Essays for School Students: Includes Letters and Essays on Latest Social & National Topics

1

GREEN REVOLUTION

Green revolution is defined as the set of technological improvements such as implementation of High Yielding Variety(HYVP) through expansion of the farming area, double-cropping, and utilisation of high yielding variety seeds for cereals, specifically for dwarf wheat and rice plants, chemical fertilizers and agro-chemicals, controlled water-supply with improved irrigation methods like drip irrigation etc. and new techniques of cultivation, including mechanization made in the agricultural sector between the 1930s and 1960s. It brought about significant improvements in the agricultural sector by increasing the production required to make India self sufficient in food grains and other crops like sugarcane, oilseeds, pulses, jute and cotton. Prior to India, the technique was adopted by various other countries like Mexico, Taiwan and Brazil but, none recorded such level of success that India did during the time.

Norman Borlaug was the name behind this revolution that outnumbered India in the food grain production. He was proudly known as the Father of Green Revolution and was honoured with the Noble Prize in 1960 for saving billions of people dying out of starvation and hunger.

At the time of independence, in spite of trade and other restrictions on export and import due to fear of competition from the outside world, Indian government and the Ford Foundation joined forces to import wheat from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Initially the state of Punjab was selected to be the first site to try the new crops production due to the availability of water sources and its success in agricultural sector in the past. As a result, the rice yields in India increased to about two tons per hectare in the 1960s; by the mid-1990s, the production rose to six tons per hectare and soon India became one of the world’s most successful rice producers in the world. It became the largest exporter of food grains in the world from being an importer and presently, it is the major rice exporter, shipping approximately 4.5 million tons in 2006.

Green revolution had a widespread impact on the development of the economy. It not only sufficed self sufficiency in the country but also created plenty of job opportunities in the agricultural and industrial sector by creating dams, establishing factories, hydro-electric power stations, etc for enhancing the water supply and led to improvement in the living standards of the rural people. Indian government was able to pay back the entire loan taken from the World Bank and other affiliates, thereby improving the credit worthiness of the country outdoors.

In one of the speeches, Manmohan Singh outlined the contribution of green revolution in the growth of the nation by stating the estimated increment in the percentage of GDP due to its introduction (about 7%). It led to decrease in the poverty ratio of the country, thereby making them economically stable. Efforts are still being made to adopt improved technologies for the expansion of the agricultural sector and the relative output. The government of India also provides subsidies to the farmers on the purchase of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other farm equipments. Also, they are motivated to try and implement new methods of farming and irrigation to help boost the agriculture sector by provision of loans and Kisan Credit Cards.

2

HEALTH IS WEALTH

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. – Mahatma Gandhi

The greatest wealth is our own health. A healthy body can earn great wealth but, a wealthy person cannot earn great health. We live in a fast moving world where individuals have no time for themselves. Most part of the life withers away in search of materialistic wealth in order to outshine others but, en route they lose their health. People eat junk foods and other unhealthy food items just for taste. They don’t even have time to nourish their bodies with the required diet. A good and balanced diet reduces the stress level and promotes healthy life without any sufferings. Thus, it stands for utmost importance to individuals to analyse the significance of a healthy body.

A healthy diet is one that helps to maintain or improve overall health. We should consume a balanced diet consisting of essential nutrition: liquids, adequate proteins, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and calories. We must eat fresh fruits, salad, green leafy vegetables, milk, egg, yoghurt, etc. on time in order to maintain a healthy body. A healthy body also needs some daily physical activities, proper rest and sleep, cleanliness, healthy environment, fresh air and water, personal hygiene, etc. Also, we should drink more water at least 7-8 glasses of water. It balances blood pressure and supplies vital nutrients very fast to the body. A fit and healthy person becomes more resistant to infections and diseases.

Wealth matters however, not as important as health. Spending lots of money on junk food in five star hotels or on other entertainment sources like watching movie for a day etc. doesn’t have any benefits other than self enjoyment. Being physically and mentally healthy helps a person to be socially and financially healthy too. A healthy person becomes more active, lively and energetic and works with full efficiency however; a rich but diseased person gets easily tired and eventually losses the wealth of lifetime i.e. health.

