Bollywood Friday: Akshay Kumar's 'Khiladi 786' vs Rajat Kapoor's '10 ml Love'  

Khiladi 786 is an upcoming Bollywood action comedy film directed by Ashish R Mohan, featuring Akshay Kumar in the title role alongside Asin Thottumkal playing the female lead. The film also features Mithun Chakraborty, Raj Babbar, Paresh Rawal and Himesh Reshammiya. German model Claudia Ciesla apears in an item number Balma. It is produced by Eros International, HR Musik Limited and Hari Om Entertainment. The film marks the return of Akshay Kumar to his famous Khiladi film series after 12 years. It is the eighth installment in the Khiladi (Film Series) after Khiladi (1992), Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Sabse Bada Khiladi (1995), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi (1997), International Khiladi (1999) and Khiladi 420 (2000) with those 8 films Khiladi is considered as the biggest franchise of Bollywood. The film mostly shots in Mumbai and Punjab. The first teaser of the film unveiled on 4th October 2012. Some industry watchers expect this film to be the biggest opener of Akshay Kumar's career.[1] The full trailer was revealed on 12th November 2012, whilst the film is expected to release on 7th December 2012. The music of the film is one of the biggest chartbuster of the year. Recently for the high success of the music, the producers organised a music success party for the film.

 

Bram Stoker

 

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned. Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland.[1][2] His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), from Dublin, and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who came from Ballyshannon, a town in County Donegal. Stoker was the third of seven children, the eldest of whom was Sir Thornley Stoker, 1st Bt.[3] Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland Parish 

of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there. Stoker was bedridden until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years." He was educated in a private school run by the Rev. William Woods.[4] After his recovery, he grew up without further major health issues, even excelling as an athlete (he was named University Athlete) at Trinity College, Dublin, which he attended from 1864 to 1870. He graduated with honours as a B.A. in Mathematics. He was auditor of the College Historical Society ('the Hist') and president of the University Philosophical Society, where his first paper was on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society". Early career Stoker became interested in the theatre while a student through a friend, Dr. Maunsell. He became the theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, co-owned by the author of Gothic tales Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Theatre critics were held in low esteem but he attracted notice by the quality of his reviews. In December 1876 he gave a favourable review of Henry Irving's Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. Irving invited Stoker for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel, where he was staying. They became friends. Stoker also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock. In 1876, while a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879), which remained a standard work .[4] Furthermore, he possessed an interest in art, and was a founder of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1874.[5] Lyceum Theatre and later career Bram Stoker's former home, Kildare Street, Dublin, Ireland. In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Balcombe of 1 Marino Crescent. She was a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde.[6] Stoker had known Wilde from his student days, having proposed him for membership of the university’s Philosophical Society while he was president. Wilde was upset at Florence's decision, but Stoker later resumed the acquaintanceship, and after Wilde's fall visited him on the

  

Continent.[7] The Stokers moved to London, where Stoker became acting manager and then business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, London, a post he held for 27 years. On 31 December 1879, Bram and Florence's only child was born, a son whom they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. The collaboration with Irving was important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to whom he was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and managing one of the most successful theatres in London made Stoker a notable if busy man. He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show he idolised him. In London Stoker also met Hall Caine, who became one of his closest friends - he dedicated Dracula to him. In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker travelled the world, although he never visited Eastern Europe, a setting for his most famous novel. Stoker enjoyed the United States, where Irving was popular. With Irving he was invited twice to the White House, and knew William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Stoker set two of his novels there, using Americans as characters, the most notable being Quincey Morris. He also met one of his literary idols, Walt Whitman. The first edition cover of Dracula Writings While manager for Irving, and secretary and director of London's Lyceum Theatre, he began writing novels beginning with The Snake's Pass in 1890 and Dracula in 1897. During this period, Stoker was part of the literary staff of the London Daily Telegraph and wrote other fiction, including the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).[8] In 1906, after Irving's death, he published his life of Irving, which proved successful,[4] and managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Before writing Dracula, Stoker met Ármin Vámbéry who was a Hungarian writer and traveler. Dracula likely emerged from Vámbéry's dark stories by Carpathian mountains.[9] Stoker then spent several years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of realistic, but completely fictional, diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship's logs, and newspaper clippings, all of which added a level of detailed realism to his story, a skill he developed as a newspaper writer. At the time of its publication, Dracula was considered a "straightforward horror novel" based on imaginary creations of supernatural life.[8] "It gave form to a universal fantasy . . . and became a part of popular culture."[8] According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Stoker's stories are today included within the categories of "horror fiction," "romanticized Gothic" stories, and "melodrama."[8] They are classified alongside other "works of popular fiction" such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein[10]:394 which, according to historian Jules Zanger, also used the "myth-making" and story-telling method of having "multiple narrators" telling the same tale from different perspectives. "'They can't all be lying,' thinks the reader."[11] The original 541-page manuscript of Dracula, believed to have been lost, was found in a barn in northwestern Pennsylvania during the early 1980s.[12] It included the typed manuscript with many corrections, and handwritten on the title page was "THE UN-DEAD." The author's name was shown at the bottom as Bram Stoker. Author Robert Latham notes, "the most famous horror novel ever published, its title changed at the last minute."[10] The manuscript was purchased by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may have included a visit to Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, a visit to the crypts of St. Michan's Church in Dublin and the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.[13] Stoker's original research notes for the novel are kept by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, PA. A facsimile edition of the notes was created by Elizabeth Miller and Robert Eighteen-Bisang in 1998. Death In Golders Green After suffering a number of strokes, Stoker died at No. 26 St George's Square on 20 April 1912.[14] Some biographers attribute the cause of death to tertiary syphilis,[15] others to overwork.[16] He was cremated, and his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium. After Irving Noel Stoker's death in 1961, his ashes were added to that urn. The original plan had been to keep his parents' ashes together, but after Florence Stoker's death, her ashes were scattered at the Gardens of Rest. To visit his remains at Golders Green, visitors must be escorted to the room the urn is housed in, for fear of vandalism. Beliefs and philosophy Stoker was brought up as a Protestant, in the Church of Ireland. He was a strong supporter of the Liberal party. He took a keen interest in Irish affairs[4] and was what he called a "philosophical home ruler", believing in Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means - but as an ardent monarchist he believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire which he believed was a force for good. He was a great admirer of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, whom he knew personally, and admired his plans for Ireland.[17] Stoker had a strong interest in science and medicine and a belief in progress. Some of his novels like The Lady of the Shroud (1909) can be seen as early science fiction. Stoker had an interest in the occult especially mesmerism, but was also wary of occult fraud and believed strongly that superstition should be replaced by more scientific ideas. In the mid 1890s, Stoker is rumoured to have become a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though there is no concrete evidence to support this claim.[18][19][20] One of Stoker's closest friends was J.W. Brodie-Innis, a major figure in the Order, and Stoker himself hired Pamela Coleman Smith, as an artist at the Lyceum Theater. Posthumous

Bram Stoker Books Google Doodle [HQ] 
Password:

aajrat.blogspot.com

How to Download???

1. Click on the download links

2. Wait for few seconds and then click on

The short story collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories was published in 1914 by Stoker's widow Florence Stoker. The first film adaptation of Dracula was released in 1922 and was named Nosferatu. It was directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and starred Max Schreck as Count Orlock. Nosferatu was produced while Florence Stoker, Bram Stoker's widow and literary executrix, was still alive. Represented by the attorneys of the British Incorporated Society of Authors, she eventually sued the filmmakers. Her chief legal complaint was that she had been neither asked for permission for the adaptation nor paid any royalty. The case dragged on for some years, with Mrs. Stoker demanding the destruction of the negative and all prints of the film. The suit was finally resolved in the widow's favour in July 1925. Some copies of the film survived, however, and the film has become well known. The first authorised film version of Dracula did not come about until almost a decade later when Universal Studios released Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. Because of the Stokers' frustrating history with Dracula's copyright, a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, Canadian writer Dacre Stoker, with encouragement from screenwriter Ian Holt, decided to write "a sequel that bore the Stoker name" to "reestablish creative control over" the original novel. In 2009, Dracula: The Un-Dead was released, written by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt. Both writers "based [their work] on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition" along with their own research for the sequel. This also marked Dacre Stoker's writing debut.[21][22] In Spring 2012, Dacre Stoker, in collaboration with Prof. Elizabeth Miller, presented the "lost" Dublin Journal written by Bram Stoker, which had been kept by his great-grandson Noel Dobbs. Stoker's diary entries shed a light on the issues that concerned him before his London years. A remark about a boy who caught flies in a bottle might be a clue for the later development of the Renfield character in Dracula.[23] On the 8 November 2012, Stoker was honoured with a Google Doodle on Google's homepage commemorating his 165th Birthday.[24]

Kahaani bags Best Film Award at Fiji Film Fest

The Vidya Balan starrer Kahaani has bagged the ‘Best Film’ Award at the International Film Festival in Fiji today.

