💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (August Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

GS Paper: GS1

  • Operation Alberich

    The recently released ‘1917’ movie tells the story of two British soldiers during the WWI in Operation Alberich, the strategic retreat in which their troops were taken back to the Hindenburg Line in 1917.

    What was Operation Alberich?

    • Operation Alberich is considered among Germany’s most important operations on the Western Front in 1917, as well as one of its most extreme due to the ‘scorched earth’ policy employed.
    • In World War I (1914-18), the Allied Powers — principally France, the British Empire, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the US (after 1917) — fought and defeated the Central Powers — mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey.
    • The war caused destruction and suffering on unprecedented levels, and only led to a bigger conflict, World War II, two decades later in 1939.
    • The war manoeuvre involved the systematic destruction of 1,500 square kilometres of French territory by the German army after it decided to retreat to a newly constructed defence line.
    • The German army leadership had decided that the war must shift temporarily to the shorter and more easily defensible Hindenburg Line. The Operation took place in February and March 1917.

    Course of action

    • The shortening of the war front was drastic, and is considered the war’s biggest military construction project.
    • The planning for the approximately 130-km Hindenburg Line began in September 1916, and much of it was completed in four months from October — using 5,00,000 tonnes of rocks and gravel, over 1,00,000 tonnes of cement, and 12,500 tonnes of barbed wire.
    • The scorched earth policy, which laid to waste entire villages, roads, and bridges, was meant to destroy anything that the Allies could find useful.
    • The Operation saw the complete evacuation of the area’s civilian population.

    Aftermath

    • The move is regarded as a tactical success for the Germans, as it took the Allies by surprise and delayed their advance, but is criticised for the disproportionate destruction that it caused.
    • It is considered a propaganda disaster for Germany, and was presented by the Allies as an example of “Hun barbarism”.
    • At the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after the war, the Allies used Alberich to legitimize their claims for punitive reparations from Germany.

  • [pib] Establishment of Chairs named after eminent Women in Universities

     

    On the occasion of National Girl Child Day, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has set up 10 Chairs in different fields with an aim to carry out research activities to encourage women.

    Chairs named after eminent Women

    • The initiative is called “the Establishment of Chairs in the Universities in the name of eminent women administrators, artists, scientists and social reformers”.
    • It is being launched with the assistance of University Grants Commission (UGC).
    • The main objective is to inspire women to pursue higher education and to achieve excellence in their area of work.
    • The financial implications of the proposal is Rs. 50 lakh per Chair per year and the total expenditure for establishing ten Chairs will be approximately Rs. Rs. 5 crore per annum.
    • The Chairs are to be established for a period of 5 years initially as per the guidelines.

    The chairs proposed by UGC and approved by the Ministry are as under:

    S. No. Subject Proposed name of chair
    1. Administration Devi Ahilyabai Holkar
    2. Literature Mahadevi Varma
    3. Freedom Fighter (North East) Rani Gaidinliu
    4. Medicine & Health Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi
    5. Performing Art Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi
    6. Forest/Wildlife Conservation Amrita Devi (Beniwal)
    7. Mathematics Lilavati
    8. Science Kamala Sohonie
    9. Poetry & Mysticism Lal Ded
    10. Educational Reforms Hansa Mehta

     Functions of these chairs

    • Academic functions of the Chairs will be to engage in research and, in turn, contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the area of the study, strengthen the role of university/academics in public policy making etc.
    • The University will review the progress of the Chair annually and submit a final report on the activities and outcome of the Chair to the UGC after five years.
    • However, the UGC may undertake the exercise of reviewing the Chair for its continuance, at any stage.

  • Explained: The Kashmir Pandit tragedy

     

    It is 30 years since the “exodus” from the Valley of its minority Hindu Kashmiri Pandit community.

