This is a list of Indian states and union territory birds:
Sunday, January 23, 2011
List of Indian state trees
This is a list of Indian states and union territory trees:
List of Indian state flowers
This is a list of state flowers of the states and union territories of India:
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Ministers of State
| Serial Number | Portfolio | Name of Minister |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Prime Minister and also In-Charge of the Ministries/Departments viz: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Ministry of Planning Ministry of Culture Department of Atomic Energy & Department of Space | Dr. Manmohan Singh |
| 2. | Minister of Finance | Shri Pranab Mukherjee |
| 3. | Minister of Agriculture & Food Processing Industries | Shri Sharad Pawar |
| 4. | Minister of Defence | Shri A.K. Antony |
| 5. | Minister of Home Affairs | Shri P. Chidambaram |
| 6. | Minister of Railways | Km. Mamata Banerjee |
| 7. | Minister of External Affairs | Shri S.M. Krishna |
| 8. | Minister of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises | Shri Virbhadra Singh |
| 9. | Minister ofRural Development & additional charge of Panchayati Raj | Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh |
| 10. | Minister of Health and Family Welfare | Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad |
| 11. | Minister of Power | Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde |
| 12. | Minister of Law & Justice | Shri M. Veerappa Moily |
| 13. | Minister of New and Renewable Energy | Dr. Farooq Abdullah |
| 14. | Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas | Shri S. Jaipal Reddy |
| 15. | Minister of Urban Development | Shri Kamal Nath |
| 16. | Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs & additional charge of Civil Aviation | Shri Vayalar Ravi |
| 17. | Minister of Textiles | Shri Dayanidhi Maran |
| 18. | Minister of Corporate Affairs | Shri Murli Deora |
| 19. | Minister of Information & Broadcasting | Smt. Ambika Soni |
| 20. | Minister of Labour & Employment | Shri Mallikarjun Kharge |
| 21. | Human Resource Development & additional charge of Communications & Information Technology | Shri Kapil Sibal |
| 22. | Minister of Development of North-Eastern Region | Shri B.K. Handique |
| 23. | Minister of Commerce & Industry | Shri Anand Sharma |
| 24. | Minister of Road Transport & Highways | Shri C.P. Joshi |
| 25. | Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation & additional charge of Culture | Kum. Selja |
| 26. | Ministry of Tourism | Shri Subodh Kant Sahay |
| 27. | Minister of Statistics & Programme Implementation | Dr. M.S. Gill |
| 28. | Minister of Shipping | Shri G.K. Vasan |
| 29. | Minister of Parliamentary Affairs & additional charge of Science & Technology & Earth Sciences | Shri Pawan K. Bansal |
| 30. | Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment | Shri Mukul Wasnik |
| 31. | Minister of Tribal Affairs | Shri Kantilal Bhuria |
| 32. | Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers | Shri M.K. Alagiri |
| 33. | Ministry of Coal | Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal |
| 34. | Ministry of Water Resources & additional charge of Minority Affairs | Shri Salman Khursheed |
| 35. | Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises | Shri Praful Patel |
| Serial Number | Portfolio | Name of Minister |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ministry Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution | Professor K.V. Thomas |
| 2. | Ministry of Women & Child Development | Smt. Krishna Tirath |
| 3. | Ministry of Environment & Forests | Shri Jairam Ramesh |
| 4. | Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports | Shri Ajay Maken |
| 5. | Ministry of Steel | Shri Beni Prasad Verma |
| 6. | Ministry of Mines | Shri Dinsha Patel |
| Serial Number | Portfolio | Name of Minister |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers | Shri Srikant Jena |
| 2. | Ministry of External Affairs | Shri E. Ahamed |
| 3. | Ministry of Home Affairs | Shri Mullappally Ramachandran |
