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What is an omnibus bill?




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What is the Kuppuswamy scale?




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Why are taxis yellow in colour?




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What is the history of Pamplona's San Fermin festival?

The festival has its origins in the combination of two different medieval events. Commercial secular fairs were held at the beginning of the summer.




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Who is a flower child?

A hippie, especially one advocating universal peace and love as antidotes to social or political ills, is called a flower child.




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What is a gross spread?

Gross spread refers to the difference between the underwriting price received by a stocks-issuing company, and the real price at which the stock is placed on the market.




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Why is karate a Japanese martial art in spite of its Indian origin?

Many Asian martial arts trace their origins to the fifth century and the supposed arrival of an Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidarma, at the Shoalin temple in southern China.




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Why do pirates wear a black patch over one eye?

There exists no evidence to support the popular view that pirates wore a black patch over one eye.




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What is singlism?

Singlism is a term used to describe discrimination against employees who are single.




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What is the Paleo festival?

Simply known as Paleo, the Paleo Festival de Nyon started out small in 1976. It was known as the Nyon Folk Festival then.




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What is syndicalism?

Syndicalism is a form of trade unionism and has its origins in France. It aims at the abolition of the capitalist owners and the appropriation - by the workers - of all the methods used in an industry, and the products resulting therefrom.




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What is FOSS?

A non-profit, open source initiative, FOSS stands for Free and Open Source Software. It is an alternative model of software development, one the non-profit sector is beginning to embrace.




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What is the helicopter shot?

The helicopter shot is an unorthodox cricket shot, reportedly invented by Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.




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What is a gene gun?

A gene gun or a biolistic particle delivery system, originally designed for plant transformation, is a device used to inject cells with genetic information.




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What is the SoHo effect?

The SoHo effect is a term used to describe artist-led gentrification. Homes occupied by artists turn an area into a safe residential neighbourhood for affluent people to move into.




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Covid-19 lockdown: Migrant workers, family walk back from Ahmedabad to their native place in UP's Lalitpur

Covid-19 lockdown: Migrant workers, family walk back from Ahmedabad to their native place in UP's Lalitpur





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Desi jugad: How to pluck mangoes without letting them fall

Desi jugad: How to pluck mangoes without letting them fall





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Google celebrates Mother's Day with a Doodle

Google celebrates Mother's Day with a Doodle





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Forces have to get rid of their dependence on foreign weapon systems: General Bipin Rawat

Forces have to get rid of their dependence on foreign weapon systems: General Bipin Rawat





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Vande Bharat Mission: Indians in US ready to be rescued

Vande Bharat Mission: Indians in US ready to be rescued





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After slamming door on Air India crews, Noida Authority takes back order

After slamming door on Air India crews, Noida Authority takes back order





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Scuffle breaks out between Indian and Chinese army near Naku La in Sikkim

Scuffle breaks out between Indian and Chinese army near Naku La in Sikkim





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A man should talk to mum but listen to his wife

When 'Beta', the movie, was released in 1992, it catapulted Madhuri Dixit to fame as the 'dhak-dhak' girl. But it also raised an old and important question about why men appear to be blind to the fact that their mothers can ever be wrong.




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It's really about the money, honey

If you really think about it, it all boils down to money. Twenty- seven-year-old Sheena Jog, a product designer based in New Delhi, says at least two of the last three fights she had with her husband were over their "hard-earned" money.




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Why aren't they smiling?

Women in India are expected to look like Miss India and behave like Mother India. That is serious business for sure. But could it be that a 'lightness of being' is just not in their DNA?




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Signs of defiance in khapland

Rakesh Gauria, 21, and his wife Saroj, 21, are living happily ever after. It could easily have been otherwise. Both of them belong to Chautala village, in the badlands of Haryana, where khaps or self-styled courts hound and kill couples that dare to marry within the same village.




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What's in a name? A lot, if it's your mother's

Blame it on the British. When India names its children, the mother's side of the family is all but forgotten. The children are given the father's surname.




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In India, they soldier on without a combat role

Women at war is part of Indian history, from Jhansi Ki Rani to Rani Durgawati to Razia Sultan. But they weren’t part of modern India's war strategy till very recently. Independent India’s Army restricted women to the medical corps, dental corps and the nursing service.




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Arms & The Woman: Beyond war

Israel believes it is constantly at war, facing an existential crisis in a sea of hatred. The national narrative is clear and society's expectations of the young are rigid.




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The pill is 50, but India still undecided

It's been called the invention that "defined the 20th century". On May 9, 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the world's first birth-control pill called Enovid-10.




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Haryana's bahus break into the babu bastion

Poonam Malik is a typical 'Haryanvi bahu', head demurely covered with a dupatta, a shy introvert woman, busy with household chores in her joint family of 15. She covers her face with a 'ghunghat' if elders come visiting.




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Bad girl hogs prime time

The room is crowded, there's loud music and the liquor is flowing freely. One face catches the eye. Her hair falls onto, barely offering a glimpse of come-hither brown eyes.




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Spinning an 'extraordinary' medical thriller

There are stories. And there are remarkable stories. And then there are people who write remarkable stories. Perhaps Pulitzer-prize winning writer Geeta Anand belongs to the third category.




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Married or not, a woman must be herself

"Cause we are living in a material world and I am a material girl" crooned Madonna in the Eighties. Fast forward to the 21st century, and we all know there is more to a marriage than love. Today's woman has become assertive about more than her rights. She also makes known her likes and dislikes with the result that society labels her as materialistic.




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Why conservation needs more teeth

Parliament recently amended the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act to give it more teeth and enable the ASI to effectively protect and develop the 4000 monuments it looks after. Conservationists have raised a cheer. But more is required to enforce the law.




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Karachi lady who listened, virtually

Photographs get morphed; contact numbers from stolen mobiles are used to stalk; confidential emails and text messages become grounds for bullying.




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The audacity of hope

When Fatima Chhipa leaves home, in the congested by-lanes of the Belan Market area, she carries her work trousers and shirt in a plastic bag.




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Special

Nandita Sengupta hops on to the Reservation Express, which travelled through 56 cities to build support for the women’s quota Bill




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Married or not, be a woman of ‘substance’

The typical family drama in the TV soap or the Bollywood flick revolves around weddings and property disputes.




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The C word women still can't talk about

Oncologists say the awareness of breast cancer is limited to cities. And when women are aware, the stigma attached to it prevents them from speaking out openly.




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Classic makeover

Is the Punjabi kudi as brash as some make her out to be? What lies beyond the Kashmiri’s serene beauty?




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World over women are defined by stereotypes

It’s not just us. Women in every country are defined by stereotype




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5 trains to bring workers from J&K




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Back in India, but 37 from Uttar Pradesh have to wait for going home




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Police accused of ‘overreach’ in enforcing lockdown rules in NCR




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Noida: Asymptomatic man tests positive, dies hours later




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No job and little food, 18 set out for home in Bihar on 10 bicycles




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Noida: To allow domestic staff or not? RWAs start online vote




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Screen saver

A film club that screens politically and socially charged films in the hinterland has been resisting sponsorship and censorship with equal vigour.




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Trading in no man's land

There is little to distinguish Kamalasagar, a sleepy hamlet in Tripura's Sipahijala district, from the hundreds of villages that line the state's border with Bangladesh. But it is no ordinary village.