Short News Articles

Polity and Governance

Sansad Ratna Awards

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated fellow Members of Parliament who will be conferred the Sansad Ratna Awards 2023.

• The 13th edition of the award ceremony is set to be held this year on March 25 in New Delhi.
• About:
• The Sansad Ratna Awards were instituted in 2010, inspired by the teachings of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who launched the first edition of the Award function in Chennai.
• They seek to recognise and felicitate the top-performing MPs on the basis of their work in the apex legislative body.
• So far, 90 Parliamentarians have been given this award.
• The winners in 2023:
• The Jury Committee has chosen a total of 13 MPs and two parliamentary committees for the award.
• A lifetime award being presented for the first time this year.
• The jury committee comprises eminent Parliamentarians and (members of) civil society.
• It was chaired by Arjun Ram Meghwal (MoS, Parliamentary Affairs) and co-chaired by T S Krishnamurthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India).

Art and Culture

KanakRele

Classical dance legend KanakRele, the Mohiniyattam exponent, died at the age of 85 in Mumbai.

About Mohiniyattam:

• Mohiniyattam is based on NatyaShastra’slasya style.
• It has delicate movements and more feminine facial expressions.
• The movements are gentle and glide-like. They do not have terse rhythmic steps.
• More emphasis is on the facial expressions and hand gestures.
• There are features borrowed from other dance forms of Kerala like the NangyarKoothu and the Thiruvathirakkali.
• It is traditionally performed only by women.
• Kathakali, on the other hand, was confined to men, although, in the modern times, women also take it up.
• According to some experts, the dance form is 700 years old.
• One of the earliest references of Mohiniyattam is available in Vyavaharamala, which is a 16th century text on Indian jurisprudence authored by Mazhamangalam Narayanan Namboodiri.

Her Achievements:

• Dr.Rele created a record for herself by earning her Ph.D in dance, the first in India, in 1977. Her doctoral thesis was titled, ‘MohiniAttam: All aspects and Spheres of Influence’.
• Later in 2013, she was conferred the Padma Bhushan.
• She was awarded the first Guru Gopinath National Puraskaramby the Government of Kerala.
• She was one of the finest exponents of Mohiniyattam and Kathakali.
• Dr Rele made fundamental work in the field of dance through her Nalanda Dance Research Centre and the NalandaNritya Kala Mahavidyalaya.

History

Dickinsonia fossil 

Fossils of an extinct species of animal that scientists reported in a sensational discovery from India’s Bhimbetka Rock Shelters in 2021 have been found to be a false alarm.

About the study:

• Dickinsonia, an animal that lived at least 538 million years ago, in a cave was found.
• Dickinsonia fossils in other parts of the world have indicated it was circular or oval in shape, somewhat flat, with rib-like structures radiating from a central column.
• Eventually, scientists conclude that “the impression resulted from decay of a modern beehive which was attached to a fractured rock surface.

The Bhimbetka caves:

• The Bhimbetka Rock Shelters are famous for their cave paintings, some of which have been dated to 8,000 B.C., while archaeological evidence at the site has indicated human settlements up to 100 millennia ago.