Roads : lifeline of rural developmentRoadways are not only a key for rural development,but play a major role in poverty reduction by generating increased agricultural income and productive employment.

When globalisation was changing the world it could not reach many places as they were inaccessible due to lack of proper road connectivity hence many village did not develop.

To solve this issue government launched pradhan mantri gram sadak yojna also known as PMGSY in the year 2000 to connect rural areas with urban by network of all weather roadways.Objectives of construction of roads :-

1.To connect unconnected habitations in rural areas with major urban areas and markets for better buisness and employment

2. To make places having resources accessible so that suitable industries could set up in order to develop the area.

3.to establish a core network that is essential to provide basic access to essential social and economic services to all eligible unconnected habitations.Steps taken by government :-

1. Government has launched PMGSY whose primary focus is to connect remote areas with urban areas.

2. Government creates a core network of roads from each place so that basic needs like school,hospital, market are accessible

3. Government launches tender after suitable time for maintenance of roads.

4. Government ensures quality of roads is high otherwise necessary actions are taken again the contractor.

5. Government prioritizes different places where roads should be constructed with their needs

6. Border areas are also connnected with mainstreams by roads especially constructed for them.Importance of roads :-

1. Roadways helps in the growth of market hence helps in rural development.

2. They connect places with schools so that children can be educated .

3. Areas with proper roads attracts different industrialists which help in development of area.

4. Roads help in attracting tourist which helps the locality by generating ample opportunities.Rural connectivity is not an end in itself it is a means. The connectivity will improve education,health,rural incomes.roadways connects rural areas to major political hubs which helps local government to ensure development in their locality

Poverty as an issue:

One of the biggest challenges faced by rural India is Poverty.We are not talking about the places like Punjab where the agriculture and people live with colours.

The issue is about the backward places and actual rural places in India. Even states like Odisha  and Jharkhand who are very rich in resources are considered the poorest states in India. Poverty is an interdependent aspect of the society. The most it is dependant on is the literacy rate. Other backward areas , Naxalite areas are still very far away from attaining the correct information and education. These people are not even aware of the relaxations and schemes of the government for their welfare. The most that is holding back people in these rural areas is adaptation.

They are nit very familiar with the concept of change with time. They bind themselves inside their old practices when there is much more to learn and excel in. The stereotypes and old practices cause them to loose assets for them.For example the girls are not educated and are not used as assets who can earn in future. They are considered as a burden and hence are thought only for the marriage purposes.The main reason for poverty in the rural society is because rural people do have the resources but they are bot aware as of how to use their resources.

Some provisions given by the government for poverty alleviation are:

Wages programmes like: 

  Jawahar Rozgar Yojhna/ Gram Samridhi YojhnaThe NREP and RLEGP were merged in April 1989 under the Jawahar Rozgar Yojhna. The JRY was meant to generate meaningful employment opportunity for the unemployed and underemployed in rural areas through the creation of economic infrastructure. A major proportion of JRY funds was spent on roads and buildings. Over 47 per cent of the employment generated benefited SC/STs. The share of landless labourers among the beneficiaries was 36 per cent. The village community found the assets created under the programme useful:  

   Employment Assurance Scheme:

The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) was launched on 2 October 1993 covering 1,778 drought-prone, desert, tribal and hill area blocks. It was later extended to all the blocks in 1997-98. The EAS was designed to provide employment in the form of manual work in the lean agricultural season. The works taken up under the lean agricultural season. 

Self Employment programmes like:·     

The coverage of beneficiaries in the Ninth plan was considerably lower than the coverage under SGSY. The formation of self-help groups by itself contributes to the empowerment and economic well-being of the poor by improving their collective bargaining position. The group formation also emphasises social capital and enables the poor to Interact with other social groups from a position of strength. Group formation would continue to be the Focus under the SGSY. 

