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Three kinds of Minority Representation are: Cumulative Vote System: Involves with member constituencies. A voter has as many votes as the number of seats. A voter has the right to the option of either giving his votes to all, to a few or even to concentrate all his votes just for one candidate. A well organized minority has an opportunity to get at least one of its representatives elected by cumulating all its votes in favor of its own candidate.

Limited Vote System: Involves multi-member constituencies: Voter has certain number of votes which is less than the number of seats to be filled. This system acts as a check on the monopolization of representation in a constituency by a single political body and helps minority to get at least one seat.

Communal Representation: This entails Separate electorate for separate communities. A second method is reservation of seats in joint electorate: the voter may cast votes for the candidates of communities other than their own. But in deciding the result, a member of community who gets the highest number of votes among candidates of that community will be elected.

The First-Past-The-Post system is the simplest form of majority system, using single-member districts and candidate-centered voting. The voter is presented with the names of the nominated candidates and votes by choosing only one, of them. The winning candidate is simply the person who wins the most votes. E.g. India, and the United States.

A Parliamentary form of government is where the parliament is supreme. The government at the center or the executive branch of the government is supported either directly or indirectly by the members of the parliament. A vote of confidence shows the support for the government’s decisions.

Following are the features of a parliamentary form of government: 

Nominal Head: A Parliamentary government has two heads-a titular and a real one. The nominal head is the head of state in name. The true powers reside in the real head, i.e. Prime Minister and his council of ministers.

Collective and Individual Responsibility: The cabinet has the responsibility of making decisions for the country. The roles are divided among the ministers. Portfolios are distributed for effective governance but the minister who holds the portfolio is accountable for the decisions he makes. Similarly, if the cabinet has collectively made a decision then all its members are responsible for the same. Censure motions or Cut motions/No-confidence motions can be passed against the ministers if they act irresponsibly.

Centrally important position of the Prime Minister in the Indian Parliamentary System: The powers and functions of the Prime Minister clearly bring out the fact that he is the most powerful person in the Indian Political System. He exercises real and formidable powers in all spheres of governmental activity – Executive, Legislative and Financial. The powers that the Constitution vests in the President are exercised by the Cabinet, which is headed by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is the captain of the ship, of state, the keystone of cabinet-arch, the steering wheel of the government, and the moon against lesser stars.

Lok Sabha is more powerful than Rajya Sabha in following two areas : 

• No-confidence motion against council of ministers is passed only in Lok Sabha. 

• A Money Bill can be introduced in Lok Sabha only

Bi-party system means there are only two major parties and the rest of the parties are less important.

Merits: 

Stable Government: The Government is more stable in a bi-party system because the party which has a majority in the legislature forms the Government and the other party acts as opposition.

Direct Election of the Government: In this system, the Government is elected by the people directly. As the voters know the party in whose favor they are casting their votes. Thus, the people vote for the party whom they wish to form a Government.

It Ensures A Strong Government and Continuity of Policy: Because of the stability of the Government in a bi-party system, it is strong and it can pursue good policy continuously.

Responsibility for the Failure and Short-comings of the Government Easily Located in Their system: In a bi-party system, the Government is in the hands of one party, and thus it is responsible for the reputation of the government

Some countries including India use the first-past-the-post system to elect their governments or the members of the parliament. A country or its states are divided into constituencies according to their population figures. Each constituency is represented by a candidate from every political party. Amongst them, the candidate who receives the majority votes is declared the winner in the constituency and his party represents that constituency in the lower house of the Union or state legislature.

Advantages of FPTP system: First Past The Post, like other plurality/majority electoral systems, is defended primarily on the grounds of simplicity and its tendency to produce winners who are representatives beholden to defined geographic areas and governability. The most often cited advantages of FPTP system are:

It provides a clear-cut choice for voters between two main parties. The inbuilt disadvantages faced by third and fragmented minority parties under FPTP in many cases cause the party system to gravitate towards a party of the ‘left’ and a party of the ‘right’, alternating in power. Third parties often wither away and almost never reach a level of popular support above which their national vote yields a comparable percentage of seats in the legislature.

It promotes a link between constituents and their representatives, as it produces a legislature made up of representatives of geographical areas. Elected members represent defined areas of cities, towns or regions rather than just party labels. Some analysts have argued that this ‘geographic accountability’ is particularly important in agrarian societies and in developing countries. (Anyone)

Drawbacks: 

However, FPTP is frequently criticized for a number of reasons :

It excludes smaller parties from ‘fair’ representation, in the sense that if a party which wins approximately, say, 10 percent of the votes should win approximately 10 percent of the legislative seats. In the 1993 federal election in Canada, the Progressive Conservatives won 16 percent of the votes but only 0.7 percent of the seats and in the 1998 general election in Lesotho, the Basotho National Party won 24 percent of the votes but only 1 percent of the seats. This is a pattern which is repeated time and time again under FPTP.

It leaves a large number of wasted votes which do not go towards the election of any candidate. This can be particularly dangerous if combined with regional freedoms, because minority party supporters in the region may begin to feel that they have no realistic hope of ever electing a candidate of their choice. It can also be dangerous where alienation from the political system increases the likelihood that extremists will be able to mobilize anti-system movements. (Any one)

Bi-party system is considered best for parliamentary form of government because : 

• Bi-party system is the essence of a successful parliamentary democracy. It ensures a strong and stable government. 

• Bi-party system offers a clear programme of the two parties before the voters who know certainly for which policies they are voting.

In a Bi-party system, power usually changes between two main parties. Several other parties may exist, contest elections and win a few seats in the national legislature. But only the two main parties have a serious chance of winning majority of seats to form government.

When several parties compete for power and more than two parties have reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with others, it is known as a multi-party system.

Legislative: The Lok Sabha can pass bills concerning all those subjects which have been included in the Union List and the Concurrent List. It can pass bills regarding state subjects also in case of emergencies or if Rajya Sabha by a resolution passed by majority of its total members and 2/3 of its members present and voting declared a particular state subject of national importance. However, such a bill can be valid for a year only.

A non-money Bill can be initiated in any of the two Houses. In case, the Houses cannot come to an agreement, the President may summon a joint session of both the Houses of Parliament. If the Bill is passed by the majority of the total members of the Houses concerned in a joint session, it is deemed to have been passed by both the Houses of Parliament. Since the membership of Lok Sabha is almost double to that of the Rajya Sabha, the will of the former is likely to prevail. Thus supremacy of Lok Sabha over Rajya Sabha in ordinary or important non-money bills is self-evident.

Financial: The Lok Sabha’s control over purse is an undisputed fact. A money bill must be initiated in the Lok Sabha. When passed by the Lok Sabha, it is to be transmitted to the Rajya Sabha for its recommendations. The Constitution, however, requires the Rajya Sabha to return it to the Lok Sabha with its recommendations within 14 days from the date of receipt of the bill.

Control over the Executive: In a Parliamentary form of government, the most important function of a lower House is “Control over the Executive”. The lower house of our Parliament is not an exception. According to Article 75(3), the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. This means the ministry must tender resignation if a vote of non-confidence is passed against it by the Lok Sabha. There are other effective methods also adopted by our lower House, like that of other lower Houses in Parliamentary form of governments, to control the executive.

