Thursday 24 March 2011

The Sims Medievel (2011) Mediafire

The Sims Medievel (2011)
PC Game [Mediafire]




Info:
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Action / Beat`em all
Release name: The.Sims.Medieval-RELOADED
Size: 4703MB
Description:
The Sims Medieval is a video game in The Sims series based upon The Sims 3 Engine, developed and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, due for release on March 22, 2011 but has been delayed, as is still listed as pre-order on EAs website as of 3/22/20011 The game will also be released through PC downloads on the same date. Set in medieval times, it will allow the player to build a kingdom through quest-driven gameplay. On December 21, 2010, EA announced that the Limited Edition is available now and will be also released at the same time as the standard edition. It will include exclusive monarch outfit and throne room options.
Features:
The Sims Medieval will provide a medieval setting for the player to work within, with newly designed buildings and scenery to give an authentic "back in time" experience. Players will build a kingdom up, send Sims on quests, and earn rewards in the form of Kingdom Points. The game diverges from the series in that players can win the game by achieving a kingdom ambition. Confirmed ambitions include "Best In Show", "Busy Builder", "Efficient Expander", "Fame", "Filled Coffers", "Hard Workers", "Imperial Domination", "Legendary", "No Quest For The Weary", "Safe And Sound", "Thoughts And Prayers", and "Wealthy Populace". In a change from other Sims games, the character creation, simulation, and architectural aspects are significantly reduced and altered to enforce a sharper focus on RPG-style gameplay. For example, players will be able to customise the aesthetics and layout of building interiors, but they will be unable to alter the basic structure and shape of buildings. Instead, the game will involve the player upgrading a kingdom, choosing an ultimate goal for that kingdom (such as wealth or popularity) and then fulfilling quests that contribute to that goal. The goal can be completed through the use of heroes (or specialists). For example, the player can have a wizard and a physician cooperate on one quest.
System Requirements:
2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent (this a value for single core processor. If you have a laptop or a dual or a quad core the value is different. If you have a Centrino processor on your laptop the equivalent value is about the double, if you have a dual core the equivalent is x2, quad core is x4…)
1 GB RAM
128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (check your Windows upgrade if you don’t have service pack 2. If you have service pack 3 is ok!)
At least 5.3 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games.
Shogun Total War (2011) pc Download
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District 9 (2009) Hindi Dubbed DVDRip | Full Movie (PC) Dual Audio (Hindi / English)

District 9 (2009) Hindi Dubbed
DVDRip | Full Movie (PC)

Dual Audio (Hindi / English)

[Tutorial] How to play Dual Audio Files


Released : 14 August 2009
Genre : Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Starcast : Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt
Desc :
In 1982, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed "The Prawns," appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty-eight years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United, is contracted to forcibly evict the population with operative Wikus van der Merwe in charge. In this operation, Wikus is exposed to a strange alien chemical and must rely on the help of his only two new 'Prawn' friends.
Duration : 1hr 47mins





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Whiteout (2009) Hindi Dubbed

Whiteout (2009) Hindi Dubbed
DVDRip | Full Movie (PC)


In an American station in the South Pole, the expatriated staff is about to return in three days to their homelands for six months before the arrival of a whiteout - a weather condition in which visibility and contrast are severely reduced by snow and wind of 160 km/h. When a pilot reports that he might have seen a corpse in the snow, U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko flies to the location with the pilot Delfy and Dr. John Fury to investigate. Carrie has a traumatic experience in Miami and has already sent her resignation letter. They discover that the dead man is the geologist Weiss that is missing with two other scientists; further, Carrie finds evidences that he was murdered. When Carrie returns to the station, she receives a call from the abandoned Russian Vostok Station from one of the missing technicians and when she arrives in the station, she finds him dead. The killer tries to kill her and Carrie succeeds to escape...

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Shogun 2 : Total War (2011) PC Game [Mediafire]

Shogun 2 : Total War (2011)
PC Game [Mediafire]




Info:
Year: March 15, 2011
Genre: Strategy (Real-time / Turn-based) / 3D
Publisher: SEGA

Description:
The middle of the XVI century. Feudal Japan, formerly under the authority of
the emperor, fragmented and divided among numerous warring clans. In the role of Daimyo -
the leader of one of them - the player to fight, solve diverse economic issues and lead a fine
diplomatic game to achieve the main goal: to stop the internecine feuds and unite the country
under his reign, becoming the ruler of all Japan.
System requirements:

[*] Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP (SP3) / Windows Vista (SP1) / Windows 7
[*] Processor: Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo 2,4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2,8 GHz
[*] Memory: 1 GB (2 GB for Vista / 7)
[*] Hard drive space: 20 GB
[*] Sound device: compatible with DirectX
[*] Video Card: Radeon HD 2600 Pro / nVidia GeForce 7900 GS with 256 MB VRAM



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Internet


The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

Most traditional communications media including telephone, music, film, and television are reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IPTV. Newspaper, book and other print publishing are adapting to Web site technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The Internet has enabled or accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both for major retail outlets and small artisans and traders. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries.

The origins of the Internet reach back to research of the 1960s, commissioned by the United States government in collaboration with private commercial interests to build robust, fault-tolerant, and distributed computer networks. The funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial backbones, led to worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies, and the merger of many networks. The commercialization of what was by the 1990s an international network resulted in its popularization and incorporation into virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population used the services of the Internet.

The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own standards. Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Terminology
* 2 History
* 3 Technology
o 3.1 Protocols
o 3.2 Structure
* 4 Governance
* 5 Modern uses
* 6 Services
o 6.1 Information
o 6.2 Communication
o 6.3 Data transfer
* 7 Access
* 8 Social impact
* 9 See also
* 10 Notes
* 11 References
* 12 External links

Terminology
See also: Internet capitalization conventions

Internet is a short form of the technical term internetwork,[1] the result of interconnecting computer networks with special gateways or routers. The Internet is also often referred to as the Net.

The term the Internet, when referring to the entire global system of IP networks, has been treated as a proper noun and written with an initial capital letter. In the media and popular culture a trend has also developed to regard it as a generic term or common noun and thus write it as "the internet", without capitalization. Some guides specify that the word should be capitalized as a noun but not capitalized as an adjective.
Depiction of the Internet as a cloud in network diagrams

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in everyday speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.[2]

In many technical illustrations when the precise location or interrelation of Internet resources is not important, extended networks such as the Internet are often depicted as a cloud.[3] The verbal image has been formalized in the newer concept of cloud computing.
History
Main article: History of the Internet

The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA or DARPA) in February 1958 to regain a technological lead.[4][5] ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. The IPTO's purpose was to find ways to address the US military's concern about survivability of their communications networks, and as a first step interconnect their computers at the Pentagon, Cheyenne Mountain, and Strategic Air Command headquarters (SAC). J. C. R. Licklider, a promoter of universal networking, was selected to head the IPTO. Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University to MIT in 1950, after becoming interested in information technology. At MIT, he served on a committee that established Lincoln Laboratory and worked on the SAGE project. In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.
Professor Leonard Kleinrock with the first ARPANET Interface Message Processors at UCLA
A plaque commemorating the birth of the Internet at Stanford University

At the IPTO, Licklider's successor Ivan Sutherland in 1965 got Lawrence Roberts to start a project to make a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of Paul Baran,[6] who had written an exhaustive study for the United States Air Force that recommended packet switching (opposed to circuit switching) to achieve better network robustness and disaster survivability. Roberts had worked at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory originally established to work on the design of the SAGE system. UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock had provided the theoretical foundations for packet networks in 1962, and later, in the 1970s, for hierarchical routing, concepts which have been the underpinning of the development towards today's Internet.

