CHONGQING, China, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Located in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, the Dazu Rock Carvings have held UNESCO World Heritage status since 1999. Sprawled across 75 recognized cultural relics protection zones, the site shelters over 50,000 breathtaking statues. As one of the eight great grottoes of the world, Dazu Rock Carvings epitomize the pinnacle of world grotto art dating from the 9th to the mid-13th century from different aspects. Celebrated as “the last monument of world grotto art,” Dazu, together with Mogao, Yungang, Longmen and other grottoes, constitute the complete history of Chinese grotto art.

Recent initiatives have rejuvenated Dazu’s cultural presence. In an 8K dome theater, the Thousand‑Armed Guanyin’s benevolent gaze fills the screen, inviting viewers into a celestial embrace. The dance‑drama Tian Xia Dazu (For an Eternal Homeland — Dazu Rock Carvers’ Legacy) animates the carvers’ epic tale with immersive stagecraft. Even video games now feature Dazu’s statues, their contours and stories woven into virtual adventures. This thousand‑year‑old sanctuary is stepping firmly into the present.

The 8k full-dome film Dazu Rock Carvings awakens all 50,000 statues in layered streams of live footage and CG animation, transforming the physical space into a digital world. Reclined within the dome, audiences look up through a canopy of digital stars, accompanied by haunting Buddhist chants and soulful light interplay. Time‑weathered halos reform around sculpted robes — reborn in pixels yet rooted in antiquity.

In Black Myth: Wukong, the Monkey King cleaves through primordial chaos with his magical staff, the thousand-armed Guanyin of Dazu Rock Carvings smiles serenely amid dimensional rifts — holding a flower between her fingers. In the digital Buddhist world, gamers traverse a meticulously rendered Dazu, encountering Buddhist iconography amid mythic quests — an interactive bridge to Eastern philosophy. Meanwhile, CCTV’s China in Intangible Cultural Heritage devoted its Chongqing episode to Dazu, describing the site’s living legacy as “like stars falling all over mountains and rivers in Chongqing,” rekindling collective memory through the screen.

On stage, dancers echo the chiseling rhythms of bygone artisans. Silk‑flowing costumes swirl as performers burst from stone walls, transforming history into kinetic art. This isn’t a static reenactment — it’s a cultural translation, transmitting the carvers’ spirit through flesh, motion, and emotion.

The Dazu Rock Carvings are being revitalized through digital technology and cultural innovation. Digital projection breathes new life into carvings in the virtual spaces, enabling dialogues across time and space; Stage arts, meanwhile, imbue them with contemporary vitality. Technology extends their reach, while culture revitalizes their essence. Through this symbiosis, this millennium-old treasure resonates with the modern era, radiating timeless splendor.

Photo – https://oyefilmy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/dazu-rock-carvings-the-last-monument-of-world-grotto-art-1.jpg

Photo – https://oyefilmy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/dazu-rock-carvings-the-last-monument-of-world-grotto-art-2.jpg

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2709509/Dazu_rock_carving_logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/dazu-rock-carvings-the-last-monument-of-world-grotto-art-302480400.html

MUMBAI, India, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — This year, Pride@Godrej builds on a decade-long project of cultural inclusion within the Godrej Industries Group, to create a meaningful platform for authentic queer storytelling, entrepreneurial spirit and artistic expression.

The Group recently hosted a vibrant Pride March at its headquarters, Godrej One, led by Manish Shah, Managing Director of Godrej Capital, and joined by senior leaders across the organization. This march was a powerful demonstration of solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community, including Godrej’s queer employees in India and globally, alongside their allies.

A key highlight of Pride@Godrej 2025 was the launch of Queer Directions—a pioneering publishing imprint in collaboration with Westland Books, dedicated to amplifying queer voices and narratives. The event began with the Pitch Bazaar, where over a dozen unpublished queer writers connected with publishers and media professionals. In parallel, a Queer Bazaar showcased products from queer-owned small businesses, fostering visibility and economic opportunities.

The celebration culminated in a delightful performance of Jhumkewali, a play supported by Godrej Properties Limited, which explores themes of lesbian first love and self-discovery set in the 1970s. Performed in multiple Indian languages, the play embodied the event’s inclusive ethos, celebrating the intersection of queerness with India’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

This day-long celebration seamlessly blended culture, conversation, and community through thoughtfully curated experiences.

“What excites me most about this celebration is how we moved beyond just rainbow flags to create real opportunities,” said Parmesh Shahani, Head of the Godrej DEI Lab and author of Queeristan. “When queer writers feel confident enough to pitch their stories to industry professionals, when small queer businesses get a platform to showcase their work, that’s when you know inclusion is working. We are not just talking about diversity; we are actively creating pathways for queer voices to thrive.”

“The launch of Queer Directions represents our belief that great stories deserve great platforms,” said Karthika V.K., Publisher at Westland Books. “This isn’t just about publishing—it’s about ensuring that authentic queer narratives find their rightful place in Indian literature and reach readers who need to see themselves reflected in books.”