Vidya Balan in a still from Kahaani Movie

After winning accolades from the critics and doing good business at the box-office, the Sujoy Ghosh directorial venture has been named as the best film at the film festival held in Labassa. The festival, that was partnered with Indian High commission and organized by Fiji National University and Film Fiji, had opened with the screening of Kahaani.

While Raj Kumar Hirani received the ‘Best Director’ award for 3 Idiots, a special Jury Best Film award went to Kumavatara.

Who will be the Music Winner? Son Of Sardaar or Jab Tak Hai Jaan?

The war between Son Of Sardaar and Jab Tak Hai Jaan has intensified manifolds in the last few weeks. With their release date being the same, the competition has become ruthless and harsh. The publicity stunts of both the films are on a high. With the music of the films released, Koimoi brings to you a comparative of the music of the two films which are all ready to create a crackling box office dhamaka during Diwali.

When you are in Bollywood, you eventually live the Hindi cinema way! Infused with pompy songs and dance sequences, and dashing it with melodious music, it is essentially the music of the film which defines the first impression of a film on its audiences. Beat wise, both films are starkly different from each other. While, JTHJ has works of veterans like Gulzaar sahab penning down the lyrics and A.R Rahman creating music ; Son Of Sardaar is more fresh, ethnically folk based and flashy. Music of the film is by Himesh Reshammiya and Sajid Wajid.

Shah Rukh Khan from Challa Song & Katrina Kaif and Shah Rukh Khan from Saans Song in Jab Tak Hai Jaan Movie Stills

The King of Romantic Films, Yash Chopra is all set to deliver his last directorial souvenir to Bollywood with JTHJ. His films are known for its fantabulous, soothing, passionate, romantic songs; a magic he has delivered time and again with films from Silsila to Dil Toh Pagal Hai and Veer Zaara and is hoping to maintain it in JTHJ as well. Rabbi’s Challa is immensely meaningful but it takes time to catch on. Also it is not one song which you would expect from A.R Rahman, more so in a Yash Raj Chopra film. It was like a breath of fresh air and pleasantly surprising. Gulzaar’s lyrics are mesmerizing to say the least. Keeping in sync with Yash Raj style of music is Saans which has been completed with extreme finesse and perfection by singers Mohit Chauhan and Shreya Ghosal. Saans is a very deep song and these wonderful voices create magic out of it. ‘Heer’, however, is the one song which is bound to stand out this season. Gulzar has penned down the verses very meticulously and the melody which Rahman infuses in the words has a mystical haunting passion to it. The title track by Jawed Ali is simply the USP, which establishes the film as a class apart. After all, a Yash Chopra film is a Yash Chopra film. The music has all elements to be better than simply great, but when kept in comparison with previous films of YRF banner, which have been almost epic, this somewhere does seem to fall short given the heavy mammoth expectations. Now only time can mirror the verdict of fans and audiences on it!

Ajay Devgn from Son Of Sardaar Title Song & Sonakshi Sinha from Rani Mein Tu Raja Song in Son Of Sardaar (Son Of Srdar) Movie Stills

As far as Son Of Sardaar is considered, the music is in no way ordinary. It is a dash of full on Punjabi tadka served with bhangra beats on a platter of wicked music. The music is very catchy and will definitely impress people during this festive season. The film is very commercial and so is its music which might not be here to stay, but will give the audiences a good time while the party mode is on. The title track is very fiery and despite its slow nostalgia filled parts, it is a good hear. Honey Singh and Mika’s – Rani tu Main Raja- is nothing short of being a brilliant dance track. The Punjabi hip hop will blow people over on the floors. Mika’s singing has just added a brilliant flavor to the song. Bichdann by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is good and melancholic. It feels fusion like but the lyrics and the music both put together makes it an outstandingand straight-from-the-heart piece. The other song by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is an absolute disaster that doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned. Son of Sardar is an overall good album with definite potential of doing better. It’s Punjabi-ness and its dance beat kind of songs will help the album rise heights among all the festivities in the month to come.

Understanding sensibly, JTHJ will make a greater hit music wise and will stay longer in public memory for reasons, say Trade analysts. The songs are much deeper lyrically and melodiously. A.R Rahman’s music is any day much bigger and better compared to Himesh’s. The songs tell the tale of a love saga which is evident from the theatrical promos of the film. And going by the track record of Yash Chopra’s previous film which were similar plot wise, the music of JTHJ will surely perform better, but in long term. Son of Sardar, however, will be a rage all through the party season. One can hear those groovy Punjabi tracks playing in Diwali parties and at discotheques and night clubs. Punjabi-ness and Bhangra will definitely be the flavor of the month.

The so called animosity between Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn as a result of JTHJ being a close competitor of Son Of Sardaar, has manifested itself in fighting it out musically too. The albums are pitted against each other very closely. And though they are a universe apart from each other in terms of music, it would be quite curious and interesting to watch which album becomes a greater hit with people. Whether the audiences would appreciate the passion and romance in the music of JTHJ or will Son of Sardar party the bhangra style all the way to victory?

Priyanka Chopra Signs a Two Film Deal with Ekta Kapoor

Piggy Chops’ datesheet was lacking film deals despite delivering two blockbusters back to back and recently out and appreciated International Debut Album “In My City”, but now Ekta Kapoor acts her savior, offering her a two-film deal.
Ekta visualizes Priyanka in the lead opposite Imran Khan in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Milan Talkies, and additionally offers her an item song, which is a mujra, in her on the floors flick, Sanjay Gupta’s Shootout at Wadala.
This is the deemed to be Priyanka Chopra’s firsts; first time paired opposite cute, dashing and versatile, Imran Khan; and first mujra as an item song in a film (not taking into consideration the song Khudaya, alongside SRK in “Billu”). This is as the source puts the piece of news and hence confirms the signing of the deal.
Another piece of news revealed was that Priyanka’s looks for the movie will be totally out of normal and her styling would be done by International stylists, rendering PC a totally never-seen-before glamorous look.
Also for Milan Talkies, PC and Imran would be undergoing a character-acclimatization workshop to make them more grounded and familiar with their characters.
Currently PC Sr has, Apoorva Lakhia’s Zanjeer in her datebook, in which she is playing the role originally played by Jaya Bachchan in the original flick.

Today top News

Religare Health Trust aiming to raise $417.9 million through Singapore IPO

Religare Health Trust of the Indian hospital chain operator Fortis Healthcare, is aiming to raise about $417.9 million through an Initial Public Offering at the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Religare will offer 567.46 million shares and it has set an IPO price of S$0.90 per share, according to the final prospectus filed by the company with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The company will offer 555.46 million shares to institutional investors in Singapore and abroad and the remaining 12 million to the general public.

The IPO will open from 15 October to 18 October, according to the prospectus. The IPO price has been set near to the lower limit in the S$0.88-S$0.97 band set by the company. The company had earlier planned to get listed in the fourth quarter but t had to defer the decision in order to difficult market situation as well as a delay in consolidation of businesses by Fortis Healthcare.