NGOs have an inherent advantage in·        ·       Reaching the poor due to their proximity, the trust. They generate by working in the area, their. Commitment, flexibility in approach, responsiveness.And cost effectiveness. They have played a dynamic role as social animators and organisers in rural areas. Many NGOs have not only been instrumental in the formation of self-help groups but· Have also nurtured them over the years. Such NGOs have a strong presence in many states. However, voluntary and non-governmental action is weak in some of the poorer states. These are also the states where the spirit of cooperation and collaboration may be lacking because of poverty Itself.

Training of social animators would have to be promoted in such states. Departments of social sciences, social work, agriculture and rural development in universities and colleges could be engaged as facilitators in the process of group formation so that every rural habitation has at least one self-help group by the end of 2004.Many more reforms are suggested by the government for different aspects which affect the lifestyle and habitat of the people.           

The counting of blood cells after proper dilution is known as haemocytometer. Using haemocytometer method,red cells, platelets and eosinophils are often counted. Now-a-days it is also used for counting cells of bacteria, yeast, or algae.

Haemocytometer – instrument’s description

A haemocytometer consists of a counting chamber, a coverglass for the counting chamber and diluting pipettes. Many types of counting chambers are available. Improved Neubauer and Fauchs Rosenthal are the two most commonly used counting chambers in laboratories.

RBCs and WBCs in blood cannot be counted as such. The blood has to be dilute in specific isotonic solutions. RBC, diluting fluid is called Hayem’s solution. For WBC counting Turk’s solution or Toisson solution can be used.

The total number of cells is expressed per mm^3 . The isotonic diluting fluid keeps up the cells intact. In WBC counting, the solution will lyse the red blood cells and the remaining nucleated WBCs are counted. Venous blood is used in blood cells counting.

Normal Range of RBCs in human

Men : 4.5-5.9 million/mm^3

Women: 4.1-5.1 million/mm^3

At birth: 4.0-5.6 million/mm^3

Normal Range of WBCs in human

Adults: 4,500-11,000/mm^3

Neonates: 10,000-25,000/mm^3

Clinical significance

☆ Decrease in the number of circulating erythrocytes indicates anaemia.

☆ An increased number of erythrocytes indicates the possibility of polycythemia.

☆ An increase in WBC count for a transient period indicates bacterial infection.

☆ Progressive increase in abnormal WBC count indicates the possibility of leukemia.

Dr. Stephen Jay Gould, a Professor of Geology at Harvard University, a Curator of invertebrate paleontology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, a public figure and spokesperson, and an author of many popular science books, has in a Wonderful Life created a window through which the reader views one of the most important events in natural history: the explosion in the variety of marine animals that took place during the Cambrian Period more than half-a-billion years ago. What could be more thrilling than to witness one of the great steps in the long history story of life that has begun with a microbe and ended with the Homo sapiens?

A favorite theme of Dr. Gould is to overturn commonly accepted notions that have arisen through human prejudices often due to self-centered preconceptions. It is almost as though Gould regards humans as apes with merely enlarged brains and big egos¹ who would still believe to this very day that the Earth was the center of the universe had not humanity been enlightened by Galileo, Newton and Copernicus. This is one reason why Gould selected as a subject of a book the Burgess Shale of eastern British Columbia in Canada. Charles Doolittle Walcott, who discovered the remains of tens of thousands of mostly soft-bodied invertebrates in the Burgess Shale in 1909, managed to misinterpret what one day would become one of the greatest discoveries in paleontology. Walcott incorrectly classified these marine animals as ancient versions of modern fauna despite the extraordinary character of some of them such as Opabinia, which had five eyes, and Hallucigenia, whose name describes its bizarre and dream-like appearance (it had seven pairs of toothpick-like spines, a tubular tail, a bulb-like head, seven tentacles along its back and six pods at the base of its tail!). Walcott considered this creature to be a worm. How could the director of the Smithsonian Institution make such an incredible mistake? According to Gould, Walcott was trying to force the Burgess Shale fauna into the classification scheme prevailing at the time. Here was one of the great field paleontologists trying, like an infant child, to squeeze round pegs into square holes.

