Sociology Test - 23

The Golden Revolution (1991–2003) refers to India’s significant increase in horticulture production, including fruits (e.g., mangoes), vegetables, and spices, driven by policy reforms and technological advancements.

Operation Flood, launched on 13 January 1970, was the world's largest dairy development program and a landmark project of India's National Dairy Development Board.

• Operation Flood was started by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1970. The objective of this programme was to create a nationwide milk grid. The result was that India became the largest producer of Milk and Milk Products.
• Operation flood is called White Revolution of India.
• White Revolution followed the Green Revolution and both these revolutions contributed to a large extent to alleviate poverty from India. Gujarat-based co-operation “Anand Milk Union Limited” (Amul) was the engine behind the success of the programme.
• Amul was founded by Tribhuvandas Patel and Verghese Kurien was the chairman of NDDB. Dr. Verghese Kurien, who was then 33, gave the professional management skills and necessary thrust to the cooperative, and is considered the architect of Operation Flood.
• His work has been recognized by the award of a Padma Bhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Carnegie-Wateler World Peace Prize, and the World Food Prize.

Rural development initiatives include land reforms (redistributing land to farmers), poverty alleviation (increasing incomes via subsidies, employment schemes), and human capital formation (enhancing skills through education, training), all critical for rural progress.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development setup in 1982  is an apex regulatory body for overall regulation of regional rural banks and apex cooperative banks in India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Self Help Groups (SHGs) are small groups of poor people. The members of an SHG face similar problems. They help each other, to solve their problems. SHGs promote small savings among their members. The savings are kept with the bank.

Jati is the word most commonly used to refer to the institution of caste in Indian languages. However, it is interesting to note that, increasingly, Indian language speakers are beginning to use the English word caste. The precise relationship between varna and jati has been the subject of much speculation and debate among scholars.

Further, this societal whole or system is a hierarchical rather than egalitarian system. Each caste occupies a distinct place, and an ordered rank a particular position in a ladder-like arrangement going from highest to lowest. The hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between purity and pollution.

Some scholars argue that what we know today as caste is more a product of colonialism than of ancient Indian tradition.

Colonialism brought about major changes in the institution of caste. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the institution of caste underwent fundamental changes during the colonial period.