×

UPSC Courses

DNA banner

DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

26 May, 2020

18 Min Read

Ramkinkar Baij

GS-I : Art and Culture

Ramkinkar Baij

Context

  • Ministry of Culture’s National Gallery of Modern Art will organise virtual tour titled “Ramkinkar Baij | Journey through silent transformation and expressions” to commemorate the 115th Birth Anniversary of Ramkinkar Baij on 26th May 2020.
  • This virtual tour presents the works of art from the prominent artworks of Ramkinkar Baij from reserve collection of NGMA, grouped in a series of five different themes of (i) Portrait, (ii) Life Study, (iii) Abstract & Structural Composition, (iv) Nature Study & Landscape and (v) Sculptures.
  • The virtual tour is being launched to pay tribute to the one of the greatest sculptor, painter – an iconic artist of modern India, especially for the young artists to know the kind of restless experiment that the artist had one with forms – figurative and abstractive both.

Ramkinkar Baij

  • Ramkinkar Baij, one of the most seminal artists of modern India, was an iconic sculptor, painter and graphic artist.
  • Ramkinkar Baij (1906-1980) was born in Bankura, West Bengal, into a family of little economic and social standing and grew by his sheer determination into one of the most distinguished early modernists of Indian art.
  • In 1925, he made his way to Kala Bhavana, the art school at Santiniketan and was under the guidance of Nandalal Bose.
  • Encouraged by the liberating, intellectual environment of Santiniketan, his artistic skills and intellectual horizons blossomed, thus acquiring greater depth and complexity.
  • Soon after completing his studies at Kala Bhavana he became a faculty member, and along with Nandalal Bose and Benodebehari Mukherjee played a pivotal role in making Santiniketan one of the most important centres for modern art in pre-Independent India.
  • Ramkinkar's monumental sculptures are established landmarks in public art. One of the earliest modernists in Indian art, he assimilated the idioms of the European modern visual language and yet was rooted in his own Indian ethos.
  • He experimented restlessly with forms, moving freely from figurative to abstract and back to figurative, his themes were steeped in a deep sense of humanism and an instinctive understanding of the symbiotic relationship between man and nature.
  • Both in his paintings and sculptures, he pushed the limits of experimentation and ventured into the use of new materials.
  • For instance, his use of unconventional material, for the time, such as cement concrete for his monumental public sculptures set a new precedent for art practices.
  • The use of cement, laterite and mortar to model the figures, and the use of a personal style in which modern western and Indian pre-classical sculptural values were brought together was equally radical.
  • He was invited to participate in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1950 and in the Salon de Mai in 1951.
  • In 1970, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan for his irrefutable contribution to Indian art.
  • In 1976 he was made a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi. In 1976, he was conferred the honorary Doctoral Degree of ‘Desikottama’ by Visva Bharati, and in 1979 an honorary D.Litt by Rabindra Bharati University.
  • Ramkinkar made his last journey, after a period of illness, in Kolkata on the 2nd August, 1980.

Source: PIB

N-95 masks

GS-III :

N-95 masks

Context

  • The Government has notified N-95 Masks as an essential commodity under Essential Commodities Act, 1955 .
  • Thus, hoarding, black-marketing of the essential commodity is punishable offence under the Act.
  • To keep check on the hoarding, black-marketing of the essential commodity, NPPA in exercise of the powers conferred under National Disaster Management Act, 2005 had directed all States/ UT Governments to ensure sufficient availability of surgical and protective Masks, Hand Sanitizers and Gloves at prices not exceeding the Maximum Retail Price printed on the pack size vide Orders dated 13th March 2020.

N95 Respirators

  • An N95 respirator is a respiratory protective device designed to achieve a very close facial fit and very efficient filtration of airborne particles.
  • The 'N95' designation means that when subjected to careful testing, the respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small (0.3 micron) test particles.
  • If properly fitted, the filtration capabilities of N95 respirators exceed those of face masks.
  • However, even a properly fitted N95 respirator does not completely eliminate the risk of illness or death.

Comparing Surgical Masks and Surgical N95 Respirators

  • The FDA regulates surgical masks and surgical N95 respirators differently based on their intended use.
  • A surgical mask is a loose-fitting, disposable device that creates a physical barrier between the mouth and nose of the wearer and potential contaminants in the immediate environment. These are often referred to as face masks, although not all face masks are regulated as surgical masks. Note that the edges of the mask are not designed to form a seal around the nose and mouth.
  • An N95 respirator is a respiratory protective device designed to achieve a very close facial fit and very efficient filtration of airborne particles. Note that the edges of the respirator are designed to form a seal around the nose and mouth. Surgical N95 Respirators are commonly used in healthcare settings and are a subset of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators (FFRs), often referred to as N95s.

