Category Archives: Education

INDIA: NATIONAL IMPORTANCE: HISTORY, HERITAGE & CULTURE: Twenty Sites Identified for ‘National Importance’ Tag

The Rakhigarhi site is one of the “five iconic sites” declared by the Central government in the Union budget 2020-21.

Twenty heritage sites, including two ancient mounds at Haryana’s Rakhigarhi and the age-old Anangtal in Delhi, have been identified for the national importance tag, the government has said.

Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy shared the details in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha on whether the central government has identified new historical and religious places in the country that can be declared as monuments/sites of national importance during the last three years.

The other sites include rock painting at Chintakunta, Andhra Pradesh; rock art site Murgi at Rdanag, Leh; Kaleshwar Mahadev Temple, Kalesar (Manyala Panchayat), Himachal Pradesh, as per the information shared.

Seven mounds (RGR 1-RGR 7) scattered around two villages (Rakhi Khas and Rakhi Shahpur) in Hisar district of Haryana are part of the Harappan-era Rakhigarhi archaeological site. RGR 7 is a cemetery site when this was a well-organised city, ASI had said in May.

The Rakhigarhi site is one of the “five iconic sites” declared by the Central government in the Union budget 2020-21.

Asked whether the government proposes to establish the memorial of King Vikramaditya in the Parliamentary constituency of Panipat in co-ordination with the state government, the minister said, “there is no such plan as on date”.

Quoting Indian Council of Historical Research, Ministry of Education as a source, the Union culture minister said historian Sunil Kumar Sarker mentions in his book that Himu fought 22 battles and was everywhere victorious but the “same fact has not been furnished” by many others.

Historians, however, do appreciate his strategic skills and mention various battles he won. Many of these battles he fought must have been against Afghans who revolted against his employer Adil Shah, he said.

In response to another question, he said, no specific proposal has been received by the Ministry of Culture for the renovation of ‘Rabindra Bhavans’ in the country since 2015.

Also, 55 monuments, sites are declared protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 in Assam.

Three monuments have been identified to be declared as monuments of national importance in Mizoram in the last five years, the government said.

Responding to a question on whether the government has a plan for the protection and preservation of ancient temples in Tamil Nadu, he said, the temples under the jurisdiction of the ASI in the southern state are in a “good state of preservation and regular conservation work is undertaken” by the ASI from time to time.

Also, Rs 15 crore has been provided by ASI for the protection and preservation of centrally-protected monuments in Tamil Nadu, including temples, for the year 2022-23, as per the data shared by him.

On a question on the Baba Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand’s Deoghar, the government said, it is not a centrally-protected monument under the ASI.

“There is no such provision for the conservation of Baba Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand by the ASI,” the minister said.

During the last five years (2017-18 to 2021-22), 13 state governments and 50 societies, autonomous bodies, local bodies and trusts registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, have been granted financial assistance for establishing, developing museums under the Museum Grant Scheme, he said in response to another question.

Also, during the last five years (2017-18 to 2021-2022), 39 existing museums have been strengthened and modernized under Museum Grant Scheme, the government said.

The current number of beneficiaries as per the last selection under the Schemes for Financial Assistance for Veteran Artists stands at 2,251, it said in response to another question.

On a question on the National Culture Fund (NCF), he said in a written reply, the government has set up NCF as a Trust on November 28, 1996 under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890 with a view to mobilize extra resources through public private partnerships (PPP) towards promoting, protecting and preserving India’s cultural heritage.

“A donor/sponsor while making contributions to the NCF may indicate a project along with any specific location/aspect and also an agency for execution of the project. Besides, the interests accrued from the Primary and Secondary Corpus is also utilized for activities associated with the field of culture,” he said.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

INDIA GLOBAL: ARTS & CULTURE, MUSIC: United Colours of ‘Berklee Indian Ensemble’, Boston

Shuruaat, the Boston-based multi-cultural collective’s debut album, tracks its decade-long journey across genres.

“Are you jet-lagged?” asks Annette Philip. “Not at all. How can I be when I am in this musically charged environment,” replies Shreya Ghoshal. “Actually I see myself in these youngsters and wish I had the opportunity to be at such a place. It’s so much fun and an open and inclusive space to learn music. You are all blessed,” she smiles, looking at the students attending the residency that she conducted at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2017.

The singer is now part of the Berklee Indian Ensemble’s debut album  Shuruaat, which marks the music collective’s first decade together.

‘Sundari Pennae’, one of the tracks in the album, was originally sung by Shreya for composer D. Imman for the Tamil film  Oru Oorla Rendu Raja. Presented in a grunge-inspired version, the song, recorded during her residency, fuses progressive rock, konnakol and jazz over intricate Indian classical rhythms. “Till date, it is the most collaboratively re-arranged cover that the ensemble has produced,” says Annette, the first Indian musician to be appointed as a faculty at Berklee, and the founder of the ensemble.

