Indian Politics is on the path of innovations and improvement which could be noticed in every section of PM Modi-led Government. The recent one in the list is Culture Ministry as the government has decided to rate Indian artists and writers, on the basis of which they will represent India in the world.
Under a pilot project of culture ministry, a high-powered committee of ministry officials has been set up which had already graded 185 artists into three categories — O (outstanding), P (promising) and W (waiting), as per a report. The main idea behind such rating is to maintain a comprehensive profile of all the artists on the basis of popularity, age, and experience. Also, it would prevent a clique from dominating the cultural space.
The minister of state for culture, Mahesh Sharma along with other ministers, had invited applicants for the same and then graded the respondents including certain big names like Kathak exponent Shovana Narayan, Padma Bhushan awardee and Carnatic musician TV Gopalakrishnan and Delhi-based Akshara Theatre group, etc. Forty-six of the 185 graded are “outstanding”, 112 “promising” and 27 have been put in the “waiting” category and can’t represent India. The artists of outstanding and promising categories will only be allowed to represent India in the official events abroad. Also, there will be a “cooling-off period of two years” between two official events.
For applying, artists and writers can get on the CCRT website and fill an application which has columns for fields like architecture, sculpture, painting, handicraft, music, dance, theater, and written literature. There are sub-categories as well. This new brainwave of Culture Ministry of India of grading artists will surely create a definitive cultural directory.
