National
22nd Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2023
⇒ National School of Drama (NSD) organized the 22nd edition of the Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM), 2023 from 14th to 26th February, 2023.
Venue:
The prestigious international theatre festival was held in Delhi, Jaipur, Rajahmundry, Ranchi, Guwahati, Jammu, Srinagar, Bhopal, Nashik and Kevadia. The closing ceremony was in Kevadia on the 26th of February.
Aim:
The Bharat Rang Mahotsav aims to strengthen international tie-ups and cultural exchange programmes with other Nations. It builds a platform to explore more about the theatre traditions across the country.
Event:
- The 22nd Bharat Rang Mahotsav embraced an exuberant display of plays and cultural performances, multiple thematic panel discussions of global and strategic importance of theatre in global perspective.
- Not just artists, but also the noted directors attended the grand festival.
About Bharat Rang Mahotsav:
» The National School of Drama is one of the best Theatre institutes in the world, and the only one of its kind in India and Asia, which has played a major role in Theatre training as well as in the Indian Theatre movement. The National School of Drama is India’s premier theatre training institute funded by Govt Of India.
- An important part of this Theatre movement is ‘Bharat Rang Mahotsav’, which is today considered as one of the biggest Theatre festivals in the world, in which there is a holistic confluence of Indian as well as global Theatre cultures.
- Theatre is the oldest and most effective form of art traditions for communicating the human emotions in a way that transcends from older times to the present era.
» Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM) (भारत रंग महोत्सव) or the National Theatre Festival, started in 1999, is the annual theatre festival organized by National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi.
- Bharat Rang Manch was started to stimulate the growth and development of theatre across the country. Originally a national festival showcasing the work of the most creative theatre workers in India, it has evolved to international scope, hosting theatre companies from around the world, and is now the largest theatre festival of Asia.
- Bharat Rang Mahotsav was being organized regularly from 1999 to 2020, but due to the Corona epidemic in 2020, it could not be duly organized in 2021 and 2022.
- The National School of Drama had last organized Bharat Rang Mahotsav in July 2022 under the “Azadi Segment” of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, to commemorate and pay its tribute to the martyrs of our motherland.
- As part of the 22nd Bharat Rang Mahotsav, 2022 (Azadi Segment), 30 plays were showcased in Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Bengaluru and Mumbai from 16th July to 14th August, 2022.
International
Indian musician Ricky Kej wins Grammy award
⇒ Indian music composer and producer Ricky Kej won his career’s third Grammy award in February 2023.
His ‘Divine Tides’ album, which was nominated in the Best Immersive Audio Album category. This song was Kej’s collaborative project with rock-legend and Police drummer Stewart Copeland.
Best Immersive Audio Album: “Divine Tides”
- Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineer; Stewart Copeland, Ricky Kej and Herbert Waltl, immersive producers (Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej)
About Kej:
- Only the fourth Indian to ever win a Grammy award, he is also the country’s youngest awardee.
- Prior to this, Kej had won another Grammy for Best New Age Album in 2022. The composer also won for his 2015 album, ‘Winds of Samsara.’
- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, appointed the Indian multi-Grammy Award-winning music composer, humanitarian and environmentalist Ricky Kej national Goodwill Ambassador on 06 December 2022.
- Kej was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador of UNHCR to help create awareness, understanding and compassion for the situation of refugees in India and globally.
About 65th Annual Grammy Awards 2023:
» The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was a music awards ceremony held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, USA on February 5, 2023.
Important 65th Annual Grammy Awards Winners: General field
- Record of the Year: “About Damn Time” – Lizzo
- Album of the Year: Harry’s House – Harry Styles
- Song of the Year: “Just Like That” (Bonnie Raitt, songwriter (Raitt))
- Best New Artist: Samara Joy
UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador
⇒ UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced on 10 May 2023 the appointment of renowned Saudi actress, singer and public figure, Aseel Omran, as UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador, becoming the first Saudi to take on this role.
About Omran:
- Omran has been working closely with UNHCR since 2018, and she was appointed as a UNHCR high profile supporter in 2020.
