Prelim Bits 30-04-2017

India’s first book village

• Bhilar in Satara District, Maharashtra is India’s first “Book of Village”.
• The village Bhilar is located between the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani in Maharashtra.
• There will be 25 book hotspots in the village which are mini libraries having 15,000 books to be kept permanently for the public.
• The idea for this book village is inspired by Britain’s popular Hay-on-Wye book village and literary festival concept.
• The village is known for strawberry cultivation and called as “Strawberry country” in Maharashtra.

International Basava Convention

• Basavanna was a 12th-century social reformer, Kannada poet, philosopher, statesman who served as the chief minister of Kalachuri dynasty ruled by King Bijjala.
• Recently Basava Jayanti was celebrated for the first time on his birth anniversary and digital version of his work “Vachana” was released.
• Vachana is a prosaic form well known in the Kannada literature which propagates values of universal brotherhood.
• Basavanna spread social awareness through his poetry and rejected gender or social discrimination, superstitions and rituals.
• Basavanna founded “Lingayatism”, a distinct shaivite religious tradition and spread by his followers Sharanas.
• Lingyatism emphasizes on monism and bhakti (loving devotion) to Shiva and lingyats are also called as Veerashaivas.
• Basava introduced a public institution called as “Anubhava Mantapa” - hall of spiritual experience that would facilitate men and women from all socio-economic backgrounds to have discussion on various spiritual questions.

Eurasia Economic Union

• India is set to formalize a free trade agreement with Eurasia Economic Union.
• The Eurasian Economic Union comprises Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
• The treaty on the Eurasian Economic union was signed in 2015.

Institutions of EAEU

• Eurasian Economic Council is the supreme body of the union consisting of all Head of the member states. It is similar to European Council.
• Eurasian Intergovernmental Council is the 2^nd level of intergovernmental institution consisting of the Prime Ministers of member states.
• Eurasian Economic Commission is the executive body similar to European Commission and day to day work is done by this body and Court of the EAEU is the judicial organ.

Yakshagana

• It is a traditional theatre form that combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up, and stage techniques with a unique style and form.
• This theatre style is mainly found coastal region of Karnataka.
• Yakshagana is traditionally presented from dusk to dawn.
• Yakshagana poetry is a collection of poems written to form a music drama and it is also called as “Prasanga”.
• Tenkutittu (includes Kerala), Badagutittu, Uttara Kannadatittu are the traditional variants of Yakshagana.

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun

The Japanese government has selected former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar for the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun , in recognition of his achievements in bolstering India-Japan ties.