Thursday, February 3, 2011

VIDYA BALAN Review bollywood celibrity details films bikinipics FILMCAREER PERSONALLIFE Gossips award WETPICS wallpaper HOTPICS hotvideo




VIDYA BALAN
DATE OF BIRTH-1.1.1978
BIRTH PLACE- PALAKKAD, KERALA, INDIA
FATHER- P.R.BALAN
OCCUPATION- ACTING

Vidya is one of the leading actress in Bollywood. She started her career in music videos, television shows and so many commercials. In 1998 she appeared number of T.V ads. She performed as a supporting role in music videos, such as Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal and Pankaj Udas.
FILM CAREER.
Vidya started film career trough Malayalam movie Chakram with Prithviraj.
In 2003 Vidya appeared in the Bengali movie Bhalo Theko and she won the Anandalok Puraskar Best actress Award in Kolkata.later she starred in Hindi movie Parineeta, for which she acclaimed by critics. Also she earned Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award.
In 2006 she played in Lage Raho Munna Bhai, alongside Sanjay Dutt. This movie is the blockbuster of the year.
She starred in ManiRatnam’s Guru in 2007. Her next release was Salaam-e-Ishq: ATribute to Love and Eklavya: The Royal Guard which grossed highest in the Hindi film industry. Later that she acted in Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa, were both box office hit.
In 2009 Vidya performed in Paa with Amitabh Bachchan and Abishek Bachchan. This film received well critics and her role was appreciated. And she won her a Film fare Award for Best Actress and Star screen Award for Best Actress. Balan is also performed in UTV Spot boy’s No One Killed Jessica alongside Rani Mukerji

EARLY FAMILY LIFE.
Vidya Balan Born on 1.1.1978 in Ottapalam, Palakkad District, Kerala to a Hindu Iyer family her father name is P.R. Balan he was Vice president of ETC Channel and her mother is housewife. Vidya has one elder sisiter, Priya.
Vidya Balan completed her high school in St Anthony Girls High School, Chembur, Mumbai and she did her Anthropology Major in St.Xavier’s Collage. And she got M.A in Mumbai University.
LIST AND AWARDS.

Winner
2006: Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, Parineeta
2006: Filmfare Face of the Year, Parineeta
2010: Filmfare Best Actress Award, Paa
Nominated
2006: Filmfare Best Actress Award, Parineeta
2008: Filmfare Best Actress Award, Bhool Bhulaiyaa
Star Screen Awards
Winner
2006: Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female, Parineeta
2010: Star Screen Award for Best Actress - Paa
2011: Star Screen Award for Best Actress - Ishqiya
Zee Cine Awards
Winner
2006: Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut, Parineeta
Nominated
2006: Zee Cine Award for Best Actor - Female, Parineeta
International Indian Film Academy Awards
Winner
2006: IIFA Best Female Debut, Parineeta
2010: IIFA Best Actress Award, Paa (shared with Kareena Kapoor)
Nominated
2007: IIFA Best Actress Award, Lage Raho Munnabhai
2008: IIFA Best Actress Award, Bhool Bhulaiyaa
2008: IIFA Best Villain Award, Bhool Bhulaiyaa
2008: IIFA Best Supporting Actress Award, Guru
Stardust Awards
Winner
2006: Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow - Female, Parineeta
Nominated
2008: Stardust Best Supporting Actress Award, Guru
Other Awards
2004: Anandalok Puraskar Awards, Best Actress, Bhalo Theko
2005: Apsara Producer's Guild Awards for Outstanding Debut, Parineeta
2006: Star's Sabsey Favourite Nayi Heroine, Parineeta
2007: Anandalok Puraskar Awards, Best Actress (Hindi), Bhool Bhulaiyaa
2010: Lions Gold Awards, Best Actress, Paa
2010: 'FICCI Frames 2010' Excellence Awards: Best Actress for Paa


LIST OF FILMS.
2003
Bhalo Theko
2005
Parineeta
2006
Lage Raho Munna Bhai
2007
Guru
Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love
Eklavya: The Royal Guard
Heyy Babyy
Bhool Bhulaiyaa
Om Shanti Om
2008
Halla Bol
Kismat Konnection
2009
Paa
2010
Ishqiya
2011
No One Killed Jessica
Urumi
Kahani
The Dirty Picture

















Wednesday, February 2, 2011

PREETHI JHANGIANI Review bollywood celibrity details films bikinipics FILMCAREER PERSONALLIFE Gossips award WETPICS wallpaper HOTPICS hotvideo




PREETHI JHANGIANI
DATE OF BIRTH- 18.08.1980
BIRTH PLACE-MANGALORE, KARNATAKA, INDIA

Preethi is one of the leading actress in Bollywood, Tollywood, Sandalwood and Kollywood.
Preethi born in Mangalore to a Hindu family. She completed her education in Jai Hind collage, Mumbai. She is fluent in kannada, Hindi, English and sindhi language.
Preethi started her first carreer in Rajshri Production’s Music Album Yeh Hai Prem with Abbas. After that she Apeared in Nirma Sandal Soap T V advertisement.
She entered film industry through Malayalam movie Mazhavillu in the year of 2000. later that year she starred in Bollywood Movie Mohabbatein.this is a well to her as well as box-office. She also performed in Punjabi movie Sajna Ve Sajna.
Preethi married an actor Parvin Dabas on 2008.


LIST OF FILMS

Tejam (2010) (TELUGU)
As the river flows (2010)
Haseena: Smart, Sexy, Dangerous (2009) ... Tina
Visakha Express (2008) (TELUGU)
Sajna Ve Sajna (2007) ... (PUNJABI)
Godfather: The Legend Continues (2007) (PAKISTAN - URDU)
Victoria No. 203 (2007) ... Devyani / Mona
Yamadonga(2007) ... Oorvasi (Celestial Beauty) Item Number (TELUGU)
With Luv... Tumhaara (2006) ... Anuradha
Jaane Hoga Kya (2006) ... Suchitra
Chand Ke Paar Chalo (2006) ... Nirmala / Garima
Sauda - The Deal (2005) ... Devika
Ssukh (2005) ... Sushila Chandraprakash Sharma
Chehraa (2005) ... Dr. Reena
Chaahat – Ek Nasha (2005) ... Rashmi Jaitly
Apparao Driving School (2004) ... Anjali (TELUGU)
Aan: Men at Work (2004) ... Janki
Anandamanandamaye (2004) (TELUGU)
Omkara (2004) (KANNADA)
LOC Kargil (2003) ... Balwan Singh's girlfriend
Baaz: A Bird in Danger (2003) ... Preeti Rastogi
Annarth (2002) ... Preeti
Waah! Tera Kya Kehna (2002) ... Meena
Awara Paagal Deewana (2002) ... Preeti
Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (2002) ... Special Appearance
Adhipati (2001) ... (TELUGU)
Narasimha Naidu (2001) ....(TELUGU)
Mohabbatein (2000) ... Kiran
Thammudu (1999) ... Janaki / Jaanu (TELUGU)
Hello (1999) ... Swetha (TAMIL)
Mazhavillu (1999) ... Veena (MALAYALAM
)













Saturday, January 8, 2011

TABU Review bollywood details films pics FILMCAREER PERSONALLIFE Gossips awardslist WETPICS wallpaper HOTPICS gallery movielist hotvideo






TABU

DATE OF BIRTH- 04.11.1970
BIRTH PLACE- HYDERABAD, INDIA
FATHER AND MOTHER-JAMAL HASHMI AND RIJWANA


Tabu is one of the leading actress in Bollywood, though she well known in Tamil Telugu,Malyalam,Bengali and Marathi film industry.

