Current Affairs - Tamil Nadu

• The Kazhuveli wetland located near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu has been declared a bird sanctuary by the Environment, Climate Change and Forest Department, and will henceforth be called the ‘Kazhuveli Birds Sanctuary’.
• Kazhuveli is the second largest brackish water lake in South India located in Tindivanam taluk of Villupuram district of the state of Tamil Nadu.
• The sanctuary lies adjacent to the Bay of Bengal along the east coast.

On 18^th November 2021, the Government of Tamil Nadu designated ‘Silambam’ as one of the games to be included for the 3% sports quota recruitment in government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs).

About Silambam

• It's an ancient weapon-based martial art.
• The Tamil Sangam literature has the early records of Silambam.
• Silambam is a popular variant of martial arts which is performed with the aid of some specific weapons, primarily with bamboo sticks.
• It is widely performed in the regions of Tamil Nadu (India) which is also the birthplace of the game, where it emerged in around 1000 years BCE.
• The word Silambam etymologically means "staff from the hills" with the word meaning of "Silam" being "hills" and "Kambu" being "staff or sticks".
• The game is usually played on an even hard surface where the players use a bamboo stick with its length equivalent to their heights.
• Overall, there are 16 forms of footwork present in this martial art.

Initiatives to promote Silambam

State

• Recognised as a State Sports: The Government of Tamil Nadu had recognised it as one of the State sports.
• Quota in Admission to Professional Courses: Silambam was also included as one of the sports disciplines for consideration under sports quota for admission into professional courses like medical, engineering, law etc.
• Courses in PET Course: Postgraduate diploma, diploma and certificate courses in Silambam have been included in the curriculum of the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University.
• Inclusion in state-level School Games: It was included as one of the sports disciplines in State-level school games and has been recognised by the School Games Federation of India as one of its competitions.

Central Govt.

• Inclusion in Khelo India Scheme: The Government of India has also approved the inclusion of Silambam under the component of ‘Promotion of Inclusiveness through Sports’ of the New Khelo India Scheme.

• Thanjavur, which is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu, will now be showing the agricultural history of India with the first food museum of India has been established here.
• The food museum has been co-developed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museums, Bengaluru.
• Thanjavur is the birthplace of FCI where its first office was inaugurated on January 14, 1965.
• The museum showcases the evolution of man from the nomadic hunter groups into the settled agriculture procedures leading to the beginning of civilization. It also displays various ancient grain storage methods, both global and indigenous, challenges in storage, food grain production scenarios across the world as well as in India.
• The museum also digitally display informative content about the journey of FCI, its present operations and the journey of the food grains from farm to plate through FCI.

(Image Source: Telangana Today)

The Tamil Nadu government has decided to constitute an Economic Advisory Council to the Chief Minister, comprising leading experts, including Nobel laureate Esther Duflo, to chalk out a path for rapid and inclusive economic growth in the State that is facing in the midst of a serious economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Noted Members of the Council

• Nobel laureate Esther Duflo (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Raghuram Rajan ( Former Reserve Bank of India Governor)
• Arvind Subramanian (Former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India)
• Jean Drèze (Development Economist)
• S. Narayan (former Union Finance Secretary)

• The Govt. of Tamil Nadu has formed a Commission to go into the modalities on the gathering of quantifiable data for a caste census, based on the present circumstances, and file a report.
• The Commission will be headed by former High Court judge A Kulasekaran.
• Several political parties and social organisations had been demanding at various points of time for a caste-wise census and such a statistics was required to ensure that the government schemes reached all sections of society.
• The caste-wise quantifiable data was also needed to argue the cases pending in the Supreme Court relating to the 69 per cent reservation followed in the State.