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Domestic crude oil production fell for the fourth straight year in 2015-16, even as oil consumption rocketed 11%, pushing up India's import dependence. A collapse in oil prices coupled with a rapid economic growth has helped push up oil consumption at home. More vehicle purchases, increased use of diesel for irrigation due to weak monsoon and rising air traffic chiefly drove up consumption to 183.5 million metric tonne (mmt), compared to 165.5 mmt in the previous year. In comparison, India produced just 36.9 mmt of crude oil in 2015-16, lower than 37.5 mmt in the previous year. The country's largest oil producer, state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation BSE -0.35 % (ONGC), witnessed an output decline to 18.5 mmt from 18.6 mmt in the previous year. Oil producers have been struggling with ageing fields where outputs have been falling. Their inability to fresh big reserves into production lately has kept production stagnant. "The bigger problem is that the exploration activity didn't pick up in the last decade," said Gaurav Moda, consultant at KPMG, underlining the need to enhance exploration activity in the country to be able to accelerate output in the future. Without which, Moda says, India's dependence on overseas oil will only grow in future. The government has unveiled new exploration policies for its oil and gas blocks lately, aiming to plug loopholes in its previous policies that encouraged only limited participation of resource-rich foreign oil companies and couldn't dramatically boost the domestic output. India imported 202 mmt of crude oil in 2015-16, nearly 7% higher in volume, but paid just $64 billion, 43% lower due to the global oil collapse.
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The constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of guidelines and principles by which the Roman Republic was governed. The constitution evolved over time and was largely unwritten and uncodified, being passed down mainly through precedent. Nevertheless, the constitution was also shaped by the body of written Roman law.
Rather than creating a government that was primarily a democracy (as in ancient Athens), an aristocracy (as in ancient Sparta), or a monarchy (as in the Roman state before and, in many respects, after the Republic), the Roman Republic had a mixed constitution, with three separate branches of government:
The democratic element took the form of the legislative assemblies.
The aristocratic element took the form of the Senate.
The monarchical element took the form of the term-limited consuls.
The ultimate source of sovereignty in this ancient republic, as in modern republics, was the people of Rome (Latin: populus Romanus). The Roman people gathered into legislative assemblies to pass laws and to elect executive magistrates, such as consuls. The Senate managed the day-to-day affairs in Rome, while magistrates presided over the courts. Executive magistrates enforced the law and presided over the Senate and the legislative assemblies.
A complex set of checks and balances developed among these three branches, so as to minimize the risk of tyranny and corruption, and to maximize the likelihood of good government. However, the separation of powers between these three branches of government was not absolute; and moreover, a magistrate's term of office was often extended beyond one year, although this conflicted with the constitution. A constitutional crisis began in 133 BC as a result of the Conflict of the Orders, a prolonged struggle between the aristocracy and the common people. Many years later this led to the collapse of the Roman Republic and its subversion into a much more autocratic form of government, the Roman Empire.
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Urban areas have been recognized as “engines of inclusive economic growth”. Of the 121 crore Indians, 83.3 crore live in rural areas while 37.7 crore stay in urban areas, i.e approx 32 % of the population. The census of India, 2011 defines urban settlement as: All the places which have municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee. The first category of urban units are known as Statutory town. These towns are notified under law by respective State/UT government and have local bodies like municipal corporation, municipality, etc, irrespective of demographic characteristics. For example- Vadodara (Municipal corporation), Shimla (Municipal corporation).The second category of towns is known as Census Town. These were identified on the basis of census 2001 data. Cities are urban areas with more than 100,000 population. Urban areas below 100,000 are called towns in India. While determining the outgrowth of a town, it has been ensured that it possesses the urban features in terms of infrastructure and amenities such as pucca roads, electricity, taps, drainage system for disposal of waste water etc., educational institutions, post offices, medical facilities, banks etc. and is physically contiguous with the core town of the UA. Examples: Central Railway Colony (OG), Triveni Nagar (N.E.C.S.W.) (OG), etc. Each such towns together with its outgrowth(s) is treated as an integrated urban area and is designated as an ‘urban agglomeration’.
Urban areas are managed by urban local bodies(ULBs), who look after the service delivery and grievance redressal of citizens. There are eight type of urban local government in India- municipal corporation municipality, notified area committee, town area committee, cantonment board, township, port trust and special purpose agencies.Migration is the key process underlying growth of urbanisation; and the process of urbanization is closely related with rural to urban migration of people. In most developing countries of the world where rate of urban growth is relatively higher the urban-ward migration is usually high. Rural to urban migration is by far the major component of urbanisation and is the chief mechanism by which urbanisation trends all the world-over has been accomplished.After independence, urbanization in India is increasing at very high pace, but at the same time there are some problems, which are becoming barriers for balance, equitable and inclusive development.
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Lake Victoria is one of the African greatest lakes. The lake was named after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it. Speke accomplished this in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton to locate the source of Nile River. Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second largest fresh water lake by surface area, after Lake Superior in North America. The Kangera River is the largest river flowing into this lake, with its mouth on the lake's western shore. Lake Victoria is drained solely by the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, on the lake's northern shore.
A passage is given with 10 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
When one looks at monetary flows, along with the creation of jobs, the tourism sector represents one of the largest industries globally. The preceding aspect is an important one, as tourism provides the opportunity for small and medium-sized (5 through 500 employees) businesses to form, along with microenterprises that typically consist of fewer than six people, and usually represent family operations. These types of enterprises create employment opportunities, and in tourism, particularly in developing countries, the influx of tourist money provides openings for street vendors, cart food services, transport, and other self-employment. The preceding has been brought forth to provide the context for this examination to the extent that tourism can be sustainable in developing countries. The point being made is that the hard currency flows represent an economic benefit that is important not only in tourism money spent but also as a basis for foreign investment and the creation of opportunities for foreign businesses to set up operations, with tourism as the entree.
Sustainable tourism in developing countries represents an important economic aspect that can help to increase foreign investment in a broader sphere of industrial areas outside of tourism. The importance of tourism is that it is an important economic tool that can be utilised for a broad range of areas that can benefit a developing country if its government has the vision, commitment, and foresight to see the real world implications and demonstrated successes that tourism can bring. As pointed out, tourism represents a commitment to infrastructure, marketing, promotion, and the involvement of the private business sector along with the local communities that will be impacted to set the foundation for programs, facilities, business opportunities and commercial realisations that benefit the locale. Tourism is a means to change external opinions and perceptions of an area through internally directed programs such as place marketing. While some destinations may have been discovered by travellers or writers and became trendy ‘in spots’ that position will dwindle for the next ‘in spot’ unless the government takes notice and seizes the opportunity to make the location such that it stays on the tourist radar. In other instances, locales can be put into the tourist arena as a result of their special circumstances and conditions, such as weather, beaches, lakes, snow, forests, wild animals, monuments and ancient cities, cultural festivals and the like, Whatever the nuance, the building of travel requires planned infrastructure to enhance the experience. Easy transport access, rent cars, power, Internet lines, police, etc. Sustainable tourism requires sustainable efforts in order to make it work.
What is the synonym of the given word?
Commitment