Growth of Niche Tourism domains

Tourism is responsible for the growth of the local economy, which in turn provides employment opportunity to the local residents and give a boost to the place in terms of infrastructure development. Astrostays are one such concept to promote travellers to visit the rural place to stargaze. Established in 2019, Astrostays first came up in Maan village in Ladakh and in almost a few months, it attracted more than 350 guests. While tourists stay with members of a particular community, they get to learn about the local cultural heritage, sustainable living and eco-tourism. Till date, Ladakh’s Astrostay has witnessed more than 600 tourists, bringing in over $25,000 in revenue to villages whose residents have opened their homes. As Astrostays is owned and run by the local communities, the money invested by tourists gets reinvested in local infrastructure. Lieutenant Governor of UT of Ladakh – R.K Mathur, in one of his addresses in 2021 discussed science-based tourism and suggested making Astro-Tourism a flagship tourism product of Ladakh based on its geography.

Earlier this year, Rajasthan became the first Indian state to announce the introduction of night sky Astro Tourism in all of its 33 districts. The pink city of the state – Jaipur, alone has four famous star gazing venues including Jantar-Mantar, Amber Fort, University of Maharaja and Jawahar Kala Kendra. Rajasthan’s Department of Science and Technology has also stated that Bikaner House in New Delhi has been chosen as a spot to promote Astro-Tourism and therefore, a telescope will be installed for skywatching.

Ministry of Tourism has taken the initiative to discuss and explore ‘Nature-based tourism’ during the ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ Webinar series. Concerted efforts are being put into tapping the growing potential of Astro-Tourism in India. States that hold the immense beauty of the night sky and minimal light pollution are planning to explore this area. For example, Benital Village, located 2,600 metres above sea level in the Chamoli district in Uttrakhand, is planning to turn into an Astro village. An Astro park is in the works in Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, whereas in Jaipur, the State Department of Art and Culture introduced a Night Sky Tourism project after the first wave of COVID-19, to encourage visitors to look up through the telescopes set up at Jawahar Kala Kendra and Jantar Mantar. Ladakh administration also took initiatives to promote Astro-tourism in Hanle village, by collaborating with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

The Karnataka Tourism Policy (2020-25) mentions Science Tourism as an aspect along with other types including cultural, shopping, sports, spiritual, wellness etc. The northern state of Uttrakhand is also witnessing a change of taste in terms of tourism. Nainital’s tourism department is gearing the development and planning process for the projects in the villages of Takula and Devasthal. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) has been roped in to look after the technical aspect of the project.

These initiatives highlight that we have come a long way. In 2017, it was touted that around 7 million people travelled across the U.S. to witness the Total Solar Eclipse. The tourism industry, at that time, was not ready for such an overwhelming response on the heels of tourism based on science. Since then, many countries, and communities are using astronomy to bring tourism to their region.

Astro-Tourism is not just responsible to draw a parallel between experiential and eco-tourism but will also promote a sustainable form of travel that has immense potential to bring positive, social, economic and conservative benefits to remote communities and areas.

Efforts towards Gram Rajya

Panchayats have a pivotal role to play in integrated rural development by focusing on the 17 SDGs which are subsumed under nine themes to ensure poverty-free, clean, healthy, child-friendly, and socially secured well-governed villages. Ministry of Panchayati Raj has introduced digital solutions like e-GramSwaraj for planning, budgeting and accounting of Panchayats, inspiring 2.38 lakh Gram Panchayats to adopt e-GramSwaraj. However, all Panchayats also need to be brought onto this platform to meet the digital mission of governance.In recent years, owing to the continuous efforts by the government, Panchayats have emerged as leaders, planners and policymakers at the grass-root level. This has enabled them to realize their national as well as global targets in the true spirit of the transition from ‘Local to Global’. It is also heartening to note here that India has achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in 2019, 11 years ahead of its actual timeline in 2030. Now Panchayats need to achieve complete sanitation and adopt waste management practices, converting waste to wealth. This will provide new confidence in rural economy. The government seems to be on target to provide clean drinking water to each household in the country by 2024, which would be a new milestone for the country as vast as India.

