Category: RECORDS, INDIA (National)

** Didi Contractor, champion of low-waste buildings, is no more

The self-taught architect, who worked for more than three decades in Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh, gave a contemporary edge to traditional materials such as mud, bamboo and slate.

Delia ‘Didi’ Contractor was an artist, designer and a self-taught architect. For over three decades, she worked in Kangra valley, Himachal Pradesh, promoting the need to live and build sustainably. She died on July 5 due to age-related ailments at her home in Sidhbari. She was 91.

With over 15 homes and numerous public projects, Didi’s name has been synonymous with designing low-waste buildings.

The only child of a German father and American mother, who were engaged in the influential Bauhaus movement, Didi made India her home in 1951, when she married the late Narayan Ramji Contractor. Through her husband’s friend, Maharana Bhagwant Singh Mewar, the Maharana of Udaipur, she had the opportunity to decorate the Lake Palace Hotel in 1961.

** Maharashtra government planning to appoint ‘Marathi language officers’ to increase use of state language

Desai told the Legislative Council that the Maharashtra Official Languages Act was passed in 1964 but there was no required clarity in that legislation.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.470.1_en.html#goog_1931237162https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.470.1_en.html#goog_1322026593https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.470.1_en.html#goog_385010724https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.470.1_en.html#goog_583228511https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.470.1_en.html#goog_2092469718

“To bring about the clarity, to increase the scope of the act, and to ensure that there should not be a disregard for the Marathi language in the state, the need for amendment was felt,” he said.

Desai on Monday tabled the Maharashtra Official Languages (Amendment) Bill, 2021 of the Maharashtra Official Language Act.

The bill was passed in the Assembly and the Council.

** After centuries, palm civets with coat variations seen in Odisha’s Satkosia Tiger Reserve

The first photographs of a partial albino individual of common palm civet were captured at two locations in Majhipada reserve forest of Satkosia wildlife division in March last year.

** Army Chief to inaugurate Indian Army memorial in Italy

Gen. Naravane to visit U.K. and Italy this week

Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane will inaugurate an Indian Army memorial in the Italian town of Cassino during an official visit to U.K. and Italy from July 5-8, the Army said on Sunday.

Italy has pushed for a central role for India in the European Union’s Indo-Pacific Initiative which is congruent with India’s own vision for the region.

** CoWin platform made open source: PM Modi

“There is no parallel to such a pandemic in hundred years and no nation, however powerful, can solve a challenge like this in isolation,” Mr. Modi said, and added that all had to work together.

“Guided by the approach of ‘One Earth, One Health’, humanity will certainly overcome this pandemic,” he said.

** Esther David collaborates with Indian Jewish communities to record recipes for ‘Bene Appétit: The Cuisine of the Indian Jews

Author Esther David travels across India, collaborating with Jewish communities to learn how to cook traditional, closely guarded recipes for her new book, ‘Bene Appétit: The Cuisine of the Indian Jews’

“Zoo life was very cosmopolitan. I grew up with Gujarati friends. And the realisation of being Jewish. So I was really inhabiting three worlds,” says author Esther David, over a call from Ahmedabad.

Her latest book, Bene Appétit: The Cuisine of the Indian Jews, published by HarperCollins, opens with the lines “Food is memory. Food is culture. Food bonds families and communities.” Hence, in the face of a rapidly fading collective memory of the Indian Jewish experience, Esther decided it was time to travel across the country to record their traditions. In the process, she uncovered closely guarded recipes for dishes such as chik-cha-halva, jumping potatoes, agar agar jelly and even a Jewish biryani.

** Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, 12, the youngest chess grandmaster in history

The New Jersey resident broke a record held by Sergey Karjakin for almost 20 years.

Abhimanyu Mishra started playing chess when he was just two, Now, at the age of 12, he has broken one of the oldest records in the game to become the youngest grandmaster in history.

The youngster, who is from New Jersey, broke a record held by the Russian former chess prodigy Sergey Karjakin, who earned the title in 2002 at the age of 12 years and seven months. Abhimanyu earned the title at 12 years, four months and 25 days on Wednesday at an event in Budapest.

** New book maps south Indian clans’ 6,000-year-old Gandhara trek

About 6,000 years ago, some clans of forest settlers from South India set out on a great journey, which took them along the coast, traversing through several areas up North, and reaching as far as Gandhara (Kandahar in present-day Afghanistan). It is one of the great adventures involving movement of people, etched in India’s prehistory, at a time when even the wheel was not invented. Research has thrown light on certain facts, such as the families which embarked on the journey along the coast, crossed rivers either by boat, walk, or on the backs of animals.

Several such unknown intricate bits of knowledge on prehistoric India, dating back some 10,000 years, are now being preserved and compiled by noted linguistic anthropologist, and Padma awardee Ganesh N Devy. His book titled, ‘India Before History’, will be a 1,500-page documentation-orientated work, which will also involve close to 70 articles from the country’s eminent scholars.