Art & Culture Current Affairs MCQs

Notes:
India and Portugal recently signed an MoU to develop a world-class National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal in Gujarat. The MoU has been signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during his visit to India.
The complex would showcase rich Indian artefacts and create awareness among the public about the rich heritage of the country. The two countries also signed as many as 14 agreements in several fields including maritime transport and ports.

Notes:
Kambala is a traditional sport of Karnataka, in which the people of coastal districts of the state conduct a buffalo-race.
It was in news recently as one of the local contestants from Dakshina Kannada district named Srinivas Gowda covered 142.5 m Kambala in just 13.62 seconds. The Sports Authority of India recently announced that it will devise a suitable course for the runner. He is called for trials by the Sports Ministry.

Notes:
Six languages in India namely Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia have been given the status of classical language.
Recently, both houses of the Maharashtra legislature unanimously passed resolutions, requesting the Centre to provide ‘Classical language’ status to Marathi. Languages declared as classical have benefits like setting up centres for their study and provide international awards for their scholars.

Notes:
Lakhs of women gathered in the Thiruvananthapuram city of Kerala to perform the annual Attukal Pongala festival at Attukal Devi temple. This cultural festival is participated by only women.
Amid fear of coronavirus outbreak after six positive cases in the state, many devotees participated in the festival. It is reported that more than 2.6 million people participated in the festival. The temple which is also called Sabarimala of women, had made the Guinness World Record for the largest annual gathering of women in a single function.

Notes:
The traditional festival called ‘Fagli’ has been recently celebrated in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The annual festival is being celebrated for several years to observe the “victory of good over evil”. This festival is also celebrated to mark the end of winter or the beginning of spring.
The people of the state were dressed in traditional attire with masks on their faces and followed the traditional celebrations associated with the festival. This festival will continue for the next few days in the district.

Notes:
The birth anniversary of Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya is celebrated as ‘Bhanu Jayanti’, in the state of Sikkim.
The poet is revered in Nepali Literature as ‘Adikavi’ and he is said to have laid the foundation of the Nepali literature. He had also translated several religious scripts from Sanskrit to Nepali. The Governor Ganga Prasad and Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang participated in the commemorative event.

Notes:
The Union Culture Ministry has announced the formation of seven new circles of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
This has been announced following the Prime Minister’s call to preserve and register archaeological monuments. The new circles are – Trichy (Tamil Nadu), Raiganj (West Bengal), Rajkot (Gujarat), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) and Hampi (Karnataka). Earlier there were 29 circles of ASI in India.

Notes:
Onam is the most important festival celebrated in the state of Kerala. It is also called as “Thiruvonam” and is celebrated at the beginning of the month Chingam of Malayalam calendar.
One important aspect of the celebration is “Onapookolam” which is a floral carpet similar to rangoli that is decorated with flowers and petals. The celebrations also include “Vallamkali” (boat race) and “Onasadaya” (banquet).

Notes:
The “Garba” is a form of folk dance of Gujarat. It is performed during the 9-day celebration of the Navratri festival, in the worship of Goddess Shakti / Durga.
Recently, the Government of Gujarat has disallowed performance of the Garba dance during this year’s Navratri festival, as a part of Covid management in the state.

Notes:
Union Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel has recently launched the “Life in Miniature” project, which is a collaboration between the National Museum, Delhi, and Google Arts & Culture.
The miniature paintings from the National Museum’s collections can be seen through the Google Arts & Culture application. The project uses technologies such as machine learning, augmented reality and digitisation with high-definition robotic cameras.