Regional imbalances and income inequalitiies in India: Steps taken by the Government to reduce it.

Regional imbalance is the disparity in economic and social development of two regions. One region/city/area is stronger than another region/city/area. Regions develop when investments are made to set up industries, service sectors, educational institutions, health care facilities etc.

Income inequality is the unequal distribution of household or individual income across the various participants in an economy. Income inequality is often presented as the percentage of income to a percentage of population.

The problem of regional disparities is a global phenomenon and, for India, up to a great extent, an inheritance from the colonial past. For example, in India, the historical factors have guided the development of the port towns of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and these three cities have in turn worked as nuclei for the development of Maharashtra and Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu and West Bengal respectively which are at present the most industrially advanced states in India. On the other hand, the areas having natural advantages in the form of mineral resources, such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan have lagged far behind in the process of economic development.

The most important indicator of regional imbalance and disparity among the different states of India is the difference in per capita state income figures. It is revealed from data in 2000-01, that the national average per capita income in India was Rs. 10,254. The states whose per capita income figures were higher than this national average include Punjab, Goa, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Among these nine states, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat have attained a high degree of agricultural as well as industrial development. Although West Bengal and Karnataka attained per capita income higher than the all India average in 1094-95 but it started trailing behind the all India average in recent years due to its poor rate of economic growth.

Various steps taken by Government to reduce it are:

1.Land Reforms and Redistribution of Ceiling Surplus Land:

In India, income inequalities are mostly resulted from the concentration of agricultural land in the hands of a few big landlords. The Zamindary system prevailing in our country has created a system of absentee landlords in the farm sector who appropriated a major portion of the agricultural produce by exploiting the farmers.

After independence, various legislative measures were introduced for abolishing the system of absentee landlords and other intermediaries and imposing ceiling on land holdings.

 

2. Resource Transfer and Backwardness:

While making necessary award, the Finance Commission in India has been giving due weightage to backwardness of a state as an important criteria for resource transfer from the centre to the states.

Declaration of Backward states and special category states by the government to reduce the regional imbalances.

Under the present system of federal fiscal transfer, the transfer of resources from the Centre to States includes central assistance for State Plans, Non plan transfer as per the recommendations of the Finance Commission, ad-hoc transfer, allocation of fund for centrally sponsored schemes, allocation of both short-term and long-term credit from financial institutions etc.

The share of backward states along with special category states in the Plan outlay as well as in central assistance has been increasing steadily since the First Plan. Accordingly, the share of these states in the total plan outlay had increased from 46 per cent in the First Plan to 51 per cent in the Third Plan and then to 54 per cent in the Fifth Plan.

3. Special Area Development Programmes:

In order to develop hilly areas, tribal areas, drought- prone areas, specific plan schemes have been designed with full central assistance. Besides, other schemes of rural development formulated for the improvement of specific groups such as marginal farmers and agricultural laborers were implemented in the backward regions.

An area based approach of ‘Tribal Sub-Plans’ (TSPs) is now being implemented for the development of scheduled tribes located in the backward rural areas.

In this manner, different special schemes for particular target group located in the backward areas are being included for block level planning for attaining integrated rural development and considerable employment opportunities. All these programmes include SFDA, MFAL, Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CSRE) etc.

 

4. Incentives for Promoting Investment in Backward Regions:

In order to fight the problem of industrial backwardness of some backward regions and also to promote private investment in backward regions, various fiscal and other incentives have been provided by both the Centre, the States and other financial institution under public sector.

 5.Social Security Measures:

Social security measures for the workers are considered as an important step towards reduction of income inequalities. India has adopted some social security provisions for the workers engaged in the organized sector. Workmen’s Compensation Act for providing compensation in case of any injury to industrial workers, Maternity Benefit Act for women workers and Employees

Provident Fund Act for providing the benefit of provident fund to the workers and other employees engaged in organized industries.

6. Employment Programme and Wage Policies:

With the growing menace of unemployment problem in India, the Government of India has introduced some special employment programmes since the Fourth Plan onwards in order to provide some relief and scope for gainful employment to unemployed. These programmes include Crash Scheme for Rural Unemployment, the Drought Prone Areas Programme, Food for Work Programme, self-employment schemes for engineers, employment scheme for educated unemployment etc.

All these programmes were short lived and ad-hoc in nature. During the Sixth Plan period, the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was initiated in 1978-79 and after that National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) were also introduced.

More radical socio­economic reforms seem to be in the offing in India. These are some of the measures that can be adopted to reduce inequalities. But inequalities can be reduced, they cannot be eliminated altogether. In fact, absolute equality is unattainable.

 

Additional Information

Recommendations

1. A composite criteria for identifying backward areas (with the Block as a unit) based on indicators of human development including poverty, literacy and infant mortality rates, along with indices of social and economic infrastructure, should be developed by the Planning Commission for the 12th Five Year Plan.
2. Union and State Governments should adopt a formula for Block-wise devolution of funds targeted at more backward areas.
3. Governance needs to be particularly strengthened in more backward areas within a State. The role of ‘special purpose vehicles’ such as backward area development boards and authorities in reducing intra-State disparities needs to be reviewed. It is advisable to strengthen local governments and make them responsible and accountable.
4. A system of rewarding States (including developed States) achieving significant reduction in intra-State disparities should be introduced.
5. Additional funds need to be provided to build core infrastructure at the inter-district level in less developed States and backward regions in such States. The quantum of assistance should be made proportionate to the number of people living in such areas.
6. The approach to all such funding should be outcome driven. The strategy should be to define acceptable minimum norms of human and infrastructure development that every block in the country should attain and funding should be driven by the consideration to achieve the norms so defined.

 

• Classcial Theories:

1. Halley’s Thermal concept: Indian monsoon is because of contrast between Indian Subcontinent and adjoining Indian Ocean. Halley’s theory, suggested in 1686, considers the summer monsoon to be a regional phenomenon.
2. Aerological concept: This was suggested by R. Scherhag in 1948. According to this theory, monsoon circulation develops due to changes in air temperature at all levels over the Indian Subcontinent and adjoining Indian Ocean.

 

• Modern theories:

1. Dynamic Theory: Flohn (1951) according to Flohn, the monsoon is a global phenomenon due to global shift in pressure belts. The shift in pressure belts bring the ITC much more into the northern margin is around 30 degrees north over the Indian subcontinent. This brings the SE trades over the Indian subcontinent as south westerly monsoons. Similarly, the shift in pressure belts globally when it is winter for the N. Hemisphere pushes the ITC to a little more south of the equator. This brings the sub- tropical high on to the southern slopes of Himalayas and hence the NE trades blow from northeast to southwest as northeast monsoons.

 

2. Tibet and Easterly Jet: P. Koteshwaram and Flohn concluded that heating of Tibet in summer strengthens the monsoonal circulation with an average height of 4Kms above the MSL, Tibetan surface is warmed in summer and generates ascending warm air. The air turns to its right and sinks over the Arabian sea and joins the southwesterly winds there by strengthening the monsoon. This circulation is part of the tropical easterly jet stream.

 

3. Role of Sub- Tropical westerly Jet: The sub-tropical westerly jet normally located on the south slopes of Himalayas and the northeast plains disintegrates in summer due to intense heating of the northern plains and the global shift in pressure belts to the north in summer of the northern hemisphere. This facilities the onset of the monsoon over india by facilitating the development of the monsoon trough.

 

4. The Somali Jet: The offshore areas of Somalia develop clod waters due to upwelling giving birth to the Somali current. The cold waters led to low temperature along Somali coast ( 15 degrees centigrade) whereas along Mumbai, the temperature is 30 degrees cent centigrade. This thermal gradient leads to development of the Somali jet stream blowing from western Arabian sea to the eastern Arabian sea. This adds moisture bearing winds to the southwest monsoon.

 

5. The Monsoon trough: This is the ITC which forms as a huge gash of low pressure from the desert of Arabian to Bay of Bengal. This covers the northern plains and induces the SE trades to cross the equator and give birth the south westerly winds.

 

6. El Nino: The development of El Nino conditions influence the monsoon. During El Nino, the southern oscillation (i.e., the differences in pressure between port  Darwin and Tahiti, French Polynesia). If the southern oscillation is negative, Darwin pressure is higher than Tahiti due to high pressure over Australia, western pacific and adjacent Indian ocean. The high pressure conditions also cover the Indian ocean and the landmass of peninsular India. This prevents the movement of southeast trades towards the landmass of India. If the southern oscillation is positive, Tahiti pressure is more than that of Darwin. Low pressure is over North Australia and over adjacent Indian Ocean. This induces northward movement of southeast trades and hence strengthens monsoonal circulation. The combination of El Nino current (which appears as a warm saline current along the west coast of S. America replacing the cold Humboldt current during a negative El Nino) and the southern oscillation is caused ENSO.

 

Onset of Monsoon

The summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent first arrives over Kerala situated at the southern tip of the Indian Peninsula around 1st June with a standard deviation of about 7 days. The arrival of the monsoon over the region is noticed by wide spread persistent and heavy rainfall replacing the occasional pre-monsoon rains.

 

Retreat Of Monsoon

This  lasts between September and end of December. This is the season of retreating monsoons. The monsoon trough over the northern plains weakens and begins to shift southward. The retreating monsoon brings rain to coastal Tamil Nadu, Krishna- Godavari delta, region west of Aravallis and to northeast India. The retreat of the monsoon begins on 1^st September (i.e., in Rajasthan), 15^th September in Punjab- Haryana plains, 10^th October from Ganges plains, 1^st December from Tamil Nadu and by 15^th December, the southwest monsoon withdraws from india completely. The retreating monsoon brings rainfall to AP south of Krishna delta and Tamil Nadu. The rainfall in Tamil Nadu in October/November, is 38.25 cms which is about 39% of its annual rainfall while for coastal Tamil Nadu it is 50% of the annual.

This is the season for tropical cyclones that affect the Indian landmass. Cyclones that affect the east coast and the west coast from in the southern portions of the Bay of Bengal, particularly during the retreating monsoon season. Maximum number of that form in the Bay of Bengal form in November. More number of cyclones form in the bay of Bengal than the Arabian sea.

