June 2022

Jyotirgamaya festival

• world music day
• Sangeet Natak Akademi;
  • 1953 - autonomous - Moc - apex body
  • chairman - appointed by president for five years
  • awards - highest nat recognition conferred to artists

National Monuments Authority

• under MoC
• ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains (amendment and validation) act, 2010

Gwalior fort

• originally built in 5th century bce in MP
• held by hunas, gurjara-pratiharas, kachchhapaghatas, tomars, lodis, mughals
• seized by mahmud ghazini for 4 days
• tomar ruler mann singh - commissioned monuments within
• akbar - used as prison
• 1780 - british captured
• 1844 - scindias took control
• 1857 - revolt
• 1886 - handed to scindias

Red Fort

• By shah jahan in 1648
• qila - i - mubarak

Modhera sun temple

• built during Bhima I of Chalukya dynasty
• maru - gurjara style

Kangra fort

• in Himachal Pradesh
• under Ranjit Singh in early 19th century
• after anglo sikh war of 1846, british took over

July,2022

Ashadhi Bij

• auspicious day for the farming community in North India especially in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh
• 2nd day of shukla paksh of the ashadha month
• also known as Kutch new year - beginning of rain in this region

Mahuli group of temples - Dakshin Kashi

• 5 temples - 11th and 12th CE
• Hemadpanthi style of architecture - Hemadpant, minister in Yadava empire
• Mahuli - situated in the confluence of R. Krishna and Venna
• famously known as Dakshin kashi in Maharashtra

October 2024

Central library cupboard of Allahabad University was opened

• The cupboard holding important archaeological items in the central library of Allahabad University was opened.

• This was done in front of a high-level committee set up by the university's Vice Chancellor, and they made a list of the items inside.

• The cupboard contained three types of heritage: first, coins made of different metals from various rulers found during excavations; second, a royal decree written in Persian; and third, the Vinaya Pitaka in Pali, which is written on a copper plate.

• These items will be displayed in the Allahabad University museum and will be available for researchers to study.

Reclining Buddha

• A reclining Buddha is an image that represents Buddha lying down and is a major iconographic theme in Buddhist art.

• It represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the parinirvana.

• He is lying on his right side, his head resting on a cushion or relying on his right elbow, supporting his head with his hand.

• Cave No. 26 of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ajanta contains a 24-foot-long and nine-foot-tall sculpture of the Reclining Buddha, believed to have been carved in the 5th century AD.

  

Museums - a new trend

Many sites don't have a museum

• Many Harappan sites such as Rakhigarhi in Haryana’s Hisar district, Bhirrana and Banawali in Fatehabad district still don’t have a museum.

• An important Harappan site in Rajasthan, Kalibangan,in Hanumangarh district—which was excavated in 1960’s for multiple field seasons—had a store room. Now it has been turned into a museum.

Concerns:

• location
• poor infrastructure
• limited staff or understaffed
• minimal upgrades
• Ex: Lothal and Dholavira, Guj

International council of museums

"this year agenda -

• build resilient infrastructure
• promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation
• foster innovation in the museum sector"
  
  Print

February 2026

Netflix, Warner Bros., and Paramount deal

Netflix's $83 billion deal in December 2025

Netflix reached an $83 billion deal in December to acquire a large portion of Warner Bros. Discovery's business, including the HBO and Warner Bros. movie studios. The acquisition was voiced to cement Netflix, once a striving outsider to the film and entertainment business, as the pre-eminent juggernaut of Hollywood.

Paramount Skydance in the bidding

Ellison bought Paramount amid contravercy

David Ellison's studio Skydance acquired Paramount last year in a deal that also created intrigue. The Trump administration approved the sale after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the president against the 60 Minutes, the flagship news program of the Paramount broadcaster CBS.

Backed by Oracle founder

Mr. Ellison's company, Paramount Skydance, whose bid is backed financially by his father Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle, submitted a revised offer of $111 billion, which Warner declared a superior deal, giving Netflix 4 business days to decide if it would counter.

Shares of Warner Bros. raised to $31 dollars

Mr. Ellison's deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, which values the company at $31 a share, is an outcome few would have predicted just a month ago. Shares of the media giant were trading as low as $12 a share in September.