    The run-up: 1980s to 1990

    • Sheikh Abdullah had died in 1982, and the leadership of the National Conference passed on to his son Farooq Abdullah, who won the 1983 election.
    • But within two years, the Centre broke up the NC, and installed dissident Ghulam Mohammed Shah as Chief Minister. This led to huge disaffection and political instability.
    • The Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) stepped up its activities, and the hanging of the militant leader Maqbool Bhat in 1984 added to the sense of foreboding.
    • In 1986, after the Rajiv Gandhi government opened the Babri Masjid locks to enable Hindus to offer prayers there, ripples were felt in Kashmir too.
    • In Anantnag, the constituency of then Congress leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, there was a series of attacks on Hindu temples, and shops and properties of Kashmiri Pandits, blamed on separatist and secessionists.
    • Pandits had begun to be targeted. Eminent persons of the community were being shot dead.

    The night of January 19, 1990

    • Matters came to a head on January 19. By then, the Farooq Abdullah government had been dismissed and Governor’s Rule imposed.
    • According to accounts published by many eminent Kashmiri Pandits, there were threatening slogans over loudspeakers from mosques, and on the streets.
    • Speeches were made extolling Pakistan and the supremacy of Islam, and against Hinduism. Finally, the Kashmiri Pandit community decided to leave.

    The Gawkadal Massacre

    • On January 20, the first stream began leaving the Valley with hastily packed belongings in whatever transport they could find. A second, larger wave left in March and April, after more Pandits were killed.
    • On January 21, the CRPF gunned down 160 Kashmiri Muslim protesters at the Gawkadal Bridge, which has come to be known as the worst massacre in the long history of the conflict in Kashmir.
    • The two events — the flight of the Pandits and the Gawkadal massacre — took place within 48 hours.

    How many Pandits left?

    • According to some estimates, notably by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), of 75,343 Kashmiri Pandit families in January 1990, more than 70,000 fled between 1990 and 1992 and continued until 2000.
    • The KPSS has placed the number of Kashmiri Pandits killed by militants from 1990 to 2011 at 399, the majority during 1989-90.
    • Some 800 families have remained in the Valley through these three decades.

    Role of the administration

    • The other contentious question about the exodus is the role played by the administration, and more specifically that of the J&K Governor, Jagmohan.
    • Newly appointed, he had arrived in Srinagar on January 19.
    • The Kashmiri Muslim view of the exodus is that he encouraged the Pandits to leave the Valley and thus gave a communal colour to what was until then a non-religious Kashmiri cause.
    • The Kashmiri Hindu view is that this is a disingenuous interpretation.
    • They believe that Kashmiri Muslims, with whom they had lived amicably for centuries, drove them out with a vengeance in a frenzy of Islamism that they could not have imagined even months earlier.
    • The truth, many commentators have concluded, may have been somewhere in the middle.

    The question of return

    • Those who had means rebuilt their lives elsewhere in the country — Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad have Pandit populations, also Jaipur and Lucknow — or went abroad.
    • The fleeing Pandits did not think they would never return to the Valley. But as the situation in Kashmir spiraled into a full-blown militancy, return began to look remote if not impossible.
    • The longing to return to the Valley did not diminish over the years, though it may have become more an idea than a real ambition.
    • Successive governments have promised that they will help this process, but the situation on the ground in Kashmir has meant this remains only an intention.
    • There is an acute realization in the community that the Valley is no longer the same that they left behind in 1990.
    • In many cases, their properties were either immediately vandalised or sold quickly by the owners to Kashmiri Muslims. Many fell into disrepair.

  • ‘Time to Care’ Report

     

    The report ‘Time to Care’  was recently released ahead of the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

    ‘Time to Care’ Report

    • It is published by Oxfam International.
    • Its calculations are based on the latest data sources available, including from the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s Global Wealth Databook 2019 and Forbes’ 2019 Billionaires List.

    Findings of the report

    • Although global inequality has declined over the past three decades, domestic income inequality has risen in many countries, particularly in advanced economies and reached historic highs.
    • The report said that the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 per cent of the planet’s population.
    • The report flagged that global inequality is shockingly entrenched and vast and the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade, despite their combined wealth having declined in the last year.
    • The Oxfam report further said “sexist” economies are fuelling the inequality crisis by enabling a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people and particularly poor women and girls.

