State map in Odisha soon
Sources said, the SOI has urged the state to nominate one official and one linguistic expert, possibly from a reputed educational institute like Utkal University or RD University with knowledge of Odia language.
A committee will be constituted with the director of Odisha and Chhattisgarh geo-spatial directorate as convener and the two nominated officers as members to finalise the correct spelling of place names and correct translation of descriptive remarks in Odia language.
Traditionally, SOI had been publishing the state maps in English and Hindi languages. This has been decided for the first time to also release state maps in the regional language in order to increase their outreach to the local population. An officer from the state government will also be nominated for proper coordination between the SOI and the government, the sources said.
The map in regional language will provide a comprehensive overview of key geographical and administrative features of the state - typically district boundaries, major cities and towns, transport network, key natural features, tourist sites and cultural landmarks etc.
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His granddaughter, Mahika Agarwal, has preserved photographs in a family album she calls Bauji's Delhi: her grandfather alongside Nehru and Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia; her grandmother welcoming Soraya, the Empress of Iran, in February 1956; her grandfather greeting Queen Elizabeth. Also among these photographs are of Zhou signing the book, flanked by Nehru and a young Dalai Lama in 1956 – three years before the Tibetan leader fled to India and sought refuge. In the visitors' book, Tito's own words appear – a typewritten note from November 15, 1956, during the UNESCO General Conference held in Delhi: 'The days which we spend in New Delhi will remain as an unforgettable memory in our minds. The warm and cordial reception given to our delegation by the citizens of this beautiful and blooming city has left a deep and pleasant impression on us.' DMC president Ram Niwas Agarwal greets Soraya, the Empress of Iran, in Delhi in February 1956. 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In 1974, a young Saddam Hussein – the then deputy leader of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council – filled half a page in Arabic, praising 'shared experiences and historic relationships' between the two nations. At that moment, he was a rising regional figure; decades later, his name would be synonymous with war and dictatorship. By the late 1970s, the tone of the book changes. Many entries are signed not by presidents and premiers but by committee members, bureaucrats, and cultural delegations. Pages are missing, torn, or water-damaged. Officials suspect the gaps conceal other major visits – or perhaps that they were lost during Delhi's political upheavals in the 1980s and '90s, when the municipal corporation itself was suspended for years. Today, about 140 pages have been painstakingly restored. Conservators humidify the brittle paper, flatten creases, and reinforce torn corners with Japanese tissue. 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