Battle of the Hydaspes (River Jhelum) (326 bce), fourth and last pitched battle fought by Alexander the Great during his campaign of conquest in Asia. It took place after Alexander’s conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and immediately before his army began the journey homeward to Macedonia. Porus, the Indian ruler of the territory between the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers (in modern Pakistan), was his opponent. After facing the Indians for days across an unfordable river, Alexander, by using diversionary tactics, managed to cross the stream above their camp. More troublesome to Alexander than the numerical superiority of Porus’s 34,000-man army were the 200 elephants that threatened the effectiveness of the Macedonian cavalry. During the battle, Alexander overwhelmed Porus’s left wing, forcing it back upon the elephants, which panicked and plunged riderless into the Indian ranks. The Macedonian phalanx then routed the Porus's army. Alexander made an alliance with Porus and allowed him to remain ruler in his kingdom.This documentary focuses on the Indian campaigns of Alexander the Great. It goes into great detail of Battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum).
Society is composition of people.People interact,interrelate with the society. Their needs are fulfilled by the society.Order,unity,coordination,control are some elements that are required for a society to sustain.These functions of the society are performed through certain social institutions.These institutions while fulfilling the needs of the individual and society as well,they maintain order and stability of the societies.Social institutions consist of ideas,interests and structure with a set of common values and procedures in order to meet needs of the society.
Types of Social Institutions :
Social institutions are enduring relationships that result from human interaction. Over a period of time, these relationships have established predictable patterns that allow the members of society to pursue life, their dreams and happiness. Social institutions are natural products or creations of societies, the primary function of which is to help societies meet basic needs. They exist in every known society. They overlap, interact, and support one another. It would be impossible to think of a social order without any existing social institution for they serve as the bedrock of human society.
There are six major social institutions, namely: family, marriage, education, economics, politics, and religion. These institutions have shown continuity and stability for they are products of relationships that have long endured the test of time Other social institutions may have developed out of these major social institutions as we see them existing in society at present.
Family as an Institution
Family is the primary social unit.Of all human groups family is the most important primary groups.The exact definition of family can vary greatly from time to time and from culture to culture. How a society defines family as a primary group, and the functions it asks families to perform, are by no means constant.Generally it is defined as basic social unit consisting of persons united by ties of marriage(affinity), “blood”(consanguinity), or adoption and usually representing a single household. The essence of the family group is the parent-child relationship, whose outlines vary widely among cultures.The family as an institution provides for the rearing and socialization of children, the care of the aged, sick, or disabled, the legitimation of procreation, and the regulation of sexual conduct in addition to supplying basic physical, economic, and emotional security for its members.
It means family institution fulfills basic and primary needs like food,clothing,shelter,protection and economic needs of the people sharing common living space.Family ensures continuity of society through function of reproduction.Since the family consists of man and woman who are married and have legal sanction for mating and progeny,the function of reproduction is being done by the family.It also fulfills psychological needs like love and affection,it is an effective agency of social control and it also performs religious functions which has immense influence and control on the behaviour of the individual.
Some common features of Family :
Family is a primary social unit.It is considered as an universal unit because it is seen in one form or the other in all the communities.
It is a close knit group and is limited in size because all the people in a society cannot become members unless they have biological or marital relations.
The new members or children learn the traditions,beliefs,norms,values,etc. from the family.
There is common and mutual responsibility among the members.
It is both temporary and permanent .It is permanent because it is as old as the society itself.It is temporary because the members of family would change each time with the events like birth,death,marriage and migrations.
All the family members have a common house and live together.
Families are identified by nomenclature.The members of family bear a common nomenclature.
Functions of Family :
1. Fulfilling the biological needs
2. Satisfying the Psychological and emotional needs
3. Economic co-operation
4. Maintaining the morality
5. Giving legitimacy to the children
6. Gives social, religious and cultural recognitions for sexual mating after marriage
7. It plays a prominent role in the socialization process of an individual
8. It acts as an agency of social control - it controls the behaviour of the individuals
9. It acts as a basic unit for performing religious functions
10.Still many families esp. in the developing countries are acting as basic economic units.
11.It takes care of the
aged, sick, or disabled
and young members.Family plays an integral role in children's development.
Types of Families :
1.On the basis of marriage: Family has been classified into three major types:
Polygynous family (having more than one wife)
Polyandrous family (having more than one husband)
Monogamous family (one spouse/one couple)
2.Based on size and structure family are three types:
Nuclear Family
Joint Family
Extended Family
Nuclear family, also called elementary family, in sociology and anthropology, is a group of people who are united by ties of partnership and parenthood and consisting of a pair of adults and their socially recognized children. Typically, but not always, the adults in a nuclear family are married. Although such couples are most often a man and a woman, the definition of the nuclear family has expanded with the advent of same-sex marriage in some countries. Children in a nuclear family may be the couple’s biological or adopted offspring.
Extended familyincludes a group of relatives.It includes a nuclear family and their blood relatives consisting of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all living nearby or in the same household.The extended family system often, but not exclusively, occurs in regions in which economic conditions make it difficult for the nuclear family to achieve self-sufficiency.
Joint Family is a type of extended family composed of parents, their children, and the children's spouses and offspring in one household.In general, a family is called a joint family where the members in a house, taking food in a common cookery enjoy undivided landed property, participate in a common worship and united in blood relationship.
3.On the basis of the nature of residence family can be classified into five main forms :
Family of matrilocal residence
Family of patrilocal residence
Bilocal family
Avunculocal family
Neolocal family
Matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is a term referring to the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents, thus the female offspring of a mother remain living in (or near) the mother's house, thereby forming large clan-families, typically consisting of three or four generations living in the same place.