Sutherland's successor Robert Taylor convinced Roberts to build on his early packet switching successes and come and be the IPTO Chief Scientist. Once there, Roberts prepared a report called Resource Sharing Computer Networks which was approved by Taylor in June 1968 and laid the foundation for the launch of the working ARPANET the following year.

After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between Kleinrock's Network Measurement Center at the UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Science and Douglas Engelbart's NLS system at SRI International (SRI) in Menlo Park, California, on 29 October 1969. The third site on the ARPANET was the Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the fourth was the University of Utah Graphics Department. In an early sign of future growth, there were already fifteen sites connected to the young ARPANET by the end of 1971.

In an independent development, Donald Davies at the UK National Physical Laboratory developed the concept of packet switching in the early 1960s, first giving a talk on the subject in 1965, after which the teams in the new field from two sides of the Atlantic ocean first became acquainted. It was actually Davies' coinage of the wording packet and packet switching that was adopted as the standard terminology. Davies also built a packet-switched network in the UK, called the Mark I in 1970.[7] Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN), the private contractors for ARPANET, set out to create a separate commercial version after establishing "value added carriers" was legalized in the U.S.[8] The network they established was called Telenet and began operation in 1975, installing free public dial-up access in cities throughout the U.S. Telenet was the first packet-switching network open to the general public.[9]

Following the demonstration that packet switching worked on the ARPANET, the British Post Office, Telenet, DATAPAC and TRANSPAC collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network service. In the UK, this was referred to as the International Packet Switched Service (IPSS), in 1978. The collection of X.25-based networks grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981. The X.25 packet switching standard was developed in the CCITT (now called ITU-T) around 1976. X.25 was independent of the TCP/IP protocols that arose from the experimental work of DARPA on the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net, and Packet Satellite Net during the same time period.

The early ARPANET ran on the Network Control Program (NCP), implementing the host-to-host connectivity and switching layers of the protocol stack, designed and first implemented in December 1970 by a team called the Network Working Group (NWG) led by Steve Crocker. To respond to the network's rapid growth as more and more locations connected, Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn developed the first description of the now widely used TCP protocols during 1973 and published a paper on the subject in May 1974. Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated in December 1974 with the publication of RFC 675, the first full specification of TCP that was written by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, then at Stanford University. During the next nine years, work proceeded to refine the protocols and to implement them on a wide range of operating systems. The first TCP/IP-based wide-area network was operational by 1 January 1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the older NCP protocols.
T3 NSFNET Backbone, c. 1992

In 1985, the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the construction of the NSFNET, a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone using computers called "fuzzballs" by their inventor, David L. Mills. The following year, NSF sponsored the conversion to a higher-speed 1.5 megabit/second network that became operational in 1988. A key decision to use the DARPA TCP/IP protocols was made by Dennis Jennings, then in charge of the Supercomputer program at NSF. The NSFNET backbone was upgraded to 45 Mbps in 1991 and decommissioned in 1995 when it was replaced by new backbone networks operated by commercial Internet Service Providers.

The opening of the NSFNET to other networks began in 1988.[10] The US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of the NSFNET to the commercial MCI Mail system in that year and the link was made in the summer of 1989. Other commercial electronic mail services were soon connected, including OnTyme, Telemail and Compuserve. In that same year, three commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) began operations: UUNET, PSINet, and CERFNET. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the Internet include Usenet and BITNET. Various other commercial and educational networks, such as Telenet (by that time renamed to Sprintnet), Tymnet, Compuserve and JANET were interconnected with the growing Internet in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The adaptability of TCP/IP to existing communication networks allowed for rapid growth. The open availability of the specifications and reference code permitted commercial vendors to build interoperable network components, such as routers, making standardized network gear available from many companies. This aided in the rapid growth of the Internet and the proliferation of local-area networking. It seeded the widespread implementation and rigorous standardization of TCP/IP on UNIX and virtually every other common operating system.
This NeXT Computer was used by Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and became the world's first Web server.

Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan-European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. The Web was invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW, patterned after HyperCard and built using the X Window System. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web.

Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as FidoNet, have remained separate). During the late 1990s, it was estimated that traffic on the public Internet grew by 100 percent per year, while the mean annual growth in the number of Internet users was thought to be between 20% and 50%.[11] This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.[12] The estimated population of Internet users is 1.97 billion as of 30 June 2010.[13]

From 2009 onward, the Internet is expected to grow significantly in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Indonesia (BRICI countries). These countries have large populations and moderate to high economic growth, but still low Internet penetration rates. In 2009, the BRICI countries represented about 45 percent of the world's population and had approximately 610 million Internet users, but by 2015, Internet users in BRICI countries will double to 1.2 billion, and will triple in Indonesia.[14][15]
Technology
Protocols
Main article: Internet Protocol Suite

The complex communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture. While the hardware can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the rigorous standardization process of the software architecture that characterizes the Internet and provides the foundation for its scalability and success. The responsibility for the architectural design of the Internet software systems has been delegated to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).[16] The IETF conducts standard-setting work groups, open to any individual, about the various aspects of Internet architecture. Resulting discussions and final standards are published in a series of publications, each called a Request for Comments (RFC), freely available on the IETF web site. The principal methods of networking that enable the Internet are contained in specially designated RFCs that constitute the Internet Standards. Other less rigorous documents are simply informative, experimental, or historical, or document the best current practices (BCP) when implementing Internet technologies.

The Internet Standards describe a framework known as the Internet Protocol Suite. This is a model architecture that divides methods into a layered system of protocols (RFC 1122, RFC 1123). The layers correspond to the environment or scope in which their services operate. At the top is the Application Layer, the space for the application-specific networking methods used in software applications, e.g., a web browser program. Below this top layer, the Transport Layer connects applications on different hosts via the network (e.g., client–server model) with appropriate data exchange methods. Underlying these layers are the core networking technologies, consisting of two layers. The Internet Layer enables computers to identify and locate each other via Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and allows them to connect to one-another via intermediate (transit) networks. Lastly, at the bottom of the architecture, is a software layer, the Link Layer, that provides connectivity between hosts on the same local network link, such as a local area network (LAN) or a dial-up connection. The model, also known as TCP/IP, is designed to be independent of the underlying hardware which the model therefore does not concern itself with in any detail. Other models have been developed, such as the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, but they are not compatible in the details of description, nor implementation, but many similarities exist and the TCP/IP protocols are usually included in the discussion of OSI networking.