The Ministers in charge of various departments can be interrogated and censured by the members of the House. The bill introduced by the government may be rejected by the House. The adjournment motion may be moved to criticize the government or raise discussions on matters of vital importance for short duration. A resolution moving a token cut in the budget or the grant to a particular ministry may be passed, reflecting lack of confidence in the ministry by the majority in the House.

Electoral Function: Article 54 of the Constitution vests electoral functions of the Parliament. The elected members of both the Houses of Parliament constitute a part of the Electoral College for the election of President. Article 66 provides for the election of the Vice-President by the members of both the Houses of Parliament at a joint session. 

The Lok Sabha elects its speaker as well.

Discussions on Questions of Public Importance: The Parliament possesses unlimited power of discussing and debating questions. This is done usually on the occasion of the inaugural and annual address by the President of India. It is empowered to review and criticize the work of the different departments of state during the discussion on the estimates of expenditure, the appropriation and revenue bills. Through such criticism and review, the members of House can get their grievances redressed.

Miscellaneous Powers: The Lok Sabha together with the Rajya Sabha possesses the power of amending the Constitution.

The Lok Sabha along with the Rajya Sabha, has the power to move petition for the removal of judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts on the ground of proven misbehavior and incapacity by an address supported by a 2/3rd majority of the members present and voting and also majority of their total membership in each House.

The Lok Sabha participates in the impeachment of the President of India. Either of the two Houses of the Parliament frames the charges and the other House sits as a Court of trial.

The resolution passed by the Rajya Sabha for the removal of the Vice-President is subjected to ratification by the Lok Sabha as well.

Proclamation of emergency issued by the President needs approval of Lok Sabha along with Rajya Sabha for its continuance.

The Lok Sabha, in collaboration with the Rajya Sabha, must devise the system of effectively controlling the official bureaucracy by jealously maintaining its purity and the high standard of its ability and by making it more responsive to the people at large.

The House serves as a public forum. “The potential virtue of a public forum is twofold. First, it can benefit the spectators who may leam by watching. Second, it can improve the participants who may have yet to find reasons with which to clothe the interests they represent.” The House, in fact, is the mirror and educator of popular feeling. The impact of Parliament is more than political. The habit of orderly discussion, once established, helps to set the tone of public life in general.

Eligibility Guidelines set by U.S. Constitution : Article II of the United States Constitution establishes the Executive Branch of the Government, including the President, Vice-President and other executive officers. 

Within Article II, rules are set as to who can become President and how a President is elected :

Article II 

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He or she shall hold his office during the term of four years and together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows :

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years and have been fourteen years a resident within the United States.”

Every four years, people in the United States elect a new President on a Tuesday followed by first Monday in November. Last year the date fell on November 8, 2016. The American election system is not straightforward, as mere votes do not allow one to win the presidency.

Here is how the system works starting from who can become a presidential candidate to the day, a newly-elected President is inaugurated in five steps:

The Requirements : 

If one want to contest for the presidency one has to fulfill the following criteria :

• One should be a natural-born US citizen. 

• One has to be 35 years of age. 

 One must be a US resident for the past 14 years.

Primaries and Caucuses: Each candidate is backed by a party and each party has its own believers. The primaries and caucuses help bring these like-minded candidates and believers of a party together to choose a candidate who will represent the party in the general elections. In a way, these are ‘elections before elections’ where one candidate of each party is selected by party believers before they go on to face the general elections.

During caucuses, voters divide themselves into groups according to who they support in the party. They then discuss and give speeches to convince others to join their group. Finally, votes are called in and the winner is chosen. These are private meetings organized by political parties.

Delegates: At the end of every primary or caucus, the candidates of different parties pick up ‘delegates’. Each candidate of a party has to pick up a pre-determined number of delegates to win the nomination.

If one wants to become a Democratic party candidate one has to pick up 2,383 of 4,765 delegates. To become a Republican party candidate one has to pick up 1,237 of 2,472 delegates.

The question of why the target of the delegate is different for each party needs along winding explanation. Delegates are of two types – pledged and pledged.

National Conventions: Parties hold national conventions to announce the candidate, who has picked up the required number of delegates, as the party’s nominee for the general elections.

If no one has achieved the magic number then the convention becomes a brokered or contested one. The pledged delegates and unpledged delegates come into the spotlight. Contested convention is equivalent to the election of a Pope. Because there was no consensus in the primaries and caucuses, another round of voting is conducted. Wherein ‘pledged delegates’ usually have to vote for the candidate they were awarded to in the first round of voting, while unpledged delegates don’t. Pledged delegates may be allowed to choose any candidate in subsequent rounds of voting. The voting continues until a consensus emerges and a nominee is finalized.

General Elections: US citizens vote to choose their President during general elections. But here too they do not choose the president directly. The US follows an indirect method called electoral college to choose the president. Under this system, citizens vote for a group of people known as electors. And the electors, in turn, choose the president.

In the electoral college system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its representation in Congress. There is a total of 538 electoral votes.

Each political party nominates electors who are state-elected officials, party leaders or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the presidential candidate. Each selected elector casts one vote following the general election and the candidate who crosses the 270 mark wins. The newly-elected president is inaugurated in January

Advantages of bi-party system : 

Stable Government: The Government is more stable in a bi-party system because the party which has a majority in the legislature forms the Government and the other party acts as opposition.

Direct Election of the Government: In this system, the Government is elected by the people directly. The voters know the party in whose favor they are casting their votes. Thus, the people vote for the party whom they wish to form a Government.

It Ensures A Strong Government and Continuity, of Policy: Because of the stability of the Government in a bi-party system, it is strong and it can pursue good policy continuously.

With only two parties working in the country, political stability is maintained. With two-party system, the confusions and constant threats of coalitions can be avoided as all the members in the party believe in the same philosophy. It is also easy to fix responsibility for any debacle that may happen or pin any success that follows policy implementation. As the government works for the whole term, the effects of its policy are easier to track.

Both the Rajya Sabha of India and the Senate of USA are Upper Houses of their respective legislatures. This means that both houses represent the member states. In contrast, the lower houses i.e., Lok Sabha in India and House of Representatives in USA do not represent the member states, but represent constituencies. The practical understanding of this is: Each state of the country is divided into several constituencies and from each one, one representative is elected who becomes a part of the lower house. This person represents the constituency from which he/she is elected. This is in contrast to members of the upper houses. Each state of the country is represented by two senators and both of them represent the entire state and not any particular constituency as such.

The difference is in the power each house wields. And the reason for this difference of power lies in the difference in the nature of government in both nations i.e., India and USA. USA is a classic example of a federation. A federation is one that has “member states” that are partially self-governing, but that operate under the ambit of the central government. In USA, each state has its own constitution and provides its own citizenship. In India, however, federalism has a unitary bias and hence separate citizenship is not recognized, separate constitutions do not exist and neither does any real freedom of state governments. Rather, state governments depend largely on the center for resources and party affiliations guide this center-state relationship to a.great extent.