Patrilocal familyis a family system in which the wife is expected to live near the husband's parents.
Bilocal family is a family system in which the couple lives in the house of the father of groom for some time and in the house of the mother of the bride for some time.
Avunculocal Family is a family where the couple lives in the house of maternal uncle of the bride after marriage.
Neolocal family is a family where the couple choose a new residence after marriage.
4.On the basis of ancestry or descent family can be classified into three main types:
Matrilineal family-descent that follows a female line is known as matrilineal.Both males and females belong to their mother's kin group
Patrilineal family-both males and females belong to their father's kin group but not their mother's.
Ambilineal family-descent from either male or female is recognized, but individuals may select only one line to trace descent.
5.Classification on the basis of authority :
Patriarchal Family - form of family in which the male is the family head and lineage is traced through the male line
Matriarchal Family - A family group, in which the wife has the highest status, controls the other family members and makes important decisions affecting the family group.
Historians and others examine temples built in India more than 1,000 years ago. They remain quite intriguing, though today’s tourists rarely visit them. Records reveal that trained elephants had to drag millions of stone blocks to help erect these structures. The program notes that due to the temples’ size, the U.S. Senate, Versailles, the Houses of Parliament, and St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome could all fit within a single one of them. Michael Bell narrates as footage and animated maps are used to help viewers learn more about what these ancient structures look like and why they were built. In this intriguing program, we are transported to this exotic land and examine the mysteries behind some of the most fascinating structures found there. Southern India has the largest temple complexes ever built. In “Lost Temples of India”, we examine these 1,000-year-old temples adorned with intricate and beautiful sculptures. We learn how the kings used large herds of trained elephants to drag the millions of stone blocks into place and how these temples are virtually unknown and unvisited by Western tourists.
The moon is Earth's only natural satellite. The moon is a cold, dry orb (spherical body) whose surface is studded with craters and strewn with rocks and dust (called regolith). The moon has no atmosphere.It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite of a planet in the Solar System relative to the size of its primary, having 27% the diameter and 60% the density of Earth, resulting in 1⁄81 its mass. The Moon is the second densest satellite after Io, a satellite of Jupiter.
It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun, although its surface is actually very dark, with a reflectance similar to that of coal.
The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face with its near side marked by dark volcanic maria that fill between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters.The moon revolves around the Earth in about one month (27 days 8 hours). It rotates around its own axis in the same amount of time. So the same side of the moon always faces the Earth; it is in a synchronous rotation with the Earth.The far side of the moon was first observed by humans in 1959 when the unmanned Soviet Luna 3 mission orbited the moon and photographed it. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (on NASA's Apollo 11 mission, which also included Michael Collins) were the first people to walk on the moon, on July 20, 1969.On the moon, the sky would always appear dark, even during the daytime. Also, from any spot on the moon (except on the far side of the moon where you cannot see the Earth), the Earth would always be in the same place in the sky; the phase of the Earth changes and the Earth rotates, displaying various continents.
The average distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km (238,900 mi). The actual distance varies over the course of the orbit of the moon, from 356,700 km (221,600 mi) at the perigee and 406,300 km (252,500 mi) at apogee.The Moon is spiraling away from Earth at an average rate of 3.8 cm (1.5 in) per year, as detected by the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment.The Moon's orbit is expanding over time as it slows down (the Earth is also slowing down as it loses energy). For example, a billion years ago, the Moon was much closer to the Earth (roughly 200,000 kilometers) and took only 20 days to orbit the Earth. Also, one Earth 'day' was about 18 hours long (instead of our 24 hour day). The tides on Earth were also much stronger since the moon was closer to the Earth.
Lunar Features
Saros
The saros is the roughly 18-year periodic cycle of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. Every 6,585 days, the Earth, Moon and Sun are in exactly the same position. When there is a lunar eclipse, there will also be one exactly 6,585 days later.
Size
The moon's diameter is 2,159 miles (3,474 km), 27% of the diameter of the Earth (a bit over a quarter of the Earth's diameter).
The gravitational tidal influence of the Moon on the Earth is about twice as strong as the Sun's gravitational tidal influence. The Earth:moon size ratio is quite small in comparison to ratios of most other planet:moon systems (for most planets in our Solar System, the moons are much smaller in comparison to the planet and have less of an effect on the planet).
Mass & Gravity
The moon's mass is (7.35 x 10 22 kg), about 1/81 of the Earth's mass. The moon's gravitational force is only 17% of the Earth's gravity. For example, a 100 pound (45 kg) person would weigh only 17 pounds (7.6 kg) on the Moon. The moon's density is 3340 kg/m 3. This is about 3/5 the density of the Earth.
Temperature
The temperature on the Moon ranges from daytime highs of about 130°C = 265°F to nighttime lows of about -110°C = -170°F
Atmosphere
The moon has no atmosphere. On the moon, the sky is always appears dark, even on the bright side (because there is no atmosphere). Also, since sound waves travel through air, the moon is silent; there can be no sound transmission on the moon.
Mare
Mare (plural maria) means "sea," but maria on the moon are plains on the moon. They are called maria because very early astronomers thought that these areas on the moon were great seas. The first moon landing was in the Mare Tranquillitatis (the Sea of Tranquility). Maria are concentrated on the side of the moon that faces the Earth; the far side has very few of these plains. Scientists don't know why this is so.
Craters and Rills
The surface of the moon is scarred by millions of (mostly circular) impact craters, caused by asteroids, comets, and meteorites. There is no atmosphere on the moon to help protect it from bombardment from potential impactors (most objects from space burn up in our atmosphere). Also, there is no erosion (wind or precipitation) and little geologic activity to wear away these craters, so they remain unchanged until another new impact changes it.
