The discovery of the legendary city of Dwaraka which is said to have been founded by Sri Krishna, is an important landmark in the validation of historical relevance of Mahabharata. It has set at rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap of Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from the Vedic age to the present day. The discovery has also shed welcome light on second urbanization in the so-called ‘Dark age’, on the reestablishment of dharma, on the resumption of maritime trade, and use of Sanskrit language and modified Indus script.

Dwaraka is a coastal town in Jamnagar district of Gujarat. Traditionally, modern Dwaraka is identified with Dvaraka, mentioned in the Mahabharata as Krishna’s city. Dwaraka was a port, and some scholars have identified it with the island of Barka mentioned in the Periplus of Erythrean Sea. Ancient Dwaraka sank in sea and hence is an important archaeological site. The first clear historical record of the lost city is dated 574 A.D. and occurs in the Palitana Plates of Samanta Simhaditya. This inscription refers to Dwaraka as the capital of the western coast of Saurashtra and still more important, states that Sri Krishna lived here.
There are many mythical tales woven around the city of Dwarka. The most prominent myth is associated with the ‘hero of the Dwapara’; Lord Krishna who is believed to have held his kingdom here. Dwarka in the ancient times was known as Anarta which had been Lord Krishna’s terrestrial empire. Dwarka consisted in islands like Antar dwipa, Dwarka Island and the mainland of Dwarka. The city had been the capital city of the Yadava clan which ruled over the place since many years. In the great epic Mahabharata Dwarka is mentioned as Yadavas’ capital city consisting in many other neighboring states such as Vrishnis, Andhakas, Bhojas within its jurisdiction. The most important chiefs of Yadava clan inhabiting Dwarka included Lord Krishna, who was the king of Dwarka, then Balarama, Kritavarma, Satyaki, Akrura, Kritavarma, Uddhava and Ugrasena.

According to the most popular legendary tale, Lord Krishna migrated to Kusasthali; the name by which Dwarka was known in the ancient times in order to evade the continual harassing raids done on Mahura by Jarasandha; Kansa’s father in law. Jarasandha wanted to avenge the death of Kansa, the wicked cruel uncle of Krishna whom the lord had killed and thus was attacking Mathura time and again.

When he came back to Dwarka along with his clan of Yadavas, he ordered Lord Vishwakarma to build a city for his kingdom. Answering his order, Lord Vishwakarma told that the city can be built only if Lord Samudradevi offered them some land. Lord Krishna then prayed to Samudradeva who responding to the prayer providing them with land up to 12 Yojna and soon after the celestial constructor Vishwakarma built the city of Dwarka in a short span of only 2 days. The city was called ‘Suvarna Dwarka’ because it was all clad in gold, emeralds and jewels which were used to construct the houses in lord Krishna’s ‘Suvarna Dwarka’. It is believed that Lord Krishna’s original residence was at Bet Dwarka from he administered the entire Dwarka kingdom. Legend further adds that after Lord Krishna departed from his mortal body, the city went under the sea with Samudradeva taking back what he had given once upon a time.

The Temple of Dwarkadhish is believed to have been set by Vajranabha; grandson of Lord Krishna, in order to pay tribute to the great lord. The religious significance of Dwarka is associated with other myths too. One such myth points out the Dwarka is the spot where Lord Vishnu had demolished the demon Shankhasura.

Archaeological history:

The first archaeological excavations at Dwaraka were done by the Deccan College, Pune and the Department of Archaeology, Government of Gujarat, in 1963 under the direction of H.D. Sankalia. It revealed artefacts many centuries old.

The objective of the excavation was to know the antiquity of the site, based on material evidence. In the offshore excavation, the ASI’s trained underwater archaeologists and the divers of the Navy searched the sunken structural remains. The finds were studied, dated and documented. On land, the excavation was done in the forecourt of the Dwarakadhish temple. Students from Gwalior, Lucknow, Pune, Vadodara,Varanasi and Bikaner joined in to help the ASI archaeologists.

Findings at Dwarka excavation site:

The underwater excavations revealed structures and ridge-like features. Other antiquities were also found. All the objects were photographed and documented with drawings – both underwater. While underwater cameras are used for photography, drawings are done on boards – a transparent polyester film of 75 micron fixed with a graph sheet below. The graph sheet acts as a scale. One or two divers take the dimensions and the third draws the pictures. The Public Works Department routinely conducts dredging in these waters to keep the Gomati channel open. This throws up a lot of sediments, which settle on underwater structures. Brushes are used to clear these sediments to expose the structures.