FILM CAREER.

Tabu entered the Bollywood in the movie Bazaar in 1980 as a child actor after five years she appeared in Hum Naujawan
Tabu appeared as an actress in Tollywood movie Coolie No.1. Her anothor Hindi movie was Roop Ki Rani Choro Raja and Prem. In Prem she appeared with Sanjay Kapoor.
In 1994 she played a major role in Vijaypath alongside Ajay Devagan for which she won the Film fare Best Female Debut Award.
In 1996 she acted in Saajan Chale Sasural and Jeet. Her major role in Maachis,she won the National Film fare Award for Best Actress.at same year she played a major Role in Tamil’s Kadal Desam along side Abbas,this movie grab the box office.

In 1997 she appeared in Border along side Sonny Deol. Later that year she played critically acclaimed film Virasat and She received Film fare Critics Award for Best Performance.
In 1999, Tabu acted in Biwi No. I and Hum Saat-Saat Hain:We Stand United. Both movies were the biggest hits of that year.
In 2000 she starred in Hera Pheri and Astitva.she won the Film fare Critics Award for Best Performance for Astitva.
In 2001 Tabu appeared as a bar dancer in Madhur Bandarkar’s Chandini Bar, for this she got her second National Film fare Award for Best Actress.
Tabu has appeared in number of Tollywood movies such as Coolie No.1 and Ninne Pelladutha.
In 2003 she acted in Vishal Bharadwaj’s Maqbool and premiered at the Toronto inter national Film Festival.
Tabu played a supporting role in Fanaa with Amir Khan and Kajol.this film was a 4th biggest hit of the year 2006.
In 2007 she acted in Mira Nair’s Hollywood movie The Namesake.
Tabu append as lover of 64 year old man Amitab Bachchan in the movie Cheeni Kum.


EARLI FAMILY LIFE.

TABU born on November 4, 1970 in Hydarabad to Muslim family. Her father name is Jaml hashmi and mother is Rizwana.
Tabu completed her high school in St. Ann’s high school in Hyderabad. And she moved to Mumbai and completed her two year studies in St Xavier’s Collage.


PERSONAL LIFE.
TABU is the life member of International Club of Asian Academy Of Film and Television, Noida.
In 1998, Tabu was charged an offence with poaching two blackbucks in Kankani during the filming of Hum Saath Saath Hain The charges were dropped soon after and Tabu was acquitted
.

LIST OF TABU'S MOVIE,AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS.

1985 Hum Naujawan as a child artiste and Devanand's daughter
1991 Coolie No. 1Telugu film
1994 Pehla Pehla Pyaar
Vijaypath Winner, Filmfare Best Female Debut Award
1995 Prem
Saajan Ki Baahon Mein
Sisindri Telugu film
Haqeeqat
1996 Saajan Chale Sasural
Kalapani Malayalam film
Kadhal Desam Tamil filmWinner Filmfare Best Actress Award (Tamil)
Himmat
Tu Chor Main Sipahi
Jeet Special appearance Nominated, Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award
Ninne Pelladatha Telugu filmWinner, Filmfare Best Actress Award (Telugu)
Maachis Winner, National Film Award for Best Actress Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
1997
Virasat Winner, Filmfare Critics Award for Best PerformanceNominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
Darmiyan
Border
Iruvar Tamil film
1998 Chachi 420
Aavida Maa Aavide Telugu film
Two Thousand One
Hanuman

1999 Kohram: The Explosion
Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United
Hu Tu Tu Winner, Filmfare Critics Award for Best PerformanceNominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
Biwi No.1
Thakshak
Thaayin Manikodi Tamil film
2000 Snegithiye Tamil film
Cover Story Malayalam film
Hera Pheri
Kandukondain Kandukondain Tamil film
Tarkieb
Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar
Shikari
Astitva Winner, Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award, Marathi film
2001 Ghaath
Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya
Chandni Bar Winner, National Film Award for Best ActressNominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa
2002 Maa Tujhhe Salaam
Filhaal...
Chennakeshava Reddy Telugu film
Zindagi Khoobsoorat Hai
Saathiya
Cameo
2003 Abar Aranye Bengali film
Khanjar: The Knife
Hawa
Jaal: The Trap
Maqbool
2004 Main Hoon Na Special appearance
Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities
2005 Silsiilay
Bhagmati
Andarivaadu Telugu film
2007 Shock Telugu film
Fanaa
2007 Sarhad Paar
The Namesake
Cheeni Kum Winner, Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance
Om Shanti Om Special appearance in song Deewangi Deewangi
2008 Idee Sangati Telugu film
Pandurangadu Telugu film
2010 Toh Baat Pakki Season's Greetings Filming
Urumi Filming(Malayalam)
The Legend Of Kunal Filming
2011 Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai Post-production





















Friday, January 7, 2011

AMISHA PATEL Review bollywood details films pics FILMCAREER PERSONALLIFE Gossips awardslist WETPICS wallpaper HOTPICS gallery movielist hotvideo




AMISHA PATEL

DATE OF BIRTH- 09.06 1975
BIRTH PLACE- MUMBAI, MAHARASTRA, INDIA.
FATHER AND MOTHER-AMITHA PATEL AND ASHA PATEL.


AMISHA PATEL is one of the leading actress in Bollywood. And she is a Bharatanatyam dancer also.

FILM CAREER.

Amisha Patel entered the film industry in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000). Opposite Hrithik Roshan. Later she appeared in her second Movie in Tollywood Badri opposite Pawan Kalyan. This movie was a major succecss,grossing more than 120 million in India.
In 2001 she acted in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha with Sunnydeol. This is a movie about cross-border romance and directed by Anil Sharma. Amisha won the Film fare Special Performance Award for her best acting in Gadar. As well as nominations for Best Actress at various award ceremonies.Later that year she acted in Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar.this is flopped at the box office.
In 2002 she played in the movie Humraaz. This movie was the highest grossing film of the year.
In 2006 Amisha acted major role in with Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai along with Hrithik roshan.and later that year she appeared Ketan Mehta's historical movie Mangal Pandey: The Rising.
In 2007 she played in Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. Which was moderate success? At the same year she acted with Akshya Kumar in Bhool Bhulaiyaa.
Amisha appeared in bikini item, Lazy Lamhe, in Kunal Kohli's Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic in the year of 2008.
After two years she set to star in Hindi movie Run Bhola Run alongside Govind and film Chatur Singh Two Star, with Sanjay Dutt. At the same time she signed for Tollywood Parama Veera Chakra, with Nandamuri Balakrishna. And Hindi POWER, co-staring Amitha Bachachan, Sanjay Dutt and Anil Kapoor.
EARLY FAMILY LIFE.
Amisha Patel born in Breach candy Hospital in Mumbai, to a Hindu family. Her father name is Amit Patel and mother is Asha Patel.
She trained Bharathanatyam at the age of five
Amisha studied in the Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai. And higher studies at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
After returning to India she joined SatyaDev Dubaye’s theater group and acted in plays.
PERSONAL LIFE.
In 1999 Amish started dating and roaming with film maker Vikram Bhatt and they separated in 2008
In 2008 Amisha was spotted with London Based businessman Kanava Puri and she confirmed their relatitionship.
And in 2010 Amisha Patel broke off the relationship with her boyfriend Kanav Puri for the reason of her film career.
List of awards and nominations received by Ameesha Patel
2000
Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai
Badri Telugu film
2001
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha Winner, Filmfare Special Performance AwardNominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar
2002 Kranti
Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai
Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage
Yeh Hai Jalwa
Humraaz Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
2003
Puthiya Geethai Tamil film
Parwana
2004 Suno Sasurjee
Shart: The Challenge Special appearance
NaaniTelugu film
2005 Vaada