Closeness to Trump

The offer comes under scrutiny, particularly in political circles, because of the closeness of Larry and David Ellison to President Trump. Larry and David Ellison both spent time with Mr. Trump in recent months, and David Ellison attended the Tuesday State of the Union address.

Sarandos meeting Trump

Mr. Sarandos of Netflix quietly met with the Trump in the Oval Office in November. On Thursday, Mr. Sarandos was in Washington to discuss the transaction with the top administration and justice department officials, including Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, and Omeed Assefi, the acting head of justice department's antitrust division.

Trump encouraging to fire Netflix board member

Mr. Trump publicly encouraged Netflix to fire a board member, Susan Rice, who served as the former President Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations and a national security advisor.

Questions in the journalism industry

The prospect that CNN and the 24-hour news network of Warner Bros. may not come under Mr. Ellis' control has raised questions in the journalism industry about what kind of changes Paramount must bring to the cable channel.

Netflix rejects the deal

• This transaction was always a nice-to-have at the right price, not a must-have at any price, the Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in the statement.
• Netflix shareholders have questioned the company's move to buy a legacy movie business as the company had lost more than $60 billion in market value since announcing the deal with Warner Bros.

Approval from regulators in US and Europe

• Any purchase of the Warner Bros. Discovery needs approval from regulators in the United States and Europe, including the Justice Department's antitrust division.
• In an event when Paramount is unable to secure the proper regulatory approvals, Netflix could potentially revive its interest as a buyer. NYT

March 2026

Iranians celebrate ancient Nowruz despite repression and war

US - Israel - Iran war, February 2026

• Meaning first day of new year in farsi language and the first day of spring.
• Celebrated by Kurds in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq
• Celebrating what came before Islam has always been about defiance and resistance.
• Nowruz is not just a celebration; it is a reflection of who we are, places us above religion, ethnicity, and borders, connecting hearts across generations.
• In the days leading up to Nowruz, fire was blown across the backyard for Chaharshanbe Suri, where people jump over flames.

Origins

• Celebrated for more than 3,000 years, Nowruz was represented throughout the Persian Empire.
• The origins are tied to the practices of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of the Persian world that predates Christianity and Islam.
• It is marked by people across faith, including Zoroastrians, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Baha'i faith.

Significance of Fire

• Fire is seen as a force of purification to remind the center of the way of casting off illness and misfortune before stepping into the spring.

• Fire is seen as a sacred symbol to purify all means of darkness. I give my sorrow and sadness, and it takes away everything dark within my soul.

Elements of Haft Seen table

Each element symbolizes renewal:

• Painted eggs - Fertility and New Beginnings
• Candles - Light and Happiness
• Mirror - Reflection and Clarity for the New Year
• Flowers - Spring Spirits and Nuts - Joy and Celebration
• Goldfish - Life and Movement

This year, people also added photographs of those killed in Iran as a symbol of tribute and remembrance.

Islamic regime's response

The Islamic regime had tried to erase the celebration. Even under surveillance crackdowns and warnings from the Iranian authorities not to gather in some places, the fires are lit anyway. Video circulating on social media captured three moments of song and fire spit despite the risk of arrest. ABC

Syrian Kurds come back first time since exile to celebrate Nowruz

• First time the government declared the celebration of Nowruz as a national holiday.

• Under the 50-year rule of the Assad dynasty in Syria, which ended with the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in December 2024, foods were marginalized and public celebration of Nowruz was banned.

Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the dominant Kurdish party in Iraq, brokered an SDF-Damascus deal that led to the return of the displaced.

The interim President of Syria, Ahmad Al-Shara, issued a decree strengthening Kurdish rights.

The decree made Kurdish an official language along with Arabic and adopted Nowruz as a national holiday. It restored citizenship of tens of thousands of Kurds in the north-eastern Hasakah province after they were stripped of it during the 1962 census.

An Afghan district in northern Syria was seized by Turkish forces and allied Syrian opposition fighters in 2018, following a Turkey-backed military operation that pushed the fighters of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Kurdish civilians from the area.

Turkey considers the SDF to be a terrorist organization because of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, a separatist group that staged decades of insurgency in Turkey.

June 2026