It is heartening that the increase in fund allocation to the rural local bodies from Rs.100 per capita per annum in the 10th Finance Commission has been raised to Rs.674 per capita per annum in the 15th Finance Commission, thanks to the growing focus of the present dispensation on the rural populace. Now Central Finance Commission funds are directly transferred to the bank accounts of Panchayats, leaving little or no scope for any diversion, dilution and deviation in the process. Similarly, now efforts are also being made to ensure that every grant meant for people should directly go to the eligible beneficiaries, and improve education, employment, water & other situations.

To further sensitize all stake holders in the process to give a boost to an all round development of the villages, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj is celebrating its iconic week under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Governance Conference, ‘Sushasan – Sugamta se Sampanta’ was also organized today (12th April). Through such programmes, the government is ensuring that the Panchayati Raj institutions become the real instruments to carry out the programmes of rural development. In this endeavour, Governance is playing a significant role in making Panchayati Raj Institutions functional and efficient. With the rapid expansion of the economy and the growing awareness and assertion of rights by the populace, the need and demand for good governance has also increased in recent years. Today’s governance style is becoming more citizen-oriented, citizen-centric, citizen-friendly, ensuring dedication, responsiveness and accountability of both official and Elected Representatives, towards rural development.

‘Ram Rajya is incomplete without Gram Rajya’ , the significance of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous statement is being well-realised today with burgeoning efforts being taken by the government to improve governance at rural level with focus on providing villages (approx 6.5 lakh) with connectivity, education, employment opportunity and entertainment. With the Centre and State Governments together implementing various development programmes, good governance is critical not only for ensuring social inclusion in the Government Programmes, but also for establishing accountability. And Panchayati Raj institutions have a definite mandate for realization of goal towards improving the quality of life in rural areas.

Knowing the State of Indian Agriculture

From an economy struggling with short supply to turn into a net exporter of agri-products, occupying seventh position globally, India has come a long way. It is one of the top producers of cereals (wheat & rice), pulses, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat and marine fish. However, there are areas needing a lot of work for the nutritional security for harvesting the demographic dividend of the country. The country faces deficit of pulses & oilseeds. Though the availability of fruits & vegetables and milk & meat & fish has increased,but affordability is still a work in progress. No denial that a sea change has been witnessed in this domain and a look at working of key initiatives is must to understand the happenings and outlook.

PM-KISAN provides income support to small and marginal farmers, Krishi Bhagya Scheme empowers farmers to use modern technologies to yield more crops per drop of water, NMSA caters to key dimensions of ‘Water use efficiency’, ‘Nutrient Management’ and ‘Livelihood diversification’ through solutions of sustainable development, whereas PM Fasal Bima Yojana provides financial support to the farmers who suffer crop loss or damage. National Agriculture Market (eNAM) portal has been a huge success. The portal is a unified national market for agricultural commodities, a network of the existing APMC mandis. It makes better price discovery available now through transparent auction process based on quality of produce along with timely online payment.

“New India will be more prosperous if the farmers in the country are further empowered. I am happy that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and other schemes related to agriculture are giving new strength to crores of farmers of the country,” said PM Modi while sharing details of the benefits of different schemes of the Central government for the farmers.

The government has launched many schemes in Agriculture sector that have been producing exceptional results. These include PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), launch of E-NAM, National Mission For Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), Gramin Bhandaran Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mrida Swastha Yojana, Livestock insurance Scheme, Scheme on Fisheries Training and Extension, etc.

These schemes have resulted in an unprecedented increase in Agricultural exports and production figures. India’s agri exports crossed USD 50 billion for the year 2021-22, notwithstanding logistical challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic in the form of high freight rates, container shortages, etc. According to the DGCI&S data, exports of many agri items registered record growth including exports of rice, pulses, wheat, other cereals, dairy products, poultry products, sheep/goat meat, Fruits and vegetables, Floriculture, etc. Various initiatives taken by Centre through APEDA such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product specific and general marketing campaigns by active involvement of Indian Embassies have helped as well. Major export destinations as per 2021-22 data are Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, USA, Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Egypt.

