Several festivals are held across India that celebrate, and raise awareness about, local food

• May 22, 2023

Source: Outlook

At these festivals, you will come across fascinating displays of seed diversity, foods, and interact with seed savers from different regions. They highlight the importance of local food systems to sustain people and nature in a diversity of rural and urban contexts. And include food tastings from local restaurants, local produce like regional fermented drinks, live music, and even workshops on wellness. And they are a great boost to the local community. You will also witness several tribal rituals, folk music and dance at this event.

Meghalaya takes a step toward wellness tourism

• May 03, 2023

Source: Times Travel

The Meghalaya Government is likely to blend Ayurveda with the Khasi traditional healing system in a bid to promote health tourism in Meghalaya. As per the government, this initiative might do wonders in both health as well as tourism sector. Recently, Health and Family Welfare Minister Mr AL Hek informed that the Mebai Tribal Health and Wellness centre will soon be inaugurated, where one can experience this unique concept of Khasi traditional healing system and Ayurveda together. This region is rich in medicinal plants, therefore, starting such an initiative will add to the economy of the state. It is expected that this concept of holistic therapy would attract many to visit the state and experience something offbeat.

A pop-up with dishes from Meghalaya comes to Delhi

• April 12, 2023

Source: Mint

Fruits, spices and grains from the Northeast make their way to the capital. The Meghalaya Kitchen at The Park in Connaught Place, Delhi NCR runs from April 14 to 21 and features umami-rich dishes from the Northeastern state. The menu has been conceptualised by Ms Tanisha Phanbuh who hails from Shillong. Her food brand, Tribal Gourmet, serves as a platform for information on foods from the Northeast on Instagram (@tribalgourmet); and she hosts pop-ups in restaurants across Delhi under this label.

For the experiential menu at The Park Hotel,she sourced wild greens, fruits, spices and grains from Meghalaya. The first course has a selection of chutneys—an amalgamation of sweet, sour, salty and umami—to open the palate. It comes with a serving of potatoes which does what most carbs do: act as a medium to carry flavours. The main course includes a fish preparation with perilla seeds that grow abundantly in the hills of Northeast. For dessert, Phanbuh made a sweet treat with a twist. Tea is an intrinsic part of the cuisine of Meghalaya and she drew inspiration from it to make a tea panna cotta. She picked the sweetish, fleshy fruit named Sohiong in Meghalaya and prepared a jam. 

Crop breeding benefits from the traditional knowledge of farmers

• March 29, 2023

Source: Nature Middle East

An international research team has combined traditional farmers’ knowledge with modern genomics in a new wheat breeding approach. Using this approach could produce varieties that are better adapted to local conditions and more appealing to smallholder famers. The researchers worked with farmers in Ethiopia to demonstrate the viability of the new approach. They crossed local, traditional varieties with an elite international line to create a collection of experimental ‘pre-breeding’ lines. They then grew these lines at different locations in Ethiopia and asked local farmers to inspect and evaluate the plants around their flowering time. 

Forest Department hones traditional knowledge of nomadic tribes for conservation

• March 21, 2023

Source: The Hindu

Three months after the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu in the Scheduled Tribes list of the State, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department is planning to tap their traditional knowledge in conservation. Eleven members from the two nomadic communities, six men and five women, recently underwent a training organised by the Forest Department here aimed at creating awareness among them on conservation and tapping their traditional knowledge for the same. The participants were from Chengalpattu, Villupuruam, Cuddalore, and Mayiladuthurai districts.

ILO-Canada and the Government of Bangladesh start Progress Project to Build the Foundation for an Inclusive Skills System

• March 19, 2023

The Project is designed to positively address the issues linked to low labour force participation of female workers both in wage and employment markets; and limited access to business development services required for initiating self-employment. It will also support the promotion of employability of the female workforce of Bangladesh to improve their economic wellbeing and maximise their contribution to the national economic growth through strategic improvement in TVET and enterprise development systems, to transform them become more inclusive and accessible for women by gender mainstreaming policy advocacy, enterprise development and skills training.

ILO Calls for Papers to Help Stop Racial Discrimination at Work

• March 18, 2023

The call for papers focuses on key policy areas relating to the formal and informal economy, the measurement of discrimination, socio-economic exclusion, access to effective legal protection, and ways and means of addressing emerging spheres of discrimination in the context of digitalization and artificial intelligence.  The proposals emerging from the symposium will help strengthen the implementation of existing ILO tools such as the ILO’s Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) ,which requires countries to take specific action towards the elimination of discrimination, including racial discrimination. The Convention has been ratified by 175 of the ILO’s 187 member States.

Call to blend innovations with indigenous knowledge to help small-scale fishers

• February 16, 2023

Source: The Hindu

Marine scientists and experts from across the globe called for blending technological innovations with indigenous traditional knowledge in respective regions to improve the livelihood of fishermen. They were participating in a panel discussion on future proofing of small-scale fisheries on the sidelines of the ongoing international symposium on innovations in fishing technology in Kochi on 16 February 2023. On the major challenges in small-scale fisheries, John Lansley, Fishery Industry Officer of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, said culturally appropriate technologies significant to respective regions needed to be developed to enhance the contribution of fishing to food security.

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh says, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has always been encouraging and forthcoming in sharing inputs on futuristic technology’s blend with traditional knowledge, for a greater good

• February 15, 2023

Source: Press Information Bureau

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh on 15 February 2023 said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has always been encouraging and forthcoming in promoting blend of futuristic technology with traditional knowledge, for a greater good. Addressing the first-ever ‘International Conference on Communication and Dissemination of Traditional Knowledge (CDTK - 2023)’ as Chief Guest here, Dr. Jitendra Singh called for optimum mix of traditional knowledge in tandem with advanced scientific research using modern tools and technology. He said that providing access to everyone to the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (DGTL) is an indication that integration of knowledge with technology can help the common man to a great extent.

Environmental stewards: White House asks federal agencies to include indigenous knowledge in governance

• October 27, 2022

Source: Down To Earth

The White House has directed agencies of the United States government to recognise and include indigenous knowledge in their research, policy and decision making, according to an official statement. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) jointly released new government-wide guidance December 1, 2022 to this effect. They also released an implementation memorandum. The government directive will apply to Native American, Pacific Islander and Alaskan Native communities. These groups have been recognised as ‘sovereign’ by the US Constitution. But in reality, most tribal nations in the contiguous US, Alaska and Hawaii have been at the losing end ever since coming under (white) American rule.