DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

06.02.2025

• News 1:  Gyan Bharatam Mission

GS-2 Polity and Governance

About The News:                                                 

• The Union Budget 2025-26 announced the Gyan Bharatam Mission, under which one crore manuscripts will be conserved and documented.

Key points for prelims

Gyan Bharatam Mission:

• It is a special mission for the survey, documentation, and conservation of India’s manuscript heritage lying with academic institutions, museums, libraries, and private collectors.
• It intends to cover more than one crore manuscripts.
• A key component of the Gyan Bharatam Mission is the national digital repository of the Indian knowledge system.
• It will serve as a platform for knowledge sharing.
• This storehouse will help in digitising and centralising India’s traditional knowledge.
• It will be accessible to researchers, students, and institutions worldwide.

What is a Manuscript?

• A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf, or any other material dating back at least seventy-five years that has significant scientific, historical, or aesthetic value.
• Lithographs and printed volumes are not manuscripts.
• Manuscripts are found in hundreds of different languages and scripts.
• Often, one language is written in a number of different scripts.
• For example, Sanskrit is written in Oriya script, Grantha script, Devanagari script, and many other scripts.
• Manuscripts are distinct from historical records such as epigraphs on rocks, and revenue records, which provide direct information on events or processes in history.
• Manuscripts have knowledge content.
• NEWS 2: Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)
  
  
  

GS-02 Education

About The News:

• Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement to set up 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) in govt schools over the next five years means all UP schools will be saturated with ATLs.

Key points for prelims:

Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs):

• Launched in: 2016.
• Umbrella scheme: Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).
• Nodal Ministry: NITI Aayog.
• Vision: Cultivate one million children in India as Neoteric Innovators.
• ATL – It provides activity-based learning in the identified schools across the country where young minds can give shape to their ideas for societal problems.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM):

• AIM is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog in 2016 with an objective to create and encourage an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship across schools, educational organisations, research institutes, and industries, including MSMEs.

AIM has two functions:

• Promote entrepreneurship by encouraging innovators to become entrepreneurs through financial support as well as mentorship.
• Promote innovation by creating a platform where ideas are generated through like-minded individuals.

AIM has created four programs to support these functions:

1. Atal Tinkering Labs

2. Atal Incubation Centres

3. Atal New India Challenges and Atal Grand Challenges

4. Mentor India

• Apart from these programs, AIM also seeks and collaborates with academia, industries, NGOs, and individuals to enable an atmosphere of innovation.
• All the initiatives of AIM are currently monitored and managed systematically using real-time MIS systems and dynamic dashboards.

GS-01 Art and Culture

About the news:

• Recently, the Union Home Ministry has directed State governments to prevent unauthorized and improper use of the State Emblem of India

Key points for prelims:  

State Emblem:

• The State Emblem of India is the national emblem of the Republic of India and is used by the union government, many state governments, and other government agencies.

History:

• The State emblem is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh).
• In the original, there are four lions, standing back to back, mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening wheels over a bell-shaped lotus.
• Carved out of a single block of polished sandstone, the capital is crowned by the Wheel of the Law (Dharma Chakra).
• Emblem Adopted:
• In the State emblem, adopted by the Government of India on 26th January 1950, only three lions are visible, the fourth being hidden from view.
• The wheel appears in relief in the centre of the abacus with a bull on right and a horse on left and the outlines of other wheels on extreme right and left.
• The bell-shaped lotus has been omitted.
• Salient features:
• The State emblem of India is the official seal of the Government of India.
• Four animals are shown representing four directions.
• A Galloping Horse: West – The Horse represents the horse Kanthaka, which Buddha is said to have used for leaving his princely life.
• An Elephant: East – The Elephant depicts the dream of Queen Maya, where a white elephant enters her womb.
• A Bull: South – The Bull depicts the Zodiac sign of Taurus, the month in which Budhha was born.
• A Lion: North – The Lion shows the attainment of enlightenment.
• The words Satyameva Jayate from Mundaka Upanishad, meaning ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’, are inscribed below the abacus in Devanagari Script.
• The Capital is crowned by the Wheel of the Law (Dharma Chakra)
• The four Lions symbolise Buddha spreading Dharma in all directions.
• It was built in the commemoration of the first sermon by Buddha known as Dharmachakrapravartna.
• Mains Questions:
• The Union Budget 2025-26 introduced the Gyan Bharatam Mission to conserve and document India’s manuscript heritage. Discuss the significance of this initiative in preserving India’s cultural legacy. How can technology play a role in enhancing accessibility to these manuscripts