Earth Hour

Hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments around the world unite each year to support the largest environmental event in history – Earth Hour.  

More than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011 alone, sending a powerful message for action on climate change. It also ushered in a new era with members going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action for the planet. Without a doubt, it’s shown how great things can be achieved when people come together for a common cause

In 2007, WWF-Australia inspired Sydney-siders to show their support for climate change action in the first ever Earth Hour event. It showed that everyone, from children to CEOs and politicians, has the power to change the world they live in. In Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights out for one hour to take a stand against climate change.

In 2008, the plan was to take Earth Hour to the rest of Australia. But then the City of Toronto, Canada, signed up and it wasn’t long before 35 countries and almost 400 cities and towns were part of the event. It said something compelling to the world: that the climate challenges facing our planet are so significant that change needs to be global.

With the invitation to ‘switch off’ extended to everyone, Earth Hour quickly became an annual global event. It’s scheduled on the last Saturday of every March – closely coinciding with the equinox to ensure most cities are in darkness as it rolled out around the Earth.

In 2011, Earth Hour saw hundreds of millions of people across 135 countries switch off for an hour. But it also marked the start of something new – going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action on climate change. And with the power of social networks behind the Earth Hour message, we hope to attract even more participation so we can build a truly global community committed to creating a more sustainable planet.

Blogged By::-Rajesh Patel

Preparing of Civil-Services

E-Mail::-Rajesh.patelp@yahoo.com

Universe expanding, driven by ‘dark energy’

The universe is expanding at exactly the speed professor Albert Einstein has predicted - driven by "dark energy" , says a new study.

For its study, a team of cosmologists fromUniversity of Portsmouth and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has examined the period between five and six billion years ago when the universe was half its present age and made measurements of extraordinary accuracy, within 1.7%. The findings support Einstein's general theory of relativity which predicts how fast galaxies, separated by large distances, should be moving toward one another and at what rate the structure of the universe should be growing. The conclusions are consistent with the concordance model of a universe that bloomed from the big bang some 13.7 billion years ago, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Team member Dr Rita Tojeiro said: "The results are the best measurement of an intergalactic distance ever made, which means cosmologists are closer than ever to understanding why the universe's expansion is accelerating . One of the great things about Einstein's theory of relativity is that it is testable. Our results support the theory and are fully consistent with the notion that constant vacuum energy - empty space creating a repulsive force - is driving the acceleration of the universe.

"These are profound statements that describe the physics of our universe at the most fundamental level. Critically, the results find no evidence that dark energy is simply an illusion stemming from our poor understanding of the laws of gravity - Einstein's theory has passed its most stringent test yet at extragalactic scales."






Blog By::-Rajesh_patel
Preparing Of Civil Services
E-Mail::-Rajesh.patelp@yahoo.com
Courtesy::-Times of India/Science

Vote against Srilanka

Two day after India voted against Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last week, in favour of a US-sponsored resolution charging the Sri Lankan government with human rights violations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa about how he had ordered his government to "introduce an element of balance in the language of the resolution."

Now it turns out that it was none other than Congress president Sonia Gandhi who told the Prime Minister that India should vote against Sri Lanka in Geneva.

According to sources in the Congress party, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Sonia seemed considerably disturbed by the gory photos of Tamil civilians, including LTTE leader Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son, shown on Channel 4, a few days before the Sri Lanka vote. The photos were splashed all over the Tamil media and created quite a storm. Clearly, the two main Tamil parties, the AIADMK and the DMK, were forced to take notice of the people's anger -- and once that happened, the Congress party couldn't have been left far behind.

What is interesting here is that only a few days before the vote in Geneva, on March 22, none other than Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Adviser Shiv Shanker Menon had been telling Congress party members that India had never voted on a "country-specific" resolution -- in this case, against Sri Lanka. Meaning, it would be nigh impossible for India to change its position this time as well.

Unimpressed, several Tamil MPs took their case to Sonia Gandhi. They showed her the photos of the dead Sri Lankan Tamils and told her, in no uncertain terms, that the people were extremely agitated that India was not seen to be taking any action against Rajapaksa's government. All India was seen to be doing, they said, was bailing him out.

The Congress president heard out her partymen. It seems she was particularly chilled by the photo of Prabhakaran's young son, shot in the chest, but looking like he was peacefully sleeping. 

Sonia assured the Tamil Nadu MPs that she would take action. Soon enough, she had told the PM that India could not be seen to be voting in favour of the Rajapaksa government.

Considering her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was killed on Prabhakaran's orders in May 1991, what Sonia did was a particularly brave and sensitive thing to do. Then again, it was Sonia who ordered the commutation of the sentence of one of Rajiv's assassins, Nalini, from death to life imprisonment.