More than 300 outreach programmes in collaboration with state governments have been organised in the country, products matrix for 50 agricultural products which have good scope for expanding exports portfolios have also been created by the government and concerned authorities. Centre has also taken othe initiatives like promotion of geographical indications (GI), recognition of 220 labs across India to provide services of testing to a wide range of products to exporters, facilitating participation of exporters in the International Trade Fairs, organising national events like AAHAR, Organic World Congress, BioFach India etc. Government, through the aegis of APEDA also initiates registration of pack-houses for horticulture products for meeting the quality requirements of the international market. APEDA has adopted multiple world class technology and software in IT division such as Blockchain technology implemented in hortinet traceability, Farmer Connect Portal, Geographical Indications (GI) Promotion Portal, Mobile App, iTrack System, TraceNet, Organic Promotional Portal, Agriexchange App, and Cloud Migration etc.

This significant rise in agri-exports is seen as a testimony of the government’s commitment to enhance farmers’ income through giving thrust on boosting exports of agricultural and processed food products.

Hindi Medium for Engineering and Medicine

Understanding the language of nature and writing them in mathematical formula like no one before was not enough, that Ramanujan needed to spend time, energy and alas even life to be recognised in a language aliens to him. It is painful to calculate the loss which could have been prevented if he would had worked in his mother tongue.

Talking especially of technical education, Indian talent has suffered great losses in the name of language. It’s a psychologically proven fact that students grab things in their mother tongue much more easily than in a language they start reading later in their life. This hampers the cognitive ability, which is essential for spontaneous development.

Providing equal opportunities and level playing field to the mother tongue medium students, who appear to be in a bad shape when it comes to reading technical books and writing exams in English, is essential to bring parity in the education system. Situation seems to be rather worse in Hindi speaking states as around 50% of all students come from the Hindi background. Bringing to the fore the inherent talent of the students coming from backwards areas, rural background, etc. & tapping it to the fullest is essential for complete transformation of the technical education system which doesn’t appear to be in a good shape presently. If their technical abilities are left unharnessed, the dream of a knowledge based economy of 21st century with a scientific bent of mind, can’t be realized.

Language is the biggest roadblock to R&D as technicality or technical education or intelligence of an individual has nothing to do with any language. It has been proved time and again by different scientific researches. The scientific developments in countries like Japan, China, France, Israel, Germany and a few others have sufficiently and repeatedly proved to the globe that technical education could be provided equally efficiently in any language of the world.

Currently technical education is a prerogative to the students coming from only relatively higher economic and social strata of the society, however they may or may not be good for the technical education. The reason behind the failure of engineering in Hindi medium project was translation of engineering terminology in Hindi. For making technical education a success, it is essential that books be written by the technical experts who could write in Hindi or in association of the people who also write Hindi well and understands technical education or things related to it.

India is also a country with a large section of its population falling in the middle class category. Students, belonging to particularly this section are majorly inclined towards pursuing either Engineering or Medical studies. It is high time the barriers of language be removed for the lot in order to free up their time, energy, money and increasing their chances of having a more promising future, and ultimately increasing chances for the country to expect more promising future generations .

Tackling the Menace of Substance Abuse

The world needs to address the importance of developing a healthy mindset with a sense of urgency now as cases of depressions, liquor intake, and especially ‘Substance Abuse’ rise exponentially across the globe. Any material in nature which possesses physical properties is called a substance. However, things are not as simple as that. Here, we are discussing the substances that have the potential to make an abnormal change to body and mind in the guise of giving a pleasurable high. These substances are something which falsely claim to ease our stress or help avoid real problems of life. In common parlance, substances or drugs are termed as psychoactive substances, which when taken, affect mental processes like – perception, consciousness, mood and emotions. Substance abuse is a menace causing a great deal of trouble to the real world amid a figment of an unreal world. The threat can be perceived from the fact that in India, 272 districts of the country have been found to be vulnerable based on the data available from various sources.