- She has been backing UNHCR’s efforts in responding to several displacement emergencies, in addition to supporting fundraising and advocacy campaigns in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
3rd Energy Transitions Working Group Meeting (ETWG)
⇒ The 3rd Energy Transitions Working Group Meeting (ETWG) under India’s G20 Presidency was held in Mumbai from May 15 – 17, 2023.
There are six priority areas of ETWG meeting outlined under India’s G20 Presidency. These priority areas reflect India’s focus on various aspects of energy transition and building global cooperation towards sustainable and clean energy development.
The six priority areas are:
- Energy transition through addressing technology gaps
- Low-cost financing for energy transition
- Energy security and diversified supply chains
- Energy efficiency, industrial low carbon transitions and responsible consumption
- Fuels for Future (3F)
- Universal access to clean energy and just, affordable, and inclusive energy transition pathway
Participation:
The three-day meeting witnessed the participation of over 100 delegates from G20 member countries, special invitee countries and International Organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
Day 1:
» The 3rd ETWG Meeting was chaired by Shri Alok Kumar, Secretary of the Ministry of Power, India and ETWG Chair, Shri Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Shri Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary of the Ministry of Mines.
» The key highlight of the 3rd ETWG meeting was the detailed discussions on the draft Ministerial Communique.
» On the side-lines, the Meeting was complemented by three side events. The side events witnessed the participation of various stakeholders – policymakers, multilateral organisations, financial institutions, business organizations and subject experts.
On the first day, the side events included:
- Workshop with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) with the aim of mobilizing low-cost international finance – The discussions focused on ensuring providing access to finance to countries that would enable the scale-up and implementation of critical and emerging technologies such as battery storage, green hydrogen, offshore wind, Bioenergy, and Carbon Capture Utilisation.
- Seminar on Just Transition Roadmap – The Seminar deliberated upon challenges faced in Just Transition in the coal sector, primarily in coal-dependent economies. The discussions covered lessons learnt from various countries in different aspects, namely, Institutional Governance, Repurposing land and infrastructural assets, enabling sharing of knowledge of successful initiatives taken worldwide and also for facilitating technological and financial assistance through collaborations.
- Seminar on Biofuels – The Seminar focused on ways to accelerate the development and deployment of biofuels, including new technologies through strengthening the alliance on collaboration and advancements in biofuel including creating a Global Biofuel Alliance.
Day 2:
On the second day, key discussions were lined up on the side-lines to further enrich dialogue and provide focused insights on various aspects of the energy transition.
- Seminar on Off-shore Wind – The event titled “Harnessing Offshore Wind for accelerating energy transition: The Way Forward” provided a platform to aggregate knowledge and best practices for boosting progress on offshore wind in India and globally.
- Sharing global policies and best practices to decarbonize ‘Hard to Abate sectors’ – The objective of this side event was to understand the challenging aspects of industry transition. It examined various issues such as policy alignment and formulation, technology collaboration, finance mobilization, capacity and skills development, and related aspects of industrial decarbonisation.
- Seminar on SMRs (Small Module Reactors) for Clean Energy Transition – This Seminar brought together various stakeholders – industry, policymakers, public sector enterprises, private sector companies, regulatory bodies, and international agencies to deliberate upon the key issues with respect to SMRs development and deployment.
- Synergizing the Energy Transition Pathways of G20 ETWG and B20, India Industry perspective – This was aimed to exchange high-level commitments through the G20 and business actions from forums like the B20. The session elaborated on this key priority from an industry perspective. This event was organised in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), as the designated Secretariat for B20 India.
Day 3:
On the third day of the 3rd ETWG meeting, a side event was organised on Accelerating Energy Efficiency and promoting an energy-efficient life.
- The event brought together Mission Efficiency partners, leading energy efficiency stakeholders, and country representatives to increase focus and provide momentum for ambitious actions on energy efficiency, including through G20 processes, and showcased India’s leadership in promoting energy-efficient behaviours and lifestyles through the LiFE Campaign (Lifestyle for the Environment).
» Delegates also discussed and made progress on the draft Ministerial Communiqué and high-level deliverables.
» The discussions and progress on the same will be taken forward in the 4th Energy Transitions Working Group Meeting, scheduled to take place in Goa from July 19-20, 2023.