Current Affairs heritage

The Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V.Narayanasamy has said that Ancient monuments of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which have been in existence for not less than 100 years are protected by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958 and Rules, 1959.  So far 3675 such monuments/sites have been notified for Central-protection.  In addition, about 3500 monuments/sites are under the protection of the various State Governments under their respective legislations.  The Town and Country Planning Acts of the States empower their urban and rural local bodies to protect monuments/sites in their respective jurisdictions which are neither under Central nor under State protection.  In spite of these legal instruments, a large number of monuments/sites running over a lakh, are unprotected due to various constraints.

The holy Amarnath cave, a natural splendour is located at 3888 mts  (13,500 ft.). The holy cave, in which “Ice Lingam” is formed, is 120x100x60 ft. in diameter and can accommodate thousands of worshipers.  According to a legend Lord Shiva had chosen this cave to reveal to Goddess Parvati the secrets of life and death.

Although the holy Amarnath cave is located in the Sindh Valley besides Amarnath (Amravati) a small tributary of the Sindh River, it has been traditionally approached throughLidar Valley intersected by the Lidar nallah (riveulet).  On this route the  pilgrims approach the holy cave from Pahalgam in South Kashmir and cover around 46 kms while passing through Chandanwari, Pissu Ghati, Seshnag and Panchantarni.

As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, Government has launched a Scheme of “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) from January 2010 for citizens of five countries, viz. Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes.

During the period January – June, 2010, a total number of 3151 VoAs were issued under this Scheme.

Destiny spares none. Not even the great monarchs of unparalleled grandeur . The rise and fall of the Sumerian, Greek, Roman and Indus Valley civilizations bear testimony to this fact. Only a few empires have left their imprint on time.

The Vijayanagar empire with its capital at Hampi in Karnataka is one such example. It flourished between the 14th to 16th centuries. Inspired by the saint Vidyaranya, two of his disciples- Harihara and Bukka-established the Vijayanagar kingdom on April 18, 1336 on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. From then on till its destruction by the Islamic invaders from Deccan who defeated its king Ramaraya, on January 23, 1565 at Rakkasatangadi, the Vijayanagar empire became a byword for Indian culture, Hindu temples, art and architecture. It reached its zenith under emperor Krishnadevaraya between 1509 and 1529. He expanded his kingdom which covered almost the entire present-day States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. His rule has been extolled by historians as the golden age of Vijayanagar empire.

Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has now prepared the provisional Country-wise distribution of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) for 2009. A      statement giving the details of FTAs for Top 15 countries is attached.

The following are the important highlights of the country-wise FTAs for 2009:

Ø       Though the overall FTAs declined by 3.3% in 2009 over 2008, FTAs from some regions of world observed positive growth; Africa (17%), Central and South America (9.6%) and South East Asia (4.7%).

“A perfect king…a great ruler and a man of much justice,” recorded Domingos Paes, a Portuguese traveller of the 16th century. The king was Krishnadeva Raya, who ascended the Vijayanagara throne in 1509 and died, of unknown natural causes, in his forties. But it is for very good reason that these encomiums were showered on him, and his coronation is being celebrated half a millennium after the event.

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There are 985 ancient temples and 205 mosques declared as of national importance within the jurisdiction of Archaeological Survey of India.  The State-wise list is at Annexure-I.

The year of construction in respect of temples and mosques varies from 4^th to 19^th Century AD for temples and 12^th to 19^th Century AD for mosques. The ancient temples and mosques declared as of national importance are in fairly good state of preservation and maintenance. These are conserved, scientifically preserved and maintained as per established principles of conservation subject to availability of resources.

There are 5 tribes in Andaman & Nicobar Islands namely Great Andamanese,  Onge,  Sentinelese,  Shom Pen,  Jarawa whose populations are less than 500. They may be considered to be facing the threat of extinction.

Name of PTG Population (2001 Census)

Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V. Narayanasamy has said that Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada languages have been classified by the Government as Classical Languages.

Dr. V.N. Tewari Memorial Lecture at Panjab University Chandigarh.

Each one of us has a group identity and custom demands that special consideration be given to the members of the group, be it family, caste or tribe. As a result, personally upright individuals some times come across moral dilemma when confronted with complex public policy choices. For example, while helping family, clan or community members is a good private moral, it would tantamount to an unacceptable public evil and be termed nepotism. These instances can be multiplied and add a nefarious dimension to the conduct of public policy.

Recently released census 2001 data on bilingualism and trilingualism says thatEnglish was the primary language for barely 2.3 lakh Indians at the time of the census, more than 86 million listed it as their second language and another 39 million as their third language. This puts the number of English speakers in India at the time to more than 125 million. English speakers in India outnumber those in all of western Europe, not counting the United Kingdom. And Indian English-speakers are more than twice the UK’s population.

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The Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V. Narayanasamy has said that four sites from India figure in the list of endangered heritage sites compiled by World Monument Fund in 2010. These are:

The National Archives of India is celebrating its 110^th Foundation Day on 11 March 2010, as a repository of non-current records of the Government.  It was on 11 March 1891 that the Department was established as Imperial Record Office at Imperial Secretariat Building,Calcutta, with G.W. Forrest as the first Officer-in-Charge of the Department.

Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V. Narayanasamy has said that Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is working to strengthen the archaeological excavation work in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

When social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become an essential part of everyday life of many, can the Bollywood industry be far behind in using them to reach out to people?

The social networks has become a promotional tool for films, are the most happening places these days and the stars in the Hindi film industry have started using them.

Posterity will certainly name Husain as one of the most prominent post-independence artists to shape the contemporary in the spirit of a living and changing tradition. More than any other modern artist in India, he has understood how a syncretic civilisation and the dynamics of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious nation have together prompted these interpretations and empowered the community of artists to evolve a uniquely modern language consistent with the complexity of these civilisational narratives.

Islamist fundamentalist organisations rooted in religious obscurantism have long been prone to sudden bursts of irrational violence at the slightest provocation. The stone-throwing and arson in Karnataka by fanatics against the publication in a Kannada daily of an article, purportedly by Taslima Nasreen, on wearing of the burka were a nasty challenge to the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. Two people died, one of them in police firing, after thousands of protesters came out on the streets in Shimoga and Hassan districts and indulged in indiscriminate destruction of private and public property.

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It is to be noted that all the faiths emerged in the Eurasian landmass and the vast majority of their adherents are to be found in geographically contiguous regions. Together they constitute over two-thirds of the world’s population. The normal business of living brought them together from time to time in the past and does so today. Such social intercourse may include religious dialogue but is not necessarily synonymous with it. The frequency and intensity of this interaction varied with time and place. Despite the abridgement of distances due to modernisation, urbanisation and globalisation, the disappearance of traditional channels and modes of communication have impacted adversely on this interaction.

Dogri, the language spoken by the dogras living in J & K and elsewhere is a living and vibrant language. As part of mainstream Indian regional languages, Dogri too is now contributing significantly to Indian literature.

In the end, then, Mumbai got to see My Name is Khan and the Sena had to retreat, tail between legs.Even 24 hours before the film was finally exhibited, this seemed unlikely. The state government had advised cinema owners to show the film keeping the first three rows empty, presumably to prevent hooligans from damaging the screen, and to employ private security guards. Cinema owners asked, reasonably, who was going to pay for those empty rows and extra security? And what if someone got up from the fourth row and damaged the screen? What if there was damage, not to the screen, but to the seats? On the eve of the release, it appeared that the film may not release in Mumbai at all.