| 4. | Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs & Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions & Prime Minister's Office | Shri V. Narayanasamy |
| 5. | Ministry of Commerce & Industry | Shri Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia |
| 6. | Ministry of Human Resource Development | Smt. D. Purandeswari |
| 7. | Ministry of Railways | Shri K.H. Muniappa |
| 8. | Ministry of Textiles | Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi |
| 9. | Ministry of Finance | Shri Namo Narain Meena |
| 10. | Ministry of Defence | Shri M.M. Pallam Raju |
| 11. | Ministry of Urban Development | Shri Saugata Ray |
| 12. | Ministry of Finance | Shri S.S. Palanimanickam |
| 13. | Ministry of Road Transport & Highways | Shri Jitin Prasada |
| 14. | Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises | Shri A. Sai Prathap |
| 15. | Ministry of External Affairs | Smt. Preneet Kaur |
| 16. | Ministry of Home Affairs | Shri Gurudas Kamat |
| 17. | Ministry of Agriculture & Ministry of Food Processing Industries | Shri Harish Rawat |
| 18. | Ministry of Railways | Shri Bharatsinh Solanki |
| 19. | Ministry of Tribal Affairs | Shri Mahadev S. Khandela |
| 20. | Ministry of Health & Family Welfare | Shri Dinesh Trivedi |
| 21. | Ministry of Rural Development | Shri Sisir Adhikari |
| 22. | Ministry of Tourism | Shri Sultan Ahmed |
| 23. | Ministry of Shipping | Shri Mukul Roy |
| 24. | Ministry of Information & Broadcasting | Shri Choudhury Mohan Jatua |
| 25. | Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment | Shri D. Napoleon |
| 26. | Ministry of Information & Broadcasting | Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan |
| 27. | Ministry of Health & Family Welfare | Shri S. Gandhiselvan |
| 28. | Ministry of Road Transport & Highways | Shri Tusharbhai Chaudhary |
| 29. | Ministry of Communications & Information Technology | Shri Sachin Pilot |
| 30. | Ministry of Agriculture & Ministry of Food Processing Industries | Shri Arun Yadav |
| 31. | Ministry of Coal | Shri Pratik Prakashbapu Patil |
| 32. | Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas & Ministry of Corporate Affairs | Shri R.P.N. Singh |
| 33. | Ministry of Water Resources & Ministry of Minority Affairs | Shri Vincent Pala |
| 34. | Ministry of Rural Development | Shri Pradeep Jain |
| 35. | Ministry of Rural Development | Ms. Agatha Sangma |
| 36. | Ministry of Planning & Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs & Ministry of Science and Technology & Ministry of Earth Sciences | Shri Ashwani Kumar |
| 37. | Ministry of Power | Shri K.C. Venugopal |
Thursday, January 20, 2011
List of 'reshuffled' Council of Ministers
In the first major revamp of his Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh January 19, inducted three new ministers of state and promoted three to Cabinet rank while reshuffling some portfolios. Here is the list of the changes:
Cabinet ministers:
1. Praful Patel: Heavy industries and public enterprises
2. Sriprakash Jaiswal: Coal
3. Salman Khursheed: Water resources and additional charge of minority affairs
Minister of state (independent charge) :
1. Ajay Maken: Youth affairs and sports
2. Beni Prasad Verma: steel
3. KV Thomas: Consumer affairs, food and public distribution
Ministers of state:
1. Ashwani Kumar: Planning and parliamentary affairs, science and technology, and earth sciences
2. KC Venugopal: Power
The portfolios of the following ministers have also been changed:
Cabinet ministers:
1. Sharad Pawar: Agriculture and food processing industries
2. Virbhadra Singh: Micro, small and medium enterprises
3. Vilasrao Deshmukh: Rural development and additional charge of Panchayati Raj
4. S Jaipal Reddy : Petroleum and natural gas
5. Kamal Nath: Urban development
6. Vayalar Ravi: Overseas Indian affairs and additional charge of civil aviation
7. Murli Deora: Corporate affairs
8. Kapil Sibal: Human resource development and additional charge of communications and information technology
9. BK Handique: Development of north-eastern region
10. CP Joshi: Road transport and highways