These craters range in size up to many hundreds of kilometers, but the most enormous craters have been flooded by lava, and only parts of the outline are visible. The low elevation maria (seas) have fewer craters than other areas. This is because these areas formed more recently, and have had less time to be hit. The biggest intact lunar crater is Clavius which is 100 miles (160 km) in diameter.
A rille is a long, narrow valley on the surface of the moon. Hadley Rille is a long valley on the surface of the moon. This rille is 75 miles (125 km) long, 1300 feet (400 m) deep, and almost 1 mile (1500 m) wide at its widest point. It was formed by molten basaltic lava that carved out a steep channel along the base of the Apennine Front (which was explored by the Apollo 15 astronauts in 1971).
Formation
The prevailing hypothesis today is that the Earth–Moon system formed as a result of a giant impact: a Mars-sized body (Thea) hitting the newly formed proto-Earth, blasting material into orbit around it, which accreted to form the Moon. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System. Computer simulations modelling a giant impact are consistent with measurements of the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system and the small size of the lunar core. These simulations also show that most of the Moon came from the impactor, not from the proto-Earth. However more recent tests suggest more of the Moon coalesced from the Earth and not the impactor.Meteorites show that other inner Solar System bodies such as Mars and Vesta have very different oxygen and tungsten isotopic compositions to the Earth, while the Earth and Moon have near-identical isotopic compositions. Post-impact mixing of the vaporized material between the forming Earth and Moon could have equalized their isotopic compositions,although this is debated.
Another Theory
Evidences in favour of Thea Hypothesis :
The Earth has a large iron core, but the moon does not have a large core. This is because Earth's iron had already drained into the core by the time the giant impact happened. Therefore, the debris blown out of both Earth and the impactor came from their iron-depleted, rocky mantles. The iron core of the impactor melted on impact and merged with the iron core of Earth, according to computer models.
Earth has a mean density of 5.5 grams/cubic centimeter, but the moon has a density of only 3.3 g/cc. The reason is the same, that the moon lacks iron.
The moon has exactly the same oxygen isotope composition as the Earth, whereas Mars rocks and meteorites from other parts of the solar system have different oxygen isotope compositions. This shows that the moon formed form material formed in Earth's neighborhood.
If a theory about lunar origin calls for an evolutionary process, it has a hard time explaining why other planets do not have similar moons. (Only Pluto has a moon that is an appreciable fraction of its own size.) Our giant impact hypothesis had the advantage of invoking a stochastic catastrophic event that might happen only to one or two planets out of nine.
Internal structure of the Moon
Like the terrestrial or rocky planets Venus, Mercury, Earth and Mars, the Moon is made up of concentric layers formed by the melting and separation of magma.There is a solid outer crust about 65km deep, below which is a silicate mantle about 1,000km thick. At the centre there is a metallic core with a radius of about 500km.The core is not magnetic, suggesting that unlike the Earth's core, the centre of the Moon is solid and has no convection.
Behaviour of the Moon
Phases
As the Moon travels around the Earth, its appearance in the night sky changes. As the Moon does not emit any light of its own, we can only see it when it is reflecting the Sun's light.
Depending on the relative positions of the Moon and Sun, different amounts of the Moon will be visible from Earth. These changes in the appearance of the Moon are known as phases.
Occasionally the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth blocking out the Sun's light from Earth. When the Earth passes through the Moon's shadow like this it produces a solar eclipse. More frequently, however, the situation is reversed and it is the Moon that passes through the Earth's shadow producing a lunar eclipse.
Gravity
The mass of the Moon is about a hundred times smaller than the Earth. Although this may appear small, it is in fact relatively large for a natural satellite. Because of this relatively large mass, the Moon's gravity exerts enough force to move the oceans and create tides.
These tidal forces also make the Moon rotate on its axis once a day. This means that the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth and we never see the far side of the Moon.
Inconclusive evidence of free water ice at the lunar poles was accumulated from a variety of observations suggesting the presence of bound hydrogen. In September 2009, Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) on India's Chandrayaan-1 detected water on the Moon.In November 2009, NASA reported that its LCROSS space probe had detected a significant amount of hydroxyl group in the material thrown up from a south polar crater by an impactor; this may be attributed to water-bearing materials – what appears to be "near pure crystalline water-ice". In March 2010, it was reported that the Mini-RF on board the India's Chandrayaan-1 had discovered more than 40 permanently darkened craters near the Moon's north pole which are hypothesized to contain an estimated 600 million metric tonnes(1.3 trillion pounds) of water-ice.
Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by the regular bombardment of water-bearing comets, asteroids and meteoroids or continuously produced in situ by the hydrogen ions (protons) of the solar wind impacting oxygen-bearing minerals. The search for the presence of lunar water has attracted considerable attention and motivated several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in rendering long-term lunar habitation feasible.
The presence of large quantities of water on the Moon would be an important factor in rendering lunar habitation cost-effective, since transporting water (or hydrogen and oxygen) from Earth would be prohibitively expensive. If future investigations find the quantities to be particularly large, water ice could be mined to provide liquid water for drinking and plant propagation, and the water could also be split into hydrogen and oxygen by solar panel-equipped electric power stations or a nuclear generator, providing breathable oxygen as well as the components of rocket fuel. The hydrogen component of the water ice could also be used to draw out the oxides in the lunar soil and harvest even more oxygen.Analysis of lunar ice would also provide scientific information about the impact history of the Moon and the abundance of comets and asteroids in the early inner solar system.
