Project Veer Gatha

About Project Veer Gatha

• It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Education.
• It was instituted under Gallantry Awards Portal (GAP) in 2021.
• Aim: With the aim to disseminate the details of acts of bravery of the Gallantry Awardees and the life stories of these brave hearts among the students so as to raise the spirit of patriotism and instill amongst them values of civic consciousness.
• Project Veer Gatha deepened this noble aim by providing a platform to the school students to do creative projects/activities based on gallantry award winners.
• As part of this, the students framed different projects through various media like art, poems, essays and multimedia on these gallantry award winners and best projects were awarded at national level by the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education.

Key facts about the Gallantry Awards

• Gallantry Awards have been instituted by the Government of India to honour the acts of bravery and sacrifice of the officers/personnel of the Armed Forces, other lawfully constituted Forces and civilians.
• These are announced twice in a year - first on the occasion of the Republic Day and then on the occasion of the Independence Day.
• Post-independence, three gallantry awards namely the Param Vir Chakra, the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra were instituted by the Government of India on 26th January, 1950.
• Thereafter, other three gallantry awards i.e. the Ashoka Chakra Class-I, the Ashoka Chakra Class-II and the Ashoka Chakra Class-III were instituted by the Government of India on 4th January, 1952.
• These awards were renamed as the Ashoka Chakra, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra respectively in January, 1967.
• Order of precedence of these awards is the Param Vir Chakra, the Ashoka Chakra, the Mahavir Chakra, the Kirti Chakra, the Vir Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra

Q1) What is Param Vir Chakra?

It is India's highest military decoration awarded for the highest degree of valour or self-sacrifice in the presence of the enemy.The Param Vir Chakra was introduced on January 26, 1950, on the first Republic Day with retrospective effect from 15 August 1947.It can be awarded posthumously.

Source: Republic Day Celebrations 2024: a whopping 1.37 crore students take part in Project Veer Gatha 3.0 pan India; 100 selected winners to witness 26th January parade as special guests