    Income inequality in India

    • India’s richest 1 per cent hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population.
    • The total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than its full-year budget.
    • Regarding India, Oxfam said the combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires is higher than the total Union Budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19 which was at Rs 24,42,200 crore.
    • It further said women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day — a contribution to the Indian economy of at least Rs 19 lakh crore a year, which is 20 times the entire education budget of India in 2019 (Rs 93,000 crore).
    • He said women and girls are among those who benefit the least from today’s economic system.
    • They spend billions of hours cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly. Unpaid care work is the ‘hidden engine’ that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses and societies moving.

    Data on earnings

    • Oxfam said governments are massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations and failing to collect revenues that could help lift the responsibility of care and tackle poverty and inequality.
    • As per the report, it would take a female domestic worker 22,277 years to earn what a top CEO of a technology company makes in one year.
    • With earnings pegged at Rs 106 per second, a tech CEO would make more in 10 minutes than what a domestic worker would make in one year.
    • Besides, direct public investments in the care economy of 2 per cent of GDP would potentially create 11 million new jobs and make up for the 11 million jobs lost in 2018, the report said.

  • Persons in news: Warren Hastings and his Impeachment Case

    Donald Trump’s impeachment trial started in the US Senate. A precedent being discussed is that of the Warren Hastings case — the famous failed attempt by the British Parliament to impeach India’s first governor-general.

    Warren Hastings

    • Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal (and the first de facto Governor-General of India), is considered among the most significant colonial administrators to have ruled India.
    • First as the governor of Bengal (1772-1774) and then as Governor-General (1774-1785), Hastings strengthened British rule in India and made profound changes in administration.
    • Hastings’s conduct while in office was called into question after he returned to Britain in 1785, most prominently by Edmund Burke, the noted British parliamentarian and philosopher.

    What was his impeachment case?

    • In 1786, impeachment proceedings were initiated against Hastings, probing his alleged mismanagement, mistreatment of natives, and personal corruption while in India.
    • William Pitt, the then British Prime Minister, first defended Hastings, but then joined the chorus against him.
    • Hastings’s argued that ‘Western’ standards of legality could not be applied in the East.
    • But Burke insisted that under the Law of Nature, people in India were entitled to the same protection as those in Britain.
    • In 1795, however, the House of Lords acquitted Hastings, and the impeachment failed.
    • Burke warned that such a verdict would live in “perpetual infamy”, and the trial gave rise to a wider debate on the role of the East India Company in India.

    Back2Basics

    Warren Hastings and his major works

    From 1772, Warren Hastings served as Governor-General of Fort Williams and the regulating act was passed after his arrival.

    Important events under his rule :

     

    • Hastings abolished the Dual System that had been established by Robert Clive. In the Dual System, the company had Diwani rights (rights to collect revenue) and the Nizam or Indian chiefs had the administrative authority.
    • The judicial powers of the Zamindars were abolished. Civil and criminal courts were established. Two appellate courts were established at Calcutta, one for civil (Sadar Diwani Adalat) and one for criminal (Sadar Nizamat Adalat) cases.
    • Hastings abolished the system of dastaks which were misused by company officials and traders earlier.
    • He implemented several reforms in all walks of administration. The Regulating Act 1773 and Pitts India Act, 1784 were important acts passed during his tenure.

     

     

  • Global Social Mobility Report 2020

     

    The Global Social Mobility Report was recently released at the ongoing World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.

    Global Social Mobility Report

    • The World Economic Forum organizes the well-known annual gathering of the world’s most influential business and political decision-makers at Davos.
    • It has come out with its first-ever Global Social Mobility Report, which has ranked India a lowly 72 out of the 82 countries profiled.
    • According to the report, the Nordic economies such as Denmark and Finland top the social mobility rankings while countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa languish at the bottom (see Table 1).

    Table 1: WEF’s Global Social Mobility Rankings

    Country Rank (out of 82)
    Denmark 1
    Germany 11
    United Kingdom 21
    United States 27
    Russia 39
    China 45
    Saudi Arabia 52
    Brazil 60
    India 76
    Pakistan 79

     

    What is the context for this report?

    • Notwithstanding fast global growth, inequalities have been growing across the world.
    • The rise of inequality has not only created massive social unrest but also adversely affected the global consensus on the kind of economic policies that countries follow.
    • A good example of this is the rise of trade protectionism across the world over the past few years.
    • Be it US or the UK several countries have started looking inwards in the hope that greater trade protectionism will help allay the fears and apprehensions of domestic workers.

