. Whether it's sports or academics, his standard is to simply try his best.
Considering the recent school tragedy in Connecticut, the five Superintendents and SCV Sheriff's Capt. Paul Becker will speak about campus safety at the SCV Education Foundation's annual "Principal for a Day" luncheon Feb. 8. The event was originally going to have an economic focus.
Investigators have determined that objective hearing screenings conducted during routine doctor visits are feasible and effective in detecting postnatal hearing loss.
When there's more than one insurance payer, certain rules determine which one pays first.
Paul Rivas, a former Hart official, died Monday in a car crash on Highway 138. He was 51.
The next Canyon Country Advisory Committee Meeting will be held Wednesday, Jan. 16, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Mint Canyon Moose Family Center Banquet Room.
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Stevenson Ranch / Westridge, Zone 3 Public Safety and Crime Prevention Info Snap Shot 01/07/2013 ? 01/13/2013. Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff?s Station Crime Prevention Unit
Flu season is upon us, though not yet in full force in California, according to the California Department of Public Health.
The William S. Hart Union High School District will hold a special meeting Wednesday regarding two programs meant to help students better prepare themselves for future careers.
The exhibit, ?Art Making for Change: NOMAD LAB,? will be on display beginning Friday, Jan. 18, through May 18.
Authorities are on the lookout for a stolen white Hyundai.
The New Year saw The ARTree guiding 5th and 6th grade students in a series of classes at the Old Town Newhall Library.
President Obama reminded the world that America does not dine and dash, and he warned Republicans not even to try.
Source: http://scvnews.com/2013/01/15/home-improvement-store-workers-purse-car-stolen/
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To supporters, Swartz was protagonist for a cause
In this Jan. 30, 2009 photo, Internet activist Aaron Swartz poses for a photo in Miami Beach, Fla. Swartz was found dead Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, according to Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for New York's medical examiner. Since his suicide, friends and admirers have eulogized the 26-year-old as a martyred hero, hounded to his death by the government he antagonized. (AP Photo/The New York Times, Michael Francis McElroy) MANDATORY CREDIT; NYC OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; TV OUT, NO ARCHIVE
In this Jan. 30, 2009 photo, Internet activist Aaron Swartz poses for a photo in Miami Beach, Fla. Swartz was found dead Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, according to Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for New York's medical examiner. Since his suicide, friends and admirers have eulogized the 26-year-old as a martyred hero, hounded to his death by the government he antagonized. (AP Photo/The New York Times, Michael Francis McElroy) MANDATORY CREDIT; NYC OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; TV OUT, NO ARCHIVE
The casket of Internet activist Aaron Swartz is wheeled to a hearse outside a synagogue in Highland Park, Ill., at his funeral Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Swartz was found dead of an apparent suicide in his New York apartment Friday, Jan 11. Since his suicide, friends and admirers have eulogized the 26-year-old as a martyred hero, hounded to his death by the government he antagonized. (AP Photo/Chicago Sun-Times, Al Podgorski) CHICAGO LOCALS OUT, MAGS OUT
This Dec. 8, 2012 photo provided by ThoughtWorks shows Aaron Swartz, in New York. Swartz, a co-founder of Reddit, hanged himself Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, in New York City. Since his suicide, friends and admirers have eulogized the 26-year-old free-information activist as a martyred hero, hounded to his death by the government he antagonized. (AP Photo/ThoughtWorks, Pernille Ironside)
BOSTON (AP) ? Since his suicide, friends and admirers have cast free-information activist Aaron Swartz as a martyred hero hounded to his death by the government he antagonized. One newspaper columnist ? whose piece on Swartz was accompanied by a photo showing him at his computer, his head encircled by a golden halo ? even compared him to an Internet-age Martin Luther King Jr.
But those closest to the 26-year-old Swartz say the hacker prodigy wasn't out to be a hero. Rather, he was a painfully shy young man who felt passionately that government and big business had hijacked the Web and hoped to make a difference.
In the end, they say, Swartz failed to fully appreciate the threat he embodied to some.
"It was an act of personal risk," said James Grimmelmann, a professor at New York Law School who had known Swartz for six years. "I don't think he understood just how much the system would come down on him over it."
Swartz, a wunderkind who helped create Reddit and RSS, the technology behind blogs, podcasts and other Web-based subscription services, was found dead Friday in his New York apartment.
