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India's largest conglomerate Tata group was named the winning bidder for Air India on October 8, 2021. Air India returned to its founder 68 years after it was nationalised, capping years of efforts by the government to privatise the debt-laden airline. The move gave the group full control of Air India and its low-cost unit Air India Express as well as a 50% stake in ground handling company Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt. Ltd, according to a finance ministry statement. Air India was founded as Tata Airlines in 1932 as the country's first airline, but was nationalised in 1953.

"Bidders have agreed to all terms and conditions. Five bidder were disqualified as they did not meet the criterion," the Dipam Secy said. "The process was carried out in a transparent manner with due regard to confidentiality of bidders.

This follows the group of ministers known as the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism approving the bid winner. The panel was headed by home minister Amit Shah and included finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce minister Piyush Goyal and aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. The long-awaited Air India divestment is being heralded as one of the biggest reforms by the Narendra Modi government. The earlier attempt in 2018 didn’t find any takers.

The reserve price was fixed at Rs 12,906 crore, and the winning bidder will take Rs 15,300 crore debt. It will also retain all AI employees for one year, and can offer VRS in the 2nd year, as per the Aviation Ministry.

Credit : The Economic Times

Picture Credit : Google

In July 2021, two new Indian sites were included to the UNESCO World Heritage List - the Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple, Telangana, and Dholavira: A Harrapan City, Gujarat Popularly known as the Ramappa Temple, Rudreshwara is located in the village of Palampet in Telangana. It is the main Shiva temple in a walled complex built during the Kakatiyan period (1123-1323 CE). The distinctive Vimana of the temple is made of lightweight porous floating bricks, which reduced the weight of the roof structures. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the most remarkable and well-preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BC. Discovered in 1968, the site is set apart by its unique characteristics, such as its water management system, multi-layered defensive mechanisms, extensive use of stone in construction, and special burial structures, says the UNESCO website.

The distinctive Vimana of the temple is made of lightweight porous ‘floating bricks,’ which reduced the weight of the roof structures. The building features decorated beams and the temple’s magnificent sculptures illustrate regional dance customs and Kakatiyan culture. The site is located close to the Ramappa Cheruvu, a Kakatiya-built water reservoir, placing it in a unique natural setting of the surrounding forested areas and agricultural lands. 

The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the most remarkable and well-preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE (Before Common Era).  Discovered in 1968, the site is set apart by its unique characteristics, such as its water management system, multi-layered defensive mechanisms, extensive use of stone in construction and special burial structures. Of note is also the art associated with the city – artefacts of various kinds such as copper, shell, stone, jewellery of semi-precious stones, terracotta, gold, ivory have been found at the site. In addition, the interregional trade links associated with Dholavira, have also been acknowledged as contributing to the shared heritage of humanity.

Credit : UNESCO 

Picture Credit : Google

On May 22, 1521, Spanish forces and their indigenous allies had laid siege to the powerful Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, where Mexico City now stands. The battle lasted nearly three months, ending with the fall of the Aztec Empire and Spain's consolidation of power in a large swath of North America. On May 22, 2021, Mexico City marked the 500th anniversary of the conquest with events that highlighted the complex ways it shaped the country's society.

The three cultures are represented by three buildings: a ruined Aztec temple, a Spanish colonial church built atop the ruins and a modern government office building constructed in the 1960s. “It was neither a triumph nor a defeat. It was the painful birth of the Mestizo (mixed-race) Mexico today,” the plaque reads.

That sentiment, preached by the government since the 1920s — that Mexico is a non-racial, non-racist, unified nation where everyone is mixed-race, bearing the blood of both conquerors and conquered — has aged about as well as the 1960s office building.

It is largely roped off because shards of its marble facing regularly shear off and come crashing to the ground, and Indigenous or dark-skinned Mexicans continue to face discrimination by their lighter-skinned countrymen.

A much more enduring and perhaps accurate message is found a few blocks away on the wall of the tiny church of Tequipeuhcan, a place whose very name in the Aztec’s Nahuatl language sums it all up.

Credit : NBC News

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For the first time in 55 years, India did not have any foreign head of State as chief guest for the Republic Day parade on January 26, 2021. The United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson was invited to be the chief guest of the 72nd Republic Day parade, but the emergence of a new and a more infectious COVID-19 strain back home forced him to cancel his visit. By the time the U.K. PM had put through a call to his Indian counterpart, it was too late to send out another invite. India's first Republic Day celebrations were held in 1950 with Indonesia's President Sukarno as the chief guest.

 India had invited Mr Johnson to be the Chief Guest at the event but the UK leader dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 5 and cancelled the trip in view of the outbreak of a new variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

This will be the first time in decades that India will not host a Head of Government or Head of State during the Republic Day parade in Delhi.

The last time such a situation arose was in 1966 when no Chief Guest was present at the event which was held days after the demise of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent and the death of nuclear scientist Homi Bhabha in an air crash.

Foreign leaders have graced the Republic Day parades every year barring 1952, 1953 and 1966. The then Indonesian President Sukarno was the first chief guest to grace Republic Day in 1950.

In 2020, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro was the chief guest.

In 2018, the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leadership comprising 10 heads of states were present at the Republic Day parade.

Credit : The Hindu

Picture Credit : Google