    What is Social Mobility?

    • Typically, inequalities are measured in income terms. And this measure has been found inadequate.
    • As the report states, “many situations exist where, despite high levels of absolute income mobility, relative social mobility remains low.
    • For example, in economies such as China and India, economic growth can lift entire populations upward in terms of absolute income, but an individual’s status in society relative to others remains the same”.
    • The report states: “The notion of relative social mobility is more closely related to the social and economic status of an individual relative to their parents. I
    • n a country with a society with perfect relative mobility, a child born in a low-income family would have as much chance to earn a high income as a child born to parents who earn a high income”.

    Thus, the concept of social mobility is much broader than just looking at income inequality. It encompasses several concerns such as:

    • Intragenerational mobility: The ability for an individual to move between socio-economic classes within their own lifetime.
    • Intergenerational mobility: The ability for a family group to move up or down the socio-economic ladder across the span of one or more generations.
    • Absolute income mobility: The ability for an individual to earn, in real terms, as much as or more than their parents at the same age.
    • Absolute educational mobility: The ability for an individual to attain higher education levels than their parents.
    • Relative income mobility: How much of an individual’s income is determined by their parents’ income.
    • Relative educational mobility: How much of an individual’s educational attainment is determined by their parents’ educational attainment.

    Why does social mobility matter?

    • How far an individual can move up in the society determines a lot whether one is closer to the income “floor” (or poor) or “ceiling” (or rich).
    • Social mobility levels, then, can help us understand both the speed – that is, how long it takes for individuals at the bottom of the scale to catch up with those at the top – and the intensity – that is, how many steps it takes for an individual to move up the ladder in a given period – of social mobility.
    • Research also shows that countries with high levels of relative social mobility—such as Finland, Norway or Denmark— exhibit lower levels of income inequality.
    • Conversely, countries with low relative social mobility—such as India, South Africa or Brazil—also exhibit high levels of economic inequality.
    • That’s why it matters for countries like India to increase social mobility.

     

    As shown in Table 2, it would take a whopping 7 generations for someone born in a low-income family in India to approach mean income level; in Denmark, it would only take 2 generations.

     

    Table 2: Income Mobility across Generations

    Country Number of generations required by a poor family member to achieve mean income level
    Denmark 2
    United States/ United Kingdom 5
    Germany/ France 6
    India/China 7
    Brazil/South Africa 9

     

    So, how is social mobility calculated?

    The WEF’s Global Social Mobility Index assesses the 82 economies on “10 pillars” spread across the following five key dimensions of social mobility:

    1. Health;
    2. Education (access, quality and equity, lifelong learning);
    3. Technology;
    4. Work (opportunities, wages, conditions);
    5. Protection and Institutions (social protection and inclusive institutions).

    How did India perform on each of the 10 pillars of social mobility?

    India’s overall ranking is a poor 76 out of the 82 countries considered. Thus it should not come as any surprise that India ranks lowly in individual parameters as well.

    Table 3 below provides the detailed breakup.

    Table 3: Where India ranks on the 10 Pillars of Social Mobility

    Parameter Rank (out of 82 countries)
    Health 73
    Access to Education 66
    Quality and Equity in Education 77
    Lifelong learning 41
    Access to Technology 73
    Work Opportunities 75
    Fair Wage Distribution 79
    Working Conditions 53
    Social Protection 76
    Inclusive Institutions 67

     

    Back2Basics

    World Economic Forum (WEF)

    • The WEF based in Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland, is an NGO founded in 1971.
    • The WEF’s mission is cited as “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”.
    • It is a membership-based organization, and membership is made up of the world’s largest corporations.
    • The WEF hosts an annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.

    Various reports published by WEF:

    [Tikdam: Most (Not all) reports titled with ‘Global’ are released by WEF.]

    1. Global Competitiveness Report
    2. Global Information Technology Report
    3. Global Gender Gap Report
    4. Global Travel and Tourism Report
    5. Global Enabling Trade Report etc.

