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India has launched what it says is the world's lightest satellite ever to be put into orbit.

Weighing only 1.26kg (2.6lb), the Kalamsat-V2 was made by students belonging to a space education firm.

It will help ham radio operators and "inspire schoolchildren to become the scientists and engineers of the future", India's space agency says.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launched the satellite from its Sriharikota space centre.

Isro chief K Sivan has claimed that "Kalamsat is the lightest satellite to be ever built and launched into orbit".

It is also the first to be built by a private Indian firm and launched by Isro.

The celestial unit will serve as a communications satellite for ham radio transmission, a form of wireless communication used by amateurs for non-commercial activities.

An even lighter satellite, weighing 64 grams and built by the same group of students, was launched on a four-hour mission for a sub-orbital flight from a Nasa facility in the US in June 2017. Sub-orbital spaceflights technically enter space, but do not get into orbit.

Kalamsat-V2 was made by students belonging to Space Kidz India, a Chennai-based space education firm.

Srimathy Kesan, chief executive of Space Kidz India, told Indian broadcaster NDTV that the satellite took just six days to make, at a cost of 1.2m Indian rupees ($16,887).

So far nine satellites made by Indian students have found a place on space rockets.

In a first, the Indian space agency is also going to reuse a stage of the rocket that was used to launch the satellite.

Traditionally, rockets are expendable. Their various segments are discarded during an ascent. Fuel is also removed.

They end up as space debris - there are millions of discarded pieces of metal and other materials orbiting the Earth, ranging from defunct satellites to old rocket segments to accidentally dropped astronaut tools. Collisions can cause a great deal of damage, and generate even more pieces of debris.

The satellite was launched by Isro's reliable Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - a four-stage rocket that on this launch weighs about 260 tonnes.

Its first three segments usually drop back to Earth; its fourth and final stage uses liquid propellants, and can be stopped and restarted several times to get a spacecraft into just the right orbit.

The fourth stage can take the the satellite to a height of 277km (172 miles) above earth.

But Isro gave new capability to the last stage so that it can remain active in space for up to a year.

"Why waste such a valuable resource? We decided to convert [the fourth stage] into an experimental orbital platform to conduct small experiments in space," said Mr Sivan. The PSLV rocket costs upwards of $28m (£21m).

The experimental orbital platform will help researchers carry out experiments in a near zero-gravity environment.

Another satellite - the 740kg Microsat-R - was also taken into orbit by the PSLV. It will be used by India's military to take high-resolution photos of Earth.
Innovative move

In this mission, the last stage of the rocket will be "moved to a higher circular orbit" from where the Kalamsat-V2 is expected to beam down its signals.

"This is the first time Isro is conducting such an experiment to reclaim a dead rocket stage and to keep it alive," Mr Sivan said.

In this new approach, researchers can simply bring in their payloads or experiments which will then be plugged into the equipment bay especially made in the spent rocket.

Isro is the not the first space agency to try this "waste to wealth innovation".

Jean Yves-LeGall, president of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, says they have used it "but did not find it a cost effective way to conduct experiments in space".

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Bangladesh is to form its new government by Jan. 10, a senior ruling party figure confirmed Tuesday, as the UN called for restraint after a controversial and deadly election.

The ruling alliance, led by the Awami League (AL), stormed to victory last month by seizing 288 parliamentary seats out of 298.

The opposition coalition, called the Jatiya Oikya Front (JOF), won just seven seats. It accused the government of dirty tricks and has demanded a fresh election.

The JOF, in addition to rejecting the result, said its newly elected lawmakers would not take the oath or take their seats in Parliament.

The UN urged stakeholders to maintain a peaceful post-election atmosphere, saying it was aware of violent incidents and reports of irregularities in the poll.

“We regret the loss of life and injuries sustained by candidates and voters during the electoral campaign and on election day,” a statement said.

AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader said lawmakers would be sworn in on Jan. 3 and that the formation of a new government would be completed by next week.

“After the oath taking, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will meet the president. Then the president will request the prime minister to form the government,” Quader told reporters in Dhaka.