* Explorations yielded structures such as bastions, walls, pillars and triangular and rectangular stone anchors.
* A semi-spherical single-hole stone which might be the base for flagpost.
* L-shaped edges of stones for proper grip and arresting wave action on bastions.
* Seals, inscriptions, which have been dated to 1500 BC.
* Pottery, which have been dated to 3528 BC.
* Stone sculptures, terracotta beads, bronze, copper and iron objects.
Marine archaeological explorations have thrown light on a number of structures of different shapes, stone anchors and other artefacts. The exploration has found sandstone walls, a grid of streets and remains of a sea port, some 70 feet beneath the sea. The evidence points to the fact of the existence of a city some 9,000 years ago.

Also according to them this was one of the most important and busy ports during historical and medieval periods.

Dwarka was supposed to have been built on six blocks, two on the right bank and four on the left. All the six sectors have protective walls built of dressed stones of sandstones. Whatever has been traced so far conforms to the description of Dwarka in the Mahabharat to a large extent. For example, the enclosures may correspond to the Antahpurs (harems) of the texts.

Similarly, the large number of stone anchors is indicative of overseas trade. The large ships were anchored to the sea, whereas the small ones were near to the warehouses on the Gomati, part of which has been submerged.

The layout of the excavated city, the spread and the location of fort walls and bastions match the descriptions mentioned in Harivamsha, a prologue to Mahabharata. Harivamsha described the city of Dwarka in minute details. According to it, the area of Dwarka was 12 yojanas. It was connected to the mainland by a strip, which is visible even now, in low tide. The city excavated is of the same size.

What really happened to Dwarka?

The rise in the sea-level in Dwarka is a scientific truth. Studies have proved that the sea considerably and suddenly rose to submerge the city. Harivamsha describes the submerging of Dwarka saying Krishna instructed Arjuna, who was then visiting Dwarka, to evacuate the residents of the city as the sea was going to engulf the city. “On the seventh day (of Krishna saying this), as the last of the citizens were leaving the city, the sea entered the streets of Dwarka.”

According to experts, there could have been three reasons why the sea entered the land. One, a change in the level of seabed, two, a massive earthquake and three, sudden increase in the level of sea water. Of the three, the last is the most plausible. If it was a change in the level of seabed, some remains of the “tearing off action” on the shore would be visible, which is absent. Earthquake can be ruled out as the structures have not collapsed because of the shake. The third reason is most acceptable as a similar phenomenon had occurred in the shores of Bahrain, around the same time, as some recent findings indicate. It is to be noted here that considerable work has been done on shore and offshore underwater excavations in Bahrain, which has indicated a deep and regular trade and other relations between the western coast and the coasts of the present-day Bahrain region.

Dwarka, as of today is still one of the best-studied underwater sites in India.

It is indeed surprising that the history associations, archaeologists and historians have taken little notice of the findings at Dwarka. In its early days, the project received UNESCO support and several foreign marine archaeologists also offered help. However, the government’s indifference to the project has kept them away. Unlike several other land excavations, the underwater excavations can be done only with total government help. Several levels of permissions are needed. While land excavations are demanding in labor, the underwater explorations need machinery and equipment. Skillful divers, who are trained to look for meaningful objects are required too.
an Indian, Dwarka is not a mere archaeological site, nor is it a proof. Indians have all along believed Mahabharata to be a historical narration. But the excavations are a national heritage, a symbol of pride, an honor that is shared by all who are born in this land of Bharata. It is a call for action on Dwarka.

Delhi government recently announced the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy to remote usage of electric vehicles in Delhi. For this the government is providing three major incentives

• The government providing subsidy on electric vehicles. For vehicles like e rickshaw two wheelers and freight vehicle the subsidy will be around ₹30,000 and ₹1.5 lakh subsidy on electric cars. And there will be no capping on e-auto rickshaws.

• The government has also made it scrapping of old petrol or diesel cars easier. It has decided that if you scrap sell your petrol or diesel car to buy new electric car then more subsidy will be given.

• For commercial vehicles government has decided to give low interest loans. Additionally the registration and road tax fee will also be waived off.

Along with giving incentives to the e-vehicles, it has also been decided that pollution cess an extra road tax will be put on non electric vehicles. All these decisions have been made to combat air pollution which is a big problem for Delhi. Also, the government sees it as an opportunity to help revive the economy which currently is suffering due to COVID-19. It has also been planned that by 2025 the delivery services will have 50% e-vehicles which will by the year 2050 be using only e-vehicles. By the end of 2020 there will be 1000 state run e-buses in Delhi and in the next three years it will increase to 50% of total. For the successful initiation of e-vehicles it is necessary to set up charging stations. does it has been decided to put up 200 charging stations at every 3 km in Delhi.

