Questions & Answers: "Reading Comprehension"

All his life, Gandhiji kept the abolition of untouchability at the forefront of his public activities. In 1932, he founded the All India Harijan Sangh for this purpose. His campaign for the "root and branch removal of untouchability" was based on the grounds of humanism and reason. He argued that there was no sanction for untouchability in the Hindu shastras. But, if any shastra approved of untouchability, it should be ignored for it would then be going against human dignity. Truth, he said, could not be confined within the covers of a book. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, numerous individuals and organizations worked to spread education among the untouchables (or depressed classes and Scheduled Castes, as they came to be called later), to open the doors of schools and temples to them, to enable them to use public wells and tanks, and to remove other social disabilities and distinctions from which they suffered. As education and awakening spread, the lower castes themselves began to stir. They became conscious of their basic human rights and began to rise in defense of these rights. They gradually built up a powerful movement against the traditional oppression by the higher castes. In Maharashtra, in the second half of the nineteenth century, Jyotiba Phule, born in a lower-caste family, led a lifelong movement against Brahmanical religious authority as part of his struggle against upper-caste domination. He regarded modem education as the most important weapon for the liberation of the lower castes. He was the first to open several schools for girls of the lower castes. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, who belonged to one of the Scheduled Castes, devoted his entire life to fighting against caste tyranny. He organized the All India Scheduled Castes Federation for the purpose. Maharshi Vitthal Ramji Shinde and his colleagues founded the All India Depressed Classes Mission Society. In Kerala, Sir Narayan Guru organized a lifelong struggle against the caste system. He coined the famous slogan: "One religion, one caste and one God for mankind." In South India, the non-brahmins organized during the 1920s the Self-Respect Movement to fight the disabilities which Brahmins had imposed upon them. Numerous satyagraha movements were organized all over India jointly by the upper and depressed castes against the ban on the latter's entry into temples and other such restrictions.

Innovation will play a very important role in India not only for overall growth and competitive advantage but also for the future development of India to be sustainable and inclusive. In our country, there is a lack of demand in the most important sectors such as health, education, agriculture, energy, and skills. There are many challenges in this country in terms of population as well. For example, 55 crores population is of age group of less than 25 years, it is necessary to provide opportunities to them. For that, there is a challenge of growth and development of disparity in various aspects such as class, caste, gender, region and at the same time, there is an urgent need to bring millions of citizens trapped in extreme poverty above to poverty line. Innovations is the answer of the pressing challenges and is at the heart of all initiatives. When the knowledge-based economy is created, the opportunity structure for the distribution of the benefits generated from it is also created through such innovation. Affordable solutions in common sense innovative business models or processes make it easier for common citizens to access services and more people participate in the development process by going beyond the traditional way of working. However, our only need is to explore new paradigms of innovation with an emphasis on affordable and inclusive growth for the masses and lifting the low-income people at the bottom of the triangle out of poverty and deprivation. The unfortunate thing is that in the past several decades, innovation and research have given priority to the demands of the developed, and more emphasis has been placed on fulfilling the wishes of the rich, and the entire system of intellectuals and capital is being used to satisfy them. India will not be able to accept this path rather than the research in our country and innovations need to focus on the poor and the urgent needs of poor people. The traditional old consumption approach will no longer work. Given our huge population and immensity, our innovation should use scarce resources sparingly and our research and innovations should be affordable and environmentally sustainable, the work of India's National Innovation Corporation reflects this philosophy. It strives to develop an image of innovation created by the people - for the people - of the people for a development India. Only through such an inclusive approach where people are the beneficiaries of knowledge creation can we create images of sustainable development.

Since Economic production is the basic activity of a human aggregate, the mode of production (productive forces and social relations of production) plays a determining role in shaping the social structure, the psychology, and the ideology of that human aggregate. Rural society is based predominantly on agriculture. Village agriculture is sharply distinguished from urban industry by the fact that it is based on direct extraction from Nature by man. Land is the basic means of production in the countryside. Land is a part of Nature, though made arable by human labour. From land, the rural people produce, by means of technique and their labour power, such a variety of agrarian products as food, cotton, jute, tea, coffee, tobacco, and others. Urban industry only transforms the products of agriculture into industrial products. ln city factories and mills, such agricultural products as cotton, jute and sugarcane are transformed into cotton and jute cloth and sugar, respectively. This basic difference between agriculture and industry plays a significant role in shaping the social institutions, the psychology, and the ideology of the rural and urban populations. Further, the level of production and the way in which the products are distributed among the different strata of a society, determine the level of the material prosperity of the society as a whole and of the various socio-economic groups comprising it. They also, to a very large extent, mould the institutional set up of that society as well as the cultural life of its people. For instance, in India, the primitive nature of agriculture, the resultant low level of agricultural production and the specific types of land relations which determine the differing shares of agricultural products among the social groups composing the rural society, explain the general poverty of the rural people, their hierarchic gradation into a pyramidal system of socio-economic groups and, further, their distinct social institutions and cultural backwardness. They also largely fix their customs, conceptions, and social mores.

Moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy that contemplates what is right and wrong. It explores the nature of morality and examines how people should live their lives in relation to others. Moral philosophy has three branches - one branch is metaethics investigates big picture questions such as "What is morality"? "What is Justice?" "Is there truth?" and "How can I justify my beliefs as better than conflicting beliefs held by others?" Another branch of moral philosophy is normative ethics. It answers the question of what we ought to do. Normative ethics focuses on providing a framework for deciding what is right and wrong. Three common frameworks are deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics. The last branch is applied ethics. It addresses specific, practical issues of moral importance such as war and capital punishment. Applied ethics also talks specific moral challenges that people face daily, such as whether they should lie to help a friend or coworker. So, whether our moral focus is big picture questions a practical framework or applied to specific dilemmas, moral philosophy can provide the tools we need to examine and live an ethical life. Among the normative ethics deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to discern the moral course of action. This theory uses rules to distinguish right from wrong. Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, believed that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as "Don't lie", "Don't Steal", "Don't Cheat." Deontology is simple to apply. It just requires that people follow the rules and do their duty. This approach tends to fit well with our natural intuition about what is or is not ethical. Unlike consequentialism, which judges actions by their results, deontology does not require weighing the costs and benefits of a situation. This avoids subjectivity and uncertainty because you only have to follow set rules. So, following the rules makes deontology easy to apply. But it also means disregarding the possible consequences of our actions when determining what is right and what is wrong.

The word laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Lasers are in fact generators of light. They are based on the amplification of light by means of stimulated - radiation of atoms or molecules. In 1917 Einstein predicted the possibility of such stimulated radiation. In 1952, Ch. Townes, J. Gorden, and H. Zeiger in USA and N. Basov and A. Prokhorov in USSR, independently suggested the principle of generating and amplifying microwave oscillations based on the concept of stimulated radiation. It led to the invention of MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in 1954. In 1958 Townes, Basov, and Prokhorov received Noble Prizes for their work in this field. In 1960, Theodore Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories produced the first laser using a ruby crystal as the amplifier and a flashlamp as the energy source. The first gas laser was developed in 1961 by A. Javan, W. Bennet, and H. Harriott of Bell Laboratories, using a mixture of helium and neon gases. Laser has become a valuable tool in a variety of fields starting with medicine to communications. Laser is a light source, but it is very much different from many traditional light sources. Laser is not used for illumination purposes as we use other light sources. Lasers produce a highly directional and high intensity beam with a narrow frequency range than that available from the common source types of light sources. They are more widely used as a light power electromagnetic beam rather than a light beam. Laser beans are used in the mechanical industry such as a special type of drill bit to drill in hard materials, and cutting materials like wood, glass, ceramics, etc. The laser is also used in the electronics industry such as scribing, soldering, trimming photolithography, etc. Application of lasers in the military involves mainly ranging, guiding weapons to the intended target and laser beam itself acting as a weapon, and so on. Thus, the laser is a high-technology device affecting our lives in many ways.

For the past few centuries Earth has been witnessing several environmental problems even-though the ongoing climate change events such as increasing temperature, cloud bursts, frequent cyclones, long and irregular winters and drought have received more attention in the public platforms. These extreme climatic events have challenged the physical, mental and economic health of humans and made them to think and speak out. This realisation has been following by several agencies making efforts to mitigate the climate change impacts. It is known that global warming is the result of the incessant release of greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxide (CO₂) from several sectors especially from automobile and associated industries triggering the extreme climatic events. Earlier the natural forests cover and oceans absorbed the enormous quantities of CO₂ released in the environment. However, continuous deforestation and other anthropogenic pressures prevailing in and around the ocean and forest have slowed down the carbon sequestration potential of these systems. Natural forests evolve due to the constant interplay of inter and intra species along with unique - environmental conditions and play an important role in mitigating the greenhouse gases to a large extent, also acting as oxygen factories. However, in comparison, tropical and savannah forests produce more oxygen than other forests. Studies have established that the natural regeneration potential of the forest has been decreasing due to continuous deforestation. Ecologists opine that the restoration of natural forests is the ideal way to overcome the global wanning impacts. However, restoration of natural forest is a herculean task and almost impossible. The diminishing forest cover affects the life-forms and also carbon storage and oxygen production which might speed-up the global warming process, and so researchers and policymakers encourage afforestation programmes in order to mitigate the global warming.

