New Delhi: LangFest 2020, the annual conclave of Indian languages, will be held at the Constitution Club here on February 20-21. The conclave held since 2015, by Delhi-based culture and language forum of intellectuals, The Intellects, has emerged as a significant platform for linguists, scholars, academicians, writers, policy makers and culture enthusiasts from multiple Indian languages.
The conclave is especially known for the annual intensive forum that it organizes involving scholars and policymakers from six classical languages of India – Sanskrit, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Odia.
The theme for LangFest 2020 is Mother language for socio-economic development
The Intellects today announced the Prabasi Bhasha Samman for 2020. The awards are conferred every year on people with significant contribution to the cause of preserving, promoting and digitizing Indian languages.
Veteran Odia film personality, actor, writer, director, producer, lyricist and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Prasant Nanda will be conferred with the Ama Gouraba Samman. The newly instituted A V Swamy Memorial Award for Social Service goes to noted Gandhian Dr. Sankar Sanyal, the president of Harijan Sevak Sangh. The full list of awardees is given at the end.
The awards were decided upon by a panel of jury members consisting of Shri Bhagaban Prakash, columnist, writer and advisor to Election Commission of India; Shri Amarendra Khatua, noted poet and former ambassador of India to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay; and Prof Udayanath Sahoo, Adikabi Sarala Das Odia Chair Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The awards will be conferred on 20th February, the first day of the conclave. Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Sh. Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Sh. Pratap Sarangi , Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affair, Govt of India Shri Nityanand Rai, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Department of Culture, Govt of India Sh. Prahlad Singh will grace the two-day festival along with other dignitaries. Eminent linguist Prof. Anvita Abbi and former Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chairman IIAS, Simla Prof Kapil Kapoor will be the key-note speakers at the inaugural and concluding session respectively. The second day will host a dedicated round table discussion on preparing Indian languages for the digital era.
The LangFest started by The Intellects, a Delhi based think tank of Odia diaspora, in 2015 to commemorate the classical language status to Odia and the celebration of International Mother Language Day has emerged as a major event in the Delhi-NCR focusing on mother language. It has become the largest gathering of linguists, authors, technologists, scholars and those working for digitization of Indian languages.
Comments are closed.