The company is aiming to get listed and started regular share trading by 22 October. This will be the second listing of an Indian company in Singapore following Indiabulls Properties Investment Trust, which raised about $165 million in 2009

More HDB flats built for singles in Singapore

Khaw Boon Wan, the National Development Minister of Singapore has said in a reply to a query in the Parliament that more Housing Board (HDB) flats in the country are being built for singles.
Mr Khaw said that the number has been increased a bit to cater to the singles. He said that the National Development Ministery is still determining the exact number of flats to set aside for singles in the country. According to current regulations, singles can purchase only resale HDB flats and they are required to be above the age of 35 years.
He had earlier indicated that even if singles are allowed to buy houses, rules would remain the same. Singles will have be above the age of 35 years and will not be allowed to sublet them. Single buyers will only be able to buy smaller BTO plats.
Mr Khaw added that the ministry officials will gather views and suggestions over eh matter and release more details in the coming year. He informed the parliament that the number of new flats each year has been meeting the demands of new families. He said that the supply was able to match the 15,000 marriages involving Singapore citizens a yea
NZ Bus staff votes down pay offer


The staff members of NZ Bus have voted down a new pay offer agreed to by the company after it was negotiated with the union representatives.
Unions informed the company that the new deal received the approval of only 50 per cent, which is below the 60 per cent required to accept and ratify the deal. The company has said that it has already agreed with unions on a new pay offer two times and both the times the offer was not approved by the union members.
The company says it is aiming to continue trying to conclude the bargaining and added that it had offered a fair deal to the unions. It is believed that the bus services in Auckland will be further affected due to the fallout of the latest voting down of the deal by the staff members.
"The union executive have unanimously recommended the deal and over 50 per cent of the drivers want to accept. At some point we need to move forward as a business," said NZ Bus Chief Operating Officer Shane McMahon. He also pointed out that the deal would have resulted in members being paid $20 hour next November making them amongst the highest paid in Auckland.
First Union spokesman Karl Andersen said that the union will send another notice of industrial action by the staff members.
UK’s consumer price inflation recorded at 2.2 percent in September

According to the latest figures released by the government, UK's consumer price inflation was recorded at 2.2 percent during the month of September.
The Office for National Statistics showed the inflation in September was the lowest since November 2009. The consumer price inflation was recorded at 2.5 percent in August 2012. Analysts believe that the inflation remains moderate because gas and electricity prices had been increased sharply during the previous year. The consumer price inflation for September remained flatter because electricity prices had driven the inflation to a high of 5.2 percent in September 2011.
The Bank of England and the government have been hoping for the inflation to fall so as to leave the people with more money to spend and support the economic growth. , the family income level in the UK has increased at its slowest pace since December 2010 and people faced increasing difficulties due to an increase in spending. The family income increased by 1.7 per cent while costs increased at a much faster rate.
The electricity bills are now 8 percent higher than the previous year while the spending on essential items grew at 3.3 per cent compared to the year earlier, according to Lloyds TSB spending report for September. The government is concerned that inflation index might increase because four of UK's largest energy suppliers are expected to increase power costs by about 6 to 9 percent.

 

Google launches free SMS service via Google Talk in India

Low on phone balance? No worries! Search giant Google has started rolling out free SMS service for Gmail users in India that permits them to text their contacts via Gmail chat window. according to Google, the service is supports Aircel, Idea, Loop Mobile, MTS, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo GSM, Tata Docomo CDMA and Vodafone in some circles (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gujarat, A.P, Bihar, W.B. & A & N, Assam, N.E.). Amazingly, India�s largest carrier, Airtel, and government-owned MTNL and BSNL are missing from the list. 

Users get fifty credits everyday and every credit is equal to one outgoing text message. If somebody replies to the message, it pops informed Google talk itself instead of the phone. Users get five credits for each reply they get to messages sent from this service. However, it doesn't send messages to numbers that are registered under DND, which might be a limiting issue. This feature was activated for Indian users on October 10 and is available for normal Gmail users additionally as those on Google Apps. 

The company's web site offers step by step instructions on however users will send SMS messages to their contacts' mobile phones using Gmail Chat: 

1. Enter your contact's name in the 'Search or invite friends' box in Chat, and choose Send SMS from the box of options that seems to the correct of your contact's name. Or, if you have already got a chat window open for this contact, simply click options, and choose Send SMS.

2. in the window, enter a telephone number within the 'Send SMS messages to this number' field. This feature is only launched in selected countries. Click here for the list of supported countries and operators. If you're not settled in one among these countries you can still use it, however you will not see the SMS possibility in Chat until you change it manually within the Chat settings page.

3. Click Save.

4. a chat window seems. simply sort your message as you would normally. after you hit Enter, the message are sent to the telephone number you entered.

While Google will not charge users for this service, if users need to send any SMS from their mobile to Google Chat, the mobile operators' standards charges can apply.

 

 

Solar power in India

 Solar power in India

 
 Solar power in India

India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India. India is already a leader in wind power generation. In the solar energy sector, some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km2 area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 GW to 2,100 GW. In July 2009, India unveiled a US$19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power by 2020.[1] Under the plan, the use of solar-powered equipment and applications would be made compulsory in all government buildings, as well as hospitals and hotels.[2] On 18 November 2009, it was reported that India was ready to launch its National Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013.[3] From August 2011 to July 2012, India went from 2.5 MW of grid connected photovoltaics to over 1,000 MW. According to a 2011 report by BRIDGE TO INDIA and GTM Research, India is facing a perfect storm of factors that will drive solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption at a "furious pace over the next five years and beyond". The falling prices of PV panels, mostly from China but also from the U.S., has coincided with the growing cost of grid power in India. Government support and ample solar resources have also helped to increase solar adoption, but perhaps the biggest factor has been need. India, "as a growing economy with a surging middle class, is now facing a severe electricity deficit that often runs between 10 and 13 percent of daily need".[4]

With about 300 clear, sunny days in a year, India's theoretical solar power reception, on only its land area, is about 5000 Petawatt-hours per year (PWh/yr) (i.e. 5000 trillion kWh/yr or about 600 TW).[5][6] The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2 with about 1500–2000 sunshine hours per year (depending upon location), which is far more than current total energy consumption. For example, assuming the efficiency of PV modules were as low as 10%, this would still be a thousand times greater than the domestic electricity demand projected for 2015.[5][7][edit]Installed capacity The amount of solar energy produced in India in 2007 was less than 1% of the total energy demand.[8] The grid-interactive solar power as of December 2010 was merely 10 MW.[9] Government-funded solar energy in India only accounted for approximately 6.4 MW-yr of power as of 2005.[8]
However, India is ranked number one in terms of solar energy production per watt installed, with an insolation of 1,700 to 1,900 kilowatt hours per kilowatt peak (kWh/KWp).[10] 25.1 MW was added in 2010 and 468.3 MW in 2011.[11] By July 2012 the installed grid connected photovoltaics had increased to 1040.67 MW,[12] and India expects to install an additional 10,000 MW by 2017, and a total of 20,000 MW by 2022.[13] Solar power in Gujarat Main article: Gujarat Solar Park Gujarat has been a leader in solar power generation and contributes 2/3rd of the 900 MW of photovoltaics in the country. The State has commissioned Asia’s biggest solar park at Charanka village. The park is already generating 214 MW solar power out of its total planned capacity of 500 MW. The park has been functioning on a multi-developers and multi-beneficiaries paradigm and has been awarded for being the most innovative and environment-friendly project by the CII. With a view to make Gandhinagar a solar city, the State government has launched a roof-top solar power generation scheme. Under this scheme, the State plans to generate five megawatt of solar power by putting solar panels on about 50 state government buildings and on 500 private buildings. The State has also a plan to emulate this project in Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar and Vadodara in 2012-13. The State plans to generate solar power by putting solar panels on the Narmada canal branches. As a part of this scheme, the State has already commissioned a one megawatt solar plant on a branch of the Narmada Canal near Chandrasan area of Anand taluka. This also helps by stopping 90,000 liter water/year of the Narmada river from evaporating. [edit]Solar power in Rajasthan Next to Gujarat, Rajasthan is India's sunniest state, and many solar projects have been proposed. The 40 MW photovoltaic Dhirubhai Ambani Solar Park was completed in April 2012.[18] A 250 MW compact linear fresnel reflector (CLFR) plant is under construction, consisting of two 125 MW sections.[47] [edit]Solar power in Maharastra The Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust has world's largest solar steam system. It was constructed at the Shirdi shrine at an estimated cost of Rs.1.33 crore, Rs.58.4 lakh of which was paid as a subsidy by the renewable energy ministry. The system is used to cook 50,000 meals per day for pilgrims visiting the shrine, resulting in annual savings of 100,000 kg of cooking gas and has been designed to generate steam for cooking even in the absence of electricity to run the feed water pump for circulating water in the system. The project to install and commission the system was completed in seven months and the system has a design life of 25 years

