This sub-regional organization came into being in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration. It constitutes seven Member States: five deriving from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.

It is not an FTA. IT is a sector-driven organization focussing on sharing best practices and help each other in agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture etc. Fourteen priority sectors of cooperation have been identified and several BIMSTEC centres have been established to focus on those
sectors.

The ILP system restricts movement in areas close to the border for everyone other than those with a formal permission. In Uttarakhand, tourists have to obtain ILP for locations near China border, at least in the three districts of Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Chamoli.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-km border with China and a 275-km boundary with Nepal.

The verdict in the case of the Indra Sawhney vs Union of India— also known as the Mandal verdict — capped reservations at 50 percent.

The judgment also laid down that the extent of reservation should not cross the 50 percent limit, unless a special case was made out for extraordinary situations and peculiar conditions to relax the rule.

Article 16 of the Constitution deals with equality of opportunity in public employment, and Clause 4 under it reads, “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.”

Article 342A introduced by the 102nd Constitution Amendment Act (2018), which requires presidential (Centre’s) assent for states notifying changes to OBC categories.

The Bench of then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, in three separate yet concurring orders, had said: “The status of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi
is not that of a Governor of a State, rather he remains an Administrator, in a limited sense, working with the designation of Lieutenant Governor”.

The L-G does have the power to refer any matter, over which there is a disagreement with the elected government, to the President under Article 239AA(4).

The law specifies the circumstances under which changing of political parties by MPs invite action under the law.
The law covers three types of scenarios with respect to an MP switching parties. The first is when a member elected on the ticket of a political party “voluntarily gives up” membership of such a party or votes in the House contrary to the wishes of the party. The second possibility is when an MP who has won his or her seat as an independent candidate after the election joins a political party. In both these instances, the MP lose the seat in the House on changing (or joining) a party.

The third scenario relates to nominated MPs. In their case, the law specifies that within six months of being nominated to the House, they can choose to join a political party.

Every union territory is administered by the President acting through an administrator appointed by him.

An administrator of a union territory is an agent of the President and not head of state like a governor. The President can specify the designation of an administrator; it may be Lieutenant Governor or Chief Commissioner or Administrator.

Pre-Harappan Indians were acquainted with the art of making baked or burnt clay pottery as well as painting the same with two or more colours.

The pottery of the Harappan culture consisted of mainly wheel-made ware, turned in various shapes, sizes and colours out of the well-levigated alluvium of the Indus.

The colour and other characteristics of the wares depended upon the composition of the clay used and techniques of firing under either oxidising or reducing conditions. The Harappans also experimented with various mortars and cements made of burnt limestone, gypsum and mica, among other components.

The Harappan artisans must have had an intimate knowledge of the processing and properties of several naturally occurring chemical substances. The craftsmen were highly skilled in the art of shaping and polishing the precious and semi-precious stones used for the production of beads.

A type of pottery, now known as ‘Painted Grey Ware’, is associated with the Vedic period.

Later, ‘Northern Black Polished Ware’ also came into being in the eastern part of the Gangetic plains.

Today, Sattras are spread across the state, promulgating Sankardeva’s unique “worship through art” approach with music (borgeet), dance (xattriya) and theatre (bhauna).

Sankardeva propagated a form of Bhakti called eka-sharana-naam-dhrama, and espoused a society based on equality and fraternity, free from caste differences, orthodox Brahmanical rituals and sacrifices. His teaching focused on prayer and chanting (naam) instead of idol worship. His dharma was based on the four components of deva (god), naam (prayers), bhakats (devotees), and guru (teacher).

Scholars, however, argue that post the demise of Sankardeva, the nature of the Vaishnavite movement has changed significantly. “After his demise, due to ideological differences among his disciples, the Sattras got divided into four independent sectarian divisions.

During the Ahom reign, the Sattras received a lot of donations in the form of land or money from the kings.

The Innovation Output Sub-Index has two pillars (i) Knowledge and Technological outputs and (ii) Creative outputs.

The top five risks are extreme weather, climate action failure, human environmental damage, infectious diseases and biodiversity loss.

In terms of impact, infectious diseases top the list, followed by climate action failure.