u/Square_Insect6227

In 1971, after a huge influx of refugees from then East Pakistan, India was in need of resources and money to fund their food/clothing/shelter.

To solve this issue, India started issuing 5 paise- Refugee relief stamps. They had to be affixed on all letters/telegrams/money orders, etc.

Postcards/Registered newspapers and a few other categories were exempt.

Additionally, a 10 paise stamp was required for revenue transactions. (Stamp duty)

Refugee relief stamps were generally not printed as separate, rather they were printed on top of general 5 Paise issue stamps as the crisis emerged rapidly. (A 5 paise stamp would be overprinted with "Refugee Relief", no separate stamp was produced in the beginning. Later, specific refugee relief stamps were printed)

Other methods were also used to fund the relief:

• State govts implemented local taxes on transport (buses, etc) (Some transport orgs continued the surcharge long after the war ended.)
• Additional commercial/excise taxes.
• Surcharge on Entertainment. (Cinema tickets, theatre plays, etc)
• Additional taxes on State lottery tickets. (W.B.)

All these taxes/levies eventually strained Indian economy for quite some time to come. The five-year plan was halted and re-written adjusting goals as per the prevailing circumstances. Railways prioritised food/medical supplies/shelter transport, this affected the industries, especially in the eastern states.

These were some of the ways in which India funded the refugee relief during the 1971 war.

Deep sea still remains one of the last frontiers of our planet. It's too vast and presents unique challenges for exploration. Nevertheless, there are certain parts of the oceans where we can find enormous quantities of minerals, lying right on the seabed.

These minerals are in form of Poly-metallic nodules (containing many metals, especially (Manganese, Copper, cobalt and Nickel). Also, some minerals lie near thermal vents/hotspots (Sulfides).

India has already mapped a large portion of the Central Indian Ocean Basin (Part of Indian Ocean where these nodules are found) but mineral extraction is still not carried out in an industrial scale. The problem is largely threefold:

1. Legal: The rules for Deep-sea mining are still being debated. Most of such areas lie beyond a countries EEZ.

2. Economical: Not economically viable with current available tech.

3. Environmental: Environmental effects of industrial mining are still being studied.

NIOT and other institutions have made quite a bit of progress in deep sea research including the making/testing of a deep-sea submersible called:

>>Matsya 6000(6000 refers to the max intended depth for ops, i.e. 6000 mtrs below sea surface).

>>Varaha series of seabed rovers (to scoop up the nodules). I personally like the name Varaha.

(Like Varaha Avatar who had dug up Bhudevi from ocean floor and brought her back to land- Naming on point. Also, these rovers have comb collectors- varaha avatar brought Bhudevi using tusks. Sorry i diverted for too long)

>>Many new research vessels were built or are in planning phase to provide support for exploration and research.

In spite of all these achievements the deep ocean still remains too far while being so close.

In the 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate was the fastest-growing empire on Earth — stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of India. After conquering Sindh, they wanted to expand into India. They couldn’t.

Arab armies pushed again and again into western India, only to be held back by a network of kingdoms that refused to surrender. At the center of that resistance stood the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the "gatekeepers" of northern India, led by Nagabhata.

Pratiharas along with their contemporaries gave a stiff resistance to the invading forces. They intimately understood their enemy. And after years of battles and counter battles the Arabs were defeated.

There was no single battle or king who could be attributed to this feat alone. It was a combination of kingdoms right from the Karkotas(Lalitaditya) in the north to the Chalukyas in the south. In the centre were the Gurjara-Pratiharas lead by Nagabhata1.