“Earlier, they made a mistake by boycotting the 2014 election. Whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied, it’s their party matter. But those who have been elected this time will not show disrespect to the people’s verdict by not taking the oath.

“It is the concern of the Election Commission,” he said, referring to the JOF boycott. “Everything will be done according to the constitution. If any candidate fails to take the oath, the Election Commission will arrange necessary steps according to the constitution.”

The prime minister said opposition candidates were to blame for their defeat because they did not take the election seriously enough.

“The BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) got seven seats in the election only because of them. There is no fault on our part,” Hasina told foreign election observers and media on Monday. “We never saw a candidate sitting like this in an election… they only used their mobile phones to seek votes and that’s all. There was no campaign beyond that. What did they want to do?”

She also said the opposition’s dilemma over its choice of prime minister was another reason for the heavy defeat.

But a BNP figure said the government was to blame for the election outcome. “They have snatched away our votes and that’s why we have rejected it,” Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told Arab News.

“We have formed the JOF alliance to reinstate the voting rights of the people and the alliance members will move together in the future as long as the voting rights of the people are restored.”

The AL’s landslide victory and the sliver of opposition seats was causing concern among political observers, according to Prof. Ataur Rahman of Dhaka University. He said the new government would be a regime of a different kind where the opposition would have a minimal role. He also said there would be no critical discourse or debate in the new Parliament.

“The new government will focus on the continuation of the ongoing development works of the country… We have noticed this in some other countries like Singapore and Malaysia,” he told Arab News.

The country was not moving forward toward a sustainable democracy, he added, it was moving with the spirit of developments.

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Use of Vernaculars is going to open the doors of the world of internet to millions in India hence Indian Entrepreneurs cannot choose to miss this opportunity

There has been an unsaid assumption for the past twenty years. Using the internet in India meant that you knew English. The English speaking population of India has benefitted tremendously with this access. It’s lead to faster personal development in all crucial aspects of life – knowledge, communication, career, social, love, keeping in touch etc.

Less than 10per cent of India actually knows English. Out of internet accessing a population of 400 million, more than 300 million are not comfortable with English. This population has not realized the potential of using the internet yet. The power of the internet is now being offered to the non-English speaking population of India. Amongst the 2 major barriers that existed – internet access and knowledge of English, the former has been solved with cheaper smartphones and cheaper data availability from the likes of Jio.

Internet and English

The latter barrier is a bit more complicated to solve. Either 90per cent of India needs to learn English right now to use the internet. That seems improbable OR the internet is quickly made available in local languages for every use case that users are looking for. That looks to be the faster way.

These 2 approaches will merge at some point in time in the next 10 years and English might make its way to the larger population of India. But in the meantime, there’s a window of opportunity to build a much-loved brand by taking the internet to everyone in languages that they are comfortable with, today. By building this brand in the shorter run, the same brand can make itself available for any use case and any language, including English, in the future as the knowledge of English increases amongst the wider population.

The New Way Out

This is exactly what the first movers in the vernacular space are enabling. Content seems to be the first entry point. There is a huge demand for local language content and very little supply of the same. There was never an online ecosystem that developed to produce content in vernacular. It’s always been in English.

The time is now to enable this underserved demand with platforms which aggregate and help create local language content, keeping in mind their unique taste for consumption. It’s not as easy as it sounds though. In the last decade, technology entrepreneurs have mostly built businesses which solve a problem they themselves have faced. This in itself hasn’t been a bed of roses. Now, add to that the fact that the entrepreneur has to understand the mind of a user who can’t say out what exactly they’re looking for in a product. That now makes it extremely complicated. Trying to get it right the very first time will be extremely challenging.

The only way to go about building products for the next billion users would be to fundamentally accept that it will take time and patience. It will also require an ability to move fast on experiments and have zero inhibition to discard those things that do not work. To be able to experiment fast, the entrepreneur should also have an innate ability to think and ideate fast and an extra bit of natural creativity would go a long way.