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Global energy demand continues to climb as the industrialized world’s energy use rises, millions pull themselves out of poverty in developing countries, and the world population expands. Thus, the debate over the energy supply of the future intensifies. This debate is complicated by ongoing global climate destabilization as a result of green house gas (GHG) emissions produced largely from combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy. These scientific findings and economic threats have catalyzed commitments by many industrialized countries to curb GHG emissions, which in turn have created an enormous need for large-scale sources of energy alternatives to the polluting and potentially dwindling economic supplies of fossil fuels. Nuclear technology is often proposed as a solution or as part of the solution for a sustainable energy supply. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommended nuclear power as a key mitigation technology that is currently commercially available. The term sustainability, however, has numerous meanings that range from the light (pale) green definitions that normally refer to near-term financial sustainability to dark green long-term multi-faceted descriptions of sustainability. Here the concept of just sustainability, which includes what has been called the equity deficit of environmental sustainability, will be used as if these requirements are met so will those of the other weaker definitions.

This conception of sustainable development focuses equally on four conditions:

• improving our quality of life and well-being
• On meeting the needs of both present and future generations (intra- and intergenerational equity)
• On justice and equity in terms of recognition, process, procedure and outcome
• On the need for us to live within ecosystem limit.

 

Advantages

• Nuclear power generation does emit relatively low amounts of CO2. Nowadays global warming because of the greenhouse gases is a hot topic. The contribution of nuclear power to global warming is relatively little. This is a great advantage of nuclear power plants. Otherwise we have to reconsider that the water used in the cooling towers produces H2O vapors, which is the number 1 greenhouse gas. H2O causes about 2/3 of the greenhouse effect. This is because of a positive feedback mechanism. If  the earth warms up, there will be more H2O vapors in the air, which reinforce the greenhouse effect.
• Nuclear power plants already exist and are available worldwide. So in comparison to, for example, nuclear fusion, the technology does not have to be developed first. Also other new technologies (wind energy, solar energy, …) are still in its infancy.

 

• Coal-fired power plants, like this one emit pollutants that can contribute to climate change, decreased air quality and acid rain. Compared to coal, nuclear power production results in very little atmospheric pollution. In 2010, massive fossil fuel emissions brought the air quality in Hong Kong dangerously low; residents were advised to remain indoors for safety. Nuclear power plants won’t create smog like this.
• While nuclear plants are somewhat expensive to build, a single facility can provide massive output for years. When this picture was taken in 2000, nuclear power accounted for almost 20 percent of all the city lights you see within the United States.
• Reliable nuclear technology is already developed. No new innovations are needed to create nuclear reactors that are relatively safe and efficient. Above, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation opens a new research reactor in 2007.

 

Disadvantages

• Raw Material

Uranium is used in the process of fission because it’s a naturally unstable element. Unfortunately, this means that while the uranium is being mined, transported and transformed into the contained pellets used in the fission chamber it is at risk of splitting on its own. This releases harmful radiation into its surroundings, and can be harmful to those handling the material. Runoff from the uranium mines poses a dangerous health risk and possible contamination to water tables.

• Water Pollutant

Nuclear fission chambers are cooled by water. This water is then turned into steam, which is used to power the turbines. When the water cools enough to change back into liquid form, it is pumped outside into nearby wetlands. While measures are taken to ensure that no radiation is being pumped into the environment, other heavy metals and pollutants can make their way out of the chamber. The immense heat given off by this water can also be damaging to eco systems located nearby the reactor

• Radioactive Waste

One of the main worries people have about nuclear power is what to do with the radioactive waste that is generated by the reactors and secondly, what is the safety impact of storing this waste. However, even though no long-term solution has been found to eliminate the problem of waste management, the problem is much smaller than is commonly perceived. As can be seen below, the amount of deaths linked to radioactive waste over the long term are insignificant, especially when compared to the deaths caused by coal and solar power.

 

 

Deaths per 1,000 MW plant per year of operation due to waste:

One of the reasons for this low death rate is that the quantities of radioactive waste generated by a reactor are not large. In fact, the waste produced by a nuclear reactor is equivalent to the size of a coin per person, per year (Lauvergon 2003). It has even been calculated that “if the United States went completely nuclear for all its electric power for 10,000 years, the amount of land needed for waste disposal would be about what is needed for the coal ash that is currently generated every two weeks” (Cohen 1990). Worldwide, 40,000 tonnes of waste are generated annually, 15,000 tonnes being spent fuel and the 25,000 remaining tonnes, low level radioactive materials such as protective clothing or shielding (Cohen 1990).

• Reactor Safety

The reputation of nuclear power as an unsafe energy source is grossly unfair and due mainly to the Chernobyl catastrophe. It is possible to see that of all major electricity sources, nuclear is by far the source with the lowest number of fatalities, with the possible exception of renewables (for which figures aren’t available). Additionally, these figures don’t take into account premature deaths caused by pollution. If included, this would place traditional energy sources even further behind nuclear power in terms of safety.

• Proliferation Risks

The necessary raw material needed to construct a nuclear weapon is highly enriched uranium or plutonium. Enrichment technology can be used to produce highly enriched uranium. Reprocessing – certainly when the fuel has only been used in the reactor for a short time – could be used to separate out plutonium suitable for use in a nuclear weapon. International agreements have been concluded (the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Additional Protocol) to make trading in nuclear material and technology and the distribution of the know-how required to construct nuclear installations subject to international supervision. This means control of the peaceful use of nuclear energy technology and security of nuclear fuel. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pursues initiatives to eventually bring all enrichment and reprocessing installations under international supervision. At the moment, the situation is not yet adequate.

• Emissions

While greenhouse gas emissions have a potential worldwide impact through global warming and climate change, SOx, NOx and particulate matters have regional or local impacts.

• Complexity in Operation

This source of energy has a load factor of 80% and future reactors will be able to produce electricity 90% of the time. This is second only to fossil fuels. However, nuclear power does face a problem. It takes 24 hours to get a plant up and running. This means that nuclear plants cannot easily adjust to fluctuating demand. This is why nuclear plants tend to be turned on constantly except during maintenance when other sources, usually fossil fuels, tend to be used to adjust for demand.

Among the risks associated with nuclear energy are the threat of terrorism and proliferation, and one point of discussion is therefore whether expansion of nuclear energy in the Netherlands would pose greater security risks than in the current situation, with only a single nuclear power station.

There are three types of terrorism threat:

• The use of explosives to disperse radioactive material; this is sometimes referred to as a “dirty bomb”. Construction of a dirty bomb does not require any material from the nuclear fuel cycle. Radioactive material is also present outside the nuclear energy sector, for example at hospitals. Security measures for the fuel cycle must therefore be aimed at preventing material falling into the hands of terrorists.
• Acquisition of a nuclear weapon by a terrorist organisation. The size and complexity of the necessary equipment means that it is no simple matter for a terrorist organisation to develop and construct a nuclear weapon. Security for nuclear installations must be aimed at minimising the risk of terrorist attacks.
• An attack on a nuclear installation, storage site, or transport of radioactive material with the intention of causing radioactive substances to be released, thus contaminating the surrounding area. Security systems that close down the reactor automatically in the event of operator error also restrict the potential threat arising from any terrorist takeover of the power station. Designers of nuclear installations and transport containers also take account of the possibility of terrorist attacks. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed that there should be explicit design requirements for new nuclear power stations as regards resistance to attack using an airliner.

 

One of the basic tenets of our foreign policy has been non-alignment. As an element of foreign policy non-alignment m e a n s i n d e p e n d e n t o f b l o c s , peaceful coexistence, global peace, disarmament, struggle against all manifestations of injustices like imperialism, colonialism, apartheid etc.

After India’s adoption of non-alignment as the core element of its foreign policy, it also became a model for other newly independent countries. Most of them adopted it as an instrument for independence in international relations. Soon non-alignment, in addition to a significant perspective of foreign policy, became a movement of solidarity and cooperation among the newly liberated countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was thus founded as a solidarity movement for giving voice to Third World Countries.

Its essential purpose was to maintain equidistance in cold War rivalries and advocate principles for the promotion of world peace and cooperation. In due course of time, NAM became the largest membership movement as also the largest peace movement in the history of humanity. In both, in its founding and later consolidation and development, India played a significant role. In fact, in many ways India has been considered as a non-formal leader of the NAM.

ORIGIN OF NAM AND INDIA’S ROLE

Though as a formal organised movement NAM started with the holding of the Belgrade Summit of Non- Aligned countries in 1961, its seeds were sown by India, particularly by Jawaharlal Nehru even before attainment of India’s independence. It is quite clear that Nehru was articulating the ideas of decolonisation, national independence, non-bloc politics, peaceful coexistence, eradication of racialism and the need for the developing countries to play an active role in international affairs. It was at the initiative of Jawaharlal Nehru that India became the venue of the first forum of the liberated nations, when representatives of 28 countries met in New Delhi in March 1947 (before formal declaration of independence of India) at the Conference on Regional Cooperation among the Asian Countries known as Asian Relations Conference.

The Asian Relation Conference thus can truly be called the foundation stone for NAM.

BANDUNG CONFERENCE

Along with Nehru some other leaders in the world were also projecting these perceptions of newly independent countries. President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, President Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt (then called United Arab Republic), President Kwarne Nkrumah of Ghana and President Ahmed Soekarno of Indonesia were prominent among these. Together with Nehru they evolved a coherent outlook and position on Non-Alignment.

These leaders were largely instrumental in channelling the emerging changes towards the liberation of the people of the world and towards evolving a new vision of the world order. They rejected outright the notion that East- West relations alone constituted international affairs and asserted their own role in shaping these affairs. On the initiative of these leaders the conference of Afro-Asian Nations was held in Bandung (Indonesia) in April 1955.

The participants from 23 Asian and 6 African States represented mainly the people of young States which had been setup as a result of the new balance of forces of democracy and freedom on the one hand and of colonialism and oppression on the others. The states participating in the conference did not belong to any military or political blocs, arid they had taken clear and definite positions the problems facing mankind. Despite their different perspectives, the countries represented at the Bandung Conference arrived at a common position in the larger interest of world peace. One of the most important achievements of the Bandung Conference was the Declaration on World Peace and Cooperation. This declaration embodied the principles of Panchsheel which were first stated in the Preamble to the agreement between India and China in April 1954.

