New Delhi must strengthen the foundation for meaningful and ground-level governance.

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is an apex regional organisation that promotes open regionalism between the countries of Asia, Africa and Australia, connected via Indian Ocean waters. As the Indian leadership prepares to step up to chair IORA from November 2025 — it is now Vice-Chair — it can bring impetus to increased resilience in its governance structure. As IORA chair for the next two years, India will have three priorities: creating funding opportunities to enlarge IORA’s budget; integrating technology for data management and policy analysis, and creating maritime-ready courses with academic and research institutions using collaborations.

The Indian Ocean Region and IORA

Geostrategically, the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is a subset of the Indo-Pacific, yet unique. The Indian Ocean, home to two-thirds of humanity, has a rich and diverse marine life. It also transports 75% of global trade and 50% of daily oil consumption. It produces $1 trillion in goods and services, and its intra-IORA trade was $800 billion in 2023. However, this region is also marred by poor development, troubled political systems, climate change-induced disasters, and environmental degradation. It also faces security challenges such as piracy, terrorism, and human and drug trafficking. These supranational issues compel the regional countries to cooperate and find workable solutions.

Therefore, as one of the oldest regional inter-governmental organisations, IORA has been working to further cooperation among its members by facilitating dialogue on cultural and academic exchanges and crucial issues such as disaster risk management. While the United States, China and the European Union are IORA’s dialogue partners, it is mainly driven by only middle and small powers and, therefore, requires a tour de force to become more relevant.

Issues faced by IORA

The Indian Ocean region is relatively free of the great power competition yet has its own set of challenges, including funding. IORA’s annual budget is member-dependent. Barring Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France, the member-states are developing Asian and African economies. The budget is indicated to be just a few million. Incidentally, the Indian Ocean Commission, which has only five IO countries, has a $1.3 billion budget for the 2020-25 time frame. Thus, the funds generated fall short of achieving IORA’s growing areas of engagement such as maritime safety and security, fisheries management, disaster risk management, technology and innovation, and the blue economy.

Notably, each of these pillars is resource-intensive and requires constant engagement. One way to generate more funds would be to include private players as consultative partners as they are some of the biggest players in the maritime domain. From shipping companies to marine-related industries such as oil and gas, and marine tourism, these industries are relevant to the blue economy. These industries can be involved in maritime policy-making and also contribute to the IORA fund. The IORA has a small Secretariat with limited staff based in Mauritius. Since government-based structures and institutions have limited bandwidth for data processing, technology can be a big help in improving governance. Accounting for data is laborious with a large margin of error, and quick and efficient policy analysis would be made easier with digitised record keeping.

Other suggestions for India

India’s Security and Growth for All (SAGAR) vision complements IORA’s objectives and must leverage its excellent relations with IORA member-states to develop workable solutions. IORA members, such as Australia, have made significant contributions to research in marine science and technology. France and Singapore, have their strength in marine-related technologies, and the UAE and Oman can contribute through investments in sectors where IORA seeks help. Traditional knowledge that exists in coastal and small island nations (Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius) should be mainstreamed for developing sustainable methods of marine governance. To further productive outcomes, IORA needs sustained and improved collaborative avenues.

Lastly, as marine and maritime-related employment opportunities will only multiply, industrial leaders should collaborate with educational and research institutions to provide problem statements and seek solutions, and to create newer, industry-related courses. Marine accounting is an interdisciplinary course that could help create a base for a blue economy. With the available talent in the region, scholars and practitioners are most likely to work out solutions.

IORA holds immense promise for regional prosperity and India must use its leadership to overcome the existing issues at the institutional level.

Pooja Bhatt is an Associate Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonepat and teaches maritime geopolitics and regional institutions

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Previously, Amrita Sher-Gil’s 1937 oil-on-canvas painting ‘The Story Teller’ in 2023, sold for $7.4 million.