Swartz's friends and family blame federal prosecutors for his suicide, saying they pursued him relentlessly in the years since he helped post millions of federal court documents for free online rather than the few cents per page charged by the government through its electronic archive. He was never indicted. But three years later, he was charged in Boston with using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer network to download nearly 5 million academic articles from an online clearinghouse for scholarly journals.
His lawyer, Elliot Peters, said prosecutors were insisting he plead guilty to all 13 felony charges and serve four to six months in prison or go to trial and face up to 35 years. Swartz rejected that offer, saying he didn't want to be branded a felon.
Since his death, his family, friends and supporters have unleashed a torrent of anger online: a petition calling on President Barack Obama to fire the federal prosecutor who charged him, a flood of copyrighted academic papers put online for anyone to see and a flurry of furious rants on Twitter. Though even some of his supporters say they believe Swartz broke the law, they say the penalties for a crime they equate with trespassing are inordinately harsh.
This much is certain, though: Regardless of how he may have viewed himself, in death Swartz has become the face of a raging debate over how hard the government treats electronic protests in the Internet age.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann, the lead prosecutor on the case, have not commented publicly on the anger directed at them over Swartz's suicide. But in a news release at the time of Swartz's indictment, Ortiz defended the charges.
"Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars," she said. "It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away."
Robert Swartz, who said at his son's funeral that he was "killed by the government," said in a later interview that his son occasionally got depressed but was never diagnosed with clinical depression and never took medication for it. The suicide, he said, was "due to the fact that he was put under relentless, incredible pressure."
Whether Swartz broke the law or not, many supporters see him as their protagonist, a modern-day leader of the "free culture" movement to make information available on the Internet at no charge.
"This crime had no victims. He wasn't ever intending to profit in ANY way, not one penny," said Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian who had communicated with Swartz online over the years. "It was really just a political act to protest a system in pursuit of a noble cause. ... I mean, the idea that he needs to be locked up in a prison as a menace to society is just obscene."
Greenwald called Swartz "heroic" and even compared him to King, the late civil rights leader.
"I think when you engage in civil disobedience, you make a calculation about the price that you're likely to have to pay," Greenwald, a former litigator, said in a telephone interview from his home in Brazil.
Some kind of punishment "is an important part of the social process," he acknowledged ? but not as much as Swartz faced.
Journalist Juan Williams, the author of several books on the civil rights movement, said the comparison with King only goes so far.
"I think that Mr. Swartz IS a King-like figure for this generation in the sense that he was willing to challenge what he viewed as unjust laws," Williams said. "Where the analogy breaks down for me is that ... (Swartz) did not understand that in taking up this fight and bearing THIS cross, he was going to expose himself to tremendous political and emotional cost."
Swartz's family said he never thought of himself that way and may have cringed at such comparisons. His girlfriend, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, would disagree with the characterization of what he was trying to do in the case of the online academic clearinghouse, known as JSTOR.
"I don't think that Aaron believed he committed any crime," she said. "I think Aaron would have under some circumstances engaged in civil disobedience, but this wasn't one of those cases."
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, who had known and admired Swartz for more than a decade, agreed with Swartz's father.
"He was impatient to achieve something," said Lessig, faculty director of Harvard's Safra Center for Ethics, where Swartz was once a fellow.
Lessig said he was confident that Swartz was "surprised by the extremeness of their characterization of what happened" in the JSTOR case.
"So, unlike Martin Luther King, who might have been marching into Bull Connor's dogs, I don't think everything here was completely obvious," Lessig said. "But I'm sure he understood here that he was undertaking a significant risk."
Joel Tenenbaum, a former Boston University student who was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America and ordered to pay $675,0000 for illegally downloading and sharing songs on the Internet, says he empathized with Swartz.
"If you double-park your car, the worst you expect is to have your car towed and have to pay a couple of hundred dollars," he said. "You don't expect to lose your car over it. You don't expect to be put in prison for it."
Lessig said Swartz couldn't conceive of why the government would consider him enough of a threat to warrant special attention. And his failure to appreciate his symbolic value, Lessig said, "might have led him to be more reckless than he otherwise would have been."
"His naivete was a vice," Lessig said. "But it was a vice of the best possible kind."
"I think he would be completely astonished ... at the action that his death has provoked," Lessig said. "And I certainly think a deeper appreciation of the love of the Net for him would have made it harder for him to take the ultimate step that he did."