According to the World Drug Report 2021, globally around 27.5 million people used drugs last year and over 3.6 million people suffered from drug use disorders during the period. The latest global estimates also say- about 5.5% of the people between 15 and 64 years of age used drugs at least once in 2020 (perhaps due to Covid-induced stress). This is the reason why production, distribution, sale or non-medical use of many psychoactive drugs are either strictly controlled or prohibited outside legally sanctioned channels by law in several countries. WHO says, around 5 lakh deaths annually are attributed to drug use with 3,50,000 male and 1,50,000 female deaths.

The sharp rise in substance abuse may be attributed to various factors like fast changing cultural values, breaking down of the social and family system where everyone feels free to do whatever he/she wants, fierce competition in the fields of education and employment and declining support systems or supportive bonds for especially adolescents. However, there is little denying the fact that substance abuse causes long standing mental, physical and emotional problems to people of all age and a damage to the larger society which is in a case irreparable. Substances include Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana among others, which are highly unhealthy. The use of psychoactive drugs may cause an increase in morbidity and mortality in individuals. They also cause upheavals in personal, family, social, educational and professional life. Its social and economic coats are unimaginable as drug addicts are normally low in productivity and cause big disruptions in family, social and economic life. They also face increased health care expenditure which further affects their economic well being.

Seeing a sharp rise in substance abuse cases, Indian government has also taken several policy measures and initiatives. The ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan’ or a ‘Drugs-Free India Campaign’ was flagged off on 15th August, 2020 across vulnerable 272 districts of the country. Ministry of Health is running a National ‘Drug De-Addiction Programme (DDAP)’ with the objectives to provide affordable, easily accessible and evidence-based treatment for all substance use disorders. The ministry has also released the ‘Standard Treatment Guidelines for the Management of Substance Use Disorders and Behavioural Addictions’. National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse has been created to meet the expenditure incurred in connection with combating illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs, rehabilitating addicts and educating public against drug abuse, etc. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implemented National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR), under which financial assistance is provided to state governments/UT for preventive education and awareness generation, livelihood support of ex-drug addicts, programmes for drug demand reduction, etc. The ministry also provides financial support for setting up of District De-addiction Centre (DDAC).

A healthy society needs health practices and for that all societal forces need to roped in with the responsibility to make people, especially the youth aware of the evil effects of substance abuse. Drugs may give a rush of good feelings in the beginning, but when the effects wear off, everything slows down for one good chunk of population, people who could have proven to be a lot beneficial for the country otherwise.

Commissioning Permanent Empowerment

India continues to invest in health, education, protection, skill-building, including financial literacy, and promoting gender-equitable attitudes and practices among India’s children and youth. This has started showing good results. For the first time since availability of records, India has more females as compared to males. The number of females per 1,000 males has increased from 991 in 2015-16 to 1,020 in 2019-21. The sex ratio at birth has also witnessed an increase from 919 in 2015-16 to 929 in 2019-21. Further, India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has dropped by 10 points, which is a notable achievement. From 113 in 2016-18 to 103 in 2017-19, this ratio is witnessing an 8.8 % decline. Also, the data shows a decline in the crime against women during the year 2020 (3,71,503) as compared to 2019(4,05,326).

Defence is one domain where women have traditionally not been able to break the glass ceiling. Not anymore. Today women are not only working in every wing of the Indian Army, but now they are also getting permanent commissions. The number of women officers has almost tripled in last 6 years. In 2014-15, the number of women officers in the armed forces was around 3,000 in comparison to the 9,118 women officers, who are presently serving in the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.