Surround yourself with positive people. Find people who challenge you, believe in you to make this world better place to live for everyone.

When you are positive you see good in everything. When you are negative, you find something bad in almost everything. You almost find something to blame someone for, something bad, something to criticise, something to boil over shout at, if you are looking for all that. Though life is both positive and negative, it is seen that negatives come naturally to us. But the change from negative to positive I’d quite easy. To convert negative to positive, we have to fight our natural instincts also, which are mostly negative. For example when situation get hot, we easily give in to negativity, irritation, impatience or blame game: though everyone knows that by cultivating non-confrontation abilities, we can achieve very good positive outcome which can bring us peace, harmony and happiness.

For positive outcome in life we have to cultivate positive attitude and make a habit of it. It is up to you to chose your course, an easy path through an angry egoistic reaction which may lead to the loss of opportunity later or it could be a well considered response which would surely result in being benificial to all – to you and in turn, to your family, friends and society.

Human being are unique, intelligent and with a discerning mind, and the only species on this planet who know the difference between right and wrong. Then, why do we let ourselves be taken over by cross negative forces, by being reactive and lose a sea of opportunities waiting for us when we can adopt a positive attitude that makes us happy, energised, blissful and joyful?

The question is why don’t we do that more often to change the course of our life from negative to positive!? Why do we get lured by negative and easier rays which inhibit our true progress and growth??

Around 1,27,000 years ago, during the last inter-glacial, the high temperature at that time have confounded researchers for years. An international team of researchers authorized by the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre Climate Model was able to juxtapose Arctic sea ice conditions and last inter-glacial with today’s situation. Such discoveries have the capacity to change the current of ongoing research and can be used in better evaluation and prediction in future sea changes. An astounding study about Arctic sea being free of sea ice by 2035 published in a journal, Nature Climate Change, has given researchers a new lead to work on.

Appearance of shallow pools of water on the surface of Arctic sea- ice during every spring and prior summer help in the study of absorption of sunlight by ice and reflection of it into space. As a result of such studies every year, the team is able to culminate the result of such prediction, as there are many melt ponds which can be seen during recent summers created due to an impact of intense sun rays. 

Being up every morning to head to the workplace, looking for the car keys, hiring an Ola or Uber or racing to catch the subway now seems like a sight. Despite the proposal for a full shutdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, everything was shifting nearly overnight. Life was thrown out of balance and the modern standard was social distancing.

Indians and people around the world are also getting used to meeting up with phone calls with friends and families, waiting at grocery stores a few steps away, or just talking with neighbors. For several the greatest shift has been the idea of operating from home. About the country’s whole population is doing it right now. The world has never had a the exercise of magnitude.

Will the work from home stay temporary or here in its current format? Do companies see that as a feasible choice, especially with people arguing that the barriers between work and life are almost gone?

Pros of work from home:

1.Related to Transportation: First and foremost, it will save a lot of time-travel back and forth From work-Particularly in dense urban areas where traffic jams are high. It also saves a great deal of diesel, eases the pressure on public transport and road transport .

2.Savings on office facilities and infrastructure:

Companies require office room, work desk , chair, monitor, lighting, air State, meeting spaces, private car parking space etc. None of that Can be reduced, though can not be done away with completely, if we follow Wherever and whenever WFH can.

3.Can help in women empowerment:

This often restricts their job options. For further acceptances at WFH, They could have larger career options. Women can be involved in the work force Edited. Harassment in offices should be prevented.

Cons of Work From Home (WFH):

1.Loss of social interaction:Ideas pop up through group experiences in other artistic areas. For instance in Fresh suggestions for a tea or coffee break are explored at the seminar. This can not happen Occur in the case of WFH. Work becomes easier when the people surround you. Whenever you’re stuck you can ask your superiors for support. You got Meetings in meeting centers with proposals to present and improvise on. 

2.May affect women negatively:

When women are at the workplace, they can get relief from housekeeping jobs. This is especially of traditional households where harassment of women is recognized as a regular routine. We can never get off house hold job with WFM. Less on others Indian house holding has limited office service facilities.For example, they only have a single laptop- this is used by man head of the house, leaving women with no options. Internet connection is also not universal (not even 50%). In rural areas the situation is even worst.

