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The Government is taking steps for promoting inter-State cultural development programme with a view to increase harmony among people of various States and communities.
The mandate of the Ministry of Culture is to protect, preserve & promote various forms of folk art and culture throughout the country and to meet this objective, the Government of India has set up seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at Patiala, Nagpur, Udaipur, Prayagraj, Kolkata, Dimapur and Thanjavur. These ZCCs engage cultural troupes from different States to participate in the major festivals under National Cultural Exchange Programme (NCEP) and organize various cultural festivals and programmes on regular basis in all the States/UTs of India including Rajasthan.
Ministry of Culture has organized Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsavs (RSMs) at New Delhi (November, 2015 and October, 2016), Uttar Pradesh (December, 2016), Karnataka & Arunachal Pradesh (March, 2017), Gujarat (October, 2017), Karnataka (January, 2018), Madhya Pradesh (February, 2018 & October, 2019) and Uttarakhand (May, 2018). A Sanskriti Mahotsav was also organized at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh during February, 2018. All the ZCCs alongwith other organizations under Ministry of Culture have participated in the Kumbh Mela, 2019 at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
The Ministry of Culture organizes Festivals of India abroad to promote Indian Culture. These festivals are organized through Indian Missions abroad. During the last two years, Festivals of India have been organized in the following countries:
| Years |
Countries |
| 2017-18 |
United Kingdom, Thailand, Brazil, Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire), Liberia and Guinea, Uzbekistan, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Nauru, Tuvalu and Cook Islands |
| 2018-19 |
Tunisia, Russia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Croatia, Qatar, Nepal, Colombia and Ecuador. |
The cultural events during Festivals of India organized abroad are attended by large number of people in general, VIPs, Government officials, academicians, business community and members of Diplomatic Corps etc. These events provide opportunity to the local people to watch live performances of different art forms thereby leaving long-lasting impact on them.
This information was given by the Minister of State (I/c) of Culture and Tourism, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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