- Indian Heritage
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Sahitya Akademi announces Annual Sahitya Academy Awards in 24 languages
Sahitya Akademi has announced its annual Sahitya Academy Awards in 24 languages. 9 books of poetry, 6 of novel, 5 of short stories, 3 Essays and 1 Literary Study have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2023.
The Awards, recommended by distinguished Jury members in 24 Indian languages, were approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met on 20th December, 2023 under the Chairmanship of Sri Madhav Kaushik, President, Sahitya Akademi.
Following is the Category-wise List of Awardees:
the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya
Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 14th April, 2022. It recognizes the contribution of all the Prime Ministers of India and shows how our democracy has provided an opportunity for leaders from every class and tier of society to contribute to nation building. It is a new digital museum spread over two buildings. Building 1 comprises the old Teen Murti building, gallery of Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Constitution galleries, Toshakhana and the private wing of Shri Jawaharlal Nehru. Building 2 showcases the personal life along with the social, political and economic reforms of the succeeding Prime Ministers from Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri to Dr. Manmohan Singh. Each gallery highlights the contributions made by them during their tenure as the Prime Minister of India.
Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya is equipped with a visitor engagement zone named ‘Anubhuti’ where visitors can opt for ‘Selfie with Prime Minister’, ‘Walk with Prime Minister’, ‘Letter from Prime Minister’ and a virtual helicopter ride showcasing the architectural and technological marvels of the nation. Visitors can choose the Prime Minister with whom they wish to engage in the engagement zone. The visitors can lodge their inspirational message on the vision 2047 feedback wall as well as record their presence on a big wall in group in the ‘Unity Chain’. The Sangrahalaya also has golf carts and wheel chairs for smooth movement of people, guides/audio guides, Cafeteria and a Souvenir shop.
- Modern Indian history
- The Freedom Struggle
- Post-independence
- Indian Society
A. population and associated issues
B. poverty and developmental issues
C.urbanization
7. Geographical features
8.Indian Constitution
9. Polity
ECI issues guidelines to nudge political parties to move towards respectful discourse for persons with disabilities
The very foundation of democracy lies in the representation of all communities in the electoral process. Accessible and Inclusive elections have been a non-negotiable premise for the Election Commission of India to ensure equal participation of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The Commission is consciously striving to promote the principle of accessibility and inclusivity in the elections through various initiatives. For the first time, to promote inclusivity and respect in the political discourse towards PwD community, the Commission has issued a set of guidelines to political parties and their representatives. The Commission has urged Political parties and their candidates to abide by the guidelines in letter and spirit as they are an important stakeholder in the electoral process.
Off late, the Commission has been made aware of use of derogatory or offensive language in the political discourse about Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). Usage of such semantics in speech/ campaign by members of any political parties or their candidates, can be interpreted as an affront to the PwDs. Common examples of ableist language are words like dumb(gunga), retarded (pagal, sirphira), blind (andha, kana), deaf (behra), lame (langda, lula, apahij) etc. It is necessary to avoid usage of such derogatory language. PwDs have to be accorded justice and respect in political discourse/campaign.
Salient features of the guidelines are given below:
- Political parties and their representatives should not use ill/ derogatory/ insulting references on disability or PwDs during any public statement/ speech, in their writings/articles/ outreach material or political campaign.
- Political parties and their representatives should not use disability/ PwDs or terms referring to disability/ PwDs in the context of human incapacity during any public speech, in their writings/articles, or political campaign.
- Political parties and their representatives should strictly avoid comments related to disabilities/ PwDs that may be offensive or perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices.
- Any usage of such language, terminology, context, mockery, derogatory references or insult to PwDs as mentioned in points (i), (ii) and (iii) may attract provisions of Section 92 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
- All campaign materials, including speeches, social media posts, advertisements, and press releases, must undergo an internal review process within the political party to identify and rectify any instances of ableist language, offensive or discriminatory towards individuals/ PwDs.
- All political parties should ensure and should declare on their website that they will use Disability & gender sensitive language and etiquette as well as respect inherent human equality, equity, dignity and autonomy.
- All political parties shall use rights-based terminologies as mentioned in CRPD (Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and not incline towards any other terminology.
- All political parties shall make their public speeches/ campaigns/ activities/ events accessible for all citizens.
- All political parties may make their website and social media content digitally accessible to allow accessible interaction with persons with disabilities.
- All political parties may provide a training module on disability for party workers at all levels of political process and shall appoint nodal authority to hear complaints from persons with disabilities pertaining to usage of ableist language.
- Political parties may endeavour to include more PwDs at levels such as members and party workers to shed the attitudinal barrier of the party and public and provide equal opportunities.
Background:
Over the years, a well-designed framework of guidelines and facilities have been initiated to create a conducive environment for the PwDs to cast their vote. These facilities include, having location of polling station at the ground floor, Braille signage on the Ballot Unit of EVM, construction of ramps with proper gradient, separate queues (priority entry) for PwDs, wheelchairs, permitting a companion to accompany a blind/infirm voter, accessible toilets and adequate signages explaining the process of voting etc.
While the effort is to encourage voters to come to the polling booth and have a secure, comfortable and pleasant voting experience, the Commission has also introduced the home voting facility. PwD voters with a benchmark disability of 40% may choose to avail this optional facility. In the recent elections, there has been a growing popularity of the facility and has been appreciated by the community.
Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill
In a historic decision, the Lok Sabha today passed the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023, repealing the colonial era law of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867. The Bill has already been passed by Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon Session.
