The United Nations World Tourism Organisation has honoured Gujarat’s Dhordo as the ‘best tourism village.’ Located in the Great Rann of Kutch, Dhordo is well-known for hosting the annual Rann Utsav, a vibrant cultural festival that showcases the traditional art, music and crafts of the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared pictures of his visits to the village in 2009 and 2015 in his congratulatory message on the achievement on X. “Absolutely thrilled” at the development, PM Modi wished a bright future for Dhordo and said that the honour not only showcases the potential of
India's Chief Justice, Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, has received the prestigious Award for Global Leadership from Harvard Law School, adding a remarkable feather to his illustrious cap. This award recognizes his exceptional contributions to law and his unwavering commitment to upholding justice. Justice Chandrachud, an alumnus of Harvard Law School, has made significant impacts in the legal arena, championing human rights, and fostering judicial accountability. His groundbreaking judgments and progressive legal interpretations have redefined the Indian judiciary’s role, solidifying his
Researchers have developed a method that could one day be used to build roads on the moon. Their experiment involved melting lunar soil with focused sunlight to turn it into a more solid substance. The approach, based on proof-of-concept experiments involving lasers and a substance resembling Moon dust and outlined in Scientific Reports on October 12, could be used to build other infrastructure such as landing pads. Engineer Juan-Carlos Ginés-Palomares and his colleagues, based at the Technical University of Berlin, conducted experiments that involved manufacturing tiles by heating and me
On October 16, Madame Tussauds Singapore unveiled a lifelike wax figure of cricket superstar Virat Kohli. Dressed in his official Indian cricket kit, generously donated by the sportsman himself, the figure is showcased in the Sports Zone, alongside figures of legends such as Ronaldo, Yao Ming, and fellow cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary batsmen in international cricket, Kohli is known for his exceptional batting skills, masterful leadership, and fiery on-field personality. He made his debut for the Indian cricket team in 2008 and has since bee
Ferrari has begun to accept payment in cryptocurrency for its luxury sports cars in the US, and will extend the scheme to Europe after receiving requests from its wealthy customers. Many leading corporations have avoided crypto due to the unpredictable nature of Bitcoin and similar tokens, making them unsuitable for business transactions. Inconsistent regulations and significant energy consumption further hinder crypto’s adoption as a payment method. Although Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, started accepting Bitcoin in 2021, it later suspended this option because of environment
Actors Allu Arjun, Alia Bhatt, and Kriti Sanon, and the teams of the films RRR, Sardar Udham, Gangubai Kathiawadi and The Kashmir Files received theirNational Film AwardsfromPresident Droupadi Murmu atthe 69th National Film Awards ceremony in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan on October 17. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest film honour, went to legendary actress Waheeda Rehman. The winners of the National Awards for the year 2021, announced in August, include Rocketry: The Nambi Effect won Best Feature Film. Alia Bhatt received the Best Actress award for her performance in and as
Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Union Ministry of Education has come up with a plan to create unique ID numbers for school students across India. The ‘One Nation One Student ID’ called Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) will be for every student, from pre-primary to higher education. This is in addition to the 12-digit Aadhaar ID that every student has. The APAAR ID, an Education Ecosystem Registry or edulocker, is to be treated as a lifelong ID number and will track students’ academic journey and achievements. The Union Ministry has directed
A family’s quest to find a missing gold earring in Norway led its members to well-preserved artifacts from the Viking era in their garden, piquing the interest of the Cultural Heritage of Vestfold and Telemark County Council and shedding new light on the history of Jomfruland, Norway. The Aasvik Family in Jomfruland stumbled upon relics dating back more than 1,000 years when they activated their metal detector. Settlements have existed on Jomfruland for many years. It is believed that the island was inhabited during the Viking era, but evidence previously extended only to the early Middl
To own a car in Singapore, a buyer must bid for a certificate that now costs $106,000, as a post-pandemic recovery has driven up the cost of its vehicle quota system to record highs. The city-state has a 10-year “certificate of entitlement” (COE) system. Introduced in 1990, the COE controls the number of vehicles in the country, which is home to 5.9 million people and can be covered by road in less than an hour. The quota, offered through a bidding process, has made it the most expensive city in the world to buy a car, with the COE more than quadrupling from 2020 prices for a large
Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman (Medicine); Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier (Physics); Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov (Chemistry); Jon Fosse (Literature); and Claudia Goldin (Economics) are the winners of Nobel Prize for 2023. The US-based duo of Hungarian-born Kariko and American Weissman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology on October 2 for research that led directly to the first mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19. They began researching this in the late 1990s and published a key finding in 2005. Their research enabled the development of COVID-19 vaccines by