UPSC Important Topics

PLANNING OF HOUSES IN HARAPPA People lived in houses of different sizes, mostly consisting of rooms arranged around a central courtyard. Doorways and winfows generally faced the side lanes and rarely opend onto the main streets. The view from the lane into the courtyard was blocked off by a wall. There are remains of staircases

TAMIL SCRIPT The earliest inscription in the Tamil language is engraved in rock shelters and caves, mostly in Tamil Nadu, especially in the area near Madurai. They are in a script known as Tamil-Brahmi, an adoption of Brahmi for writing the Tamil Language. Three Southern scripts emerged in the early medieval period-Grantha, Tamil, and Vatteluttu.

PLANNING OF CITES The streets and houses of Harappan cities were once through to be laid on a grid pattern oriented north-south and east-west. Actually, even Mohenjodaro does not show a perfect grid system. Roads were not always absolutely straight and did not always cross one another at right angles. But the settlements were clearly

The Harappan sites varied a great deal in size and function, from large cities to small pastoral camps. The largest settlements include Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Ganweriwala, Rakhigarhi and Dholavira. The second rung of Harappan settlememts are moderate sized sites ranging between 10 to 50ha, such as Kalibangan. Then, there are the even smaller sites of 5-10

DEBATE ON THE ORIGIN OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION: Theory 1- Aryan Theory Representative historians are SR Roy, TR Ramachandran, KV Shastri. They say that IVC was developed by Aryan, same Aryan associated with vedic Culture. This theory is refuted because of great contrast between IVC and vedic culture. Theory 2 – Diffusionist Theory In a

RELIGIOUS POLICY OF PORTUGUESE Portuguese brought with them the zeal to promote christianity and the wish to persecute all Muslims. Intolerent towards the Muslims, the portuguese were initially quite tolerent towards the Hindus. However, over time, after the introduction of the Inquisition in Goa, there was a change and Hindus were also persecuted. But, in

BRAHMI SCRIPT The origin of Brahmi, a script written from left to right, are not as clear. Some scholars have suggested an indigenous origin, other an Aramaic origin. A problem in accepting the latter theory is that the direction of writing and the forms of the letters in Brahmi and kharoshthi are different. Kharoshthi declined

REPOS AND REVERSE REROS In the era of economic reforms there developed two new instruments of money market-repo and reverse repo. Considered the most dynamic instruments of Indian money market they have emerged the most favoured route to raise short-term funds in India. ‘Repo’ is basically an acronym of the rate of repirchase. The RBI

RISE IN FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY OF CYCLONES IN ARABIAN SEA A 52% increase was noticed in the frequency of cyclones over the Arabian Sea between 2001 and 2019, and an 8% decrease over the Bay of Bengal. Surface temparatures in the Arabian Sea have increased rapidly during the past century due to global warming. Temparature

REGISTRATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES Former Punjab CM has announced that he will be forming his own political party in Punjab ahead of the state assembly elections. The registration of all political parties is governed by the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. According to the Election Commission (EC), any party seeking registration