Manu Bhaker has so far won 15 golds, 3 silvers and 1 bronze.

Manu Bhaker, aged 22, won a historic bronze for India in the women’s 10m air pistol event at the Paris Olympics 2024. It is the first time that an Indian woman shooter to win a medal at the Olympics.

Manu Bhaker became the youngest Indian to win a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup. At the age of 16, Manu Bhaker won a gold in the women’s 10m air pistol event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. It was indeed her maiden Commonwealth Games appearance. Bhaker, along with Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan, won the gold at the Asian Games 2022.

Bhaker has so far won 15 golds, 3 silvers and 1 bronze.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, the Grand Prix award-winning Indian film at the Cannes Film Festival this year, also drew house-full audiences at the festival.

Sandhya Suri, a British-Indian filmmaker, has won the award for the best first feature film at the Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) 2024.

Suri’s film ‘Santosh’, shot in India with a local cast, revolves around a female police official who has been given a job on compassionate grounds after her husband’s death, and how she unwittingly gets caught in a web of local social and political drama that she has no control over.

The shows of the film have so far been house full as also of the other Indian entry, award-winning film ‘All we Imagine as Light’, Anat, an India enthusiast, told PTI on Friday.

Anat said after the screening of ‘Santosh’ that both the Indian entries “are fabulous with actors backing up the intense plots with astonishing ease”.

‘Santosh’ was co-produced by India and availed the incentives under the Incentives Scheme of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

‘All We Imagine as Light’, the Grand Prix award-winning Indian film at the Cannes Film Festival this year, also drew house-full audiences at the JFF with the organisers lauding the warm response to Indian entries at the festival.

“I am proud to say that both the Indian entries — All We Imagine as Light and Santosh — are completely sold out. It is also great to see that both the films have been directed by women”, a JFF official said at an event organised jointly with the Indian embassy before the screening last Saturday.

‘All We Imagine as Light’ is a co-production film involving companies from several countries but the storyline and cast are India-centric.

Written and directed by Payal Kapadia, the film scripted history by winning the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival and drawing worldwide praise for the gentle depiction of a touching human subject.

Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam played the lead roles in the film depicting the lives of Kerala nurses working in a Mumbai hospital.

The Indian Embassy, in association with JFF, also held a session on “Incentives for Filming in India” on Saturday ahead of the screening to lure Israeli filmmakers to shoot their films and documentaries in India and to strengthen collaboration between the two sides.

Over 100 film enthusiasts, including filmmakers, attended the event to understand the various incentives available for co-productions or filmmaking in India.

A short video enlisting the strengths of the Indian film industry – the oldest and largest with a huge pool of resources, exceptional filming talent, 900 plus animation, visual effects, gaming and other facilities and over 1.8 lakh professionals – was screened at the event.

“Ten per cent of the global animators and VFX artists are from India. 170 plus international projects from 35 countries with a diverse range of production and post-production requirements have taken advantage of India’s diverse and varied locations… Vast local talent pool and availability of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities” were some of the information shared with film enthusiasts to encourage them to look towards India as a destination for their next subject or collaboration.

To further boost international content collaborations, the government of India has now significantly enhanced the cash incentives offered to foreign production companies for the production of films in India and for official co-productions, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian embassy, Rajiv Bodwade, told the audience.

Bodwade outlined the cashback incentives offered by GOI and various state governments, including possible tax rebates.

“There is a readily available ecosystem and you can easily find a talent pool of technicians, crew members, audio-visual facilities, and various locations ready for filming”, he stressed.

Under the scheme for foreign productions, up to 40 per cent of the expenses incurred in India subject to a cap of USD 3.6 million can be reimbursed to the producers. This is a 12-fold increase from what was offered earlier.

“The reimbursement is also available for projects that undertake only post-production, visual effects and digital or animation work in India. The process for claiming such incentives has now been simplified further. If the project has been granted official co-production status under any of the existing bilateral treaties, 30 per cent of the qualifying expense can be reimbursed subject to a cap of Rs 300 million. The co-producers can also claim up to 50 per cent of the approved amount as interim reimbursement after the start of the project in India”, the video presenting the incentives narrated.

“Top this up with the incentives offered by various Indian states and the producers can avail of approximately USD 4 million as incentives. Film Facilitation Office (FFO) has been set up to provide a single window permission clearance system under the government’s ease of doing business initiative which facilitates creative collaboration on a global stage,” it further said.

India has co-production agreements with 16 countries, including Israel, and Bodwade announced that the first such collaboration involving renowned Israeli filmmaker, Dan Wolman, is completed and about to be released soon.

Wolman’s film, “The Murderer with the Purple Hair”, a thriller, Co-directed by Indian filmmaker, Manju Bora, was shot in Assam.

It stars Shamin Mannan and Siddhart Goswami with Seema Biswas and Adil Hussain in guest roles.