Art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar has acquired legendary painter MF Husain’s untitled masterpiece, ‘Gram Yatra’, for a staggering Rs 119 crore.

RPG Chairman Harsh Goenka on the X platform wrote, “MF Husain’s Gram Yatra (1954) breaks the Rs 100 crore barrier, selling for $13.8 million to Kiran Nadar”.

https://twitter.com/hvgoenka/status/1902683129867022773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1902683129867022773%7Ctwgr%5E769c7842b6514b7b52140184a23341388d399ade%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.storyboard18.com%2Fspecial-coverage%2Fkiran-nadar-adds-mf-husains-gram-yatra-to-her-collection-for-rs-199-crore-report-59866.htm

According to a report by The Economic Times, Goenka expressed his delight, stating, “Great maestro of Indian art, MF Husain, who has broken this price ceiling, and that the artwork has gone to a great collector, one of India’s largest”.

Previously, Amrita Sher-Gil’s 1937 oil-on-canvas painting ‘The Story Teller’ in 2023, sold for $7.4 million.

Nadar, one of the foremost collectors of Indian art founded her first museum in Delhi a decade ago. She owns a number of MF Husain artworks.

Nadar has been consistently recognized for her contributions to Art and Philanthropy. Recently, she was honored with the prestigious Padma Shri in the Art category. Additionally, in 2023, Nadar was bestowed with the title of “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” (Knight of the Legion of Honour), the highest French civilian award.

source/content: storyboard18.com (headline edited)

Speaking about SKOCH, the minister said it is an independent and renowned organisation that evaluates government initiatives of different states.

The Tripura Biotechnology Department has bagged the SKOCH award for its college biotech club project, Science, Technology and Environment Minister Animesh Debbarma said in Agartala on Thursday.

“Nearly 400 projects from 27 different states were submitted for the award. The final results were announced after the evaluation of these projects at different levels. The award will be given at Habitat Centre in New Delhi on March 29,” Debbarma told reporters.

Speaking about SKOCH, the minister said it is an independent and renowned organisation that evaluates government initiatives of different states.

In 2022, the Biotechnology Department bagged the SKOCH silver award for its bio-village 2.0 project.

While highlighting different initiatives undertaken by the department, the minister stated they have fixed a target of implementing the bio-village 2.0 project in six additional villages in the 2025-26 financial year.

Likewise, the department has set up biotech clubs in 17 government degree colleges and will start them in another four colleges in the upcoming financial year.

“The biotech clubs were limited to government degree colleges till this year but have been expanded to professional and technical colleges, like medical, veterinary, agriculture and fishery colleges. The financial grant has been increased to Rs 2.5 lakh for this,” he said.

He further informed that 172 higher secondary schools in the state have DNA clubs that enable students to learn about 80 different science-related tasks including identification of blood groups, production of herbal colours, cultivation of mushrooms, extraction of DNA from fruits, recycling of waste papers, etc.

“Another 50 new schools have been targeted to be brought under the DNA club project in the 2025-26 financial year,” he said.

Besides, the Tripura Biotechnology Council is also working to upgrade Barabhaiya Orchard into a Plant Bank Orchard to pave the way for the germplasm of valuable plants.

Germplasm refers to genetic resources such as seeds, DNA sequences, and tissues, needed for plant and animal breeding and conservation

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

This is the first such project by an Indian startup with a U.S. company, the companies said in a statement.

Following on the joint U.S.-India Roadmap for defence industrial cooperation, Liquid Robotics, a Boeing company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt. Ltd, an Indian startup working on unmanned systems, announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to co-develop and co-produce Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV).

“This partnership aims to enhance undersea domain awareness through manufacturing, system of systems interoperability, ocean testing, and the establishment of a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) capacity for the Wave Glider ASV platform,” a statement from the companies said. The MoU supports the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA) that was announced during te visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the U.S. aimed at expanding industry partnerships and strengthening production capabilities across the Indo-Pacific region, it stated.

