The Hindu Editorial Analysis | Free PDF

Table of Contents

‘Threatened’ Ladakh tribe seeks govt help to preserve heritage

A tribe of Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region has demanded that the Centre make serious interventions to help it preserve its cultural heritage, which, experts say, is under threat due to rapid “modernisation, migration and religious conversion”.
Members of the Dard Aryan tribe submitted a charter of demands to Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Sudarshan Bhagat on Friday.
The tribe, inhabiting Dha, Hanu, Beema, Darchik and Garkone villages in Leh and Kargil districts, claims to be the descendants of “pure Aryan race”. Many researchers believe they are the descendants of Alexander, an official of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) said.
“The villages are together called the Aryan valley. The people of the region are completely different from those in other parts of Ladakh. The community prohibits marriage with outsiders to keep the gene pool intact. Of late, the Dard men are marrying outside the tribe,” the official said.
The tribe is considered “threatened” due to their depleting numbers, which, at present, is around 4,000. They are mainly dependent on agriculture and are “educationally and economically backward”, he said.
The Dard Aryans do not document their history and they have carried forward their cultural legacy orally. Most of them have embraced Islam or Buddhism and modernisation has had a negative impact on their traditions, he claimed.
As such, they have no option but to migrate to cities. They demanded that the government set up a tribal hostel in the region and declare the Aryan valley a heritage village.
“So far, the government has not been able to anything for the Dard Aryans. Its policies and programmes have failed to reach them. Not many people in the country know about the tribe, which is considered threatened,” Virendra Bangroo, an INGCA scholar, said.
“We are making an effort to help these people preserve their culture and tradition, which is under threat due to modernisation, migration, and conversion,” Bangroo added.

Did an asteroid hit south India millions of years ago?

Was southern peninsular India hit by an asteroid larger than the one that wiped out dinosaurs? Is the land between present day Nilgiris and Kodaikanal located on a crater formed by the impact?
Two earth scientists think so. They make this claim in a scientific paper and have named the area ‘Kaveri Crater’, possibly the fourth largest in the world.
The investigations included megascopic (done with the unaided eye) and microscopic studies of rocks along with analyses of chemical signatures.
The study was carried out by K.R. Subrahmanya, a former professor of Marine Geology, Mangalore University, and K.N. Prakash Narasimha, Professor of the Department of Earth Science, Centre for Advanced Studies in Precambrian Geology, University of Mysore.
Their findings were published in the Journal of the Geological Society of India and the study won the Radhakrishna Prize 2018 for best paper.
The scientists told The Hindu that the Kaveri Crater is between Nilgiris and Kodaikanal.
The scientists told The Hindu that the Kaveri Crater is between Nilgiris and Kodaikanal. Both the Palghat Gap (a mountain pass) and Dhimbam Ghats are a part of the Kaveri Crater, with the geological evidence stretching up to Belakavadi and Shivanasamudra in Karnataka, they said.
The asteroid hit may have taken place 800 million to 550 million years ago. Unlike the impact event that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, this one took place when there were very primitive life forms.

ED attaches Naik’s assets worth ₹16.40 cr.

The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties worth ₹16.40 crore in Mumbai and Pune in connection with the money laundering case against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and others. The total attachment in the case now stands at ₹50.49 crore.
The ED probe has been initiated on the basis of a chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency on October 26, 2017.
According to the NIA, the accused preacher deliberately “insulted the religious beliefs of Hindus, Christians and nonWahabi Muslims, particularly Shia, Sufi and Barelvis”.
“Islamic Research Foundation and Harmony Media have been instrumental in maximum circulation of such incriminating speeches. For such activities the accused was receiving funds from Islamic Research Foundation as well as other unknown sources,” said the Directorate.

History of India’s last known hippo

Nearly 5.9 million to 9,000 years ago, India was home to the hippopotamus. These entered Eurasia from Africa, then diversified in South Asia before going extinct.
Now, studying a small fragmented tooth unearthed in Madhya Pradesh, an international team of researchers has discovered the last known specimen of the Hippo Hexaprotodon species. However, this does not mean that it is the last one to have lived in India.
The researchers hypothesise that a “combination of climatic stress and anthropogenic impacts” could have led to their extinction.
Severe drought in South Asia and weak Indian monsoons might have led to the extinction.