Elaan
Zameer: The Fire Within
Narasimhudu Telugu film
Mangal Pandey: The Rising
2006 Mere Jeevan Saathi
Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai
Teesri Aankh: The Hidden Camera
Tathastu
Ankahee
Aap Ki Khatir
2007 Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Lt.
Heyy Babyy Special appearance in the title song
Bhool Bhulaiyaa

Om Shanti Om Special appearance
2008 Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
2011 Parama Veera Chakra Telugu film, Post-production
Run Bhola Run Post-production
Chatur Singh Two Star Post-production
Power Filming















Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Acer Aspire 7552G price features technology design review.



Acer Aspire 7552G

Aspire 7552G is the new product of Acer. Acer is well known manufacturers of desk top and lap tops. Aspire 7552G fall on the category of note-book. The Aspire7552G includes AMD VISION technology. It provides multimedia experaince.

Aspire 7552G is exactly It is 17.3-inch lap top it can re-palce the traditional desk-top. Aspire 7552G laptop is very good for perform business and research. If you are a student or business man you can buy this lap-top without compromise because Aspire 7552G has 6-cell lithium ion battery for providing back-up life. and light weight. You can roam all day long!!.




KEY SPECIFICATION

*17.3-inch LED backlit display with resolution of 1600 x 900 pixel
*Acer CineCrystal HD+
*AMD Phenom Quad-Core II Mobile processor
*ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 graphics card
*4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB SATA HDD
*AMD VISION technology
*Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS
*Blu-Ray drive, HDMI port
*5-in-1 card reader, Wi-Fi
*Gigabit Ethernet

MADE AND DESIGN .
Aspire 7552G includes CineCrystal display with a fast response time so that fast action moves seamlessly across the screen and a 16:9 aspect ratio--perfect for viewing content created for the widescreen. And with quad-core processing and ATI Radeon HD GraphicsThe notebook's rounded edges and smooth lines bring a slenderized look while the mesh-patterned cover brings a rich appearance. The keyboard also extends to a dedicated numeric keypad, making number key-ins quick and streamlining productivity.


It's powered by a quad-core AMD Phenom II processor and the ATI Radeon HD 5650 graphics processor, which combines multi-core processing and powerful graphics for a superior digital entertainment experience. A Multi-Gesture Touchpad enables you to pinch, flick and swirl your fingers across the touchpad for more natural photo and video viewing as well as intuitive navigation of websites. Other features include ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking, an integrated webcam for video chats, and a SuperMulti optical drive that's compatible with double-layer DVD discs.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

WikiLeaks the New Information Cultures and Digital Parrhesia

WikiLeaks (currently at http:// 213.251.145.96/) has redefined not only media ethics, it has redefined what we understand as information cultures itself. This commentary on perhaps one of the most significant developments since the arrival of internet cultures outlines certain ways of understanding WikiLeaks (WL, for short).1 I shall do this through a series of propositions, given that we have no idea yet how WL will shape up and so the present commentary also has to be partial, fragmentary and unfinished. WL as a Cultural Phenomenon WL cannot be identified just with an individual Julian Assange, even though he pops up as soon as one opens the website. Assange is a messenger, he is neither messiah nor the message. But, fortunately or unfortunately, he has become identified as the "face" of WL. However, to do this is to personalise-individualise what is really a cultural phenomenon.2 It draws breath from the subcultural hacker movement which arose primarily out of the belief (now the hacker credo): "information wants to be free". Years ago the Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) delivered its Hacktivist Declaration: We view access to information as a basic human right. We are also interested in keeping the Internet free of state-sponsored censorship and corporate chicanery so all opinions can be heard (http://www.cultdeadcow. com/cDc_files/HacktivismoFAQ.html). This declaration itself drew upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), quoting its Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Like CDC, WL also sees itself as deriving its moral and ethical stance from the UDHR (citing Article 19 on its website), and thus locates itself in a global cultural apparatus: the universal movement for human and related rights. What WL represents is a new culture of information that dovetails into two other cultural practices: whistle-blowing and parrhesia (truth-telling). At the end of this essay I shall return to the second one for a more extensive discussion.

MORE
Despite this emphasis on the culture of dissidence, resistance and truth-telling embodied by WL, it cannot be denied that individual whistle-blowers have put their careers and their lives on the line. For protest to effect any political change, cyborg theorist Chris Hables Gray, the creator of the Cyborg Bill of Rights, points out, it requires embodiment: "you testify to the truth with your body" (2001: 44). The persecution of Assange – his dramatic arrest, the rape charges, the threats of extradition and possible assassination – makes for a very strange mix where the virtual meets the flesh-and-blood: online activity whose validity and value are sworn to by the very real threat to the person of Julian Assange. Conversely, does eliminating the "body" of Assange alter the virtual threat that the new culture of information represents? The answer is "no", for we are in the age of an electronic civil society and information culture unlimited to bodies, geographies or national boundaries. WL as Public Witnessing WL shapes a new textualisation and visualisation of how international relations and global geopolitics work. That is, something as abstract as geopolitics or international relations that very often manifest only as finalised treaties or speeches or policy documents gets broken down into its dirty, messy constituent parts. We therefore must see WL’s collection of documents as the processes that make up the world’s functioning. In a sense, WL directs us, for the first time, to the making of the world order (or disorder).






WL emerges out of digital and networked technologies that enable "public witnessing" (Reading 2009). Here the production of information about human rights violations, war, oppression, atrocity, disaster and suffering have been the work not solely of CNN and the state but amateurs wielding mobile phone cameras and camcorders. Traceable back to the epoch-making Rodney King beating in Los Angeles in 1989, public witnessing is the user-generated content of the horrors of war or disaster. In such a context WL feeds an already ravenous appetite for such content. In an era where extreme cultures constitute the screen in the form of extreme sports, extreme deprivation and extreme violence, WL is one more component of such cultures. Thus to see WL as completely unique would be to deny significance to the visual cultures of Abu Ghraib-Guantanamo Bay, Katrina, the 2004 tsunami or the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
Public witnessing ensures that the invisible becomes visible as well. For example, WL’s first major exposes were of the Iraq war, many visuals being uploaded (and later acquired by WL) by soldiers from the front. As Noel Whitty suggests in his study of soldier photography (2010), a whole new "visualisation of war" is now possible with such visuals. Those scenes we were not meant to see – which is what Nicholas Mirzoeff terms "invisible" – such as Saddam Hussein’s execution, the tortures in Abu Ghraib or the massacre of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan can now be seen. We are now in the era of the hyper-visible, by which I mean the excessive and repeated circulation of such images we were not intended to ever see.
In the age of human rights campaigns, a great deal of value is attached to the visual evidence of atrocity (Girling 2004). That is, there is a visual culture of human rights today, a cultural apparatus through which human rights are refracted for public consumption. The Iraq War Logs and the "Collateral Murder" video which first brought WL global attention are instances of this visual culture of human rights and international humanitarian law. Scenes of war, classified documents that legitimised torture, secret parleys behind policy constitute what we might term a counter-archive. An archive has traditionally been a space where documents are stored and the rights of interpretation of these documents rest with a chosen few (known in classical times as "archons"). Here, in WL’s archives we have a database from which we, as readers, need to build narratives. I am drawing attention to two specific details here. The collection of documents might have an "internal" narrative but we need to see them as a database. A database in cyberspace leaves us many options of traversals (reading, following links). As we traverse we build a narrative through the database. I have elsewhere argued that this construction of narrative from a "raw" database is fundamentally a matter of choice: what paths we choose to take through the database (Nayar 2010). Therefore, the archive of documents WL leaks must be, and can be, made to tell a story – about injustice, corruption, deprivation, suffering in any part of the world – depending on our choice of frames of interpretation and wanderings through the corpus. WL-facilitated public witnessing could therefore become the means of producing a globalisation of conscience. WL, Knowledge-Making and a Virtual Public Space WL constitutes a rupture in dominant and dominating patterns of knowledge-making and interpretive schemes. Previously knowledge that was hierarchic, centralised and graded, is now random, non-hierarchic and user-generated, resulting in distributed knowledge (or "infotopia", Sunstein 2006; Lévy 2001, Chapter 10).
WL’s leakage of thousands of documents offers contestatory narratives of the "war on terror", to take just one instance. These contestatory narratives provide the necessary corrective to centralised and controlled state discourses about Iraq and Afghanistan. With WL, a gap in knowledge about the same event has occurred, between the rhetoric of the US government regarding the "war on terror" and the stories told in the leaked cables. This gap in knowledge cannot be really filled because of the contestatory nature of the counter-archive. If knowledge proceeds by debates, in the true Socratic function, WL offers us an opportunity to situate two discourses and sets of narratives in dialogue. What WL does is not to pinpoint blames for wrongdoing on X or Y. Rather, it gives us a glimpse of the institutional, state, organisational cultures that made X or Y’s acts possible. Records on/at WL must be seen not as individual instances but as embodiments of institutional politics and power games. In other words, we need to treat the documents in the archive not as illuminating the perversions of one soldier in Iraq or Abu Ghraib: they must be evaluated as synecdochic of a culture where such acts of atrocity were made possible,and even legitimised. It is therefore interestin to note how former soldiers whofought in Iraq support WL’s efforts.We did unto you what we would not wantdone unto us… Our heavy hearts still hold
hope that we can restore in our country the acknowledgement of your humanity, that we were taught to deny (qtd in Lazare and Harvey 2010: 27).
What WL does is to locate a Lynndie England (the infamous prison warden at Abu Ghraib) within a US culture of war and a war effort that empowered such individuals.The individual soldiers only denote individual wrong-doing, but what we need to see is the connotation – which is the cultural apparatus of atrocity. Individuals like Bradley Manning (the military intelligence analyst who allegedly leaked the documents to WL, and is now in prison, and likely to remain there for a
long time), see their acts as a public service.Thus, to bring the argument full circle, to see Assange or Manning as individual heroes is to miss the point. If the public space has to possess a certain morality– of giving visibility to human rights violations, deprivation, suffering and cruelty (i e, whistle-blowing) and offering the chance for people to voice their dissent and discontent – then it is the rise and dissemination of counter-narratives such as those archived at WL that remake the space. If the public space is the space for different people to tell their stories, WL marks the arrival of such a space. This is the main reason why it is
fascinating to see how the US, the socalled defender of free speech and therefore multiple stories, has suddenly decided that WL is not about free speech at all because it hurts "global" interests (US commentators have even called for the death penalty to Bradley Manning). In January 2009 US Secretary of State,Hillary Clinton, claimed a new nervous system for the globe: the internet. Sharply critical just last year of China’s efforts at
limiting Google (known among hactivists as "the great firewall of China"), this same Clinton is now up in arms against WL. WL and the Archive of the Future Hactivism such as WL’s is always open to charges of being unethical, especiallywhen their disclosures affect powerful state and corporate interests. However, we need to see their ethics as "deriving from the future", as Tim Jordan argues about hactivists (2002: 138). WL cannot really predict what its disclosures will result in.In this sense, WL is not embedded either in the past or the present: it draws its courage
from a promise of a future when things could be different. But it can also be read as a moral/ethical position on free speech – a position and policy endorsed by various governments in the past – being taken to its logical
end and directed at the future.
The entire WL project must be seen as an archive whose uses would only be in the future, it is therefore a responsibility and response directed at the future of knowledge-production, international relations and authority. Currently, as it stands, the 2,50,000 + documents WL plans to release
slowly is in fact "virtual": for the word virtual means "something with the
potential to become real". This archive has the potential – the future – to remake the world through the rise of a global consciousness.WL and the Culture of Parrhesia To return to the point with which I began,
the cultures of information, WL can be read as marking the arrival of a digital parrhesia, or truth-telling. Derived from "para" meaning "beyond" and "resis",meaning "speech", parrhesia is truth-telling performed at risk to the truth-teller.3 In Athenian democracy, parrhesia was an important component, but it was also a feature that distinguished the good citizen, Michel Foucault notes (1983). It involves citizens acting as individuals,
but also acting as an assembly in the open space:Parrhesia, which is a requisite for public speech, takes place between citizens as individuals,
and also between citizens construed as an assembly. Moreover,
the agora [theopen space] is the place where parrhesia appears
(Foucault, online, unpaginated).Two preliminary points. First, it is not
possible, given the nature of global communications and the globalisation of free speech, to think of a single truth-teller, unless one were to,mistakenly, in my opinion, assign this status to Assange. But, as noted earlier, we must be careful in converting the messenger into a messiah
or even the message itself. The most one can say about Assange is that he functions as a cipher in the free flow of information that is digital parrhesia. While accusations about his autocratic and anti-US bias
do the rounds, it remains indisputable that the documents speak for themselves, in the medium which is cyberspace and WL. A second point to be noted is that parrhesia is performed at the risk to the truthteller.
Here, if we assume the speech-act as a manifestation of the structures enabling transmission of truth, then Assange and Bradley Manning are indeed the structures at risk. These seem to be two apparently contradictory points – about digital parrhesia being performed at risk to the truth-teller and contemporary condition where we cannot pinpoint a single truth-teller. I propose a slightly different parrhesia, one that is less interested in the truth-teller than in the culture of truth-telling. Digital
cultures create a new communications culture, which generates a new community,the global civil society (we have seen this in the case of online supports, campaigns,humanitarian efforts in the wake of the tsunami, Katrina, the Haiti earthquake,protests against the WTO, etc), and the globalisation of conscience. WL is an embodiment of this new form of communicationsleading-to-community, a digital parrhesia.
At risk is digital space as parrhesiastic space. At risk is a new media cultural practice (Napster, Bit Torrent, Rapidshare,CreativeCommons, Open Source Movement, Wikipedia,WikiLeaks), not the individual voice.
At risk is the entire culture of information sharing, the agora of information.Parrhesia has a close link with self-examination
(Foucault). Foucault of course makes much of the fact that a truth-teller’s
telling and his life must be in what he calls "harmonic relation". Thus, it calls upon the speaker to examine what s/he believes and therefore for a closer scrutiny of her/ him-self. Hence the attacks on Assange’s
personal life are aimed at discrediting his role as truth-teller, but miss the crucial point of the contexts of parrhesia. By targeting him, the governments are hoping to change the cultural form itself. His morality
in fact has nothing to do with the culture of communications. What the contemporaryversion of parrhesia achieves is not only the demand for self-examination (American policies, for example, as revealed in the cables) but a context in which this examination can occur. This brings us to the next point.Foucault notes that the "agora is the place where parrhesia appears". The agora, central to ancient democracies, is the public space where multiple stories are told, at considerable risk to the teller (and heard). For some time now cyberspace has been treated as an agora (Rheingold 2000). It is in the continuous, often random movement
of data packets that parrhesia makes its appearance in the agora of virtual worlds, the information commons. Digital parrhesia is the process of building a global civil space, an electronic agora through the social act of sharing information and producing collaborative/distributed
knowledge – and this is what is at stake in the WL battle. If information and rational debate are central to the democratisation of the world (democracy is often "deliberative democracy", with an inherent
emphasis on information-driven "deliberations"), then the digital parrhesia is the space of deliberation where democracy might emerge. Truth-telling might of course result in the severance of relations between the truth-teller and his audience (try telling your friend you do not like her/his partner!), but that still means he must speak the truth. Foucault makes it clear that his intention "was not to deal with the problem
of truth, but with the problem of the truth-teller or truth-telling as an activity". The questions he raises about truth-telling as activity are what concern us most today in the case of WL: "what is the relation between
the activity of truth-telling and the exercise of power, or should these
activities be completely independent and kept separate?" We should be concerned, says Foucault, "with the question of the importance of telling the truth, knowing who is able to tell the truth, and knowing why we should tell the truth". The task at hand is to create the agora where parrhesia can take place. It is not necessarily the validity of this or that statement, cable or memo, but the space in which these can
be displayed and kept for scrutiny as part of a trust-building exercise. It is therefore important that space be made for parrhesia to take place. This means, simply, keeping the agora, the space of the virtual and WL domains open for parrhesiatic "business" (something that has been
directly affected through the withdrawal of support by Amazon.com. PayPal, and Visa- Mastercard).4Michael Peters has, I think correctly,
proposed that parrhesia is connected not only to knowledge but to education and thence to democracy (2003). While Foucault’s interest lay in the education of the self and the institution of monarchy
with which parrhesia was most situated it is possible to extend this ideas to contemporary times. Parrhesia is "fearless speech" and is a crucial component of the civic processes of any society. It is usually performed by an individual who is in a position of lesser power. Parrhesia also
aligns truth with duty and the necessity to improve conditions through the truth-telling act (Sementelli 2009: 360). Put together what we can argue is that WL constitutes a parrhesiastic act that (i) must be allowed to run free, (ii) must be facilitated by the construction and reinforcement of
conditions in which it can happen, and (iii) enables the making of a global civil society. As of now, admittedly, the US has been the major target of the leaks. But if WL’s own statements are true, then it appears as though several countries and governments around the world will have their hidden stories "outed". If there is any chance of a global civil society, an agora, to form, then WL’s digital parrhesia might just be the route to that place where criticism of governments from the US to Ulan Bator can occur. Digital parrhesia is very possibly the domain where democracy
itself is at stake.

