the West Bengal government has granted official language status to endangered tribal language “Kurukh” of the Dravidian family. The language is spoken by Oraon and Kisan tribes. Apart from this, the state government has granted official status to Rajbanshi-Kamtapuri language spoken by the Koch Rajbanshi community.

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) summit will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 7 with the theme of “Strengthening Maritime Cooperation for a Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous Indian Ocean”. The summit will discuss ways to strengthen maritime cooperation and fight against violent extremism. Leaders and representatives of the 21 member states and seven dialogue partners of IORA are expected to attend the summit. From India, Vice President Hamid Ansari will attend the IORA Summit. The IORA Summit is expected to provide momentum to the strengthening of cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

China will build its first national underwater observatory in the disputed South China Sea. Such a platform will reportedly allow the country to keep a check on underwater physical, chemical, and geological dynamics in real time and will also be used for other purposes. The construction work on the platform will be done with the help of Shanghai’s Tongji University and the Institute of Acoustics. By building this underwater observation platform, China will become an active part of the international competition. China has maritime disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea. It claims almost all the waters, which carry a third of the world’s maritime traffic and has huge amounts of oil and natural gas. The waters are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. China also contests Japan’s hold over the islands in the East China Sea.

The ‘Working Group on Migration’ headed by Partha Mukhopadhay has recently submitted its report to the Union Government, which was constituted by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in 2015. The Working Group has recommended that the Protocols of the Registrar General of India (RGI) needs to be amended to enable caste based enumeration of migrants so that they can avail the attendant benefits in the States to which migration takes place. It also recommended that migrants should be enabled to avail benefits of Public Distribution System (PDS) in the destination State by providing for inter-State operability of PDS. The Group suggested that the hugely underutilized Construction Workers Welfare Cess Fund (CWWCF) should be used to promote rental housing, working Women Hostels etc., for the benefit of migrants.