A healthy person can earn lots of money however an unhealthy person cannot because of the lack of motivation, interest and concentration level. Money is the source to live a healthy life however good health is the source to live a happy and peaceful life. So, everyone should take much precaution in maintaining a good health. Everyone should be away from bad habits and unhealthy life style. Being healthy is not only the state of being free of disease, illness or injury but also being happy physically, mentally, socially, intellectually and financially. Good health is actual necessity of happy life and the biggest blessing from the nature.

3

INCREDIBLE INDIA

India or Bharat (literally meaning, quest for knowledge) is the land of Unity in diversity, a country that provides home to approximately 1.25 billion people with different mother tongues, belonging to different regions, castes and creeds. It is known as worldwide for its diversity of cultures, traditions, languages, food, clothing and spices. The country is the seventh largest in the world covering an area of approximately 3, 287,263 km and is the only one in the world having two official names, India and Bharat.

India is a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic which is ruled by the people, made for the people and of the people. It consists of 29 states and 7 union territories with every state having its own bounty of rich cultural legacy. Religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism are practiced by the people throughout the country. About 23 languages are recognised by the constitution of India as Official languages, whereas numerous others are practiced throughout the nation.

India has a rich cultural heritage. From Kerala to Kanyakumari, the country is enriched with beautiful snow peaks, plateaus, valleys, water bodies and plains. Every state and city has its own significance, Kashmir is majorly known for its Pashmina wool and apples, Nagpur for its oranges, Agra for Taj Mahal (one of the seven wonders in the world), Punjab for its agricultural inputs, Bihar for its minerals, Meghalaya for its weather and seasonal extravagances, Bangalore, the Silicon valley of India for its contribution to the IT sector, Karnataka and Kerala for its silk. Also, the country is rich in historical buildings like the Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Qutub Minar, India gate, Meenakshi Temple, Charminar, Jantar Mantar and Ajanta and Alora caves.

The country is a major exporter of engineering goods (19 percent of the total exports), chemical and pharmaceutical products (14 percent), gems and jewellery (14 percent), agricultural and allied products including sugarcane, wheat, rice, cereals, etc. (10 percent) and textiles and clothing (10 percent), making Indian economy the world's seventh-largest by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is one of the fastest growing and most populous democracies of the world.

Once Hu Shih, the Former Ambassador of China said to US that, India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border. India has always maintained cordial relations with most nations all over the world. It also played a vital role during the Non Aligned Movement and soon became of the world's largest arms importer between 2007 and 2011. Now, the country has the third largest military in the world with 1.325 million active troops comprising of Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force and subsidiary organisations include the Strategic Forces Command and three paramilitary groups: the Assam Rifles, the Special Frontier Force, and the Indian Coast Guard.

There has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus (Indians) made when they invented zero. Lancelot Hogben, English Mathematician.

India is the motherland of Sanskrit language, the mother of almost all the languages around the globe, India is the country which has the highest number of engineers and doctors, various type of games and sports like Kabaddi, Chess, Polo with Hockey being the National sport of India making it the sport's most successful team in the Olympics as of 2012 are played. India has also played a major role in popularising cricket making it the most popular sport in India and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is one of the sporting bodies.Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem and Vande Matram is the National song of the nation.

Diversity can also be felt by the varied climatic conditions across the nation. Four seasons namely, summer, winter, autumn and spring prevail throughout the year in most of the parts of the country. Also, India has a variety of cuisines that can be observed by the food habits of the people ranging from Mughlai to south Indian cuisine to Gujarati to Punjabi cuisine.

The unity in diversity of India is the essence of the nation where 1.25 billion people worship 33 crores deities and hail in the name of god; some Shiva, some Allah!, some Waheguru! And some Jesus.

4

SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a cleanliness drive initiated by the government of India and commenced by the Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. It was introduced on the 145th birth anniversary of the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd of October in 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi as a visionary step to fulfil the dream of a clean India.

The campaign is also known as the Clean India Mission or Clean India drive or Swachh Bharat Campaign and is a benchmark campaign that aims at eradicating open defecation by 2019 by constructing 12 crore toilets in rural areas and making India, a dirt-free and beautiful country to live in. It includes the construction of latrines, promotion of sanitation programmes in rural areas, cleaning of streets, roads, converting insanitary toilets into pour flush toilets, changing the infrastructure, eradicating manual scavenging, complete disposal and reuse of solid and liquid wastes, bringing behavioural changes in people and motivating health practices to take the country ahead. It is one of the biggest drives ever and about 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event.