“The U.S.-India relationship continues to strengthen, and we see immense potential in deepening our collaboration,” said Salil Gupte, president, Boeing India and South Asia. “This partnership with Sagar Defence Engineering underscores our commitment to co-developing and co-producing critical systems in India, fully aligning with the collaborative vision of both the U.S. and Indian governments outlined in the U.S. – India Joint Leaders Statement last month.”

The Wave Glider is a key platform for U.S.-India collaboration, strengthening tactical readiness in the Indo-Pacific, said Shane Goodenough, CEO of Liquid Robotics. “Partnering with Sagar Defence advances bilateral defense cooperation and supports the ASIA initiative to expand industry partnerships and production across the region.”

As the first such project by a U.S. company in partnership with an Indian startup, this collaboration marks a milestone in U.S.-India defence industrial cooperation, with undersea domain awareness as a key focus, the statement said. “This strategic partnership brings together the best of U.S. and Indian defence capabilities by co-developing advanced technologies like the Wave Glider, our aim to contribute towards fostering innovation within India’s defence ecosystem strengthens,” Capt. Nikunj Parashar (Retd), Founder, Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt. Ltd.

As reported by The Hindu earlier, India and U.S. are scaling up their cooperation in Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA), a key focus for both countries with a new ASIA initiative aimed to scale industry partnerships and production in the Indo-Pacific and has identified a range of UDA technologies identified for co-production in India.

In addition to the Wave Glider, the other technologies identified include Sea Picket autonomous surveillance system with sonar acoustic array produced by Thayer Mahan; Low Frequency Active Towed Sonar; Multi-Static Active (MSA) sonobuoys; Large Diameter Autonomous Undersea Vehicles produced by Andruil; and Triton autonomous underwater and surface vehicle produced by Ocean Aero. Among these, for the MSA Sonobuoys in January, the two countries announced the “first-of-its-kind partnership on co-production” of these high-end technology that allows, tracking submarines in the deep seas and oceans. As part of this Sonobuoys of Ultra Maritime (UM) will be co-produced in India in partnership with defence public sector undertaking Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The celebrations began after the successful splashdown of the Dragon spacecraft, which brought Sunita Williams back to Earth along with Crew-9 members Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Residents of NASA astronaut Sunita Willaims’ ancestral village in Gujarat’s Mehsana district burst into celebrations on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) morning as a SpaceX capsule carrying her and her colleague Butch Wilmore splashed down off the Florida coast.

All eyes were on Ms. Willaims’s safe return as those in Jhulasan gathered at a village temple to view the event live on a television screen. As soon as she landed, residents celebrated the moment by bursting firecrackers, dancing and chanting ‘Har Har Mahadev’.

SpaceX crew Dragon splashdown updates: March 19, 2025

Ms. Williams has been in the thoughts and prayers of the villagers, who were eagerly awaiting her safe return.

Even as Ms. Willaims was on her way back, the villagers gathered at the temple performed ‘yagna’ and offered prayers. They said they have been performing yagna and have lit up ‘Akhand Jyot’ (eternal flame) on the premises for her safe return.

Jhulasan, known as the ancestral home of Ms. Williams’ father Deepak Pandya, was alive with excitement ever since the news of her proposed return, after a delayed stay at the International Space Station (ISS) around nine months ago, trickled in.

Navin Pandya, her cousin, said that the villagers have been praying for her safety, taking care of the ‘Akhand Jyot,’ the eternal flame that was lit up for her safe return soon after she went to space over nine months ago.

He said the villagers have planned a grand procession in her honour, accompanied by prayer chanting and fireworks to create a festive atmosphere similar to Diwali and Holi.

A procession will be taken out from the village school to the temple where the ‘Akhand Jyot’ has been kept, with students joining the celebrations, he said. The ‘Akhand Jyot’ will be immersed after the procession reaches the temple, he said.

“We have organised a procession with Sunita Williams’ photograph and will perform a dhun (prayer chanting) at the temple,” said Mr. Navin Pandya Pandya.

