Culture

Vivekananda Kendra - Nardep received the "Environmental Award" for its work at Rameswaram in the year 2015 - 16 on 5th June – ‘World Environment Day’. Environment Minister K.C.Karupanan, Govt. of Tamilnadu handed over the award to Sis.Saraswathi on behalf of Vivekananda Kendra - Nardep at the glittering function held at Chennai.

Albert Schweitzer, a Nobel Laureate was a French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician. He coined the phrase “Reverence for Life”. These words came to Albert Schweitzer on a boat trip on the Ogooué River in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), while searching for a universal concept of ethics for our time.

22nd April is celebrated as a “World Earth Day”. James Lovelock a famous scientist from England, environmentalist and futurist – all rolled in one proposed for the first time the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self regulating system. The Gaia hypothesis proposes that living and non-living parts of the earth form a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism, named after the Greek God as Gaia. In this month, we are giving a few of his quotable quotes.

Wolfgang Sachs is an author and research director at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, in Germany. He has been a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is a member of the Club of Rome. He has edited immensely influential book “The Development Dictionary”. In this issue, we have given a few of his quotable quotes.

The Nari Shakti Puraskar, instituted in 1999 is a way for us to recognize women who have exceeded expectations to challenge the status quo and make a lasting contribution to women’s empowerment. The Government of India confers these awards on individuals and institutions in recognition of their service to the cause of women. The outstanding contributions in the field of women development & upliftment by way of being role models are of primary consideration in identifying the recipients of Puraskar.

Vishwabhanu_ December2016-Jan2017 by

Community participation with support from NGOs and the forest department has triggered successful conservation efforts, as witnessed in many ecologically sensitive areas across the world. In parts of North East India also, local community involvement has enabled the scripting of positive environmental stories, according to Dr Biphuti Prasad Lahkar.

Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture (VKIC) celebrated its 21st foundation day on 31st January 2017 at WM Auditorium, VKIC. The main highlight of the program was the conferring of VKIC Sanmaanee award 2017. Every year VKIC honours a person of repute who has been tirelessly working for the promotion of indigenous faith and culture on its foundation day. This time the award was conferred on Srimad Shyamananda Brahmachari of West Garo hills. The Award carries a citation, memento, shalleng chadar and a sum of Rs 25,000.