Niels Bohr

Niels Henrik David Bohr (Danish pronunciation: [ˈnels ˈboɐ̯ˀ]; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962)[1] was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.[2] Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in Copenhagen. He was part of the British team of physicists working on the Manhattan Project. Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912, and one of their sons, Aage Bohr, grew up to be an important physicist who in 1975 also received the Nobel Prize. Bohr has been described as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.[3] Early years Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1885. His father, Christian Bohr, was professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen (it is his name which is given to the Bohr shift or Bohr effect), while his mother, Ellen Adler Bohr, came from a wealthy Jewish family prominent in Danish banking and parliamentary circles (in 1891, Bohr was baptized a Lutheran, his father's religion).[4] Despite having a religious background, he later resigned his membership from the Lutheran Church[5] and became an atheist.[6][7][8] His brother was Harald Bohr, a mathematician and Olympic footballer who played on the Danish national team. Niels Bohr was a passionate footballer as well, and the two brothers played a number of matches for the Copenhagen-based Akademisk Boldklub, with Niels in goal.[9][10] Niels Bohr as a young man. Exact date of photo unknown. In 1903, Bohr enrolled as an undergraduate at Copenhagen University, initially studying philosophy and mathematics. In 1905, prompted by a gold medal competition sponsored by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, he conducted a series of experiments to examine the properties of surface tension, using his father's laboratory in the university, familiar to him from assisting there since childhood. His essay won the prize, and it was this success that decided Bohr to abandon philosophy and adopt physics.[11] He continued as a graduate student at the University of Copenhagen, under the physicist Christian Christiansen, receiving his doctorate in 1911. As a post-doctoral student, Bohr first conducted experiments under J. J. Thomson, of Trinity College, Cambridge and Cavendish Laboratory. In 1912 he met and later joined Ernest Rutherford at Manchester University, where on and off he spent four fruitful years in association with the older physics professor. In 1916, Bohr returned permanently to the University of Copenhagen, where he was appointed to the Chair of Theoretical Physics, a position created especially for him. In 1918 he began efforts to establish the University Institute of Theoretical Physics, which he later directed. Earlier in 1910 Bohr had met Margrethe Nørlund, sister of the mathematician Niels Erik Nørlund.[12] They were married in Copenhagen in 1912.[13] Of their six sons, the oldest died in a boating accident and another died from childhood meningitis. The others went on to lead successful lives, including Aage Bohr, who became a very successful physicist and, like his father, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1975. His other sons were Hans Henrik, a physician, Erik, a chemical engineer, and Ernest, a lawyer.[1] Physics In 1922, Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them."[14] The award recognized his early leading work in the emerging field of quantum mechanics. While at Manchester University, Bohr had adapted Rutherford's nuclear structure to Max Planck's quantum theory and so obtained a model of atomic structure which, with later improvements – mainly as a result of Heisenberg's concepts – remains valid to this day. Bohr published his model of atomic structure in 1913.[15] Here he introduced the theory of electrons traveling in orbits around the atom's nucleus, the chemical properties of each element being largely determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits of its atoms.[16] Bohr also introduced the idea that an electron could drop from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one, in the process emitting a photon (light quantum) of discrete energy. This became a basis for quantum theory.[17] Among the international community of nuclear physicists, Bohr came to play the role of convener of discussion groups and lectures, as well as being a mentor and an advisor. With the assistance of the Danish government and the Carlsberg Foundation, he succeeded in founding the Institute of Theoretical Physics in 1921, of which he became director.[18] Bohr's institute served as a focal point for researchers into Quantum Mechanics and related subjects in the 1920s and 1930s, when most of the world's best known theoretical physicists spent some time in his company. Bohr became widely appreciated as their congenial host and eminent colleague, both at the Institute and at the Foundation's mansion in Carlsberg, where he and his family resided after 1932.[19] Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein debating quantum theory. Picture taken by Paul Ehrenfest at his home in Leiden (December 1925). Bohr also conceived the principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analyzed as having several contradictory properties. For example, physicists currently conclude that light behaves either as a wave or a stream of particles depending on the experimental framework – two apparently mutually exclusive properties – on the basis of this principle.[20] Bohr found philosophical applications for this daring principle.[specify] Albert Einstein much preferred the determinism of classical physics over the probabilistic new quantum physics (to which among many others Einstein himself had 'unwittingly' contributed). Philosophical issues that arose from the novel aspects of Quantum Mechanics became widely celebrated subjects of discussion. Einstein and Bohr had good-natured arguments over such issues throughout their lives.[21] See article Bohr–Einstein debates. Werner Heisenberg worked as an assistant to Bohr and university lecturer in Copenhagen from 1926 to 1927. It was in Copenhagen, in 1927, that Heisenberg developed his uncertainty principle, while working on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg later became head of the German nuclear energy project. In April 1940, early in World War II, Germany invaded and occupied Denmark. In September 1941, Bohr was visited by Heisenberg in Copenhagen.[22] See section below. Manhattan Project In September 1943, reliable word reached Bohr about his imminent arrest by the German police; the Danish resistance quickly managed to help Bohr and his wife escape by sea to Sweden. Soon after, Bohr was flown in a military aircraft to Britain. There he was introduced to the then-secret atomic bomb project (see Political Activities section below for greater detail). Eventually he was directed to the project's principal location in the United States of America.[23] Bohr worked on the Manhattan Project at the top-secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, where he was known by the name of Nicholas Baker for security reasons.[24] His role on the project was as the knowledgeable consultant or "father confessor". He often expressed social concern about such weaponry and an eventual nuclear arms race, and is quoted as saying, "That is why I went to America. They didn't need my help in making the atom bomb."[25] Bohr believed that atomic secrets should be shared by the international scientific community. After meeting with Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer suggested that Bohr visit President Franklin D. Roosevelt to convince him that the Manhattan Project should be shared with the Soviets in the hope of speeding up its results. Roosevelt suggested that Bohr return to the United Kingdom to try to win British approval. Winston Churchill disagreed with the idea of openness towards the Russians to the point that he wrote in a letter: "It seems to me Bohr ought to be confined or at any rate made to see that he is very near the edge of mortal crimes."[26] Coat of arms Later years Following the war Bohr returned to Copenhagen. He continued to advocate the peaceful use of nuclear energy. When awarded the Order of the Elephant by the Danish government, he designed his own coat of arms which featured a taijitu (symbol of yin and yang) and the motto in Latin: contraria sunt complementa: "opposites are complementary".[27] He died in Copenhagen in 1962 of heart failure.[28] He is buried in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro section of Copenhagen. Contributions to physics and chemistry The Bohr model of the atom, the theory that electrons travel in discrete orbits around the atom's nucleus. The shell model of the atom, where the chemical properties of an element are determined by the electrons in the outermost orbit. The correspondence principle, the basic tool of Old quantum theory. The liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus. Identified the isotope of uranium that was responsible for slow-neutron fission – 235U.[29] Much work on the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analyzed as having several contradictory properties. Political activity Denmark during World War II As regards the Occupation of Denmark during World War II, and especially the events surrounding the Danish policy of cooperation with Nazi Germany and the treatment of Danish Jews, most Danish archives remained sealed until 1998, many remain sealed to this day, and opinions of Danish historical scholars and politicians on these dark topics remain deeply divided.[30] So too, scholarly opinions remain divided on the importance of the political activities of Niels Bohr during this period. All sources agree that almost as soon as Hitler had taken power in Germany, Bohr played an active role in rescuing Jewish physicists out of Germany, typically offering them haven in Copenhagen before they could take up permanent residence elsewhere.[a] As for Sweden during World War II and especially in the autumn of 1943, it was far from certain that they would accept Danish Jews attempting to escape Hitler's deportation order. As related by Bohr's friend Stefan Rozental[31] and the historian Richard Rhodes,[32] Bohr was immediately smuggled out of Denmark in order to secure his services for the Manhattan Project. But rather than proceeding promptly to the United States, as had been planned for him, on 30 September 1943 Bohr persuaded King Gustav of Sweden to make public Sweden's willingness to provide asylum, on 2 October 1943 Swedish radio broadcast that Sweden was ready to offer asylum, and there followed quickly thereafter the mass rescue of the Danish Jews by their countrymen. Historians are divided not on Bohr's political actions in Sweden, but rather on the implications and impacts of those actions. Some argue that Bohr was among those rescued and therefore could have played no role in facilitating the mass rescue, whereas Rhodes[32] and others[a] interpret Bohr's political action in Sweden as being a decisive event without which that mass rescue could not have occurred. Whether or not the mass rescue could have happened without Bohr's political activity in Sweden, there is no doubt that he did all that he could for his countrymen. Nuclear weapons "Tube Alloys" was the code-name for the British nuclear weapon program. British intelligence inquired about Bohr's availability for work or insights of particular value. Bohr's reply made it clear that he could not help. This reply, like his reaction to Heisenberg, made sure that if Gestapo intercepted anything attributed to Bohr it would point to no knowledge regarding nuclear energy as it stood in 1941. This does not exclude the possibility that Bohr privately made calculations going further than his work in 1939 with Wheeler. The allied powers learned in 1944 that Germany had no atomic weapons. Bohr hoped then that greater atomic armament could be prevented by some new international agreements, before the weapons were used in the war. He also hoped that new contacts could be established between the Western and Russian nuclear scientists, as signs of cooperation between the soon-to-be victorious powers in the war. Bohr's friend Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter informed President Roosevelt about Bohr's opinions, and a meeting between them was organised 26 August 1944. President Roosevelt, however, did not agree with Bohr.[25] The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also refused, after a meeting with Bohr 16 May 1944. He disagreed with the idea of any openness towards the Russians to the point that he wrote in a letter: "It seems to me Bohr ought to be confined or at any rate made to see, that he is very near the edge of mortal crimes."[33] After leaving Denmark in the dramatic day and night (October 1943) when most Jews were able to escape to Sweden due to exceptional circumstances (see Rescue of the Danish Jews), Bohr was quickly asked again to join the British effort and he was flown to the UK. He was evacuated from Stockholm in 1943 in an unarmed De Havilland Mosquito operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Passengers on BOAC's Mosquitos were carried in an improvised cabin in the bomb bay. The flight almost ended in tragedy as Bohr did not don his oxygen equipment as instructed and passed out at high altitude. He would have died had not the pilot surmising from Bohr's lack of response to intercom communication that he had lost consciousness, descended to a lower altitude for the remainder of the flight. Bohr's comment was that he had slept like a baby for the entire flight. As part of the UK team on "Tube Alloys" Bohr went to Los Alamos. Oppenheimer credited Bohr warmly for his guiding help during certain discussions among scientists there. Discreetly, he met President Franklin D. Roosevelt and later Winston Churchill to warn against the perilous perspectives that would follow from separate development of nuclear weapons by several powers rather than some form of controlled sharing of the knowledge, which would spread quickly in any case. Only in the 1950s, after the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test, was it possible to create the International Atomic Energy Agency along the lines of Bohr's suggestion.Open WorldBohr advocated informing the Soviet authorities that the atomic bomb would soon be in use. In 1944 he obtained an audience with Winston Churchill, who became worried about whether Bohr was a security risk.[34] In June 1950 he addressed an 'Open Letter' to the United Nations.[35] Bohr and Heisenberg Relationship Bohr and Werner Heisenberg enjoyed at first a strong relationship. It began as one between a mentor and his protégé. Bohr had become aware of Heisenberg's talent during a lecture Heisenberg gave in Göttingen in 1922. During the mid-1920s, Heisenberg worked with Bohr at the institute in Copenhagen. Heisenberg, like most of Bohr's assistants, learned Danish. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was developed during this period, as was Bohr's complementarity principle. During the 1930s, however, the relationship became constricted due to political developments in Germany. During World War II, Bohr, who was of half-Jewish ancestry, remained for several years in occupied Denmark. Heisenberg in Germany had become head of the German nuclear effort. Heisenberg made a famous visit to Bohr in September 1941. During a private moment outside with Bohr, Heisenberg, it seems, began to address nuclear energy and morality as well as the war. Neither Bohr nor Heisenberg spoke about it in any detail and left few written records of this part of the meeting, when they were alone.[36] Bohr seems to have reacted by terminating that conversation abruptly while not giving Heisenberg hints in any direction. While some suggest that the relationship became strained at this meeting, other evidence shows that the level of contact had been reduced considerably for some time already. Heisenberg suggested that the fracture occurred later. In correspondence to his wife, Heisenberg described the final visit of the trip: "Today I was once more, with Weizsäcker, at Bohr's. In many ways this was especially nice, the conversation revolved for a large part of the evening around purely human concerns, Bohr was reading aloud, I played a Mozart Sonata (A-Major)."[37] Ivan Supek, one of Heisenberg's students and friends, claimed that the main figure of the meeting was actually Weizsäcker who tried to persuade Bohr to mediate peace between Great Britain and Germany.[38] Speculation In 1957, while the author Robert Jungk was working on the book Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (see letter page 100 in this book), Heisenberg wrote to Jungk explaining that he had visited Copenhagen to communicate to Bohr the views of the German scientists, that production of an atomic weapon was possible with great efforts and this raised enormous responsibilities on the world's scientists on either side. But Bohr was shocked by the news, that Heisenberg was involved in such studies. And the conversation went wrong because of this. The German attempts were mostly focused on energy production and Heisenberg's circle of colleagues probably tried to keep it that way.[39] Heisenberg acknowledged that his cryptic approach of the subject had so alarmed Bohr that the discussion failed. Heisenberg nuanced his claims and avoided the implication that he and his colleagues had sabotaged the bomb effort. The production of the bomb by the US showed that it required enormous resources of materials, money and men, which was never considered in this scale in Germany during the war. When Bohr saw Jungk's erroneous depiction in the Danish translation of the book, he disagreed. He drafted (but never sent) a letter to Heisenberg, stating that he never understood the purpose of Heisenberg's visit and was shocked by Heisenberg's opinion that Germany would win the war. And atomic weapons could be decisive in a long war. Bohr had described the possibility of an atomic weapon in a lecture in England 1939.[40] Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen (1998), which was performed in London (for five years), Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Rome, Athens, and Geneva and on Broadway in New York, explores what might have happened at the 1941 meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr. Frayn points in particular to the onus of being one of the few to understand what it would mean to create a nuclear weapon. The play was adapted into a film. Kierkegaard's influence on Bohr It is generally accepted that Bohr read the 19th century Danish Christian existentialist philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. Richard Rhodes argues in The Making of the Atomic Bomb[41] that Bohr was influenced by Kierkegaard via the philosopher Harald Høffding, who was strongly influenced by Kierkegaard and who was an old friend of Bohr's father. In 1909, Bohr sent his brother Kierkegaard's Stages on Life's Way as a birthday gift. In the enclosed letter, Bohr wrote, "It is the only thing I have to send home; but I do not believe that it would be very easy to find anything better.... I even think it is one of the most delightful things I have ever read." Bohr enjoyed Kierkegaard's language and literary style, but mentioned that he had some "disagreement with [Kierkegaard's ideas]." [42]Given this, there has been some dispute over whether Kierkegaard influenced Bohr's philosophy and science. David Favrholdt[43] argues that Kierkegaard had minimal influence over Bohr's work, taking Bohr's statement about disagreeing with Kierkegaard at face value, while Jan Faye[44] endorses the opposing point of view by arguing that one can disagree with the content of a theory while accepting its general premises and structure.[45] Bohr's disagreements of Kierkegaard's ideas was due to his views on religion since Bohr was said to be a non-believer.[46]

