On 27th August, 2020 Union Minister for Education (formerly known as Human Resource Development, HRD Ministry), Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ addressed the inaugural session of the two-days World Urdu Conference organised by National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) from August 27-28, 2020.
Key Points:
i.The NCPUL is organizing a two-day World Urdu Webinar titled as ‘Responsibilities of Urdu Writers in the age of Electronic & Social media’.
ii.An Announcement was made by the Education Minister, to honor the Urdu writers and literature with awards and honors in the name of important personalities of Urdu to encourage Urdu writers for literary and creative services by the Urdu Council from next year.
About NCPUL:
i.NCPUL is an autonomous body which was established in April, 1996.
ii.It was declared as the National Nodal Agency for Promotion of Urdu in the country to promote and mainstream Urdu.
iii.It is also responsible for the promotion of Arabic and Persian languages.
iv.The NCPUL has been given the role of networking Urdu organizations throughout the country.
Status of Urdu in India:
i.Urdu is one of 22 constitutionally recognized official languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India.
ii.It is the Official Language of Jammu & Kashmir and second official language in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal.
iii.In July 2018, Government of India released data about languages from the 2011 census, which showed that only two scheduled languages, Konkani and Urdu seeing a fall in the number of speakers.
About NCPUL:
Chairman – Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
Headquarters – New Delhi