11. Kumari Selja: Housing and urban poverty alleviation and additional charge of culture
12. Subodh Kant Sahay: Tourism
13. M.S. Gill: Statistics and programme implementation
14. Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary affairs and additional charge of science and technology and earth sciences
Minister of state (independent charge):
1. Dinsha Patel: Mines
Ministers of state:
1. E Ahamed: External affairs
2. Harish Rawat: Agriculture and food processing industries
3. V Narayanasamy: Parliamentary affairs and personnel, public grievances and pensions and Prime Minister's Office
4. Gurudas Kamat: Home affairs
5. A. Sai Prathap: Heavy industries and public enterprises
6. Bharatsinh Solanki: Railways
7. Jitin Prasada: Road transport and highways
8. Mahadev S Khandela : Tribal affairs
9. RPN Singh: Petroleum and natural gas and corporate affairs
10. Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Road transport and highways
11. Arun Yadav: Agriculture and food processing industries
12. Pratik Prakashbapu Patil: coal
13. Vincent Pala: Water resources and minority affairs
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
First Rupee 150 coin issued by India
India’s highest denomination commemorative coin released on 9th may 2010 at New Delhi by Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee to mark 150th birth centenary of Nobel Prize winner Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore. There were two coins with denominations of rupees 5 and rupees 150 in a beautiful presentation set.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Indian Cricketers Nick Name
| The Harayana Hurricane | Kapil Dev |
| The Wall | Rahul Dravid |
| Gauti | Gautam Gambhir |
| Dada, Prince of Kolkata | Sourav Ganguly |
| The Turbanator, Bhajji | Harbhajan Singh |
| Jumbo | Anil Kumble |
| Very Very Special | VVS Laxman |
| Bachcha | Parthiv Patel |
| Muscles | Venkatapathy Raju |
| Venu | Venugopal Rao |
| Sanu | Suresh Raina |
| Viru, Prince of Najafgarh | Virendra Sehwag |
| Ishu, Lambu | Ishant Sharma |
| Shaz | Ravi Shastri |
| Sherry, Jonty Singh, Sixer Sidhu | Navjot Singh Sidhu |
| Babu, Mysore Express | Javagal Srinath |
| Dada, The Bengal Tiger, The Prince of Kolkata | Sourav Ganguly |
| Master Blaster, God of Cricket | Sachin Tendulkar |
| Robbie | Robin Uthappa |
| Colonel | Dilip Vengsarkar |
| Venkat | Venkataraghavan |
| Vishy | Gundappa Viswanath |
| J.P | Jai Yadav |
| Yuvi, Maharaja of Indian Cricket | Yuvraj Singh |
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Top 10 global weather events in 2010
A panel of experts has ranked the top 10 global weather and climate events of 2010 as follows.
According to Christian Science Monitor, voters considered the scope and unusualness of the event, its immediate human and economic impact, and whether it is emblematic of climate trends or variability:
1. Russian-European-Asian heat waves
The heat waves of summer 2010 spawned drought, wildfires, and crop failures across western Russia, where over 15,000 people died. All-time high temperatures occurred in many cities and nations across the Northern Hemisphere. China faced locust swarms during July.
Temperatures hovered from four to eight degrees Celsius above average in Russia during June and July. On July 30th, Moscow recorded its highest temperature ever 39 degrees Celsius breaking the previous record of 37 degrees Celsius set just four days earlier. Prior to July 2010, the record hadn't been broken for 90 years.
2. Warmest year on record (probably)
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the globally averaged temperature for 2010 will finish among the two warmest, and likely the warmest, in the 130-year-climate record.
(The current record was set in 2005, and so far the two years are in a statistical tie, which may be resolved as data compilation continues.)
2001-2010 is the warmest 10-year period since the start of weather records in 1850, the UN weather agency said Dec 2.
3. Flooding in Pakistan
Monsoon rains fall in Pakistan every summer, but the rains in June and July 2010 were unusually heavy, bringing over a foot of rain.