He said the villagers are looking forward to inviting Williams to visit Jhulasan.

Ms. Williams has visited India at least thrice, including in 2007 and 2013, soon after her space missions and was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2008.

Her father, originally from Jhulasan, migrated to the United States in 1957.

Vishal Panchal, principal of Jhulasan primary school, said elaborate arrangements have been made for Wednesday’s (March 19, 2025) celebrations.

Ms. Williams’ space mission was initially scheduled to last seven days but got extended due to a technical glitch. Her SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico, just hours after departing the ISS.

Ms. Williams, who has completed 62 hours over nine spacewalks, holds the record for the most time spent spacewalking by a female astronaut.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Panchanan Karmakar’s creation led to the printing of the first Bengali language book, and his legacy will soon be showcased to Kolkata.

Hidden inside the labyrinthine lanes of Serampore is a 200-year-old legacy associated with the creation of the first Bengali type face, which led to the printing of the first Bengali language book, A Grammar of the Bengal Language in 1778.

The Vidyasagar, Panchanan and Carey Bhavans are located on a narrow lane diverting from GT Road in Serampore’s Battala area. Neither of them are historical buildings but rather modern day apartments, named such on the insistence of the landowners, who were related to Panchanan Karmakar. While the name Vidyasagar needs no introduction, Carey refers to William Carey, the Christian missionary who lived in Serampore and translated the Bible into Bengali. Panchannan is perhaps the least known of the three names and refers to Panchanan Karmakar, who is considered as the father of Bengali typography.

The creation of the Bengali typeface

The story begins in the late 18th century with the East India Company and a family of blacksmiths — the Karmakars — based in Tribeni in Hooghly. The Karmakars specialised in calligraphy and were known for inscribing names and decorations on copper plates, weapons, metal pots, etc. One of Panchanan Karmakar’s ancestors was known for carving designs on swords, shields and armours for one of the nawabs of Bengal, Alivardi Khan, who awarded him the title Mullick.

Hidden inside the labyrinthine lanes of Serampore is a 200-year-old legacy associated with the creation of the first Bengali type face, which led to the printing of the first Bengali language book, A Grammar of the Bengal Language in 1778.

The creation of the Bengali typeface

The story begins in the late 18th century with the East India Company and a family of blacksmiths — the Karmakars — based in Tribeni in Hooghly. The Karmakars specialised in calligraphy and were known for inscribing names and decorations on copper plates, weapons, metal pots, etc. One of Panchanan Karmakar’s ancestors was known for carving designs on swords, shields and armours for one of the nawabs of Bengal, Alivardi Khan, who awarded him the title Mullick.

In the late 18th century when the British were making inroads in India, they felt the need to master local languages including Bengali. Few East India Company officials like English Orientalist and philologist Nathaniel Brassey Halhedhad already mastered the language, but there was a need for books to teach Bengali grammar to the masses. Halhed came up with a book on Bengali grammar, but it could not be printed since the Bengali typeface was not available.

Enter Charles Wilkins, English typographer, Orientalist, and a founding member of the Asiatic Society. He initially took the initiative of making the Bengali typeface in England, but the endeavour proved too expensive and the end result was not up to the mark.

After a long search he got in touch with Panchanan Karmakar, the blacksmith who has already mastered the art of Bengali calligraphy on metal. Panchanan created the Bengali typeface for the presses, which finally resulted in the printing of Halhead’s book A Grammar of the Bengal Language.

Later, Panchanan also helped William Carey with printing the Bengali translation of the Bible from Serampore. He also went on to develop the typeface for several other Indian and foreign languages.

The continuing legacy of the Karmakars

Panchanan was assisted in his work by his brother Gadadhar Karmakar. After Panchanan’s death in 1804, his son-in-law Monohar Karmakar (Mullick) and Gadadhar’s son Adhar Chandra Karmakar (Mullick) continued their legacy. Adhar later joined Vidyasagar in developing a simplified typeface of Bengali alphabets.