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700KL 10″ Tablet Price In India

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700KL 10″ Tablet Price In India

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700KL Price In India: The ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 isn’t the only LTE enabled tablet headed to Germany. Germans will now have an extra choice when shopping for an LTE tablet. According to a press release from Vodafone, the ASUS TF700FL, a variant of the TF700, has also made its way to Germany with LTE. This Android powered tablet sports a 10.1-inch display with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, an 8-megapixel camera, and, of course, the ability to be used with the optional keyboard dock. But while the WiFi-only version of the tablet has a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, the LTE model will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chip instead. That’s because the Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip doesn’t currently support 4G LTE mobile broadband.

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700KL Features And Specifications:

• Android OS
• 4G LTE enabled
• 10.1-inch touchscreen interface
• 1920 x 1200 pixel Full HD native resolution
• Dual-core, 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 processor
• 8-megapixel rear-facing camera
• 1 GB RAM
• 64 GB internal storage (up to)
• microSD/SDHC media slot

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700KL Price In India Is Coming Soon…

Price of ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700KL in India including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad.

HOW TO WEAR DENIM CUTOFFS

HOW TO WEAR DENIM CUTOFFS,Tips

FashionHOW TO WEAR DENIM CUTOFFS

CHECK OUT HOW YOU CAN WEAR A PAIR OF CUTOFF SHORTS!

HOW TO WEAR CUTOFF SHORTS: Very trendy

Ok ladies, when you are really feeling fresh and funky, you need an outfit to really show off your unique style. When you are wearing denim cutoffs you should pair them with a loose blouse, partially tucked in (to achieve a rather messy look), and add lots of jewelry such as layers of necklaces and piles of bangles. This has a very hipster look and is a whole lot of fun. You can wear this outfit with flats or heels, but if you really want to amp up the look even more, you can wear a pair of flat fringe boots.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

HOW TO WEAR CUTOFF SHORTS: Casually Cool

When you want to keep your look a little more casual, but still incredibly sexy, you should wear a men’s white button down shirt with a pair of cut off shorts. This look is so out of this world sexy, because what man can resist a woman wearing his shirt (or one that looks like his)? Work up your sex appeal with a pair of some super sexy heels and leave the neckline bare. Keep your accessories at a minimum, including the purse that you wear.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

HOW TO WEAR CUTOFF SHORTS: Absolutely Stunning

To keep your look very classy, why not stick with an article of clothing that always does the trick? The blazer! You can always wear a solid color blazer, but when you are feeling a little wilder, wear something with a print. Pair this with a plain tee, denim shorts and open toe ankle booties and you are ready to work it girl!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

HOW TO WEAR CUTOFF SHORTS: Badass Grunge

So some of us girls really want to keep our look very cool and fun, which is easy when you work in a little bit of grunge. Wear a vibrant printed tee with cutoffs, textured tights and some motorcycle boots and you are instantly transformed into a hot mama with a lot of edge. Work you inner hard-core boldness in an outfit that screams sexy cool.

