❖ The Union Cabinet approved giving the status of 'classical language' to five more languages - Marathi, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit and Assamese.

❖ With this cabinet decision, the number of languages that have the status will nearly double from six to 11.

❖ The languages that had the tag earlier were Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia

❖ Tamil was granted the status in 2004 and the last language to get it was Odia, in 2014.

❖ The new classical languages will also have the national awards, Chairs in universities, and centres for promotion set up for them in due course.