17 Jan 2023: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Purana Qila Excavations (Third Season of Excavation)
2. G20 Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) Meeting

1. Purana Qila Excavations (Third Season of Excavation)

Syllabus – GS1, Indian Architecture.

Prelims – Purana Qila Excavations.

Context – Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is set to begin excavation at Delhi’s Purana Qila.

Details –

• The objective of the excavation is the exposure and preservation of the trenches that were excavated in the previous years – 2013-14 and 2017-18.
• ASI undertook excavations at the complex in 2013-14 and 2017-18, several decades after the agency’s then director general BB Lal led an exercise between 1969 and 1973.
• During this season the focus would also be to accomplish the traces of Painted Grey Ware finding in a stratigraphical context. 
• During the last excavation, traces of the pre-Mauryan era were found.
• Purana Qila or Old Fort has always been linked with Indraprastha, the capital of the Pandavas, since ancient times and has been mentioned in various texts.
• The findings and artefacts unearthed in previous excavations included painted grey ware from 900 BC, an earthen pottery sequence from the Maurya to Shunga, Kushana, Gupta, Rajput, Sultanates, and Mughal periods. Excavated artefacts like terracotta toys, sickles, parers, beads, seals, etc. excavated earlier are on display at the archeological museum inside the fort complex.
• Purana Qila is a 16th-century fort built by Sher Shah Suri and the second Mughal emperor, Humayun.

Also read – Archaeological Survey of India

2. G20 Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) Meeting

Syllabus – GS2,  global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting  India’s interests.

Prelims – G20 IWG Meeting.

Context – First G20 IWG meeting concludes in Pune.

Details –

• The first G20 Infrastructure Working Group meeting under G20 India Presidency was attended by 64 delegates from 18 member countries, 8 guest countries and 8 international organisations. The G20 IWG  discussed the 2023 Infrastructure Agenda under the Indian G20 Presidency.
• The flagship priority discussed in the meeting was ‘Financing Cities of Tomorrow – Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable’. The two-day meeting also included discussions on making cities economic centres of growth, building future-ready urban infrastructure, financing urban structure, the role of cities in meeting sustainability targets, directing fiscal investments for unlocking private financing for energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and mitigating social imbalances.
• The second meeting of the Infrastructure Working Group is scheduled to be held in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on the 28th and 29th of March, 2023.

Read the previous PIB articles here.

January 17th, 2023, PIB:- Download PDF Here