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 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.