According to Gadadhar’s descendent Priyanka Mullick, the family press remained operational till the early 1990s and followed a traditional method of printing. “My father Biman Mullick was forced to discontinue due to the advent of new technology,” she said, adding, “Today, only the mansion constructed by Adhar Chandra Mullick survives. The adjoining land was sold on the condition that the apartments coming up in the plot will be named after Vidyasagar, Carey and Panchanan.”

Priyanka’s family inherited the printing machines along with a large collection of typefaces, which after her father’s passing in 2022 were passed on to her.

Gutenberg and the Bengali typeface

German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer and publisher Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and mechanical movable type printing in 1439 played an important role in the European Renaissance.

The Gutenberg process involved creating the typeface for a language by making a hard metal punch known as a mother type. The alphabets created on the mother type, which were mirror images of the original lettering, were then hammered into a soft copper bar creating an imprint of the actual alphabet. This is known as a matrix, which operates as a mould for the final typeface, known as movable type, which is made with a lighter alloy.

A single matrix can be used to make thousands of movable types, which in turn are arranged in the required sequence, inked, and printed on paper.

The English language follows a fixed set of 26 alphabets, but on the other hand, Indian languages like Bengali have a combination of alphabets that can run into thousands making the job of creating a matrix extremely difficult. Moreover, Bengali alphabets have more intricacies and carving them out of hard metal is a challenge. This is where the skill and artistry of Panchanan Karmakar came in. More than 200 years ago he accomplished an almost impossible task.

Showcasing a legacy to Kolkata

Today, Priyanka Mullick shuttles between Mumbai and Serampore to maintain her professional commitments, and while the family is no longer in the printing business, a part of the two-century history lives with Priyanka through the large collection of Bengali and other language typeface and several typing machines. She wants to showcase this legacy to Kolkata now.

“These have been out of reach of the general public and we are planning an exhibition at Khelat Ghosh house in north Kolkata in mid-April,” she said, adding that these kinds of exhibitions help create awareness about forgotten legacies in Bengal’s history.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

One of the last uses of Indian yellow, reportedly, was by Van Gogh in The Starry Night (1889). The famous yellow moon held within a cluster of radiant orbs was a blend of zinc yellow and Indian yellow.

Indian yellow subsequently travelled to studios across Europe, becoming a preferred pigment on many palettes.“The pure pigment has an incomparably beautiful, deep and luminescent gold yellow in shade which is achieved with no other pigment,” write Rebecca Ploeger and Aaron Shugar of the art conservation department of SUNY, Buffalo State, US, in a 2016 article titled The story of Indian yellow — excreting a solution. Elsewhere, the colour has been described as “a luminous, deep-mustard pigment widely admired for its depth, body and radiance”. Yet others say it resisted fading, even acquiring a stronger presence when exposed to sunlight.

In Pahari paintings, this yellow was used to drape gods as well as all royalty, to depict spring and summer, and to convey a bright mood in general.

The most important of all the yellow pigments used in Indian paintings — according to the Government of India’s Geographical Indications Journal No. 55 — is gaugoli. Gaugoli or gogili is an Indian version of the Persian term gaugil, meaning “cow-earth”. This pigment is also known as peori, piuti, peoli or the hardwari peori. The article further states: “This pigment is prepared from the urine of cows who had been fed exclusively on mango leaves and water. After heating and drying in the sun, the residue is rolled with hands into lumps.”

Artist Partha Dasgupta recalls Lalu Prasad Shaw, his teacher at Visva-Bharati’s Kala Bhavana, talking about the pigment — prepared from the urine of goats fed on mango leaves. Perhaps goat urine was a source too, who can tell. “Basically, it was the bilirubin that was extracted,” says the Calcutta-based artist. An artist’s job is to create, out of whatever is available around — plants, the earth and even animals. Sculptor Ramkinkar Baij worked with laterite gravel found around the Kopai river in Birbhum district mixed with cement, thus rejecting plaster which was rather expensive. And that sthaniyakaran or the property of being regional, Dasgupta explains, is a function of names such as Indian yellow and Indian red. The latter being a rich, opaque colour derived from red laterite soil.

