Greater India

Greater India was the historical extent of Indian culture beyond the Indian subcontinent. This particularly concerns the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism from India to Southeast Asia, Central Asia and China by the Silk Road during the early centuries of the Common Era, and the spread of the Indian writing systems like the Pallava script of the south Indian Pallava dynasty to Southeast Asia and Siddhaṃ script to East Asia through Gupta Empire. by the travellers and maritime traders of the 5th to 15th centuries. It also describes the establishment of Indianised Kingdoms in Southeast Asia and the spread of the Indian script, architecture and administration. To the west, Greater India overlaps with Greater Persia in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains. The term is tied to the geographic uncertainties surrounding the "Indies" during the Age of Exploration.

Definition and nomenclature

In medieval Europe the concept of "three Indias" was in common circulation. Greater India was the southern part of South Asia, Lesser India was the northern part of South Asia, and Middle India was the region near Middle East. The name Greater India (Portuguese: India Maior) was used at least from the mid-15th century. The term, which seems to have been used with variable precision, sometimes meant only the Indian subcontinent; Europeans used a variety of terms related to South Asia to designate the South Asian peninsula, including High India, Greater India, Exterior India and India aquosa.

Seto dialect

Seto (seto kiil´;Estonian: setu keel) is a dialect of the South Estonian or Võro language (although the Setos generally do not identify as Võro speakers), spoken by 12,549 people. The speakers, Seto people, mostly inhabit the area near Estonia's southeastern border with Russia, in the county of Setomaa.

Language sample

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Vigyan Bhavan

Vigyan Bhavan is a premier convention centre of Government of India in New Delhi. Built in 1956, over the years it has been the venue of conferences of national and international stature, seminars and award ceremonies attended by distinguished world leaders and dignitaries, including Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 1983, 7th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), March 7–12, 1983 and SAARC Summit. It is managed by the Directorate of Estates, under the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, and maintained by CPWD.

It only holds National-level functions and conferences, and functions where either the President, Vice President or the Prime Minister of India are present. It also holds various award ceremonies, including the annual National Film Awards.

Architecture

The main building was designed in 1955 by R.I. Gehlote of Central Public Works Department (CPWD), incorporating elements of British Raj architecture, evident in the nearby buildings of the Central Secretariat and of Lutyens' Delhi along with Hindu and Mughal architecture, as well as ancient Buddhist architecture, especially the chaitya arches of Ajanta Caves. The overall style of the building remains modernistic with revivalist elements.

New Delhi

New Delhi (ⁱ/ˌnjuː ˈdɛli/) is a municipality and district in Delhi which serves as the capital and seat of government of India. In addition, it also serves as the seat of Government of Delhi.

The foundation stone of the city was laid by George V, Emperor of India during the Delhi Durbar of 1911. It was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. The new capital was inaugurated on 13 February 1931, by India's Viceroy Lord Irwin.

Although colloquially Delhi and New Delhi as names are used interchangeably to refer to the jurisdiction of NCT of Delhi, these are two distinct entities, and the latter is a small part of the former.

New Delhi has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi's flagship Smart Cities Mission.

Establishment

Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of India during the British Raj until December 1911. However, Delhi had served as the political and financial centre of several empires of ancient India and the Delhi Sultanate, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the British Indian Empire (as it was officially called) from Calcutta to Delhi. Unlike Calcutta, which was located on the eastern coast of India, Delhi was at the center of northern India and the Government of British India felt that it would be logistically easier to administer India from the latter rather than the former.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː], born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government, reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment, improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations. Modi has been appreciated for starting initiatives like Swachh Bharat Mission, Make in India and Digital India. Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised, although his administration has also been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots. A Hindu nationalist and a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, despite his progressivism. Known for his tech savvy image, he is the second most followed politician on social media after U.S. President Barack Obama.