Pratibha Patil, a woman of Maharashtra origin, has been elected as the 13th President of India She has made history by becoming the first woman President in the history of India. Smt. Patil was born on 19thDecember, 1934 in Nadgaon of Maharashtra Her father was Saroyan Pagloo Rao. She got her school education at R.R. School, Jalgaon. Thereafter she got the M.A. degree from Moolji Jaitha (M.J.) College, Jalgaon which was an affiliated unit to North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon. Then she obtained her degree in law from the Government Law College, Mumbai an affiliated unit of the University of Bombay. During her college days she excelled in the table tennis and won various inter-college tournaments. In 1962 she was voted 'College Queen' of M.J. College. In the same year she began her political career by winning an assembly election from Edlabad Assembly Constituency on the Indian National Congress ticket. She more...

The vital role of science in modern life is not overstated in view of today's world. Science and technology have profoundly influenced the course of human civilization. Science has provided us remarkable insights into the world we live in. The scientific revolutions of the 20th century have led to the development of many technologies, which promise to herald wholly new eras in many fields. As we stand today at the beginning of a new century, we have to ensure fullest use of these developments for the well being of our people. Science and technology have been an integral part of Indian civilization and culture over the past several millennia. Few are aware that India was the fountainhead of important foundational scientific developments. These cover many great scientific discoveries and technological achievements in Mathematics, Astronomy, Architecture, Chemistry, Metallurgy, Medicine, Natural Philosophy and other areas. A great deal of this travelled outwards more...

The Indian religious leader Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824-1883) founded the Arya Samaj, or Society of Nobles, and epitomized the aggressive Hindu religious reformer. Dayananda Saraswati was born into a wealthy Brahmin family in Gujarat, a part of western India somewhat isolated from British colonial influence. He was raised in the orthodox Hindu tradition but soon found himself unsatisfied with the archaic teachings and practices, especially idol worship and other primitivisms imposed on him. At the age of 19 he left his family and undertook a long period of rigorous, ascetic study of the ancient Vedas—the oldest core of the Hindu religion. Dayananda concluded that current religious beliefs and social institutions were hopelessly corrupt. With this conviction he began to preach an aggressive reforming doctrine which urged are turn to the pristine Vedic tradition. While his commitments seemed basically "fundamentalist" and somewhat orthodox, in Fact, he advocated radical reforms such as more...

The Internet didn't just happen overnight—rather it was the end result of a search that had been in place since the late 1950s. By the time the world started to get online in the mid-1990s, the Net had been almost 40 years in the making. The   Internet   has   revolutionized   the   computer   and communications world like never before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet has a worldwide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location.  By the end of the 1980s, the European Particle Research Laboratory, CERN in Geneva was one of the premier Internet sites in Europe. CERN desperately needed a better way of locating all the files, documents and other resources that now threatened to overwhelm it. A young British more...

Indira Gandhi was one of the greatest women of India. Her childhood name was Priyadarshini. She was born at Allahabad on l9th November, 1917. She was the illustrious daughter of an illustrious father', Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. She was born with patriotic feelings, her grandfather, Motilal Nehru and father Jawaharlal Nehru both being great patriots. She was greatly impressed by Gandhiji when she visited the Sabarmati Ashram. She got her early education at home. She did her matriculation from Pune and later joined the Shantiniketan started by Rabindra Nath Tagore. Later she studied in Switzerland and England. Her mother, Kamala Nehru died in 1937. It was a big shock to her. Now, she undertook looking after her father. Later, she married Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi in 1941, in the teeth of opposition from conservative Hindus. After Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister of India as more...

Two mighty streams flow through India—the spiritual and the technological. They converge at Bangalore. When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India, his first stop was not the political capital New Delhi but the IT super-hub Bangalore. He was following in the footsteps of his predecessor Zhu Rongji who, in his 2002 trip to India, made a point to visit the Bangalore headquarters of Infosys, one of the world's most successful software companies. Addressing a crowd of 4,000 IT professionals, Zhu delighted those present by promoting d new era in Sino-Indian co-operation. "You are No 1 in software. We are No 3 in hardware," he said. "If we put these together, we are the world's No I." Zhu was given a standing ovation. This statement encapsulates the emergence of India as a software power in the 21st century. Today, the Americans feel threatened with the Indian Brains taking up leading positions more...

Sarojini Naidu was a distinguished poet, renowned freedom fighter and one of the great orators of her time. She was famously known as Bharata Kokila (The Nightingale of India). Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of a state in India. Sarojini Naidu was born on February 13, 1879. Her father Aghoranath Chattopadhyaya was a scientist and philosopher. He was the founder of the Nizam College, Hyderabad. Sarojini Naidu's mother Barada Sundari Devi was a poetess and used to write poetry in Bengali. Sarojini Naidu was the eldest among the eight siblings. One of her brothers Birendranath was a revolutionary and her other brother Harindranath was a poet, dramatist, and actor. Sarojini Naidu was a brilliant student. She was proficient in Urdu, Telugu, English, Bengali, and Persian. At the age of twelve, Sarojini more...

For some people, cellphones are a wonderful convenience of modern life; for others, they are irritating contraptions that should be banned from public areas. A mobile phone or cell phone is an electronic telecommunication device with the same basic capability as a conventional fixed-line telephone, but which is also entirely portable and is not required to be connected with a wire to the telephone network. Most current mobile phones connect instead to the network using a wireless radio wave transmission technology. The mobile phone communicates via a cellular network of base stations, also known as cell sites, which are in turn linked to the conventional telephone networks. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, a mobile phone can support many additional services such as SMS tor text messaging, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and videos. In less than more...

The full name of Sardar Patel was Vallabhbhai Patel. The title 'Sardar' was, given to him by Mahatma Gandhi. Sardar Patel was one of the most illustrious sons of India. He was one of the greatest freedom fighters of our country. After Independence, he became the Deputy Prime Minister of India. He is generally called the "Iron Man of India". It is mainly because of his strong will and firm determination in the service of his motherland. He was born in Karamsad village in Gujarat one October, 21, 1875. The name of his father was Jhaver Bhai Patel who was a brave, patriotic man, having fought in the army of Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi against the British in 1857. Sardar Patel got his early education in his village. Later, he went to Nadiad and then to Baroda to get higher education. His father was a poor peasant. Still, Sardar more...

Gone is the age of steam. We are now in the age of hydrogen bombs and electricity. The most fantastic dreams of H.G. Wells in his novel the Dream have come true. Thus, in this space age, where the wonders of science excel the wonders of nature, science affects our day-to-day life. Science has surpassed the old cobwebs of mythology and yesterday's faith has proved to be toddy's superstition in the crucible of science. Yet the problem is whether science is a boon or bane to society. Science is truth, truth is beauty and beauty is God. Science nurtures intelligence but leaves the will and emotions uncared for. It is said that knowledge comes but wisdom lingers. Science triumphs in automating processes but now it reigns over man. Automation is the order of the day. The spectre of war and destruction haunts , the world and nobody is safe. Controlling more...