Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment: The Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment under the G20 Indian Presidency, chaired by Union Minister of Women & Child Development is set to take place in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The Conference while focusing on women-led development will be an opportunity for accelerating achievement towards Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and achieving SDG: Goal 5. Gandhinagar is an exquisite example of a vibrant fusion of centuries-old architecture with modernity and cultural vibrancy and is known for its historical legacy, artefacts, handicrafts, arts, festivals, grand temples and museums and a rich civilization that flourished on the western bank of the river Sabarmati.
PM YASASVI Scheme: Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment offer scholarships to meritorious students under the PM YASASVI scheme. This programme is open to deserving students from classes 9 through 12 who belong to the underprivileged group. To be eligible for the PM YASASVI programme, a student must fall under one of the following categories: Other Backward Class (OBC), De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic (DNT), or Economically Backward Class (EBC).The candidate’s guardians’ or parents’ income must be less than Rs 2.5 Lakh per year for them to qualify for this scholarship. The Class 9 and Class 10 students will receive Rs. 75,000 annually under this programme, and the Class 11 and Class 12 students will receive Rs. 1, 25,000 annually. Students have to apply for the PM YASASVI scheme to get the scholarship. Students will be chosen for the scholarship based on their performance on the National Testing Agency’s YASASVI Entrance Exam.
Lokmanya Tilak National Award: Prime Minister will be honoured with the Lokmanya Tilak National Award on his visit to Pune. The award was instituted in 1983 by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust. This award is given every year on 1st August, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak, to persons who have made remarkable and extraordinary contributions, working for the progress and development of the nation.
Lokmanya Tilak: Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a prominent Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, social reformer, and political leader during the Indian independence movement. He was one of the prime architects of modern India and probably the strongest advocate of Swaraj or Self Rule for India. He is known for his slogan, “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it. “He was considered a radical Nationalist. The British Government termed him the “Father of Indian Unrest”. He joined the Indian National Congress Party in the year 1890.He used his newspaper, “Kesari” (meaning Lion) in Marathi and later “Maratha” in English to disseminate nationalist ideas. Some of his notable literary works include “The Arctic Home in the Vedas,” where he presented his theory that the Vedas originated in the Arctic region, and “Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Rahasya,” an interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita from a nationalist perspective.
Tilak believed in the power of education and established the Deccan Education Society in Pune in 1884. The society founded Fergusson College and the New English School, which played crucial roles in promoting modern education in Maharashtra. He was arrested for sedition on multiple occasions. His most prolonged incarceration lasted from 1908 to 1914, during which he wrote the famous book “Gita Rahasya” (The Secret of the Bhagavad Gita).
In 1916 he concluded the Lucknow Pact with Mohammed Ali Jinnah, which provided for Hindu-Muslim unity in the nationalist struggle.
