1) National Data and Analytics Platform: NITI Aayog, in collaboration with ministries and state governments launched a transformational open data platform called the NDAP in 2022
- The platform aims to democratize access to public government data by making data accessible, interoperable, interactive, and available on a user-friendly platform.
- It hosts foundational datasets from various government agencies, presents them coherently, and provides tools for analytics and visualization.
- NDAP follows a use-case-based approach to ensure that the datasets hosted on the platform are tailored to the needs of data users from government, academia, journalism, civil society, and the private sector. All datasets are standardized to a common schema, which makes it easy to merge datasets and do cross-sectoral analysis.
2) Sant Sevalal Maharaj Jayanti: For the first time ever, the year-long commemoration of birth anniversary of Sant Sevalal Maharaj is being celebrated by the Ministry of Culture, under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav campaign.
- Born in Karnataka, He is considered a social reformer and spiritual teacher of the Banjara community. He travelled across the country to serve the forest dwellers and nomadic tribes.
- Due to his extraordinary knowledge, and spiritual background in Ayurveda and Naturopathy, he was able to dispel and eradicate myths and superstitions prevalent in the tribal communities and brought about reforms in their way of life.
3) Lambadis: Lambadis/Banjara/Lambanis were the nomadic tribes who found in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
- They are the largest tribal community in Telangana followed by Karnataka.
- Lambadi traditional bards called Bhats recite the Lambadi epic of Sevabhaya.
- The language of Banjara is known as “Gorboli” “Gor mati Boli” or “Brinjari” an independent dialect. The dialect falls in the category of Indo-Aryan language.
- They were commercial nomads, that is, they distributed salt and other essential items to interior villages, but they did have a connection with the land.
- They are listed in various States as SC, ST, OBC and as Vimukta Jati/denotified tribes.
4) Karakattam Dance: It is a form of folk dance performed at festivals, conferences, road shows, and primarily at Mariamman festivals; Mariamman, the rain goddess.
- While the dance form is not dying, it has undergone radical change. Mostly famous in Tamil Nadu, it’s performed in different parts of Kerala too.
- Karakattam and agriculture have a link. It is because the Mariamman pooja is held in harvest season in Kerala.
- Elements: swaying movements and joyous banter. Three tiers of flower arrangements of different colours sit on top of a container balanced on the dancer’s head.
5) Himalayan Griffon: It is one of the two largest Old World vultures and true raptors. This species is found along the Himalayas and the adjoining Tibetan
- Himalayan vultures are also susceptible to toxicity induced by diclofenac, a drug whose residues are in domestic animal carcasses. But their population have however not shown signs of rapid decline as witnessed in populations of other Gyps vultures across Asia.
- IUCN: Near Threatened
