With regard to modern contraception, has a failure rate of about 1 in 400 women.

early settlements on the subcontinent. both the indus and the ganges rivers carried rich silt from the mountains to the plains. when the rivers flooded, the silt spread over the plains and made the soil in the river valleys fertile for farming.

an informal structure in a bureaucracy would be something like so-called "office politics". where there's a formal structure set up for the organization, but then an informal subculture as well that has a way of organizing the bureaucracy further. this can be positive because it sets up an added degree of organization, albeit informal, within the bureaucracy.