For more than 60 years, scientists would believe Walcott’s interpretation of the Burgess Shale fauna. However, in 1971, Harry Whittington published a monograph on Marrella in which he expressed doubts that Marrella was a trilobite² as previously thought. Marrella looked roughly like a fly with wings replaced by a shield consisting of four, pointed prongs sweeping over its back. Eventually, Marrella would be classified as an arthropod unique to the Cambrian Period. Simon Conway Morris and Derek Briggs, who began as graduate students of Whittington, would join him to form a trio of researchers who would radically change Walcott’s view of the Burgess Shale fauna. Through thorough examination of the specimens, the three would in due time arrive at the conclusion that many Burgess Shale specimens were unique arthropods or belonged to new phyla, implying that the Cambrian Period was one of the richest for animal diversity. Thus, this period in geological history marked the appearance of new “wonderful life.” Other paleontologists eventually joined the quest to understand Cambrian marine creatures in what would become a revolution in evolutionary thought — a saga of scientists struggling to discover the truth.³

It is perhaps ironic that Gould, who points out the pitfalls that personal prejudice and ego can play in drawing false conclusions in science, should employ a rather pompous writing style where, in places, his arrogance pervades every other paragraph and where in the Preface of the book he refers to himself as “yours truly.” Nevertheless, Gould is one of the few research scientists who has achieved a heightened mastery of the English sentence and a vocabulary rich enough to make even the most sophisticated writers envious.

In fact, we are very “lucky” to be here on Earth.

The Cambrian Period began 570 million years ago. It marked the beginning of the Paleozoic Era (from which henceforth hardened body parts such as exoskeletons, shells and bones would leave a trail of fossil evidence that paleontologists would ponder over to construct the “tree of life”), and it marked the advent of virtually all the major groups of modern animals. Not only were all the basic extant anatomical designs introduced at this great moment in life’s history but also some designs appeared that would be unmatched in modern fauna. The Cambrian was a period during which Nature seemed to be experimenting in an enormous variety of body structures. Many of these “experiments” failed in the sense that they did not survive, but interestingly Gould suggests that somewhat random factors rather than survival-of-the-fittest properties were the reason for the subsequent decimation.

This coincides with a new viewpoint of evolution that Stephen Gould and Niles Eldredge have advocated in which contingency plays a significant role. This is the so-called punctuated equilibrium. During most periods, the environment at most slowly changes and Darwin’s survival-of-the-fittest principle prevails. But there are other times in geologic history when rapidly varying conditions or catastrophes randomly decimate Earth’s creatures. The extinction of the dinosaurs is a good example (See Chapter XVI :Nature’s Holocaust of the Book of the Cretaceous of The Bible According to Einstein). For more than 100 million years, the dinosaurs were the most “successful” land animal, but, when an asteroid struck the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago, large size was a great disadvantage. Only the smallest creatures survived. When 90% of species disappear during an extinction event, it is often random factors that decide which life forms survive. Another example of contingency, Gould argues, is the Cambrian fauna. It is impossible for scientists in examining the remarkable Burgess Shale fauna to predict which ones would survive and be “successful.” Would not Opabinia, for example, with its five eyes have an evolutionary advantage over fauna with two eyes?

These ideas have led to a new view of the tree of life with a richer branching structure. Compared to the old tree, the new tree during brief periods (such as at the beginning of the Cambrian) suddenly broadens in diversification only to suffer a decimation at a later time with many “leaves” terminating in evolutionary dead ends. Only a few lineages survive. Not all scientists believe in the theory of punctuated equilibrium of Gould and Eldredge, but most give the two credit for pointing out that species quite often appear and disappear on what seems to be short geologic time scales. Although this might be an artifact due to the scanty fossil record, it is more likely that evolutionary processes occur much faster than have previously been assumed.