The most prominent component of the Internet model is the Internet Protocol (IP) which provides addressing systems (IP addresses) for computers on the Internet. IP enables internetworking and essentially establishes the Internet itself. IP Version 4 (IPv4) is the initial version used on the first generation of the today's Internet and is still in dominant use. It was designed to address up to ~4.3 billion (109) Internet hosts. However, the explosive growth of the Internet has led to IPv4 address exhaustion which is estimated to enter its final stage in approximately 2011.[17] A new protocol version, IPv6, was developed in the mid 1990s which provides vastly larger addressing capabilities and more efficient routing of Internet traffic. IPv6 is currently in commercial deployment phase around the world and Internet address registries (RIRs) have begun to urge all resource managers to plan rapid adoption and conversion.[18]

IPv6 is not interoperable with IPv4. It essentially establishes a "parallel" version of the Internet not directly accessible with IPv4 software. This means software upgrades or translator facilities are necessary for every networking device that needs to communicate on the IPv6 Internet. Most modern computer operating systems are already converted to operate with both versions of the Internet Protocol. Network infrastructures, however, are still lagging in this development. Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is defined by its interconnections and routing policies.
Structure

The Internet structure and its usage characteristics have been studied extensively. It has been determined that both the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks. Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as GEANT, GLORIAD, Internet2 (successor of the Abilene Network), and the UK's national research and education network JANET. These in turn are built around smaller networks (see also the list of academic computer network organizations).

Many computer scientists describe the Internet as a "prime example of a large-scale, highly engineered, yet highly complex system".[19] The Internet is extremely heterogeneous; for instance, data transfer rates and physical characteristics of connections vary widely. The Internet exhibits "emergent phenomena" that depend on its large-scale organization. For example, data transfer rates exhibit temporal self-similarity. The principles of the routing and addressing methods for traffic in the Internet reach back to their origins the 1960s when the eventual scale and popularity of the network could not be anticipated. Thus, the possibility of developing alternative structures is investigated.[20]
Governance
Main article: Internet governance
ICANN headquarters in Marina Del Rey, California, United States

The Internet is a globally distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body. However, to maintain interoperability, all technical and policy aspects of the underlying core infrastructure and the principal name spaces are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), headquartered in Marina del Rey, California. ICANN is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers for use on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters. Globally unified name spaces, in which names and numbers are uniquely assigned, are essential for the global reach of the Internet. ICANN is governed by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and other non-commercial communities. The government of the United States continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the DNS root zone that lies at the heart of the domain name system.[citation needed] ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet. On 16 November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues.
Modern uses

The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and web applications.

The Internet can now be accessed almost anywhere by numerous means, especially through mobile Internet devices. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a wireless network supporting that device's technology. Within the limitations imposed by small screens and other limited facilities of such pocket-sized devices, services of the Internet, including email and the web, may be available. Service providers may restrict the services offered and wireless data transmission charges may be significantly higher than other access methods.

Educational material at all levels from pre-school to post-doctoral is available from websites. Examples range from CBeebies, through school and high-school revision guides, virtual universities, to access to top-end scholarly literature through the likes of Google Scholar. In distance education, help with homework and other assignments, self-guided learning, whiling away spare time, or just looking up more detail on an interesting fact, it has never been easier for people to access educational information at any level from anywhere. The Internet in general and the World Wide Web in particular are important enablers of both formal and informal education.

The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier, with the help of collaborative software. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and share ideas, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place. An example of this is the free software movement, which has produced, among other programs, Linux, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org. Internet "chat", whether in the form of IRC chat rooms or channels, or via instant messaging systems, allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be exchanged even more quickly and conveniently than via email. Extensions to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, "whiteboard" drawings to be shared or voice and video contact between team members.

Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get "sent" documents to be able to make their contributions. Business and project teams can share calendars as well as documents and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing. Social and political collaboration is also becoming more widespread as both Internet access and computer literacy grow. From the flash mob 'events' of the early 2000s to the use of social networking in the 2009 Iranian election protests, the Internet allows people to work together more effectively and in many more ways than was possible without it[neutrality is disputed].

The Internet allows computer users to remotely access other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements. This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information emailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice. An office worker away from their desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including email and other applications, while away from the office. This concept has been referred to among system administrators as the Virtual Private Nightmare,[21] because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes.
Services
Information

Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web, or just the Web, interchangeably, but the two terms are not synonymous. The World Wide Web is a global set of documents, images and other resources, logically interrelated by hyperlinks and referenced with Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). URIs allow providers to symbolically identify services and clients to locate and address web servers, file servers, and other databases that store documents and provide resources and access them using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the primary carrier protocol of the Web. HTTP is only one of the hundreds of communication protocols used on the Internet. Web services may also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.

World Wide Web browser software, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple's Safari, and Google Chrome, let users navigate from one web page to another via hyperlinks embedded in the documents. These documents may also contain any combination of computer data, including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations. Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, users worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to printed encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled the decentralization of information.

The Web has also enabled individuals and organizations to publish ideas and information to a potentially large audience online at greatly reduced expense and time delay. Publishing a web page, a blog, or building a website involves little initial cost and many cost-free services are available. Publishing and maintaining large, professional web sites with attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however. Many individuals and some companies and groups use web logs or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to communicate advice in their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work. Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and MySpace currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.

Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow.

When the Web began in the 1990s, a typical web page was stored in completed form on a web server, formatted with HTML, ready to be sent to a user's browser in response to a request. Over time, the process of creating and serving web pages has become more automated and more dynamic. Websites are often created using content management or wiki software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of a club or other organization or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors.
Communication

Electronic mail, or email, is an important communications service available on the Internet. The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Pictures, documents and other files are sent as email attachments. Emails can be cc-ed to multiple email addresses.

Internet telephony is another common communications service made possible by the creation of the Internet. VoIP stands for Voice-over-Internet Protocol, referring to the protocol that underlies all Internet communication. The idea began in the early 1990s with walkie-talkie-like voice applications for personal computers. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a traditional telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on Internet connections such as cable or ADSL. VoIP is maturing into a competitive alternative to traditional telephone service. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple, inexpensive VoIP network adapters are available that eliminate the need for a personal computer.

Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls. Remaining problems for VoIP include emergency telephone number dialing and reliability. Currently, a few VoIP providers provide an emergency service, but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line-powered and operate during a power failure; VoIP does not do so without a backup power source for the phone equipment and the Internet access devices. VoIP has also become increasingly popular for gaming applications, as a form of communication between players. Popular VoIP clients for gaming include Ventrilo and Teamspeak. Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 also offer VoIP chat features.
Data transfer

File sharing is an example of transferring large amounts of data across the Internet. A computer file can be emailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks. In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication, the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption, and money may change hands for access to the file. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passed—usually fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests. These simple features of the Internet, over a worldwide basis, are changing the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications, software products, news, music, film, video, photography, graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.

Streaming media is the real-time delivery of digital media for the immediate consumption or enjoyment by end users. Many radio and television broadcasters provide Internet feeds of their live audio and video productions. They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver. The range of available types of content is much wider, from specialized technical webcasts to on-demand popular multimedia services. Podcasting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is downloaded and played back on a computer or shifted to a portable media player to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material worldwide.