INDIA’S PIVOTAL ROLE AT NAM

It is quite clear that in the founding of NAM India not only played an active role as one of the founders but in many ways it was the initiator of the Movement. As we have already seen non-alignment as a concept of global politics, as a foreign policy premise and as a perspective of maximising national interest of the newly liberated countries was a vision Indian national leadership had developed during its freedom struggle itself.

The vision became the core element of India’s foreign policy after independence rand of other countries which attained independence from that period onwards.

The non-aligned movement, thus, emerged from India’s initiative for formulating an independent foreign policy. This independent foreign policy was based on a solid moral and sound political foundation. It was a non-partisan foreign policy. India’s moral approach to international politics was further projected through the Panchsheel in 1954.

Within three years, eighteen countries had endorsed the Panchsheel principles in joint communiqués with Indian leaders. These principles were practically incorporated in the Ten Principles declared at Bandung. In addition during its initial years of independence itself, India played a very active role in peaceful resolution of some complex international issues and persistently lobbied in United Nations for disarmament.

All these made the idea of non-alignment, the initial basic tenet in India’s foreign policy, a mechanism providing link between the coordinated actions of the anti- imperialist and anti-colonial forces, as an assertion of independence in foreign  affairs, as a process of weakening of power blocs, as a symbol of defiance against big power domination and as a diplomatic innovation in the phase of politics of confrontation and cold war.

Over decades of its existence the NAM has been developing a comprehensive political philosophy, a programme of action, and a new and positive system of international economic and political relations. From its founding India has remained one of the most active members of NAM and has played a pivotal role in its various activities and developments.

 

What are natural resources ?

Natural resources are useful raw materials that we get from the Earth. They occur naturally, which means that humans cannot make natural resources. Instead, we use and modify natural resources in ways that are beneficial to us. The materials used in human-made objects are natural resources. Some examples of natural resources and the ways we can use them are:

 

 

Natural resources                                                                Products and services

Air                                                                                         Wind energy

Animals                                                                                Foods ( Milk, Steak, Bacon etc.),

Clothing ( wool, silk etc.

Coal                                                                                       Electricity

Minerals                                                                                Coins, wire, Steel, Aluminium etc.

Natural gas                                                                             Electricity and Heating

Oil                                                                                           Electricity, Fuel for vehicles

Plants                                                                                      Wood, Paper, Cotton etc.

Sunlight                                                                                   Solar power, Photosynthesis

Water                                                                                       Hydroelectricity, Drinking, Cleaning

 

 

 

 

INDIA : NATURAL RESOURCES

1. Land Resources: In terms of area India ranks seventh in the world with a total area of 32, 87.263 sq. km. (32.87 crore hectare). It accounts for 2.42% of total area of the world. In absolute terms India is really a big country. However, land man ratio is not favourable because of the huge population size.

Land utilisation figures are available for about 92.9% of total geographical area, that is, for 3,287.3 lakh hectare. Forest constitutes 24.01 % of the total geographical area of country. Out of a total land area of 304.2 million hectares about 170.0 million hectares is under cultivation. Food grains have preponderance in gross cropped areas as compared to non food grains. According to Agricultural Census, the area operated by large holdings (10 hectares and above) has declined and area operated under marginal holdings (less than one hectare) has increased. This indicates that land is being fragmented.

2. Forest Resources: India’s forest cover is 78.92 million hectare which is 24.01 % of the geographical area of the country. The per capita forest in India (0.5 hectare) is much less than that in the world (1.9 hectares). According to the National Policy on Forests (1988), one-third (33%) of the country’s area should be covered by forests in order to maintain ecological balance.
3. 3. Mineral Resources :

Iron-Ore: India possesses high quality iron-ore in abundance. The total reserves of iron-ore in the country are about 14.630 million tonnes of haematite and 10,619 million tonnes of magnetite. Haematite iron is mainly found in Chbattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Goa and Karnataka. The major deposit of magnetite iron is available at western coast of Karnataka. Some deposits of iron ore arc also found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Coal reserves : India has the fifth largest coal reserves in the world. As on 31 March 2015, India had 306.6 billion metric tons (338.0 billion short tons) of the resource. The known reserves of coal rose 1.67% over the previous year, with the discovery of an estimated 5.04 billion metric tons (5.56 billion short tons). The estimated total reserves of lignite coal as on 31 March 2015 was 43.25 billion metric tons (47.67 billion short tons). The energy derived from coal in India is about twice that of the energy derived from oil, whereas worldwide, energy derived from coal is about 30% less than energy derived from oil. Coal deposits are primarily found in eastern and south-central India. Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra accounted for 99.08% of the total known coal reserves in India. As on 31 March 2015, Jharkhand and Odisha had the largest coal deposits of 26.44% and 24.72% respectively .

The top producing states are:

• Odisha
• Chhattisgarh
• Jharkhand

Other notable coal-mining areas are as follows :

• Singarenicollieries in Bhadradi district (Old Khammam District), Telangana
• Jhariamines in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand
• Nagpur& Chandrapur district, Maharshtra
• Raniganjin Bardhaman district, West Bengal
• Neyvelilignite mines in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu
• Singrauli Coalfieldand Umaria Coalfield in Madhya Pradesh

 

Bauxite:

Bauxite is a main source of metal like aluminium. It is not a specific mineral but a rock consisting mainly of hydrated aluminium oxides. It is clay-like substance which is pinkish whitish or reddish in colour depending on the amount of iron content.

The total reserves of bauxite in India are estimated at 27.40 crores tonnes. The major bauxite producing states in India are Orissa, Jharkhand, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Goa in a descending order of importance.

Large amount of bauxite comes from:

Orissa : Sambalpur, Koraput, Kalahandi and Ganjam,

Jharkhand : Lohardaga near Ranchi and Palamau districts,

Maharashtra: Ratnagiri and Kolaba, Thane, Satara of Kolhapur district,

Madhya Pradesh:  Chhattisgarh – Balaghat, Rajgarh and Bilashpur,

Gujarat : Bhavanagar, Junagarh and Amreli,

Karnataka: Belgaum and Bababudan hills,

Tamil Nadu: Salem.

Uranium deposits : Jaduguda in Singhbhum Thrust Belt (in the state of Jharkhand, formerly part of Bihar) is the first uranium deposit to be discovered in the country in 1951. The Singhbhum Thrust Belt (also known as Singhbhum Copper belt or Singhbhum shear Zone) is a zone of intense shearing and deep tectonization with less than 1km width and known for a number of copper deposits with associated nickel, molybdenum, bismuth, gold, silver etc. It extends in the shape of an arc for a length of about 160 km. This discovery of uranium at Jaduguda in this belt paved the way for intensive exploration work and soon a few more deposits were brought to light in this area. Some of these deposits like Bhatin, Narwapahar and Turamdih are well known uranium mines of the country. other deposits like Bagjata, Banduhurang and Mohuldih are being taken up for commercial mining operations. Some of the other areas like Garadih, Kanyaluka, Nimdih and Nandup in this belt are also known to contain limited reserves with poor grades. Apart from discoveries in the Singhbhum Thrust Belt, several uranium occurrences have also been found in Cuddapah basin of Andhra Pradesh. These include Lambapur-Peddagattu, Chitrial, Kuppunuru, Tumallapalle, Rachakuntapalle which have significantly contributed towards the uranium reserve base of India. In the Mahadek basin of Meghalaya in NorthEastern part of the country, sandsyone type uranium deposits like Domiasiat, Wahkhyn, Mawsynram provide near-surface flat orebodies amenable to commercial operations. Other areas in Rajsthan, Karnataka and Chattishgarh hold promise for developing into some major deposits.

 

 

 

 

Thorium

The IAEA’s 2005 report estimates India’s reasonably assured reserves of thorium at 319,000 tonnes, but mentions recent reports of India’s reserves at 650,000 tonnes. A government of India estimate, shared in the country’s Parliament in August 2011, puts the recoverable reserve at 846,477 tonnes. The Indian Minister of State V. Narayanasamy stated that as of May 2013, the country’s thorium reserves were 11.93 million tonnes (monazite, having 9-10% ThO₂, with a significant majority (8.59 Mt; 72%) found in the three eastern coastal states of Andhra Pradesh (3.72 Mt; 31%), Tamil Nadu (2.46 Mt; 21%) and Odisha (2.41 Mt; 20%). Both the IAEA and OECD appear to conclude that India may possess the largest share of world’s thorium deposits.

 

Iron reserves : Iron ore is a metal of universal use. It is the backbone of modern civilisation. It is the foundation of our basic industry and is used all over the world. four varieties of iron ore are generally recognized.

(i) Magnetite: This is the best quality of iron ore . It possesses magnetic property and hence is called magnetite. It is found in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

 

(ii) Haematite:

It contains 60 % to 70 % pure iron and is found in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

(iii) Limonite:

It contains 40 per cent to 60 per cent pure iron. It is of yellow or light brown colour. Damuda series in Raniganj coal field, Garhwal in Uttarakhand, Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh and Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh.

(iv) Siderite:

It contains many impurities and has just 40 to 50 per cent pure iron. However, due to presence of lime, it is self fluxing.

 

(4) Oil reserves : India had about 750 Million metric tonne of proven oil reserves as April 2014 or 5.62 billion barrels as per EIA estimate for 2009, which is the second-largest amount in the Asia-Pacific region behind China. Most of India’s crude oil reserves are located in the western coast (Mumbai High) and in the northeastern parts of the country, although considerable undeveloped reserves are also located in the offshore Bay of Bengal and in the state of Rajasthan. The combination of rising oil consumption and fairly unwavering production levels leaves India highly dependent on imports to meet the consumption needs. In 2010, India produced an average of about 33.69 million metric tonne of crude oil as on April 2010 or 877 thousand barrels per day as per EIA estimate of 2009. As of 2013 India Produces 30% of India’s resources mostly in Rajasthan.