By Aug 1, whole villages had washed away, over 1,600 people had died, six million had lost their homes, and about 20 million people were affected. The flooding in northwestern Pakistan was the worst since 1929, officials said.
4. El Nino to La Nina transition
Spring 2010 saw an enormous swing from El Nino to La Nina. Flooding in Indonesia, Colombia and Australia has all been tied to this phenomenon.
They are associated with opposite extremes in sea-surface temperature across the Pacific, and with opposite extremes in rainfall, surface air pressure, and atmospheric circulation from Indonesia to South America (approximately half the distance around the globe).
5. Negative Arctic Oscillation
The Arctic Oscillation influences winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere: when it is negative, arctic air slides south. In February, the index reached -4.27, the lowest value since records began in 1950.
6. Brazilian drought
A severe drought parching northern Brazil shrunk the Rio Negro (Black river) one of the most important tributaries of the Amazon River to its lowest level in over a century. At their point of confluence, the Amazon's depth fell more than 12 feet below its average.
Nearly half of Amazonias 62 municipalities declared a state of emergency. The drought affected over 60,000 families.
7. (tie) Northeast Pacific hurricane (non-)season
The Northeast Pacific Hurricane Season was one of the least active on record. This dud of a hurricane season produced the fewest named storms and hurricanes of the modern era and had the earliest cessation of tropical activity Sep 23 on record.
7. (tie) Historic snow retreat
December 2009 had the second-largest snow cover of the satellite record (since the mid-1960s), followed by a ferocious spring snowmelt season. The rapidly melting snow contributed to spring floods across the Northern US and Canada.
Following the early and pronounced snow melt, the North American, Eurasian, and Hemispheric snow cover was the smallest on record for May and June 2010.
9. Shrinking Arctic sea ice
Arctic sea ice, the floating ice sheet that covers most of the Arctic ocean, shrunk to its third smallest extent ever, measuring only 4.9 million sq. km. The last four years (2007-2010) are the four smallest on record.
For the first time in modern history, the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were simultaneously ice-free in September.
10. China drought
A persistent drought, described as the worst in a century, covered parts of southern, southwestern and central China from January through April.
Centered in Yunnan province, the drought destroyed several million hectares of crops and dried up drinking water sources, affecting over 50 million people.
2010 was the warmest year since 1901: IMD
India Meteorological Department has declared that 2010 was the warmest year since 1901.
According to the department, the annual mean temperature averaged over the country as a whole was 25.8023 degrees Celsius last year. This translates to an increase of 0.93 degrees over the average for the 30-year period from 1961-1990.
The previous record was achieved in 2009, when the annual mean temperature averaged over the country in its entirety was 25.7876 degrees Celsius.
Above normal
Releasing the annual climate summary for the country for 2010 on Thursday, IMD Director-General Ajit Tyagi said an analysis showed that the mean annual temperatures were generally above normal throughout the country during the year, with the departure from the normal being more pronounced in north and central India.
The departures from the normal were more than one degree Celsius over most parts of northern and central India, while they were between zero and one degree over the rest of the country.
More significantly, the temperatures were generally above normal both in terms of maximum [day] temperature and minimum [night] temperature.
Records broken
Month-wise, however, records were broken only thrice — in March, April and November. The mean monthly temperature over the country as a whole for March was 2.27 degrees Celsius above the 1961-90 average, 2.02 degrees Celsius for April and 1.17 degrees Celsius for November.
An analysis as part of the annual climate summary of decadal variations in temperatures shows that they had gone up significantly: the average temperature for 2001-10 was 0.6 degrees above that for 1901-10. But, there is no discernible pattern in year-wise temperatures. After 2010 and 2009, the third warmest year was 2002, the fourth 2006, fifth 2003, sixth 2007, the seventh 2004, the eighth 1998, the ninth 1941, the 10th 1999, the 11th 1958, the 12th 2001, the 13th 1987 and so on.
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