Importance of Moon and its Study
The Earth was hit by asteroids and comets more often than the Moon, however, because Earth is larger and has more gravity. This increased gravity also caused the impactors to be accelerated to higher velocities towards the Earth. That must have been a catastrophic time to be here. When some of these impactors hit the Earth, the explosion caused rocks and dirt from Earth to shoot up and away from our planet. Some of that projected material flew all over the solar system, and some of it landed on the Moon. There could be a few hundred kilograms of Earth material per square kilometer of the Moon’s surface, buried under a few meters of lunar soil. It would be interesting to retrieve those rocks and bring back samples of the early Earth. Almost nothing from this time period has survived on the Earth because of tectonic recycling of the crust plates or because of atmospheric weathering. We would try to detect some organics within those rocks, and that could tell us about the history of organic chemistry on Earth. Some of these rocks could even have preserved fossils of life. Such rocks could help us look further back into the fossil record, which now stops at 3.5 billion years ago. This way, we could possibly learn about the emergence of life on Earth.
By exploring the Moon, we also can get clues on how the Earth has evolved. We can study processes on the Moon that have also shaped the Earth, like volcanism and tectonics. Because the Moon is smaller than the Earth, the Moon’s radiogenic heating dissipated much faster. After about one billion years, the interior of the Moon didn’t evolve much, and surface changes mostly were due to impacts. There was a brief period of magmatic activity from the subsurface -- a few plumes of magma made their way up to the surface and filled newly formed impact basins with basalt, creating what we call the Maria. This happened up to about 2 billion years ago. Because the Moon offers different conditions than the Earth, we can better understand how physical processes work generally by studying a larger range of parameters than just the Earth’s.
The Moon affects the liquid envelope of the Earth, and the oceanic tides in particular. The Moon affects the ocean tides more in some areas than others. For instance, in the channel between the British Isles and the European continent, the tidal range can be 10 meters, compared to what you see in the Pacific, where it is below a meter. The crust of the Earth is also affected. The Moon’s tidal forcing causes significant heating and dissipation of energy to take place. Part of this energy is heating the Earth, and part of it is dissipated by forcing the Moon to recede from the Earth over time. There are people who propose that the tidal effect of the Moon may have helped trigger the convection on the Earth that led to the multi-plate tectonics. The other planets don’t have the same tectonic cycle. For most of them, the crust is like a lid that doesn’t move much horizontally, and the magma and heat are blocked by this lid on the surface. The Earth instead has rolling convective motion that drags the crust, and then the crust plunges back down into the mantle and gets recycled.
There are some very subtle effects of the Moon in the climate and the oceans. One pattern that has been found recently is related to the Pacific Ocean’s El Niño phenomenon. You have a cold undersea current coming from the Antarctic sea, and that creates the Humboldt stream which keeps the sea around the South American coast near Peru and Chile quite cold. Because of this, there are fewer clouds and less precipitation there. Sometimes this current drifts away from the coast, and then you have much more cloud formation and a period of very bad weather over South America. Satellites have monitored this stream over the Pacific Ocean and they have found some streams which were not known before. They can connect some of these streams with how the Moon’s tidal effect influences the mixing of the deep ocean. There was a French-American mission called TOPEX/Poseidon that accurately measured the altitude of the sea and detected a little stream a few centimeters high. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but over the whole area of the Pacific Ocean it represents a huge amount of water transferred from one place to another.
If you would take away the Moon suddenly, it would change the global altitude of the ocean. Right now there is a distortion which is elongated around the equator, so if we didn’t have this effect, suddenly a lot of water would be redistributed toward the polar regions.
The Moon has been a stabilizing factor for the axis of rotation of the Earth. If you look at Mars, for instance, that planet has wobbled quite dramatically on its axis over time due to the gravitational influence of all the other planets in the solar system. Because of this obliquity change, the ice that is now at the poles on Mars would sometimes drift to the equator. But the Earth’s moon has helped stabilize our planet so that its axis of rotation stays in the same direction. For this reason, we had much less climatic change than if the Earth had been alone. And this has changed the way life evolved on Earth, allowing for the emergence of more complex multi-cellular organisms compared to a planet where drastic climatic change would allow only small, robust organisms to survive.
The Moon has influenced biology in other ways as well. For species living near the coast, the tide is an important factor. When you look at the shorelines, you can recognize different layers of organisms that have adapted to the salt water conditions based on the ebb and flow of the tide.
The eyesight of many mammals is sensitive to moonlight. The level of adaptation of night vision would be very different without the Moon. Many of these species have evolved in such a way that their night vision could work in even partial lunar illumination, because that’s when they are most active. But they can be more subjected to predators, too, so there is a balance between your ability to see and your ability not to be seen. The Moon has completely changed evolution in that aspect.
Human vision is so sensitive that we are almost able to work by the light of the Milky Way. The full Moon has more light than we need to see at night. For most of our history, we were hunting and fishing or doing agriculture, and we organized our lives by using the Moon. It determined the time for hunting, or the time where we could harvest. That’s why most of our calendars are based on the Moon.
In a recent workshop called “Earth-Moon Relationships,” psychologists discussed the relation between the lunar phases and several aspects of life. There was a very interesting correlation, not with the birth of children, but with the time of conception. Perhaps that is due to some social or sentimental value of the Moon. We tend to forget the impact the Moon has on our lives because we use electric lights, but for most of our history we had to adapt our behavior to the lunar phases.