Denim cutoffs are always a great trend once the warmer weather hits and you let your sexy stems breath out from your regular jeans, so hype up your style and mix and match your look so you feel your absolute best.

More Fashion How-To'sTips

Latest Jewelry

Latest Jewelry

Since 2000, Jewelry.com's editorial team has been blending expertise in jewelry, journalism, fashion and gemology to bring you an unsurpassed source of jewelry news, advice and shopping tips.
By providing a one-stop, reliable and unbiased infostore of information, trend updates, jewelry shopping tips and advice, together with a jewelry directory and review listing and one of the largest jewelry inventories in the world, Jewelry.com is your guide to the world of jewelry. Jewelry.com ensures you get an unbeatable price when shopping for jewelry at our partnering premier jewelry retailers.

Membership

Membership to Jewelry.com is COMPLETELY FREE. Only registered members enjoy amazing discounts on jewelry from partnering retailers, time-limited deals on our top ten jewelry pieces, deal alert e-mails and Jewelry.com's exclusive newsletter full of shopping tips, fashion updates and jewelry information. Jewelry.com membership is your pass to sparkling savings on over 30,000 stunning jewels.

Retailer Directory

By providing an unparalleled directory of selected premier multi-channel jewelry retailers, Jewelry.com is putting jewelry buyers confidently in control of both their in-store and online jewelry-shopping journey. Our exclusive directory also provides a review of all listed retailers detailing their history, product selection, service and where to find them.
Jewelry.com doesn't sell jewelry - we help you find the jewel of your dreams from an unprecedented selection of more than 30,000 jewelry styles that can be searched with defined parameters such as retailer of choice, product, stone, material or price.

Coupons And Codes

Some of the most prominent jewelry retailers listed in the directory have partnered with Jewelry.com to aggregate their product and offer discounts and promotions exclusively to Jewelry.com members. When it comes to the 'deal', Jewelry.com is the consumer champion.
Jewelry.com members receive access to guaranteed lowest jewelry prices carried by partnering retailers via redeemable coupons and promo codes.

http://adf.ly/CYfVH

Jewelry.com's Top Ten Deals are available for a limited time period only (or until the piece is sold out) at amazing prices. This is a true sample sale - amazing jewels, a limited time to purchase, at prices that don't warrant a second thought. Dazzling diamond earrings, gorgeous gold necklaces, stunning gems and so much more - they're not jewelry deals - they're jewelry steals. Items change daily so make sure Top Ten Deals is your daily destination for some sparkling savings.

Clearance Vault 

Jewelry.com's Clearance Vault is the single largest jewelry outlet/clearance platform both on and off-line. If it's amazing deals from your favorite retailer you're looking for, this is your dream destination.

Legal Disclaimer

While we make every effort to provide you the most accurate, up-to-date information, occasionally, items on our website may be mis-priced or mislabeled. In the event a product is listed at an incorrect price due to typographical, photographic, or technical error or error in pricing information received from affiliated partners, Jewelry.com shall not be held responsible for such errors.
Occasionally pieces on Jewelry.com may be advertised at a price that is higher or lower than that proffered by the retailer providing the product. This is due to a feed delay between Jewelry.com and the affiliated retailer. As such, all information on Jewelry.com is provided "AS IS" without any warranty of any kind. We strongly recommend you review the policies and procedures of the relevant vendors' websites before purchasing any item. Jewelry.com shall not be held responsible for pricing errors. The final sale price of the piece is that as stated at the final transaction procedure that occurs between the buyer and the affiliated retailer.

Jewelry.com shall not be liable for your interactions with any merchants, retailers and/or individuals found on or through Jewelry.com. This includes, but is not limited to, payment and delivery of goods and services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings. These dealings are solely between you and such retailers. Jewelry.com is under no obligation to become involved in disputes between participants on Jewelry.com, or between participants on Jewelry.com and any third party.

India

India (Listeni/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य, Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[c] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical 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;[d] 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.[8] Four of the world's major 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 and 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, 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[9] among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. It is one of the five BRICS nations. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

Main article: Names of India

The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit Sindhu (सिन्धु), the historic local appellation for the Indus River.[10] The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.[11] The Constitution of India and usage in many Indian languages also recognises Bharat (pronounced [ˈbʱaːrət̪] ( listen)) as an official name of equal status.[12] The name Bharat is derived from the name of the legendary king Bharata in Hindu scriptures. Hindustan ([ɦɪnd̪ʊˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), originally a Persian word for "Land of the Hindus" and referring to North India and Pakistan before 1947, is also occasionally used as a synonym for all of India.[13]
History
Main articles: History of India and History of the Republic of India
Ancient India

The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in South Asia are from approximately 30,000 years ago.[14] 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.[15] Around 7000 BCE, the first known neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan.[16] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,[17] the first urban culture in South Asia,[18] which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.[19] 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.[18]
Damaged brown painting of a reclining man and woman.
Paintings at the Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, 6th century.

During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent evolved from copper age to iron age cultures.[20] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism,[21] were composed during this period, and historians have analyzed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Ganges Plain.[20] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.[21] 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.[22] In the Deccan, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation.[20] In South India, the large number of megalithic monuments found from this period,[23] and nearby evidence of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions suggest progression to sedentary life.[23]

By the 5th century BCE, the small chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-west regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies called Mahajanapadas.[24][25] The emerging urbanisation as well as the orthodoxies of the late Vedic age created the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism.[26] Buddhism, based on the teachings of India's first historical figure, Gautam Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle;[26][27] Jainism came into prominence around the same time during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.[28] In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,[29] and both established long-lasting monasteries.[24] Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.[24] 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.[30][31] The Maurya kings are known as much for their empire building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka the Great's renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.[32][33]

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.[34][35] In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family leading to increased subordination of women.[36][24] By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex administrative and taxation system in the greater Ganges Plain that became a model for later Indian kingdoms.[37][38] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself.[39] The renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.[38] Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.[38]
Medieval IndiaThe granite tower of Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by Raja Raja Chola I.

The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity.[40] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Ganges plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.[41] When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.[41] 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.[41] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region.[40] During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agriculture economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.[42] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.[42]

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.[43] They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent.[43] 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.[44] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.[44] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to what today are Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Java.[45] 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.[45]

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.[46] 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.[47][48] By repeatedly repulsing the 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.[49][50] The Sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[51] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the Sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,[52] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[51]
Early modern India
Scribes and artists in the Mughal court, 1590–1595.

In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers,[53] fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.[54] 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[55][56] and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[57] leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[58] 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.[57] The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture[59] and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[60] caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.[58] The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion,[58] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.[61] 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.[62] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.[62] As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.[63]

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 outposts on the coast of India.[64][65] 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.[66][64][67][68] 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.[69] 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.[64] 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.[70]
Modern India
The British Indian Empire, from the 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Areas directly governed by the British are shaded pink; nominally sovereign princely states are in yellow.

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.[71][72][73][74] 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.[75][76] 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.[77][78] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.[79][80][81][82]Two smiling men in robes sitting on the ground with bodies facing the viewer and with heads turned toward each other. The younger wears a white Nehru cap; the elder is bald and wears glasses. A half-dozen other people are in the background.
Jawaharlal Nehru (left) became India's first prime minister in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi (right) led the independence movement.

