Chief Ministers of Indian States

Currently besides the BJP, which controls the central government, there are many other national and regional parties controlling various state governments.  In some states single parties have power and in others there are alliances ruling the state.  For example the BJP, Shiv Sena, Republican Party of India, Swabhimani Paksha and Rashtriya Samaj Paksha have formed the Mahayuti during the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections.  For more details read the Wikipedia article.

Unicameral legislature

A legislature having single chamber is known as unicameral legislature.  The other type of legislature is bicameral legislature which has two chambers.  Indian Parliament is a bicameral legislature.  The Loksabha where the 543 members are directly elected by the people and the Rajyasabha which has 250 members indirectly elected by the state legislatures are its two chambers.    Legislature of Maharashtra state has two chambers – Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) and Vidhan Parishad (Legislative council) and therefore its bicameral.

Many states in India have abolished their second or the upper chamber where members are indirectly elected.  Currently only seven Indian states have bicameral legislatures – Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.  All other states and union territories have unicameral legislatures.  Avoiding duplication of work, reducing expenditure are the main objectives of having unicameral legislatures.

Countries and Capitals

While searching for quizzes about Countries and Capitals I found following fantastic sites :-

  1. Different types of quizzes – Click link to play quiz
  2. Quiz with three levels of difficulty – (for kids)
  3. Relatively tough quiz – How many countries you know?  As you answer the map will be filled in
  4. Seterra – A free map quiz to download (online version also available)
  5. The quiz I liked most
  6. Android app – with ten levels. free with ads

Complete list of capitals and countries:-  http://www.lukemastin.com/testing/definitions/capitals.cgi?list

List of UN member states

CIA – World Fact Book – for information about all countries.  Android app also available

 

 

Smallest sovereign state in the world – Vatican City

Piazza-San-Pietro-in-Vatican-City

Vatican city, an enclave in Rome is the smallest sovereign state in the world by area.

The Vatican palace is the residence of the pope within the city walls. The Holy See is the name given to thegovernment of the Roman Catholic Church, which is led by the pope as the bishop of Rome. As such, the Holy See’s authority extends over Catholics throughout the world. Since 1929 it has resided in Vatican City, which was established as an independent state to enable the pope to exercise his universal authority.

 

“Vatican City”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 03 Jul. 2015
<http://www.britannica.com/place/Vatican-City>.

UN – official languages

  1. Arabic
  2. Chinese
  3. English
  4. French
  5. Russian
  6. Spanish

Currently these are the six official languages of the United Nations.

We Indians wish that Hindi should be included as an official language of the World body.  Following news item on the Zee News site explains the issue:-

New Delhi: India has not made a proposal for introduction of Hindi as an official language of the United Nations as it would cost the government over Rs. 82 crore annually even by a conservative estimate.The information was given by the External Affairs Ministry in reply to a Right to Information plea filed by a 12-year old girl, Aishwarya Parashar, of Lucknow who sought to know that why a formal proposal to make Hindi as an official language of the UN has not been given.

“The introduction of Hindi as one of the official languages of the UN has several financial and procedural implications, which require to be met before a formal proposal can be tabled in the UN,” Central Public Information Officer of MEA, S Gopalakrishnan said in his reply.

He said India, a proposing country, would need to provide sufficient financial resources to the UN to cover the additional expenditure on interpretation, translation, printing and duplication of documents and related infrastructural costs.

“This according to conservative estimates, could cost in excess of USD 14 million (app Rs 82.6 crore) per year. This is based on the decision of the UN General Assembly in 1973 to include Arabic as a working and official language of General Assembly and adding an inflation component of 2-3 per cent per annum on a compounded basis.

“The actual cost is likely to be considerably higher since infrastructual changes would also need to be made in all conference halls to provide for an additional interpreter`s booth,” he said.
The MEA said it is not simply a question of expenditure as UN General Assembly would need to adopt a resolution supported by a majority of the 192 UN member States.

“As adding another official language entails a significant increase in the budget of the UN (personnel, equipment, and other recurring costs), Member States have been generally reluctant to support proposals entailing additional financial burden,” he said.

He said in 1973, when General Assembly approved the inclusion of Arabic among the official and working languages of the General Assembly, it did so recognising that Arabic was the language of 19 members of the United Nations.

“It was also the working language of specialised agencies such as UNESCO, FAO, WHO and the IOL. It was the official and working language of the OAU,” he said.

The MEA official said notwithstanding the fact that Hindi is spoken in many countries of the world, its recognition as an official language of other countries as well as official language in some of the specialised agencies and regional/sub-regional groupings is a factor which is to be considered for recognition in the UN.

“No special weightage is given by the UN for population, size of the country of its Gross Domestic Product. The basic principle of the UN is the sovereign equality of all nations, whether big or small,” he said.

The official said because of these reasons, Japan and Germany, who are the second and third largest contributors of the regular budget of the UN and who also have a strong policy and preference for using their own language, have not pressed for inclusion of their respective languages in the list of official languages of the UN.

The world body has six official languages–English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic–which are also the working languages in the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.

PTI

First Published: Thursday, May 29, 2014 – 22:52

For more information check the following links:-

History of UN official languages

Official Languages – a page on the UN site

 

World Population

 

Continent Area (km²) Area (mi²) Percent of
total landmass
Population Percent of
total population
Density
People per
km²
Density
People per
mi²
Most populous
city (proper)
Asia 43,820,000 16,920,000 29.5% 4,164,252,000 60% 95.0 246 Shanghai, China
Africa 30,370,000 11,730,000 20.4% 1,022,234,000 15% 33.7 87 Lagos, Nigeria
North America 24,490,000 9,460,000 16.5% 542,056,000 8% 22.1 57 Mexico City, Mexico
South America 17,840,000 6,890,000 12.0% 392,555,000 6% 22.0 57 São Paulo, Brazil
Antarctica 13,720,000 5,300,000 9.2% 4,490[31] 0% 0.0003 0.00078 McMurdo Station, US
Europe 10,180,000 3,930,000 6.8% 738,199,000 11% 72.5 188 Moscow, Russia[32]
Australia 9,008,500 3,478,200 5.9% 29,127,000 0.4% 3.2 8.3 Sydney, Australia

From Wikipedia

Accuracy of information not guaranteed.

India – China border issue

NEW DELHI: India and China will hold their first boundary meet after the Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power on Monday when national security adviser Ajit Doval meets his counterpart Yang Jieche hoping to take the talks forward.

Source : Economic Times

India’s defence ministry will fund the following Railway projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
The defence ministry may give Rs 345 crore for detailed investigation and track alignments for the four projects.