India’s oil sector is dominated by state-owned enterprises, although the government has taken steps in past recent years to deregulate the hydrocarbons industry and support greater foreign involvement. India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is the largest oil company. ONGC is the leading player in India’s upstream sector, accounting for roughly 75% of the country’s oil output during 2006, as per Indian government estimates. As a net importer of all oil, the Indian Government has introduced policies aimed at growing domestic oil production and oil exploration activities. As part of the effort, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas crafted the New Exploration License Policy (NELP) in 2000, which permits foreign companies to hold 100% equity possession in oil and natural gas projects. However, to date, only a handful of oil fields are controlled by foreign firms. India’s downstream sector is also dominated by state-owned entities, though private companies have enlarged their market share in past recent years.

The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (ISPR) is an emergency fuel store of total 5 MMT (million metric tons) or 36.92 MMbbl of strategic crude oil enough to provide 10 days of consumption which are maintained by the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited.

Strategic crude oil storages are at 3 underground locations :  in Mangalore, Visakhapatnam and Padur(nr Udupi). All these are located on the east and west coasts of India which are readily accessible to the refineries. These strategic storages are in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and serve in response to external supply disruptions .

In the 2017-18 budget speech by the Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley, it was announced that two more such caverns will be set up Chandikhole in Jajpur district of Odisha and Bikaner in Rajasthan as part of the second phase. This will take the strategic reserve capacity to 15.33 million tons.

Apart from this,India is planning to expand more strategic crude oil facilities in second phase at Rajkot in Gujarat, Padur in and Udupi district of Karnataka.

(5)  Natural gas reserves : Natural gas consists primarily of methane .Propane , butane, pentane and hexane are also present . KG basin, Assam, Gulf of Khambhat, Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, Barmer in Rajasthan etc. are natural gas reserves of India.

 

 

 

 

Wind energy resources : The development of wind power in India began in the 1990s, and has significantly increased in the last few years. Although a relative newcomer to the wind industry compared with Denmark or the US, domestic policy support for wind power has led India to become the country with the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world.

As of March 31, 2016 the installed capacity of wind power in India was 26,769.05 MW, mainly spread across Tamil Nadu (7,269.50 MW), Maharashtra (4,100.40 MW), Gujarat (3,454.30 MW), Rajasthan (2,784.90 MW), Karnataka (2,318.20 MW), Andhra Pradesh (746.20 MW) and Madhya Pradesh (423.40 MW) Wind power accounts for 14% of India’s total installed power capacity. India has set an ambitious target to generate 60,000 MW of electricity from wind power by 2022.

 

 

 

Solar power : Solar power is attractive because it is abundant and offers a solution to fossil fuel emissions and global climate change. Earth receives solar energy at the rate of approximately 1,73,000 TW. This enormously exceeds both the current annual global energy consumption rate of about 15 TW, and any conceivable requirement in the future. India is both densely populated and has high solar insolation, providing an ideal combination for solar power in India. India is already a leader in wind power generation. In solar energy sector, some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km² area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 GW.

With about 300 clear sunny days in a year, India’s theoretical solar power reception, just on its land area, is about 5 PWh/year (i.e. = 5 trillion kWh/yr ~ 600 TW). The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m² with about 1500–2000 sunshine hours per year, depending upon location. This is far more than current total energy consumption. The India Energy Portal estimates that if 10% of the land were used for harnessing solar energy, the installed solar capacity would be at 8,000GW, or around fifty times the current total installed power capacity in the country. For example, even assuming 10% conversion efficiency for PV modules, it will still be thousand times greater than the likely electricity demand in India by the year 2015.

NATIONAL SOLAR MISSION

 

NTPC  Vidyut Vyapar Nigam(NVVN) ,the nodal agency for implementing the first phase of JNNSM , received 418 applications against a requirement of 650 MW(500 MW Solar Thermal and 150 MW Solar PV) for Batch I. Out of this 343 applications were for solar PV and 55 for Solar Thermal. The interest was high in the investor community for solar PV as applications worth 1715 MW (343*5 MW) were received as against a total of 150 MW. 30 bidders were selected through reverse bidding and projects were allocated to companies that offered highest discount to base tariff rate of Rs. 17.91/kWh. Projects totaling 610 MW were awarded with 145 MW under solar PV and 470 MW under Solar Thermal. The winning bids for solar PV varied from Rs. 10.95/kWh to Rs. 12.76/kWh and for Solar Thermal it was Rs. 11.14/kWh  in Phase I Batch I. Camelot Enterprises Private Ltd was the lowest bidder and other successful bidders included Mahindra Solar One, Azure Power, SunEdison Energy, Lanco Infratech.  The project capacity under Batch I is 5 MW for solar PV and minimum 5 MW and maximum 100MW for Solar Thermal. By July 2011, negotiations were concluded, PPAs awarded and financial closure achieved for 34 projects.

Under batch II, the project size has been increased up to 20 MW and the base price for solar PV projects is Rs. 15.39/kWh.  NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) received 154 applications for 1915 MW of solar PV projects against a requirement of 350 MW. The results of the bidding for solar PV projects indicate that the grid parity for solar power may not be too far off. The winning bids varied from Rs. 7.49/kWh to Rs. 9.41/kWh. The average bid price for both batch I and II was Rs. 12.15/kWh. French project developer Solairedirect emerged as the lowest bidder and Green Infra Solar the highest bidder. The other successful bidders included companies like Welspun Solar, Azure Power, SunBorne Energy  and Mahindra Solar One. Around 70% and 85% of the allocated capacity under Phase I Batch I and Phase I Batch II respectively is to be implemented in Rajasthan.

LAND RESOURCES : UTILIZATION PATTERN IN INDIA

Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. It also has been defined as “the total of arrangements, activities, and input that people undertake in a certain land cover type.

Land is a scarce resource, whose supply is fixed for all practical purposes. At the same time, the demand for land for various competing purposes is continuously increasing with the increase in human population and economic growth.

Agricultural land: Agricultural land (also agricultural area) denotes the land suitable for agricultural production, both crops and livestock. It includes net sown area, current fallows and land under miscellaneous trees crops and groves. Agricultural land in India totals approx. 46 %  of the total geographical area in the country. This is the highest among the large and medium-sized countries of the world. This indicates The influence of favourable physical factors (like size, extent of plains and plateaus, etc.) and  The extension of cultivation to a large proportion of the cultivable land. But, because of the large population of the country, the per capita arable land (i.e. land suitable for agriculture) is low: 0.16 hectares against the world average of 0.24 hectares. About 15 per cent of the sown area is multi-cropped.

Non-agricultural land: This includes land under forests and permanent pastures, land under other non-agricultural uses (towns, villages, roads, railways, etc.) and  land classified as cultivable waste as well as barren and uncultivated land of mountain and desert areas.

 

The population continues to grow rapidly in India and great pressure is being placed on arable land resources to provide an adequate supply of food and energy requirements. Even if land resources are never exhausted, on a per capita basis they will decline significantly because they must be divided among more people. Land is one such natural resources of a nation on which the entire superstructure is created. Thus, land use is a synthesis of physical, chemical and biological systems and processes on the one hand and human/societal processes and behavior on the other hand. Land is important not only for producing food stuffs, cereals, fruits and vegetables for consumption but also for generating surpluses to meet the increasing demands created by rising population and developing industrial sector, for laying down the transport network, communication lines, for the construction of dwellings and public institutions, etc. Due to unprecedented population growth, man has made uses and misuses of land resources causing environmental degradation.

Again environmental degradation in developing countries like India, especially its manifestations in the form of soil erosion, deforestation etc, is often attributed to rapid population growth. It has however been increasingly realized that since these predominantly agricultural countries are undergoing the process of technological progress and development, many other factors also modify the relationship between population and land. Changing techniques of production, changes in the pattern of land utilization of natural as well as human resources, industrialization, urbanization, changing life styles, rising aspirations, change in consumption pattern are some of the macro level factors which make the relationship between population and land use much more complex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Objective questions

 

 

Q 1. Which one of the following is an example of non-renewable resources?

1. Wind
2. Natural gas
3. Solar energy
4. Soil

Q 2. Consider the following statements regarding the reserves of natural resources in India ?

1. Naharkatia and Kalol are famous for reserves of Crude oil .
2. Kolar is source of Diamond .
3. India’s forest cover is 14 % of the total geographical area .

Which of the statements given above is / are correct ?

1. only 1
2. only 1 and 2
3. only 2 and 3
4. only 1 and 3

Q 3. Which of the statements given below is / are correct ?

1. Natural gas primarily consists of Butane and methane and propane are also present in minor amount .
2. Barmer in Rajasthan is natural gas reserve.

Choose the correct answer from the code given below :

1. only 1
2. only 2
3. 1 and 2 both
4. Neither 1 nor 2

 

Q 4. Which of the following place is well known for Uranium reserves ?

1. Narwapahar
2. Koraput
3. Ratnagiri
4. Balaghat

 

Q 5. Consider the following statements regarding land use pattern in India :

1. More than 50 % area is swon area in the country .
2. Urbanization and industrialization are the factors changing India’s land use pattern

Which of the statements given above is / are correct :

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. 1 and 2 both
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Q 6. Which of the following statements is / are correct ?

1. India’s geographical location is favourable for solar power .
2. India ranks first in wind energy production.

Choose the correct answer from the code given below :

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. 1 and 2 both
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Q 7. Which the following is / are non-metallic mineral/s ?

1. Limestone
2. Mica
3. Gypsum
4. All of the above

 

Q 8. With reference to the Iron ore which of the following statement/s  is / are correct ?

 

1. Limonite contains max. percentage of pure iron.
2. Magnetite is not found in India.

Choose the correct answer from the code given below:

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. 1 and 2 both
4. Neither 1 nor 2

 

Q 9. Which of the following statement is correct ?

 

1. Neyvelilignite mines are located in Jharkhand.
2. Singrauli coalfield is in Uttar pradesh .
3. Kalahandi is famous for Bauxite.
4. Lohardaga bauxite mine is located in Karnataka.