An upper house is less powerful than the lower house, as a general principle. This is because a lower house is directly elected by the people. However, USA can be said to be the “exception” to this. The Senate is considered to be the “most powerful upper house in the world”. In comparison, the Rajya Sabha is a weak, superfluous and redundant house.

Election Method: The Senators are in fact directly elected by the citizens of the states. Hence, they have direct support and approval of the people. In contrast, members of the Rajya Sabha are indirectly elected. They are elected by the legislatures of the state governments. They do not have direct representation of the people.

Composition: The Senate gives equal representation to all states irrespective of size or population. This means that both small states and large states get two members. All states get an equal voice in the process of law-making. This is in contrast to Rajya Sabha members where each state’s representation depends upon population. More populated states get a louder voice and hence rule of the majority is very common. This makes it easy for the ruling party to ignore opposition and interests of the minorities.

Powers: The Senate is more powerful than the House of Representatives in many ways. First, the Senate has almost complete control over the Budget. Second, the President requires ratification of the Senate for treaties. The Rajya Sabha in comparison has no control over the Budget, except for a “delaying” power. Not passing a bill has no productive outcome since the joint sessions method for resolving a dispute between the houses favors the Lok Sabha since it would be headed by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha itself.

Representation: Each member of the Senate represents say half of the state he/she is elected from (the other member representing the other half). Hence, they have more voter backing. The Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, represents a smaller number (a fixed number) and hence has a smaller voter backing.

Compactness: Since the Senate has just 100 members, it makes discussions and deliberations simpler. Members get more time to speak as well. The Rajya Sabha, however, has 235 members. Members may not get enough time to speak. Plus, more people always lead to more chaos.

One can say that both houses are similar merely in the fact that they are “upper houses” and represent state interests. But they radically differ in the context of powers, functions and the nuanced implications of the same.

Legislative Powers of the Senate : In the sphere of legislation, the Senate enjoys coequal powers with the House of Representatives. Any non-money bill can originate in it. After its passage from the Senate, the bill goes to the House of Representatives. If it also passes it, the bill goes to the President for his signatures and becomes a law if signed by the President or even if the President fails to sign it and 10 days elapse. The bills first passed by the House of Representatives, likewise, come to the Senate and become laws when passed by the Senate and signed by the President. However, in case there emerges a conflict between the two houses over any bill, a joint conference committee and each house send 3 members. The decision of this committee finally settles the fate of the bill. 

Usually, the Senate manages to have its way in this committee.

Financial Powers of the Senate: Senate plays a vitally important role in the passing of financial legislation by the U.S. Congress. No money bill can be introduced in the Senate. It can be introduced only in the House of Representatives. However, after its passage from the House, it comes to the Senate. The Senate has the power to make any amendment to the money bills. Thus the final shape of money bill depends on the wishes and the decisions of the state.

Senate as the Court of Impeachment: In impeachment proceedings, the House of Representatives has been given the power to frame charges and the Senate has been given “the sole power” to try impeachment. The impeachment resolution passed by the House of Representatives contains charges against the concerned official. The resolution comes before the Senate and it sits as the court of impeachment for investigating and finally deciding the case. In case, after the investigations and hearings, the Senate accepts and passes the impeachment resolution by a 2/3rd majority, the person concerned stands impeached. Conviction by the Senate in impeachment is beyond the President’s power to grant pardon.

However, the Senate while convicting the person bypassing the impeachment resolution cannot impose any fine or punishment. It can only remove the person from office and can permanently disqualify him from holding office under the national government.

The executive function of the Indian government with the President as the head along with the Prime Minister and his council of ministers comprises determining the policy and carrying out the execution, maintaining order, promoting economic and social welfare and directing the foreign policy.

The general supervision and management of the State lies with in area of expertise of the Executive. The President can exercise these powers on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. The main function of the Executive is the enforcement of law and maintenance of law and order. It is the duty of the Executive to bring violators of the law of the land to justice.

All the actions that the executive arm of the government takes, is in the name of the President. As the President is the ‘head’ of the nation, all the council of ministers are his subordinates and have to take his say in the matter. The Executive has the power to appoint and dismiss high officials and dignitaries. All primary appointments are undertaken by the Chief Executive, i.e. the President of India. He/She appoints the Chief Justice of India among other Supreme Court and High Court Judges. Along with those, the President also appoints the Advocate General of India, Ambassadors, Governors of State etc.

The Executive powers of the government also include taking care of the relations that the nation develops with foreign powers. The Executive is responsible for the decision to sign treaties with nations. The parliament has the power of making decisions regarding treaties with other nations. The Executive appoints the ambassadors representing India in other countries. With the provisions of the Constitution and the International Law, the Executive negotiates the treaties with other countries.

Comparison of Indian Lok Sabha and US House of Representatives: Indian Lok Sabha, (House of the People) and the US House of Representatives, each is a lower house, a democratically and directly elected house, a representative and national house which represents the people and mirrors national public opinion. These are quite similar in their organizational structures.

Indian Lok Saba has a strength of 545 members, each member represents a territorial constituency. He is elected directly by the people of the constituency.

The principles which govern his elections are : Universal Adult Franchise (voting age minimum 18 years) single-member constituency, secret ballot, simple-majority-vote victory system. Some constituencies are reserved constituencies from which only persons belonging to SC’s and ST’s can contest elections, but all the voters vote in these constituencies. The elections are always keenly contested. A number of candidates, both party candidates and independents contest these elections. All Indian political parties contest these elections.

Each MP is elected for a term of 5 years. All the members of the Lok Sabha together represent the sovereign people of India. Only two of its members are nominated members. The President of India can nominate 2 members of the Anglo Indian community to the Lok Sabha in case he feels that this community has not been adequately represented in the Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha can be dissolved before the expiry of its full term by the President of Indian acting on the advice of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

The US House of Representatives is the lower house of US Congress. It has a strength of 435 members. It is a national representative house whose members are directly elected by the people of the USA.

The principles which govern their elections are : Universal Adult Franchise, single-member constituencies (Called Electoral Districts) secret ballot and simple-majority-vote-victory system. There is no provision for reservation of any seat. House of Representatives has a short tenure of 2 years. However, it is a fixed and stable tenure before the expiry of which, it cannot be dissolved.

The Indian Lok Sabha is presided over by the Speaker, who acts as a neutral chairman. However, he maintains his party membership and has to contest elections for securing a seat in the Lok Sabha. He is elected as the Speaker by the members of the Lok Sabha.

The Speaker, after getting elected to the office, resigns his party membership and becomes a totally neutral person both inside and outside the house. He presides over the meetings of Lok Sabha and always maintains neutrality and objectivity in his behavior.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives is elected by the members of the House. He always belongs to the majority party. Since the executive is not present in the House of Representatives; the US Speaker always acts as the leader of his party (majority party). He openly favors his party in the House. He is a politician through and through, and his conduct is always a matter of political talk and controversies.

Indian Speaker follows a middle path a political neutral inside the Lok Sabha and a party member outside. Indian Lok Sabha is a powerful House. India is a federation and the Union Parliament can legislate only on the subjects of Centre List, Concurrent List and the Residuary subjects. Though, in ordinary law-making in the elections of the President and Vice President, in the amendment of the constitution and in aspects of impeachment powers, the Rajya Sabha enjoys equal powers with the Lok Sabha, yet it enjoys a superior status in other matters. Its position is decidedly better than US House of Representatives.