The truth is that this time, the India-Sri Lanka relationship has turned on the death of a child. The irony is that he is Prabhakaran's son.



By::-Rajesh Patel
Courtesy::-Times of India
Preparing of Civil Services

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Posted By::-Rajesh_Patel
Preparing Of Civil Services
E-Mail::-Rajesh.patelp@yahoo.com

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Indian History/Budhhism

Buddhism is a way of life that is based on the teachings of Sidduhartha Gautama (Gautama Buddha or just Buddha) or “Enlightened One,” to achieve Enlightenment (the final liberation from the cycle of birth and death).  Buddhism is the faith that developed as a result of the realisation that all beings possess enlightenment, but most do not yet realise this. Buddhism provides guidance and teachings to achieve enlightenment through meditation, wisdom and self-control.

Buddhism developed in India as a belief system outside of Hinduism about 2500 years ago. Buddhism deliberately rejected Vedic rites and refused to accept the caste system. Buddhism does, however, share many of the beliefs of Hinduism. These include the concepts of reincarnation, karma and enlightenment.

Buddha is a historical figure who lived in the area of ancient India that is now Nepal. He was born the son of a wealthy ruler of a small kingdom. It was foretold that he would become either a great ruler or a great religious teacher. His father sought to protect him from the realities of life and he lived a life of luxury. Gautama married and had a son. One day he left the palace and was confronted by old age, illness and death. This shocked him and changed his life. It caused him to recognised that his luxurious lifestyle was empty and without meaning. He chose to become a holy man leading a life of deprivation and austerity. While mediating under a Bodhi tree, Gautama achieved enlightenment. Having achieved enlightenment, Gautama spent the rest of his life travelling and preaching (teaching) about the wisdom he had gained.

The Buddha’s teachings followed by the main branches of Buddhism are:

The Four Noble Truths:-

• all life contains suffering
• suffering is caused by our selfish attachment to the things of the world
• we can escape from the suffering by rejecting worldly things
• the way to doing this is by avoiding all extremes in life.

Suffering can be overcome by following the “Eightfold Path” of:

• right understanding
• right intention
• right speech
• right conduct
• right occupation
• right endeavour
• right contemplation
• right concentration.

Buddha’s path concentrates on the pursuit of an individual’s spiritual goals. Meditation is seen as the key to developing this spiritual pathway. Some people do not see Buddhism as a religion, as there is no deity or formal ceremonies of worship. These are seen by Buddhists as hindrances to enlightenment.  Living as a Buddhist includes following a set of guidelines, or Precepts. The main precepts are:

• not harming or killing living things
• not taking things unless freely given
• having a sensible, decent (moral) life
• not speaking unkindly or deceitfully (lying)
• not to take intoxicants (alcohol or drugs)

There are many different kinds of Buddhists. With different interpretations of Buddha’s teachings and different methods of practising their faith. The main groups are Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. Other branches of Buddhism include Zen Buddhism (found in Japan) and Tantric Buddhism (found in Tibet). The leader of Tibet’s Buddhists is the Dalai Lama who now lives in exile in India. There are many Buddhist temples throughout Asia where followers go to pray and meditate. Some Buddhist spend several months or years in a monastery. It is common for families in some parts of Asia to send their sons to a monastery to learn the teachings of Buddha.

Every Buddhist country has its own festivals and celebrations. The festival of the golden tooth is celebrated in Sri Lanka during August, while in Japan the O-bon festival is held in July to honour families’ ancestors. Some festivals are celebrated all over the world such as Wesak, held in May to celebrate Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death.

About 2% of Australians[1] follow Buddhism. Most have come from Asian countries or are the descendants of these migrants. There are a number of Buddhist converts among other Australians of non Asian descent.

During the gold rush era many of the Chinese who arrived to work the goldfields would have been Buddhist. Most of these Chinese returned home after the gold rush. One of the earliest permanent Buddhist settlements were Sri Lankan migrants who settled on the Queensland sugar plantations and some who worked in the Thursday Island pearling industry. Japanese Buddhist settled in Broome and Darwin. These communities remained small but significant. Due to the White Australia policy it was not until the 1970s that increased migration from Asian countries occurred and the number and diversity of Buddhists increased in Australia.

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[1] calculated from ABS data 2001 B10 Religious affiliation by sex

World Water Day-2012

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.



An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.



Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. For 2012 the theme is Water and Food Security.

Water is Life Save It

By::-Rajesh Patel

Preparing of Civil Service Examination

E-Mail::-Rajesh.patelp3034@gmail.com