Throughout June, the Group companies will engage in a series of impactful Pride-focused initiatives, moving beyond symbolic gestures to drive meaningful change. Godrej Properties is celebrating Pride Month across its zones with Pride marches, storytelling sessions, inclusive workshops, and creative activities such as art contests and wall painting. Godrej Capital is fostering inclusion through events at Pride@Godrej One, including Nukkad Nataks, allyship panels, LGBTQIA+ hiring drives, and wellness programs. Godrej Consumer Products is leading QueeRising 2025, a global campaign celebrating queer identity through conversations, connections, and inspiring change. Godrej Chemicals is championing Pride Month with awareness campaigns and LGBT+ sensitization workshops, while Godrej Agrovet Limited is organizing employee workshops focused on workplace allyship.

This year too, a Pride flag and other queer-affirming signage have sparked meaningful conversations among employees and visitors alike, reflecting the organization’s evolving commitment to visibility, dialogue, and genuine inclusion.

About the Godrej DEi Lab

The Godrej DEI Lab empowers inclusion ecosystems both within and outside the Godrej Industries Group.

www.godrejdeilab.com

About Godrej Industries Group

Godrej Industries Ltd. is the holding company of the Godrej Industries Group (GIG). We are privileged to serve over 1.1 billion consumers globally through our businesses with market leadership positions in the consumer products, real estate, agriculture, financial services and chemicals industries.

www.godrejindustries.com

About Westland Books

Westland Books is an award-winning Indian publisher with a diverse and exciting range of books from popular and literary fiction to business, politics, biography, spirituality, popular science, health and self-help. Its key publishing imprints include Context, Ekadā, Tranquebar, Westland Sport, Westland Business, IndiePress, IF and Red Panda.

Photo: https://oyefilmy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/pridegodrej-2025-beyond-symbolism-empowering-lgbtqia-voices-and-businesses-1.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2561817/5367444/Godrej_Industries_Group_Logo.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/pridegodrej-2025-beyond-symbolism-empowering-lgbtqia-voices-and-businesses-302480189.html

NEW DELHI, June 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A global survey conducted by Springer Nature reveals that researchers in India are calling for more balanced and responsible approaches to research assessment, with an emphasis on transparency, integrity, and moving beyond over-reliance on quantitative metrics.

The 2024 Research Assessment Survey, which gathered responses from over 6,300 researchers worldwide—including 764 from India—provides important insights into how researchers experience and perceive current evaluation practices. While researchers globally continue to be assessed based on a combination of publication counts, citations, and grant funding, Indian respondents reported a stronger reliance on purely quantitative measures than their global peers.

Notably, 21% of Indian researchers said they are assessed entirely by quantitative metrics such as number of publications, citations, or grant income. This figure is higher than the global average (16%), and even Asia overall (17%). The contrast is particularly striking when compared to the United Kingdom, where only 5% reported being assessed solely on such metrics—reflecting a strong shift in UK research culture toward more holistic evaluations.

At the same time, there is clear appetite for change: 49% of Indian respondents said they believe there should be a balanced mix of quantitative and qualitative criteria in research assessments, suggesting growing interest in reform.

“Researchers in India and globally are sending a clear message—they want assessments that go beyond simplistic metrics like publication counts and journal impact factors,” said Dr. Ed Gerstner, Director of Research, Springer Nature. “There is a growing demand for systems that reward openness, collaboration, and real-world impact. At Springer Nature, we are proud to be a driving force in this global conversation.”

Springer Nature has been at the forefront of advancing responsible research assessment. The company is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a member of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), and continues to promote practices that foster research integrity, open science, and transparency.

In India, Springer Nature is further supporting national efforts such as One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) and working closely with universities and research institutions to build capacity around responsible research evaluation. The company is also engaging with policymakers to ensure that global advances in research assessment translate into impactful, local change.

The survey also revealed:

• Despite the emphasis on quantitative metrics, Indian researchers were more likely to report that they are evaluated on their contributions to both the national good (50%) and to solving global challenges such as those embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (34%) than researchers in Europe (30% and 19% respectively), North America (35% and 16% respectively) or globally (40% and 25% respectively).
• There is a strong desire in India for balanced assessments, blending measurable outputs with qualitative indicators such as societal relevance, collaboration, and contributions to the SDGs.
• Transparency and clarity in assessment processes were rated highly by Indian respondents, indicating the importance of trust and fairness in research careers.

This growing awareness among Indian researchers aligns with Springer Nature’s global push for research systems that are not only rigorous and reproducible but also fair, inclusive, and meaningful.

About Springer Nature:

Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. We publish the largest number of journals and books and are a pioneer in open research. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world. For more information, please visit about.springernature.com and @SpringerNature.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2578536/5362419/Springer_Nature_Logo.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/indian-researchers-call-for-balanced-and-responsible-research-assessments-springer-nature-survey-reveals-global-insights-302478792.html