ASSAM

Expert sheds light on pre-historic cultural links of NE India

North East India was not an isolated and remote area for the rest of the world. It was culturally connected to different neighbouring regions of the Asian landmass. Prehistoric Hoabinhian and Hoabinhian-like artefacts found in different sites of North East India suggest cultural connections across the Himalayas and East/Southeast Asia.

Similarly, the Stone Age industry, based on fossilised wood as raw material for making artefacts across Bangladesh, North East India and Myanmar, also indicate early movement of people and cultural relations.

Archaeological, inscriptional and numismatic evidence attests to the emergence of different principalities or smaller kingdoms in the Brahmaputra Valley and the Brahmaputra tributaries since about the 4th – 5th century AD. Some of these river valleys are Dhansiri-Doiyang Valley, Kapili-Jamuna Valley, Kalang Valley and other areas like Tezpur, Guwahati, Goalpara etc.

There are many trade routes linking rivers and hills across the region and its neighbouring areas. These include the Assam-Burma route to China linking the Mauryan capital Pataliputra with Southern China through the Brahmaputra Valley and the Bhamo area of North Burma (now North Myanmar), Indian Ocean trade network extending overland to Yunnan through the Assam Valley at the beginning of the Common Era, the overland trade via North East India and Burma, among others.

Archaeological data from the Dhansiri-Doiyang and Kopili-Jamuna valleys support existence of such an overland trade network, emphasising that these two river valleys linked the sites at Sekta and Ambari. The archaeological importance of sites like Ambari in Guwahati and Sekta in Manipur lies here.

The glass beads in the burials at Sekta indicate trade links with mainland India as well as South East Asia. Hsuan-tsang (c. 602–664), the well-known Chinese pilgrim to India, who reached Kamarupa in 638 AD, recorded profuse use of glass beads in Assam.

The Nagas traditionally wear ornaments of marine origin like conch shells and cowries, Indo-Pacific glass beads traded by sea from the southeast Indian coast and carnelian beads from western India

INTERNATIONAL

India, Japan to hold joint military exercise ‘Dharma-Guardian’ 2019

A joint military exercise Dharma-Guardian 2019 will be conducted between India and Japan at the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, Vairengte in Mizoram from October 19 to November 2.

The Indian Army and the Japanese Ground Self Defence Forces (JGSDF), comprising 25 soldiers each, will participate in the exercise.

The exercise is an annual training event which is being conducted in India since 2018.

NASA launches a satellite to explore where air meets space

NASA launched a satellite to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.

The satellite called ‘Icon’, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer- rocketed into orbit following a two-year delay.

It was dropped from a plane flying over the Atlantic off the Florida coast.

A NASA satellite launched last year, Gold, is also studying the upper atmosphere, but from much higher up.

NATIONAL

· Centre to launch Vigyan Jyoti

Centre is to launch Vigyan Jyoti, a program to help girl students inculcate interest in areas like Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
The move comes after the assessment that a meager percentage of women are in the STEM area. Department of Science and Technology (DST) data said that females comprised 24% of the total pas-out students in STEM subjects in engineering, 22% at the postgraduate level, 28% at M.Phil, and 35% at the Ph.D. level.

Vigyan Jyoti initiative aims to stir up interest among the Indian girl students to get into the STEM educational areas. Vigyan Jyoti program aims to pick out 100 girl studentsin 550 districts from2020-2025.

Under the program science, camps for the girl students will be held nearby IITs, NITs, and national laboratories.

The program will cover girl students from9 to 12 grade.

Under the program, the students will interact with top women leaders in the area of science and technology, corporate world, universities, and top institute like the DRDO.

· Centre to fund Rs.25 lakh crore for infrastructural development

Centre has announced 25 lakh croreforinfrastructural development in the villages across the country. It was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13 October. The move aims to strengthen rural infrastructure. The fund will be used to construct modern storage centres for crops also.

The fund comes with a broadervision for farmers.Centre has been taking steps to solve the problems of farmers permanently.

Among the allocated Rs.25 lakh crore, Rs.3.5 lakh crore will be used forwater conservation and building facilities for water conservation.

The government is also carrying work byconstructing roads of the village.
klavya Model School is to be introduced by the government to enhance the education and skills of tribal children.

· NITI Aayog plans to attract 2 lakh foreign students

The policy think tank of the Indian governmentNITI Aayog has decided to create Exclusive Education Zone (EEZ), an action plan to make India an education hub to attract 2 lakh foreign students annually from 2023.

The proposal aims to increase the growth in theinflow of foreign students. It has also proposed to float the idea of a single authority to deal with the issue. NITI Aayog also proposed the idea to allow foreign universities to set up their campuses in India.

EEZwill be implemented in a few select cities, includingBengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh, and Sikkim, apart from blending technical education with short-term vocational courses.
NITI Aayog reported that foreign students’ inflow declined to78% annual growth in 2017-18 against 2% in 2007-08.

Govt launches SUMAN initiative

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan along with several State Health Ministers launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan, SUMAN, initiative in New Delhi.

The initiative was launched during the 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare.

The initiative aims at ensuring dignified, respectful and quality health care at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facility in order to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

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