Sharing his experience with the audience, Wolman said that “all the papers were prepared very swiftly by the FFO office and the Israeli Ministry of Culture”.

“Guwahati sounds peripheral but we came there and found out that the equipment – cameras, lighting, recording is top-notch. Not in any way less than the kind of equipment that you find in New York, Paris or Tel Aviv,” the Israeli filmmaker said.

“And the crew, Assamese photographers, all the other professionals and even the creative intellectual discussions I would say were a fantastic experience. The crew in India made us feel at home. They made us feel like a family”, Wolman emphasised.

Yaron Kastori, another Israeli filmmaker present at the event, told PTI that he is looking to collaborate with Indian producers on a project that he has been working on and it is of help to learn about the various incentives being offered.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

The announcement was made at the ongoing 46th session of the World Heritage Committee.

The Charaideo Moidams, a unique 700-year old mound-burial system of the Ahom dynasty from Assam, was officially inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List on July 26 becoming the 43rd property from India to be included in the prestigious index.

“This historic recognition brings global attention to the unique 700-year-old mound burial system of the Ahom kings at Charaideo, highlighting the rich cultural heritage of Assam and Bharat,” Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told the media after the announcement.

He said that India has successfully inscribed 13 World Heritage Properties over the last decade and is now at the 6th position globally for the most number of World Heritage Properties.

Similar to the pyramids of Egypt, the Moidams are earthen burial mounds of the members of the Ahom royalty whose 600-year rule was ended by the British takeover of the region. They enshrine the mortal remains of Ahom rulers apart from their belongings.

The Ahoms adopted the Hindu method of cremation after the 18th century and began entombing the cremated bones and ashes in a Moidam at Charaideo.

The highly-venerated Moidams make the Charaideo district a tourist destination.

The Moidam is the first from the North East to be recognised as a World Heritage Site in cultural category. Assam has two other such sites in the natural category – Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park, both upgraded to tiger reserves.

“THIS IS HUGE. The Moidams make it to the #UNESCO World Heritage list under the category Cultural Property – a great win for Assam. Thank You Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji, Members of the @UNESCO World Heritage Committee and to the people of Assam,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

He said the Charaideo Moidam embodies the deep spiritual belief, rich civilisational heritage, and architectural prowess of Assam’s Tai-Ahom community.

The Moidams were nominated as India’s official entry in 2023.

Vishal V. Sharma, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO, visited the site of the necropolis in March.

Out of the 386 Moidams explored so far, 90 royal burials at Charaideo are the best preserved, representative, and most complete examples of this tradition

.The ongoing 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, which India is hosting for the first time, is examining 27 nominations from around the world, including 19 cultural, four natural, two mixed sites, and two significant modifications to existing boundaries.

(With inputs from Rahul Karmakar)

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

India received over $111 billion in remittances in 2022, the largest in the world, becoming the first country to reach and even surpass the $100 billion mark, the United Nations migration agency has said.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in its World Migration Report 2024 launched Tuesday, said that in 2022, India, Mexico, China, the Philippines and France were the top five remittance recipient countries.

“India was well above the rest, receiving more than $111 billion, the first country to reach and even surpass the $100 billion mark. Mexico was the second-largest remittance recipient in 2022, a position it also held in 2021 after overtaking China, which historically had been the second-biggest recipient after India,” the report said.

source/content: millenniumpost.in (headline edited)

The FAO report also said the rate of gross global mangrove loss decreased by 23 per cent during the periods — 2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2020.

India gained 2,66,000 hectares of forest area annually from 2010 to 2020, securing the third spot among the top 10 countries with the most significant forest area gains during this period, according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The report, released on Monday, said China led the world with the maximum forest area gain of 1,937,000 hectares, followed by Australia with 4,46,000 hectares, and India. Other countries in the top 10 include Chile, Vietnam, Turkey, the United States, France, Italy and Romania.

The UN agency praised India for its efforts in restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry through innovative approaches. This includes the development of a new national policy aimed at better-supporting agroforestry in the country.

The report highlighted a significant reduction in deforestation in some countries. For example, Indonesia saw an 8.4 per cent decline in deforestation from 2021 to 2022, while Brazil’s Amazon experienced a 50 per cent reduction in deforestation in 2023.

The FAO report also said the rate of gross global mangrove loss decreased by 23 per cent during the periods — 2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2020.

However, the FAO stressed that climate change is increasing the vulnerability of forests to various stressors, including wildfires and pests.

“Wildfire intensity and frequency are rising. Boreal forests accounted for nearly one-quarter of carbon dioxide emissions due to wildfires in 2021. In 2023, wildfires emitted an estimated 6,687 megatonnes of carbon dioxide globally, more than double the carbon dioxide emissions from the European Union due to fossil fuel burning that year,” the report read.

In the United States, 25 million hectares of forestlands are projected to experience losses exceeding 20 per cent of host tree basal area due to insects and disease by 2027, according to the report.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)