Finally, the Moon had a key role in the emergence of science, and in our understanding of our place in the universe. We saw the repetition of the phenomena of lunar phases, and we observed solar and lunar eclipses. These were big challenges to our understanding of nature, and a few astronomers were put to death because they weren’t able to predict the eclipses. This challenged us to develop accurate predictions for the motion of the sun and the motion of the Moon.
Studying the Moon helped us determine distances in the solar system and the size of celestial objects. By studying lunar phases, for example, people were able to determine how far the Moon is from the Earth, the size of the Earth, and our distance from the sun. More recently, the Moon was the terrain where the space race took place between two political systems, allowing for great technical and scientific achievements. The Moon has inspired humankind to learn how to travel to space, and to bring life beyond Earth’s cradle.
Economy is defined as wealth and resources of a country or region, esp. in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.An economy consists of the economic systems of a country or other area - the labor, capital, and land resources; and the manufacturing, production, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area.A given economy is the result of a process that involves its technological evolution, history and social organization, as well as its geography, natural resource endowment, and ecology, as a few of the main factors.
Types of Economies or Economic Systems
There are many different kinds of economies around the world, but they all fall into two basic categories. One category is the command economy which is also called central planning. It has strong government control. The other type is the free market economy which is also called capitalistic economy. In this type of economy, there is very little government control. Currently, all real economies combine parts of capitalism with those of central planning. Each country around the world differs from one another in the amount they use the two systems. For example, the United States and Canada have economic systems that use very little government control so they are usually described as capitalistic.
Command economies have strong government control. So if you wanted to start your own business, you would have to get permission from the government. In a command economy, the government owns most of the industries and companies. One type of command economy is communism. True communism is a type of economic system that doesn't allow ownership of private property. Most of the command economies that existed in the world had strong central governments. These governments dictated how much was made and what was made by industry. The communists believed that life is a class struggle between workers and the owners of a industry or factory.In a communistic economy, goods were distributed on an as-needed-basis. In the command economy, the government makes the decisions as to what goods to supply to the people. The Soviet Union was an example of a communistic command economy. Many people think China is still a communist country. But they, and other countries like them, have given control over some of their economic activities back to the people.
The other basic type of economy is the free market or capitalistic economy. It is an economy that has very little government control. So if you wanted to start your own business, you would not have to get permission from the government. In a free market economy, the consumer decides what they want to buy. A consumer is a customer. The law of supply and demand is what drives the free market economy. Supply and demand is what sets the prices of goods and services in the free market economy. As supply goes up the prices go down. When the demand goes up the prices go up. Due to low government control, people are free to spend their money the way they want to. People can take the risk of starting their own business and losing money or starting their own business and making lots of money. People like James Ford Bell and Will Kellogg took risks in starting their own breakfast cereal businesses. Some examples of countries with a free market economy are The United States of America, Germany, and England.
In the world today free market economies have social programs such as the Social Security Systems. Command economies like China are introducing free market economies into their economy.
The basic and general economic systems are :
Market economy ("hands off" systems, such as Laissez-faire capitalism)
Mixed economy (a hybrid that blends some aspects of both market and planned economies)
Planned economy ("hands on" systems, such as state socialism or state capitalism)
Traditional economy (a generic term for older economic systems)
Command(Centrally Planned) Economic Systems: (a generic term for older economic systems)
Participatory economics (a system where the production and distribution of goods is guided by public participation)
Gift economy (where an exchange is made without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards)
Barter economy(where goods and services are directly exchanged for other goods or services)
An open economy is an economy in which there are economic activities between domestic community and outside, e.g. people, including businesses, can trade in goods and services with other people and businesses in the international community, and flow of funds as investment across the border. Trade can be in the form of managerial exchange, technology transfers, all kinds of goods and services. Although, there are certain exceptions that cannot be exchanged, like, railway services of a country cannot be traded with another to avail this service, a country has to produce its own. This contrasts with a closed economy in which international trade and finance cannot take place. No economy is totally open or closed in terms of trade restrictions, and all governments have varying degrees of control over movements of capital and labor. Degree of openness of an economy determines a government's freedom to pursue economic policies of its choice, and the susceptibility of the country to international economic cycles. In terms of the percentage of the GDP dependent on foreign trade, the UK is a more open economy than the US.
Closed Economyis an economy in which no activity is conducted with outside economies. A closed economy is self-sufficient, meaning that no imports are brought in and no exports are sent out. The goal is to provide consumers with everything that they need from within the economy's borders. A closed economy is the opposite of an open economy, in which a country will conduct trade with outside regions.
Sectors of Economy :
A nation’s economy can be divided into various sectors to define the proportion of the population engaged in the activity sector. This categorization is seen as a continuum of distance from the natural environment. The continuum starts with the primary sector, which concerns itself with the utilization of raw materials from the earth such as agriculture and mining. From there, the distance from the raw materials of the earth increases.
Primary Sector
The primary sector of the economy extracts or harvests products from the earth. The primary sector includes the production of raw material and basic foods. Activities associated with the primary sector include agriculture (both subsistence and commercial), mining, forestry, farming, grazing, hunting and gathering, fishing, and quarrying. The packaging and processing of the raw material associated with this sector is also considered to be part of this sector.
In developed and developing countries, a decreasing proportion of workers are involved in the primary sector. About 3% of the U.S. labor force is engaged in primary sector activity today, while more than two-thirds of the labor force were primary sector workers in the mid-nineteenth century.
Secondary Sector
The secondary sector of the economy manufactures finished goods. All of manufacturing, processing, and construction lies within the secondary sector. Activities associated with the secondary sector include metal working and smelting, automobile production, textile production, chemical and engineering industries, aerospace manufacturing, energy utilities, engineering, breweries and bottlers, construction, and shipbuilding.