___
AP National Writer Allen G. Breed reported from Raleigh, N.C.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Cervical Cancer: Prevention and Treatment
? S M T W T F S ? 30
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- Cancer Support Group
- Duke Weight Loss Surgery Seminar - Raleigh
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- Breast Cancer Support Group
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- Gynecologic Oncology Support Group
- Cervical Cancer: Prevention and Treatment
- Pre-Operative Orthopaedic Surgery Class
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- Brain Aneurysm Support Group
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- Lung Cancer Survivorship Clinic
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Friday, January 11, 2013
Oscar Nominations 2013: Sundance-Endorsed Films Nab 13 Nods ...
The Oscar nominations are in, and although some members of Hollywood are feeling the biting chill of the Academy's cold shoulder (cough, Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow, cough), there are certainly more than a few institutions who have cause to celebrate. One among them -- the Sundance Film Festival.
The morning's announcement's included 13 nods for Sundance-endorsed films, including last year's bayou-inspired drama, "Beasts of the Southern Wild." The movie, which premiered at the Utah-based festival in 2012, received four nominations in total including Best Picture, Best Director (Benh Zeitlin), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Quvenzhan? Wallis).
The Sundance emblem was most visible in the Best Documentary Feature category, however. "How to Survive a Plague," a powerful portrait of AIDS activists coalescing to fight for their lives, and "The Invisible Men," a story of two gay Palestinians seeking refuge in Tel Aviv, are both award contenders with roots in Sundance's 2012 Documentary Film Program. Two other documentaries, "5 Broken Cameras" and "Searching for Sugar Man" hit the circuit in 2012, while the final selection, "The Gatekeepers," will run at the festival this year.
Other Sundance-supported nominations include "No" for Best Foreign Language Film, "Open Heart" for Best Documentary -- Short, "Chasing Ice" for Best Original Song ("Before My Time"), and "The Sessions" for Best Actress in a Supportive Role (Helen Hunt).
Related on HuffPost:
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/oscar-nominations-2013-su_n_2450010.html
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Thursday, January 10, 2013
Native Canadians could block development, chief warns
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Native Canadians are so angry that they could resort to blocking resource development and bring the economy "to its knees" unless the Conservative government addresses their grievances, an influential chief said on Thursday.
Native Canadian chiefs are due to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday to discuss the poor living conditions facing many of Canada's 1.2 million aboriginals.
"We have had enough. Our young people have had enough. Our women have had enough ... . We have nothing left to lose," said Grand Chief Derek Nepinak from the province of Manitoba.
Activists have already blockaded some rail lines and threatened to close Canada's borders with the United States in a campaign they call "Idle No More."
Canada has 633 separate native "bands," each of which have their own communities and lands, and not all share the same opinions. The chief of the Assembly of First Nations, the aboriginal umbrella group, said his members had come to a tipping point, but he made no mention of damaging the economy.
"You cannot ignore what is happening with Idle No More... We will drive the final stake in the heart of colonialism and it will happen in this generation," Shawn Atleo told a separate news conference.
"First Nations are not opposed to resource development, they are just not supportive of development at any cost," he said.
Native Canadian leaders say they want more federal money, a greater say over what happens to resources on their land and more respect from the federal Conservative government.
"These are demands, not requests," said Nepinak. "The Idle No More movement has the people - it has the people and the numbers - that can bring the Canadian economy to its knees. It can stop Prime Minister Stephen Harper's resource development plan," Nepinak told reporters in Ottawa.
"We have the warriors that are standing up now, that are willing to go that far. So we're not here to make requests, we're here to demand attention," he said.
Aboriginal bands are unhappy about Enbridge Inc's plans to build a pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the Pacific province of British Columbia, and some say they will not allow the project to go ahead.
Some aboriginal bands oppose the Enbridge pipeline on the grounds that it is too environmentally dangerous while others say the company did not do enough to consult them before applying for permission to go ahead with the project.
"DIPLOMATIC HAND"
Nepinak said he wants to extend a "diplomatic hand" toward resolving the issues and gave no details about what he meant by bringing the economy to its knees.
Nepinak and other Manitoba chiefs are also demanding that Ottawa rescind parts of two recent budget acts they say reduce environmental protection for lakes and rivers, and make it easier to sell lands on the reserves where many natives live.