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.[83] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[84] and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians.[85] There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption.[86] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[87] notably reduced the cost of moving goods,[87] and helped nascent Indian-owned industry.[86] After World War I, in which some one million Indians served,[88] 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.[89] During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.[90] 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 independence of India in 1947, but tempered by the bloody partition of the subcontinent into two states.[91]

Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a sovereign, secular, and democratic republic.[92] In the 60 years since, India has had a mixed bag of successes and failures.[93] It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an activist Supreme Court, and a largely independent press.[93] 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,[94] and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[93] Yet, India has also been weighed down by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban;[93] by religious and caste-related violence;[95] by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[96] and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir.[97] It has unresolved territorial disputes with China, which escalated into the Sino-Indian War of 1962;[98] and with Pakistan, which flared into wars fought in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999.[98] The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998.[99] 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.[100]
Geography
Main article: Geography of India
See also: Geology of India
Map of India. Most of India is yellow (elevation 100–1000 m). Some areas in the south and mid-east are brown (above 1000 m). Major river valleys are green (below 100 m).
Topographic map of India.

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.[101] 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.[101] 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.[101] In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that has gradually filled with river-borne sediment;[102] it now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[103] To the west lies the Thar Desert, which is cut off by the Aravalli Range.[104]
The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India and extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel ranges run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[105] To the south the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by the coastal ranges, the Western and Eastern Ghats respectively;[106] the plateau contains the nation's oldest rock formations, some 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[e] and 68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude.[107]
A shining white snow-clad range, framed against a turquoise sky. In the middle ground, a ridge descends from the right to form a saddle in the centre of the photograph, partly in shadow. In the near foreground, a loop of a road is seen.
The Kedar Range of the Greater Himalayas rises behind Kedarnath Temple, one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines.

India's coast is 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) long; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands.[108] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coast consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches, 11% rocky coast including cliffs, and 46% mudflats or marshy coast.[108]

Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges (Ganga) and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[109] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient causes disastrous floods every year. 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;[110] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[111] Among notable coastal features of India are the marshy Rann of Kutch in western India, and the alluvial Sundarbans delta, which India shares with Bangladesh.[112] 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.[113]

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.[114] 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.[115][116] 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.[114] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.[117]Biodiversity
Main article: Wildlife of India
The Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) is the national bird. It roosts in moist and dry-deciduous forests, cultivated areas, and village precincts.[118]

India lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and contains three biodiversity hotspots.[119] One of 17 megadiverse countries, it hosts 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of all avian, 6.2% of all reptilian, 4.4% of all amphibian, 11.7% of all piscine, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[120] Endemism is high among plants, 33%, and among ecoregions such as the shola forests.[121] 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.[122] Under 12% of India's landmass bears thick jungle.[123] 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.
Shola highlands in Kudremukh National Park, part of the Western Ghats.

Many Indian species descend from taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated more than 105 million years before present.[124] 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.[125] Mammals then entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the rising Himalaya.[122] Thus, while 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians are endemic, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are.[120] Among them are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and Beddome's toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172, or 2.9%, of IUCN-designated threatened species.[126] 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[127] and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988.[128] India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves,[129] four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.[130]
Politics
Main article: Politics of IndiaParliamentary joint session held in the Sansad Bhavan.

India is the world's most populous democracy.[131] A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system,[132] it has six recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 40 regional parties.[133] 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,[134] as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the Centre.[135]

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 just-created 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.[136] 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.[137]

The two years after the general election of 1996 were marked by political turmoil. 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), which under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, became the first non-Congress government to complete a five-year term.[138] In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming a successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs opposed to the BJP. The UPA coalition was returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer required external support from India's Communist parties.[139] That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a second consecutive five-year term.[140]
Government
Main article: Government of India
See also: Elections in IndiaRashtrapati Bhavan, home of the President of India.

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,[141] states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.[142] India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weak states,[143] has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.[144][145]
National symbols[1] Flag Tricolour
Emblem Sarnath Lion Capital
Anthem Jana Gana Mana
Song Vande Mataram
Calendar Saka
Game Hockey
Flower Lotus
Fruit Mango
Tree Banyan
Bird Indian Peafowl
Land animal Royal Bengal Tiger
Aquatic animal River Dolphin
River Ganges

The federal government comprises three branches:

Executive: The President of India is the head of state[146] who is elected indirectly by a national electoral college[147] for a five-year term.[148] The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power.[149] Appointed by the president,[150] the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.[149] 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.[146] 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.[151]

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").[152] The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that has 245 members who serve in staggered six-year terms.[153] Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state's share of the national population.[150] All but two of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent individual constituencies via five-year terms.[154] 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.[155]

Judicial: India has a unitary three-tier judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 21 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts.[156] 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.[157] It is judicially independent[156] and has the power both to declare the law and to strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution.[158] The Supreme Court is also the ultimate interpreter of the constitution.[159]

Subdivisions
Main article: Administrative divisions of India
See also: Political integration of India

India is a federation composed of 28 states and 7 union territories.[160] 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.[161] 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
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala
Madhya Pradesh
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Orissa
Punjab



Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu
Tripura
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal

Union territories

Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Chandigarh
Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Daman and Diu
Lakshadweep
National Capital Territory of Delhi
Pondicherry

A clickable map of the 28 states and 7 union territories of India.
A clickable map of Indian states and territories.
About this image
http://adf.ly/CYfVH

Foreign relations and military
Main articles: Foreign relations of India and Indian Armed Forces
Two seated men converse. The first is dressed in Indian clothing and turban and sits before an Indian flag; the second is in a Western business suit and sits before a Russian flag.
Manmohan Singh meets Dmitry Medvedev at the 34th G8 summit. India and Russia share extensive economic, defence, and technological ties.

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.[162] 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'état 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.[163] 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.[164]

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 is an active participant in various multilateral forums, most notably the East Asia Summit and the G8+5.[165] In the economic sphere, India has close relationships with the developing nations of South America, Asia, and Africa. It pursues a "Look East" policy that seeks strengthened partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea revolving around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.[166][167]
The HAL Tejas is a light supersonic fighter developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics in Bangalore.[168]
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
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.[169] 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 (CTBT) nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory.[170] India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "minimum credible deterrence" doctrine.[171][172] It is also developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, in collaboration with Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet.[173] Other major indigenous military development projects include Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.[173]

Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military cooperation with the United States and the European Union.[174] 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 (NPT), it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce. As a consequence, India has become the world's sixth de facto nuclear weapons state.[175] Following the NSG waiver, India was also able to sign civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreements with other nations, including Russia,[176] France,[177] the United Kingdom,[178] and Canada.[179]http://adf.ly/CYfVH

The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces. With 1.6 million active troops, the Indian military is the world's third-largest.[180] It comprises the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and auxiliary forces such as the Paramilitary Forces, the Coast Guard, and the Strategic Forces Command.[6] The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP.[181] According to a 2008 SIPRI report, India's annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion,[182] In 2011, the annual defence budget increased by 11.6%,[183] although this does not include funds that reach the military through other branches of government.[184] As of 2012, India is the world's largest arms importer; in the period from 2006 to 2010, it accounted for 9% of money spent on international arms purchases.[185] Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.[183]
Economyhttp://adf.ly/CYfVH
Main article: Economy of India
See also: Economic history of India, Economic development in India, and Transport in India
Indian agriculture dates from the period 7,000–6,000 BCE,[186] employs most of the national workforce, and is second in farm output worldwide.
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
According to the International Monetary Fund, as of 2011, the Indian economy is nominally worth US$1.843 trillion; it is the tenth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is, at US$4.469 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity, or PPP.[5] With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 10.4% during 2010,[187] India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies.[188] However, the country ranks 138th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 129th in GDP per capita at PPP.[5] 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;[189] since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system[190][191] by emphasizing both foreign trade and direct investment inflows.[192] India's recent economic model is largely capitalist.[191]

The 467-million worker Indian labour force is the world's second-largest.[6] The service sector makes up 54% of GDP, the agricultural sector 28%, and the industrial sector 18%. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes.[160] Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software.[160] In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985.[190] In 2008, India's share of world trade was 1.68%;[193] India was the world's fifteenth-largest importer in 2009 and the eighteenth-largest exporter.[194] Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, jewelry, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures.[160] Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals.[160] Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.[195]
Street-level view looking up at a modern 30-story building.
The Bombay Stock Exchange is Asia's oldest and India's largest stock exchange by market capitalisation.
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% during the last few years,[190] India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the last decade.[196] Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030.[197] 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.[198] 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.[199] India's consumer market, currently the world's thirteenth-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030.[197] Its telecommunication industry, the world's fastest-growing, added 227 million subscribers during the period 2010–11.[200] Its automotive industry, the world's second fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–10,[201] and exports by 36% during 2008–09.[202] Power capacity is 250 gigawatts, of which 8% is renewable.[203]
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
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,[204] the proportion having decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005.[205] Half of the children in India are underweight,[206] and 46% of children under the age of three suffer from malnutrition.[204] The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.[207] 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.[208] Corruption in India is perceived to have increased significantly,[209] with one report estimating the illegal capital flows since independence to be US$462 billion.[210] 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.[211]