Tertiary Sector
The tertiary sector of the economy is the service industry. This sector provides services to the general population and to businesses. Activities associated with this sector include retail and wholesale sales, transportation and distribution, entertainment (movies, television, radio, music, theater, etc.), restaurants, clerical services, media, tourism, insurance, banking, health care, and law.
In most developed and developing countries, a growing proportion of workers are devoted to the tertiary sector. In developed countries like the U.S., more than 80% of the labor force are tertiary workers.
Quaternary Sector
The quaternary sector of the economy consists of intellectual activities. Activities associated with this sector include government, culture, libraries, scientific research, education, and information technology.
Quinary Sector
Some consider there to be a branch of the quaternary sector called the quinary sector, which includes the highest levels of decision making in a society or economy. This sector would include the top executives or officials in such fields as government, science, universities, nonprofit, healthcare, culture, and the media.
An Australian source relates that the quinary sector in Australia refers to domestic activities such as those performed by stay-at-home parents or homemakers. These activities are typically not measured by monetary amounts but it is important to recognize these activities in contribution to the economy.
Informal Economy or Informal Sector :
An informal economy is economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government, contrasted with a formal economy. The informal economy is thus not included in that government's Gross National Product (GNP). Although the informal economy is often associated with developing countries, all economic systems contain an informal economy in some proportion.The terms "under the table" and "off the books" typically refer to this type of economy. The term black market refers to a specific subset of the informal economy. The term "informal sector" was used in many earlier studies, and has been mostly replaced in more recent studies which use the newer term.
The two types of informal sector activities can be described as follows:
1. Coping strategies (survival activities): it includes barter of goods and services, mutual self-help, odd and casual jobs, temporary jobs, unpaid jobs, street trading, and other such direct sale activities,subsistence agriculture, multiple job holding.n less developed countries much of the work done by women is in the informal sector; this includes such activities as petty trading, small-scale agriculture, and crafts.
2. Unofficial earning strategies (illegality in business):
a) Unofficial business activities: tax evasion, avoidance of labor regulation and other government or institutional regulations, no registration of the company;
b) Underground activities: crime, corruption - activities not registered by statistical offices.
Ways to measure Economic Activity :
There are a number of ways to measure economic activity of a nation. These methods of measuring economic activity include:
Consumer spending
Exchange Rate
Gross domestic product
GDP per capita
GNP
Stock Market
Interest Rate
National Debt
Rate of Inflation
Unemployment
Balance of Trade
What is Economic Growth ?
Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services, compared from one period of time to another . It is conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic product, or real GDP. Economic growth can be measured in nominal terms, which include inflation, or in real terms, which are adjusted for inflation. For comparing one country's economic growth to another, GDP or GNP per capita should be used as these take into account population differences between countries.
What is GDP ?
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time.Gross Domestic Product, is a primary indicator used to assess the strength of a country’s economy representing the total value of all the goods and services produced over a particular time frame. Normally, GDP is articulated as an evaluation to the preceding quarter or fiscal. It helps the foreign investors to assess the safety of their investments, popularly known as FDI – Foreign Direct Investments in overseas countries and may either fix caps in dealing or may safely stay from investing. It has a great bearing on the value of the overseas countries’ currency value vis-Ã -vis its own currency to determine the value of business likely to be obtained while dealing with other countries.
"Gross" means that GDP measures production regardless of the various uses to which that production can be put. Production can be used for immediate consumption, for investment in new fixed assets or inventories, or for replacing depreciated fixed assets. "Domestic" means that GDP measures production that takes place within the country's borders.
GDP can be contrasted with gross national product (GNP) or gross national income (GNI). The difference is that GDP defines its scope according to location, while GNP defines its scope according to ownership. Why Is the GDP Growth Rate Important?
The GDP growth rate is the most important indicator of economic health. If it's growing, so will business, jobs and personal income. If it's slowing down, then businesses will hold off investing in new purchases and hiring new employees, waiting to see if the economy will improve. This, in turn, can easily further depress the economy and consumers have less money to spend on purchases. When the economy is expanding, the GDP growth rate is positive. However, in a recession, the economy contracts. When that happens, the GDP growth rate is negative.
What is the GDP Growth Rate?
The GDP growth rate measures how fast the economy is growing. It does this by comparing one quarter of the country's economic output (Gross Domestic Product) to the last.The GDP growth rate is driven by the four components of GDP. By far, the most important driver of GDP growth is personal consumption, which is 70% of the total economic output. This includes retail sales. GDP growth is also driven by business investment, which includes construction and inventory levels. Government spending is another driver of growth, and is sometimes necessary to jump start the economy after a recession. Last, but not least, are exports and imports. Exports drive growth, but increases in imports have a negative impact.
How is GDP Calculated ?
GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)
GDP (Y) is a sum of Consumption (C), Investment (I), Government Spending (G) and Net Exports (X – M).
Y = C + I + G + (X − M)
Description of each GDP component:
C (consumption) is normally the largest GDP component in the economy, consisting of private (household final consumption expenditure) in the economy. These personal expenditures fall under one of the following categories: durable goods, non-durable goods, and services. Examples include food, rent, jewelry, gasoline, and medical expenses but does not include the purchase of new housing.
I (investment) includes, for instance, business investment in equipment, but does not include exchanges of existing assets. Examples include construction of a new mine, purchase of software, or purchase of machinery and equipment for a factory. Spending by households (not government) on new houses is also included in Investment. In contrast to its colloquial meaning, 'Investment' in GDP does not mean purchases of financial products. Buying financial products is classed as 'saving', as opposed to investment. This avoids double-counting: if one buys shares in a company, and the company uses the money received to buy plant, equipment, etc., the amount will be counted toward GDP when the company spends the money on those things; to also count it when one gives it to the company would be to count two times an amount that only corresponds to one group of products. Buying bonds or stocks is a swapping of deeds, a transfer of claims on future production, not directly an expenditure on products.