"We've been working tirelessly to gain access through various channels into this Harper regime ... . How do we trust the words of this prime minister?" Nepinak asked.
Successive Canadian governments have struggled for decades to improve the life of aboriginals.
Ottawa spends around C$11 billion ($11.1 billion) a year on its aboriginal population, yet living conditions for many are poor, particularly for those on reserves with high rates of poverty, addiction, joblessness and suicide.
As part of the Idle No More campaign, protesters blocked a Canadian National Railway Co line in Sarnia, Ontario, in late December and early January.
($1=$0.99 Canadian)
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway, Xavier Briand and David Brunnstrom)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/angry-canada-natives-could-block-development-172701390.html
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Despite Recent Losses, India Has an Edge in Upcoming Cricket Series
| Coordinates | 46?07?58?N64?46?17?N |
|---|---|
| Native name | Bh?rat Ga?ar?jya |
| Conventional long name | Republic of India |
| Common name | India |
| Alt flag | Horizontal tricolour flag bearing, from top to bottom, deep saffron, white, and green horizontal bands. In the centre of the white band is a navy-blue wheel with 24 spokes. |
| Image coat | Emblem of India.svg |
| Alt coat | Three lions facing left, right, and toward viewer, atop a frieze containing a galloping horse, a 24-spoke wheel, and an elephant. Underneath is a motto: "??????? ????". |
| Symbol type | Emblem |
| National motto | "Satyameva Jayate"?(Sanskrit)"Truth Alone Triumphs" |
| National anthem | |
| Other symbol type | National song: |
| Other symbol | Vande Mataram"I Bow to Thee, Mother".}} |
India (), officially the Republic of India (), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;.}} China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four world religions?Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism?originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
The Indian economy is the world's tenth-largest by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies; it is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks ninth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
Etymology
The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (?????), which translates as "the people of the Indus". The geographical term Bharat (), which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in various subtle guises. The eponym of Bharat is Bharata, a mythological figure that Hindu scriptures describe as a legendary emperor of ancient India. Hindustan () was originally a Persian word that meant "Land of the Hindus"; prior to 1947, it referred to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan. It is occasionally used to solely denote India in its entirety.
History
Ancient India
The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in South Asia date from approximately 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. Around 7000 BCE, the first known Neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan. These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia; it flourished during 2500?1900?BCE in Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.During the period 2000?500 BCE, in terms of culture, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In southern India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.
In the late Vedic period, around the 5th century BCE, the small chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas. The emerging urbanisation and the orthodoxies of this age also created the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism, both of which became independent religions. Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India. Jainism came into prominence around the same time during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira. In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal, and both established long-lasting monasteries. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire. The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas. The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.
The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia. In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created in the greater Ganges Plain a complex system of administration and taxation that became a model for later Indian kingdoms. Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself. The renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite. Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.
Medieval India
The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan. When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal. When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south. No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region. During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes. The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language. They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent. Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised, drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well. Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation. By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Java. Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.
After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206. The sultanate was to control much of North India, and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs. By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north. The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire. Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India, and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.
Early modern India
In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers, fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors. The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status. The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency, caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion, resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture. Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.
By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts. The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; both these factors were crucial in allowing the Company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies. Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s. India was now no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British empire with raw materials, and many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period. By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and itself effectively made an arm of British administration, the Company began to more consciously enter non-economic arenas such as education, social reform, and culture.
Modern India
Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company rule in India set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes?among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph?were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe. However, disaffection with the Company also grew during this time, and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule. Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and to the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest. In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.
The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks?many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets. There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines, and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians. There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption. The railway network provided critical famine relief, notably reduced the cost of moving goods, and helped nascent Indian-owned industry. After World War I, in which some one million Indians served, a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a non-violent movement of non-cooperation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol. During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections. The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-cooperation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the bloody partition of the subcontinent into two states: India and Pakistan.
Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic. In the 60 years since, India has had a mixed record of successes and failures. It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an activist Supreme Court, and a largely independent press. Economic liberalisation, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. Yet, India has also been weighed down by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban; by religious and caste-related violence; by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies; and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India . It has unresolved territorial disputes with China, which escalated into the Sino-Indian War of 1962; and with Pakistan, which flared into wars fought in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. The India?Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998. India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's new nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved.