According to a 2011 PwC report, India's GDP at purchasing power parity will overtake that of the United States by 2045.[212] 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.[212] 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.[212] 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.[213]
Demographicshttp://adf.ly/CYfVH
Main article: Demographics of India
Map of India. High population density areas (above 1000 persons per square kilometer) centre on Kolkata along with other parts of the Ganges River Basin, Mumbai, Bangalore, the south-west coast, and the Lakshadweep Islands. Low density areas (below 100) include the western desert, eastern Kashmir, and the eastern frontier.
Population density and Indian Railways connectivity map. The already densely settled Indo-Gangetic Plain is the main driver of Indian population growth.http://adf.ly/CYfVH
With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional Census,[4] India is the world's second-most populous country. Its population grew at 1.76% per annum during 2001–2011,[4] down from 2.13% per annum in the previous decade (1991–2001).[214] The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males.[4] The median age was 24.9 in the 2001 census.[6] 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.[215] India continues to face several public health-related challenges.[216][217] According to the World Health Organisation, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water or breathing polluted air.[218] There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians.[219] The number of Indians living in urban areas has grown by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001.[220] Yet, in 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas.[221][222] According to the 2001 census, there are 27 million-plus cities in India,[220] with Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai being the largest. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males.[4] Kerala is the most literate state;[223] Bihar the least.[224]
A handicraft seller in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

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.[225] Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government.[226][227] English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language";[228] 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 Indian Constitution recognises 212 scheduled tribal groups which together constitute about 7.5% of the country's population.[229] The 2001 census reported that Hinduism, with over 800 million adherents (80.5% of the population), was the largest religion in India; they are followed by Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, and Bahá'ís.[230] India has the world's largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá'í populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population and the largest Muslim population for a non-Muslim majority country.
Culture
Main article: Culture of India
Hampi, seat of the Vijayanagara Empire.http://adf.ly/CYfVH

Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years.[231] 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 dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established.[11] India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions.[232] The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads,[233] the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement,[232] and by Buddhist philosophy.[234]
Art, architecture, and literaturehttp://adf.ly/CYfVH

Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles.[235] 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;[236] geometry and directional alignments are key tools. Though primarily applied in Hindu architecture through the construction of temples, it has influenced poetry, dance, and sculpture—the latter among the traditional 64 manual arts under the purview of the shilpa shastras. 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, pioneered by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Arab-, Turkish-, and Persian-inspired Indo-Islamic architecture.
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
The earliest literary writings in India, composed between 1400 BCE and 1200 CE, were in the Sanskrit language.[237][238] Prominent works of this Sanskrit literature include epics such as the Mahābhārata and the Ramayana, the dramas of Kālidāsa such as the Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā), and poetry such as the Mahākāvya.[239][240][241] 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.[242][243][244][245] 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 Kabīr, Tulsīdās, and Guru Nānak. 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.[246] In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. 20th-century Indian literature was influenced by the works of Bengali poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore.[247]
Performing artshttp://adf.ly/CYfVH
Sarod player Sudhesna Bhattacharya in concert at the Musée Guimet, Paris.

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.[248] 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.[249]
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue.[250] 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.[251] The Indian film industry produces the world's most-watched cinema.[252] Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu languages.[253] South Indian cinema attracts more than 75% of national film revenue.[254]
Society
A Christian wedding in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Traditional Indian society is defined by relatively strict social hierarchy. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or "castes".[255] Most Dalits ("Untouchables") and members of other lower-caste communities continue to live in segregation and often face persecution and discrimination.[256][257] Traditional Indian family values are highly valued, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas.[258] An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other family members.[259] Marriage is thought to be for life,[259] and the divorce rate is extremely low.[260] Child marriage is still a common practice, more so in rural India, with more than half of women in India marrying before the legal age of 18.[261]
http://adf.ly/CYfVH
Many Indian festivals are religious in origin. The best known include Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Thai Pongal, Navaratri, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, and Vaisakhi. India has three national holidays which are observed in all states and union territories: Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti. Other sets of holidays, varying between nine and twelve, are officially observed in individual states. Traditional Indian dress varies in colour and style across regions and depends on various factors, including climate and faith. Popular styles of dress include draped garments such as the sari for women and the dhoti or lungi for men. Stitched clothes, such as the shalwar kameez for women and kurta–pyjama combinations or European-style trousers and shirts for men, are also popular.[262] Use of delicate jewellery, modelled on real flowers worn in ancient India, is part of a tradition dating back some 5,000 years; gemstones are also worn in India as talismans.[263]

Indian cuisine is known for its delicate use of herbs and spices and for its tandoori preparations. The tandoor, a clay oven used in India for almost 5,000 years, grills meats to an "uncommon succulence" and produces the puffy flatbread known as naan.[264] The staple foods are wheat (predominantly in the north),[265] rice (especially in the south and the east), and lentils.[266] Many spices which have worldwide appeal are native to the Indian subcontinent, while chili pepper, native to the Americas and introduced by the Portuguese, is widely used by Indians. In the Vedic period, when India was heavily forested and crops were complemented with forest game and produce, a normal diet comprised fruit, vegetables, grain, dairy products, honey, poultry, and other meats. Āyurveda, a system of traditional medicine, used the three guṇas to class any comestible as sāttvika, rajasic, or tamasic. Over time, subgroups became vegetarian, a switch aided by the advent of Buddhism and an equable climate permitting many fruits, vegetables, and grains to grow throughout the year; beef consumption became taboo. Common traditional eating customs include meals taken on or near the floor, caste- and gender-segregated dining, and lack of cutlery in favour of the right hand or a piece of roti.
Sport
Main article: Sport in India
A game of kabaddi in Bagepalli, Karnataka.

In India, several traditional indigenous sports remain fairly popular, among them kabaddi, kho kho, pehlwani, and gilli-danda. Some of the earliest forms of Asian martial arts, such as kalarippayattu, musti yuddha, silambam, and marma adi, originated in India. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award are the highest forms of government recognition for athletic achievement; the Dronacharya Award is awarded for excellence in coaching. Chess, commonly held to have originated in India as chaturaṅga, is regaining widespread popularity with the rise in the number of Indian Grandmasters.[267][268] Pachisi, from which parcheesi derives, was played on a giant marble court by Akbar.[269] Tennis has become increasingly popular; this stems from the victorious India Davis Cup team and the recent successes of Indian tennis players.[270] India has a comparatively strong presence in shooting sports, and has won several medals at the Olympics, the World Shooting Championships, and the Commonwealth Games.[271][272] Other sports in which Indians have succeeded internationally include badminton,[273] boxing,[274] and wrestling.[275] Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states.[276]

India's official national sport is field hockey; it is administered by Hockey India. The Indian national hockey team won the 1975 Hockey World Cup and have, as of 2012, taken eight gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, making it the sport's most successful team. Cricket is by far the most popular sport; the Indian national cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 World Cups, the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, and shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka. Cricket in India is administered by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, or BCCI; the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy, and the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy are domestic competitions. The BCCI conducts a Twenty20 competition known as the Indian Premier League. India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events: the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games; the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cups; the 2003 Afro-Asian Games; the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy; the 2010 Hockey World Cup; and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events held annually in India include the Chennai Open, Mumbai Marathon, Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The first Indian Grand Prix featured in late 2011.[277]
Notes

^ "[...] Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it." (Constituent Assembly of India 1950).^ "The country's exact size is subject to debate because some borders are disputed. The Indian government lists the total area as 3,287,260 km2 (1,269,220 sq mi) and the total land area as 3,060,500 km2 (1,181,700 sq mi); the United Nations lists the total area as 3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) and total land area as 2,973,190 km2 (1,147,960 sq mi)." (Library of Congress 2004).http://adf.ly/CYfVH
^ See also: Official names of India.
^ The Government of India regards Afghanistan as a bordering country. This is because it considers the erstwhile princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, which included territory that bordered Afghanistan, to belong exclusively to India. A ceasefire sponsored by the UN in 1948 froze the positions of Indian and Pakistani-held territory. As a consequence, the region bordering Afghanistan is in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Source: "Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management)" (DOC). Retrieved 1 September 2008..^ The northernmost point under Indian control is the disputed Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir; however, the Government of India regards the entire region of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Northern Areas currently administered by Pakistan, to be its territory. It therefore assigns the longitude 37° 6' to its northernmost point.