 

Q 10. Siderite is an ore of :

 

1. Aluminium
2. Thorium
3. Iron
4. Uranium

 

 

ANSWER KEYS

 

1. B
2. A
3. B
4. A
5. B
6. A
7. D
8. D
9. C
10. C

 

National Income

The study of National Income is important because of the following reasons:

• To see the economic development of the country.
• To assess the developmental objectives.
• To know the contribution of the various sectors to National Income.

Internationally some countries are wealthy, some countries are not wealthy and some countries are in-between. Under such circumstances, it would be difficult to evaluate the performance of an economy. Performance of an economy is directly proportionate to the amount of goods and services produced in an economy. Measuring national income is also important to chalk out the future course of the economy. It also broadly indicates people’s standard of living.

Income can be measured by Gross National Product (GNP), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross National Income (GNI), Net National Product (NNP) and Net National Income (NNI).

In India the Central Statistical Organization has been formulating national income.

However some economists have felt that GNP has a measure of national income has limitation, since they exclude poverty, literacy, public health, gender equity and other measures of human prosperity.

Instead they formulated other measures of welfare like Human Development Index (HDI).

 

NATIONAL INCOME:

The National income measures the flow of goods and services in an economy.

Note: The National income measured only on flow and not on stock.

 

The National income measures of net volume of goods and services produced in a country during a year. It also includes net earned foreign income. The National Income is counted without duplication.

The National income measures the productive power of an economy (flow).

The National wealth measures the stock of commodities held by the nationals of a country at a given point of time.

The National income estimates are in relation with the financial year.

In India the financial year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31.

 

BEFORE INDEPENDENCE

No specific attempts were made.The 1^st attempt was made by Dada Bhai Naoroji (Grand Old Man of India) in the   year 1868 in his book ‘Poverty and Un British Rule in India’.He estimated that the per capita annual income as Rs. 20 per annum.

Other estimators William Digby in the year 1899, Findlay Shirras in 1911, 1922     and in 1933, Shah and Khambatta in 1921, V K R V Rao during 1925-29 and 1931-32 and R C Desai during 1931-40.

The above people estimated the national income with the value of the output of the agriculture sector and then added a certain percentage as the income of the non-agriculture sector.The estimates suffered with serious limitations.

 

AFTER INDEPENDENCE:

In August 1949 the Government of India appointed the National Income Committee. Prof. P C Mahalanobis was appointed as the chairman of the National Income Committee.The other 2 members of the committee were Prof D. R Gadgil and Prof V K R V Rao.The main job of the committee was to compile estimates of National Income.The 1^st report was submitted in the year 1951.The final report was submitted in the year 1954.

This report is considered to be a landmark in the history of India as this is the first time that it provided a comprehensive data of National Income for the whole India.

The government established the CSO (Central Statistical Organization) for further estimation of the National income.The CSO regularly publishes the national income.

 

CONCEPT (THEORY) OF THE NATIONAL INCOME:

GNP (Gross National Product)

GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

NNP (Net National Product)

NI (National Income)

PI (Personal Income)

DPI (Disposable Personal Income)

Now let us try to understand the meaning of each:

 

GDP (GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT):

 

The Gross Domestic Product is the money value of all the goods and services produced within the geographical boundaries of a country in a given period of time.

Note: the GDP is only within the country.

 

GNP (Gross National Product):

 

The GNP is the money value of the goods and services produced by a country in a given period of time Plus Total money value of goods and services produced by the nationals outside the country Minus Incomes received by the foreigners with in the country.

Note: The GNP is calculated on the basis of market prices of produced goods, it also includes indirect taxes and subsidies if any.

The GNP is equal to GDP if the income earned and received by the citizens of a country within the boundaries of foreign countries is equal to the income received by the foreigners within the country.

 

NNP (NET NATIONAL PRODUCT):

This is GNP minus depreciation.

NNP = GNP – Depreciation

Note: Depreciation is the consumption of capital stock

 

NI (NATIONAL INCOME):

The National income is also called Net National Product at factor cost. Hence,

NI = NNP minus (total indirect taxes + Subsidies)

Note: Both indirect taxes and subsidies are deducted from the NNP.

 

PI (PERSONAL INCOME):

This is actual income obtained by the people after deducting various taxes.

PI = National Income – (Corporate taxes + payments made for social security) +Government transfer payments+Business transfer payments+Net interest paid by the government.

 

DPI (Disposable personal Income):

This is the Personal income minus direct taxes.

DPI = PI – Direct taxes.

 

HOW THE NATIONAL INCOME IS MEASURED?

 

There a 3 methods to calculate the National income.These methods are given by Simon Kuznets.

• PM (Product Method) or Product service method.
• IM (Income Method)
• CM (Consumption Method) or expenditure method.

In India the combination of Product method and Income methods is used for calculating the National Income.

 

PRODUCT METHOD:

NI = GDP  – income earned in foreign countries – Depreciation.

In the Product method the GDP is taken into consideration.Net income earned in foreign countries is deducted from the GDP.From this the depreciation is subtracted.

 

INCOME METHOD:

In this method the National Income is calculated by

National Income = Total Rent Plus (+) Total wages Plus (+) Total Interest Plus (+) Total Profit.

The total net income of the people working in different sectors and commercial sectors are taken into consideration.

 

Consumption Method:

This method is not generally used for calculating the National income.According to this method

• National Income =Total Consumption Plus Total Savings

 

MISCELLANEOUS:

 

• The per capita income in India is calculated by CSO (Central Statistical Organization).

 

 

• According the statistics released by the CSO in 2015, the per capita income in the country reached Rs. 88538/- per annum . This is according to the data on current prices.
• The PMEAC (Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council) in the ‘Economic Outlook’ released on August 1, 2011 lowered the economic growth rate projection from 9 percent to 8.2 percent.The PMEAC also reduced the manufacturing sector growth rate from 9 percent to 7 percent.
• The CSO has included the contributions of all the 3 sectors (Primary, secondary and tertiary) in estimating the National income.

 

Difficulty in measuring National Income

There are many difficulties in measuring national income of a country accurately. The difficulties involved in national income accounting are both conceptual and statical in nature. Some of these difficulties involved in the measurement of national income are discussed below:

Non Monetary Transactions

The first problem in National Income accounting relates to the treatment of non-monetary transactions such as the services of housewives to the members of the families. For example, if a man employees a maid servant for household work, payment to her will appear as a positive item in the national income. But, if the man were to marry to the maid servant, she would performing the same job as before but without any extra payments. In this case, the national income will decrease as her services performed remains the same as before.

Problem of Double Counting

Only final goods and services should be included in the national income accounting. But, it is very difficult to distinguish between final goods and intermediate goods and services. An intermediate goods and service used for final consumption. The difference between final goods and services and intermediate goods and services depends on the use of those goods and services so there are possibilities of double counting.

The Underground Economy

The underground economy consists of illegal and uncleared transactions where the goods and services are themselves illegal such as drugs, gambling, smuggling, and prostitution. Since, these incomes are not included in the national income, the national income seems to be less than the actual amount as they are not included in the accounting.

Petty Production

There are large numbers of petty producers and it is difficult to include their production in national income because they do not maintain any account.

Public Services 

Another problem is whether the public services like general administration, police, army services, should be included in national income or not. It is very difficult to evaluate such services.

Transfer Payments 

Individual get pension, unemployment allowance and interest on public loans, but these payments creates difficulty in the measurement of national income. These earnings are a part of individual income and they are also a part of government expenditures.

Capital Gains or Loss

When the market prices of capital assets change the owners make capital gains or loss such gains or losses are not included in national income.

Price Changes

National income is the money value of goods and services. Money value depends on market price, which often changes. The problem of changing prices is one of the major problems of national income accounting. Due to price rises the value of national income for particular year appends to increase even when the production is decreasing.

Wages and Salaries paid in Kind 

Additional payments made in kind may not be included in national income. But, the facilities given in kind are calculated as the supplements of wages and salaries on the income side.

Illiteracy and Ignorance

The main problem is whether to include the income generated within the country or even generated abroad in national income and which method should be used in the measurement of national income.

Besides these, the following points are also represents the difficulties in national income accounting:

• Second hand transactions;
• Environment damages;
• Calculation of depreciation;
• Inadequate and unreliable statistics; etc.

 

Mughal Empire (1526 A.D.-1857 A.D.)

Babur-

His actual name was Zahiruddin Mohammed, son of Omar Sheikh Mirza, the king of Ferghana in Afghanistan. His ambition was to conquer Samarkand, the seat of Timur. In 1527 A.D., Babur defeated ranasanga in the battle of Kanwa. In the battle of Chanderi (1528 A.D.), Babur defeated Mediniroy. In the battle of Gogra in 1529 A.D., Babur defeated Mohd Lodi, brother of Ibrahim Lodi and conquered Bengal. Babur wrote his memories in Turkish language. It was called Tuzak-i-Babari or babarnamah.

 

Humayun (1530 A.D.- 1555 A.D.) 

Humayun means ‘the most fortunate’. In 1537 A.D., he conquered Gujarat. His arch enemy was sher shah. Humayun defeated sher shah suri in the battle of Chausa in 1540 A.D. and for the second time in the battle of bilgram (1540 A.D.). The mughals lost delhi in the battle of bilgram for the first time. Humayun took shelter in the court of Rana Prasad of Amarkot. In 1545 A.D., humayun defeated sikandar shah of the suri dynasty in the battle of sarhind and got back delhi. He fell from his personal library at dinpanah and died.

 

Akbar (1556 A.D.- 1605 A.D.)

Second battle of Panipat( October 1556 A.D.) was fought between Akbar and Hemu. Hemu took the title of ‘Raja Vikramajeet’. Akbar was declared the emperor of Hindustan at Kalanoor in sind without being coronated by his tutor Bairam Khan. The mughals got back delhi in the second battle of Panipat by killing Hemu.upto 1562 A.D., the government was called ‘Purdah government’ as mahamanagabagum, the first wife of Humayun ,hamidabanu begum and bairam khan managed the administration.

Akbar,s conquests-

In 1562 A.D., Rani durgavati of godwana was defeated.

In 1564 A.D., Bazbahadurof malwa was defeated.

In 1570 A.D., Dawood khan of Bengal was killed.

In 1572 A.D., Muzaffar shah of Gujarat was defeated.

