23rd November 2016
Asia, the largest continent on Earth, has a total land area of 44,579,000 square kilometers. It constitutes 30 per cent of the total available land area. The continent tops the list even in terms of population. More than 4.1 billion people reside in Asia, which is 60 per cent of the entire global population, with a population density of 87 persons per square kilometer.
20th October 2016
Pulses and beans, belonging to the legume family, are responsible for feeding majority of the world’s poor. Grown abundantly in the tropics, they are cheap, high in nutrient content, and healthy. Beans are an important source of proteins, complex carbohydrates, and micronutrients. People in sub-Saharan Africa consume as much as 66 kilograms of pulses per person per year. Legumes are also necessary to sustain farming systems. They help in replenishing lost nutrients in the soil, thus cutting down on the need to use chemical fertilizers. In addition, they provide rich fodder for farm animals.
23rd September 2016
Cotton gets its name from the Arabic word ‘qutun’, which means fine textile or fabric. Archaeologists have found samples of cotton fabric, as old as 7000 years, at the sites of ancient civilizations, such as Mohenjo Daro, Egypt, and Mexico. Nonetheless, it is difficult to determine the exact period or place when cotton was first used for fabric. Around 2500 BC, Indus Valley civilization had begun cultivating cotton. The oldest cotton balls, discovered in Mexican caves, date back to 5500 BC. Cotton cloths have also been found in graves at ancient burial sites during certain excavations.
30th June 2016
Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Tea originated in China, and the modern form of tea taken with milk was developed by the British in India. The British started tea plantations in Assam and Darjeeling in the nineteenth century. Today, India is the second largest tea producer in the world after China.
20th April 2016
Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than 1 billion people and is the most spoken language worldwide. It is the official language of China, Taiwan and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. English is the second most spoken language with 512 million native speakers.
18th March 2016
On 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, China, a devastating earthquake took place. It was the era of the Ming Dynasty. Most of the people were living in artificial caves at that time. The epicentre of the earthquake was the Wei River Valley in Shaanxi Province. More than 8,30,000 people got killed as the artificial caves collapsed. Places as far as 500 kilometres from the epicentre were affected.