Digital media streaming increases the demand for network bandwidth. For example, standard image quality needs 1 Mbps link speed for SD 480p, HD 720p quality requires 2.5 Mbps, and the top-of-the-line HDX quality needs 4.5 Mbps for 1080p.[22]

Webcams are a low-cost extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, traffic at a local roundabout or monitor their own premises, live and in real time. Video chat rooms and video conferencing are also popular with many uses being found for personal webcams, with and without two-way sound. YouTube was founded on 15 February 2005 and is now the leading website for free streaming video with a vast number of users. It uses a flash-based web player to stream and show video files. Registered users may upload an unlimited amount of video and build their own personal profile. YouTube claims that its users watch hundreds of millions, and upload hundreds of thousands of videos daily.[23]
Access
See also: List of countries by number of Internet users, English on the Internet, Global Internet usage, and Unicode
Graph of Internet users per 100 inhabitants between 1997 and 2007 by International Telecommunication Union

The prevalent language for communication on the Internet has been English. This may be a result of the origin of the Internet, as well as the language's role as a lingua franca. Early computer systems were limited to the characters in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), a subset of the Latin alphabet.

After English (27%), the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese (23%), Spanish (8%), Japanese (5%), Portuguese and German (4% each), Arabic, French and Russian (3% each), and Korean (2%).[24] By region, 42% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 24% in Europe, 14% in North America, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean taken together, 6% in Africa, 3% in the Middle East and 1% in Australia/Oceania.[25] The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years, especially in the use of Unicode, that good facilities are available for development and communication in the world's widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of some languages' characters) still remain.

Common methods of Internet access in homes include dial-up, landline broadband (over coaxial cable, fiber optic or copper wires), Wi-Fi, satellite and 3G/4G technology cell phones. Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also Internet access points in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone". Many hotels now also have public terminals, though these are usually fee-based. These terminals are widely accessed for various usage like ticket booking, bank deposit, online payment etc. Wi-Fi provides wireless access to computer networks, and therefore can do so to the Internet itself. Hotspots providing such access include Wi-Fi cafes, where would-be users need to bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a laptop or PDA. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. A whole campus or park, or even an entire city can be enabled. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks. Commercial Wi-Fi services covering large city areas are in place in London, Vienna, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Pittsburgh. The Internet can then be accessed from such places as a park bench.[26] Apart from Wi-Fi, there have been experiments with proprietary mobile wireless networks like Ricochet, various high-speed data services over cellular phone networks, and fixed wireless services. High-end mobile phones such as smartphones generally come with Internet access through the phone network. Web browsers such as Opera are available on these advanced handsets, which can also run a wide variety of other Internet software. More mobile phones have Internet access than PCs, though this is not as widely used.[citation needed] An Internet access provider and protocol matrix differentiates the methods used to get online.

In contrast, an Internet blackout or outage can be caused by accidental local signaling interruptions. Disruptions of submarine communications cables may cause blackouts or slowdowns to large areas depending on them, such as in the 2008 submarine cable disruption. Internet blackouts of almost entire countries can be achieved by governments as Internet censorship, such as with the Internet in Egypt, where approximately 93%[27] of networks were shut down in 2011 in an attempt to stop mobilisation for anti-government protests.[28]

In an American study in 2005, the percentage of men using the Internet was very slightly ahead of the percentage of women, although this difference reversed in those under 30. Men logged on more often, spend more time online, and are more likely to be broadband users, whereas women tended to make more use of opportunities to communicate (such as email). Men were more likely to use the Internet to pay bills, participate in auctions, and for recreation such as downloading music and videos. Men and women were equally likely to use the Internet for shopping and banking.[29] More recent studies indicate that in 2008, women significantly outnumbered men on most social networking sites, such as Facebook and Myspace, although the ratios varied with age.[1] In addition, women watched more streaming content, whereas men downloaded more.[2] In terms of blogs, men were more likely to blog in the first place; among those who blog, men were more likely to have a professional blog, whereas women were more likely to have a personal blog. [3]
Social impact
Main article: Sociology of the Internet

The Internet has enabled entirely new forms of social interaction, activities, and organizing, thanks to its basic features such as widespread usability and access. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have created new ways to socialize and interact. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of information to pages, to pursue common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to find existing acquaintances, to allow communication among existing groups of people. Sites like LinkedIn foster commercial and business connections. YouTube and Flickr specialize in users' videos and photographs.

In the first decade of the 21st century the first generation is raised with widespread availability of Internet connectivity, bringing consequences and concerns in areas such as personal privacy and identity, and distribution of copyrighted materials. These "digital natives" face a variety of challenges that were not present for prior generations.

The Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool, leading to Internet censorship by some states. The presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 in the United States was notable for its success in soliciting donation via the Internet. Many political groups use the Internet to achieve a new method of organizing in order to carry out their mission, having given rise to Internet activism. Some governments, such as those of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, the People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia, restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet, especially political and religious content.[citation needed] This is accomplished through software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention.[original research?]

In Norway, Denmark, Finland[30] and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily, possibly to avoid such an arrangement being turned into law, agreed to restrict access to sites listed by authorities. While this list of forbidden URLs is only supposed to contain addresses of known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret.[citation needed] Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws against the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, via the Internet, but do not mandate filtering software. There are many free and commercially available software programs, called content-control software, with which a user can choose to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks, in order to limit a child's access to pornographic materials or depiction of violence.

The Internet has been a major outlet for leisure activity since its inception, with entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much traffic. Today, many Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of Flash movies are also popular. Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas. The pornography and gambling industries have taken advantage of the World Wide Web, and often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other websites.[citation needed] Although many governments have attempted to restrict both industries' use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity.[citation needed]

One main area of leisure activity on the Internet is multiplayer gaming. This form of recreation creates communities, where people of all ages and origins enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing video games to online gambling. This has revolutionized the way many people interact[citation needed] while spending their free time on the Internet. While online gaming has been around since the 1970s,[citation needed] modern modes of online gaming began with subscription services such as GameSpy and MPlayer. Non-subscribers were limited to certain types of game play or certain games. Many people use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and relaxation. Free and fee-based services exist for all of these activities, using centralized servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Some of these sources exercise more care with respect to the original artists' copyrights than others.

Many people use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book vacations and to find out more about their interests. People use chat, messaging and email to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in the same way as some previously had pen pals. The Internet has seen a growing number of Web desktops, where users can access their files and settings via the Internet.

Cyberslacking can become a drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spent 57 minutes a day surfing the Web while at work, according to a 2003 study by Peninsula Business Services.[31] Internet addiction disorder is excessive computer use that interferes with daily life. Some psychologists believe that Internet use has other effects on individuals for instance interfering with the deep thinking that leads to true creativity.[citation needed]

Internet usage has been correlated to users' loneliness.[32] Lonely people tend to use the Internet as an outlet for their feelings and to share their stories with others, such as in the "I am lonely will anyone speak to me" thread.