In 1585 A.D, Akbar conquered Kashmir defeated Md. Padshah.

In 1600 A.D., Rani chandbibi of Amhmednagar was defeated btAbulFazl who sent by Akbar. this was the last conquest of Akbar.

Akbar,s Rajput policy-

Akbar was a great pragmatist. He was the first Muslim ruler to realize that without the help of the Rajput’s, no permanent empire could be set up in India. In January, 1562 when the Akbar was going to Ajmer to visit the holy shrine of Saint Chishti, he accepted the submission of Raja Bharmal of Amber and welcomed a matrimonial alliance with that Kachhwaha ruling family and on his return from Ajmer Akbar married with his daughter on 6th February, 1562.

Bharmal with his son Bhagwant Das and grandson Man Singh accompanied the Emperor to Aagra where he was given a command of 5,000 and his son and grandson were granted commissions in the imperial army.

The Rajput policy of Akbar was wise and statesman like. He succeeded in bringing the majority of the Rajput kingdoms under his authority. What is more important, Akbar was able to enlist the support of the Rajputs in fighting his wars.

But it would be a mistake to suppose that Akbar’s Rajput policy was wholly successful. It was not. He was unable to break the power and pride of Mewar. It was not till Jahangir’s time that Mewar concluded terms with the Mughals. Even then the Mughal Emperor had to concede to the ruler of Mewar, a status of special honour and privilege.

Akbar,s Religious policy-

In 1562 A.D., Akbar banned force conversion.

In 1563 A.D. the pilgrim tax on Hindus was abolished.

In 1564 A.D. JIzia tax was abolished.

In 1575 A.D. Akbar constructed Ibadatkhana at FatehpurSikri for religious discourses and discussions to be conducted every Thursday.

Akbar invited father monsuratte and father Aquinois to speak on Christianity, Pt. Puroshottam on Hinduism, jainasenasuri on Jainism and Raza on parsi religion.

In 1579 A.D., he issued his famous decree of infallibility called mahazir or Mahzarnama.

It was drafted by sheikh Mubarak. With he decree, Akbar became Mir-i-Adil (chief interpretor of konan). In 1582 A.D. akbar founded a new faith called Din-iillahi. It was also called tauhid-i-illahi meaning universal faith. Its main theme sul-i-khul interpreted as ‘peace and harmony’ was  introduced for the first time by abdullatif, the teacher of akbar. din-i-illahi was openly criticized by raja bhagwan das.

Revenue Administration:

Akbar initially followed Sher Shah, revenue systems, particularly the Zabt system. Raja Todal Mal was made the Revenue Minister of Akbar and was known as Diwan-i-Ashraf. Todar Mal introduced ‘Bandobast’, a revenue assessment system classified into four categories:

Polaj (best tract), Parauti (second best), Checher (3^rd grade) and Banjar (least fertile). On the basis of the average produce for the last 10 years, the category of land was decided and accordingly tax was levied. Dastur-ul-Amal was the price list for every area’s agricultural commodities. Akbar appointed supervisors for revenue collection called karoris at paraganah level.

 

Military Administration (Mansabdari System)

The Mansabdari  system was the unique administration system under the Mughals. Though introduced by Babur, it was perfected by Akbar. themansabdars were the civil servants selected on merit. They discharged civil, military, and judicial functions on behalf of the state/Emperor and were given land called Jagirs. The highest rank in Mansabdari of above 5000 was conferred by Akbar on raja man singhndAzizuddinKuka (11,000 sawars).

Mir-i-Atish was in charge of artillery.

Mir-i-Bahari was in charge of navy.

Mir-i-Askan was in charge of the military offences.

 

Jahangir (1605 A.D.- 1628 A.D.)

His pet name was Sheikh baba. He hung the ‘bell of justice’ in Agra Fort. He executed his son khusrau and also the fifth guru ArjunDev for supporting him. Mehr-un-nisa begum was given the tilte of ‘Noorjahan’and she became popular as padshah begum. She founded her own group called junta consisting of herself, her father MirzaGhiaz Beg (itamad-ud-daula)and her brother Asaf khan.

Khurram (shahjahan) made Rana Amar singh of Mewar accept Mughal suzerainty in1615 A.D.

In 1616 A.D. Khurram conquered Ahmadnagar and was given the title ‘Shahjahan’.

In 1622 A.D.,Persians occupied Kandahar and the Mughals lost Kandahar forever. Jahangir died at Lahore and was buried at Shahdra near Lahore.

Shahjahan (1628 A.D – 1658 A.D)

• In 1629 A.D., Gujrat and Deccan famine resulted in the loss of man and material.
• In 1630 A.D., Portuguese in Hoogly revolted and were driven away from Hoogly by Kasim Khan, Governor of Bengal.
• In 1631 A.D., Mumtaz died.

 

Civil War– It was fought between DaraShikoh, the eldest son of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, the third son. Begum jahanAra supported dara and RoshanArasupported  Aurangzeb. The secular dara followed Qadri Sufi Order and translated Upanishads into Persian whereas Aurangzeb followed NaqshBandi order.

Aurangzeb and his alliance with the fourth son Murad defeated the imperial armies commanded by dara and raja Jaswantsingh in the battle of varmat and samugarh in 1658 A.D. shahjahan was imprisoned on the charges of misusing public money. He died in 1665 A.D.

Aurangzeb defeated dara for the third time in the battle of deorai , performed coronation twice and came to power with the title ‘Alamgir’ meaning ‘king of the world’.

 

Aurangzeb (1658 A.D. -1707 A.D.)

After coming to the power, Aurangzeb brought about many changes.

• He abolished the ‘kalimas’ (inscribing quranic verses on coins).
• Mohitisib, the royal censor officer was entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing Koran.
• The customs duties were fixed at 2.5% for Muslims and 5% for Hindus.
• In 1669 A.D.he order for the destruction of temples.h The KashiVishwanath temple and Keshavrayatwmple in Mathura were the prominent ones to be destroyed.
• In 1679 A.D.Jizia was reimposed.
• He abolished both, vocal and instrument music. He also restrained court astrologer and historians; banned celebration of Diwali and Persian Navaroz festival.

Mughal Architecture

Akbar

The advent of the Mughals brought a new era in architecture. The synthesis of style which began earlier reached its zenith during this time. The architecture of Mughal style started during Akbar’s rule. The first building of this rule was Humayun’s Tomb at Delhi. In this magnificent building red stone was used. It has a main gateway and the tomb is placed in the midst of a garden. Many consider it a precursor of the TajMahal. Akbar built forts at Agra and FatehpurSikri. The BulundDarwaza reflects the grandeur of the mighty Mughal empire. This building was made following Akbar’s victory over Gujarat. The Arch of the BulandDarwaja is about 41 m high and is perhaps the most imposing gateway in the world. The tomb of SalimChishti, Palace of JodhaBai, IbadatKhana, Birbal’s House and other buildings at FatehpurSikri reflect a synthesis of Persian and Indian elements.

Jahangir

During the reign of Jehangir, Akbar’s Mausoleum was constructed at Sikandra near Agra. He built the beautiful tomb of Itimad-ud-daula which was built entirely of marble.

Shahjahan

Shahjahan was the greatest builder amongst the Mughals. He used marble extensively. Decorative design in inlay work, (called pietraduro) beautiful arches and minarets were the features of his buildings. The Red Fort and Jama Masjid of Delhi and above all the TajMahal are some of the buildings built by Shahjahan. The TajMahal, the tomb of Shahjahan’s wife, is built in marble and reflects all the architectural features that were developed during the Mughal period. It has a central dome, four elegant minarats, gateway, inlay work and gardens surrounding the main building.

The Mughal style of architecture had a profound influence on the buildings of the later period. The buildings showed a strong influence of the ancient Indian style and had courtyards and pillars. For the first time in the architecture of this style living beings- elephants, lions, peacocks and other birds were sculptured in the brackets.

Mughal Paintings

The art of textual illustration got a new look under the Mughals. Akbar and his successors brought revolutionary changes to painting and sensual illustrations. From this period book illumination or individual miniatures replaced wall painting as the most vital form of art. Emperor Akbar patronised artists from Kashmir and Gujarat; Humayun brought two Persian painters to his court. For the first time painters’ names were recorded in inscriptions. Some great painters of this period were Abd-us-SamadDasawanth and Basawan.

Beautiful illustrations are found on the pages of Baburnama and Akbarnama. Within a few years an integrated and dynamic style resulted from the synthesis of Persian and Indian style and the independent style of Mughal painting was developed. Between 1562 and 1577 a series of nearly 1400 cloth paintings were produced representing the new style and were placed in the imperial studio. Akbar also encouraged the art of making portraits.

The art of painting reached its climax during the period of Jahangir who himself was a great painter and connoisseur of art. Artists began to use vibrant colours such as peacock blue and red and were able to give three dimensional effects to paintings. Mansur, Bishan Das and Manohar were the most gifted painters of Jahangir’s time. Mansur had made an outstanding portrait of the artist AbulHasan and specialised in paintings of birds and animals.

Though Shah Jahan was more interested in architectural splendours, his eldest son DaraShikoh patronised painting like his gradfather. He preferred depicting natural elements like plants and animals in his painting. However withdrawal of royal patronage to painting under Aurangzeb led to the dispersal of artists to different places in the country.

Economic Condition during Mughal Period

The village was the unit around which peasant society revolved. It was also the real unit of assessment of the state’s revenue demand, which was distributed among villagers by the headman (muqaddam or kalantar  ) and the village accountant ( patwar ı). It thus had a financial pool, from which not only tax payments but also minor common expenses (kharch-i dih) were met. This seems to have formed the basic factor behind the celebrated, but often elusive, Indian village community.

Commerce seems to have penetrated the village economy to a great extent, since peasants needed to sell their crops in order to pay their taxes. There was little left them with which to buy any goods on the market. Even so, commerce must have intensified the already existing differences due to the unequal possession of agricultural and pastoral goods (seed, ploughs and cattle). The peasants were usually divided among castes. Even the administration recognized caste hierarchy by varying the revenue rates according to caste, as documents from Rajasthan especially show.

