Saturday, 17 March 2012

Scotland Vis a Vis UK

              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy

                   Hyd



What is the position of Scotland vis a vis UK??

Scotland is a part of the United Kingdom. 

Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest.

In addition to the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Edinburgh, the country's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. 

Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.

The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707, although it had been in a personal union with the kingdoms of England and Ireland since James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English and Irish thrones in 1603. On 1 May 1707, Scotland entered into an incorporating political union with England to create the united Kingdom of Great Britain. This union resulted from theTreaty of Union agreed in 1706 and enacted by the twin Acts of Union passed by the Parliaments of both countries, despite widespread protest across Scotland.

 Scotland's legal system continues to be separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in public and in private law.
The continued existence of legal, educational and religious institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the Union

 In 1999, a devolved legislature, the Scottish Parliament, was founded with authority over many areas of home affairs following a successful referendum in 1997.  In 2011 the scottish national party won an overall majority in parliament and intends to hold a referendum on independence in the autumn of 2014

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

IROM SHARMILA OR IRON SHARMILA???

              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy

                   Hyd




Activist Irom Sharmila's mother (right) cries as her daughter is being arrested from a protest venue, in Imphal. Photo: PTI
PTIActivist Irom Sharmila
Irom Sharmila,  has been on an indefinite fast for the past 11 years, was today re-arrested on the charge of attempt to suicide, only a day after she was released.
Ms. Sharmila has been arrested, released and re-arrested for not eating over the last 11 years. She is being nasal fed forcibly at the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences.
Every fortnight she is taken to the magistrate and as she refuses to break her fast, the court extends her judicial remand for another 15 days
Ms. Sharmila is on fast demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. Under Section 309 of the IPC, the maximum punishment for trying to commit suicide is one year. Therefore, she is released once every year, only to be re-arrested for continuing the fast.
Meanwhile, to mark her birthday tomorrow, her supporters and family members have planned to light candles in all districts.

SAMOA JUMPS WEST OF INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE

              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy

                   Hyd


Samoa Sacrifices a Day for Its Future



The time change, officially decided in June, is meant to align Samoa with its Asian trading partners; it moves the islands’ work days further from the United States, which dominated its economy in the past.
In this giant-step version of daylight saving time, the island’s 186,000 citizens, and the 1,500 who live in Tokelau, will go to sleep on Thursday and wake up on Saturday. The government has decreed that those who miss a day of work on Friday will be paid all the same.
Samoa has been out of alignment with its Asian-Pacific neighbors since 1892, when American traders persuaded it in 1892 to shift from the western side to the eastern side of the international date line to facilitate business with the West Coast of the United States. That earlier shift took place on the American Independence Day — so the Samoans could celebrate July 4 twice. This one takes place at the stroke of midnight, so that two minutes after 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 29, it will be 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 31. The new time zone will put Samoa 3 hours ahead of eastern Australia rather than 21 hours behind it, and 22 hours ahead of California, instead of 2 hours behind it.
The prime minister of Samoa, Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi, acknowledged the new distance from the American orbit but said the move would make it much easier to do business with Australia and New Zealand, whose economies are linked increasingly with the rest of Asia, particularly China.
“In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we’re losing out on two working days a week,” Mr. Tuila’epa said. “While it’s Friday here, it’s Saturday in New Zealand, and when we’re at church on Sunday, they’re already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane.”
“Today,” the statement said bluntly, “we do a lot more business with New Zealand and Australia, China and Pacific Rim countries such as Singapore.”
Two years ago Samoa took a step to align itself with Australia and New Zealand, putting drivers on the left side of the road rather than the right. The prime minister said the change would make it easier for Samoans in those neighboring nations to send used cars home to their relatives.
Shifting time by decree is not a new phenomenon in the Pacific. At the recent turn of the century, in a bid to be the first to greet the dawn in what was called the new millennium, Pacific island nations engaged in a free-for all of shifting time zones, date lines and daylight saving times.
The date line, created at an international convention in 1884, is an imaginary line drawn roughly north to south along the 180-degree meridian, zigging and zagging here and there to accommodate the needs and demands of the nations along its route.
Moving westward across the date line, a traveler loses a day, moving to a point where it is 24 hours later. Moving eastward, a day is gained.
As the year 2000 approached, the island nation of Kiribati (32 atolls and one coral island) unilaterally extended the date line in a 1,000-mile loop to embrace its easternmost outcropping, Caroline Island. Tonga and Fiji introduced daylight saving time to move their clocks an hour ahead.
“There seems to be no legal reason why any country cannot declare itself to be in whatever time zone it likes,” said the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the international arbiter of official time, in a premillennium statement.
The Samoan prime minister insisted that this week’s hop across the date line was prompted solely by economic realities and that it had nothing to do with a bid to be the first place in the world to greet the new year in 2012.
American Samoa, less than 100 miles to the east of Samoa, is not making the switch.