The new statute – The Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023 makes the process of allotment of title and registration of periodicals simple and simultaneous, through an online system without the requirement of any physical interface. This would enable the Press Registrar General to fast track the process, thereby ensuring that publishers, especially small and medium publishers, face little difficulty in starting a publication. Most importantly, the publishers would no longer be required to file a declaration with the District Magistrates or the local authorities and get such declarations authenticated. Furthermore, printing presses would also not be required to furnish any such declaration; instead only an intimation would be sufficient. The entire process presently involved 8 steps and consumed considerable time.
Introducing the Bill in the Lok Sabha, Minister for Information & Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur said “the Bill reflects yet another step of the Modi Government towards jettisoning mentality of slavery and bringing new laws for new India”. The Minister further added that it has been the priority of the Government to end criminality, improve ease of doing business and ease of living through new laws and accordingly, efforts have been made to substantially decriminalize the colonial era statute. For certain violations, financial penalties have been proposed instead of conviction as earlier. Further, a credible appellate mechanism, headed by the Chairperson, Press Council of India has been provided for. Stressing upon the ease of doing business aspect, Shri Thakur said title registration process, which sometimes took 2-3 years, would now be done in 60 days.
The Act of 1867 was a legacy of the British Raj which intended to exercise complete control over the press and the printers and publishers of newspapers and books along with heavy fines and penalties including imprisonment for various violations. It was felt that in today’s age of free press and the Government’s commitment to uphold media freedom, the archaic law was totally out of sync with the current media landscape. Ends
10. Governance
A. institutions
B. regulatory
C. Government policies
D. role of NGOs
E. measures
11. Social Justice
A. Welfare schemes
B Health
C. Education
D. Human Resources
E. poverty and hunger
12. International relations
A. India and its neighbourhood
B. groupings and agreements
C.Indian diaspora
13. Economic Development
A. Government Budgeting
B. industrial
E.issues
14. Technology
AI and machine learning research
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based research undertaken by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in last five years is mentioned below:
| Sr No | Research details |
| 1. | AI based Content verification and anomaly detection |
| 2. | AI based Physical Intrusion Detection |
| 3. | Biometric and Face Recognition |
| 4. | Vehicle Identification and Management |
| 5. | Application Behavior and Anomaly Detection |
| 6. | Human Interface Development |
| 7. | Robotics |
| 8. | Image Processing |
| 9. | Medical and Bio medical |
| 10. | AI/ ML development platform and hardware |
| 11. | High-Performance Computing – job scheduling, resource utilization prediction, Nuclear Knowledge Management and optimization problems in Nuclear environments |
| 12. | Medical thermal images for breast cancer, eye diseases and diabetes mellitus |
| 13. | AI-algorithm based application to identify the near optimal value of the operating parameters of the electron synchrotrons for control system of Accelerators |
| 14. | An operating support system developed using Swarm intelligence and AI-based expert system to maximize the beam injection efficiency without operator intervention for control system of Accelerators |
| 15. | AI and ML algorithms/methodologies are used in Machine Vision based Inspection systems for inspection & quality control of Nuclear Fuel & Nuclear Fuel Assembly Components. |
| 16. | Qualitative and quantitative analysis of different grades of steel by applying ML-based algorithms trained over spectral data from Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. |
| 17. | Development of ML-based systems/techniques for Raman Spectroscopy |
| 18. | A multi-staged ML model is developed and evaluated to detect fraudulent connections. |
| 19. | Study on ML models for IPv6 address lookup in large block lists |
| 20. | Study, Design and Development of ML-based technique for SPAM detection. |
| 21. | Statistical modelling and ML were used to extract meaningful insights from CHSS Medical Data at RRCAT which includes prevalence and patterns of diseases, correlation among ailments/ symptoms, seasonal patterns, CHSS beneficiary profiling etc. |
In past 5 years, Department of Atomic Energy collaborated with academic institutions for various AI/ML related research projects and programmes which are Robust Shape based Face Recognition System & Robust and Scalable Computer Vision Systems for Smart Multi Camera Video Surveillance.
The details of the projects and programmes undertaken in collaboration with academic institutions in these domains are:
- Early detection of breast cancer using thermal/infrared imaging. AI application for classification of the lesions mapped by infrared images.
- Diabetic eye diseases detection and classification using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN).
- Unsupervised radiation field mapping inside cyclotron vault
- Unsupervised area surveillance by drone
- Indian sign language coder and decoder
- Video compression for low bit rate video conferencing
- Neutron Gamma separation for DAQ system
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning related research is carried out through projects in last five years. 3 Projects costing Rs. 180 crores were under execution and around Rs. 53 crores have been utilized.
AI and ML research along with high performance computing has enabled processing of large volumes of data. This has resulted in development of applications in all the domains. It has also led to several developments in Security and Cyber Security. Development of AI based video analytics and Cyber Security tools were initiated and has resulted in mature technologies. Indigenous products such as Secured Network Access System (SNAS) has become a backbone of Cyber security.
15. Environment
Preservation of forests and their biodiversity
The National Forest Policy, 1988 emphasizes that the life of tribals and other poor people living within and near forests revolves around forests and the rights and concessions enjoyed by them should be fully protected. Having regard to the symbiotic relationship between the tribal people and forests, the Policy also focus to associate the tribal communities closely in the protection, regeneration and development of forests as well as to provide gainful employment to people living in and around the forest.
Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) and Village Eco-Development Committees (EDCs) have been established, through participatory approaches, at the village levels involving local communities in forest protection, conservation, and management of forests, including enhancing the livelihoods of forest dependent communities.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA, 2006) recognizes the rights of the forest dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources, on which these communities were dependent for a variety of needs, including livelihood, habitation and other socio-cultural needs. The Act encompasses rights of self-cultivation and habitation, community rights as well as recognition of traditional customary rights and right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource for sustainable use.
16. Security
17. Disaster Management