People litter everywhere on roads, bus stands and railway platforms and the industries discharge their wastes into water bodies. It harms the environment as non-biodegradable wastes produce poisonous gases and pollute the environment. In order to make our country clean, we must adopt eco-friendly measures like systematic disposal of industrial wastes, throwing of garbage in the dustbin installed by the government and households must pack bio-degradable and non-biodegradable wastes separately.

Numerous celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar, Priyanka Chopra, Baba Ramdev, Salman Khan, Anil Ambani and International organisations like World Bank have helped raise fund for sustaining the drive and make it a success. Famous personalities walked on streets with a broom in their hand as a way to motivate people about severity of the issue and fill in them the fervour to make their country clean and dirt-free. Also, various government officers swept the corridors of Rashtrapati Bhawan the very next day the campaign started.

As a result of the campaign between April 2014 and January 2015, 31.83 lakh toilets were built and Karnataka led all the other states in construction of toilets under the programme. Till August 2015, 80 lakh toilets have been constructed under the program. Also, the government of India aims at launching a countrywide real-time monitoring system for toilets constructed under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by creating awareness among the people through catchy and informative advertisements in both urban and rural India.

The government of India released a Cleanliness Ranking for 73 cities on 15th February 2016 as an after effect of the campaign and only ten cities namely, Mysuru, Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli, New Delhi Municipal Council, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Rajkot, Gangtok, Pim-prichinchwad and Greater Mumbai were found clean.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. Thus, together as one nation all citizens of nation must join hands in order to fulfil the dream of a clean and beautiful India. It will not only add value to the standard of living of the citizens but will also enhance the image of the country abroad and will create greater opportunities as a means to nurture the growth and development.

5

TELANGANA

Telangana, the twelfth largest and twelfth most populous state of India was formed on 2nd June 2014 with Hyderabad as its capital. It falls in the southern part of the country and covers an area of approximately 114,840 square kilometres. Till 1948, major part of Telangana was ruled over by the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was known as the Telugu-speaking region of the princely state of Hyderabad which dissolved into one big state, Andhra Pradesh in the year 1956.

The word ‘Telangana’ is derived from the Sanskrit word Trilinga or Trilinga Desa which means ‘the country of three lingas’. In the ancient time, Telangana was ruled by several empires namely, the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE to 220 CE), the Kakatiya Dynasty (1083-1323), the Musunuri Nayaks (1326-1356) the Delhi Sultanate, the Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1512),Qutub Shahi dynasty (1512-1687), Mughal Empire (1687-1724) and Asaf Jahi Dynasty (1724-1948).

The Nizam of Hyderabad didn’t want to merge with Indian Union but to remain independent during independence but the Government of India captured Hyderabad State on 17th September 1948 after a military operation called Operation Polo. Telangana is situated on the Deccan Plateau and two major rivers Godavri and Krishna flow through it. There is hot and dry climate for major part of the year. It has three National Parks: Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park in Hyderabad district, and Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park and Mrugavani National Park in Ranga Reddy district.

The official languages of the state are Telugu and Urdu. Telangana has 10 districts, 42 revenue divisions, and 462 mandals. According to the census conducted in 2011, Telangana’s literacy rate was 66.46% with male literacy and female literacy to be 74.95% and 57.92% respectively. The economy of Telangana is majorly driven by agriculture and farming with rice being the major food crop. Other important crops include cotton, sugarcane, mango and tobacco. The state is also growing in fields like biotechnology and information technology. Now, it is one of the top IT states in India consisting of 68 special economic zones (SEZ).

The Telangana state has won CNBC-TV18 most promising state of the year award for the year of 2015 and the Jury for the India Business Leader Awards (IBLA) had collectively chosen Telangana for the award. The state is well connected by structured transportation system through roadways, railways, airways with the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (M.G.B.S) in Hyderabad, which is one of the largest bus stands in Asia. Various monuments like Charminar, Golconda Fort, Qutb Shahi Tombs, Chowmahalla Palace,Falaknuma Palace, Birla Mandir and Bhongir Fort, Warangal Fort are the places of attraction for tourists in the state of Telangana.