The US House of Representatives is relatively a weak house. With a short tenure of two years and due to a narrower representative base in comparison with US Senate, it is at a disadvantageous position. Theoretically, it has coequal powers with the Senate in respect of ordinary laws, and the money bills can originate only in it. However, in actual practice, the house of Representatives finds its position weak in comparison with the Senate, which has a longer tenure, quasi-permanent chamber, a final say in financial legislation, and a house with some special checking powers (in respect of Appointments and Treaties) over the US President.

The position of Senate in the US Congress is decidedly stronger than the House of representatives. Thus, Lok Sabha and the us House of Representatives are both Lower houses in their respective parliaments but Lok Sabha appears more powerful than its US counterpart.

The main advantages of bicameral legislature are as follows : 

Second Chamber is a Safeguard against the Despotism of a Single Chamber : The second chamber is essential for preventing the first House from becoming arbitrary and despotic. As such a single chamber with all the legislative power can become corrupt and despotic. The second chamber is needed for keeping the first chamber in balance and away from tyrannical tendencies. It is an essential means for safeguarding ourselves against the arbitrariness of the legislature with a single chamber.

Second Chamber is Essential for Preventing Hasty and Ill-considered Legislation : With a view to satisfy mass passions and demands, the single chamber can commit the mistake of passing ill-considered measures in a haste, which can subsequently be a source of big harm to the national interests. The second chamber, with a composition different from the first chamber, can prevent or at least considerably limit such chances. The directly elected lower chamber is liable to be swayed with popular passions resulting into half-baked expediency based on ill-considered laws.

Second Chamber acts as a Revising Chamber : The legislative work in the modern welfare state has become highly complex and technical. It demands a deep and carefully examination of all aspects of the measures which are to be enacted into laws. A single chamber can be guilty of both omission of desired laws and ‘commissions of errors’. There is, therefore, full justification for having a second chamber performing the role of a reviser. Second Chamber Lessens the Burden of the First House. A modem legislature has to pass a large number of laws covering all aspects of social relations. Under the circumstances, a legislature with a single chamber is most likely to be found wanting and unable to meet the heavy rush. Two Houses can together share the legislative work and handle the entire work systematically. The division of work between the two Houses can go a long way to increase the ability of the legislature to cope with the rush of work and to ensure efficiency in handling it.

Two Houses Better Represent Public Opinion : A single House can grow out of tune and fail to keep in pace with public opinion. The second House chosen at a different time can help the legislature in overcoming the above defect and in keeping continuous contact with the public opinion. Essential for giving Representation to Special 

Interests : The second chamber provides a convenient means for giving representation to different classes and interests which need representation but which, for want of proper organization or disinclination for contesting elections or other reasons, do not get such representation in the lower House. Laborers, women, scientists, artists, teachers, intellectuals, writers, special interest groups can be given suitable and necessary special representation in the upper House.

Delay is Useful: The passing of laws by two Houses instead of a single House, leads to some delay. However, this delay is a very useful interval as it helps the crystallization of public opinion on all bills before they become laws. The existence of second chamber, “interposes delay between the introduction and final adoption of a measure and thus permits time for reflection and deliberation.” Bicameralism is a Source of Independence for the 

Executive : The two Houses of the legislature act as checks on each other. The authority and role of each House has a balancing effect on the other. This feature helps the executive to act with more and needed independence.

House of Representatives is the lower, popular and directly elected House of the U.S. Congress. It represents the people of the United States and is directly responsible to them. We can describe it as the “National representative House which directly reflects the national public opinion.

Composition : The House of Representatives consists of 435 directly elected representatives of the people. It is generally agreed that the strength of 435 is adequate to represent the people of the U.S .A. The Constitution lays down that no representative shall represent less than 30,000 citizens, but a state must be represented by at least one representative even if its population is less than 30,000.

Legislative Powers : In the sphere of law-making, the House of Representatives has legally an equal share with the Senate. Any bill in respect of any Federal subject can be introduced in it. After getting passed from it, the bill goes to the Senate. In case the Senate also passes it, the bill goes to the President for his signatures. In case, the President signs it or if he does not sign it and 10 days elapse, it becomes an act. In case, however, the President returns the bill within 10 days and with or without proposals for changes, the two Houses have to repass it by 2/3rd majority. Failure to get 2/3rd majority in any House, means the rejection of the bill. In case there develops a conflict between the House of Representatives and the Senate, and it remains unresolved, the two Houses appoint a six-member (3 from each House) conference committee which gives the final verdict regarding the fate of the bill.

Financial Powers : Money bills can originate only in the House of Representatives. The budget too is first introduced in this House. The Money Bills and the budget are first passed by it. Thereafter, these go to the Senate which has the power to make any change in them. As such the Senate determines the final shape of money bill. The priority given to the House of Representatives in respect of the introduction of the money bill, in fact acts as a limitation because it gives to the Senate the opportunity to take the final decision.

Constituent Powers : The passing of an amendment by the Congress requires approval by 2/3rd majority in both the Houses. House of Representatives as such has equal role in initiating amendments to the Constitution. The Houses together and not the Senate or the House separately can undertake the initiation of amending executive functions. The House of Representatives has only minor executive functions. It can appoint investigation committees for investigating the working of various Government departments. The Congress i.e., the House of Representatives and the Senate together, have power to declare war. Senate cannot do it individually, besides, the House of Representatives has not been assigned any role in the executive sphere.

Judicial Functions : The House of Representatives, acting along with the Senate has the power to create new Federal courts and decide their jurisdictions. It shares.with the Senate, the power to impeach the President, Vice President, the Judges of Supreme Court and other high Federal officials.

The powers of the President of U.S.A.: 

• The U.S. has adopted the presidential form of government and as such the U.S. President is both the real as well as the nominal head of the government. 

• The President of U.S. holds a permanent tenure of four years and he is not responsible to the legislature . 

• The President of U.S. can nominate and by and with the consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court and all other officers of the United State powers. 

• The President has almost unhindered authority to remove persons he disapproves of as executive members. 

• The President not only formulates foreign policy but also conducts foreign relations of the U.S .A. 

• All executive actions are taken by the President or under his authority and in his name by his secretaries and civil 

• U.S. President is the head of the state. As the head of the state, he performs all such ceremonial functions which are performed by heads of states of all other countries. 

• The U. S. President is the single most powerful leader of the American nation, upon whom the whole nation depends for their peace, security and development needs.

Two forms of political violence in India are genocide and war.

The three forms of Political violence in India can be categorized in the following way :

 Inter-State: There are certain matters like distribution of river water, inclusion and exclusion of certain linguistic areas into state, where we find political violence done by the political parties, its supporters and public mobilization as well. In such cases two or more states participate when their political motives do not get accommodated into the existing system.

Intra-State: Political violence takes place when within the state two or more opposing political parties come up with their unmatchable issues. Political violence also takes place when people of the same state comes out for political demonstration, political strikes and political movements against the ruling party or the government.