Gould, by his own admission, is unable to provide a convincing explanation of why the explosion in animal diversity occurred during the Cambrian Period. This is often regarded as an unsolved problem in natural history. According to Gould, several evolutionary forces could have contributed. One argument is that life was filling a new, previously uninhabited, ecological niche, thereby providing an “open field of unparalleled opportunity” into which organisms expanded at rapid rates. A second, rather weak, idea argues that genetic systems age and just happened to “mature” at around the time of the Cambrian Period. Some religiously inclined individuals claim that the lack of a good explanation for the Cambrian biological explosion implies divine intervention. This is a Creationist’s point of view applied not at the initial moment of the birth of life but to the middle of its more-than-three-billion-year long development.

The Cambrian explosion can be “explained” by several important developments in evolution that had occurred in the Precambrian. Earth’s very early atmosphere essentially contained no oxygen gas. Indeed, this was “fortunate” for O₂ was poisonous for early life. The oxygen in the atmosphere has been largely biologically generated as a waste product of photosynthetic life, and, as a result, oxygen in air has been increasing during the last 3 billion years. Approximately 2 billion years ago, certain organisms uncovered how to use O₂ as a more efficient means to generate energy in metabolic processes. This allowed life forms to increase in size. Eukaryotes, which are organisms with cells containing organelles specializing in various biological processes and containing, in particular, a nucleus housing genetic codes, first appeared around 1.4 billion years ago. About a billion years ago, sexual reproduction arose as a more efficient means of biological replication. The potentially rapid increase in evolutionary progress expected from sexual reproduction, however, was retarded by the longest ice age in geologic history. Had Earth been warmer, the Cambrian explosion might have happened several hundred million years earlier. With the eukaryotic cell, respiratory metabolism and sexual reproduction, life forms were able to increase their size: The first multicellular organisms — microscopic metazoa — emerged about 800 million years ago. Then, 200 million years later, the two supercontinents of Earth broke up providing more shallow water habitats for life, and, at around the same time, one of the coldest ice ages, the Varanger, ended. The confluence of all these developments and events provided the “fuel” for the Cambrian explosion. The second chapter of the book of The Cambrian of The Bible According to Einstein summarizes the situation:

Now evolution was proceeding at a rapid pace. The fire on the fuse was burning. The fuse itself was almost gone. And everything was perfect for a biological explosion, an evolutionary radiation.  The geology was right; the chemistry was right; the climate was right; the atmosphere was right; the biology was right; and the recent evolutionary past was right, for sea level had risen and the continents had separated, providing new shallow-water habitats; for circulating ocean currents were full of nutrients; for the seas and air had warmed; for the atmosphere had oxygen; for eukaryotic cells had previously appeared and the sexual revolution in evolution had occurred.

And it was like unto mixing gunpowder, gasoline and fire.     And in five-hundred-and-seventy-million BC — the evolutionary “big bang” went off!There was a sudden burst in evolution, the beginning of a bio-revolution.     And the diversity of animals on Earth exploded.

Gould is a firm believer that Homo sapiens hold no special status in the scheme of things. It is true — here on Earth, we are the “smartest” creatures. But whether we are superior is a totally different issue. Bacteria outnumber us multiplicatively by the billions. As species, archaea have outlived us by a factor of more than 10,000. Elephants are still bigger, cockroaches more cunning, lions still stronger, rats more numerous and so on. Not only have the seventeenth century astronomers relegated us to an inconspicuous corner of the universe, but modern paleontologists such as Gould have also placed us on a tiny, barely noticeable twig of the tree of life.

In fact, we are very “lucky” (in both senses of the word: “fortunate” and “probabilistically unlikely”) to be here on Earth. We often think of Darwinian evolution as a smooth, almost predicable, process in which the poorly adapted species die out and the “superior” species survive. Such a viewpoint is not valid and neglects some of the truly random events that have shaped the history of life. The asteroid-induced extinction mentioned above is a good example. Had it not struck Earth 65 million years ago, reptiles would probably still be ruling the Earth and the small mammals that survived would not have had the opportunity to radiate. The result would have been no monkeys, no apes and no humans. There are dozens of examples for which a slight change in the history of the Earth would have eliminated one of the essential steps in the long chain that gave rise to Homo sapiens.