Geography
India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent and lies atop the minor Indian tectonic plate, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Australian Plate. India's defining geological processes commenced 75 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift across the then-unformed Indian Ocean that lasted fifty million years. The subcontinent's subsequent collision with, and subduction under, the Eurasian Plate bore aloft the planet's highest mountains, the Himalayas. They abut India in the north and the north-east. In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that has gradually filled with river-borne sediment; it now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain. To the west lies the Thar Desert, which is cut off by the Aravalli Range.
The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, which is the oldest and geologically most stable part of India; it extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east. To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats; the plateau contains the nation's oldest rock formations, some of them over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6? 44' and 35? 30' north latitude and 68? 7' and 97? 25' east longitude.
India's coastline measures in length; of this distance, belong to peninsular India and to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains. According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.
Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal. Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient often leads to severe floods and course changes. Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal; and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea. Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh. India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.
The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons. The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes. The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall. Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.
Biodiversity
mod 3}} |0= |1= |2= }} India lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and contains three biodiversity hotspots. One of 17 megadiverse countries, it hosts 8.6% of all mammalian, 13.7% of all avian, 7.9% of all reptilian, 6% of all amphibian, 12.2% of all piscine, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species. Endemism is high among plants, 33%, and among ecoregions such as the shola forests. Habitat ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and North-East India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India; the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain. Under 12% of India's landmass bears thick jungle. The medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies, is a key Indian tree. The luxuriant pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.mod 1}} |0= }}
Many Indian species descend from taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated more than 105 million years before present. Peninsular India's subsequent movement towards and collision with the Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of species. Epochal volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago forced a mass extinction. Mammals then entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the rising Himalaya. Thus, while 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians are endemic, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are. Among them are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and Beddome's toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened species, or 2.9% of endangered forms. These include the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which, by ingesting the carrion of diclofenac-laced cattle, nearly went extinct.
The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988. India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.
Politics
India is the world's most populous democracy. A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system, it has six recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 40 regional parties. The Congress is considered centre-left or "liberal" in Indian political culture, and the BJP centre-right or "conservative". For most of the period between 1950?when India first became a republic?and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP, as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the centre.
In the Republic of India's first three general elections, in 1951, 1957, and 1962, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress won easy victories. On Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own unexpected death in 1966, by Indira Gandhi, who went on to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted just over three years. Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who won an easy victory in the general elections later that year. The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that government too proved relatively short-lived: it lasted just under two years. Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. But the Congress, as the largest single party, was able to form a minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.
A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external support. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first non-Congress, coalition government to complete a five-year term. In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming another successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer required external support from India's communist parties. That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term.
Government
India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which "majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the federal government and the states. The government abides by constitutional checks and balances. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weak states, has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.
The federal government comprises three branches: Executive: The President of India is the head of state and is elected indirectly by a national electoral college for a five-year term. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power. Appointed by the president, the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. The executive branch of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Council of Ministers?the cabinet being its executive committee?headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and his council directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. Legislative: The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. It operates under a Westminster-style parliamentary system and comprises the upper house called the Rajya Sabha ("Council of States") and the lower called the Lok Sabha ("House of the People"). The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that has 245 members who serve in staggered six-year terms. Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state's share of the national population. All but two of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent individual constituencies via five-year terms. The remaining two members are nominated by the president from among the Anglo-Indian community, in case the president decides that they are not adequately represented. Judicial: India has a unitary three-tier independent judiciary that comprises the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 21 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre; it has appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts. It has the power both to declare the law and to strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution. The Supreme Court is also the ultimate interpreter of the constitution.
Subdivisions
India is a federation composed of 28 states and 7 union territories. All states, as well as the union territories of Pondicherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. Since then, their structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts. The districts in turn are further divided into tehsils and ultimately into villages.States {| |- | # Andhra Pradesh # Arunachal Pradesh # Assam # Bihar # Chhattisgarh # Goa # Gujarat # Haryana # Himachal Pradesh |
- Jammu and Kashmir
- Jharkhand
- Karnataka
- Kerala
- Madhya Pradesh
- Maharashtra
- Manipur
- Meghalaya
- Mizoram |
- Nagaland
- Orissa
- Punjab
- Rajasthan
- Sikkim
- Tamil Nadu
- Tripura
- Uttar Pradesh
- Uttarakhand
- West Bengal |}
Union territories {| |- |
- A. Andaman and Nicobar Islands B. Chandigarh C. Dadra and Nagar Haveli D. Daman and Diu E. Lakshadweep F. National Capital Territory of Delhi G. Pondicherry
Foreign relations and military
Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relations with most nations. In the 1950s, it strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia and played a lead role in the Non-Aligned Movement. In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the invitation of neighbouring countries: a peace-keeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent a coup d'?tat attempt in Maldives. India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India's support for the independence of Bangladesh. After waging the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 war with Pakistan, India pursued close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.
