• Issues relating to control over vital economic resources like land and specially forests.
• Issues relating to matters of ethnic-cultural identity.

Two to three generations of people who live together in small settlements or villages are related to one other. Such kinds of groups are known as tribes.

The term dominant caste is used to refer to a caste which yields economic or political power and occupies a fairly high position in the hierarchy. Srinivas says that the existence of dominant caste is not particular to Rampura village only. It is also found in other villages of the country.

• 'Varna' is a division of society based on occupation while 'Jati' is a division that was not restricted to only caste or 'varna' system. It is a division based on birth units of Hindu society. 
• There are only four varnas but there are thousand of jatis. In fact, whenever Brahmanical authorities encountered new groups like the ' forest dwellers', they classified them as a jati.
• 'Varna' is an ancient division with origin in the Vedas. 'Jati' is of a later origin. 

For a caste to be dominant, it should own a sizeable amount of the arable land locally available, have strength of numbers and occupy a high place in the local hierarchy. Dominant castes have localised existance and operate as reference models for Sanskritising castes.

The term is derived from the Portuguese word ‘casta’ which means pure breed. In other words it also means a group/community of people. The word refers to a broad institutional arrangement that in Indian languages (beginning with the ancient Sanskrit) is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to remove ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and the pure solvent is allowed to pass to the other side.

Archaeological sources are the main sources of the Harappan Civilisation. Two important sources of the Harappa Civilisation are:
The Great Bath

• The Great Bath discovered at Mohenjo-daro revealed that the people had attained a high level of perfection in the art of building.
• It has been suggested that the Great Bath was used for bathing during religious ceremonies.
• It is also suggested that perhaps a hierarchal structure existed in a society where the ruling class collected taxes to build structures for public use.

Seals

• About 2,000 seals were discovered from the sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
• Most of these seals were rectangular and square in shape. They bear the images of one-horned bull, goat, tiger, elephant and rhinoceros.
• These seals reveal the trade, religious beliefs and script of the people. The seal with an image of pashupati show that perhaps people believed in lord Shiva.
• Seals also tell us about the trading practices of the period. The discovered seals show that the Harappans were trading with other civilisations as many Harappan seals were found in Mesopotamia.

Functions of a Central Bank:
A central bank performs the following functions, as given by De Kock and accepted by the majority of economists.

1. Regulator of Currency: The central bank is the bank of issue. It has the monopoly of note issue. Notes issued by it circulate as legal tender money. It has its issue department which issues notes and coins to commercial banks. Coins are manufactured in the government mint but they are put into circulation through the central bank.

Central banks have been following different methods of note issue in different countries. The central bank is required by law to keep a certain amount of gold and foreign securities against the issue of notes. In some countries, the amount of gold and foreign securities bears a fixed proportion, between 25 to 40 per cent of the total notes issued.
In other countries, a minimum fixed amount of gold and foreign currencies is required to be kept against note issue by the central bank. This system is operative in India whereby the Reserve Bank of India is required to keep Rs 115 crores in gold and Rs 85 crores in foreign securities. There is no limit to the issue of notes after keeping this minimum amount of Rs 200 crores in gold and foreign securities.
The monopoly of issuing notes vested in the central bank ensures uniformity in the notes issued which helps in facilitating exchange and trade within the country. It brings stability in the monetary system and creates confidence among the public. The central bank can restrict or expand the supply of cash according to the requirements of the economy. Thus it provides elasticity to the monetary system. By having a monopoly of note issue, the central bank also controls the banking system by being the ultimate source of cash. Last but not the least, by entrusting the monopoly of note issue to the central bank, the government is able to earn profits from printing notes whose cost is very low as compared with their face value.
2. Banker, Fiscal Agent and Adviser to the Government: Central banks everywhere act as bankers, fiscal agents and advisers to their respective governments. As banker to the government, the central bank keeps the deposits of the central and state governments and makes payments on behalf of governments. But it does not pay interest on governments deposits. It buys and sells foreign currencies on behalf of the government.
It keeps the stock of gold of the government. Thus it is the custodian of government money and wealth. As a fiscal agent, the central bank makes short-term loans to the government for a period not exceeding 90 days. It floats loans, pays interest on them, and finally repays them on behalf of the government. Thus it manages the entire public debt. The central bank also advises the government on such economic and money matters as controlling inflation or deflation, devaluation or revaluation of the currency, deficit financing, balance of payments, etc. As pointed out by De Kock, “Central banks everywhere operate as bankers to the state not only because it may be more convenient and economical to the state, but also because of the intimate connection between public finance and monetary affairs.”
3. Custodian of Cash Reserves of Commercial Banks:Commercial banks are required by law to keep reserves equal to a certain percentage of both time and demand deposits liabilities with the central banks. It is on the basis of these reserves that the central bank transfers funds from one bank to another to facilitate the clearing of cheques.