3.Effects livelihood of small shop keepers:

Each office should have a small coffee shop nearby. As WFH has fresh Normally all of those people are going to be unemployed. Housekeeping, defense, work force of clerks Will be reduced to a minimal. Since they are not professional employees, it is going to be really hard To transferring them to a certain kind of work.

4.Lot of distractions and no leisure from work, change in lifestyle:

Kids are still around to annoy us. For most of us a daily career brings Following procedure. Which organizes our body and mind. On WFH- Habits to sleep and eat can go to a toss.

Can WFH be adopted universally?

Answer is a big no.There are other occupations where you need to be there for successful learning or some other learning on the ground. A laboratory technician, for example, can not guide an engineering student to conduct an online chemistry experiment. Likewise, education isn’t only a place to study academic topics, but instead a position of personality.

Conclusion:

First of all, we will decide what kinds of organisations had 100% WFH, Which partial and kind of employment may there be where WFH is not successful. Then figure out Dispose with such criteria to assess workplace performance when operating From Home and the School.Once we have done that, we can continue by giving 1 day or 2 WFH mandatory days in a week for all workers imaginable. When this fits perfectly, To both workers we will have obligatory working days of 1 or 2 days. Tweet Group workers will provide alternating working days.This will have a win-win situation as employees and employers will save cost and time, will not miss on socialization. To avoid discrimination towards women or any other potentialemployee, employers can offer a laptop to them from the savings they makeon infrastructure cost.

Celebrating Hope for the Future

August 12 marks the annual celebration of International Youth Day. It is an international day of awareness, recognizing youth across the globe and empowering the world’s youth to make positive contributions to their communities and nations.

International Youth Day and World Youth Day

International Youth Day is not to be confused with World Youth Day. World Youth Day was founded by Pope John Paul II in 1986 as an invitation for youth to respond to the call to bring the love of Christ to the world. World Youth Day is celebrated each year on Palm Sunday.

International Youth Day is a United Nations supported celebration, while World Youth Day is a celebration founded within the Catholic tradition. Though technically different celebrations, both International Youth Day and World Youth Day recognize the value of young people across the world.

Understanding the World Programme of Action for Youth

The United Nations (UN) celebrated the first ever International Year of Youth in 1985. A decade later, the UN General Assembly adopted the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY), a set of policies and guidelines for nations to look to in improving the situation of the world’s youth. However, it was not until 2000 that the world celebrated the first International Youth Day.

The values and celebrations of International Youth Day are heavily influenced by the core principles of the WPAY.

The World Programme of Action for Youth is a strategic framework of policies and guidelines to guide nations in supporting, empowering, and improving the conditions of young people. The focus of the WPAY is to encourage national actions to improve the number of quality opportunities for youth, ultimately encouraging them to be active and effective participants in society.

The program also encourages youth around the world to gather and create awareness about the realities young people face within their own nation.

The Impact Potential of Youth

The world currently holds the largest generation of youth in history. Young people represent hope for the future. However, they are more than just that.

In a message about International Youth Day, Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, writes, “Young people are not only our future—they are our present…They are the most connected, the most outspoken and the most open-minded generation the world has ever seen.”

Today’s youth have potential to shape the world both in the present and in the future.

Sadly, this potential for impact is often inhibited. The tragedy is that many young people around the world battle the suffocating grip of poverty, disease, lack of resources, education, and more. The progress, dreams, and world-changing abilities are restricted for many young people.

Youth and You

The destructive nature of poverty often follows children out of their childhood and into their youth. Many young people around the world lack basic literary, reading, and writing skills. Without opportunities for education or to learn a trade, many teenagers in poverty get involved with gangs, drugs, and other dangerous activities.

We want the lives of youth across the world to tell a different story. We want better stories. And we want you to be a part of it.

Our work in youth development provides young people ages 12 and older with customized training and educational paths according to their unique God-given talents and potential. Our goal is for youth to be prepared, equipped, and able to support themselves while contributing positively to their families and communities. By partnering with us, your donation may support formal education, non-formal education, or income generation training.

Empowerment through education has the ability to bring positive change to the lives of young people and release them from the grip of poverty.

The whole world is fighting with the pandemic called COVID-19. The pandemic has led many noticable changes in the lives of people. Even the working of people has now changed. Almost everything is taking place digitally nowadays. People are using internet to spend their leisure time and the best way they found to this by watching movies and webseries. But the question arises, what people prefer most among them and why?

To answer the question, let us first understand what are movies/webseries. A movie is a visual form of art/motion picture and is shown in movie theatres while a web series is basically a series/show which airs on internet/web for viewership.