The similarities among surgical masks and surgical N95s are:

  • They are tested for fluid resistance, filtration efficiency (particulate filtration efficiency and bacterial filtration efficiency), flammability and biocompatibility.
  • They should not be shared or reused.

Source: PIB

Other Related News

25 May,2020
Pratyush

Pratyush Pratyush is an array of computers recently unveiled in India. It can deliver a peak power of 6.8 petaflops. One petaflop is a million billion floating point operations per second and is a reflection of the computing capacity of a system. The machines will be installed at two governmen

Mankidia Tribe

Mankidia Tribe Mankind is one of the 13 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) in Odisha. They critically depend on making rope with small fibre that’s richly available in Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR). They were denied habitat rights inside the STR under the Scheduled Tribes and

Nuclear Command Authority (NCA)

Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) It is responsible for command, control and operational decisions regarding India's nuclear weapons programme. The organisational structure of NCA includes Political Council and Executive Council. Executive Council is headed by the National Security Advisor

NASA’s Mission to explore Ionosphere

NASA’s Mission to explore Ionosphere NASA has announced two missions to explore the little-understood area of 96 km above Earth’s surface. The two missions Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) and Ionospheric Connection Explorer(ICON) will team up to explore the ionos

Labelling organic products

Labelling organic products The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued regulations that required food companies selling organic produce to get certified by either authority. Certificate issuing authorities will be National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) or the Par

Nayachar Islands

Nayachar Islands Nayachar is a newly emerged island with a mangrove ecosystem in the middle estuary of the Hooghly River in West Bengal. This land mass was created in the Indian Sunderbans by river silt deposits, and remained largely submerged, rising occasionally above the water level. Till 1990

India builds state-of-the-art training facility for Ugandan defence forces

India builds state-of-the-art training facility for Ugandan defence forces The Indian Association Uganda (IAU), in association with the Indian Military Advisory and Training Team there, handed over a state-of-the-art military training facility to Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF). The war game

Hardly the 1991 moment for Agriculture

Hardly the 1991 movement for Agriculture The reforms in agricultural marketing are no more than reiterations of earlier pronouncements The announcement of reforms in agricultural marketing by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in May, has been hailed by some as the “1991” moment

No answers yet for Somalia  

No answers yet for Somalia   As Somalia grapples with the staggering challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, chances are that the June 8 public hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Somalia’s maritime dispute with Kenya will be deferred yet again. The public he

24 May,2020
Domicile rules for J&K

Domicile rules for J&K Part of: GS-II- Governance  (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST) When was the new policy introduced and how will it impact the people of the erstwhile State? On March 31, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation o

India-China border issues

India-China border flare-up Part of: GS-II- India and China  (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST) Which are the tension points? Why has the Line of Actual Control not been clearly demarcated? Why is there a stalemate in boundary talks? Background The India-China border has been

Reasons behind India and Nepal fighting over Kalapani?

Reasons behind India and Nepal fighting over Kalapani? Part of: GS-II- International Treaties and Conventions  (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST) What is the strategic importance of the region? Why do both sides stake claim to the area? Background The dispute over Kalapani, w

China suggests shift in BRI approach amid debt concerns

China suggests a shift in BRI approach amid debt concerns Part of: GS-II- International issue (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST) ‘We will focus on quality in the joint pursuit of the BRI’ Background China has hinted at a shift in how it will pursue its signature Belt and Road

Mizoram grants ‘industry’ status to sports

Mizoram grants ‘industry’ status to sports The northeastern state of Mizoram has accorded ‘industry’ status to sports. The Cabinet cleared the Sports and Youth Service department’s proposal to recognise sports as an ‘industry’ in the state. The idea was f

Give loan to eligible borrowers without fear of CBI, CVC and CAG

Give loans to eligible borrowers without fear of CBI, CVC and CAG Part of: GS-III- financial assistance  (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST) Banks should not be scared to extend loans as a 100% guarantee is being given by govt, Nirmala Sitharaman told CEOs and MDs of public sector banks. Finance

Toppers

Search By Date

Newsletter Subscription
SMS Alerts

Important Links

UPSC GS Mains Crash Course - RAW Prelims Answer Key 2024