Culture Differences: A Major Barrier in English Language Teaching and Learning

This paper explores the role of culture and its impact on English language teaching and learning. A classroom, in today’s world, is a melting pot of students from various social, economic and cultural backgrounds. These differences influence them in everything they do and think. If this cultural difference is not studied with due respect, it could become a major impediment in their acquisition of second language. Hence, this paper observes the multiple ways in which cultural difference comes to play in the life of a language learner. It also discusses on how the problem could be tackled with the development of a cultural intelligence

A Post Modern Analysis of Music with Special Reference to the Tradition of Hindustani Classical Music

This paper is an effort to analyze North Indian Classical music under the lens of a post modern condition. The North Indian Classical music is also known by the name Hindustani Music which is highly renowned owning a dedicated listenership worldwide. The study taken up in this paper is interdisciplinary and attempts to analyze Hindustani music with the help of certain Post Modernist tenets. Post Modernism as a movement is colossal. It is an umbrella term for many movements and theories whereas, in this paper, there is no direct use of any particular theory. Rather , it makes use of the basic tenet of post modernism ;  questioning and subverting the established schools of thought so as to show that there are hitherto  unrevealed meanings deep inside. This paper takes up post modernist thinking as a method to show the other side of established notions and how such notions are subverted.  In this study, the subject that is brought under close scrutiny is the ancient ‘gharana’ system of Hindustani Classical Music, the sanctity and sublimity attached to it and also music in general. It also subverts the artist/ audience pair to show that it is not actually the artist alone who is instrumental in making music but the audience too play an important role in it, a role that is sometimes more influential regarding the making of music. Keywords: Music, culture, discours

Not Available

Not AvailableImproved-Samba-Mahsuri (ISM), a high-yielding, popular bacterial blight resistant (possessing Xa21, xa13, and xa5), fne-grain type, low glycemic index rice variety is highly sensitive to low soil phosphorus (P). We have deployed marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB) approach for targeted transfer of Pup1, a major QTL associated with low soil P tolerance, using Swarna as a donor. A new co-dominant marker, K20-1-1, which is specifc for Pup1 was designed and used for foreground selection along with functional markers specifc for the bacterial blight resistance genes, Xa21, xa13, and xa5. A set of 66 polymorphic SSR marker were used for the background selection along with a pair of fanking markers for the recombination selection in backcross derived progenies and in BC2F2 generation, 12 plants, which are homozygous for Pup1, all the three bacterial blight resistance genes and possessing agro-morphological traits equivalent to or better than ISM were selected and selfed to produce BC2F3s. They were evaluated in plots with low soil P and normal soil P at ICARIIRR, Hyderabad for their low soil P tolerance, and bacterial blight resistance and superior lines were advanced to BC2F6. One of the lines, when tested at multiple locations in India was found promising under both normal as well as low soil P conditions.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableImproved Samba Mahsuri (ISM) is a popular, high-yielding, bacterial blight resistant rice variety possessing medium-slender grain type. As ISM is highly susceptible to blast disease of rice, through the present study we have transferred two major blast resistance genes, Pi2 and Pi54 into the elite variety by marker-assisted backcross breeding. The two blast resistance genes were transferred to ISM through sets of backcrosses. In every backcross generation, PCR-based markers, specific for the blast resistance genes (Pi2 and Pi54) and bacterial blight resistance genes (Xa21, xa13 and xa5) were utilized for foreground selection, while a set of 144 parental polymorphic SSR markers were used for background selection and backcrossing was carried out until BC2 generation. A solitary BC2F1 plant possessing Pi2 or Pi54 along with Xa21, xa13 and xa5 and > 90% recovery of ISM genome was selected from the two sets of backcrosses were crossed and the intercross F1s (ICF1s) thus obtained were selfed to generate ICF2s. Homozygous ICF2 plants carrying all the five resistance genes were identified through markers and advanced through selfing till ICF5 generation by adopting pedigree method of selection. Three best lines at ICF5, possessing excellent resistance against bacterial blight and blast and closely resembling or superior to ISM in terms of grain quality: yield and agro-morphological traits have been identified and advanced for multi-location trials.ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute with award Number: (F.No.F.3/CRPMB/Gen/2015-16/1714)Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for the INSPIRE fellowshi