G (government spending) is the sum of government expenditures on final goods and services. It includes salaries of public servants, purchase of weapons for the military, and any investment expenditure by a government. It does not include any transfer payments, such as social security or unemployment benefits.
X (exports) represents gross exports. GDP captures the amount a country produces, including goods and services produced for other nations' consumption, therefore exports are added.
M (imports) represents gross imports. Imports are subtracted since imported goods will be included in the terms G, I, or C, and must be deducted to avoid counting foreign supply as domestic.
What is Economic Development ?
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area. Economic development can also be referred to as the quantitative and qualitative changes in the economy. Such actions can involve multiple areas including development of human capital, critical infrastructure, regional competitiveness, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, health, safety, literacy, and other initiatives.
Difference between Economic Growth and Economic Development :
Economic development differs from economic growth.Economic development is a policy intervention endeavor with aims of economic and social well-being of people, economic growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and rise in GDP.
An economy consists of all the wealth and resources of a society. Within this society, individuals and businesses interact daily--buying, selling, working and producing. Understanding how an economy works is a central task of economics, which studies how societies allocate scarce resources to satisfy wants and needs. Economists believe understanding the ways in which different societies allocate scarce resources helps to explain why some nations are prosperous and others are not. To explain how economics and economies work, economists rely on economic models, which represent in mathematical or graphic forms a simplified version of real-life economic activity.
A favourite model among economists for explaining how economies work is a circular flow diagram. This simplifies the overall economy by reducing it to two basic economic actors: consumers and companies. The circular flow depicts an ongoing process of buying and selling among these two classes. Companies use factors of production, or inputs, such as land, labour, and capital (production facilities and machinery, for example) to manufacture goods and services. They offer these products for sale, and consumers buy them. Meanwhile, consumers sell inputs, such as their labour, to companies, for which they receive money, which they then use to purchase the goods and services they want and need.
The 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement was held from 26 to 31 August 2012 in Tehran, Iran. The summit was attended by leaders of 120 countries,including 24 presidents, 3 kings, 8 prime ministers and 50 foreign ministers.The summit consisted of two preceding events: a "Senior Officials Meeting" on 26 and 27 August 2012, and a "Ministerial Meeting" on 28 and 29 August 2012. The leaders summit took place on 30 and 31 August. Egyptian President, Mohammad Morsi, officially handed the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during the inaugural ceremony of Leaders' Meeting.Iran will hold the NAM presidency for three years until the 17th summit in Venezuela in 2015.As of August 2012, the organisation consists of 120 member states, including the non-UN member state of Palestine, and 21 other observer countries. The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55% of the world's population.
The following declaration issued by the Tehran summit at its conclusion on 31 August sums up the summit's perspective and demands on some key international issues
WE, the Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, gathered at our XVI Conference held in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 30-31 August 2012, undertook a review of the international situation with a view to making an effective contribution to the solution of the major problems of concern to all NAM Member States and to entire Humankind, and,
Inspired by the vision, principles and objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement, articulated in Bandung (1955) and Belgrade (1961), and guided by the Declaration of Purposes and Principles in our efforts to achieve a world of peace, equality, cooperation and well-being for all, drawing upon the Movement's experience in the past and its great potential today,
Reaffirming the lasting validity and the continuing relevance of the NAM vision, principles and objectives in the contemporary international situation,
Strengthened by our past achievements in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, apartheid and all forms of foreign intervention, interference, aggression, occupation, domination or hegemony, and staying away from power alliances and their confrontations, continue to be fundamental elements in the policy of non-alignment,
Renewing our commitment to the NAM principles and objectives and our pledge to strive to make a constructive contribution towards building a new pattern of international relations based on the principles of peaceful coexistence, cooperation among nations and the right to equality of all States,
Continuing to uphold the principles of sovereignty and the sovereign equality of States, territorial integrity, self-determination and non-intervention in the internal affairs of any State; taking effective measures for the prevention and suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace, to defend, promote and encourage the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered; refraining in international relations from the threat or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence of any State or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter,
Declare that:
1. To build a fair, inclusive, transparent and effective system of joint global governance, based on justice and equitable participation of all countries and to address present challenges and risks stemming from global security threats, environmental hazards, climate change, migration, contagious diseases, extreme poverty, among others, the NAM Member States should coordinate their positions and join force in pressing on the interests of the developing world. To do so, a number of priorities are as follows:
a. Global governance is broad in scope and encompasses many issues of global interest and concerns than merely economic issues. The world faces challenges in security, social and environmental fields. International peace and security still continue to be high on the priority scale of many countries. The current international decision-making architecture in the fields of peace and security is outdated and much more resistant to any change.
b. The United Nations as the universal and inclusive multilateral body should play a fundamental role in the institutional and legal framework of global governance. Thus, the United Nations could and should have a major role in efforts undertaken to find common solutions to common problems, including a coordinating role among all international and regional agencies. Nonetheless, for the UN to remain at the forefront of any discussion on global governance, focus should further be on its strengthening and modernising. Towards this end, it is especially essential to revitalise the UN General Assembly, including in the area of international peace and security, and reform the UN Security Council to reflect the realities of today's world.
c. The growing importance of developing countries is yet to be sufficiently reflected in the governance structures of existing international key decision-making bodies. Key decisions concerning the issues of global governance can no longer be the preserve of a small group of countries. Policies are being made across a broadening range of issues, which affect all in world politics. Thus, it is imperative that developing countries could have a greater voice and participation in the major institutions, which coordinate policies at the international level.
d. Crises in the past several years have exposed the shortcomings and failures of international financial institutions, which adversely affect their ability to address crises and achieve adequate macroeconomic policy coordination. As they were established following World War II, they fail to address appropriately current world challenges and, therefore, adversely affect developing countries.
e. In the international community not every nation shares similar values and opinions. To live in peace and harmony the diversity within the global society should be acknowledged and respected. Thus, the attempts to impose values on other members of the international community should be thwarted.
