Culture mapping of 80 villages associated with noted personalities in history, in particular the freedom movement, unique crafts and festivals has been started as a pilot project, Culture Ministry officials said.
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The project is expected to be completed this financial year.
From Sempore in Kashmir to Kanjirapally in Kerala, villages with a connection to the freedom movement as well as those with their own art practices have been selected for the project, being conducted by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
The project would lead to a “national register and interactive database of artists and art practices from the villages of India”. Each artist would be given a unique ID and an e-commerce platform set up.
The work under the mission involves coordinating the data collection through ground and field surveys conducted on the basis of detailed formats and questionnaires, mobile application, interactive web-portal and an over-the-top (OTT) platform to showcase ethnographic documentaries/ cultural events/ festival/ melas etc. of villages.
List
On the list of villages selected is Sempore or Pandrenthan in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir that is associated with 14th Century mystic Lal Ded or Lalleshwari.
From Ladakh, the pilot project included Choglamsar and Wanla villages, known for wood carving.
Khatkar Kalan village in Punjab, which has a memorial of Bhagat Singh; Reni village of Uttarakhand, where the Chipko movement started; and Kathputli Colony in Delhi, known for the “migrant kathputli artists”, are also on the list.
Two villages in Tamil Nadu — Ettayapuram (the birthplace of poet Subramania Bharathi) and Thiruchigadi (a village of “women potters”) — are also on the list.
Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamil workers, whose labour in tea plantations fetches precious foreign exchange to the country, are living in “inhumane and degrading” conditions, a UN expert has said.
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Contemporary forms of slavery have an ethnic dimension.
In particular, Malaiyaha Tamils —who were brought from India to work in the plantation sector 200 years ago — continue to face multiple forms of discrimination based on their origin, said Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.
The plight of the Malaiyaha Tamil community, historically neglected and marginalised, has received relatively less international attention.
Roughly 1.5 lakh people from the community, with a population over 10 lakh, are engaged in direct labour in the estates, and most of them are women.
Their daily wage of LKR 1,000 (about ₹373) — won after sustained protests in recent years — is tied to an arduous target of 18-22 kg of plucked tea leaves every day, to be met rain or shine, while braving leeches and wasp attacks.
A prominent item in Sri Lanka’s export basket — apart from garments, rubber, and spices — tea brings roughly $1.3 billion a year into the country.
India has committed to building 14,000 houses in Sri Lanka’s hill country, but the construction is progressing at a slow pace amid private plantation companies’ apparent reluctance to part with land.
The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been confirmed in India and in at least 30 other countries by the World Health Organization (WHO).
What is the S-gene drop out?
While the variant can only be reliably confirmed with genome sequencing, the WHO has also recommended that certain commonly used COVID-19 detection tests, with ‘S-gene dropout’ capabilities, can be used to quickly screen for an Omicron infection.
Tests usually look for three target genes related to parts of the virus: S (spike), N2 (nucleocapsid or inner area) and E (envelope or outer shell).
The S-gene refers to the gene that codes for the spike protein, or the most distinctive part of the coronavirus.
The SARS-CoV-2, like many other coronaviruses, has key protein-regions that define its structure: The envelope protein (E), thenucleocapsid protein(N), the membrane protein (M) and the spike protein (S).
To accurately identify the virus, diagnostic tests are made that can identify characteristic genes that make these proteins.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has approached the Supreme Court against a Bombay High Court order granting bail to advocate and activist Sudha Bharadwaj. In its bail order, the court has asked the NIA Court to decide the conditions for her release on December 8.
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While she was given ‘default bail’, eight others were denied the benefit in the same case.
The case highlights the nuances involved in a court determining the circumstances in which statutory bail is granted or denied, even though it is generally considered “an indefeasible right”.
Default bail, also known as statutory bail, is a right to bail that accrues when the police fail to complete investigation within a specified period in respect of a person in judicial custody.
This is enshrined in Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure where it is not possible for the police to complete an investigation in 24 hours, the police produce the suspect in court and seek orders for either police or judicial custody.
This section concerns the total period up to which a person may be remanded in custody prior to filing of charge sheet.
For most offences, the police have 60 days to complete the investigation and file a final report before the court. However, where the offence attracts death sentence or life imprisonment, or a jail term of not less than 10 years, the period available is 90 days.
In other words, a magistrate cannot authorise a person’s judicial remand beyond the 60-or 90-day limit. At the end of this period, if the investigation is not complete, the court shall release the person “if he is prepared to and does furnish bail”.
Buoyed by the success of its innovative Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees) in Karnataka, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has now replicated the project in Assam.
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Chairman KVIC, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena launched Project RE-HAB at Village Mornoi in Goalpara district of Assam which severely grapples with elephant-human conflicts. The project has been implemented in Assam with the support of the local forest department.
