PIB Summary- 16th August, 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Vibrant Village Programme

Context
Information and Broadcasting & Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, hosted more than two hundred Sarpanches from Border Villages, under the Vibrant Villages Programme.

About Vibrant Village Programme

• The program’s goal is to enhance infrastructure in villages along India’s China border.
• In states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh, infrastructure will be enhanced.
• Residential and tourism centres will be built as part of the programme.
• It will also facilitate the development of decentralised renewable energy sources and increase road connectivity.
• Aside from that, there will be direct access to Doordarshan and educational channels. A source of income will be offered.

Focus areas

• It emphasises the generation of livelihoods, road connectivity, housing, rural infrastructure, renewable energy, television, and broadband connections.
• This goal will be achieved by improving infrastructure in villages near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Need of such scheme

• The programme is a rebuke to China’s model villages, but the term was picked with care to avoid causing a stir in the neighbouring country.
•  In recent years, China has created new communities along the LAC, mainly across the Arunachal Pradesh border.
• Villages on the Indian side of the border have undergone unprecedented out-migration while China has been placing new citizens in border areas.

Navroz

Context
Vice President has greeted the people on the eve of Parsi New Year, Navroz.

About Navroz

• Navroz is celebrated in India on 16th August but globally Navroz is celebrated on 21st March because of the Shahenshahi calendar that is followed by Parsis in India.
• It is a Parsi New Year festival celebrated to mark the beginning of the new Iranian calendar. In Persian, ‘Nav’ stands for new, and ‘Roz’ stands for the day, which literally translates to ‘new day’.
• The tradition is observed by Iranians and the Parsi community around the world.
• Navroj is inscribed in the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of India.
• Navroz is also known as Jamshed-i-Navroz after the Persian King, Jamshed, who is credited to have created the Persian Calendar known as the Shahenshahi Calendar.
• The time of the festival is decided in Iran and then it is passed on to the entire Zoroastrian population in the world.