Deepika Padukone (Hindi: दीपिका पडुकोण)

My film 'Aarakshan' will not create new tensions: Prakash Jha
26 Feb 2011 - 136 Views - Sahil
Filmmaker Prakash Jha, who is shooting his latest film 'Aarakshan' in Bhopal, feels the subject matter of the film is relevant as there is always an 'under current about aarakshan (reservation) in Indian society'.

The star cast of 'Aarakshan', including Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Tanvi Aazmi had an interaction with the media at Rizwan Bagh, one of the sets of the movie. Read More...
Deepika Padukone says she is an introvert
12 Feb 2011 - 341 Views - Sahil
Deepika Padukone, claims she is an introvert in real life. "I always think before I speak. I'm not the sort who will just say anything that comes to my mind," she says.

Even as she remains one of the most visible stars of the country, she has tabloids waiting with baited breath for a confirmation on whether she is dating Kingfisher scion, Siddhartha Mallya or not. Deepika appears to be going through the same motions of self-discovery a regular 25-year-old would. Read More...
Deepika's item song to overshadow Munni, Shiela?
12 Feb 2011 - 249 Views - Sahil
Move over Munni... and Sheila..., the new item song in tinsel town is ready to scorch the screens this summer. If the teaser of Deepika Padukone’s item in Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maaro Dum is any indication, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. It is learnt that she started preparing for it from the day after she signed up for the Pritam-composed track in the film toplining Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and south star, Rana Dugabatti. Read More...
Love Triangle between Saif, Deepika and Prateik in Aarakshan
3 Feb 2011 - 249 Views - Sahil
After ‘Dhobi Ghat’, Prateik Babbar will be seen in Prakash Jha’s ‘Aarakshan’. People are quite amused by the fact that his reel story is similar to his real love story. Read More...
I’ll only wear an Indian designer: Deepika
3 Feb 2011 - 209 Views - Sahil
There are times when actors have no choice, but to opt out of international appearances due to prior commitments to work. But when actor Deepika Padukone requested filmmaker Prakash Jha for a four-day break from the shoot of his forthcoming film Aarakshan in Bhopal, he couldn’t refuse. Read More...
Deepika Padukone: The choice between Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar
3 Feb 2011 - 236 Views - Sahil
We have seen Aishwarya Rai romancing Rajinikanth on screen in the block buster film ‘Endhiran’ (Robot). And it is no surprise that Aishwarya can boast of such a big hit in her kitty since Rajini is virtually treated as a venerable deity in some parts of the country. Read More...
Miss goody two shoes
3 Feb 2011 - 118 Views - Sahil
Just days ago, Deepika Padukone finished gyrating to the iconic number Dum Maro Dum Mit Jaye Gham for Rohan Sippy's forthcoming film Dum Maro Dum, but strictly on her own terms.

Deepika was very excited to fill Zeenat Aman's shoes in the remixed version of the Hare Rama Hare Krishna original. Read More...
‘I don’t believe in item numbers’
23 Dec 2010 - 513 Views - Sahil
In an age when even an established and highly-paid actress like Katrina Kaif is choosing to do an item number, Deepika Padukone outrightly denies of ever wanting to perform on one in her forthcoming films. “I don’t believe in item numbers. Moreover, I prefer doing what others don’t. I love play challenging characters rather than doing an item number.” Read More...
Deepika to play Amitabh Bachchan's daughter
23 Dec 2010 - 425 Views - Sahil
Do you think that Deepika Padukone resembles Amitabh Bachchan's daughter (Shweta Nanda)? Well Prakash Jha seemed to think so and cast the actress as the Big B's beti in his next, Aarakshan. Read More...
Deepika's confidence makes her feel sexy
13 Dec 2010 - 553 Views - Sahil
The daughter of Prakash Padukone, and a badminton ace herself, Deepika Padukone created a buzz in the film industry even before her debut. She started her career as a ramp and TV model – she was the Liril girl - and also appeared in the Kingfisher calender. Deepika won rave reviews and bagged
a number of awards for her debut in Om Shanti Om. In three years, she’s already worked with the best names in the industry, and is now making news for Break Ke Baad and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey. Read More...

Himachal Pradesh Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश

Himachal Pradesh (Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश [ɦɪmaːtʃəl prəd̪eːʃ] ( listen)) is a state in Northern India. It is spread over 21,495 sq mi (55,673 km²),[4] and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east. The literal meaning of Himachal Pradesh is Region of snowy mountains.[5]http://adf.ly/CYfVH


Himachal Pradesh was anciently known as Dev Bhumi (The Abode of Gods) and is abundance in natural beauty [6] After the Anglo Gorkha War, the British colonial government came into power. It was initially part of Punjab, except the Siba State of Punjab Hills which was under the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh until 1857.[7] In 1950 Himachal was declared as a union territory but after the State of Himachal Pradesh Act 1971, Himachal emerged as the 18th state of the Indian Union. Himachal has many prestigious boarding schools. Hima means snow in Sanskrit. It was named by one of the great Sanskrit scholars of Himachal Pradesh, Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharmahttp://adf.ly/CYfVH

Himachal Pradesh has one of the highest per capita incomes of any state in India. Due to the abundance of perennial rivers, Himachal also sells hydro electricity to other states such as Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan.[8] The economy of the state is highly dependent on three sources: hydroelectric power, tourism and agriculture.[9]http://adf.ly/CYfVH

Hindus make up 95% of the state population, making it the most Hindu state (proportionally), in India. According to a 2005 Transparency International survey, Himachal Pradesh is ranked the second-least corrupt state in the country after Kerala.[10]http://adf.ly/CYfVH

The history of thttp://adf.ly/CYfVHhe area that now constitutes Himachal Pradesh dates back to the time when the Indus valley civilisation flourished between 2250 and 1750 BCE.[11] Tribes such as the Koilis, Halis, Dagis, Dhaugris, Dasa, Khasas, Kinnars and Kirats inhabited the region from pre-histotic era. During the Vedic period, several small republics known as "Janapada" existed which were later conquered by the Gupta Empire.[12] After a brief period of supremacy by king Harshavardhana, the region was once again divided into several local powers headed by chieftains, including some Rajput principalities. These kingdoms that enjoyed a large degree of independence were devastated by Muslim invaders a number of times.[11] Mahmud Ghaznavi conquered Kangra at the beginning of the 10th century. Timur and Sikander Lodi also marched through the lower hills of the state and captured a number of forts and fought many battles.[11] Several hill states acknowledged Mughal suzerainty and paid regular tribute to the Mughals.[13]
Sansar Chand (c.1765–1823)http://adf.ly/CYfVH

