Context: Recently, UNESCO added Couscous to the list of intangible world heritage.

• Arch-rivals Algeria and Morocco have put aside their differences to celebrate couscous officially joining the United Nations list of the world’s intangible cultural heritage.
• The two nations alongside Tunisia and Mauritania, had submitted the petition to put the dish to the UNESCO list in March 2019.

About Couscous

• It is also known as Seksu, Kusksi and Kseksu and is as elementary as rice or noodles are to Asian cuisine, the staple without which no meal is complete.
• Arabic dictionaries have documented “Kuskusi” since the 19th century, though it is known to be far older.
• It is prepared from wheat or barley, and sometimes from maize, millet or sorghum, which is ground into semolina.
• The semolina is then rolled into pellets which are sieved and later soaked and repeatedly steamed.

Significance

• It is present at every social or cultural event, is at once ordinary and special.
• Ordinary because of the frequency of its use in a family setting, and special because of the unifying and propitiatory role it plays at convivial community occasions at which food is shared.
• Women, in particular, play a fundamental role in the preparation and consumption of the dish, and in practising and preserving the related symbolic value systems,” said the paper.
• They learn not only the techniques, but also “the songs, gestures, characteristic oral expressions and ritual organisation” that go along with the process

National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of India

• It is an attempt to recognize the diversity of Indian culture embedded in its intangible heritage. 
• Aim- To raise awareness about the various intangible cultural heritage elements from different states of India at national and international level and ensure their protection.

The list has been classified into five broad domains which adheres to the UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The domains are :

• Oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage
• Performing arts
• Social practices, rituals and festive events
• Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe
• Traditional craftsmanship