Basanta Panchami marks beginning of spring festival, educational life in Nepal
KATHMANDU, Feb 3: Inscribing their first words with a chalk on the wall and edges of a Saraswati Temple, many of the toddlers on Monday started their education life from the day of Basanta Panchami also known as Saraswati Pooja in Nepal.
Basanta Panchami which also is popular amongst students as Saraswati Pooja falls on Shukla Panchami of Nepali month with marks the beginning of spring season. It follows the religious belief that if students worship Saraswati, they will get success in their studies.
“Today at Saraswati Temples special pooja are performed worshipping the Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom. Children are brought here in the early morning praying for their progress in studies as well as mindfulness, this also applies for the adults as well. As per the Hindu scriptures visiting the temples would give us the boon with improvement in all fronts of education, following it we came here and worshipped the Goddess,” Adesh Shrestha, a father of two told ANI as he along with his sons wrote their names in the wall of Saraswati Temple in Kathmandu.
Apart from them, other students, no matter educational level also climbed up the temple located in the hill top of UNESCO World Heritage Site, Swayambhunath paying obeisance to Goddess Saraswati.
Basanta Panchami which also is popular amongst students as Saraswati Pooja falls on Shukla Panchami of Nepali month with marks the beginning of spring season. It follows the religious belief that if students worship Saraswati, they will get success in their studies.
According to the Nepali lunar calendar, the festival, popularly known as Basanta Panchami and Saraswati Puja, falls on the fifth day of the waxing moon in the month of Magh.
Extending wishes on Basanta Panchami, Nepali President Ram Chandra Paudel described Saraswati Puja as a festival that energizes our lives and inspires innovation. In his message on the occasion of Saraswati Puja today, he emphasized the significance of worshipping Goddess Saraswati, the deity of wisdom, knowledge, and music.
President Paudel expressed his hope that Saraswati Puja would help preserve and promote the nation’s rich cultural heritage while fostering unity within the country’s social and cultural diversity. (ANI)
Singapore to apply cool coatings for sustainable public housing
Singapore, Feb 3: Singapore’s public housing authority announced Monday that it would apply cool coatings to all public estates islandwide following a successful pilot, as part of a broader programme for sustainable living.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) said in a statement that it would work closely with Town Councils, which are autonomous entities run by elected members of parliament and residents, to complete the coatings by 2030.
In 2021, the HDB and the Tampines Town Council in eastern Singapore launched a pilot project to apply a specialised paint containing heat-reflective additives to approximately 130 HDB blocks. The paint helps reduce surface heat absorption and emission.
Findings from the two-year pilot showed that the cool coatings lowered ambient temperatures by up to two degrees Celsius. Residents in coated blocks also consumed less electricity, as less energy was needed for air conditioning.
“Five years ago, we launched the HDB Green Towns Programme to transform our public housing estates into greener and more liveable spaces for residents. Notwithstanding Covid-19 challenges in the initial period, we have made good progress. I thank our stakeholders, especially residents for their strong support of these initiatives. Building on this foundation, we are stepping up our efforts to scale the initiatives across HDB towns. We want to ensure that every town meets the needs of current residents as well as for many generations to come,” said Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How.
The cool coatings are part of the 10-year HDB Green Towns Programme, which will also introduce measures such as installing smart electrical sub-meters, upgrading complexes, and deploying more than 1,000 beverage container return points, Xinhua news agency reported. (IANS)