The Gorkhas, a martial tribe came to power in Nepal in the year 1768.[11] They consolidated their military power and began to expand their territory.[11] Gradually the Gorkhas annexed Sirmour and Shimla. With the leadership of Amar Singh Thapa, Gorkhas laid siege to Kangra. They managed to defeat Sansar Chand, the ruler of Kangra, in 1806 with the help of many provincial chiefs. However Gorkhas could not capture Kangra fort which came under Maharaja Ranjeet Singh in 1809. After the defeat the Gorkhas began to expand towards the south of the state. However, Raja Ram Singh, Raja of Siba State re-captured the fort of Siba from the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Samvat 1846,[11] during the First Anglo-Sikh War. They came into direct conflict with the British along the tarai belt after which the British expelled them from the provinces of the Satluj.[11] Thus the British gradually emerged as the paramount powers.[11] The revolt of 1857 or first Indian war of independence resulted due to the building up of political, social, economic, religious and military grievances against the British government.[11] People of the hill states were not as politically active as the people in other parts of the country.[11] They remained more or less inactive and so did their rulers, with the exception of Bushahr.[11] Some of them even rendered help to the British government during the revolt. Among them were the rulers of Chamba, Bilaspur, Bhagal and Dhami. The rulers of Bushars rather acted in a manner hostile to the interests of British.[11]http://adf.ly/CYfVH

The British territories in the hill came under British Crown after Queen Victoria's proclamation of 1858. The states of Chamba, Mandi and Bilaspur made good progress in many fields during the British rule.[11] During World War I, virtually all rulers of the hill states remained loyal and contributed to the British war effort both in the form of men and materials. Amongst these were the states of Kangra, Jaswan, Datarpur, Guler, Nurpur, Chamba, Suket, Mandi and Bilaspur.[11]http://adf.ly/CYfVH

After independence the Chief Commissioner's Province of H.P. came into being on 15 April 1948 as a result of integration of 28 petty princely states (including feudatory princes and zaildars) in the promontories of the western Himalaya, known in full as the Simla Hills States & four Punjab southern hill States by issue of the Himachal Pradesh (Administration) Order, 1948 under Sections 3 & 4 of the Extra-Provincial Jurisdiction Act, 1947 (later renamed as the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1947 vide A.O. of 1950). The State of Bilaspur was merged in the Himachal Pradesh on 1 April 1954 by the Himachal Pradesh and Bilaspur (New State) Act, 1954. Himachal became a part C state on 26 January 1950 with the implementation of the Constitution of India and the Lt. Governor was appointed. Legislative Assembly was elected in 1952. Himachal Pradesh became a Union Territory on 1 November 1956.[11] Following area of Punjab State namely Simla, Kangra, Kulu and Lahul and Spiti Districts, Nalagarh tehsil of Ambala District, Lohara, Amb and Una kanungo circles, some area of Santokhgarh kanungo circle and some other specified area of Una tehsil of Hoshiarpur District besides some parts of Dhar Kalan Kanungo circle of Pathankot tehsil of Gurdaspur District; were merged with Himachal Pradesh on 1 November 1966 on enactment of Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 by the Parliament. On 18 December 1970, the State of Himachal Pradesh Act was passed by Parliament and the new state came into being on 25 January 1971. Thus Himachal emerged as the eighteenth state of the Indian Union.[11]http://adf.ly/CYfVH
[edit] Geography and climate
Main article: Geography of Himachal Pradeshhttp://adf.ly/CYfVH
Dal Lake
A summer view of Khajjiar.http://adf.ly/CYfVH
Himachal is situated in the western Himalayas. Covering an area of 55,673 kilometres (34,594 mi),[4] Himachal Pradesh is a mountainous state with elevation ranging from about 350 metres (1,148 ft) to 7,000 metres (22,966 ft) above the sea level.[14]
Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh.

The drainage system of Himachal is composed both of rivers and glaciers. Himalayan rivers criss-cross the entire mountain chain. In fact the rivers are older than the mountain system.[15] Himachal Pradesh provides water to both the Indus and Ganges basins.[16] The drainage systems of the region are the Chandra Bhaga or the Chenab, the Ravi, the Beas, the Sutlej and the Yamuna. These rivers are perennial and are fed by snow and rainfall. They are protected by an extensive cover of natural vegetation. [16]

There is great variation in the climatic conditions of Himachal due to extreme variation in elevation. The climate varies from hot and sub-humid tropical in the southern tracts to cold, alpine and glacial in the northern and eastern mountain ranges with more elevation.[17] The state has areas like Dharamsala that receive very heavy rainfall, as well as those like Lahaul and Spiti that are cold and almost rainless. Broadly Himachal experience three seasons; hot weather season, cold weather season and rainy season. Summer lasts from mid April till the end of June and most parts become very hot (except in alpine zone which experience mild summer) with the average temperature ranging from 28 °C (82 °F) to 32 °C (90 °F). Winter lasts from late November till mid March. Snowfall is common in alpine tracts (generally above 2,200 metres (7,218 ft) i.e. in the Higher and Trans-Himalayan region).
[edit] Flora and faunahttp://adf.ly/CYfVH
Main article: Wildlife of Himachal Pradeshhttp://adf.ly/CYfVH
Asian Paradise Flycatcher in Kullu
Himalyan Monal at Birds Park in Shimla

According to 2003 Forest Survey of India report, legally defined forest areas constitute 66.52% of the area of Himachal Pradesh, although area under tree cover is only 25.78%.[18] Vegetation in the state is dictated by elevation and precipitation.

The southern part of the state, which is at the lowest elevations, has both tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests and tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.[18] These are represented by northwestern thorn scrub forests along the border with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and by Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests in the far southeast. Sal and shisham are found here.

Rising into the hills, we find a mosaic of western Himalayan broadleaf forests and Himalayan subtropical pine forests. Various deciduous and evergreen oaks live in the broadleaf forests, while Chir pine dominates the pine forests. Western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests grow near treeline, with species that include East Himalayan Fir, West Himalayan Spruce, Deodar (State tree), and Blue pine.


Himachal is also said to be the fruit bowl of the country with orchards scattered all over the place. Meadows and pastures are also seen clinging to steep slopes. After the winter season, the hillsides and orchards bloom with wild flowers, while gladiolas, carnations, marigolds,[19] roses, chrysanthemums, tulips and lilies are carefully cultivated. The state government is gearing up to make Himachal Pradesh as the flower basket of the world.

Himachal Pradesh is a well known habitat to a variety of animals. There are around 1200 bird and 359 animal species in the state.[20] This includes the Leopard, Snow leopard (State animal), ghoral, musk deer and Western Tragopan. It has 12 major national parks and sanctuaries – the largest number in the Himalayan region. The Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu district was created to conserve the flora and fauna of the main Himalayan range, while the Pin Valley National Park to conserve the flora and fauna of the cold desert.
[edit] Subdivisions
Bilaspur
Chamba
Hamirpur
Kangra
Kinnaur
Kullu
Lahaul and Spiti
Mandi
Shimla
Sirmaur
Solan
Una

Himachal Pradesh is divided into 12 districts namely, Kangra, Hamirpur, Mandi, Bilaspur, Una, Chamba, Lahul and Spiti, Sirmaur, Kinnaur, Kullu, Solan and Shimla. The state capital is Shimla which was formerly British India's summer capital under the name Simla.

A district of Himachal Pradesh is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a Deputy Commissioner or District Magistrate, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service. The district magistrate or the deputy commissioner is assisted by a number of officers belonging to Himachal Administrative Service and other Himachal state services. Each district is subdivided into Sub-Divisions, governed by a sub-divisional magistrate, and again into Blocks. Blocks consists of panchayats (village councils) and town municipalities. A Superintendent of Police, an officer belonging to the Indian Police Service is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining law and order and related issues of the district. He is assisted by the officers of the Himachal Police Service and other Himachal Police officials.