Surrounded by dense forests, a large part of Assam is infested by elephants with 332 human deaths reported between 2014 and 2019 due to elephant attacks.
Working
Under Project RE-HAB, “Bee-fences” are created by setting up bee boxes in the passage ways of elephants to block their entrance to human territories.
The boxes are connected with a string so that when elephants attempt to pass through, a tug or pull causes the bees to swarm the elephant herds and dissuade them from progressing further.
It is a cost-effective way of reducing human-wild conflicts without causing any harm to the animals. It is scientifically recorded that elephants are annoyed by the honey bees.
Elephants also fear that the bee swarms can bite their sensitive inner side of the trunk and eyes. The collective buzz of the bees is annoying to elephants that force them to return.
Project RE-HAB
Notably, Project RE-HAB is a sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
While the Honey Mission is a programme to increase the bee population, honey production and beekeepers’ income by setting up apiaries, Project RE-HAB uses bee boxes as a fence to prevent the elephant attacks.
Project RE-HAB was launched at 11 locations in Kodagu district of Karnataka on 15th March 2021. In just 6 months, this project has reduced elephant attacks by over 70%.
Over the last few sessions, MPs mainly from the Opposition have often alleged their questions have been disallowed in Parliament of India.
How are questions admitted?
In both Houses, elected members enjoy the right to seek information from various ministries and departments in the form of starred questions, unstarred questions, short notice questions and questions to private members.
Usually, MPs’ questions form a long list, which then go through a rigorous process of clearance. The admissibility of questions in Rajya Sabha is governed by Rules 47-50 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States.
Once a question that fulfils the conditions of admissibility is received, the Secretariat sends it to the ministry concerned.
Once the facts are received from the ministry, the question is further examined for admissibility.
A final list of questions is circulated to ministers, on the basis of which they frame their answers.
Amid talk of MSP guarantee and Punjab’s urgent need to break away from the wheat-paddy cycle, experts feel that the state must follow cropping pattern as per its agro-climatic and soil conditions to protect the environment while increasing farmers’ income.
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According to Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, there are six agro-climatic zones in Punjab which include Sub-Mountain Undulating Region, Undulating Plain Region (UPR), Central Plain Region (CPR), Western Plain Region (WPR), Western Region (WR) and Flood Plain Region (FPR).
These regions have rainfall variations from 165 mm to 2000 mm annually and climate from humid to cold-arid to arid and extreme arid.
The variations in soil range from hill soils, tarai, brown hill, alluvial to desert.
The Zones
In Zone 1 and 2, district like Pathnakot, Ropar, Mohali, Gurdaspur, and Hoshiarpur are included and in Zone 3 districts like Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala and Sangrur are included.
In Zone 4, Ferozepur, Moga, Barnala, and Faridkot are the parts while in Zone 5, Mukatsar, Fazilka, Bathinda and Mansa are included and in Zone 6, the parts of various districts along with Beas, Sutlej, Ravi, Ghaggar rivers are included which are the flood-prone.
In these zones all agro-climatic conditions, rainfall pattern, distribution, soil texture are taken into account to have a suitable cropping pattern, said experts, adding that temperatures and humidity levels are also little bit different from each other in all these zones.
Himachal Pradesh government will organize a mega event at AIIMS Bilaspur to mark the achievement of hundred percent COVID vaccination of second dose for its eligible population.
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It may be recalled that the state had become a champion in meeting the 100 percent target of the first dose across the country and now is has achieved the 100 percent target of the second dose of covid vaccination and became the first state which fully vaccinated against covid 19.
BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda will also inaugurate OPD at AIIMS Bilaspur.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bilaspur (AIIMS Bilaspur) is a public Institute of National importance based in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh.
On 4 October 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the institute. It was inaugurated on 12 January 2021.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple projects worth around 18,000 crore rupees at Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
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He said, the reconstruction of Kedar Dham in the State has not only increased the number of devotees coming for Darshan, but has also provided many opportunities for employment and self-employment to the local people.
The seven projects inaugurated by the Prime Minister, consist of initiatives focusing on making travel safer by tackling the problem of chronic landslides in the region.
He also inaugurated the 120 MW Vyasi Hydroelectric Project, built over Yamuna river at the cost of over 1,700 crore rupees, along with a Himalayan Culture Centre in Dehradun.
Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor
The 11 projects for which foundation was laid include the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor which will be built at a cost of around 8,300 crore rupees.
It will significantly reduce the travel time from Delhi to Dehradun from six hours to around 2.5 hours. It will have Asia’s largest wildlife elevated corridor of 12 kilometres for unrestricted wildlife movement. It will also boost inter-state tourism.