1) Attukal Ponkala: It is a 10-day long festival celebrated annually in Trivandrum, Kerala, dedicated to Attukal Bhagavathy, also known as Goddess Kannaki or Bhadrakali. Pongala, which means ‘to boil over’, is the ritual in which women prepare payasam and offer it to the Goddess or ‘Bhagavathy’. It is one of the largest congregation ofRead more
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 governmentRead more
1) National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS): It was launched by the Minister of Rural Development in 2021 to bring more transparency and ensure proper monitoring of the schemes. The NMMS App permits taking real time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGA worksites along with geo-tagged photograph. This helps in increasing citizen oversight of theRead more
1) Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards: The awards are given to the artists from the field of Music, Dance, Theatre, Traditional/Folk/Tribal Music/Dance/Theatre, Puppetry and Overall contribution/scholarship in the Performing Arts etc. The Akademi Awards carries purse money of Rs. 1.00 lakh, a Tamrapatra and an Angavastram. The Sangeet Natak Akademi is India’s national academy for music,Read more
1) Mohiniattam: It originated in the state of Kerala. The dance is performed by women in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu in his incarnation as the enchantress Mohini. Mohiniattam is exclusively danced by women. It is also softer than the very vigorous Kathakali. It is also noted for the Shringara (erotic) depictions of divineRead more
Rajya Sabha passed the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2022 which seeks to conserve and protect wildlife through better management of protected areas and rationalise schedules which list out species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Issues with the Bill: The exemption given to ‘live elephant’ for commercial trade: Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Jairam RameshRead more
Remittances to India are set to touch a record $100 billion in 2022, according to the World Bank’s latest report titled ‘Remittances Brave Global Headwinds’. India received $89.4 billion in 2021 — this is the first time a country will reach the $100 billion mark General trend in Remittances in 2022: World remittances are expectedRead more
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled its latest review of the monetary policy. What is the need for monetary policy reviews? In India, the RBI is entrusted with the responsibility of devising monetary policy “with the primary objective of maintaining price stability while keeping in mind the objectiveRead more
In the climate negotiations areas of interest to developing countries are not covered or sparsely covered, while other areas are over-regulated. For instance, in COP27, there seems to be a concerted effort to fraudulently change the basic structure of the Climate Treaty. The concept of “Carbon Budget” has progressively emerged from the work of theRead more
The International Labor Organisation (ILO) has recently released two reports: ‘Global Wage Report 2022-2023 and ‘Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook 2022, highlighting the global employment scenario (post-pandemic). What does the data show? According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the nominal wages rose to ₹17,017 per month in 2021 from ₹4,398 in 2006. But whenRead more
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