6

TOURISM IN INDIA

India has a myriad of cultures, languages and traditions. Every state represents diversity in demographics and festivals. This is what makes our country a tourist’s glee. The tourism industry in India plays an important role in the economy and is growing at a tremendous rate. It generated Rs. 8.31 lakh crore accounting to 6.3 percent of the nation’s GDP in 2015 and generated 37.315 million jobs (8.7% of its total employment). It is found that according to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015, India was ranked 52nd out of 141 countries. The report also stated that India has fairly good air transport (ranked 35th), specifically given the country’s level of development, and reasonable ground transport infrastructure (ranked 50th). The country has good ranks on natural and cultural resources background (ranked 12th).

People from all over the world are attracted to India for its beauty, its unity in diversity, its festivals, cultures and traditions. Andhra Pradesh is one the ‘most preferred’ tourist destinations in India according to a survey done by the Economic Times. The places like Tirupati, Srikurmam, Sri Kalahastishwara Temple, Thimmamma Marrimanu, Pulicat lake and Prakasam Barrage are major tourist attractions in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Bihar attracts tourists to many places like Gaya, Patna, Kesariya and Sasaram, New Delhi, the country’s capital has several monuments like Red Fort, Jantar Mantar, India Gate, Qutub Minar, Lotus Temple and Akshardham Temple for tourists attraction. Many places like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur in Rajasthan are known for their palaces and forts. Kerala is famous for places like Munnar, Trivandrum, Cochin and Kovalam for beaches and beautiful scenery. Jammu and Kashmir attract tourists from all over the world for places like Dal Lake, Ladakh, Srinagar Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Yeusmarg and Mughal Gardens. Meghalaya is famous for places like Umiam lake, Cherrapunji for its rainfall and scenic bounty, Shillong, Elephant Falls, Shadthum Falls, Weinia falls, Bishop Falls, Nohkalikai Falls, Langshiang Falls and Sweet Falls and Maharashtra for places like Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Elephanta Caves and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Indian government is constantly working towards boosting up all sectors of the economy through increased investment, provision of subsidies and implementation of suitable laws. Thus, in order to boost tourism industry, the Government of India has decided to implement a new visa policy, which allows the visitors to get hold of a visa on arrival at 16 designated international airports by obtaining an Electronic Travel Authorisation online before arrival. Therefore, people don’t have to visit the visa centre or the Indian consulate.

Tourism has improved tremendously due to technological establishments in the industry since last few decades but it needs to be enhanced. Crimes like robbery, theft, harassment, rape still holds people back from visiting India and cleanliness is a major concern. People throw garbage everywhere on roads and make the places dirty. Thus, in order to overcome the problem proper dustbins must be installed at all places, washrooms must be installed, eco-friendly modes of transportation should be used and awareness drives must be held at places to create awareness about the cleanliness issue.

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiated by Mr. Narendra Modi is one such cleanliness drive that aims at making India a clean, dirt-free and beautiful nation. Other schemes and programmes like Tourism Vision Document 2030, which defines the challenges faced by this sector and gives details about the ‘Tourism vision 2030’, Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board: It is a Board that will provide leadership of the Government within a framework of prudent and effective measures, thereby enabling promotion and positioning of India as a competent and credible medical and wellness tourism destination and launch of Bi-Lingual Website of Ministry of Tourism.

7

AIDS

AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is one of the most deadly diseases for mankind. It is caused by infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and deliberately breaks down the immune system of the body by entering in the white blood cells and rupturing the reproductive processes of the body. The cure to this disease hasn’t been found till date and it was observed in the year 2014 that the virus took about 1.2 million lives.

HIV is commonly spread via blood and semen through unprotected sex (both penetrative and oral), mother to child during pregnancy, delivery of pregnancy, hypodermic needles and blood transfusions. Basically, the transfer of bodily fluids from one body to the other in the above mentioned forms causes the HIV virus to spread. But, some body liquids like saliva and tears don’t transmit this virus. The first symptoms are usually characterised by a brief period of illness and then the other symptoms including fever, lethargy, nausea, headache, rashes, etc. can be noticed after a period of six months.

AIDS was first found by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the year 1981 and HIV infection was recognized during the beginning of the decade. In 1986, India witnessed the first case of AIDS infection in the prostitutes of Chennai and Tamil Nadu. AIDS not only has a great impact on the body functioning of individuals but also on the society, where it became a source of discrimination. People infected with the virus are teased, discriminated and made fun off in the society.

AIDS cannot be cured but