Communal Issues: India is the house to many different religions with its rights. Being a secular state, all the existing religions have rights to propagate , and practice any religion according to their choice. And while doing so, we find different communal people clash with each other in order to protect their religious rights. At times, they take the form of riots as well. Then strong actions are taken to curb the issues and settle down the matters.

The measures to meet the challenges of political violence in India :

Political violence as an organized activity takes different forms in India, like caste violence, mass movement, election violence, terrorism, separatist violence or communal violence. 

The following measures are suggested to check the political violence in India:

1. Developing a psychology of peace and non-violence through the formal and nonformal means of political socialization. 

2. Poverty, non-employment, communalism and ignorance should be eliminated from the society as these evils are sources of political violence in India. 

3. There should be a code of conduct for political parties to follow peaceful and constitutional methods. 

4. People should be mobilized by civil society organizations against all forms of political violence. 

5. There should be effective check on political corruption as it is the root cause of political violence. 

6. Peaceful means of conflict resolution must be made comprehensive, popular and efficient. 

7. The law and order machinery particularly the police administration must be made transparent, efficient, responsible and accountable. 

8. Vocationalisation of education, and right to work should be implemented as it would lead to gainful employment of youth.

The powers and functions of the Prime Minister can be briefly discussed as under : 

Formation of the Council of Ministers : The task of formation of the ministry begins with the appointment of the Prime Minister by the President. The leader of the majority in the Lok Sabha gets appointed as the Prime Minister. After the appointment of Prime Minister, the President appoints all the ministers on the advice of Prime Minister (Article 75). Prime Minister submits the list of persons who are to be appointed as ministers in the Council of Ministers. He is free to determine the strength of his ministry. He decides the proportionate strength of the ministers from each House of the Parliament. Conventionally, most of the ministers are drawn from Lok Sabha. He decides who amongst them shall be the Cabinet Minister or Minister of State or a Deputy Minister. He can, if he desires, even have one or two Deputy Prime Ministers in his Council of Ministers.

Allocation of Portfolios : It is an undisputed privilege of the Prime Minister to allocate portfolios to his ministers. Which particular department shall be entrusted to which minister is determined by him. Any minister objecting to such an allotment only invites the wrath of the Prime Minister and can get completely ignored for the ministry.

Reshuffling of Portfolios : The Prime Minister has the power to shuffle and reshuffle his ministry at any time. It is his privilege to make changes in his ministry. He can make any change if in his judgement it is required for bringing effectiveness, efficiency and discipline in the administration. He has the unfettered right to review, from time to time, the allocation of portfolios and make changes whenever and wherever desirable.

Chairman of the Cabinet : The Prime Minister is the leader of the Cabinet. He presides over its meetings. He decides the agenda of its meetings. In fact, all matters are decided in the Cabinet with the approval and consent of the Prime Minister. It is up to him to accept or reject items, issues and proposals for discussions in the cabinet. All ministers conform to his views and policies. There is scope for deliberations and discussions but not for dissension and opposition. Any minister, not finding his policy acceptable, has no choice except to submit his resignation.

Removal of Ministers : The Prime Ministers can demand resignation from any minister at any time and the latter has always to accept the wishes of the former. However, if at any time a minister does not resign even on the asking of the Prime Minister, he can either get him dismissed by the President or can submit his own resignation which in fact, means the resignation of his whole Council of Ministers. He being still the leader of the majority party, can again be invited by the President to form his ministry and obviously he can drop that minister from his new team. No one can remain a minister against the wishes of the Prime Minister.

Chief Link between the President and the Cabinet : The Prime Minister is the main channel of communication between the President and the Cabinet. He communicates to the President all decisions that arrive at in the Cabinet, and puts before the Cabinet the views of the President. Prime Minister keeps the President informed of all affairs of the Government. This is the sole privilege of the Prime Minister and no other minister can, on his own convey the decisions or reveal to the President the nature or summary of the issues discussed in the Cabinet.

Coordinator-in-Chief: The Prime Minister acts as the general manager of the state and the chief coordinator. It is his responsibility to co-ordinate the activities of all the departments and to secure co-operation amongst all departments. He resolves the differences, if any, among the ministers and ensures the working of each ministry without coming into conflict and clash with other ministries. If there is any crisscross of functions, he irons out the differences. He ensures mutual understanding and team spirit among ministers. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) always acts under the authority of the Prime Minister.

Leader of the Parliament : The Prime Minister, as the leader of the Lok Sabha, is also the leader of the Parliament. It is he who decides, in consultation with the Speaker of . the Lok Sabha, the complete agenda of the House. The summoning and the proroguing of Parliament is in fact decided upon by him. The President acts upon his advice.

Various forms of violence in India are as follows: 

Linguistic Violence : Love for one’s language, which symbolises love for one’s culture, is something very natural as well as an essential feature of human thinking. However, a blind and aggressive love for one’s language involving national faith in its superiority always acts as a potent source of violence. Unfortunately, linguistic violence has been continuously present in Indian politics. Hindi agitations, English Vs. Hindi agitations, violent agitations for securing the creation of linguistic states and opposition to the development of Hindi as a national language, have been present in Indian polity. These agitations have been a source of violence.

Caste Conflict and Violence : In some of the states of India, particularly in Bihar and U.P. several caste-based groups and organizations have been in existence. These have been engaged in violent activities. Some high caste organizations have been committing violence against the so-called low caste groups and in retaliation, the latter have been doing the same. The politics of reservations Vs. anti-reservations has been a source of violence in Indian politics. Caste has been a major factor of Indian society and politics and it has been a source of caste conflict and violence.

Politics of Violent Agitations : Several Political parties and interest groups have been actively present in Indian politics. Unfortunately however, these resort to direct action means like strikes, dharnas, bandhas and public demonstrations. Quite often their agitations have been taking the form of violent agitations. Burning of trains, platforms, public property and even private property is often used by them as a means of protest against the government.

Social Violence : In general, caste violence, communal violence and infact all other forms of violence come under the category of social violence because all the violent activities take place in the social environment. Several evil social customs have been acting as a source of violence against women. Indian women continue to be a weak class. In the family, the girl child faces discrimination and even violence. In the name of some ancient traditions, some fundamentalist religious and caste groups have been even supporting the cases of discrimination and violence against women. Social violence always act as a potent source of political violence.

Political Violence : Indian politics has been living with violence. Murder of political leaders and opponents has been a sad reality. Two Prime Ministers of India had to face deaths inflicted by political violence. It has been indeed very unfortunate that in the land of Buddha, Nanak and Gandhi, violence continues to live. The criminalization of politics due to entry of criminals in politics as well as due to the adoption of violence as means by some unscrupulous political leaders has been a major reason behind the increasing presence of violence in politics.

Electoral Violence : The International Foundation for Eelctoral Systems (IFES) defines electoral violence as any harm or threat of harm to any person or properly involved in the election process, or the process itself, during the election period. Several political parties have been continuously involved in electoral politics and the struggle for power. However, unfortunately, along with the popularity of elections in India, the emergence of electoral violence has been a sad development. Violence against the contesting candidates and their supporters has come to be a grim reality. On the polling day, despite the presence of security forces in large number, electoral violence takes place.