Notably, apart from flying aircrafts in the Navy and Air Force, Indian Army has also paved the way for women pilots by starting the ‘Army Aviation course’. Till recently, women were only part of ground duty in the Indian Army. To recruit women officers in Army Aviation, the Indian Army began the course from July 2021. Earlier, In May 2021, the Indian Army inducted its first batch of 83 female soldiers into the Corps of Military Police (CMP). Till November 2021, the Indian Army granted ‘Permanent Commission’ to 577 women officers since the Supreme Court verdict in February 2020. A Permanent Commission gives a full-time career in the Army till an officer retires. It simply means that if an officer gets selected through Permanent Commission entry, he/she can serve the nation up to the age of retirement (60).

For the first time in history, NDA will recruit women officers, a total of 20, including 10 for army, 3 for navy and 6 for airforce. It is noteworthy that the total number of applicants for the exam was 5,75,856, of which 1,77,654 women appeared for the exam. Earlier, In October last year, the Union Cabinet approved the affiliation of 100 Schools in the Government and private sector with Sainik School Society, which will provide an opportunity for girls to join the Armed Forces and contribute to national security.

Since, the Vedic times, women play a crucial role in the upliftment of society, and by paving way for more & more avenues for women, in not just defence but also in other sectors would lead to a ‘New India’ where men & women are making equal contribution in the overall development of the nation.

Protecting Rights of Digi-Consumer

The definition of consumerism has changed as the world scouts through technological leaps, digital deliveries, virtual reality, booming entrepreneurship and compound collaborations. All these undertakings have opened gates to many new facets of consumerism, presenting both opportunities and alarms. In 2021, retail e-commerce sales amounted to approx. 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide, thanks to the pandemic-induced digital activities around the globe. This figure could reach about 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025. While non-physical buying like e-commerce, social media shops, stocks & insurance, tickets & bookings, infotainment subscriptions, e-property dealings etc. grows outrageously, the absence of centralised prescribed rights of the digital buyers & consumers is adding to the backlog of cases and issues which may jeopardise global future endeavours.

The requirements are not just regarding not just the grievance reddressal of the e-buyer(s) but also their data protection and digital security. One could refer to the ‘Right to be forgotten’ on these lines, which empowers individuals to ask organisations to delete their personal data. The concept has been discussed and put into practice in several jurisdictions, including Argentina, the European Union (EU), and the Philippines. The European Court of Justice, in fact, legally solidified the “right to be forgotten” as a human right when the court ruled against Google in the ‘Costeja’ case in May 2014. Such a right can be a good point to start with for India too, which however, has much more complex systems, restrained resources and a flood of data breach cases waiting for just a proper redressal system to be in place.

The recent release of the detailed guidelines by RBI are an effort worth appreciating. The guidelines aim to strengthen India’s digital payments structure and improve security, control and compliance among banks, gateways, wallets and other non-banking entities that are contributing for India to meet its goal of going cashless. The new rules come at a time when India’s payments ecosystem is also vulnerable to frauds and cyber breaches.

RBI’s efforts for consumer protection had begun in 1995 with the setting up of the Complaints Redressal Cell. Later, three Ombudsman schemes of RBI namely the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (2006), the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (2018) and Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions (2019) were launched. These three were merged to launch a more systematic and centralised scheme i.e. the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) in November 2021. Some other steps by RBI include launch Complaint Management System (2019) and formulation of the Charter of Customer Rights, etc.

When it comes to traditional buying also, India has taken various measures to safeguard the consumer rights of the citizens. At top of this, is the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 that provides for the establishment of three-tier quasi-judicial machinery, called Consumer Commissions, to provide simple and speedy redressal of consumer disputes. Further, provisions have been made for e-filing and e-payment, video conferencing based hearing, court-monitored mediation, etc. to facilitate early disposal of cases. The Act also lays down provisions for E-Commerce Rules, 2020 and Direct Selling Rules, 2021. As per the latest data available, there are 632 Consumer Commissions operational in the country. 2,83,889 cases were disposed of from 2019 to 2021. As for the enhancement of consumer grievance redressal mechanism, the Department of Consumer Affairs has expanded “E-Daakhil” facility across 11 more states/UTs in the last one year (facility available now in total 23 states/UTs). Helpline number of the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal ( i.e. 155260) has also been added to the NCH portal for filing grievances relating to financial cyber frauds.