Trial of Binayak Sen Human rights activist

The trial of one of the most celebrated political prisoners in recent times has just ended. Going through the trial proceedings makes one laugh at the kind of evidence the Chhattisgarh police have managed to gather against Binayak Sen; but the human rights activist spent two years in jail on the basis of this evidence, charged with sedition, waging war against the State, as well as being a Maoist supporter, both under normal laws and under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The international clamour for his release, with Nobel Laureates joining in, had no effect on either our highly educated prime minister or the person who appointed him, the supposedly liberal Congress Party president who surrounds herself with some of the country’s leading intellectuals. Even the Supreme Court rejected his bail application the first time, with no reasons being given. Binayak Sen made news when he was in jail, but soon after he was released on bail by the Supreme Court (again, no reasons given) he faded away from media focus. But his trial continued. Had it been reported regularly, the country would have known the nature of the evidence against him, and also about the ordinary men and women who stood up in court and insisted the police version was wrong. The complete blackout of the trial throws light on the functioning of the Chhattisgarh media, which had gone to town when Sen was arrested, proclaiming in banner headlines his guilt by calling him a Naxali daakiya (Naxalite postman).
There is one more aspect of this episode that needs to be highlighted: Sen’s co-accused, the alleged "hardcore Naxalite" Narayan Sanyal, and businessman Piyush Guha, were denied bail and remained in custody all this time. The evidence against them did not inspire confidence either.
What were the specific charges against Sen? All three accused in the case faced the same charges: that of having conspired at any of six different places (sic) to wage war against the state, and of being members of or contributed funds to or assisted the work of an illegal organisation. Evidence? What was the evidence to support these charges? The prosecution alleged that Sen had passed on letters from Narayan Sanyal, whom he used to meet in Raipur Central Jail, to Piyush Guha, to be sent "out". These letters were allegedly found on Guha when he was arrested. However, jailor after jailor testified that there was no way Sanyal could have handed over anything to Sen in jail because Sanyal’s visitors were not only searched before and after meeting him, but all Sanyal’s meetings with visitors were held under strict supervision. Not only could the jailors see Sen and Sanyal during the meeting, they could also hear their conversation, which they testified, centred on the 74-year-old Sanyal’s health, his case, and his family. When asked if they had been pulled up for carelessness in monitoring Sanyal, the jail staff said no. Two jailors were declared hostile by the prosecution.
The prosecution could not prove that Sen ever met Guha. The hotel owner and manager, in whose hotels the police alleged the two would meet, told the court that they had never seen Sen or anyone come to meet Guha. The prosecution declared them hostile. Thus the triangle sought to be established by the prosecution – of Sen as the link between Sanyal and Guha – could not be established.
It could be argued that witnesses normally turn hostile in cases against Naxalites, being too scared of the latter to depose against them. However, in Chhattisgarh’s cities, there is little evidence of Naxalite terror. On the contrary, be it Raipur or Dantewada, this state has seen members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress gang up to boot out anyone suspected of being a Naxalite sympathiser, even Gandhians and scientists. The police have of course taken the lead in targeting those they label "Naxalite sympathisers". They did not allow academics Nandini Sundar and Ujjwal Singh to meet people in Dantewada last December, nor did they let an all-women’s team reach Dantewada to join Gandhian Himanshu Kumar’s peace march around the same time. If any terror exists in Chhattisgarh’s cities, it is the terror of the police.
Hence the ordinary men and women who disproved the police story against Sen in court – two hoteliers and one school principal – were unlikely to have been acting under fear of the Naxalites. And what of the jailors? What motivated them to deny the police version? Fabricated Evidence? The prosecution had one more weapon against Sen, a "proof" that needed no eyewitnesses to validate it: a letter dated 1 December 2005, ostensibly written by Naxalites thanking him for his services in Chhattisgarh and hoping for similar services in Orissa. This unsigned letter, in the form of a computer printout, made a sudden appearance when a prosecution witness was deposing, a man who claimed to have been called by the police to witness their search of Sen’s house.
Unlike the other documents seized from the house, this letter had neither Sen’s signature nor that of the investigating officer, B B Rajpoot, who was part of the police search party, on it. It had instead only the signatures of the two witnesses the police claim were present during the search. It is neither mentioned in the list of documents seized from Sen’s house (seizure memo) nor in the final report presented with the challan; nor in the list given to the court’s maalkhana where all seized material is stored. "I have no knowledge who found it or from where’’, the town inspector, B S Jagrit told the court, maintaining however, that it was found in Sen’s house. Both he and the investigation officer had the same explanation as to why it had neither Rajpoot’s nor Sen’s signature: "Either we forgot, or this paper got overlooked because it was stuck to some other document seized during the search". But how come the witnesses signed it?
To prevent planting of evidence, all the material seized from an accused’s house is supposed to be sealed in the presence of witnesses before being taken away. The prosecution claimed this was done. The defence alleged it was not. And to substantiate its allegation, Sen’s lawyer Surendra Singh asked for permission to play the video recording of the entire seizure, shot by a professional videographer hired by Sen’s wife Ilina, with the permission of the court. Summoned by Sen as a defence witness, the videographer told the court that he had seen the police take away the seized material in an open bag. However, the judge B P Verma refused to allow the video to be screened at that stage, even after the special public prosecutor (SPP) challenged the authenticity of the CD. However, that same afternoon, the same judge allowed the SPP to play a CD which, claimed the prosecution, showed Sen talking to Naxalites in the jungle. In the witness box at that time was another defence witness, documentary maker Ajay T G, who had shot this particular video. Like the videographer, Ajay too maintained that he needed to see the CD before he could identify it. The judge allowed it to be played, but refused to see it himself. However, the CD could not be played and hence remained unidentified.