Judiciary is the most important organ of the government. Lord Bryce says that if the lamp of justice goes off, we cannot imagine how much the darkness would be. The independence of judiciary is the essential condition for the success of democracy. Following are the steps for ensuring the independence of judiciary.

The appointment of judges should be free from political interference. It should be done on the basis of merit through a well laid down and transparent procedure

The salary and other perks of members of judiciary should not be subject to approval of political authority. It should not be liable to be reduced to their disadvantage.

The process for removal of judges should be difficult and it should not be in the hands of political executive. Usually, judges are removed by impeachment motion passed with special majority in the legislature.

The fixed and long tenure of judges also ensures their independence.

The judiciary should have full control over the judicial administration, which carries out its responsibility.

The judiciary should have the power to determine the rules of procedure to conduct its business.

Judiciary should be vested with the power to punish the guilty for the contempt of court. The orders of judiciary should be given full respect, throughout the country.

The judges should not be allowed to hold any official position after their retirement.

The challenge of social inequality can be analyzed in two parts :

• Caste based Social Inequality and 

• Gender Inequality.

Caste based Social Inequality : Indian society has been a caste-based society and social inequality exists as inequality between the upper castes or swam caste Hindus and the so-called low caste Hindus. Indian social system stands still divided into two broad divisions: High castes and Low castes. Some parts of India like Bihar and UP still have caste wars. The Constitution of India has granted and guaranteed the fundamental right to equality which clearly lays down that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, creed, religion, place of birth and sex. Untouchability stands constitutionally prohi-bited and now this evil practice has become a crime punishable by law.

Single uniform citizenship, equal rights and freedoms, Universal Adult Franchise and single electorate, have been the foundational principles of Indian Democracy. Further, Indian state has been directed to take special steps for the protection of the interests of weaker sections of society. A system of reservations of seats in the legislatures, and admissions in educational institutions, and Government and private sector for the people belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBC’s) has been in operation for the last six decades. Originally, Indian society got stratified in 4 basic castes : Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudras. Later on, these got divided into a very large number of castes and subcastes based on family and characterized by the so-called higher and lower divisions involving rigid and violent interactions. Till today, Indian society continues to be a caste-ridden society.

The most unfortunate development has been caste based violence. Atrocities are committed on caste grounds. Each year several thousand cases of atrocities against the people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Dalits) are committed. There are caste-based political parties, caste interest groups, caste-based voting, and caste-based selection of candidates for contesting elections, caste-based policies and decisions, caste violence, caste discrimination’s, continuous menace posed by the illegal and inhuman practice of untouchability.

Gender Inequality: Indian Society continues to be a male-dominated society in which women continue to live with certain inequalities and exploitation. The Constitution of India grants equal fundamental rights to all the citizens, both men and women, and holds that there is to be no discrimination on the basis of gender. Women are to enjoy equal opportunities for development as are enjoyed by men. Article 39 of the Constitution of India calls upon the state to provide adequate means of livelihood to men and women.

Article 51 A makes it a duty of every citizen to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women. There is to be equal pay for equal work. The state has been also directed to take special steps for protecting the interests of weaker sections of society, women and children. The state has in fact passed several laws for ensuring a better protection and development of women e.g., Special Marriage Act, 1954, Hindu Code Bill 1955, Indian Succession Act 1956, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Bill 1956, Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1983 and Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act.

The 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts have given 30% reservations to women in Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Government institutions. In 2006, the state-enforced an act aimed at preventing domestic violence against women. All Five Year Plans have been giving special attention for securing the objective of empowerment of women.

However, unfortunately, women in India continue to face several types of discrimination. Female foeticide represents the ugliest face of this type of discrimination.

(a) 1. Banker’s Bank: The central bank is the bank for all the commercial banks in the country. The relations of central bank with other banks are similar to those of a bank with its Customers. As a matter of legal obligation, the commercial banks have to keep certain portion of their deposits with the central bank as cash reserves. These cash reserves enable the central bank to exercise control of the issue of credits by the commercial banks, thereby keeping the entire credit-system elastic. The central hank also allows the facility of shortterm loans and discounting of the bills to the commercial banks and it also advises the other banks related to their business like fixation of rate of interests on deposits and loan etc. 

2. Banker to the Government: The central bank makes and receives payments on behalf of the Government whenever it becomes necessary. It also floats public debt and manages it for a shorter or longer period as the case may be, for the Government. It supplies foreign exchange to the Government for repaying external debt or making other payments.

(b)

(i) Difference between Limited legal tender and unlimited legal tender:

(ii) Difference between Standard Money and Bank Money:​​​​​​​

1. Fixed deposit Account: In such deposits the deposited amount can be withdrawn only after the maturity period. The interest rates are higher in case of such deposits. 

2. Savings account: It is opened by the bank with the objective of collecting small savings from the people who have small earnings. But withdrawal is allowed thrice a week. However, the rate of interest is less than that of fixed deposits.

(a) 1. An example each of vertical and horizontal division of labour: 

1. Vertical: The division of labour between workers in spinning departmtent and those in weaving department of a cotton textile factory is an example of a vertical division of labour. 

2. Horizontal: The different parts of an automobile can be manufactured simultaneously. The parts can be assembled together at the end. 

2. Two advantages to the producer: 

1. Increase in production: With the specialization (division of labour) the workers become more skilled and efficient. They acquire higher speed in work output, which ultimately results in more production quantitatively as well as qualitatively. 

2. Reduction in cost of production: The specialized worker with the help of machines produces more quantity of goods in less time with minimum wastage. 

3. Two disadvantages to the worker: 

1. Monotony of work: Under division of labour, a worker has to do the sarnie job again and again for the years together. Therefore, after some time, the worker feels bored or the work becomes dull for him. 

2. Lack of responsibility: Division of labour means division of responsibility. If the quality of the product is not upto the mark, none can be held responsible for it. 

(b) The five causes of the low rate of capital formation in India are as follows: 

1. Lower saving power (Ability): The people in India have a desire to save and possess all those factors which motivate the ‘will to save’ like old age considerations, family affection, social and political influence, but they have lower per capita income. Moreover the margin between production and consumption is very narrow and so the saving capacity is very little. Ultimately, it results in lower rate of capital formation.

2. State of economy: Majority of people in India are agriculturists, who follow old methods and also have uneconomic agricultural holdings. All these factors leave very little or no surplus with them. 

3. Habit of hoarding: Most of the illiterate people have very little capacity to save and are in the habit of hoarding their savings in their houses. But such savings are of no use as far as capital formation is concerned, because these hoardings cannot be utilized for any productive purposes. 

4. Inflation: Due to inflationary trend, the prices of commodities goes very high and the middle class people find it very difficult to save any amount. 

5. Inadequate investment channels: The banking and financial facilities are inadequate in India. The means of transport and communication are not fully developed. These inadequacies adversely affect the mobilization and investment of savings.

