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.
18th October 2016
The Reserve Bank of India, on June 19, 2014, declared that residents and non-residents, except individuals from Pakistan and Bangladesh, would be allowed to carry up to Rs 25,000 when exiting the country. This was a major shift from the earlier limit of Rs 10,000 that was allowed only to residents of India. In 2013, the RBI had issued a directive that prohibited non-resident Indians (NRIs) and foreign nationals from carrying any amount of Indian currency out of the country.
6th October 2016
The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) came into being on 26th September 1985, by replacing its earlier counterpart – the Ministry of Education. In the present day, the MHRD is in charge of two departments:
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.
22nd September 2016
Ancient Indian mathematician Baudhayana is perhaps the first person to calculate the value of ‘pi’. In his text Baudhayana Shulba Sutra, he mentions that the perimeter of the pit is thrice its diameter, so the approximate value of π is 3.