Govt to give pen drives to poor kids

Pen drives will be provided to poor students of the Chamba district, so that they can download lectures and other course materials from the IT labs of nearby schools, said Deputy Commissioner Vivek Bhatia. Bhatia said a task force had been constituted for the purpose. The Education Department had been asked to prepare a list of poor students. He said the teachers in the task force would upload video lectures on YouTube. Apart from this, apps such as WebEx or Google Meet would also be used for video lectures. Bhatia said the video lectures would also include tips to read and understand the text. Students can also download the study material from the IT lab of the District Informatics Centre, he said.

Discussion on women rights at HPNLU

The Centre for Child and Woman Studies, Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla, organised a colloquium, ‘Quintessential of Securing Women’s Rights in the Changing World: Exploring the Judicial Approach’ on July 25. Prof Nishtha Jaswal, emphasising the quintessential quality of women to live with dignity, talked about the judicial approach towards protecting her rights, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Upneet Lalli and Prabha Rajiv discussed the social, psychological and legal impact of the pandemic and laid stress on the women’s right to safety and security. Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua spoke about the rights of women in various fields, while highlighting the landmark decisions of the Supreme Court taken at different intervals.

Efforts revive ‘Takri’ script

Efforts are being made to revive Takri script. It was in vogue in the northwestern Himalayas in the olden times, with the earliest inscriptions dating back to the 10th century. The script is dead today, said Sarang Sharma and Manuj Sharma, who are working on its revival. As ‘Chambiali’ was the lingua franca of Chamba, Takri is the script to record important documents, including royal decrees, court orders, land grants and inscriptions on temple walls. After the advent of painting tradition in Chamba in the first quarter of the 17th century, Takri, became the medium to record inscriptions on the paintings. As India entered the modern era, Devanagari became the standardised script in North India, and Takri became obsolete.

Documentary on Chamba released

A documentary ‘The Kingdom of Chamba’, Part-1B, written and produced by Dharam Malhotra, was released. This part of the documentary contains the history of the oldest script characters found in the erstwhile Chamba state, its numismatic history and the oldest sculptures and images relating to the history and establishment of the Brahampur kingdom, which was ruled by Raja Maru Varman (548-567 AD) and Raja Mushan Varman (814-833 AD).