2. Occupation of Palestine lies at the heart of the protracted crisis situation in the Middle East. Any solution to this crisis requires the termination of the occupation, crimes and violations committed by Israel, the occupying power, restoration of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of their independent and viable State of Palestine with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital. The restoration of the national rights of the Palestinian people is a basic prerequisite for the establishment of an equitable, comprehensive and lasting peace in the area.
3. Racism and racial discrimination are affronts to human dignity and equality, and the resurgence of contemporary and new forms of such abhorrent crimes in various parts of the world is a matter for grave concern. Thus, it is imperative to address with greater resolve and political will all forms and manifestation of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance including new forms of slavery and trafficking in persons, wherever they occur.
4. All human rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and human rights issues must be addressed through a constructive, non-confrontational, non-politicised, non-selective and dialogue-based as well as cooperative approach, in a fair, equal and balanced manner, with objectivity, respect for cultural diversity and national sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, taking into account the political, historical, social, religious and cultural particularities of each country. Special attention should be paid to the rights of the youth and women and the way be paved for building capacity in this respect and facilitating their participation in the politico-social and economic processes.
5. Nuclear weapons are the most inhumane weapons ever conceived. The maintenance of strategic and tactical nuclear stockpile and their continued modernisation, as well as new military doctrines setting the rationale for their possible use, particularly against non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS), represent the greatest threat to humankind. The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) did not provide a right for nuclear weapon states to keep their nuclear arsenals indefinitely. States Parties to the NPT have obligations under Article VI of the NPT to destroy all nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework, which is yet to be fulfilled. It is imperative to conclude a comprehensive convention on nuclear disarmament.
6. All states should be able to enjoy the basic and inalienable right to the development, research, production and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, without any discrimination and in conformity with their respective international legal obligations. Therefore, nothing should be interpreted in a way to inhibit or restrict the right of states to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. States' choices and decisions, in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear technology and their fuel cycle policies, including those of the Islamic Republic of Iran, must be respected.
7. The inviolability of peaceful nuclear activities should be upheld and any attack or threat of attack against peaceful nuclear facilities operational or under construction amounts to a serious danger to human beings and the environment, and constitutes a grave violation of international law, of the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, and of regulations of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]. There is a pressing need for a comprehensive multilaterally negotiated legal instrument prohibiting attacks, or threat of attacks on nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
8. Non-Aligned countries agree to refrain from recognising, adopting or implementing extra-territorial or unilateral coercive measures or laws, including unilateral economic sanctions, other intimidating measures, and arbitrary travel restrictions, that seek to exert pressure on Non-Aligned Countries - threatening their sovereignty and independence, and their freedom of trade and investment - and prevent them from exercising their right to decide, by their own free will, their own political, economic and social systems, where such measures or laws constitute flagrant violations of the UN Charter, international law, the multilateral trading system as well as the norms and principles governing friendly relations among States; and in this regard, they agree to oppose and condemn these measures or laws and their continued application, persevere with efforts to effectively reverse them and urge other States to do likewise, as called for by the General Assembly and other UN organs; agree to request States applying these measures or laws to revoke them fully and immediately.
9. All acts of terrorism, in all their forms and manifestations, wherever and by whoever committed, are unequivocally condemned. All States should abide by their international obligations in addressing the threat of terrorism, which continues to adversely affect peace, security, stability and development of many NAM countries. All victims of terrorism, including the Iranian civilian researchers and scientists who have fallen victim to inhumane terrorist campaign, deserve the deepest sympathy.
10. Dialogue among religions, cultures and civilisations should be enhanced, through supporting efforts made at the international level, towards reducing confrontation, suppressing xenophobia and islamophobia, promoting respect for diversity based on justice, fraternity and equality should be promoted, and all attempts of uniculturalism or the imposition of particular models of political, economic, social, legal or cultural systems should be opposed, and promote dialogue among civilisations, culture of peace and inter-faith dialogue, which will contribute towards peace, security, stability and development.
11. The Non-Aligned Movement should mobilise all its capabilities in order to implement the decisions of its leaders, as expressed in its documents. Accordingly, NAM should consider the possibility of creating necessary mechanism with a view to following up on its decisions.
The concept of Agro-ecological region is a modification and improvement on agroclimatic regions.There is distinction between agro-ecological region and agro-climatic region.Agroclimatic region is a land unit in terms of major bioclimate and length of growing period and which is climatically suitable for certain range of crop cultivation.Agro-Ecological region is the land unit carved out of agro-climatic region when superimposed on landform and soil condition that acts as modifier of the length of growing period.Therefore,within an agro-climatic region there may be a few agro-ecological regions depending on soil condition.This approach has been used in delineating agro-ecological regions of India. In the demarcation of agro-ecological regions of India,the agro-climatic regions of India have been subdivided on the basis of soil type.In the meso regions thus obtained,the length of growing period has been superimposed. This method has resulted into 20 agro-ecological regions.