Saturday, 10 March 2012

DRAVID 'THE WALL'

              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy
                   Hyd



Hey, Rahul, here's the 'keeper's gloves. Hey, Rahul, will you open the innings today? But, no, Rahul, wait a minute ... maybe you can bat at No. 4. Hey, hold it. What about No. 6?  No other player as good as Dravid has ever been “used”' with such cruel disregard for the man's self-respect in the entire history of Indian cricket. But these things hardly mattered to him. For, Dravid was the ultimate team-man in a very selfish sport and in the most selfish era in the history of professional sport.


What a man! Tenacity, courage, resourcefulness, selflessness and the willingness to sacrifice for the team's sake…the man had everything.


 Altruism is vanishingly rare in sport. But Dravid was a natural-born altruist. 




By Nirmal Shekhar
in Hindu



Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Governments Website

              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy

                   Hyd


Dear Students,

Wishes on a Wonderful Holi..
You will find a lot of relevant and useful information on the Press Information Bureau site
 should keep a track of         pib.nic.in      as it provides information from governmental activities most needed for civils aspirants like the india year book..

Monday, 5 March 2012

Is Colombo the Capital of Srilanka????

              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy

                   Hyd



Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka.

 Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo. Colombo has a population of 647,100.
 The Colombo Metropolitan Region, covers an area of 3,694.20 km².
As per the Provincial Gross Domestic Product-2010, The Western Province, which includes the cities of Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara recorded GDP per capita of USD 3,808, the highest recorded GDP per capita for any region in South Asia.
It was formerly the political capital of Sri Lanka, before Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte.
Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known to ancient traders 2,000 years ago. It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815 and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948.
 In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka.
Like many cities, Colombo's urban area extends well beyond the boundaries of a single local authority, encompassing other Municipal and Urban Councils.
Famous landmarks in Colombo include the Galle Face Green, the Viharamahadevi Park, Mount Lavinia beach as well as the National Museum

Colombo was the capital of the coastal areas controlled by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British from the 1700s to the 1815 when the British gained control of the entire island following the Kandian convention.


 From then until the 1980s the national capital of the island was Colombo.


 During the 1980s plans were made to move the administrative capital to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and thus move all governmental institutions out of Colombo to make way for commercial activities. As a primary step the Parliament was moved to a new complex in Kotte and several ministries and departments were also moved. However the move was never completed.


 Today many governmental institutions still remain in Colombo. These include the President's House, Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister's House (Temple Trees), Prime Minister's Office, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, important government ministries and departments; such as Finance (Treasury), Defence, Public Administration & Home affairs, Foreign affairs, Justice and the Military headquarters, Naval headquarters (SLNS Parakrama), Air Force headquarters (SLAF Colombo) and Police national and field force headquarters

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Jarawa Tribe in Andaman


              Phani Siddha
@ Super Sixty IAS Academy

                   Hyd

 Gethin Chamberlain, a journalist with U.K.-based The Observer , released a video showing how members of the 55,000-year-old Jarawa tribe on the Andaman Islands were being used as cheap entertainment for tourists. 

The tribe has a population of 365.

Officials pointed out that in India both the person who gives bribe and the one taking it are held guilty and punished.

a resolution was moved in the House of Commons in UK expressing concern over India's failure to close the Andaman Trunk Road that the Supreme Court had ordered closed in 2002. 

It was on this road that women were forced to perform a dance semi-nude.

The reference to the Supreme Court order (in the resolution of UK's Parl) was objected to by officials here who regarded it as interference in India's internal affairs