Religious Individuals of a Secular Society

KT Shah had put in demand in 1948 during the constituent assembly debate to include the word ‘Secular’ in the Preamble to Indian Constitution. Though the members agreed to the secular nature of the constitution, yet chose not to incorporate the word in the Preamble.

Dictionary definition of secularism is the belief that religion should not influence or be involved in the organization of society, education, government, etc. The term was coined in the mid-nineteenth century in England by George Holyoake (1817–1906), founder of secularist society which attempted to end religious discrimination in parliament and elsewhere. So, in a generic sense, developing an understanding and respect for different religions is secularism.

It was only in 1976 that the Indira Gandhi government enacted the 42nd Amendment Act and the word ‘Secular’ was added to the Preamble. This was supposed to strengthen the already existing Constitutional Provisions relating to Right of Religion, which are given in Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion), Article 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs), Article 27 (Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion), and Article 28 (Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions).

The interesting thing is that the constitution has not as such defined the terms ‘religion’ and ‘matters of religion’. In a way, it was left to the Supreme Court to determine the judicial meaning of these terms, and one can refer to Supreme Court’s Justice Hansaria’s observation of 1996 in A.S. Narayan vs. State of Andhra Pradesh case that, “our constitution makers had used the word “religion” in these two articles (Articles 25 and 26) in the sense conveyed by the word ‘dharma’.” Justice Hansaria explained the difference between religion and dharma as “religion is enriched by visionary methodology and theology, whereas dharma blooms in the realm of direct experience. Religion contributes to the changing phases of a culture; dharma enhances the beauty of spirituality. Religion may inspire one to build a fragile, mortal home for God; dharma helps one to recognize the immortal shrine in the heart.”

Haryana has joined Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh to table the anti-conversion bill. The critics are claiming that these bills, by seeking to target conversions, interfere with both the right to dignity and freedom to practise the faith of their choice. They claim that under the light of Article 25 these bills are unconstitutional and some have even gone on to tear the bill in front of the entire assembly. One of the major concerns is the vagueness in defining “allurement” as one of the bases of needs of such bills.

In this light, the ongoing efforts of state governments towards anti-conversion bills and their resistances, bring the matter of personal practice vs impact on social fabric as a matter of debate at the national level. Religion is a matter of personal choice and secularism is the nature of society. India is a country where ardent religious individuals make a strongly secular society. Respecting others’ choices is the basis of this strong social fibre.

Breaking Free of the SILOcked Bureaucracy

“More than availability of money, it is the presence of siloes and lack of convergence that is the problem”, Said PM Modi while addressing the webinar on positive impact of Union Budget on rural development.

The term silo is derived from the Greek σιρός (siros), “pit for holding grain. Silos are tall vertical storage towers/containers which are used for bulk storage of grain, coal, carbon black, sawdust, wood chips etc. When the world is now shifting to new technologies and products, being specially designed to unite employees and merge workplaces in more ways than ever before, the Indian bureaucracy is still struggling with the threat of organizational/departmental silos. The reason behind the administrative and work inadequacy of government departments is ‘governance among departments’.

Traditionally the kind of policies and working framework most of the Indian bureaucratic setups generally have are so complex and full of layers that it becomes a cumbersome task to work a way out. Those working in such a setup, have always had their hands full with files (digital and otherwise) to move, reports to send and repetitive bulky processes to follow. Such a routine, when followed for a long time, starts to shatter creativity and block ideas, reducing productive participation. Over time, such an atmosphere turns into an abstract behavioral environment, wherein people begin to show a reluctance towards any kind of ‘Change’, towards ‘New opportunities’, and towards working with a different team, different media, different mindset. The Indian government setup has been experiencing this very syndrome ever since its democratic inception.