Aside from ongoing strategic relations with Russia, India has wide-ranging defence relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organisation. The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other multilateral forums. India has close economic ties with South America, Asia, and Africa; it pursues a "Look East" policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.
China's nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out further underground testing in 1998. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory. India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "minimum credible deterrence" doctrine. It is developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, in collaboration with Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet. Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.
Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military cooperation with the United States and the European Union. In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce. As a consequence, India became the sixth de facto nuclear weapons state. India subsequently signed cooperation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with 1.6 million active troops, they compose the world's third-largest military. It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force; auxiliary organisations include the Strategic Forces Command and three paramilitary groups: the Assam Rifles, the Special Frontier Force, and the Indian Coast Guard. The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP. For the fiscal year spanning 2012?2013, US$40.44 billion was budgeted. According to a 2008 SIPRI report, India's annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion, In 2011, the annual defence budget increased by 11.6%, although this does not include funds that reach the military through other branches of government. As of 2012, India is the world's largest arms importer; between 2007 and 2011, it accounted for 10% of funds spent on international arms purchases. Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.
Economy
mod 8}} |0= |1= |2= |3= |4= |5= |6= |7= }}According to the World Bank, as of 2011, the Indian economy is nominally worth US$1.848 trillion; it is the tenth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is, at US$4.457 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity, or PPP. With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011?12, India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies. However, the country ranks 140th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 129th in GDP per capita at PPP. Until 1991, all Indian governments followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy; since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system by emphasizing both foreign trade and direct investment inflows. India's recent economic model is largely capitalist. India has been a member of WTO since 1 January 1995.
The 487.6-million worker Indian labour force is the world's second-largest, as of 2011. The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software. In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985. In 2008, India's share of world trade was 1.68%; In 2011, India was the world's tenth-largest importer and the nineteenth-largest exporter. Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, jewelry, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures. Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals. Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.
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Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years prior to 2007, India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century. Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030. Though ranking 51st in global competitiveness, India ranks 17th in financial market sophistication, 24th in the banking sector, 44th in business sophistication, and 39th in innovation, ahead of several advanced economies, as of 2010. With 7 of the world's top 15 information technology outsourcing companies based in India, the country is viewed as the second-most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States, as of 2009. India's consumer market, currently the world's eleventh-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030.
India's telecommunication industry, the world's fastest-growing, added 227 million subscribers during the period 2010?11. Its automotive industry, the world's second fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009?10, and exports by 36% during 2008?09. Power capacity is 250 gigawatts, of which 8% is renewable. The Pharmaceutical industry in India is among the significant emerging markets for global pharma industry. The Indian pharmaceutical market is expected to reach $ 48.5 billion by 2020. India's R & D spending constitutes 60% of Biopharmaceutical industry. India is among the top 12 Biotech destinations of the world. At the end of 2011, Indian IT Industry employed 2.8 million professionals, generated revenues close to US$100 billion equaling 7.5% of Indian GDP and contributed 26% of India's merchandize exports.
Despite impressive economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-economic challenges. India contains the largest concentration of people living below the World Bank's international poverty line of US$1.25 per day, the proportion having decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005. Half of the children in India are underweight, and 46% of children under the age of three suffer from malnutrition. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates. Since 1991, economic inequality between India's states has consistently grown: the per-capita net state domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times that of the poorest. Corruption in India is perceived to have increased significantly, with one report estimating the illegal capital flows since independence to be US$462 billion. Driven by growth, India's nominal GDP per capita has steadily increased from US$329 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,265 in 2010, and is estimated to increase to US$2,110 by 2016; however, it has always remained lower than those of other Asian developing countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is expected to remain so in the near future.
According to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, India's GDP at purchasing power parity could overtake that of the United States by 2045. During the next four decades, Indian GDP is expected to grow at an annualised average of 8%, making it potentially the world's fastest-growing major economy until 2050. The report highlights key growth factors: a young and rapidly growing working-age population; growth in the manufacturing sector due to rising education and engineering skill levels; and sustained growth of the consumer market driven by a rapidly growing middle class. The World Bank cautions that, for India to achieve its economic potential, it must continue to focus on public sector reform, transport infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, education, energy security, and public health and nutrition.
Citing persistent inflation pressures, weak public finances, limited progress on fiscal consolidation and ineffectiveness of the government, rating agency Fitch revised India's Outlook to Negative from Stable on 18 June 2012. Another credit rating agency S&P had warned previously that a slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to economic policy-making could put India at the risk of losing its investment grade rating. However, Moody didn't revise its outlook on India keeping it stable, but termed the national government as the "single biggest drag" on the business activity.
Demographics
With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census, India is the world's second-most populous country. Its population grew at 1.76% per annum during 2001?2011, down from 2.13% per annum in the previous decade (1991?2001). The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males. The median age was 24.9 in the 2001 census. Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the "Green Revolution" have caused India's population to grow rapidly. India continues to face several public health-related challenges. According to the World Health Organisation, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water or breathing polluted air. There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians. The number of Indians living in urban areas has grown by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001. Yet, in 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas. According to the 2001 census, there are 27 million-plus cities in India; among them Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad are the most populous metropolitan areas. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males. Kerala is the most literate state; Bihar the least.
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India is home to two major language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman language families. India has no national language. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government. English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language"; it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 21 "scheduled languages". The Constitution of India recognises 212 scheduled tribal groups which together constitute about 7.5% of the country's population. The 2001 census reported that Hinduism, with over 800 million adherents (80.5% of the population), was the largest religion in India; it is followed by Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%), Jainism (0.4%), Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Bah?'? Faith. India has the world's largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bah?'? populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population and the largest Muslim population for a non-Muslim majority country.
Culture
mod 8}} |0= |1= |2= |3= |4= |5= |6= |7= }}Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years. During the Vedic period (c. 1700?500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dh?rma, k?rma, y?ga, and mok?a, were established. India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions. The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement, and by Buddhist philosophy.
Art and architecture
Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles. Vernacular architecture is also highly regional in it flavours. Vastu shastra, literally "science of construction" or "architecture" and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan, explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings; it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs. As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the "absolute". The Taj Mahal, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage." Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.Literature
The earliest literary writings in India, composed between 1400 BCE and 1200 CE, were in the Sanskrit language. Prominent works of this Sanskrit literature include epics such as the Mah?bh?rata and the Ramayana, the dramas of K?lid?sa such as the Abhij??na??kuntalam (The Recognition of ?akuntal?), and poetry such as the Mah?k?vya. Developed between 600 BCE and 300 CE in South India, the Sangam literature, consisting of 2,381 poems, is regarded as a predecessor of Tamil literature. From the 14th to the 18th centuries, India's literary traditions went through a period of drastic change because of the emergence of devotional poets such as Kab?r, Tuls?d?s, and Guru N?nak. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions. In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of Bengali poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore.Performing Arts
mod 8}} |0= |1= |2= |3= |4= |5= |6= |7= }}Indian music ranges over various traditions and regional styles. Classical music encompasses two genres and their various folk offshoots: the northern Hindustani and southern Carnatic schools. Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. Among the better-known folk dances are the bhangra of the Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the chhau of West Bengal and Jharkhand, sambalpuri of Orissa, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and the lavani of Maharashtra. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Orissa, and the sattriya of Assam. Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue. Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances or social and political events, Indian theatre includes the bhavai of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, tamasha of Maharashtra, burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka.
Motion Pictures
The Indian film industry produces the world's most-watched cinema. Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu languages. South Indian cinema attracts more than 75% of national film revenue. Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 as a state-run medium of communication, and had slow expansion for more than two decades. The state monopoly on television broadcast ended in 1990s and, since then, satellite channels have increasingly shaped popular culture of Indian society. Today, television is the most penetrative media in India; industry estimates indicate that as of 2012 there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite and/or cable connections, compared to other forms of mass media suSource: http://article.wn.com/view/2013/01/10/Despite_Recent_Losses_India_Has_an_Edge_in_Upcoming_Cricket_/
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