Here’s celebrating the fact that there is an opportunity that the internet giants would find extremely difficult to crack. Local entrepreneurs have a limited timeframe where they can act and build a gigantic company which rivals the best in the world. It’s for each one of us to grab this opportunity and make the most of it.

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The Indian government could possibly legalize cryptocurrencies, but with tough terms and conditions attached, a news report suggests.

According to a New Indian Express article published Wednesday, an interdisciplinary committee set up by the government to investigate cryptocurrencies, is not in favor of an outright ban.

An anonymous senior official who attended the committee’s meetings told the newspaper:

“We have already had two meetings. There is a general consensus that cryptocurrency cannot be dismissed as completely illegal. It needs to be legalized with strong riders. Deliberations are on.”

The government set up the committee in April 2017 with the remit of examining the existing legal framework related to digital currencies and suggesting new measures to deal with the technology, including addressing issues around consumer protection and money laundering. Members include representatives from government departments for the economy and taxation, as well as the central bank and other agencies.

The second iteration of the group is now reportedly expected to submit its new report to the country’s finance ministry by February 2019.

The article apparently indicates a softening of stance by the committee, which, back in October, recommended that the government develop an “appropriate legal framework to ban the use of private cryptocurrencies in India.”

Further dampening the country’s cryptocurrency industry amid confusing messages over the legal status of bitcoin and its crypto peers, an April order by the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank, prevented domestic banks from providing services to cryptocurrency firms such as exchanges.

Since then exchanges have been seeking ways to keep their businesses from failing, entering legal petitions to overturn the RBI ban at the country’s supreme court. Seeking guidance, the court, on Oct. 26, asked the government to provide its opinion on cryptocurrencies within two weeks.

While, no official announcement has yet been made to provide guidance, that situation looks likely to change in coming months.

With India a member nation of the G20 group, any rules to govern the local crypto space may be influenced by planned regulatory guidance from the international economic forum, the report adds.

The official told the New Indian Express:

“We have also taken inputs from cryptocurrency exchanges and experts and will be examining legal issues with the law ministry. It’s a complicated issue. Once all aspects are decided, then we will have more clarity.”
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NEW DELHI: India’s government faces a tough re-election battle next year but first it must deal with an opponent as wily as any political rival, troops of monkeys that have become a big threat around its offices in New Delhi.
Red-faced rhesus macaques have spread havoc, snatching food and mobile telephones, breaking into homes and terrorizing people in and around the Indian capital.
They have colonized areas around parliament and the sites of key ministries, from the prime minister’s office to the finance and defense ministries, frightening both civil servants and the public.
“Very often they snatch food from people as they are walking, and sometimes they even tear files and documents by climbing in through the windows,” said Ragini Sharma, a home ministry employee.
Ahead of Tuesday’s start of parliament’s winter session, an advisory to members of parliament last month detailed ways they could keep simian attacks at bay. Don’t tease or make direct eye contact with a monkey, the advisory said, and definitely don’t get between a mother and her infant.
The rapid growth of cities has displaced macaques, geographically the most widely distributed primates in the world after humans, driving them into human habitats to hunt for food.
Many in Hindu-majority India revere and feed the animals they consider to be connected to the demigod Hanuman, who takes the form of a monkey.
“This socio-religious tradition of feeding has created a vicious cycle,” said ecology researcher Asmita Sengupta.
“They become used to being fed by humans and lose their sense of fear,” said Sengupta, of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.
“They start actively seeking supplementary food and if we don’t feed them, they turn aggressive.”