By and large, artisans were in the same position as peasants: they were technically’free’, but hemmed around by many constraints. Though some artisans were bound to render customary services as village servants, most could sell their wares in the market. The need for advances, however, often forced them to deal only with particular merchants, brokers or other middlemen. A small number worked in the workshops (karkhana  s) of nobles and merchants.

Merchants formed a numerous and fairly well-protected class in the Mughal empire. This class was also quite heterogeneous in composition. There were, on the one hand, the large bands of the banjara  s (transporters of goods in bulk), who travelled with pack oxen over enormous distances; on the other, there were specialist bankers (sarraf s), brokers (dallal s) and insurers (the business of bıma, or insurance, being usually carried on by sarraf s). Some of them, at the ports, also owned and operated ships.

 

 

Rise of Maratha Empire

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (Shivaji Shahaji Bhosale) was the founder of strong Maratha Empire in the west part of India in 17th Century.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (Shivaji Shahaji Bhosale) was born in the fort of Shivneri, near from city Junner (Pune District), in the year 1630 (19th February’ 1630). His mother Jijabai Bhosale named him Shivaji in the honor of goddess Shivai Devi. Chhatrapati Shivaji was devoted to his mother Jijabai Bhosale, who was extreme religious. This kind of environment had put deep impact on Shivaji maharaj.

Expansion of Empire and Battles of Shivaji

• In the 1659 Adilshah sent Afzalkhan with the army of 75000 soldiers to destroy Shivaji with his empire. Chhatrapati Shivaji killed Afzal Khan with full diplomatically. He signaled his troops to start the great assault on the Adilshahi Sultanate.
• Shivaji defeated Kaltalf Khan, a sardar of Shahista Khan in the Battle of Umberkhind with few soldiers (Mavale).
• Aurangjeb sent his maternal uncle Shahista Khan with powerful army over 1,50,000 on request of Badibegum Sahiba, Adishahi sultanate. In the April 1663Chhatrapati Shivaji personally made surprise attack on Shahista Khan in the LalMahal Pune.
• Chhatrapati Shivaji sacked surat ,the wealthy city of mughal empire in 1664. Surat was the financial capital of mughal& trading centre.
• Chhatrapati Shivaji agreed to give 23 forts and Rs. 4,00,000/- hone, to let his son Sambhaji become Mughal Sardar and ready to meet with Aurangjeb in the treaty of Purander between Chhatrapati Shivaji and Mirza Raje Jaisingh on behalf of Mughal.
• Chhatrapati Shivaji gained lot of province till jinji in Karnataka after coronation in the period of 1677-1678.
• Aurangjeb invited Chhatrapati Shivaji to Agra on occasion of his 50th birth anniversary. However, in the court on 1666 Aurangjeb made in stand behind military commanders of his court.Shivaji got angry and he refused gift which offered by Aurangjeb and stormed out of the court. He was house arrested by Aurangjeb .Chhatrapati Shivaji made supreme plan and succeed to escape from Agra.

Ashtpradhans of Shivaji

It was dministrative and advisory council set up by the Indian Shivaji which contributed to his successful military attacks on the Muslim Mughal Empire and to the good government of the territory over which he established his rule.

• Peshwa- Prime Minister
• Amatya- Finance Department
• Sachiv- Home Secretary
• Sumant- Foreign Secretary
• Nyayadheesh- Judicial Magistarate
• Senapati- Commander In chief
• Panditrao- relifious matters
• Mantri- Day to day activities

Revenue Administration

T he assessment of revenue was made after a careful survey and classification of the lands according to their quality and yield. The share of the state was fixed at two-fifths of the gross produce. The cultivator was given the option of paying either in cash or kind.

Besides the land revenue, Shivaji had other sources of income, of which the most important were the chauth and sardeshmukhi. The chauth amounted to one-fourth of the standard revenue assessment of the place, while the sardeshmukhi was an additional levy of 10 per cent de­manded from areas outside his kingdom because he claimed to be the hereditary sardeshmukh (chief headman) of the entire Maratha country. These taxes were levied on those living outside Maratha kingdom as a safeguard (a kind of protection money) against Shivaji’s forces plundering or raiding their territory.

Marathas Consolidation and Northward Expansion

 

 

The Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 was the culmination of a 25-year tumultuous relationship between East and West Pakistan. The British failed to keep a united India as riots started between the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in 1946. The riots were so widespread that on August 14, 1947 India was portioned into two separate states.

Thus partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 divided British India into two independent countries of India and Pakistan. Pakistan was composed of two wings–East and West Pakistan. The two wings were united emotionally, but the marriage of the two wings was artificial as they had little in common other than religion. Their speech, thought, food habits, dress, living and generally speaking, their respective way of life, were totally different.

These differences, in course of time, gave rise to a tumultuous relationship that failed to keep the two wings united. The flawed relationship ended in a brutal war in 1971. As such, it is imperative to learn the background of the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

Causes of War

Language Movement–1952

Bangladeshis had one language and were proud of their ancestry; their language and literature were older than Urdu, the national language of West Pakistan, used by minority. Yet Mohammad Ali Jinnah stated in a public speech in March 1948 that Urdu would remain the state language of Pakistan. This infuriated all the non-Urdu speaking people of East Pakistan. On February 21, 1952, students and other civilians came out in the streets in protest but the police cracked down on the unarmed civilians. For East Pakistan, the language movement was the first stepping stone to independence.

Provincial Elections–1954

The first provincial elections were held in East Pakistan in 1954. In this election, Suhrawardy’s newly organized Awami League (Peoples’ League) allied with Fazlul Huq’s Peasants’ and Workers’ Party and a coalition of other Bangladeshi-dominated parties to form the United Front. In this election, the people of East Pakistan voted unilaterally for the alliance. As a result, the United Front had the maximum number of seats. Nurul Amin’s Muslim League, the dominant party in West Pakistan, won just 10 seats in East Pakistan; and thus, the Urdu-speaking people in East Pakistan’s ability to dictate policy was essentially finished. Fazlul Huq also became the chief minister of East Pakistan. The fine showing of the United Front convinced the politicians, civil servants, and the military at the center that they had to constrain Bangladeshi nationalism.

Ayub Khan’s Declaration of Martial Law–1958

In 1957 and 1958 governments rose and fell in Dhaka as the result of both instability in the assembly alignments and of intervention by the central government.43 As a sequel to the uncertainty, the deputy speaker of the house was killed in a riot. In such a dilapidated condition, president Mirza abrogated the constitution and declared martial law. General Ayub Khan remained as the chief martial law administrator. In 1962 Ayub Khan promulgated the new constitution of Pakistan, primarily giving enormous power to the president. Unfortunately, nothing addressed the concerns of East Bengal; and as such, anger, resentment and Bengali nationalism continued to grow.

Awami League’s Six-Point Program–1966

Before the resignation of Ayub Khan, several events took place in the political spectrum. Among those, the Awami League’s Six-Point Program was viewed as a foundational document in Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. This was not an instant memorandum developed within a short time. Rather, it was an outcome of Bangladeshi grievances accumulated for a long time. The initiation of the Six-Point Program started as a sequel to several events. However, the election of 1965 played an important role in formulating the program

National Election–1970

As Yahya Khan received the Six-Point Program from the Awami League, he opined that he was not in a position to implement them. He reiterated his prime task was to hold a general election in 1970 and hand over power at that point. However, in the December 1970 elections, the Awami League won 160 of 162 seats from East Pakistan. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party was successful in the west, winning 81 of 83 seats. Yahya Khan opened talks with both the leaders but failed to reach a consensus, and thus failed to hand over the power to an elected government.

India’s Perspective

There is no doubt that the creation of an independent Bangladesh was in India’s interest for many reasons.

• Firstly, the Indo–Pakistan War in 1965 over Kashmir was one of the tipping points in this regard. India spent a huge amount of money to keep armed forces at a constant state of readiness along the border of her hostile neighbor. A warm relationship with an independent Bangladesh would reduce this big expenditure.
• Secondly, India also wanted to start trading with East Pakistan for mutual benefit. But due to several political deadlocks, it was not a foregone conclusion.
• Thirdly, Pakistani rulers created a problem for India by training and militarily equipping the Naga rebels of Assam (northeastern part of India), who claimed a portion of India to establish an independent Nagaland.
• Apart from these issues, millions of East Pakistanis had religious, cultural, and linguistic ties with India. West Pakistani rulers also demeaned the Hindus of East Pakistan; whereas India was a Hindu-dominated country.

For all these reasons and more, India preferred an independent Bangladesh as a tonic to all these problems. The Indian government expected that if Bangladesh became independent, it would cooperate with India in a much wider form.

Course of War

On March 25, 1971, Yahya Khan, Bhutto and other members left for West Pakistan without giving any message or warning to the Awami League leaders. The West Pakistani military launched its sudden attack on March 25, 1917 at 11 p.m.it used automatic rifles, automatic weapons, bayonets and tanks. Yahya Khan appointed General Tikka Khan as the overall commander, and he was given 48 hours to suppress Bangladeshi nationalist movement. Within 34 hours, approximately 10,000 unarmed civilians were killed.

Until November 21, 1971, mostly Bangladeshi regular forces along with the Mukti Bahini operated in different parts of the country. Besides, there were few naval and air assets utilized to complement the war effort. However, on November 21, 1971 all the forces–Bangladesh Army, Navy, Air Force as well as the Mukti Bahini–launched their joint offensive against Pakistani military.

Pakistan launched the war against India on December 3, 1971, the UN took a more vigorous approach to the problem. While Soviet Union was supporting India, the U.S. and Chine stood by Pakistan. On December 5, 1971 Moscow vetoed a U.S. resolution urging the Security Council to call upon India and Pakistan to carry out a cease fire and military withdrawal.

The Russians exercised another veto within 24 hours when on December 7, 1971, the General Assembly voted 104 against 11 to call upon India and Pakistan to cease fire immediately and withdraw their forces to respective territories.

While the UN was debating, the war on the ground was going in favor of India. In the meantime, U.S. dispatched a naval task forces led by the nuclear-powered carrier Enterprise from U.S. seventh fleet. By the time the naval task force was close to Chittagong port of East Pakistan, all Pakistani forces surrendered unconditionally. If the UN espoused cease fire would be in effect, Bangladeshis’ hope for independence was not to be materialized.

