Questions

The ancient Greek word “bárbaros,” from which it derives, meant “babbler,”.In the Greek ear, speakers of a foreign tongue made unintelligible sounds (“bar bar bar”). Similar words exist in other Indo-European languages, including the Sanskrit “barbara,” which means “stammering.”The word “barbarian” originated in ancient Greece and was initially used to describe all non-Greek-speaking peoples, including Persians, Egyptians, Medes and Phoenicians.

After the Mumbai attacks in 2008, there has been a paradigm shift in the maritime security apparatus that increased emphasis on surveillance, intelligence gathering and information sharing amongst the various stakeholders to ensure an effective response to any emerging situation. In Feb 2009, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) was additionally designated as the authority responsible for coastal security in territorial waters, including areas to be patrolled by the Coastal Police.

The Coast Guard is also responsible for overall coordination between Central and State agencies in matters relating to Coastal Security.In order to achieve near gap-free surveillance of the entire coastline, 38 additional Radar Stations and 08 Mobile Surveillance Systems are being installed.

‘Sitting on the fence’ is the correct idiom used. It is used to describe a person’s lack of decisiveness, neutrality or hesitance to choose between two sides in an argument or a competition, or inability to decide due to lack of courage. Thus, the sentence is grammatically and contextually correct. Thus, the correct formation would be, ‘Decide one way or the other; you can’t be sitting on the fence forever’.