E-buses to hit Kerala roads next month

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will launch 10 zero-emission and noiseless air-conditioned battery electric vehicles (BEVs) between Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam from February 1.
The environment-friendly Olectra-BYD electric bus, manufactured under the ‘Make in India’ initiative and wet-leased by the KSRTC for 10 years, is being deployed on the corridor after its successful chain service operations from November 17 on the Nilackal-Pampa-Nilackal corridor for Sabarimala pilgrims.
Though the BEV can attain a speed of 120 km per hour, the speed will be restricted to 80 km per hour.
Only 0.8 unit of electricity is needed for the BEV to run a km. Compared to the operational cost of ₹31 a km for HSD-powered buses, the BEVs operational cost is ₹6.
With one charging, which will need three to four hours, the buses can run up to 300 km.

Ease of filming for Indian film industry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the government will soon start a single window clearance and a portal for the Indian film industry. He said this is a part of the government’s initiative of ‘Ease of doing business’ which paves way for ease of filming too.
The Prime Minister was speaking after inaugurating the country’s first National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) at the Films Division of India premises in Mumbai today.
Speaking on the occasion Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore said that a film facilitation office with single window has already been started for international film directors seeking permission to shoot in India.
The state-of-the-art museum, built at a cost of about 141 crore rupees has been curated by National Council of Science Museums.
Built by NBCC (India) Limited the museum is housed in an elegant 19th century heritage bungalow, Gulshan Mahal, on the Films Division premises.
The museum has a total built up area of 12,000sq. metres and displays have been divided into nine sections, ranging from origin of cinema, silent era, studio era new wave cinema and regional cinema.
The building has four exhibition Halls. First one is about Mahatma Gandhi and his impact on Indian cinema; second is Children’s Film Studio which gives visitors especially children an insight into the art of film making.
The third hall has been dedicated to showcase the creativity and use of technology by Indian film makers over the years while the fourth one shows the vibrant cinematographic culture across India.

L&T Armoured Systems Complex

Earlier today Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation L&T Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira in Gujarat. It will produce 100 Howitzer artillery guns, christened “K9 Vajra-T” under the make in India programme.
The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of Nirali Cancer hospital in Navsari. It will benefit cancer patients of South Gujarat and its neighboring states.
Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of Medical College in Sayli in Silavassa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
In the last 5 years, around 1.25 crore houses have been built under Pradhan mantri Aawas Yojana.

Defence Industrial Corridor

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will formally launch the Tamilnadu Defence Industrial Corridor today.
Three defence related MoUs will also be signed in her presence.
The minister will later inaugurate the Coimbatore Defence Innovation hub, by video conferencing from Trichy.
This will be the country’s second defence industrial corridor, the first one has already been launched in Aligarh, UP in last August. Both the corridors had been announced in the last budget as part of measures to indegenise defence production.
The Tamilnadu corridor is expected to have six nodes at Trichy, Salem, Hosur, Kovai, Madurai and Chennai.

Africa Day Celebrations

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has described terrorism as one of the most serious challenges towards international peace and security.
She was speaking at the Africa Day Celebrations at Vibrant Gujarat summit in Gandhinagar today. Mrs Swaraj said, many of the African countries are victims of terrorism like India.
The Minister said, strong India-Africa relations will go a long way in redefining the contours of the international order on more egalitarian lines. She said, in recent years, there has been a surge in Indian investment in Africa.
Currently 189 projects in 42 African countries are being implemented under the Indian NOC’s.
These projects have had a positive impact in many African countries and are changing the lives of its people by covering a range of sectors like, Power generation and distribution, water related projects, especially in rural areas, Agriculture, Irrigation, Railways and Information, Communication and technology.
In our new initiative, we have offered construction of Mahatma Gandhi convention centers in Africa as grant assistance in the context of 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji.