GS-I

For 2018, the monsoon is past the crucial half-way mark. As of August 9, the seasonal rain, which decides the fate/extent of the kharif crop acreage, has run up a deficit of 10%. But it is not so much the deficit figure as the spatial and temporal spread (across space …

7,500 letters written by the Nobel Laureate have been published chronologically with synopses From being a transient spy with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to a diligent researcher of Rabindranath Tagore, it was a big leap of faith for Gaurchandra Saha in 1968. Fifty years later, Mr. Saha’s rigorous work has …

More than half of State’s 584 mandals faced with rainfall deficiency this season After a long lull, monsoon showed signs of strengthening, thanks to unexpected weather changes. Northern parts of the State are likely to witness continued rainfall during the first half of the week. A low-pressure system in the …

TSARI is one among the 10 largest archives in the world and has over 50 million documents As the bifurcation of the Schedule X institutions between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is in a limbo, the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute (TSARI) has completed the process of segregation of its …

The outflow from the Kabini reservoir in H.D. Kote reached a record level of 80,000 cusecs on Friday, inundating low-lying areas in H.D. Kote, Nanjangud, Suttur, and other towns. This was caused by heavy rains in Wayanad, Kerala, which is the upper catchment area of the Kabini. The discharge is …

More than 2,000 tourists evacuated from islands near Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake Indonesia on Monday sent rescuers fanning out across the holiday island of Lombok and evacuated more than 2,000 tourists after a powerful earthquake killed at least 98 people and damaged thousands of buildings. The …

Heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district triggered landslides at several places on Monday morning, leading to closure of the Rohru-Shimla road, an official said. The police have requested motorists to use Narkanda road to reach Rohru from Shimla or vice versa to avoid traffic jam on Tahu road.PTI Source …

Rajasthan village undergoes name change to boost residents’ matrimonial prospects In Rajasthan, the name of a village called ‘Miyon ka Bara’ was officially changed to ‘Mahesh Nagar’ after residents complained that they were not getting matrimonial matches as the name gave an impression that the village was inhabited by Muslims. …

There are many gripping tales associated with the Blood Moon and the Black Sun The six-hour lunar eclipse of July 27, the longest of the century, with a Blood Moon, and the brightest Mars in 15 years, whose viewing in Delhi was marred by a rainy sky, brought predictions of …

The Matua Mahasangha, a pressure group of the Namasudra caste, alleged that out of the about 40 lakh people who did not figure in the NRC, nearly 6 lakh were from the Matua sect. The Matua Mahasangha claimed about five crore Matuas, predominantly from Bangladesh, lived in West Bengal. 52 …