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What started out as a class in 2011 is today among the well-known global acts to emerge from Boston that organically transitioned into a 11-member professional band in 2021. It hosts productions, headlines international music festivals, and creates YouTube content. Their success on YouTube can be traced to their interpretation of A.R. Rahman’s ‘Jiya Jale’ (from  Dil Se). The ensemble’s version became viral, garnering over 50 million views. It led to a sold-out concert of new arrangements of Rahman’s music, featuring 109 Berklee musicians onstage at Boston Symphony Hall. This also paved the way for the ensemble to work with some of the biggest names in South Asian music.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: WALES, U.K: Deputy Minister Dawn Bowden Appoints Ashok Ahir as New President and Andrew Evans as Vice President of the National Library of Wales

The Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, Dawn Bowden has announced the appointment of a new President and Vice President for the National Library of Wales.

Ashok Ahir has been appointed as the new President. Mr Ahir has been Interim President of the National Library since September 2021.

Andrew Evans has been appointed the new Vice President. Mr Evans is a consultant specialising in fundraising and business development for start-ups, charities and not-for-profits, particularly in the cultural sector.

The Library’s President is accountable to the Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister for Arts and Sports for the library’s performance and for the delivery of strategic priorities

source: gov.wales (headline edited)

WORLD RECORDS: Arts & Media: Laiba Abdul Basit an NRI Qatar-based Indian Student is the Youngest Female Person in the World to Publish a Book Series Certified by Guinness World Book of Records

A Qatar-based 11-year-old student Laiba Abdul Basit has won the Guinness World Records as the youngest female person to publish a book series. 

Laiba, hailing from the southern Indian state of Kerala, has accomplished this feat after  her second book was published on August 29, 2021, while she was 10 years and 164 days old. 

Laiba Abdul Basit surpassed the record of Ritaj Hussain Alhazmi of Saudi Arabia, who penned three novels before the age of 12 years 295 days. 

Laiba published a three-book series called “Order of the Galaxy”, a fantasy story related to children’s fiction. The first book in this series titled “The War for The Stolen Boy” was published by Amazon and later by Lulu Online. The second book “The Snowflake of Life” was published by the Rome-based Tawasul International, while India-based Lipi Publications brought out the last book in the series, “The Book of Legends”. The second edition of her first and second books was also published by Lipi Publications.

A sixth grade student at the Olive International School, Doha, Laiba has been showing interest in reading and writing since the very young age. She started to write small stories and phrases on pieces of papers and used glue on walls of her house. 

source/content: thepeninsulaqatar.com (headline edited)

INDIA RECORDS : ARACHNOLOGY: New species of Jumping Spider ‘Pseudomogrus Sudhii’ from the Thar desert is named after Sudhikumar A.V., Arachnologist, Head of Dept of Zoology, Christ College, Kerala and Founder of Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology (CATE).

Pseudomogrus sudhii inhabits dry glass blades of the desert.

A new species of spider discovered from the Thar desert of Rajasthan has been named after a Malayalee arachnologist.

The new species of jumping spider, Pseudomogrus sudhii, has been named after Sudhikumar A.V., Head, Department of Zoology, Christ College, Irinjalakuda, and founder of the Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology (CATE) in recognition of his contributions to the field of Indian arachnology.

The jumping spider was discovered during a joint exploration by Dmitri Logunov (curator, Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, UK), Rishikesh Balkrishna Tripathi and Ashish Kumar Jangid of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INDIA RECORDS: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: For the First Time both IIT Mumbai and IIT Kharagpur jointly build a ‘Quantum Diamond Microscope to Image Magnetic Fields’ that Change within Milliseconds.

Researchers tap fluorescence changes in special, diamond sensors to image time-varying fields.

Researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Mumbai and Kharagpur have built a microscope that can image magnetic fields within microscopic two-dimensional samples that change over milliseconds.

This has a huge potential for scientific applications, such as in measuring the biological activity of neurons and the dynamics of vortices in superconductors.

The work, led by IIT Bombay professor Kasturi Saha, from the Department of Electrical Engineering, has been published in  Scientific Reports. 

This is the first time that such a tool has been built to image magnetic fields that change within milliseconds. 

The team had started a collaboration with IIT Kharagpur in 2017 with the ambitious target of building a novel system to image the brain. They collaborated with Sharba Bandopadhyay, who brought in an expertise in neurobiology and bioengineering to complement the knowledge of quantum optics, quantum computing and quantum sensing that was Prof. Saha’s forte.

“We have, along with PhD student Madhur Parashar, developed an algorithm to image neurons in 3D using NV quantum sensors,” says Prof. Saha.

This work was published in  Communications Physics in 2020. We have jointly filed a patent for the present work, she adds.

  • Researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Mumbai and Kharagpur have built a microscope that can image magnetic fields within microscopic two-dimensional samples that change over milliseconds.
  • Prof. Saha explains that the ideal frame rate to capture a changing magnetic field is one that captures data at twice the frequency of the changing field.
  • The key aspect of this sensor is a “nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect centre” in a diamond crystal. Such NV centres act as pseudo atoms with electronic states that are sensitive to the fields and gradients around them (magnetic fields, temperature, electric field and strain).

source/content: thehindu.com(headline edited)

INDIA RECORDS: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay Team has Developed the First Neurosynaptic Spiking Core based on 45-Nanometer Silicon-on-Insulator Technology

A network of spiking neurons demonstrated.

Using the phenomenon of quantum tunnelling, IIT Bombay researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, a spiking neuron network that is highly compact and shows potential for brain-scale implementation.

The research, published in the journal  IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, demonstrates the use of a 36-member network of spiking neurons in a speech recognition module.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INDIA RECORDS: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY – HEALTH & MEDICAL ENGINEERING: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) Develops Specially Designed Low-Cost Prosthetic Leg that allows Deep Squatting

Research for developing artificial limb is funded by Union ministry of education and the department of biotechnology.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) have developed an affordable prosthetic leg with advanced features, specifically designed for Indian conditions.

The IIT Guwahati said on Monday that the artificial limb allows its user to sit cross-legged and squat deep and is suitable for uneven terrain.

“Affordable prosthetics that are available in the market have many functional limitations. In addition, the Indian lifestyle and uneven terrain require prosthetics with specifications unique to India, which are not widely available in the market. The leg developed by us is state-of-the-art technology, affordable, light weight, stable and capable of mimicking most of the human joint’s motion, the IIT-G said, adding cost of around Rs 25,000 is ensured using the technology.

IIT Guwahati researchers collaborated with 151 Army Base Hospital, Guwahati, Tolaram Bafna Kamrup District Civil Hospital, Guwahati Neurological Research Centre (GNRC), North Guwahati, and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGHRIMS), Shillong, to develop the leg.

A team led by professor S. Kanagaraj, department of mechanical Engineering, IITG, set out to tackle these issues. Prototypes of their models developed by this research team are currently undergoing trials.

Professor Bhaskar Borgohain, head of department (Orthopaedic) at NEIGHRIMS told The Telegraph that work on the project started in 2013 with the objective of developing a “user-friendly and light weight” limb.

He has been associated with the project from the beginning.

“The legs developed by us will not only help cut down on imports of prosthetic legs, especially from Germany and UK, but will also be a huge relief to those in need of such legs. An imported artificial limb will cost anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh. Our legs would cost much less. It will be launched soon,” Borgohain said.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

WORLD RECORDS: ARTS & CULTURE: Sucheta Satish 16-year Teenage Indian holds the Guinness World Record for Singing 120 Songs in 120 Languages (the most) in a Concert

pix: Twitter

Suchetha Satish is a 16-year-old Dubai based expat girl from Kerala who is making headlines today for her ability to sing in 120 languages, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. At an event hosted at the Indian Consulate in Dubai, she set the world record for singing in the most number of languages.

Satish achieved this feat at the ‘Music Beyond Borders’ performance held on August 19 in Dubai. Kesiraju Srinivas, another Indian national, held the record before her in the category in 2008, having sung in 76 different languages.

Satish is said to have achieved this feat by singing in 29 Indian languages and 91 global languages. She started at noon with Janaki Jane, a Sanskrit song from the Malayali film Dhwani. Her final song was written by her mother and produced by Bollywood musician Monty Sharma, and was in Hindi.

The ‘Music Beyond Borders’ concert, held in Dubai, commemorated India’s 75th anniversary of independence and the United Arab Emirates’ 50th anniversary of freedom. The ceremony was also attended by Ajay Puri, the Consul General of India in Dubai. While Satish’s parents, dermatologist T.C. Satish and Ayilliath Sumitha, recognised her potential when she was only three years old, her love of languages developed organically after she heard a Japanese song performed by a guest at her house. She promptly looked up the words on the internet and, within a few hours, she had performed the entire song, recorded it, and sent it to the guest

source/content : femina.in (edited)

INTERNATIONAL RANKING: SOUTH ASIA: EDUCATION : 19th edition QS Ranking | IISc Bengaluru Fastest Rising South Asian University, Two IITs in Top 200

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, is the fastest-rising South Asian university among the coveted QS World University Rankings top 200 varsities, having gained 31 places while four IITs have also figured in the category attaining a higher rank compared to the previous edition.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), London-based global higher education analyst, on Thursday released the 19th edition of the world’s most consulted international university ranking.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, which has bagged the 172nd position, is India’s second-best institution, rising five places while IIT Delhi has risen eleven places to bag 174th rank.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)