  • Thawing of Permafrost

     

    A recent study makes a disturbing connection between the loss of Arctic sea ice and thawing (melting) of permafrost in the region, with global implications.

    What is Permafrost?

    • ‘Permafrost’ or permanently frozen ground is land that has been frozen at or below 0 degrees Celsius for two or more consecutive years.
    • A staggering 17 per cent of Earth’s entire exposed land surface is comprised of permafrost.
    • Composed of rock, sediments, dead plant and animal matter, soil, and varying degrees of ice, permafrost is mainly found near the poles, covering parts of Greenland, Alaska, Northern Canada, Siberia and Scandinavia.
    • The Arctic region is a vast ocean, covered by thick ice on the surface (called sea ice), surrounded by land masses that are also covered with snow and ice.

    Permafrost thawing

    • When permafrost thaws, water from the melted ice makes its way to the caves along with ground sediments, and deposits on the rocks.
    • In other words, when permafrost thaws, the rocks grow and when permafrost is stable and frozen, they do not grow.

    Why thawing?

    • The link between the Siberian permafrost and Arctic sea ice can be explained by two factors:
    • One is heat transport from the open Arctic Ocean into Siberia, making the Siberian climate warmer.
    • The second is moisture transport from open seawater into Siberia, leading to thicker snow cover that insulates the ground from cold winter air, contributing to its warming.
    • This is drastically different from the situation just a couple of decades ago when the sea ice acted as a protective layer, maintaining cold temperatures in the region and shielding the permafrost from the moisture from the ocean.
    • If sea ice (in the summer) is gone, permafrost start thawing.

    Impact on Climate Change

    • Due to relentlessly rising temperatures in the region, since the late-twentieth century, the Arctic sea ice and surrounding land ice are melting at accelerating rates.
    • When permafrost thaws due to rising temperatures, the microbes in the soil decompose the dead organic matter (plants and animals) to produce methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), both potent greenhouse gases.
    • CH4 is at least 80 times more powerful than CO2 on a decadal timescale and around 25 times more powerful on a century timescale.
    • The greenhouse gases produced from thawing permafrost will further increase temperatures which will, in turn, lead to more permafrost thawing, forming an unstoppable and irreversible self-reinforcing feedback loop.
    • Experts believe this process may have already begun. Giant craters and ponds of water (called ‘thermokarst lakes’) formed due to thawing have been recorded in the Arctic region. Some are so big that they can be seen from space.

    Why a matter of concern?

    • An estimated 1,700 billion tonnes — twice the amount currently present in the atmosphere — of carbon is locked in all of the world’s permafrost.
    • Even if half of that were to be released to the atmosphere, it would be game over for the climate.
    • Scientific estimates suggest that the Arctic Ocean could be largely sea ice-free in the summer months by as early as 2030, based on observational trends, or as late as 2050, based on climate model projections.

  • Explained: What new monsoon dates mean

     

    The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had decided to revise the normal onset and withdrawal dates for the monsoon in some parts of the country from this year.

    Onset of Monsoon

    • The four-month southwest monsoon season, which brings as much as 70 per cent of the country’s annual rainfall, officially begins on June 1, with the onset over Kerala, and ends on September 30.
    • It takes about a month and half after onset on the Kerala coast to cover the entire country; and about a month, beginning from the northwestern parts of the country on Sept. 1 to withdraw completely.
    • Although the June 1 date for the onset of the monsoon on the Kerala coast is unlikely to be changed, the dates for onset in many other parts of the country are expected to be revised.
    • Mumbai, for example, expects to start getting rain from June 10 the revision is likely to push this date back by a few days.
    • Effectively, the monsoon is now expected to have later arrival and withdrawal dates in most parts of the country.

    Why was this revision needed?

    • The main reason for the revision in the normal dates is the changes in precipitation patterns that have been taking place over the last many years.
    • In the last 13 years, for example, only once has the onset over the Kerala coast happened on June 1.
    • While two or three days of earlier or later onset falls within the yearly variability in several years the onset happened five to seven days late.
    • Similarly, the commencement of withdrawal has happened in the first week of September only twice during this period, and last year, the withdrawal started as late as October 9 — and was completed in around just a week.