[edit] Government
Main article: Government of Himachal Pradesh
Town Hall in Shimla.

The Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh has no pre-Constitution history. The State itself is a post-Independence creation. It came into being as a centrally administered territory on 15 April 1948 from the integration of thirty erstwhile princely states.[21]

Himachal Pradesh is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. The legislature consists of elected members and special office bearers such as the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker who are elected by the members. Assembly meetings are presided over by the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker in the Speaker's absence. The judiciary is composed of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and a system of lower courts. Executive authority is vested in the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister, although the titular head of government is the Governor. The Governor is the head of state appointed by the President of India. The leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Legislative Assembly is appointed as the Chief Minister by the Governor, and the Council of Ministers are appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Council of Ministers reports to the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly is unicameral with 68 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).[22] Terms of office run for 5 years, unless the Assembly is dissolved prior to the completion of the term. Auxiliary authorities known as panchayats, for which local body elections are regularly held, govern local affairs.

Governments have seen alternates between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC), no third front ever has become significant. In 2003, the state legislative assembly was won by the Indian National Congress and Virbhadra Singh was elected as the chief minister of the state. In the assembly elections held in December 2007, the BJP secured a landslide victory. The BJP won 41 of the 68 seats while the Congress won only 23 of the 68 seats. BJP's Prem Kumar Dhumal was sworn in as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh on 30 December 2007.

* Yashwant Singh Parmar
* Thakur Ram Lal
* Shanta Kumar
* Virbhadra Singh
* Prem Kumar Dhumal

[edit] Economy
Main article: Economy of Himachal Pradesh
Gross State Domestic Product at Current Prices

figures in millions of Indian Rupees
Year Gross State Domestic Product
1980 7,940
1985 13,720
1990 28,150
1995 66,980
2000 135,900
2005 230,240
2007 254,350

The era of planning started in Himachal in 1948 along with the rest of India. The first five year plan allocated .5.27 crore to Himachal. More than 50% of this expenditure was incurred on road construction since it was felt that without proper transport facilities, the process of planning and development could not be carried to the people, who mostly lived an isolated existence in far away areas. Himachal now ranks fourth in respect of per capita income among the states of the Indian Union.[8]

Agriculture contributes over 45% to the net state domestic product. It is the main source of income and employment in Himachal. Over 93% of the population in Himachal depend directly upon agriculture which provides direct employment to 71% of its people. The main cereals grown are wheat, maize, rice and barley.

Himachal has a rich heritage of handicrafts. These include woolen and pashmina shawls, carpets, silver and metal ware, embroidered chappals, grass shoes, Kangra and Gompa style paintings, wood work, horse-hair bangles, wooden and metal utensils and various other house hold items. These aesthetic and tasteful handicrafts declined under competition from machine made goods and also because of lack of marketing facilities. But now the demand for handicrafts has increased within and outside the country.

Himachal is extremely rich in hydro electric resources. The state has about 25% of the national potential in this respect. It has been estimated that about 20,300MW of hydro electric power can be generated in the State by constructing various major, medium, small and mini/micro hydel projects on the five river basins. The state is also the first state in India to achieve the goal of having a bank account for every family.[8]

As per the current prices, the total GDP was estimated at 25,435 crore ( 254,350,000,000), as against 23,024 crore ( 230,240,000,000) in the year 2004–05, showing an increase of 10.5%.[23]
[edit] Transport


Railway track is accessible only to a few places in Himachal Pradesh. The Pathankot–Jogindernagar line connects Punjab with Himachal Pradesh. The other railway tracks pass through Shimla, Solan and Una. Shimla is connected with Kalka by a narrow gauge railway line, which in turn is connected with the major cities in India. Himachal has two narrow gauge rail tracks. The Kalka-Shimla Railway track has a length of 96 kilometres. It passes through 102 tunnels and crosses 864 bridges.[26][27]

There are three domestic airports in the state—Shimla Airport, Bhuntar Airport serving Kullu and Manali, and Gaggal Airport serving Kangra and Dharamsala. The air routes connect the state with Delhi and Chandigarh. There are no international airports in Himachal Pradesh. Deccan, Air India, MDLR has flights from Delhi, Chandigarh to Kullu and back. Jagson Airlines has flights from Delhi to Shimla.[28]
[edit] Demographics
Traditional home, Manali
[show]Population Growth
1991 5,171,000 20.8%
2001 6,077,900 17.5%
Source:Census of India[29]

The population of Himachal in 2001 stood at 6,077,900 as per the provisional results of the Census of India 2001.[30] The population of Himachal Pradesh includes estimated population of entire Kinnaur district, where the population enumeration of Census of India, 2001 could not be conducted due to natural calamity.[30] In terms of population it holds the same position (twenty first) among States and Union territories as at the previous census.[30] The population of the State rose by 17.53% between 1991–2001.[30] The sex ratio (i.e., the number of females per thousand males) of population was recorded as 970, which has declined from 976 in the previous census.[30] Total literacy of the State rose to 77.13% from 63.94% in 1991.[30] Himachal Pradesh has a Total Fertility Rate of 1.9, one of the lowest in India, and below the TFR, of 2.1, required to maintain a stable population. (see Indian states ranking by fertility rate)

The main communities are Brahmins, Gujjars, Rathis, Jats, Rajputs Gaddis, Ghirth(choudhary), Kanets, and Kolis.The Ghirth(choudhary)community is found in mainly distt.Kangra. Himachal also has a sizeable population of Tibetans[31] Himachal Pradesh has the highest proportion of Hindu population in India (95%). Other religions that form a small percentage are Buddhism and Sikhism. The Lahaulis of Lahaul and Spiti region are mainly Buddhists. Sikhs mostly live in towns and cities. For example they form 10% of the total population in Una District adjoining the state of Punjab and 17 % in Shimla,the state capital. The Buddhists are mainly natives and tribals from Lahaul and Spiti,where they form majority of 60% and Kinnaur where they form 40%, however the bulk are refugees from Tibet.[30]

The major spoken languages include Hindi, Punjabi, Mahasui, Kulluyi, Lahauli, Kinnauri, Chambyali, Sirmauri, Gojri (by Gujjars), Bilaspuri, Pahari, Dogri, Kangri.[31]


Languages of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Himachal Pradesh are the Sunam language 558 (1998), Gahri language 4,000 (1997), Jangshung language 1,990 (1998), Kanashi language 1,400 (2002 Chauhan), Kinnauri language 48,778, Kinnauri Bhoti language 6,000 (1998), Chitkuli language 1,060 (1998), Pattani language 11,000 (1997), Shumcho language 2,174 (1998) and the Tukpa language 723 (1998).[33]
[edit] Culture
Main article: Culture of Himachal Pradesh