Ajay T G told the court that he had filmed Sen and advocate Holaram Prajapati talking to adivasis during a 2004 People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) investigation into the killing of three adivasis in a village adjoining the forest. This set of CDs made by Ajay was seized from Sen’s house. Sen’s alleged Naxalite links were sought to be established through other material seized from his house – especially his computer, wherein names of various persons were found, whom the police said were Naxalites. The computer had details of payments made to those working for Rupantar, the non-governmental organisation set up by Binayak Sen and his wife Ilina that works on issues of health and biodiversity.
In his testimony, inspector Jagrit described Rupantar as a Naxalite organisation run by the Sens, which did "urban networking" for the Naxalites. The Malti and Vijay mentioned in the computer, said Jagrit, were the same "Malti" and "Vijay" known to the police as Naxalites. An entry "Vijay-non AA budget" was interpreted by Jagrit as being "codewords used by Naxalites’’. The defence explained Malti Jadhav and Vijay had worked for Rupantar, and that "non AA budget" meant "non-Action Aid budget". Incidentally, as pointed out by the defence, Rupantar continues to get funds from both the central and the state governments!
Then there is the case of Amita Srivastav, declared to be an absconding Naxalite by the police. A woman by the same name was recommended by Ilina Sen to a local school which employed her. However, when shown a photograph said to be of the absconding Amita, the school principal said she was not the person employed by her. The principal was declared hostile. Hum PUCL Ko Dekh Lenge The prosecution made a big deal about Sen’s visits to Sanyal in jail. But in cross-examination by Sen’s counsel, Mahindra Dubey, the jailors admitted that all applications to meet Sanyal were made by Sen as a PUCL office-bearer, on the PUCL letterhead, and that these meetings were allowed only after the local police had cleared them.
Sanyal was not the only prisoner in whom Sen seems to have had an inordinate interest. A prisoner from Balaghat jail wrote directly to Sen for help; Sen gave the letter to the local press. The eveninger Chhattisgarh published it prominently. When a prisoner from Bilaspur Central Jail sent an appeal to the Supreme Court, the jail authorities sent a copy to Sen as PUCL general secretary. This was a month before his arrest.
PUCL, of which Sen is now currently national vice-president, and state president, has played no small part in the proceedings. I O Rajpoot stated in court that PUCL worked for the Naxalites. Sen was arrested in May 2007. As far back as January 2006, then Chhattisgarh Director General of Police O P Rathore had declared to the press: Hum PUCL ko dekh lenge (we will take care of PUCL). That was a month after the Chhattisgarh PUCL, under its general secretary Binayak Sen, had investigated the brutal displacement of adivasis under Salwa Judum, the state-backed vigilante movement that has drawn the Supreme Court’s disapproval.
On 2 December 2005, PUCL released its preliminary report of a joint fact-finding done in Dantewada, with other human rights groups. It was an indictment of the Chhattisgarh administration’s role in setting up and running Salwa Judum camps, and the havoc this had wrought on the lives of the adivasis there. All through 2006, PUCL statements against Salwa Judum and against the newly-enacted CSPSA were published in the local press. More than one policeman testified that PUCL members Sen, his wife Ilina and then general secretary Rajendra Sail, participated in meetings with Naxalites in Chhattisgarh’s jungles. Under cross-examination, they admitted this was just hearsay. One policeman said that local villagers had told him this, but he had not recorded their statements because it would have been dangerous for them! Discrepancies and Contradictions What is surprising is that in a case that attracted international attention and a trial at which foreign observers were present (when Sen was in jail), the police performed as sloppily as they do in any routine case. The evidence was full of discrepancies and contradictions on material points, be it the letters alleged to have been found on Piyush Guha’s person (no mention of them have been made in the arrest panchnama), or the time and place of his arrest (the affidavit filed in reply to his bail application in the Supreme Court, mentioned it as Mahindra Hotel, the charge sheet in the case mentioned it as the busy station road in Raipur), the arrest of Narayan Sanyal (two policemen testified he had been arrested in Bhadrachalam, but a prosecution witness told the court he had been arrested from his house, only to admit in cross-examination that this was hearsay), or the SPP’s description of the Indian Social Institute as Pakistan’s ISI. Bill books and registers were seized from the two hotels in which Guha was said to have stayed, and remained in the possession of the police since. Yet, in one of the registers, an entry was made on a date after it was seized from the hotel. The CD in which Sen is supposed to be talking to Naxalites should have been a crucial piece of evidence for the prosecution. Yet, I O Rajpoot admitted that he had neither investigated who made the CD, nor did he know which village it featured.
Take the articles seized from Sen’s house. Those in the possession of the prosecution, produced in court, had the signatures of Sen, inspector Rajpoot, and two police witnesses. Xerox copies of these documents were sent to Sen – but, they did not have the signatures of the two witnesses. What does this imply? What is interesting also is the way policemen deposed about Naxalites – giving long accounts of their violent acts and the terror they create, their lack of belief in any law and their desire to overthrow the state at the point of a gun. Under cross-examination, these policemen admitted they had neither read Naxalite literature, nor interacted with any of them.
What could be the reason for such indifference? Did the police feel the accused would not be able to get good lawyers? Or, that since the trial would not attract media attention, these discrepancies would never come to light outside the court? Like everywhere else, in Chhattisgarh too, the police seem to have been pretty confident that the press would not stray from the briefings given to it.
What is frightening is that on such flimsy evidence, the accused were deprived of their liberty for three years (Sen for two years). Said Sen’s advocate Mahendra Dubey, who cross-examined most of the witnesses: "With the most important prosecution evidence having been demolished, what’s left? Just a list of supposedly incriminating documents seized from his house? Going by that, all scholars would go to jail.’’ Advocate Surendra Singh, Sen’s senior counsel, who concluded the defence arguments, saw this case as "an attempt to stifle any form of dissent’’.
That attempt seems to have succeeded; few fact-finding teams have been allowed to enter Dantewada in the last year, especially after Operation Green Hunt was launched. Even established political parties such as the Communist Party of India (CPI) are being targeted. Their leading activists are being arrested on false charges; when they organise protest rallies the adivasis going to these rallies are beaten, as happened in November. More such conduct will leave the field open to the police and the Maoists.
But hope exists. Lawyers such as Sudha Bharadwaj continue fighting at the local level, and at the Supreme Court, Nandini Sundar and ex-CPI MLA Manish Kunjam have not given up. The very fact that Binayak Sen, Narayan Sanyal and Piyush Guha could get lawyers who demolished the prosecution’s version, in the capital of a state where human rights is a dirty word, is proof that the State has not made cowards of all of us.