’APE REPELLERS’
The monkeys have hardly proved an ally for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hundreds of macaques feasting on optic fiber cables strung along the banks of the river Ganges derailed his plan to roll out wifi in his constituency, the crowded 3,000-year-old holy city of Varanasi, in 2015.
Men were hired to swat the monkeys away with broomsticks and slingshots, when then US President Barack Obama toured New Delhi that year, media said.
Some monkey-human encounters have turned tragic.
In 2007, monkeys pushed the deputy mayor of Delhi, S.S. Bajwa, off his balcony to his death. Last month, one of the animals snatched a 12-day-old boy from his mother and killed him in Agra, home to the famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal.
Monkeys have bred rapidly in Delhi and neighboring states as they have protected status, but there is no official estimate of their numbers.
India has tried several strategies to fight the menace.
Several years ago, it brought in larger, black-faced langurs, feared by the macaques, to patrol key areas but that stopped after it became illegal to keep langurs in captivity.
Authorities stumbled on a partially successful solution four years ago, after hiring 40 men to disguise themselves as langurs and squeal monkey-like to try and terrify the macaques away.
“We call them ‘ape repellers’ and they are contract employees,” said a government official, who asked not to be identified. The stratagem works temporarily as the monkeys flee on hearing the calls, but they return once the men depart.
Primatologist S.M. Mohnot recommends sterilization and moving the animals to forests, as well as lifting a ban on their capture for biomedical research and resuming exports of the macaques, as components of a solution.
“The monkey menace can be checked only by a multi-pronged approach,” said Mohnot, the chairman of the Primate Research Center, a federal institute in the western city of Jodhpur.
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NEW DELHI: Indian police said Thursday they have arrested nearly two dozen people on suspicion of defrauding people around the world by sending fake pop-up messages warning them that their computers were infected with a virus and offering to fix the problem at a price.
Police officer Ajay Pal Sharma said those arrested Tuesday and Wednesday posed as representatives of Microsoft and other companies and used their logos.
The arrests were made after input from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, Sharma said. Microsoft was the complainant in the case.
He said those arrested have been running the scam out of call centers in the Indian capital and the neighboring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for months.
The pop-up messages prompted victims in the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries to call a phone number shown on their computer screens, he said. They would then be scammed out of money in exchange for supposedly fixing the problem.
Those arrested were mostly people in their 20s and early 30s who quit their jobs in call centers. Police recovered hard drives, servers, laptops, cellphones and computers from them, Sharma said.
In 2016, Mumbai police arrested 70 people for allegedly cheating thousands of Americans. They would call their victims from call centers in Mumbai and tell them that they owed unpaid taxes and should buy prepaid cash cards to settle the debts or face jail.
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Indian authorities will launch a major security operation at the ruins of a 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya, where hundreds of thousands of far-right Hindus are expected to gather on Sunday.

The demonstrators aim to put pressure on the government to build a new Hindu temple on the disputed site.

Constructed in 1528 by order of Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India, the mosque was razed on December 6, 1992, by Hindus who claimed the site was where their deity, Lord Ram, was born.

The incident prompted a series of massive riots which led to the deaths of about 2,000 people across the country.

Local media reported that more than 3,500 Muslims have fled the city before the gathering.

Anil Pathak, the district chief of Faizabad, where the mosque is located, said: "The government will ensure that the event passes off peacefully and the local administration has put in place an elaborate security apparatus."

"No one will be allowed to disturb peace and order in the city," he told the Reuters news agency.

More than 900 extra police and a large number of military, including elite commandos, will be deployed at Sunday's event, Vivek Tripathi, a spokesperson for the Uttar Pradesh police said.
'BJP committed to building Ram temple'

Hindu groups have insisted that there was a temple at the site before the mosque was built in the 16th century, an issue that has caused a permanent fissure in India's social fabric and instilled fear among India's Muslim minority.

"More than 200,000 people will attend," said Surendra Jain, general secretary of the far-right Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which will be holding a religious congregation at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

"We assure everyone ... that not even a twig will be disturbed."

In advance of a general election that must be held by May next year, leaders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - who led the Ram temple movement - have become more vocal in their demand that a new Hindu temple be built.

On Wednesday, the BJP's president said his party was "committed to building the Ram temple in Ayodhya," and would not change its stand.

Ruled by the BJP's Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu hardliner, Ayodhya is in the politically important northern Uttar Pradesh state, which is bigger than Brazil by population, and sends more legislators than any other state to India's parliament.