SILOcratic nature develops over time, but the fact that the current government has already recognised this as a ‘problem’ and is well-aware of it, brings both relief and ray of hope. The removal of unnecessary laws and regulations and efforts towards ease of doing business and ease of living are some of the much needed reforms which have taken center stage. PM Modi said, “The Budget has made essential allocations for every scheme like PM Awas Yojana, Gramin Sadak Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, connectivity of North-East, broadband in villages”.

Banking on the power of modern technology, many other efficacious initiatives are worth paying attention to, these include Broadband facilities in villages, ‘Vibrant Village programme, that was announced in the budget and is important for the border villages, ‘Financial inclusion’, that has ensured better participation of women in the financial decisions of the families, and the ‘Svamitva Scheme’, which is helping in properly demarcating residences and land in villages (with 40 lakh property cards already been issued). With measures like Unique land identification PIN, dependence of rural people on the revenue officials will decrease. A heartfelt dream of achieving the target of 4 crore water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission with state governments to stay vigilant about the quality of the pipelines and water that is proposed to be provided under the mission.

With great awareness, comes great resolution, which then paves way for betterment and development. This is well reflected in the new measures and initiatives which are seeds of New India, where even rural areas stand strong and empowered.

Museums for Democratic Musings

In the context of modern democracy, the adage “history repeats itself” is a crucial one for every person to understand and avoid mistakes of the past. One need not repeat the mistakes of the past to learn a lesson, just knowing and studying them can do the trick. This is where monuments and museums play a crucial role. India is a torch bearer for modern times, and given its rich heritage, ancient and modern history, it’s story is crucial for a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous future of the planet. For context, France became part of the EU more or less from an Empire status, and the USA, though an old state, became a true democracy only around 60 years back. As Indian democracy is celebrating ‘azaadi ka amrit mahotsav’, every citizen needs to do something towards preserving, protecting and upholding democratic values. First and foremost of these is to differentiate between ‘what is entertainment’ and ‘what is reality’ – where monuments and museums play a key role.

To a land that saw over 9 million manually-written sacred manuscripts burnt to the ground as the Nalanda University library was set ablaze for three painful long months, every article of inheritance that can preserve even a bit of India’s lost history matters.

On lines of the commitment between India and US to “combat theft, illicit trade, and trafficking of cultural objects”, US President Joe Biden returned 248 Indian antiquities to India, 157 of which were brought back to Indian soil by PM Modi (following his visit to US in September 2021). Earlier, in March 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism had conveyed taht the Archaeological Survey of India had retrieved as many as 36 antiquities from foreign countries over the last five years. As for vigrahas of Gods and Godessess alone, since 1976, 55 vigrahas have been returned to India, 42 of which, including that of Goddess Annapurna, have been acquired back in the last 7 years.

Along with these retrieval efforts and upgrading existing museums, focus has also been on constructing new museums with engaging exhibits and content, leveraging modern technologies such as digital, augmented reality and virtual reality. From museums based on food security (Food Security Museum at Thanjavur) to museums featuring the Indian railways, there are over 1000s of them in the country. Museums in India have also gone digital, to not only remain relevant during the pandemic but to also use technology to its advantage. As of July 2021, more than 2.8 lakh artifacts of ten government museums and galleries under the Ministry of Culture were available online. Culture Ministry’s ‘Museum Grant Scheme’ provides financial assistance to State governments, societies, autonomous bodies, local bodies, and Trusts registered under the Societies Act for the digitization of art objects in the museums across the country for making their images/catalog available over the website for online access.

In January 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a set of 4 museums at Red Fort, one of which is dedicated to Netaji and the INA, known as Kranti Mandir. The complex includes Yaad-e-Jallian Museum on Jallianwala Bagh and World War 1, a Museum on 1857- India’s First War of Independence, and Drishyakala- a Museum on Indian Art which has 4 historical exhibitions, spanning three centuries, with over 450 works of art. Similarly, the newly built museum of Prime Ministers at Teen Murti Estate is ready now, and these efforts are important to engage every Indian towards a vibrant democracy.