The Ministry of Textiles will give away Shilp Guru and National Awards to master craftspersons for 2017, 2018, and 2019 in New Delhi today. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar will be the Chief Guest of the award ceremony. Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal will preside over the function. The Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) has been implementing the scheme of National Awards for master craftspersons since 1965. Shilp Guru Awards was introduced in 2002. These Awards are conferred every year to legendary master craftspersons of handicrafts whose work has contributed to the preservation of rich and diverse craft heritage of the country. The main objective is to give recognition to outstanding craftspersons in the handicrafts sector. The awardees represent almost all states and UTs of the country, as well as different craft styles of different locations.

The Khadi India Pavilion registered a record sale of over 12 crore rupees at the India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Khadi and Village Industries Commission organized a “Khadi India Pavilion at the Trade Fair to showcase the finest handcrafted Khadi and Village Industries products. It contextualized the vision of Vocal for Local, Local to Global of Prime Minister Narendra Modi through Khadi India Pavilion.

More than 200 stalls by Khadi artisans, entrepreneurs, and representatives of small-scale industries with artisan art showcased their products.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi has announced a one-time Sangeet Natak Akademi Amrit Award under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.  A total of 86 artists from the field of the Performing Arts in India were selected for this award. These include artists who are above the age of 75 years and have not been accorded any national honour in their career so far.

The General Council of Akademi has unanimously selected these artists for this one-time Award.  The award carries a purse money of one lakh rupees besides  Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is all set to launch PSLV C 54 with Earth observation satellite Oceansat and eight other nanosatellites in two different orbits today, November 26. 

The 24-hour countdown for the launch which commenced yesterday at the launch Centre will end today enabling a smooth lift-off.  The propellant filling process took place at the four-stage launch vehicle. Scientists at ISRO are busy monitoring last minute tests for a successful launch.

AIR correspondent reports, ISRO's successful workhorse PSLV's XL version will lift off exactly at 11.56 today from the first launch pad of the Space Centre. The satellites will be put in sun-synchronous polar orbits in two hours and 20 minutes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the Constitution Day celebrations in the Supreme Court today, November 26, at 10 AM. During the programme, the PM will launch various new initiatives under the e-court project. 

The project is an effort to provide services to litigants, lawyers, and the judiciary through information and communication technology. The initiatives being launched by the Prime Minister include Virtual Justice Clock, JustIS mobile App 2.0, Digital court, and S3WaaS Websites.

Telangana will have the first Integrated Rocket Design, Manufacturing, and Testing Facility of the country in Hyderabad by Skyroot Aerospace. 

The state IT Minister K. Tarakarama Rao has assured the start-up of complete support for establishing the facility to design, manufacture, and test rockets in the state. He participated in a programme organized at T-Hub yesterday, November 25, to celebrate Skyroot Aerospace’s successful launch of the Vikram-S rocket.

On the eve of Constitution Day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi virtually launched portals for Online reading of the Preamble and Quiz on the Constitution of India. People can visit

www.readpreamble.nic.in

for reading the Preamble and for the quiz they can visit

www.constitutionquiz.nic.in

Launching these portals, Mr. Joshi stated that all fellow citizens should read the Preamble of the Constitution in a language suitable to them out of the 23 languages.

Centre has formed a panel to revamp the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. 

Sources said the panel set up by the Rural Development Ministry, will recommend institutional mechanisms for more effective utilisation of funds of the scheme. The panel will examine expenditure trends across various states and identify reasons for variations. 

Three Indian and six foreign films are vying for this year’s prestigious ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. The Indian films in the race are The Kashmir Files, Naanu Kusuma, and Saudi Vellakka. 

AIR correspondent reports, the foreign movies competing for the award are A Tale of Two Sisters from Bangladesh, Fortune from Tajikistan, Nargesi from Iran, Mother from Bulgaria, White Dog from Canada, and Poloma, a joint production of Brazil and Portugal. 

The interactive briefing of Heads of Missions of G20 countries is scheduled to be held today in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Prior to this the G-20 delegation received a warm welcome on arrival in Port Blair yesterday, November 25.

Soon after their arrival, the delegation visited the National Memorial Cellular Jail. Former Foreign Secy and G20 chief co-ordinator Harsh Vardhan Shringla and former NITI Aayog CEO and G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant are part of the delegation.