The first series distributed via web was Rox with an episode titled “Global Village idiots”. This was released in 1995.

But few years back, the technique got popularity and many people even in India started to watch webseries. Why did this happened? The most basic reason for this was the low price of internet services. Almost everyone had the access to internet from past 2-3 years making webseries easily accessible to the audience and also gave rise to the OTT platforms which is another big reason for its popularity. Because of the tremendous response from the audience given to the web content, a lot of OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, AltBalaji, ErosNow, Zee5 came into existence.

Now let’s talk about the content of movies and webseries. One can’t disagree the fact that the contents of webseries are way much better than that of movies. Lack of quality content and good stories on TV and movies, and growth of social media in recent times provided an opportunity for web content. The variations in the stories of webseries are much more than movies.

Also, the dialogues of webseries are much relatable to the audience as there is no censorship. Many webseries have slangs in their dialogues but that’s what makes it original.

Just having a good content won’t do wonders for a show, even the role assigned to the actors should be done with conviction. Thus giving chance to so many unknown faces, who might not even have got a chance to make a mark in cinemas is what done by webseries. The combination of well settled actors and new faces makes it much better than movies.

Moreover, most web-series prefer to release all their episodes(or atleast a bulk) together which can be watched on a weekend or maybe while traveling at one stretch.

The OTT platforms where these webseries are available are also cheap as compared to movies. Some of them are also free. For example: YouTube, TVF, Airtel Xtreme (free with airtel recharge)

All these things makes the webseries way much better than movies and because of rise of OTT platforms, even movies are also also getting released on these platforms.

The number of applications received under PM Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme has crossed the five lakh mark within 41 days of commencement of lending process. The number of loans sanctioned under the scheme has crossed one lakh.

The PM SVANidhi scheme has generated considerable enthusiasm among the street vendors, who have been looking for access to affordable working capital credit for re-starting their businesses post COVID-19 lockdown.

The scheme was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the ambit of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’. It aims at facilitating collateral free working capital loans upto 10 thousand rupees of one year tenure, to about 50 lakh street vendors in the urban areas, including those from the surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas.

Incentives in the form of interest subsidy at seven per cent per annum on regular repayment of loan, cashback upto 1,200 rupees per annum on undertaking prescribed digital transactions and eligibility for enhanced next tranche of loan have also been provided.

PM SVANidhi Scheme envisages bringing Banks at the door steps of these nano-entrepreneurs by engaging the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and the Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) as lending institutions. This is in addition to Scheduled Commercial Banks – Public and Private, Regional Rural Banks, Cooperative Banks, and SHG Banks.

The onboarding of the vendors on digital payment platforms is a very important component to build the credit profile of the vendors to help them become part of the formal urban economy.

With an aim to provide financial assistance to around 17 lakh families, the Assam government is all set to roll out Arunodoi scheme in the state from 2nd of October. Talking to newspersons in Guwahati yesterday, Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that under this scheme an amount of 830 rupees will be given to eligible families per month to buy essential food items. He said, this will be the largest Direct Benefit Transfer scheme in Assam.

The Minister said that 15 to 17 thousand families would be benefited per Assembly constituency by this scheme. Mr. Sarma said that the Assam government will bear 210 crore rupees per month for the Arunodoi scheme.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has allowed registration of electric vehicles without pre-fitted batteries. In a letter to transport Secretaries of all the States and Union Territories, the Ministry has clarified that vehicles without batteries can be sold and registered based on the type approval certificate issued by the Test Agency. It said, there is no need to specify the Make/Type or any other details of the Battery for the purpose of Registration.

The Government is striving to create an ecosystem to accelerate the uptake of electric mobility in the country. The Ministry said, it is time to come together to work Jointly to achieve the broader national agenda to reduce vehicular pollution and oil import bill. 

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has called for increased investment by international institutions and bodies in the Indian Highways and MSME sectors. He said, automobile and MSME are the two growth engines of Indian economy. 

Addressing the Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Womennovator on Trade Investment and collaborations in Road infrastructure and MSMEs yesterday, the Minister said, India and Australia are already co-operating in the road safety sector. He said, this cooperation has provided better designs for roads and awareness opportunities for the public.

Under Indian Road Safety Assessment Programme, 21 thousand km roads have been assessed and about 3000 km road length is under technological upgradation. He said, better road engineering and increased public awareness have brought improvement. He added that it is estimated that these upgradation programmes will bring about 50 per cent reduction in Road accidents. Mr Gadkari informed that the objective is to set out to achieve zero road fatalities by 2030.