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WORLD RECORD: TRAVEL & TOURISM: PM Flags Off World’s Longest River Cruise, Trip Costs 20 Lakhs: 10 Facts

It will cost ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 a day, with the total cost for the 51-day journey totalling to around ₹ 20 lakh for each passenger, the cruise’s Director Raj Singh said.

Here’s your 10-point guide to this big story:

  1. The PM inaugurated a ‘Tent City’, developed on the lines of similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan, on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. Over 200 tents will offer tourists a panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city on the other side of the river along with live classical music, ‘aarti’ in the evening, and yoga sessions. He also laid the foundation for several inland waterways projects, worth over ₹ 1,000 crore.
  2. “With this cruise, many places of eastern India will now figure in world tourism map… What can be more unfortunate that since Independence the banks of the Ganga did not develop and thousands of people living along the Ganges had to migrate for job,” the PM said.
  3. MV Ganga Vilas is the first cruise vessel to be made in India. It will travel 3,200 km in 51 days. The 32 tourists from Switzerland, who will take the first journey, were welcomed at the Varanasi port with garlands and tunes of shehnai. They will visit various religious and historical places in Varanasi before setting out on the cruise.
  4. The cruise’s Director Raj Singh told news agency PTI that this five-star moving hotel has 18 suites with the capacity of 36 tourists. Apart from this, it has accommodation for 40 crew members. The modernist ship is 62 meters in length and 12 meters wide and requires a draft of 1.4 meters. 
  5. It will take tourists across 27 river systems and will cruise through various prominent destinations. According to a statement from Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh issued in Lucknow, the cruise will cover 50 tourist destinations including world heritage sites, national parks, river ghats, and major cities like Patna in Bihar, Shahiganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Guwahati in Assam.
  6. The cruise has also been fitted with facilities such as spa, salon, and gym. It will cost ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 a day, with the total cost for the 51-day journey totalling to around ₹ 20 lakh for each passenger, Raj Singh said. The cruise is equipped with a pollution-free system and noise control technology, he added.
  7. There is a Sewage Treatment Plant on this cruise so that no sewage flows into the Ganges, as well as a filtration plant which purifies the Ganga water for bathing and other purposes, the cruise director said.
  8. “The journey will give the foreign tourists an opportunity to embark upon an experiential voyage and indulge in the art, culture, history, and spirituality of India and Bangladesh,” Union Minister for Port Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal told news agency ANI.
  9. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has criticised the initiative. In a tweet in Hindi with a photograph of the cruise, Mr Yadav said, “Now will the BJP take away the jobs of the sailors as well? BJP’s policy of earning money by making religious places tourist sites is condemnable. People from all over the world come to experience the spiritual splendour of Kashi, not for luxury. BJP will no longer be able to cover the darkness of real issues with external glare.” 
  10. “India has everything that you can imagine. It has a lot beyond your imagination. India cannot be defined in words. It can only be experienced from the heart,” PM Modi said in his message for tourists.

source/content: ndtv.com (headline edited)

WORLD RECORD: ARTS & CULTURE / HISTORY / MUSEUM: World’s First Palm-Leaf Manuscript Museum in Kerala capital- a Mine of Stories

The facility is essentially a repository of curious nuggets of administrative, socio-cultural and economic facets of Travancore spanning a period of 650 years till the end of the 19th century.

A treasure house of both obscure and celebrated tales of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom that became Asia’s first to defeat any European power on Indian soil, the recently opened Palm leaf Manuscript Museum in the Kerala capital has further brightened the state’s cultural and academic space.

Billed as the world’s first palm leaf manuscript museum, the facility is essentially a repository of curious nuggets of administrative, socio-cultural and economic facets of Travancore spanning a period of 650 years till the end of the 19th century, besides documents relating to territories of Kochi in the state’s middle and Malabar further north.

Besides brightening the state’s culture space, the museum also serves as a reference point for historical and cultural research for academic and non-academic scholars, officials said.

Among the manuscripts that the museum houses are accounts of the famed Battle of Colachel wherein the valiant Travancore king Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1729-58) defeated the Dutch East India Company at Colachel, 20 km northwest of Kanyakumari in present-day Tamil Nadu.

This 1741 victory ended Dutch expansion in India, and Travancore under Marthanda Varma became Asia’s first state to defeat the expansionist designs of any European power.

The museum, which opened last week, has 187 manuscripts chronicling a mine of stories based entirely on primary sources: Documents written on cured and treated palm leaves consigned to the corners of the records rooms.

The archival material, in the first phase, was chosen after painstaking sifting from a huge stock of haphazardly stored 1.5 crore palm-leaf records from across the state.

Today, the select documents occupy what is the world’s only manuscript museum that solely displays sheaves of palm leaf materials and allied paraphernalia such as styluses and carriers of the Cadjan bundles, they said.

Bamboo splints and copper plates, too, make a presence. Officials are elated about the museum set up on the ground floor of the three-century-old complex which functions as the Central Archives under the state government.

More so, since this is just the first move towards a major heritage conservation project. With its eight galleries that also feature videos and QR code systems permitting the acquisition of information, the facility is wooing common people and niche researchers alike.

The manuscripts also outline the evolution of writing in the region, points out Dr V Venu, State Additional Chief Secretary (Archaeology, Archives and Museums).

“They give visitors an idea about the emergence of the Malayalam script from older systems such as Vattezhuthu and Kolezhuthu,” he said.

“Primarily, the galleries give a glimpse of the complex administrative systems of land management, path-breaking proclamations of the Travancore royals and international negotiations as well as agreements, besides documents that became historical milestones,” said Venu, also a former Director General of National Museum in Delhi.

The museum here is expected to breathe new life into exploring the entire manuscript collection and hopes to attract more researchers and students.

