SHOULD THERE BE AN ANTI-BULLYING ACT?

“Be strong, but not rude; Be kind, but not weak; Be bold but not bully.” RIM JOHN

Bullying is the behaviour of a person or majority group who threatens, harms, or insults another person or the minority or weak group. Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that threatens people with the use of electronic devices.

About 20% of students ages 12-18 experienced bullying nationwide. Students ages 12–18 who reported being bullied said they thought those who bullied them: Had the ability to influence other students’ perception of them (56%); Had more social influence (50%); Were physically stronger or larger (40%); Had more money (31%). Nationwide, 19% of students in grades 9–12 report being bullied on school property in the 12 months prior to the survey.

The following percentages of students ages 12-18 had experienced bullying in various places at school:

  1. Hallway or stairwell (43.4%)
  2. Classroom (42.1%)
  3. Cafeteria (26.8%)
  4. Outside on school grounds (21.9%)
  5. Online or text (15.3%)
  6. Bathroom or locker room (12.1%)
  7. Somewhere else in the school building (2.1%)
  8. Approximately 46% of students ages 12-18 who were bullied during the school year notified an adult at school about the bullying.
  9. Among students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied at school during the school year, 15 % were bullied online or by text.
  10. An estimated 14.9% of high school students were electronically bullied in the 12 months prior to the survey.

According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics:
One third of the globe’s youth is bullied; this ranges from as low as 7% in Tajikistan to 74% in Samoa. Low socioeconomic status is a main factor in youth bullying within wealthy countries.
Immigrant-born youth in wealthy countries are more likely to be bullied than locally-born youth.

Yes, There is a serious need to have strong legislation on Anti-bullying laws in India. The government of India is taking steps to conquer bullying in schools, colleges, and on the internet.

Cyclones – Why and How are they named?

Have you ever wondered how do scientists decides the name for cyclones? Read the whole article to learn it.

Weather forecasters give each tropical cyclone a name to avoid confusion. Each year, tropical cyclones receive names in alphabetical order. Women and men’s names are alternated. The name list is proposed by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of WMO Members of a specific region, and approved by the respective tropical cyclone regional bodies at their annual/bi-annual sessions.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The practice of naming storms (tropical cyclones) began years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than numbers and technical terms. In the beginning, storms were named arbitrarily. An Atlantic storm that ripped off the mast of a boat named Antje became known as Antje’s hurricane. Then the mid-1900’s saw the start of the practice of using feminine names for storms.

In the pursuit of a more organized and efficient naming system, meteorologists later decided to identify storms using names from a list arranged alphabetically. Thus, a storm with a name which begins with A, like Anne, would be the first storm to occur in the year. By the end of the 1900’s, forecasters started using male names for those forming in the Southern Hemisphere.

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Centre. The original name lists featured only women’s names. In 1979, men’s names were introduced and they alternate with the women’s names.

Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2019 list will be used again in 2025. The names of tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean is however not repeated. Once used, it will cease to be used again.

Why are cyclones given a name ?

Naming of Tropical Cyclones (TCs) helps the scientific community, disaster managers, media and general masses to

  • identify each individual cyclone.
  • use of short, distinctive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods.
  • create awareness of its development.
  • remove confusion in case of simultaneous occurrence of TCs over a region
  • rapidly and effectively disseminate warnings to much wider audience

These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea.

Criteria for name selection

  • The proposed name should be neutral to (a) politics and political figures (b) religious believes, (c) cultures and (d) gender
  • Name should be chosen in such a way that it does not hurt the sentiments of any group of population over the globe
  • It should not be very rude and cruel in nature
  • It should be short, easy to pronounce and should not be offensive to any member
  • The maximum length of the name will be eight letters
  • The proposed name should be provided along with its pronunciation and voice over

Protocol to Select a name for a cyclone

For north Indian Ocean including Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, the RSMC, New Delhi assigns the name to tropical cyclones following a standard procedure.

The naming of the tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean commenced from September 2004. This list contained names proposed by then eight member countries of WMO/ESCAP PTC, viz., Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. A new list containing 169 names has been made available in 2020.

Source : Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre, New Delhi and World Meteorological Organisation

FLY HIGH

              FLY HIGH

                                         – Angelin Diana

You can fly like a Kite

To a great height

Just to shine bright

As the stars in the night

The sky’s the limit

Use every minute

Have that spirit

When you give it

You can go

With your flow

May your face glow

As you grow

In every test

Give your best

You are blessed

So never feel depressed

You and your might

Together might

Glow up the light

Am I right?

Is Earth just a round Spherical Ball? What’s inside that?

What everyone see is just a round, not round exactly but a GEOID shaped ball. Seeing the Earth as a ball and imagining it in the size of football which we all see in our science lab.