The nature of Fundamental Rights under Part III of the Constitution is well settled. The Fundamental Rights are to be understood in a negative context, as in "no person could be denied such right until the Constitution itself prescribes such limitations". The only exception to the aforesaid formulation is Article 21A of the Constitution, which is a positive right that requires an active effort by the concerned Government to ensure that the Right to Education is provided to all children up to the age of 14 years as given by the 86th Constitutional Amendment. The positive prescription of freedom of expression will result in different consequences which our own Constitution has not entered into. Having different social and economic backgrounds and existing on a different scale of development, the application of Human Rights enshrined therein have taken a different role and purpose. The framers of the Indian Constitution were aware of the situation of India, including the socio-economic costs of such proactive duty and hence took an informed decision to restrict the application of Fundamental Rights in a negative manner. This crucial formulation is required to be respected by the Courts, which have to uphold the Constitutional morality behind utilization of such negative prescriptions. Law and Technology seldom mix like oil and water. There is a consistent criticism that the development of technology is not met by equivalent movement in the Law. In this context, we need to note that the Law should imbibe the technological development and accordingly mould its rules so as to cater to the needs of society. Non recognition of technology within the sphere of Law is only a disservice to the inevitable. In this light, the importance of internet cannot be underestimated, as from morning to night we are encapsulated within the cyberspace and our most basic activities are enabled by the use of internet. Further, the internet has gained contemporary relevance and is one of the major means of information convergence. Therefore, the freedom of speech and expression through the medium of internet is an integral part of Article 19(1)(a) and accordingly, any restriction on the same must be in accordance with Article 19(2) of the Constitution.

Sixty years of constitutional democracy and the rule of law in India would seem, on the face of it, like an occasion for taking stock and for celebrating the great Indian political experiment. The founding fathers and mothers put a structure in place, enshrined a nation's dreams in an impressively liberal text, and six decades later, it appears we still abide by that vision. All around us, there are polities in various kinds of malfunction - Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar - and to our north, a prosperous but authoritarian China. India's Constitution makes the country an oasis of rights, representation and justice in a desert of failing or otherwise flawed states. It could be argued that the Constitution, as the textual blueprint in the republic, is not responsible for its own marginalization, violation, or suspension. That it was conceived in a certain era, written in a certain spirit, and promulgated in good faith by the best political and legal minds active in India around the time of independence. That a document first articulated and steered by the likes of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Rajendra Prasad, K. M. Munshi and Constitutional Advisor B.N. Rao, continuously guarded and carefully interpreted by three generations of lawmakers since, is as good as it gets for an overly large, unremittingly poor, vexingly diverse, and precariously free post-colony like India. That we may criticize the Constitution; we may lament its disrespect or point out its inefficacy in many parts of India, but without it, we would still be colonized, if not by the British then by undemocratic, militarist, communal or other sorts of nonprogressive strains within the Indian political spectrum. Better to have an excellent constitution in the letter if not in practice than no constitution at all, the objector says. Today the Indian constitution is considered as best amongst all other constitutions. We should be grateful for the moral commitment and practical foresight of our founders.

To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error. If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. He did not do so because he thought he knew. Thinking that you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do; but if I were writing a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not commit myself until I had seen one enjoying this unappetizing diet. Aristotle, however, was less cautious. Ancient and medieval authors knew all about unicorns and salamanders; not one of them thought it necessary to avoid dogmatic statements about them because he had never seen one of them. Many matters, however, are less easily brought to the test of experience. If, like most of mankind, you have passionate convictions on many such matters, there are ways in which you can make yourself aware of your own bias. If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used. in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So, whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants. A good way of riding yourself of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become aware of opinions held in social circles different from your own. When I was young, I lived much outside my own country in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. I found this very profitable in diminishing the intensity of insular prejudice. If you cannot travel, seek out people with whom you disagree, and read a newspaper belonging to a party that is not yours. If the people and the newspaper seem mad, perverse, and wicked, remind yourself that you seem so to them. In this opinion both parties may be right, but they cannot both be wrong. This reflection should generate a certain caution.