EPW.

UPSC CSAT IAS CSE Geography 1997 Mains Paper - I

Geography - 1997 (Main) (Paper - I)
Time Allowed : Three HoursMaximum Marks : 300 Candidates should attempt Questions 1 and 2 which are Compulsory , and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each section. All questions carry equal marks.1. On the outline map of India provided, mark the following and write in not more than ten words in your answer book, what you consider to be the most significant aspect of each one of them :(a) Mettur Dam(b) Kaziranga Park(c) Loktak Lake(d) Puri(e) Vindhyan Mountains(f) Mahanadi(g) Itanagar(h) Haldia(i) Sunderbans(j) Khetri copper mines
OROn the world map provided, mark to following and write in more than ten words in your answer book, what you consider to be the most significant aspect of each one of them :(a) Lake Erie(b) Black Forest(c) New York(d) Jamaica(e) Falkland Island(f) Winnipeg(g) Lake Mansarovar(h) Tigris River(i) Sharjah(j) Areas of Mediterranean climate in Africa2. Write short notes on any three of the following (each answer should be in about 200 words) :(a) Buffer zone(b) Marine resources, biotic, mineral and energy resources.(c) Weathering and soil formation(d) Rural-urban fringeSECTI0N A3. Discuss the concept of polycyclic landforms and present an analytical study of the polycyclic landforms of a selected region.4. Define air masses. How do they originate ? Classify them and state the characteristics of anyone type.5. Examine critically .the theories of the formation of coral reefs and atolls.
SECTION B6. "Water is a scarce resource in plenty." Comment and discuss its importance in the balanced habitate development. Support your answer with examples from Asia.7. Critically examine Alfred Weler's Theory of the Location of Industries.8. Critically examine the concept of dualism with special reference to physical versus human geography.

Geography - 1997 (Main) (Paper - II)
Candidates should attempt Questions 1 and 5 which are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each section. All questions carry equal marks. SECTION A
1. Answer any three of the following in about 200 words each
(a) Discuss the origin and main geomorphic feature of Thar Desert of India
(b) Examine the significance of social forestry in the rural economy of India.
(c) Examine the genesis of racial diversity in India,
(d) Discuss the impact of green revolution on the agricultural production in India.
2. Critically examine the factors affecting the distributional pattern of population in India.
3. Evaluate the nature of ecological problem in India and suggest measures for their measurement.
4. Divide Peninsular India into agricultural regions. Explain the basis of such a regionalisation.SECTION B
5. Answer any three of the following in about 200 words each :
(a) Analyse the locational pattern of cement industry in India.
(b) Examine the census concept of urban areas in India.
(c) Discuss the nature of commodity flows in India.
(d) Evaluate the benefits of Block Level development planning in India.
6. Critically examine the locational pattern and trend of production of forest based industries in India.
7. Draw a sketch map of India showing major river basins. Examine the feasibility of the concept of river basins as a planning unit.
8. Explain the basis and consequences of the establishment and implementation of recommendations of the State Re-organisation Commission in India since 1950s.