Adityanath has been repeatedly accused of inciting violence against the country's Muslim minority, who make up around 14 percent of India's 1.3 billion people.

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A grenade flung at a religious gathering exploded, killing three people and injuring 10 others in northern India.

About 500 were in the irankari sect's congregation venue in Punjab's Amritsar district when two youths, with their faces covered, rode to the building, and lobbed the grenade and escaped, a police officer said in a report by the Khaleejtimes.

The venue is near the international airport.

"My heart goes out to victims of the Amritsar bomb blast & their families," Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh posted on Twitter. "My govt will give Rs 5 lakh [$6,965] to the kin of each of the dead and free treatment to injured. Have asked district administration to extend all help."

The attack came in wake of a high alert issued by the Punjab police that six to seven terrorists had entered the state.

"I appeal to the people of Punjab to maintain peace in wake of Amritsar bomb blast," Sing tweeted. "I urge them not to panic and to remain calm. We will not let the forces of terror destroy our hard earned peace."

New Delhi and National Capital Region are high alert after the blast.

Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party chief and the Delhi chief minister, tweeted: "A cowardly act. We strongly condemn it."
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NEW DELHI: New Delhi’s homeless will be given cotton masks to help them survive in the world’s most polluted major city, officials said Monday, although experts said the basic coverings would be useless against deadly smog particles.
Each winter the capital of 20 million chokes through haze so extreme that levels of airborne pollutants eclipse safe limits by more than 30 times.
The poor and homeless suffer the worst, through constant exposure to a toxic brew of car fumes, factory exhaust and construction dust.
Measures to curb the smog — from reducing heavy goods traffic and firecrackers to banning farmers from using fire to clear their fields — have failed to clear the skies.
Bipin Rai from Delhi’s city government told AFP that 10,000 face masks would be given “to homeless families, women, patients and children as pollution levels are on the rise.”
But experts said these masks offered little to no protection against the most poisonous pollutants in the air — particles known as PM2.5 so small they can penetrate the heart and cardiovascular system.
“These masks are redundant, as fine particles harmful to the human body will not be filtered out,” Vivek Chattopadhyay from the Center for Science and Environment told AFP.
“It is ineffective, and the government should instead offer medically approved masks.”
Rai, from Delhi’s Urban Shelter Improvement Board, defended the scheme.
“Has any expert who is commenting on the masks and their durability tested them? How can they comment on something they’ve not tried,” he said.
Levels of PM2.5 measured by the US embassy in Delhi on Monday showed readings hit 378 — more than 15 times safe limits.
The World Health Organization last year said exposure to air pollution killed 600,000 children around the globe every year.
Tiny particles in the air can be absorbed into the bloodstream and have been linked to chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease.
The report found that children in poorer countries are far more at risk, with a full 98 percent of all children under five in low- and middle-income countries exposed to PM2.5 levels above WHO air quality guidelines.
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BENGALURU: Apple’s iPhone sales are set to dip by around a quarter in India’s holiday season fourth quarter, putting them on course for the first full-year fall in four years, industry research firm Counterpoint said on Saturday.

The Cupertino, California company’s struggle to break through with India’s 1.3 billion consumers swung more sharply into focus this week after Apple blamed a disappointing set of sales forecasts on a handful of big emerging markets.
Chief Executive Tim Cook said after publishing third quarter results that sales were flat in India in the fourth quarter, which includes a month-long festive season culminating this week in Diwali — a bumper period for electronics sales.
Neil Shah, research director at HongKong-based Counterpoint Research, said on Saturday its channel checks pointed to numbers for the quarter in the range of 700,000 to 800,000 units, down from about a million a year ago.
For the whole of 2018, Apple was set to sell about 2 million phones — a drop of about a million from last year, he said, as Indians baulk at high prices for the devices, driven by trade tariffs and a weak rupee.
“Sales are set to drop for the first time in four years,” Shah said. “If you look at Q3 — it was 900k last year and this (year) is almost 450k.
“Iphones have gone costlier and the features and specs aren’t that compelling. The install base of android has grown vastly; the new customer base (for Apple) is not coming.”
Cook on Thursday called the company’s problems in India “speed bumps along a very long journey” and most analysts say that the prestige of Apple’s brand should allow it to claim back lost ground as Indians’ spending power continues to grow.
Shah said that, while more than half the phones sold this year were older iPhone models, high selling prices meant Apple’s Indian revenue should still be flat or slightly higher than a year ago.

