Right to Equality in India

Right to Equality is an important fundamental right enshrined in the part 3 of the Indian Constitution. This is the founding principle of the other fundamental rights. The fundamental rights are provided to keep a check on the powers of executive as well as legislature. As per these rights all the person are equal and persons will be treated equally in similar circumstances. Article 14-18 covers the Right to Equality in the Indian Constitution.
The first and foremost one provided for by Article 14 is the right to equality before and equal protection of the laws. The right to equality as a concept has evolved from the Dicey's concept of the Rule of Law. Here the law of the land is the supreme authority. The law applies equally to all the citizens; however the legislature can enact law to treat certain category of individual differently. The likes should be treated alike in the similar circumstances. However the law does permit classification on basis of rational reason. This right is also conferred to the foreign citizens in India. Article 15 prohibits any discrimination by the government on basis of religion, caste, race, sex and place of birth. It fosters social equality and equal access to public places. Next article specifically deals with equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. However the government can make special provisions for the disadvantaged groups like women, children, SC's and ST's. The remaining two rights guaranteed in this category are the abolition of untouchability and the abolition of titles.
The concept of equality encompasses social and economic justice in a political democracy. The rights have been aimed at overturning the pre-independent evil social practices like untouchability, caste system. It abolishes the titles conferred on individuals on basis of caste, which had resulted in social evil like zamindari system, begar. They also emphasize on the fundamental unity of India by guaranteeing to all citizens the access and use of the same facilities, irrespective of background. It also includes special treatment for the disadvantaged group for their social upliftment, to bring them at par with the general population.

Origin of earth

These are some of theories given explaining the origin of Earth.

Nebular Hypothesis: It was the first theory which tried to explain the origin of Earth and Solar System, after the works of Newton. It was first proposed in 1734 by Emanuel Swedenborg, and then further developed by the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. He argued that gaseous clouds—nebulae, which slowly rotate, gradually collapse and flatten due to gravity and eventually form stars and planets. He further suggested the possibility that other nebulae might also be similarly large and distant disks of stars. For the first time the scope of astronomy was extended beyond the solar system to galactic and extragalactic realms. A similar model was proposed in 1796 by Pierre-Simon Laplace. The Laplacian nebular model dominated in the 19th century, it encountered a number of difficulties. The main problem was angular momentum distribution between the Sun and planets. The planets have 99% of the momentum, and this fact could not be explained by the nebular model. As a result this theory of planet formation was largely abandoned at the beginning of the 20th century.

Planetesimal Theory: It was proposed by Thomas Chamberlin and Forest Moulton in 1901. As per this theory, the Sun and the planets are thought to have formed from a rotating dust cloud formed from the remnants of a supernova explosion. On condensation, this cloud formed a central star and a rotating disc, the material of which separated into rings of dust grains that began to stick together. Larger and larger clumps formed in each ring and eventually collected into bodies the size of present-day asteroids, or planetesimals. After numerous collisions, these bodies eventually formed the nuclei of the various planets of our Solar System. It ultimately was discarded in the 1940s by the realization it was incompatible with the angular momentum of Jupiter.

Tidal Model: It was proposed by James Jeans in 1917. This explained the origin of the solar system as a result of a close encounter between the Sun and a second star. Jeans concluded in 1916 that the tidal interaction between the Sun and a passing star would raise tides on the Sun resulting in the loss of a single cigar-shaped filament of hot gas, rather than separate streams of gas as in the Chamberlin and Moulton scenario. This hot gas would then condense directly into the planets instead of going through a planetesimal stage. The central section of the "cigar" would give rise to the largest planets – Jupiter and Saturn – while the tapering ends would provide the substance for the smaller worlds. It was not able to explain the angular momentum of the Sun.

Binary or three star theories: It was given by Russel Henry. This was slight modification of the passing star and tidal model. As per this theory, the Sun was orginally a part of a binary system and the second star of this system then underwent a very close encounter with a third star. This encounter ejected a gaseous filament in which the planets formed.

Big Bang: It is widely accepted theory right now. It is based on the principle of ever expanding universe. As per the theory, in the beginning the universe existed in form of a 'cosmic egg' of very very small volume, infinite mass and infinite density. Then the explosion of egg happened and the universe started expanding. It predicts the age of universe as 13.7 billion years, the expansion is still going on. The expansion here refers to expansion of space between the galaxies.

Role of Media in Good Governance

The media is a carrier of information, it stands for all the agencies which are focussed on presenting the information to the people. The role of media is very important for the proper functioning of democracy. It is often referred to as the fourth pillar of democracy. The freedom of speech and expression is exercised by the media, by promoting democratic values in society and by criticizing the imperfections and shortcomings in the policies. It helps to form a public opinion around the important topics. The popular categories of media are print media, radio broadcast, television and latest being internet medium. Each of these might be very different but they all are very essential for the better governance.

Historically, the media was born as organs of the people against the feudal oppression. In Europe, the print media played an important role in transforming a feudal society into a modern one. The print media was widely used to prepare and organize the people during the French and American Revolution. The people were able to know the thoughts and teachings of great thinkers from various part of the world. During India's struggle for the freedom, the leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak, Nehru etc. used the print media extensively to reach the masses. In present times also, print media is very popular. It provides information on wide variety of subjects, the local issues are brought forward in eyes of the public by the regional newspapers. The national newspaper deals with mostly national and international issues. The newspaper tends to be neutral on most subjects, and is catering to mostly intellectual people.

The radio broadcast medium is very popular in rural areas. The radio reaches the remote parts of the country and it is very simple to use. The government broadcasts weather related information via radio channel which is very essential for the farmers, similarly the warnings related to flood is broadcasted near the coastal areas for the fishermen. It is easy and inexpensive to create customized programme for different regions. The government also uses it to popularize its scheme related to rural areas. The growth of this medium is very important for the inclusive growth of our country as most of the people have access to only this medium. The TV medium has the maximum impact on the mind of the people due to its presentation. People are able to catch real time event in form of breaking news. It is also a popular form of entertainment. The latest is the internet based medium, here the reach is immense restricted only by the penetration of internet. The message is just flashed on the website and millions of people can get the information at their convenient time. It also very cheap to broadcast message over the internet. Many government agencies have started using this medium to transfer relevant information.

In a developing country such as India, the media have a great responsibility to fight the backward ideas such as superstition, casteism and communalism. It also needs to help people in their struggle against poverty and other social evils. Since a large section of people is backward and ignorant, it is responsibility of the media to bring modern ideas to them and remove their ignorance. There is huge economic disparity in India, it has fourth largest number of billionaires in the world, but is ranked only around 125th in Human Development terms. The mdeia need to work especially towards the welfare of the poor. Presently there are thousands of journalists who cover events like cricket match, fashion week, movie launch parties but there are only few who cover issue of national importance like farmer suicide, unemployment of youth, income disparity etc. Many TV news channel frequently show programme on astrology. Common sense would tell us that the movement of the stars and planets can have no rational connection with our lives. Astrology is totally unscientific but many TV channels continue to promote it, instead of this they should be promoting scientific views and latest technologies. Media play an important role in promoting government's policies like fight against diseases such as polio, AIDS, cancer etc.

Recently we have also witnessed a case of media activism, in some high profile cases such as Jessica Lal and Aarushi Talwar. In both these cases media went an extra mile to do its investigation and the accused were pronounced guilty before the verdict of the judiciary. The media was also reprimanded in the Aarushi Talwar case for its investigative journalism by the Supreme Court. In cases where injustice is done, its alright for media to bring it to the public attention, but it should leave the decision making to the judiciary.

The journey of India from a developing nation to a developed one will depend a lot on the role played by the media in the country. It needs to focus on the real issues, which are mostly social and economic in nature, instead to trying to divert the attention to the non-issues.

Gandhiji's entry to Indian Freedom Struggle

In the history of freedom struggle, often one person is identified with the entire country's struggle for independence or nationalist movement. For example George Washington for USA, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, William Wallace of Scotland, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Fidel Castro for Cuba or Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Though the last two don't appear to be in same league as others, but still movement is known by their name. Similarly, Indian Freedom Movement is known by one man, who is told be the creator of concept of passive resistance or Satyagarha, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu.
After first using the technique of passive resistance in South Africa, Gandhiji returned to India after 22 years in 1915. It was still was a colony of British as it was when he had left but now the Indian NAtional Congress (INC) was far more active. During first year of his return he spent most of his time visiting various places in India and getting to know about the problem of the people. His first major public appearance was at the opening of Banaras Hindu University, BHU. Other leaders who were more popular than Gandhiji at that time, were also present as dignataries. When his turn came to speak, Gandhiji charged the Indian elite with a lack of concern for the labouring poor. He told if India were to truly free, it needs to involve the effort of the entire country not just elite class. He believed the effort will come only through improving the condition of farmers and peasants which form the majority of the Indian population. At that very moment indian freedom movement became a national movement from a elite phenomenon.
Now the Indian movement actually became the mass movement. But more importantly it brought Mahatma Gandhi to center of the Indian Struggle of freedom.