3. 1st issue of July 2011. UK Regional Hindi Sammelan held in Birmingham. The
United Kingdom. Regional. Hindi. Conference-2011 was held at the Great Hall ...
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1st issue of July 2011
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UK Regional Hindi Sammelan held in Birmingham
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United Kingdom he Regional Hindi Conference-2011 was held at the Great Hall of Aston University from June 24-26. The Conference was organised by the High Commission of India, in association with the Consul-General of India, Birmingham; Gitanjali Multilingual Literary Circle of Gitanjali Trent; Choupal; HCA Wales; Sandwell Confederation of Indians; Sant Nirankari Mandal UK; Katha UK; Bharatiya Bhasha Sangam; National Council of Hindu Priests; Sanskrit UK; and DUT, Netherlands. The conference was inaugurated by the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, Nalin Surie. Other prominent guests present at the event were Deputy Mayor of Sandwell Cllr. Anne Shakilton; Lord Tarsem King; Baroness Sandeep Verma; Vice-Chancellor of Aston University Prof. Julia King; Consul-General C. Gururaj Rao; Harmohinder Singh Bhatia Upasak and DSP of Sandwell, Mr. Campbell. Welcoming the delegates, the High Commissioner said that he wished to give a new direction to the propagation of Hindi in Europe with the UK serving as the nodal point. He also called upon the youth to participate in the conference with an open mind and make positive contributions to the cause of Hindi. He said, “We have inherited an ancient Indian culture and Hindi has worked as a link to this rich heritage.” Surie also pointed out that Hindi being the mother tongue of nearly 420 million people cannot be overlooked as an important medium of communication. “We owe it to the coming generations that we pass on Indian values to them,” he concluded. Presenting the keynote address on the ‘Status and Prospects of Hindi’, Prof. Krishna Dutt Paliwal of Delhi
Clockwise from top left: High Commissioner Nalin Surie and Prof. Julia King, Vice-Chancellor, Aston University, lighting the inaugural lamp; High Commissioner Surie delivering the inaugural address at the Conference; Birmingham Consul-General C. Gururaj Rao, Arun Sabbarwal, Rakesh Kumar Deputy Secretary (Hindi) MEA, and Gowri Shankar, Deputy Director Nehru Centre, at the book launch during the U.K. Regional Hindi Conference 2011.
University, said, “Language is the cultural text and Hindi has been a language of mass movements.” In his address, spiritual leader Sant Shri Trilochandas called upon the audience to contribute to the propagation of Hindi. Minister (Coordination) in the High Commission of India, Asif Ibrahim, said the popularity of Hindi poetry, cinema and music could be used as an effective tool to motivate the youth to learn Hindi. Among other dignitaries and guests from the U.K. were Janardan Agrawal, Kadambari Mehra, Aishwarj Kumar, Jai Verma, Mahendra Verma, Fraciska Orcini, Usha Raje Saxena, Ved Mitra Mohla, Dr. Kavita Vachaknavi, Chitra Kumar, Vandana Mukesh Sharma and Shikha Varshney. They read their
research papers on various subjects during the conference. Prof. Mohan Kant Gautam from the Netherlands; Boris Jakharin and Ludmila Khokhlova from Russia; Archana Penuly from Denmark; Prof. Gennadi Shlomper from Israel; and Parmanand Panchal, Gagan Sharma, Rakesh B. Dubey, Dr. Gyan Singh Mann, Rakesh Pandey, Vartika Nanda from India too read their research papers on the occasion. Mahesh Bhardwaj, Onkareshwar Pandey and Ruhi Singh, among others, participated in the various panel discussions. Local youth representatives — Gurpreet Bhatia, Pratap Hirani, Nitesh Sharma, Nivedita, Mohammad and Ravi — took part in the discussions. Some books and compilations were also released during the conference. These included Hymns of Himalayas (English verse based on the epic of Ramayana) by Dr. Akhilesh Gumashta; Sameeksha, a magazine of Saamyik
Prakashan; a compilation of stories from western countries; a special issue of Pravaasi Sansaar; Marjani, a compilation of poems by Vartika Nanda; and Bantenge Chandrama, a collection of poems by Aruna Sabharwal. Presided over by the eminent poet, Keshari Nath Tripathi, a Kavi Sammelan was organised during the conference. Participants included India’s Dr. Farida and many other popular local poets. The cultural programme was inaugurated by Gauri Shanker, Deputy Director, Nehru Centre. Rakesh Sharma, Deputy Secretary (Hindi), Ministry of External Affairs, informed the audience about the various schemes, incentives and facilities offered by the Government of India to help propagate Hindi. Anand Kumar, Attache (Hindi & Culture), High Commission of India, played a significant role in the success of the event as the nodal officer for the conference that saw 18 resolutions being passed unanimously. The event concluded with a ‘Kalbelia’ dance — a folk dance form of Rajasthan — performed by Divya Sharma.
India seeks more global collaboration for N-safety
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ndia has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to enable national regulatory authorities and technical support organisations involved in nuclear safety research to freely exchange knowledge and build extensive collaborations. The IAEA must also facilitate access to utilities, without extraneous considerations, to the best nuclear safety technology and expertise that is available worldwide, India’s Atomic Energy Commission Chairman S. Banerjee said during an IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety at Vienna on June 20. “The IAEA should work towards fostering international cooperation in designing innovative reactors with inherent safety systems through the INPRO (International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles) programme and undertake an
S. Banerjee
immediate review of the safety standards in light of the lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi events (in Japan in March 2011),” Banerjee said. He reiterated that India would pursue its ongoing nuclear energy programme with due consideration for the safety, livelihood and security of its people as nuclear energy continues to
be an important element in the country’s energy basket to sustain economic growth. “India, firmly committed to its three-stage nuclear programme based on the closed fuel cycle, has planned a major expansion of nuclear energy in the coming decades, from the current level of 4,780 MW to a level of 20,000 MW by 2020 and a project growth to about 60,000 MW in the early 2030s,” said Banerjee, who headed the Indian delegation at the meet. He suggested that nuclear safety encompass a whole spectrum of activities. “We have focused on defence in depth, diversity, redundancy and introduction of passive systems. We have also introduced some innovative measure at our nuclear plants,” Banerjee said. “While our nuclear safety track record has been impeccable over 335 reactor years of operation, we recognise that there is no room for complacency.
Our effort has been to achieve continuous improvement and innovation in nuclear safety — ‘safety first, production next’ — being the basic principle,” Banerjee asserted. He said that immediately after the Fukushima accident in March, the Indian government had ordered a thorough review of the safety of Indian nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board have launched a formal investigation into this aspect. While detailed reviews are under way, some measures have already been identified for implementation, Banerjee said. He pointed out that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had recently underlined that the safety of nuclear power plants was a matter of the highest priority while implementing the national nuclear programme.
