Topics to be covered from Hindu Paper dated on Friday October 26^th  

Topic	Page No.
Dengue: The virus, the mosquitoes, the diseases Severe abdominal pain Persistent vomiting Rapid breathing Bleeding gums Blood in vomit Low BP fatigue, restlessness	8
Lokayukta to probe Krishna, Gowda, Yeddyurappa	1
China will not accept LAC as solution to border dispute, says commentary
Gadkari and the business of politics	11
Here comes the sun	11
A last opportunity, missed	11
PM sets up National Committee on direct cash transfers	12
Centre clears National Policy on Electronics	12

Origin of Prakrits:

·         Another set of languages which were neither Dravidian nor Austro – Asiatic have also probably provided some non – Indo – European words to the Rig veda and early Sanskrit.

·         Interaction with such languages in Afghanistan (like Nuristani) probably started much before the Indo – Aryan speakers reached India, and might have caused the early appearance of a unique feature of Indo  - Aryan languages, namely, ‘Prakritism’

·         This consists of simplifying the Indo - Aryan word structure, characteristically dispensing with compound consonants (usually replaced by single consonants, for example, puta for putra, son).

·         Such simplification must have helped to spread Indo-Aryan speech among ordinary people, for Rig Vedic Sanskrit, like the later Sanskrit evidently remained a language of the few.

·         By the sixth century BC it was the Prakrit language of each region that the people understood; and so it was in the Prakrit of Magadha that Lord Mahavira and Gautama Buddha delivered their sermons.

·         So, if Indo – Aryan speech was spread predominantly by way of ‘elite dominance’, the people still had a share in determining its popular form, namely Prakrit.

Dravidian Family

Major constituents:

The Dravidian languages form the second largest language family in India. There are also many minor languages attached to these different groups.

Within this family Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada belong to the Southern group;

Telugu and Gondi (in parts of Madhya Pradesh to the South central;

Kolani (mainly in Maharashtra) to the Central;

Kurukh (in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Nepal) and Brabui (Baluchistan) to the Northern,

A comparison of the vocabularies and grammars of these languages enables us to reconstruct a hypothetical Proto – Dravidian language that must have been spoken before the speakers of the Dravidian languages broke up from each other.

The use of certain retroflex sounds (such as the hard l, n, r and rh) that require the tongue to curl back just under the hard palate in order to pronounce them is one of the most common traits in the Dravidian languages.

But such retroflexion is absent in both Austro – Asiatic and Indo – European languages spoken outside the Indian subcontinent. Hence, it is postulated that it is from the Proto – Dravidian or its early successors that the Austro – Asiatic and Indo – Aryan languages derive their retroflex consonants. This assumptions has many consequences.

Questions to be learn

1.Consider the following statement regarding London Olympics 2012.

1.The kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent female athletes to the Games for the first time.

2.British flyweight Nicola Adams won second women's boxing gold.

3.Oprah Winfrey became the first African American to win an Olympic title in the Flying  Squirrel. 

The correct statement is/are

(a)1 and 2(b)2 and 3

(c)1 and 3(d)1, 2 and 3

2.The Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Krishna Tirath, highlighted the initiatives taken by the Government of India towards addressing the problem of malnutrition at the Global Nutrition Meet held at London on 12 August 2012. The meet was on the eve of the closing of the Olympics 2012. Name the  countries that jointly organized this meet.

(a)UK and Germany 

(b)UK and Brazil

(c)USA and UK

(d)Japan and UK

3.The National Mission for Justice Delivery and legal Reforms was set up in June, 2011 to achieve the twin goals of increasing access by reducing delays and arrears; and enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities. The Mission has become fully functional from 2012-13 and is pursuing strategic initiatives of -

1.outlining policy and legislative changes

2.re-engineering of procedures and court processes

3.focussing on Women Development

4.leveraging Information and Communication Technology & tools 

The correct initiatives are

(a)1, 2 and 3(b)2, 3 and 4

(c)1, 2, 3 and 4(d)1, 2 and 4

4.Government of India is promoting Organic Farming through various schemes. The 

      Schemes are: 

1.National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF)

2.National Horticulture Mission (NHM)

3.Rashtriya Shram Vikas Yojana (RSVY)

4.Macro Management of Agriculture (MMA)

The correct schemes are:-

(a)1, 2 and 3

(b)1, 3 and 4

(c)2, 3 and 4

(d)1, 2 and 4

5.Consider the following sentences about first formal announcement on the country's Mars mission.

1.India will be the sixth country to launch a mission to the Red Planet after the U.S., U.K, Europe, Japan and China.

2.If the mission is successful, India will be the first Asian country to do so as probes sent by China and Japan had to be abandoned en route.

The correct sentence/sentences:-

(a)Only 1(b)Only 2

(c)1 and 2(d)None of the above