The collection of palm leaf records will soon move to a modern facility in the city, with arrangements for scientific storage and study.

“It is a safe set-up, giving a comfortable space for research,” Venu said. R Chandran Pillai, Executive Director of the government’s Keralam Museum, the nodal agency assigned to set up and refurbish repositories across the state, claimed that the palm leaf storehouse had no previous models anywhere in the world. The manuscripts straddle six centuries, from 1249 CE to 1896, said J Rejikumar, who heads the Directorate of Archives.

According to author-historian S Uma Maheswari, palm leaves have the capacity to plug certain gaps in Kerala’s history.

“The records may not guarantee continuity to past events, but they own a great potential to lend new angles to existing narratives and strengthen their composition as well as colour,” said the writer of the two-volume Mathilakam Records that essays Travancore history of the last millennium.

“Each item in the museum is a commentary on the state affairs: Revenue, defence, administration, health, education, religion, caste, corruption, crime and whatnot,” Maheswari said.

The museum has eight galleries representing as many segments: ‘History of Writing’, ‘Land and people’, ‘Administration’, ‘War and peace’, ‘Education and Health’, ‘Economy’, ‘Art and culture’ and ‘Mathilakam Records’. The tile-roof museum housed the Central Archives two years after the department was formed in 1962.

Before that, it had been the Central Vernacular Records Office since 1887. Till then, the building was a prison under the Travancore ruler and, prior to it, barracks of his Nair army.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL RECORD: SPORTS / FIELD HOCKEY: ‘Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium, Rourkela is the World’s Largest in terms of Seating Capacity – Certified by International Hockey Federation(FIH): Odisha Government

Amid a row over the status of Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela among major stadia across the globe, the Odisha government claimed that it is the world’s largest facility in terms of seating capacity and certified by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

The Rourkela facility will host the Men’s World Cup Hockey, organised by the FIH, along with Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

The tournament will be held between January 13 and 29.

After Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the “world’s largest hockey stadium” in Rourkela on Thursday, a BJP MLA contested the claim and asserted that it is “the fourth”.

“Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela is the world’s biggest. We are not saying this. It has been certified by FIH that the stadium is the biggest in terms of seating capacity,” Sports and Youth Affairs Minister T K Behera said.

BJP lawmaker Shankar Oram from Biramitrapur in Sundergarh district claimed that the National Hockey Stadium in Pakistan’s Lahore with a capacity of 45,000 people is the world’s largest.

It is followed by Chandigarh Hockey Stadium (30,000) and Weingart Stadium (multipurpose) in Los Angeles in the US (22,355).

“Bisra Munda Hockey Stadium comes at number four”, he said wondering how the chief minister called it the world’s largest.

Odisha’s Sports Secretary R Vaineel Krishna had earlier clarified to PTI that the Bisra Munda Hockey Stadium is the largest as 20,000 people can formally seat and witness a match which is not available anywhere in India.

Other stadia in India might have the capacity to accommodate more people but that includes “standing accommodation”, he said.

The Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar has a seating arrangement for 15,000 people.

The Birsa Munda Stadium also has a World Cup Village with 225 rooms to house 400 players and officials. Of the total 44 matches of the World Cup, 20 will be played in Rourkela.

PTI AAM RG BDC BDC

source/content: theprint.in (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: SOUTH ASIA: ARTS & CULTURE : 1st ‘Sylhet-Silchar Festival’ Celebrating Indo-Bangla Ties opens in Barak Valley, Assam

The first Sylhet-Silchar Festival celebrating the close cultural ties between the neighbouring regions of India and Bangladesh was inaugurated in Assam’s Barak Valley on Friday. Being celebrated as a two-day festival, it coincided with the 75th year of India’s independence and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan. 

The first Sylhet-Silchar Festival celebrating the close cultural ties between the neighbouring regions of India and Bangladesh was inaugurated in Assam’s Barak Valley on Friday. Being celebrated as a two-day festival, it coincided with the 75th year of India’s independence and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan. 

In an attempt to boost bilateral relations between the two countries, the festival is being organized by the India Foundation under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture in association with the Bangladesh Foundation for Regional Studies.

“With the aim of revisiting the common values and shared heritage of the twin cities and their people separated by international borders, the festival will showcase tribal culture, cuisine, arts, crafts and local produce, entertainment and bring together eminent people from both sides to discuss and deliberate on issues of mutual growth and opportunity,” the organisers said in a statement. 

In addition, the festival will provide a platform to explore multi-disciplinary trade opportunities in sectors such as healthcare, tourism, education and digital infrastructure. With the support of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Assam government and in association with the Bangladesh India Friendship Society and India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the festival will mark the first step towards creating potential opportunities for all involved.

It will be addressed by personalities including Mizoram Governor Dr Kambhampati Hari Babu, Union Minister for Culture, Tourism & Development of North Eastern Region G KIshan Reddy, Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs and Education Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Md Mustafizur Rahman.

The delegation from Bangladesh is led by Momen and it comprises the members of parliament, representatives of trade organisations, political and social leaders, academics, artists and practitioners.
In his speech, Silchar MP Dr Rajdeep Roy spoke about undivided Sylhet which also had Assam’s Barak Valley. 

“We are at the cusp of history. It is by a stroke of providence that this beautiful land got divided into two. After the Liberation War, India was one of the first states to recognise Bangladesh. Today, we see that the relationship between the two countries has gone far and wide,” Roy said.

He said during the two days of the festival, the two sides would reminisce their olden history, civilisation, art and culture. Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said such engagements would further consolidate the bilateral relations. “Assam and India occupy a special place in my heart and memory because my grandfather was in the Assam Civil Services and he served in many cities of Assam,” Dr Momen said.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)