Gould, while taking great pleasure in overthrowing false dogma, is probably himself guilty of exaggeration, an effect possibly due to his enthusiasm for his field of research. Has he overemphasized the role of punctuated equilibrium and contingency in the evolution of life? Could the Cambrian explosion be less dramatic, a consequence of a great find of 50,000 soft-bodied specimens in a single location during a particular point in time? Could the introduction for the first time of hard-body parts led to significantly more fossils thereby creating the illusion of a great radiation of species? It is possible that, one day, we shall have more information and a clearer picture as to how the Cambrian fauna fit into the great scheme of things. Perhaps the Cambrian diversity is somewhat exaggerated and future links will be established between divergent phyla. Perhaps some “consolidation of the data” will take place. Indeed, it is now suspected that Hallucigenia is related to the modern velvet worm rather than a new phylum as Conway Morris had proposed. But even if a revision does occur, the Cambrian will remain one of the great periods of experimentation in animal design.

Wonderful Life is detailed, well written, entertaining and informative. It is fun to follow the history of the Burgess Shale story. In the book are some great descriptions and sketches of the main characters of the drama, those diminutive Cambrian marine metazoa of extraordinary design and sophistication. In a Wonderful Life, the reader learns about the thrills and pitfalls of a historically based science such as paleontology. The writing is often intricate, sometimes technical and not always so accessible to the unskilled reader. But enthusiasts of science with an interest in evolution should greatly enjoy reading this classic, best-selling book.

What is Child marriage?

A child marriage is a term which is generally used when and underage boy or a girl or both of them enter into the commitment of marriage.

How it affects the rural India and development?

This is a very common happening in the stereotypical societies of rural India. There have been cases when even babies or sometimes an unborn child is promised and married.

One of the most probable reasons for it is the stereotype in the rural society and the image of woman being born as a burden. They want to marry her off soon so that they don’t have to worry about dowry and bringing her up.

This also results in less Literacy rate of women and hence less resources. Women are taught to not ho outside and this is the bitter reality of the rural regions. Although this practice still happens in urban areas too but this article mainly focuses on how the development of rural society gets affected.

The Child Marriage Act:

 The act may also be called the prohibition of Child marriage Act,2006 and it came into force on 1 November 2007 in India. The contents of the act includes 21 sections and it extends all over India and the Union territories.

The main objective of the act was to save innocent children from getting into a big commitment like marriage and to save their childhood innocence and to make a difference.

Punishments under the Act are:

If an adult man who is above the age of 18 years does child marriage, then he will be punishable with a maximum extended fine of one lakh rupees or a 2-year imprisonment or maybe both.

The act of conducting or performing a child marriage is punishable with 2-year imprisonment or a fine which may extend to 1 lakh rupees or both.

Promoting and permitting of Child marriage and even attending one is punishable with 2 years imprisonment or a fine which may extend to 1 lakh rupees or both.

One of the very important statement of this act is :

The legal age for marriage among female should be 18 and the same among males should be 21 years of age and the act of marrying below this age will make the marriage voidable.

One of the very important cases of this Act is Independent Thought Vs UOI which brought a very big change as The Supreme Court increased the age of consent for sexual intercourse within marriages to 18. Before the ruling sexual conducts of a husband on his wife , where the wife  was above 15 years of age  did not constitute rape for the purpose of criminal law. The case law instigated the issue that almost all the statues in India suggest that a girl below the age of 18 is a child.

Some of the issues which the case law instigated and were solved later are:

• Whether intercourse with a 15 to 18 year girl would amount to rape or not?
• Whether the section 375 of IPC is discriminatory.
• And just because the girl between the age of 15 to 18 is married does not mean that she can conceive a baby or is mantally and physically capable of having sex.