The colour yellow has a long history. “In the Ajanta caves, for example, there was a great deal of use of yellow. This yellow was derived from ochre, which is a mineral,” says Benoy Behl, who is a Delhi-based art historian, documentary filmmaker and photographer. Most of the pigments used at the time were minerals available locally: red ochre, vivid red, yellow ochre, indigo blue, chalk white and so on. Behl agrees that some of the most brilliant uses of yellow are in miniature paintings, particularly the Pahari paintings. The fascination of the Europeans, he says, “is more like an outsider’s response to the vibrant colours in Indian paintings, since they were used to their own more subdued colours”.

Large quantities of this beautiful but “strange-smelling” pigment began to be shipped to London from Calcutta in the 1780s. By some accounts though, the Dutch painters were the first in Europe to get their hands on it in the 17th century. The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 and flourished till about the early 18th century.

Winsor & Newton, a London-based manufacturer of fine art products, had been getting sealed packages of the pigment. The company website reads thus: “The dirty yellow balls would be washed and purified, and the greenish and yellow phases separated. The precise ingredients of these pieces of pigment were unidentified, but they gave off a strong odour of ammonia and were suspected of containing snake urine, ox bile or, according to a more popular theory, camel urine.” The Winsor & Newton archive is one of the few places in the world wherein pieces of the original Indian yellow pigment are preserved.

The curiosity among chemists and pigment makers continued. Some contended the colour came from plant sap, but none was able to establish anything with certainty. While all this was happening, the colour spread in the hands of luminous patrons such as the Dutch masters Johannes Vermeer and Vincent Van Gogh, and English painter J.M.W. Turner. Think Van Gogh’s wheat fields or sunflowers — the whole range of interactions, between strokes and tones, time and temperament, amidst the greens, blues and whites…

Mandar (who goes by one name), a Delhi-based artist who nurtures a fondness for yellow, believes “you have to have faith in your colour and intention”. His preferred shade is Naples yellow, which is perhaps the earliest known synthetically produced yellow pigment. “At times after application, I just let it be for a few days, to see if it turns out the way I want it to, to get the right feel,” says Mandar.

Although most indigenous pigments now have synthetic versions, it’s not quite the same, as artist Arpana Caur will say. Caur — along with her mother — is also an art collector with over 200 Pahari paintings among others. They are 150-200 years old and are displayed in two museums. Caur tells The Telegraph, “There was a flood a few years ago, and unfortunately water seeped in and the Indian yellow was washed out. I got a lot of them restored, but it is not the same.”

Caur began to paint when she was nine, now she is 70. She says, “I find
Indian yellow very transparent. I used to buy it earlier but by temperament, I like opaque colours. Now I use Indian yellow only when I have an opaque colour under it, perhaps the solid cadmium yellow.”

In 1883, the story of Indian yellow took a definite turn. Joseph Hooker, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, London, drew the attention of officials in India, leading to an investigation into the origins of the pigment. A few months later, Hooker received a reply from T.N. Mukharji, who was a government employee. Mukharji had found a group of gwalas or cowherds in Munger, now in Bihar, feeding their cattle a restricted diet of mango leaves and water. These cowherds, he said, produced the “mysterious” yellow pigment. He also commented that the cows “looked very unhealthy”.

Mukharji’s report was published in the Journal of the Society of Arts and in the early 20th century, Indian yellow was outlawed. And it disappeared from the market.

One of the last uses of Indian yellow, reportedly, was by Van Gogh in The Starry Night (1889). The famous yellow moon held within a cluster of radiant orbs was a blend of zinc yellow and Indian yellow.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)