Himachal was one of the few states that had remained largely untouched by external customs, largely due to its difficult terrain. With the technological advancements the state has changed very rapidly. It is a multireligional, multicultural as well as multilingual state like other Indian states. Some of the most commonly spoken languages includes Hindi, Pahari, Dogri, Mandialli Kangri, Gojri and Kinnauri.[31] The caste communities residing in Himachal include the Brahmins, Rajputs, Gujjars, Gaddis, "Grith (choudhary)," Kannets (come under RAJPUTS), Rathis and Kolis.[34] There are also tribal population in the state which mainly comprise , Kinnars,Pangawals, Sulehria, and Lahaulis.[35]
The state is well known for its handicrafts. The carpets, leather works, shawls, metalware, woodwork and paintings are worth appreciating. Pashmina shawl is one of the product which is highly in demand not only in Himachal but all over the country. Himachali caps are also famous art work of the people. Extreme cold winters of Himachal necessitated wool weaving. Nearly every household in Himachal owns a pit-loom. Wool is also considered as pure and is used as a ritual cloth. The well known woven object is the shawl, ranging from fine pashmina to the coarse desar. Kullu is famous for its shawls with striking patterns and vibrant colours. Kangra and Dharamshala are famous for Kangra miniature paintings.


Shimla, the state capital is home to Asia's only natural ice skating rink.[36]

The day to day food of Himachalis is very similar to the rest of the north India. They too have lentil, broth, rice, vegetables and bread. Some of the specialities of Himachal include Pateer, Chouck, Bhagjery, jhoul, Patrode, Sidku, Beduan, Chutney, Madra, Khatti Dal, Khatta and Ambua, Madra, Pahari Aloo and Pahari Murgh.

Famous people associated with Himachal include: Dalip Singh Rana, Anupam Kher, Amrish Puri (who studied here), Prem Chopra (brought up here) , Mohit Chauhan, Anand Sharma (Member of Rajya Sabha and Union Cabinet Minister for Commerce and Industry[37] of the Government of India), Third Supreme Court Chief-Justice and former Prime Minister of Kashmir in 1947 Mehr Chand Mahajan, economist and former vice-president of World Bank Shahid Javed Burki, NSG Commando, Pritam Singh,Bollywood actresses Preity Zinta, Kangna Ranaut, Hollywood actress Namrata Singh Gujral, Satyananda Stokes who introduced apple in the region, writer Idries Shah, ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume (had his home here), former general of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and current President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai who both studied here.
[edit] Education
Main article: Education in Himachal Pradesh
Main article: List of educational institutions in Himachal Pradesh
Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital at Shimla.
Institue of Advance Studies at Shimla.

Himachal Pradesh has one of the highest literacy rates in India.[38] Hamirpur District is among the top districts in the country for literacy.[38] Education rates among women are quite encouraging in the state.[38]
The standard of education in the state has reached to a considerably high level as compared to other states in India.[38] The state has several reputed educational institutes for higher studies.

The Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Himachal Pradesh University Shimla ,the National Institute of Technology Hamirpur,the Central University Kangra,the Jaypee University of Information Technology Waknaghat, The Chitkara University Solan are some of the pioneer Universities located in the state. CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalya Palampur is one of the most renowned hill Agriculture Institutes in world. Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry has earned a unique distinction in India for imparting teaching, research and extension education in horticulture, forestry and allied disciplines.[38]

The government is working constantly to prepare various plans and projects in order to strengthen the education system of the state. Recently, the State Government has decided to start three nursing colleges to develop the health system in the state. There are over 10,000 primary schools, 1,000 secondary schools and more than 1,300 high schools in Himachal.[39] The state government has decided to start up with 3 major nursing colleges to develop the health system in the state.[38] In meeting the constitutional obligation to make primary education compulsory, Himachal has now became the first state in India to make elementary education accessible to every child in the state.[40]

The State has got Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital. Besides that there is Himachal Dental College which is the first recognised Dental Institute in the State.[41]

[edit] Universities
Name Type Location
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi Institute of National Importance Mandi
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur Institute of National Importance Hamirpur
Central University of Himachal Pradesh Central University Dehra Gopipur and Dharamshala
Himachal Pradesh University State University Shimla
Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry State University Nauni
CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalya State University Palampur
Jaypee University of Information Technology Private University Waknaghat
Eternal University Private University Baru Sahib
Chitkara University Private University Barotiwala
Arni University Private University Indora
Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences Private University Solan
Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology Private University Baddi
Sri Sai University Private University Palampur
Indus International University Private University Una
Manav Bharti University Private University Kumarhatti
Bahara University Private University Solan
[edit] Media and communication

CITY CHANNEL is one of the leaders in the production and broadcasting of un-biased and comprehensive news and entertainment programs in Whole Himachal Pradesh State of India

It offers round-the-clock coverage of latest news and has a unique mix of news bulletins, current affairs, talk shows, and general interest and entertainment programs.


CITY CHANNEL delivers reliable information across all platforms : TV, Internet and Mobile.

CITY CHANNEL broadcasts its programs in all over Himachal Pradesh www.citychannel.info

Though situated in a remote part of the country, Himachal Pradesh has an active community of journalists and publishers. Several newspapers and magazines are published in more than one language, and their reach extends to almost all the Hindi speaking states. Radio and TV have permeated significantly. Judging by the number of people writing to these media, there is a very large media-aware population in the state.
The Telegraph, The Statesman, Asian Age, Hindustan Times, Punjab Kesari, Amar Ujala, Divya Himachal and The Times of India are the newspapers published here. Vernacular newspapers such as those in Hindi, Punjabi and Nepali VOICE of PRESS(www.voiceofpress.com) are also read by selected readership.A leading print electronic web and digital media Himachal's 1st PR and Promotion agency PRAGATI MEDIA SERVICES,a joint venture of 'Pen'(Print Electronic Network) running No.1 among the Hindi Monthly Magazine PEN NEWS www.crimewing.com
Doordarshan is the state-owned television broadcaster. Multi system operators provide a mix of Nepali, Hindi, English, and international channels via cable. All India Radio is a public radio station. Private FM stations are also available in few cities like Shimla. BSNL, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Indicom, Tata Docomo , Aircel, S Tel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Airtel are available cellular phone operators. Broadband internet is available in select towns and cities and is provided by the state-run BSNL and by other private companies. Dial-up access is provided throughout the state by BSNL and other providers.
[edit] State Profile
State Symbols State animal Snow leopard

Females 2,989,960
Population Density 109
Sex Ratio 968
Rural Population 5,482,319
Urban Population 595,581
Scheduled Caste Population 1,502,171
Scheduled Tribe Population 244,587
Literacy Rate 77.13%
Male Literacy 86.02%
Female Literacy 68.08%
Districts 12
Sub-Division 52
Tehsils 75
Sub-Tehsils 34
Developmental Block 75
Towns 57
Panchayats 3,243
Panchayat Smities 75
Zila Parishad 12
Urban Local Bodies 53
Nagar Nigam 1
Nagar Parishad 20
Nagar Panchayats 32
Census Villages 20,118
Inhabited Villages 17,495
Potential harnessed 6353.12MW
Food grain production 16.69 lakh tonnes
Vegetable production 9 lakh tonnes
Fruit Production 6.95 lakh tonnes