In the case law it was said that Independent Thought and Child Rights trust argued that the classification between married and unmarried minor girls in punishing sexual violence had no rational nexus to the objectives of the section. It is also contrary to the obligations of the State to protect the right of the child under Article 21 as well as under International Conventions (Supreme Court observers. LINK:https://www.scobserver.in/)

Local government as a tool for rural development constitutionally , local government is the third tier of indian goverment commonly known as ‘”grassroot government'”.

A proper combination of local efforts with the government in order to develop socio-economic conditions of the people is a key factor for rural development.Local government as a tool :-The major factor in rural development is self help.the local government being nearest to the population is one of the best institutions or tool for generations motivation and encouraging mobilization for self help.

Thay can also induce wider participation of local people in decision making.To guarantee the basic social needs local people must participate not only in political affairs but also commonly affairs hence local government serves as the proper tool .

Integrated rural development :-

Proper synchronisation between the people and the government is inevitable for rural development.Without IRD rural development is not possible as each place has different basic needs,requires different kind of approach. Only local government ensures that government works in proper synchronisation with locals to provide basic needs ,to solve local issues.IRD focuses only on the growth of the local area with the help of local resources and support of local people hence,it serves as the most effective tool for rural development.

The panchayat or the Panchs hold so much power to themselves that they even take decisions of life and death in the area.

India is a vast country to be administered to the depest levels. Rural areas and their traditions can only be controlled and understood by a local government.

Conclusion :-Thus we conclude that local government acts as the closest government to the people.Local government is the focus of central government to develop social as well as economic conditions of the are which leads to the rural development.Local government also succeeds in understanding the people better and hence motivating them to become self sustainable ,encourage them to take part in decision making and work together with the government for proper development. Local governments work effectively as a communication between the local people and central government. They also observe needs of the locality and with the help of revenues from the government local bodies fulfill the needs.hence,local government acts as the most powerful tool in rural development.

Impact of globalisation on rural developmentThe uninterrupted flow of trade,capital ans technology across the world is commonly known as globalisation.In globalisation the world is considered as a whole big market.In 1991 when new industrial policy came into force globalisation started taking pace.

Just like a coin globalisation had two faces one good and one bad. This means that it had good impact as well as bad impact on the people of rural places.If we try to observe in a larger view globalisation was good as it had many good impacts like the world transformed into a single society but it also widened the gap between the rich and poor.Positive impacts of globalisation on rural area :-

1. Liberalisation of international trade and marketing of food and agricultural products.

2. standards of living increased in rich and poor families of urban as well as rural places

3. Increasing privatization like privatization of coal mines increased employment opportunities

4. Intensification of people as well as internal migration

5. Education quality developed and people from rural places started learning new skills

6. Many villages advanced and now they have advanced automated or semi automatic technologies, fertilizers etc.

7. globalisation provided better exposure to market goods hence quality of goods increased as well as proper price was providedWe can observe that globalisation developed our society ,our nation but in many ways it also ruined it.Negative impacts of globalisation on rural development :-

1. With globalisation many advanced technologies came into this nation which reduced manpower hence unemployment increased especially among unskilled labourers of the rural areas.

2. As many villages did not have proper transportation facilities, communication facilities many hinterlands never got chance to develop

3. With globalisation competition increased and local farmers could not compete with international quality and price hence their condition got worse.

4. not only farmers conditions of artisans also got worse as they could not compete

5.Many small industries of rural areas were shut down because of high level of competition and economical lossWe can still take steps to neutralize the negative impacts of globalisation om the rural area of this country which is predominantly rural and has major part of its income from these areas only.Steps that can be taken for neutralization are :-

1.steps luke ‘bharatnet’ should be taken in order to provide advanced information and technology to people living in rural areas.

2. Government,NGOs as well as private sector should join their hands to provide assets to rural areas and encourage entrepreneurship.

3. Government should impose some restrictions in MNCs before coming to indian market so that they dont affect small businesses

4. Low cost loans should be provided to small industries so that they get time to re-establish themselves and earn profit.

5. Proper rural urban transportation and communication facilities should be developed even in inaccessible areas so that they can also enter the market .