This is the 0% we know about our planet Earth. There is more to this than people just know. It’s like the rainbow flavored cake. when you see the outer part of the cake you tend to see the decoration and the whipping cream. but, when you cut it you the see the colorful layers of the cake. Earth is also the same. When you deep dig it you get to see different concentric layers which we call them as:

  • Crust
  • Mantle
  • Core – inner core, outer core
layers of Earths interior

Like all terrestrial planets, the Earth’s interior is differentiated. This means that its internal structure consists of layers, arranged like the skin of an onion. Peel back one, and you find another, distinguished from the last by its chemical and geological properties, as well as vast differences in temperature and pressure.

Most of the ancient theories about Earth tended towards the “Flat-Earth” view of our planet’s physical form. This was the view in Mesopotamian culture, where the world was portrayed as a flat disk afloat in an ocean. To the Mayans, the world was flat, and at it corners, four jaguars held up the sky. The ancient Persians speculated that the Earth was a seven-layered ziggurat (or cosmic mountain), while the Chinese viewed it as a four-side cube.

By the 6th century BCE, Greek philosophers began to speculate that the Earth was in fact round, and by the 3rd century BCE, the idea of a spherical Earth began to become articulated as a scientific matter.

  1. CORE :
  • The inner core:- radius of 1,220 kilometers (758 miles), or about three-quarters that of the moon.
  • located some 6,400 to 5,180 kilometers (4,000 to 3,220 miles) beneath Earth’s surface
  • Made of Iron and Nickel(solid form). Intensely hot and the Temperature sizzles at 5,400° Celsius (9,800° Fahrenheit).
  • The outer core:- radius stands at about 5,180 to 2,880 kilometers (3,220 to 1,790 miles) below the surface.
  •  Heated largely by the radioactive decay of the elements like uranium and thorium.
  • The outer core is not under enough pressure to be solid, so it is liquid even though it has a composition similar to the inner core.

2. MANTLE

  • Upper mantle: It is the Earths thickest layer. Spreads across  84% of Earth’s volume
  • The upper mantle, which starts at the “Mohorovicic Discontinuity”- the base of the crust extends from a depth of 7 to 35 km downwards to a depth of 410 km.
  • lower Mantle: The lower mantle lies between 660-2,891 km 
  • Very little is known about the lower mantle apart from that it appears to be relatively seismically homogeneous.

3. CRUST

  •  The crust is made of relatively light elements, especially silica, aluminum and oxygen. 
  • Earth’s crust is like the shell of a hard-boiled egg. It is extremely thin, cold and brittle compared to what lies below it
  • The thickness of the crust varies in the range of range of 5-30 km in case of the oceanic crust and as 50-70 km in case of the continental crust.
  • Along with the upper zone of the mantle, the crust is broken into big pieces, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. These are known as tectonic plates. These move slowly — at just 3 to 5 centimeters (1.2 to 2 inches) per year.
  • The continents are composed of lighter silicates — silica + aluminium (also called sial) while the oceans have the heavier silicates — silica + magnesium (also called sima)

Service Profile of an IAS Officer

Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the premier service of the Government of India was constituted in 1946. Prior to that Indian imperial Service (1893-1946) was in force. As on 1.1.2013, sanctioned strength of IAS was 6217, comprising of 4313 posts to the filled by direct recruits and 1904 posts to be filled by promotion /appointment of State Civil Services officers/ Non-State Civil Service officers. The civil services have been a hallmark of governance in India. The Constitution provides that without depriving the States of their right to form their own Civil Services, there shall be an All India service recruited on an All- India basis with common qualifications, with uniform scale of pay and the members of which alone could be appointed to these strategic posts throughout the Union.”
No wonder Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the eminent leaders of the freedom struggle, referred to the. ICS as ‘the steel frame. Of the ‘country. The civil services, therefore, represent the essential spirit of our nation — unity in diversity.

Recruitment

UPSC – Civil Services Exam

At present there are three modes of recruitment to IAS viz

(i) Through Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC every year;

(ii) Through promotion of State Civil Service officers to IAS

(iii) Through selection of non – State Civil Service officers.

Roughly 66 (1/3)% posts are meant for Direct Recruitment and 33 (1/3%) are
meant for promotion quota.

Training

LBSNAA

Both Direct Recruit as well as promotee IAS officers are imparted probationary training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA). After completion of successful probation, they are confirmed. Also, there is a Provision for mandatory Mid-career Training for IAS officers spread across the entire service span.

Functions of IAS officer

IAS officer is responsible for the maintenance of law and order, revenue administration and general administration in the area under him. His functions broadly include:


(i) Collection of revenue and function as Courts in revenue matters;
(ii) Maintenance of law and order;
(iii) Function as Executive Magistrate;
(iv) Function as Chief Development Officer (CDO)/District Development Commissioner;
(v) Supervision of implementation of policies of State Government and Central Government;
(vi) To travel to places to oversee the implementation of policies;
(vii) Supervision of expenditure of public funds as per norms of financial propriety;
(viii) In the process of policy formulation and decision making, IAS officers at various levels like Joint Secretary, Deputy Secretary etc. make their “contributions and the give final shape to policies;
(ix) To ‘handle the daily affairs ‘of the government, including framing and implementation of policy in ‘consultation with the minister-in-charge of the concerned Ministry.

Source : DoPT website