UPSC CSAT IAS CSE General Studies 2003 MainPaper - II

Time Allowed : Three HoursMaximum Marks : 300
INSTRUCTIONSEach Question is printed both in Hindi and in English. Answers must be written in the medium specified in the Admission Certificate issued to you, which must be stated clearly on the cover of the answer-book in the space provided for the purpose. No mark will be given for answers written in a medium other than that specified in the Admission Certificate. Candidates should attempt ALL questions strictly in accordance with the instructions given under each question. The number of marks carried by each question is indicated at the end of the question.
Q1. Answer any two of the following (about 150 words) 15X2=30
a) Discuss the major issues in Indo-US relations in recent times.b) Discuss the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union on Indo-Russian relations.c) Discuss the recent trends in India’s relations with China.
Q2. Answer the following (about 20 words) 2X5=10
a) Discuss the importance of the Agra Summit on Indo-Pakistan relations.b) What has been the nature of “Track II diplomacy” between India and Pakistan.c) Discuss the major irritants to Indo-Bangladesh relations.
d) Discuss the India’s policy towards international terrorism.e) In what sense in Indo-Nepal cooperation important for both countries’ national security.
Q3. Answer the following (about 20 words) 2X5=10
a) Under what conditions are NRIs permitted to remit deposits in India in any currency of their choice.b) How can NRIs be attracted to invest in India?c) What is the significance of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in modern India.d) In what ways did Idi Amin make life difficult for the people of Indian origin in his country?e) What is “Brain drain”?
Q4. Answer any one of the following (about 250 words) 30
a) Write a note on the strategy of planning in India since 1951.b) What were the major recommendations of the Task Force on direct taxes appointed under the Chairmanship of Shri Vijay L. Kelkar?
Q5. Answer any two of the following (about 150 words) 15X2=30
a) Outline the important objectives of the Tenth Five Year Plan.b) What is a Finance Commission?c) Point out the measures undertaken towards flexibility in capital account transactions during the recent past.
Q6. Answer the following (about 20 words) 2X15=30a) What is Plan Holiday?b) Why did India have a surplus in current account balance in 2001-02 after a gap of 24 years?c) What is Value Added Tax?d) What is the main objective of the Competition Act, 2002?e) Name the two agencies that have helped to promote Foreign Direct Investment in India.f) What is the main thrust of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill?g) Highlight the main features of the policy relating to buy-back of shares.h) Why was Janashree Bima Yojana introduced.i) When was the idea of Agriculture Insurance Corporation mooted?j) What is the policy of the Government with respect to child labour?k) Explain the objectives of the National Health Policy, 2002.l) What was the main objective of the ‘Operation Blackboard’ scheme?m) Explain the essential feature of differential rate of interest scheme.n) Which are the three major items of expenditure of the Government of India on revenue account?o) What was the essential feature of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana?
Q7. Answer any two of the following (about 150 words) 15X2=30
a) What is the ‘Veto’ in the UN-system?b) Discuss the role of the NATO after the end of the Cold War .c) Discuss the role of the United Nations in the protection and promotion of Human Rights.
Q8. Answer the following (about 20 words) 2X5=10
a) What do the following Stand for : i) IBRD ii) UNHCRb) Who is Hans Blix?c) Why was Davis Kelly in the news recently?d) What is the problem in Chechnya?e) What is the significance of the Robin Island?
Q9 Answer the following (about 20 words) 2X5=10
a) What is the significance of Enola Gay in world history?b) Why is Guantanamo Bay in the news now?c) What is the theory of “clash of civilisations”?d) What does the theory of “end of history” menn?e) Why was Robert Mugabe in the news recently?
Q10 . Answer any one of the following (about 250 words) 30
a) What do you understand by depletion of ozone layer and why is it considered harmful? Name ozone depleting substances and process. What international ramifications took place to protect the ozone layer and what was the target agreed upon?
b) What is interactive television? What special advantages and derived by using VOD services? What are the components of a typical VOD system? Which feature film was generated first entirely on computers and in which year?
Q11. Answer any two of the following (about 150 words) 15X2=30
a) What does the Solar system consist of ? discuss the motion of most of the bodies forming the solar system.
b) In which year and by which countries was International Space Station (IIS) launched?
How many countries are participating in this program? What are the unique studies being made in the station which could not ve made so accurateky on the earth?
c) Discuss the elements of ‘frozen semen technology’. What are ‘embryo transfer’, ‘transgenic animals’, ‘DNA recombinant technique’?
Q12. Answer the following (about 20 words) 2X5=10
a) What is ‘Symathetic Haptics’?b) What are special feature of ‘Linux’?c) What is an operating system? List the basic services provided by an operating system.d) What is an ‘Internet Worm’? Explain DDOS.e) What do the following stand for :i) POSIX ii) EPROM iii) MODEM iv) COBOL
Q13. a) In the year 2001 there were 18000 workers in a certain factory, of which 13000 were members of a trade union. 12% of workers were women and 60% of them were members of the trade union. In the year 2002 the number of workers increased by 6% of which 480 were women. At the same time the trade union membership of women fell by 304 while the total membership increased by 10 %. In the non-members category, the ratio of men and women was 4:1 in this year. Tabulate this information and supply the missing figures. 8 Marks b) The following table gives the frequency distribution of height for 180 adult males:Height (in cm)Frequency144.5-149.5 3149.5-154.5 5154.5-159.5 24159.5-164.5 54164.5-169.5 60169.5-174.5 27174.5-179.5 4179.5-184.5 3Q14. Draw the two ogives (less than and greater than type cumulative frequency curves). Find the point of their intersection and comment on its significance. 8
a) The mean and variance of a set of 60 observations are 10 and 4 respectively while for a subset of 40 observations these measures are 11 and 2.25 respectively.Find the mean and variance of the other subset. 8 Marks
b)The three outcomes of an experiment;w1, w2 and w3 are such that w1 is twice as likely to occur as w3. Find the probability of occurrence of each of the three outcomes. 8 Marks
Q15. a) What are the problems that a statistician encounters in the process of construction of index number? 2
b)Suppose that the regression line of two random variables y and x given by y=26.38-1.35x and that of x and y is given by x=16.38-0.45y. find the square of the coefficient of correlation between x and y. 2
c) If the correlation coefficient between two random variables is zero, are the random variables independent? 2
d) In a certain factory, a unit of work is completed by A in 10 minutes, by B in 20 minutes. What is the average number of units of work completed per minute? 2

Saturday, January 1, 2011

UPSC CSAT IAS CSE General Studies 2003 Main Paper - I

General Studies - 2003 (Main) (Paper - I)
Time Allowed : Three HoursMaximum Marks : 300INSTRUCTIONSEach Question is printed both in Hindi and in English. Answers must be written in the medium specified in the Admission Certificate issued to you, which must be stated clearly on the cover of the answer-book in the space provided for the purpose. No mark will be given for answers written in a medium other than that specified in the Admission Certificate. Candidates should attempt ALL questions strictly in accordance with the instructions given under each question. The number of marks carried by each question is indicated at the end of the question.
Candidate should attempt All questions strictly in accordance with instructions given under each question.
Q1. Answer any one of the following: (about 250 words) 30 Marks
a) “The reforms of 1909 introduced a cardinal problem and ground of controversy at every revision of the Indian electoral system.” Comment.
b) Discuss the problem that impeded the integration of the princely states into the Indian Union. How were these problems tackled?
Q2. Answer any two of the following: (about 150 words) 2 X15=30 Marks
a) ‘The mainstay of Mahatma Gandhi’s movements was the rural India.’ Elucidate.
b) Discuss the character of major tribal uprisings in British India in the nineteenth Century.
c) Bring out the ideological basis of the Moderate-Extermist divide in the Indian National Congress.
Q3. Answer the following: (about 20 words ) 15X2=30 Marksi) Arthasastraii) Saranath Pillariii) The Jatiya Sarkar of Tamlukiv) Punnapra-Vayalarv) Sajjad Zahirvi) Al-Hilalvii) Har Dayalviii) Khudai Khidmatgarix) Mahayana Cultx) W.W. Hunterxi) Indu Lal Yajnikxii) Achhut Patwardhanxiii) Sir William Jonesxiv) James Wilsonxv) Ghulam-giri.Q4. Answer any two of the following: (about 125 words) 2X10=20a) Describe the major characteristics of the rivers of Peninsular India.
b) Account for the very high concentration of salt extraction industries in the Saurashtra and South Tamilnadu Coast.
c) State the four distinctive stages of Indian Demographic history.
Q5.write short notes on the following (about 20 words) 5X2=10 i) Define Terai Region.ii) Mention the areas of Shola forests in India.iii) Who are the Todas and where do they live?iv) Name any four priccipal languages of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.v) What is MRTS? Where it is in operation?Q6. Answer any one of the following: (about 250 words) 30
a) Discuss the question of death sentence and Presidential clemency.b) Explain the discretionary powers of the Governor of a State.
Q7. Answer any two of the following: (about 150 words) 2 X15=30
a) Highlight the signifucance of Forty Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of Indiab) Identify the major Fundamental Dutiesc) Explain the relevance of Rajya Sabha as a second chamber in the federal set up of Indian Parliamentary System.
Q9. Answer the following: (about 20 words) 2 X5=10
a) What is a point of order? When can it be raised?b) What is a Privilege Motion?c) State the difference between Council of Ministers and the Cabinet.d) How is the Vice President of India elected?e) What is meant by ‘sine-die’ adjournment?
Q10. Answer any one of the following: (about 250 words) 30
a) Discuss the steps taken by Government to check child labour and promote child welfare.b) Suggest measures for the eradication of wide spread corruption in Public Life in India.
Q11. Answer any two of the following: (about 125 words) 2 X10=20
a) The issue of gender equality in India.b) b) Natural Heritage and Cultural Heritage.c) c) Identify the types of disabilities.
Q12. Answer any two of the following: (about 125 words) 2 X10=20
a) What are the distinctive features of the Lokpal Bill introduced in the Parliament this year?b) What is the Prime Minister’s Five-Point agenda fir India’s development as a Knowledge Society?c) What are the precinditions for the growth of Civil Society? Is Indian democracy conducive to it?
Q13. Write about the following ( about 20 words ) 5X2=10
a) Anthraxb) Radiation and its effectsc) The Statue of Libertyd) George Walker Bushe) Genome.