    Recent peculiarity with the exam

    • One of the significant changes being noticed is that rainfall is getting increasingly concentrated within a narrow band of days within the monsoon season.
    • So, there are extremely wet days followed by prolonged periods of dry days.
    • IMD data show that over several previous years, nearly 95 per cent of monsoon precipitation in 22 major cities of the country had happened over a period of just three to 27 days.
    • Delhi, for example, had received almost 95 per cent of its monsoon rainfall over just 99 hours. And half of Mumbai’s monsoon rain had fallen over just 134 hours, or five and a half days, on average.

    Regional variations

    • Patterns of regional variations in rainfall are also changing
    • Areas that have traditionally received plenty of rainfall are often remaining dry, while places that are not expected to get a lot of monsoon rain have sometimes been getting flooded.
    • Climate change could be one of the factors driving these changes, but there could be other reasons as well.

    What will be the impact of IMD’s move?

    For Farmers

    • The revisions are meant to reflect the changes in precipitation patterns in recent years.
    • New dates will likely nudge farmers in some parts of the country to make slight adjustments in the time of sowing their crops.
    • It would definitely have an impact on our agriculture practices — when to start sowing, when to harvest.
    • So, even if there is a delay in the arrival of monsoon by three to four days over a region, it would not matter much if there is a fairly good rainfall distribution thereafter.
    • The change in dates would affect water management practices as well.

    For Industries

    • The planning that goes to beat the heat — several cities execute heat action plans — just ahead of the monsoon would have to factor in the need to be prepared for longer periods of heat.
    • Rajeevan said many other activities including industrial operations, the power sector, or those using cooling systems, would also need to change their behaviour.
    • The power grid can, for example, have more realistic planning for peak periods of electricity consumption in certain months.

    Way Forward

    • The changed dates are expected to be announced in April, when the IMD makes its first forecast for the monsoon.
    • Agro-meteorologists, however, agree that more than the onset, it is the information about the spatio-temporal distribution of rainfall that will be more helpful for farmers.
    • Ultimately, the change in normal dates of the onset and withdrawal of the monsoon would help people understand when to expect rains, and to plan their activities accordingly.

  • [pib] Indian Digital Heritage (IDH) Initiative

     

    The Union Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched a month-long special exhibition titled Indian Heritage in Digital Space. This special exhibition showcases the adaptation and infusion of technologies being developed under the Indian Digital Heritage (IDH) initiative.

    Indian Digital Heritage (IDH)

    • This initiative is undertaken by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in the cultural heritage domain of the country.
    • The exhibition demonstrates the outcome of two flagship projects viz., A digital mini-spectacle to showcase the glory of Hampi and Augmented Reality based interactions with physical models of monuments.
    • The goals of these projects are to create digital installations using 3D laser scan data, AR, holographic projections and 3D fabrication,to provide interactive and immersive experiences showcasing the glory of Hampi and five Indian monuments namely Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varanasi; TajMahal, Agra; Sun Temple, Konark; Ramachandra Temple, Hampi ; and RaniKiVav, Patan .
    • These projections are driven by cutting-edge technologies such as 3D fabrication, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality, Holographic Projections and Projection Mapping etc.

    ViRaasat

    A special installation named ‘ViRaasat’, consisting of a scaled-down 3D printed replica shall provide a mixed reality experience to visitors for selected monuments, using laser-scanning, 3D modelling and rendering, 3D printing, computer vision and spatial AR.

  • Classical languages in India

    Recently in a Marathi literary festival, a resolution was passed demanding its declaration as a ‘Classical’ language.

    ‘Classical’ languages in India

    Currently, six languages enjoy the ‘Classical’ status: Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).

    How are they classified?

    According to information provided by the Ministry of Culture in the Rajya Sabha in February 2014, the guidelines for declaring a language as ‘Classical’ are:

    • High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
    • A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
    • The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
    • The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.”

    How are the Classical languages promoted?

    The HRD Ministry noted the benefits it provides once a language is notified as a Classical language:

    • Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in classical Indian languages
    • A Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages is set up
    • The University Grants Commission is requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for the Classical Languages so declared.