 

 

 

Each landform has its unique physical shape, size, materials and is a result of the action of certain geomorphic processes and agent(s). Every landform has a beginning. Landforms once formed may change in their shape, size and nature slowly or fast due to continued action of geomorphic processes and agents. Due to changes in climatic conditions and vertical or horizontal movements of landmasses, either the intensity of processes or the processes themselves might change leading to new modifications in the landforms.

Evolution

It implies stages of transformation of either a part of the earth’s surface from one landform into another or transformation of individual landforms after they are once formed. That means, each and every landform has a history of development and changes through time. A landmass passes through stages of development somewhat comparable to the stages of life — youth, mature and old age.

Geomorphic Agents

Changes on the surface of the earth owe mostly to erosion by various geomorphic agents. Running water, ground-water, glaciers, wind and waves are powerful    erosional and depositional agents shaping and changing the surface of the earth aided by weathering and mass wasting processes. These geomorphic agents acting over long periods of time produce systematic changes leading to sequential development of landforms.

Fluvial landforms

The landforms created as a result of degradational action (erosion) or aggradation work (deposition) of running water is called fluvial landforms.

These landforms result from the action of surface flow/run-off or stream flow (water flowing through a channel under the influence of gravity). The creative work of fluvial processes may be divided into three physical phases—erosion, transportation and deposition.

The landforms created by a stream can be studied under erosional and depositional categories.

Erosional category

Valleys, gorge and Canyon

The extended depression on ground through which a stream flows throughout its course is called a river valley. A gorge is a deep valley with very steep to straight sides. A canyon is characterized by steep step-like side slopes and may be as deep as a gorge.

At a young stage, The profile of valley  is typically ‘V’ shaped. As the cycle attains maturity, the lateral erosion becomes prominent and the valley floor flattens out. The valley profile now becomes typically ‘U’ shaped with a broad base and a concave slope.

Potholes, Plunge pools

Potholes are more or less circular depressions over the rocky beds of hills streams.Once a small and shallow depression forms, pebbles and boulders get collected in those depressions and get rotated by flowing water. Consequently, the depressions grow in dimensions to form potholes.Plunge pools are nothing but large, deep potholes commonly found at the foot of a waterfall. They are formed because of the sheer impact of water and rotation of boulders.

Incised or Entrenched Meanders

They are very deep wide meanders (loop-like channels) found cut in hard rocks.In the course of time, they deepen and widen to form gorges or canyons in hard rock.The difference between a normal meander and an incised/entrenched meander is that the latter found on hard rocks.

River Terraces

They are surfaces marking old valley floor or flood plains.They are basically the result of vertical erosion by the stream. When the terraces are of the same elevation on either side of the river, they are called as paired terraces.When the terraces are seen only on one side with none on the other or one at quite a different elevation on the other side, they are called as unpaired terraces.

Depositional Features

Alluvial Fans

They are found in the middle course of a river at the foot of slope/ mountains.When the stream moves from the higher level break into foot slope plain of low gradient, it loses its energy needed to transport much of its load.Thus, they get dumped and spread as a broad low to the high cone-shaped deposits called an alluvial fan.

Deltas

They are found in the mouth of the river, which is the final location of depositional activity of a river. \The coarser material settle out first and the finer materials like silt and clay are carried out into the sea.

 

 Flood Plains, Natural Levees

Natural levees are found along the banks of large rivers. They are low, linear and parallel ridges of coarse deposits along the banks of a river.The levee deposits are coarser than the deposits spread by flood water away from the river.

 

 Meanders and oxbow lakes

• They are formed basically because of three reasons: (i) propensity of water flowing over very gentle gradient to work laterally on the banks; (ii) unconsolidated nature of alluvial deposits making up the bank with many irregularities; (iii) Coriolis force acting on fluid water deflecting it like deflecting the wind.
• The concave bank of a meander is known as cut-off bank and the convex bank is known as a slip-off
• As meanders grow into deep loops, the same may get cut-off due to erosion at the inflection point and are left as oxbow lakes.

Braided Channels

When selective deposition of coarser materials causes the formation of a central bar, it diverts the flow of river towards the banks, which increases lateral erosion. Similarly, when more and more such central bars are formed, braided channels are formed. Riverine Islands are the result of braided channels.

 

Karst Topography

Any limestone, dolomite or gypsum region showing typical landforms produced by the action of groundwater through the process of solution and deposition is called as Karst Topography (Karst region in the Balkans).

Sinkholes

A sinkhole is an opening more or less circular at the top and funnel-shaped towards the bottom.When as sinkhole is formed solely through the process of solution, it is called as a solution sink.When several sink holes join together to form valley of sinks, they are called as blind valleys.

 

Caves

In the areas where there are alternative beds of rocks (non-soluble) with limestone or dolomite in between or in areas where limestone are dense, massive and occurring as thick beds, cave formation is prominent. Caves normally have an opening through which cave streams are discharged Caves having an opening at both the ends are called tunnels.

Stalactites and stalagmites

They are formed when the calcium carbonates dissolved in groundwater get deposited once the water evaporates.These structures are commonly found in limestone caves.Stalactites are calcium carbonate deposits hanging as icicles while Stalagmites are calcium carbonate deposits which rise up from the floor.When a stalactite and stalagmite happened to join together, it gives rise to pillars or columns of different diameters.

GLACIERS

Masses of ice moving as sheets over the land (continental glacier or piedmont glacier if a vast sheet of ice is spread over the plains at the foot of mountains) or as linear flows down the slopes of mountains in broad trough-like valleys (mountain and valley glaciers) are called glaciers.

EROSIONAL LANDFORMS

Cirque

Cirques are the most common of landforms in glaciated mountains. They are deep, long and wide troughs or basins with very steep concave to vertically dropping high walls at its head as well as sides. A lake of water can be seen quite often within the cirques after the glacier disappears. Such lakes are called cirque or tarn lakes.

Horns and Serrated Ridges

Horns form through head ward erosion of the cirque walls. If three or more radiating glaciers cut headward until their cirques meet, high, sharp pointed and steep sided peaks called horns form.

 

Glacial Valleys/Troughs

Glaciated valleys are trough-like and U-shaped with broad floors and relatively smooth, and steep sides. There may be lakes gouged out of rocky floor or formed by debris within the valleys. There can be hanging valleys at an elevation on one or both sides of the main glacial valley. Very deep glacial troughs filled with sea water and making up shorelines (in high latitudes) are called fjords/fiords.

 

Depositional landforms

 

Moraines

They are long ridges of deposits of glacial till. Terminal moraines are long ridges of debris deposited at the end (toe) of the glaciers. Lateral moraines form along the sides parallel to the glacial valleys. The lateral moraines may join a terminal moraine forming a horse-shoe shaped ridge. deposits varying greatly in thickness and in surface topography are called ground moraines.

 

Eskers

When glaciers melt in summer, the water flows on the surface of the ice or seeps down along the margins or even moves through holes in the ice. These waters accumulate beneath the glacier and flow like streams in a channel beneath the ice. Such streams flow over the ground (not in a valley cut in the ground) with ice forming its banks. Very coarse materials like boulders and blocks along with some minor fractions of rock debris carried into this stream settle in the valley of ice beneath the glacier and after the ice melts can be found as a sinuous ridge called esker.

Outwash Plains

The plains at the foot of the glacial mountains or beyond the limits of continental ice sheets are covered with glacio-fluvial deposits in the form of broad flat alluvial fans which may join to form outwash plains of gravel, silt, sand and clay.

Drumlins

Drumlins are smooth oval shaped ridge-like features composed mainly of glacial till with some masses of gravel and sand. The long axes of drumlins are parallel to the direction of ice movement. They may measure up to 1 km in length and 30 m or so in height.

 

Arid Landforms

Wind is one of the  dominant agents in hot deserts. The wind action creates a number of interesting erosional and depositional features in the deserts.

EROSIONAL LANDFORMS

Pediments and Pediplains

. Gently inclined rocky floors close to the mountains at their foot with or without a thin cover of debris, are called pediments. through parallel retreat of slopes, the pediments extend backwards at the expense of mountain front, and gradually, the mountain gets reduced leaving an inselberg which is a remnant of the mountain. That’s how the high relief in desert areas is reduced to low featureless plains called pediplains.

Playas

Plains are by far the most prominent landforms in the deserts. In times of sufficient water, this plain is covered up by a shallow water body. Such types of shallow lakes are called as playas where water is retained only for short duration due to evaporation and quite often the playas contain good deposition of salts.

. Deflation Hollows and Caves

Weathered mantle from over the rocks or bare soil, gets blown out by persistent movement of wind currents in one direction. This process may create shallow depressions called deflation hollows. Deflation also creates numerous small pits or cavities over rock surfaces. The rock faces suffer impact and abrasion of wind-borne sand and first shallow depressions called blow outs are created, and some of the blow outs become deeper and wider fit to be called caves.

Mushroom, Table and Pedestal Rocks

Many rock-outcrops in the deserts easily susceptible to wind deflation and abrasion are worn out quickly leaving some remnants of resistant rocks polished beautifully in the shape of mushroom with a slender stalk and a broad and rounded pear shaped cap above. Sometimes, the top surface is broad like a table top and quite often, the remnants stand out like pedestals.

Depositional Landforms

When the wind slows or begins to die down, depending upon sizes of grains and their critical velocities, the grains will begin to settle.

Sand Dunes

Dry hot deserts are good places for sand dune formation. Obstacles to initiate dune formation are equally important. There can be a great variety of dune forms Crescent shaped dunes called barchans with the points or wings directed away from wind .Parabolic dunes form when sandy surfaces are partially covered with vegetation. That means parabolic dunes are reversed barchans with wind direction being the same.

Seif is similar to barchan with a small difference. Seif has only one wing or point. Longitudinal dunes form when supply of sand is poor and wind direction is constant. They appear as long ridges of considerable length but low in height. Transverse dunes are aligned perpendicular to wind direction. These dunes form when the wind direction is constant and the source of sand is an elongated feature at right angles to the wind direction.