2nd Nov Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam

UNESCO Asia Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation

• Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, has won the UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Merit 2017 for cultural heritage conservation.
• It has become the first temple in Tamil Nadu to be given the prestigious award from the UN body.
• The massive renovation and restoration effort executed through the public-private partnership model since 2014 was the main reason to win this award.
• Mumbai's Christ Church and Royal Bombay Opera House were the other monuments in India that received the Award of Merit this year.
• The award is being given to encourage the efforts of all stakeholders and the public in conserving and promoting the monuments and religious institutes with rich heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.
• The awards are classified under four categories - Award of Excellence, Awards of Distinction, Awards of Merit and Award for New Design in Heritage Context.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple

• The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple or Thiruvarangam is a Hindu temple dedicated to Hindu deity Vishnu.
• The temple is situated on an islet between Cauvery and Kollidam rivers. Kollidam is the northern distributary of Cauvery River.
• It has seven prakaras and 21 towers, including the 236-feet-high Rajagopuram.
• It is considered as the foremost among the 108 DivyaDesams.
• A DivyaDesam is one of the 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in the works of the Alvars called “NalayiraDivyaPrabandham”.

NiveshBandhu

• NiveshBandhu is an investor facilitation portal which will be launched by the Ministry of Food Processing during World Food India Expo 2017.
• Its objective is to assist investors to make informed investment decisions.
• The portal would provide information on Central and State Governments’ investor friendly policies, agro-producing clusters, infrastructure, and potential areas of investment in the food processing sector.
• World Food India 2017 will provide global businesses a platform to explore Indian market across the value chain in food processing and food retail.
• It brings together global & Indian leaders across the food value chain for possible partnerships and facilitates investment flow in the food processing sector.

RKVY-RAFTAAR

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the continuation of RashtriyaKrishiVikasYojana (RKVY) as RKVY- Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) for three years i.e. 2017-18 to 2019-20.
• RKVY is a continuing scheme under implementation from XI Five Year Plan.
• RKVY – RAFTAAR scheme will incentivize States in enhancing more allocation to Agriculture and Allied Sectors. 
• It will provide considerable flexibility and autonomy to states in planning and executing programmes for investment in agriculture and allied sectors.
• The funds would be provided to the States as 60:40 grants between Centre and States (90:10 for North Eastern States and Himalayan States).
• It will also strengthen farmer’s efforts through creation of agriculture infrastructure that help in supply of quality inputs, market facilities etc. 
• It will further promote agri-entrepreneurship and support business models that maximize returns to farmers.

EESL and GEF partnership

• The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has partnered with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under Ministry of Power, for the project ‘Creating and Sustaining Markets for Energy Efficiency’.
• The project will receive a composite funding of $454 million comprised of the GEF grant and loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
• The project, one of the largest funding by GEF till date, will mitigate 60 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
• EESL proposes Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund (EERF) for sustainable funding mechanism of energy efficiency projects in the country.

Uluru

• Uluru is the world’s largest monolith and a giant red rock, located in Central Australia.
• It is also known as Ayers Rock, a sandstone formation which experiences a hot desert climate.
• It is considered as sacred to “Anangu”, the Aboriginal people of the region.
• Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• It is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably when it glows red at dawn and sunset.
• At a meeting of the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park board, a unanimous decision was made to restrict the climbing of rock, which will come into effect from October 2019.
• It was a proposal by the aboringal tribes for whom the site is sacred.

Source: The Hindu, PIB