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MUMBAI: A man-eating tiger that claimed more than a dozen victims in two years has been shot dead in India, sparking controversy over the legality of its killing.

One of India’s most high-profile tiger hunts in decades ended Friday night when the mother of two 10-month old cubs — known to hunters as T1 but Avni to wildlife lovers — was shot dead in the jungles of Maharashtra state.
A team of more than 150 people had spent months searching for T1, using a paraglider and dozens of infrared cameras while sharpshooters had ridden on the backs of elephants.
However, disputes quickly erupted after the killing as media reports said the tiger was shot in Yavatmal forest with no attempt to tranquilize her.
India’s Supreme Court had issued a hunting order for T1 — blamed for 13 deaths since June 2016 — in September, ruling that she could be killed if tranquilizers failed. Several appeals were made against the death sentence.
The tiger was killed at night, when tranquilizers are not allowed to be used, according to the Times of India and other media outlets.
T1 is said to have been shot dead by Ashgar Ali Khan, son of India’s most famous hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, who was meant to be leading the hunt but was not present Friday night.
Forestry officials and the hunter did not answer calls to give details of the hunt.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests A.K. Mishra told The Indian Express newspaper that a forest staffer had managed to dart the tiger with a tranquilizer at around 11 p.m.
“But she charged at the team, forcing Ashgar to shoot in self-defense,” he said. “The tigress lay dead in a single shot.”However Mishra’s account was contradicted by other reports, while many groups condemned the way the killing was conducted.
The Times of India quoted sources involved in the hunt as saying it looked as though a tranquilizer dart had been put into the tiger’s corpse after the killing. The sources said the dart had not been fired.
Forestry officials acknowledged to Indian media that no vet was present during the hunt, as required by the Supreme Court order.
Jerryl Banait, a vet and activist in Karnataka state who had launched appeals against the order, described the shooting as “cold-blooded murder.”
“Avni was killed illegally satisfying a hunter’s lust for blood,” said the Indian branch of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group.
It said India’s Wildlife Protection Act and National Tiger Conservation Authority rules had been flouted, calling for the matter to be “investigated and treated as a wildlife crime.”
The tiger’s body has been taken to a zoo in the city of Nagpur for a post-mortem.
Despite the disputed circumstances, villages around the town of Pandharkawda celebrated the death with relief.
T1 claimed her first victim, a woman whose body was found in a cotton field, in June 2016. Since then most of the dead were male herders.
India has launched a major campaign to boost tiger numbers. At the last tiger census in 2014 the number had risen to more than 2,200 from a low of less than 1,500.
But urban spread as the population of 1.25 billion grows has increasingly eaten into the territory of wild animals.
Endangered elephants and tigers kill on average one person a day, according to government figures.

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NEW DELHI: With the inauguration of the tallest statue in the world — the Statue of Unity — in the Indian village of Kevadia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is indicating the political narrative that he wishes to dominate the upcoming state and general elections.