(a) Five characteristics of capital as a factor of production are as follows: 

1. It is a passive factor of production. This is so because it becomes ineffective without co-operation of labour. 

2. Capital is man-inade and is born out of savings done by man. Its supply is increased or diminished by the efforts of man. Thus, capital is man-made factor of production. 

3. Capital is not an indispensable factor of production. Production can be possible even without capital whereas land and labour are the original and indispensable. factors of production. 

4. Capital has the highest mobility amongst all the factors of production. The land is immobile, labour has low mobility, whereas capital has both ‘place mobility’ and ‘occupational mobility’. 

5. The supply of capital is elastic and can be adjusted easily and quickly according to demand. Capital depreciates gradually if capital is used again and again. For example, if any machine is used for a considerable period, then it may not be suitable for further use due to depreciation. Hence, capital is productive. Hence, production can be increased to a large extent if workers work with adequate capital. 

(b) The law of demand states that other things being equal, “A rise in the price of a commodity is followed by a fall in demand and a fall in price is followed by rise in demand. In other words, it states that there is an inverse relationship between the price of a commodity and its demand. The three determinants for the negative slope of the demand curve are: 

1. Income Effect: When the price of a commodity falls, a consumer has to spend less on the purchase of the same amount of the commodity. Thus, it increases his purchasing power or real income which inturn, enables him to purchase more of the commodity. Thus, the effect on demand for goods due to the change in the real income in the price of the commodity is known as the income effect. Therefore, income effect is related to change in income caused due to the change in price and not due to change in money income. 

2. Substitution Effect: Substitution effect means substitution of one commodity for other when it becomes relatively cheaper. If the price of one commodity rises, the consumer shifts to other commodity, which is a relatively cheaper. For example, tea and coffee may be termed as substitute to each other. If the price of coffee rises, the consumer may shift to tea thereby increase in demand of tea. This is called substitution effect. 

3. Law of Diminishing marginal utility: The law of diminishing marginal utility tells us that the marginal utility of the goods falls with increase in its quantity. That is why, this law is shown by a downward sloping demand curve. A consumer pays for a commodity because it possesses utility and he would purchase a commodity to the extent, where its marginal utility becomes equal to its price. From this, it follows that a consumer would purchase more of a commodity when its price falls. Thus, the diminishing marginal utility curve itself takes the form of a demand curve and that is why it is downward sloping. 

4. New Customers: It is possible that at a particular price some consumers may not be able or may not be willing to purchase the commodity. But as price falls some new customers start to purchase the commodity. Contrary to it, when price rises some old customers may stop to purchase the commodity.

The individual curve represents the demand of an individual for a commodity at different prices whereas in a market there are several such consumers having different taste, preference and income. Therefore, the market demand actually represents the demand of all the individuals (consumers) present in the market. In nut shell, when combined all the individual demands. You will get the market demand curve.

1. Running Inflation: It refers to the situation where the price level rises very fast. In case, price level doubles up every 3 years. It is, generally, succeeded by galloping inflation.

2. The two fiscal measures to control inflation are: 

1. Decrease in public expenditure: One of the main reasons of inflation is excess public expenditure like building of roads, bridges etc. Government should drastically scale down its non essential expenditure. 

2. Increase in taxes: Government should levy some new direct taxes and raise rates of old taxes. 

3. Over valuation of money: To control the over valuation of money it is essential to encourage imports and discourage exports.

3. The effect, of high level inflation on the following is: 

1. Effect on Fixed Income Groups: This group includes government servants, pensioners, etc. who get a fixed monthly income. This class is warst affected by inflation because the purchasing power of their fixed income goes on decreasing with rising prices. 

2. Effect on Producers: In short run, they earn artificial margin of profit as the cost of production does not rise as fast as the price of their product. But in long run, the price level goes on increasing, the total consumption of their product would fall. The reduced consumption will ultimately raise the cost of production per unit and reduce the profits. 

3. Effect on Debtors and Creditors: Debtors gain when they pay back their debt during inflation. It is because the value of money was high when they borrowed but came down when they repaid their debts. Creditors are losers during inflation because of the above said reasons.

4. The three monetary policies of the Reserve bank of India to control credit are: 

1. Bank Rate Policy: It is the interest rate at which a central bank provides loans to banks. It is the rate at which the central bank discounts the bills and other instruments of commercial banks which are redeemable at par.

2. Open Market Operations: When use of bank rate is not effective enough in regulating the volume of money and credit, the central bank can resort to the use of open market operations. This instrument refers to the practice of sale and purchase of commercial paper and government securities by the central bank in the market on its own initiative in order to control the volume of credit. 

3. Variable Cash Reserve Requirements: The traditional instruments of quantitative credit control, bank rate policy and open market operations, suffer from certain inherent defects and have been found unsuitable to serve the interests of underdeveloped countries

(i) Transformer [step up transformer]. 

(ii) 50 Hz 

(iii) Live wire.

(i) The sound level 30 dB to 10 dB has the soothing sensation. 

(ii) Quality (or timbre)

(i) Forced vibration 

(ii) Pendulum C is in a state of resonance with Pendulum A. Also they are in the same phase. 

(iii) This is because the time period of pendulum B is different from that of C (since length of the pendulums B and C are different ).

Step up Transformer.

(i) The speaker here is the patriot. He is being taken to the scaffold to be hanged for his misdeeds. He is passing through some street in a town. 

(ii) A year ago, the patriot was worshipped like a hero. He was accorded a warm welcome on his return after a glorious victory. His path was strewn with flowers. The church towers were decorated with victory-flags. Huge crowds were there to welcome him. 

(iii) The speaker thinks that all the people have left the town and gone to the Shambles’ Gate or quite near the scaffold in order to have a better view of the patriot’s (his) execution. Only a few paralysed persons are sitting at the windows. 

(iv) The speaker’s physical condition is pathetic. He is being led to the gallows. A long rope has been used to tie his hands on the back. The rope is so tight that it cuts both his hands. His forehead is bleeding. It is due to the stones hurled at him by some callous and cruel fellows. All this shows that he is being treated very harshly. 

(v) The central message of the poem is the ficklemindedness of the ordinary people who go enthusiastic at welcoming a hero but soon get disappointed with him and begin to hurl abuses and stones on him. The poem ends on a note of hope. Though the hero in this poem feels betrayed and abandoned, he achieves a moral victory. He feels that he has not been rewarded for his services on the earth, he hopes he would be rewarded by God in heaven. So he feels safe in the bosom of God. His faith in God being a true judge marks his unbounded sense of optimism.

Brand loyalty is considered an asset for the company because : 

1. it helps to reduce costs of marketing. 

2. it enables the company to charge higher prices than competing brands. 

3. it gets support and cooperation from distribution channels.

(b) Status means the position of a person in the hierarchy of an organisation. In this barrier, the superior may pass selected information to his subordinates in order to maintain status difference. This will cause distortion in effective communication. 

(c) Indirect materials are those materials which cannot be directly assigned to the specific product but which can be apportioned. It is used in the factory, office or selling and distribution division. For example: oil lubricants, nails, stationary material, cotton waste etc. 

(d) ‘Selection is a negative process’. Selection is the process of choosing individuals who have the requisite qualifications to fill the jobs. Selection is a negative process because it is process of rejecting many unsuitable candidates to choose the few suitable applicants. The number of candidates rejected are much more than those actually selected. 

(e) Contribution means the right of an insurer who has paid claim under an insurance policy to call upon other insurers to contribute to the payment. The principle of contribution is applicable when the following conditions are satisfied: 

1. insured must be same person 

2. covers the same risk 

3. total amount of compensation under all policies must not exceed the amount of loss.

(i) Cl^-

(ii) CO₃^2-

(iii) SO₄^2-

1. Ammonia 

2. Nitric acid 

3. Hydrogen sulphide 

4. Ethanol/Ethyl alcohol.

(i) Ammonia 

(ii) Acetic acid 

(iii) Hydrogen chloride 

(iv) Dilute sulphuric acid 

(v) Helium

(a) A Dirty green precipitate of Fe(OH)₂ is obtained when ammonium hydroxide is added to ferrous sulphate.

(b) Liquid ammonia is liquefied ammonia.

(c) Finely divided Iron is used in Haber process.

(d) Quicklime is a drying agent for NH₃.

(e) Ammonium salts when heated with caustic alkali.

(a) Mg₃ N₂ +6H₂O → 3Mg(OH)₂ +2NH₃

(b) Ammonia gas is collected in inverted gas jars by the downward displacement of air.

(c) Ammonia is not collected over water because it is highly soluble in water.

(d) Quicklime is used as a drying agent for ammonia.

By painting an iron object, the iron do not come in contact with atmospheric reagents. This prevents rusting.

(D) Ammonium chloride

Carbon tetrachloride is composed, of all the three kinds of bond ( ionic , covalent and coordinate band).

Transfection: Transfection is the transfer of foreign DNA into cultured host cells mediated through chemicals. The charged chemical substances such as cationic liposomes, calcium phosphate of DEAE dextran are taken and mixed with DNA molecules. The recipient host cells are overtaxed by this mixture. Consequently the foreign DNA is taken up by the host cells. 

Electroporation (Electric Field-mediated Membrane Permeation): In electroporation an electric current at high voltage (about 350 V) is applied in a solution containing foreign DNA and fragile host cells. This creates transient microscopic pores in cell membrane of naked protoplasts. Consequently foreign DNA enters into the protoplast through these pores. The transformed protoplasts are cultured in vitro which regenerate respective cell walls.

Microinjection : In this technique foreign DNA is directly and forcibly injected into the nucleus of animal and plant cells through a glass micropipette containing very fine tip of about 0.5 mm diameter. It resembles with injection needle. In 1982, for the first time Rubin and Spradling introduced Drosophila gene into P-element and microinjected into embryo. 

Particle Bombardment Gun (Biolistics): This technique was developed by Stanford in 1987. In this method macroscopic gold or tungsten particles are coated with desired DNA. A plastic micro-carrier containing DNA coated gold/tungsten particles is placed near rupture disc. The particles are bombarded onto target cells by the bombardment apparatus. Consequently foreign DNA is forcibly delivered into the host cells.

(i) Applications of triploid plants : 

• Autotriploidy induces gigas effect i.e., large-sized leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. 

• Autotriploids are sterile (with faulty pairing and distribution of chromosomes and abnormal gametes) and reproduce vegetatively only. They are useful for the production of seedless plants. 

(ii) Applications of haploid plants : 

• Haploid plants have been used in breeding programmes of rice, wheat, barley. Brassica spps., tobacco, potato, etc. 

• A doubled haploid strain are produced in only two years a net saving of 4 years for the production of homozygous lines by selfing or close breeding of both self and cross pollinated crops. They may be released directly as a variety if it performs well in yield trials. 

• Haploid plants are most suitable for the study of recessive mutations.

The term direct or vector less transfer of DNA is used when the foreign DNA is directly introduced into the plant genome. Direct DNA transfer methods rely on the delivery of naked DNA into the plant cells. This is in contrast to the Agrobacterium or vector-mediated DNA transfer which may be regarded as indirect methods. Majority of the direct DNA transfer methods are simple and effective. And in fact, several transgenic plants have been developed by this approach. 

1. Liposome-Mediated Transformation: Liposomes are artificially created lipid vesicles containing a phospholipid membrane. They are successfully used in mammalian cells for the delivery of proteins, drugs etc. Liposomes carrying genes can be employed to fuse with protoplasts and transfer the genes.The efficiency of transformation increases when the process is carried out in conjunction with polyethylene glycol (PEG). Liposome-mediated transformation involves adhesion of liposomes to the protoplast surface, its fusion at the site of attachment and release of plasmids inside the cell.

2. Electroporation: Electroporation basically involves the use of high field strength electrical impulses to reversibly permeabilize the cell membranes for the uptake of DNA. This technique can be used for the delivery of DNA into intact plant cells and protoplasts. The plant material is incubated in a buffer solution containing the desired foreign/target DNA, and subjected to high voltage electrical impulses. This results in the formation of pores in the plasma membrane through which DNA enters and gets integrated into the host cell genome.

3. Transfection: Transfection is the process of inserting genetic material, such as DNA and double stranded RNA, into mammalian cells. The insertion of DNA into a cell enables the expression, or production of proteins using the cell’s own machinery, whereas insertion of RNA into a cell is used to down-regulate the production of a specific protein by stopping translation. While the site of action for transfected RNA is the cytoplasm, DNA must be transported to the nucleus for effective transfection. Therefore, the DNA can be transiently expressed for a short period of time, or become incorporated into the genomic DNA, where the change is passed on from cell to cell as it divides. 

4. Transformation: Transformation is the method of introducing foreign DNA into bacterial cells (e.g. E.coli). The uptake of plasmid DNA by E.coli is carried out in ice-cold CaCl₂ (0-5°C), and a subsequent heat shock (37-45°C for about 90 sec). By this technique, the transformation frequency, which refers to the fraction of cell population that can be transferred, is reasonably good e.g. approximately one cell for 1000 (10-3) cells.The mechanism of the transformation process is not fully understood. It is believed that the CaCl₂ affects the cell wall, breaks at localized regions, and is also responsible for binding of DNA to cell surface. A brief heat shock (i.e. the sudden increase in temperature from 5°C to 40°C) stimulates DNA uptake. In general, large-sized DNAs are less efficient in transforming.

Two problems of Green Revolution are : 

1. Inter-crop Imbalances : Though all the crops like wheat, rice, jowar, bazaar and maize have gained from Green Revolution, it is wheat which has benefited the most. The HYV seeds for pulses and oilseeds have not been developed so far at all. The result is an excess of production in two main food grains-wheat and rice and shortages in most other like oilseeds and pulses.

2. Regional Disparities: Green Revolution affected only those areas which were already better placed from an agricultural point of view like Western U.P., Punjab and Haryana in the north and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the south. It has hardly touched Eastern India, Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha.

(i) Remote sensing data is important in the field of agriculture, soil and land use, water resources, ocean/marine resources, forestry and geology meteorology, etc. 

(ii) 1. INSAT : 3E – 4 Series. INSAT 3 DR

2. GSAT: 2 – 8 – 10 – 16 Series.