The 182-meter-high statue of the late Sardar Vallabhai Patel, India’s first interior minister and an icon of the country’s freedom struggle, was built at a cost of $450 million.
Patel, who was a member of the Congress Party, is projected by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a nationalist who favored making India a Hindu nation, in contrast to Jawaharlal Nehru, the English-educated first prime minister who is credited with laying the foundation of a modern, secular democracy. “This statue is a source of unity,” Modi said after inaugurating it.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a New Delhi-based political analyst and writer, told Arab News: “Undeniably, the entire project has been timed to promote Modi’s political fortunes.” Mukhopadhyay said: “Patel is eulogized by Modi and as part of Hindu nationalists’ narrative, but the fact is that Patel was furiously against Hindu nationalism.”
BJP spokesman Sudesh Verma told Arab News: “Through the Statue of Unity, we want to alter the narrative that has dominated India so far.”
He said: “We need to tell the true legacy of Patel to the world, which got overshadowed by Nehru’s worldview and his promotion of a secular India. This is an ideological slap to those who promote diversity at the cost of India’s unity.”
Mukhopadhyay said: “This shift in the BJP’s emphasis from development to Hindu nationalism is borne out of a realization that Modi’s popularity is waning, and that the government’s poor performance in the last four and a half years can’t ensure a victory in the 2019 elections.”
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RIYADH: The village of Rijal Alma has finalized its submission for the UNESCO’s World Heritage List and is now awaiting the arrival of experts from the UN International Organization for Culture, Arts and Heritage.
The importance of the historical and archaeological village lies in its cultural depth and prominence in trade and architectural arts, represented in tall fortresses that combine beauty and expertise. The space is exploited in a remarkable way, where eight blocks rise on a small surface, forming a united bloc with various fluctuating heights, reaching six floors at times, meticulously decorated from the inside and the outside.
Visitors can reach the village of Rijal via several roads, the most important of which is Aqabat Sama, linking Abha and Rijal Alma through the famous tourist Sawda Center in Saudi Arabia. There are also two other roads leading to Rijal, linking it to the province of Muhayil Asir and the Hobail leading to Ad-Darb province in the Jazan region.
The researcher Mohammed Hassan Gharib wrote about the history of the village and its development. He pointed out that “the evidence of civilization is depicted in buildings, roads, reserves, agricultural planning, wells, crowded cemeteries and in what has been revealed in terms of underground houses in valleys and coal in one of the 30-meter-deep wells dating back to 1375 AH in the neighborhood of Asla. This gives definitive indications of settlement and human presence in the village before the 10th Hijri century and depicts the stages of growth and prosperity.”
Gharib confirmed that the old commercial dimension of the village was the most famous in the region: “The traders in this region reached far regions and the sailboats that they used to rent to transport goods from Aden, Hodeidah and Habashah (Ethiopia) remained in the Red Sea, loaded with products and goods they bought from these areas, which made them an important economic power.” He added that the Rijal village has remained for a period of time, the destination for traveling traders coming from the ports of the Red Sea, especially from its local and foreign trade centers, and it also remained the favorite destination for those coming from Jeddah, Qunfudah and Qahma, Jazan, Hodeidah, Aden, and some of the east coast countries on the African continent like Djibouti, Massawa and Ethiopia.
Gharib said that the goods sold in the shops of the village at that time were Indian, Egyptian, Yemeni, European and African commodities. They even used to sell products from East Asia, such as from Japan and China. Some of them used to mix many trades together, such as food, grains, household items, spices, perfumes, jewelry and others.
The Rijal village has undergone various stages of development including an open theater that extends over an area of 615 square meters, and can accommodate about 1,000 people.
Documenting the heritage of the Alma province started while establishing one of the oldest museums in the Kingdom: The “Alma Museum of Heritage” in 1985, in one of the fortresses of the village. This museum has 2,800 pieces distributed in 12 rooms, each devoted for a particular type of heritage such as agricultural tools, clothes, jewels, old cooking utensils and accessories, ancient education tools and many other aspects related to ancient life, in addition to some rare manuscripts.
Gharib said: “The museum was created in 1405 AH upon the initiative of the people of the province to preserve the heritage of the region. Al-Alwan fort was chosen to be renovated in the Rijal village and it is one of the largest fortresses. The villagers in Rijal collected old artifacts donated by the people, and women in the village have also contributed to this work, under the supervision of Alma artist Fatima Ali Abu Qahas. Many women donated their old jewelry and adornments. The work at the museum was completed and then inaugurated by Prince Khaled in Asir in 1407 AH. The museum has become a cultural touristic hub since then.”
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