Prelim Bits 15-12-2022 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Current Affairs

Thousand Pillars Temple

Sculptors from Tamil Nadu involved in the restoration of the colossal mandapa of the Rudreshwara Temple at Hanumakonda.

The Thousand Pillars Temple is also called as Rudreshwara Swamy temple and the main deity is Lord Shiva.
It is located at the base of Hanumakonda hills in Warangal district, Telangana.
The temple was built in 12^th century by Rudra Deva, the first independent king of the Kakatiya Dynasty.

1000pillars

Its structure resembles the shape of a star and houses three major shrines of Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Lord Surya, known as Trikutalayam.
Thousand Pillar Temple was constructed by using the sandbox technique and is known for intricately carved pillars.
The mandapa leads to the main temple with a majestic monolith Nandi seated on the pathway.
In the medieval period, the mandapa was used for holding the meeting of village councils (Gram Sabhas) and dance performances.
The mandapa was destroyed during the invasion by Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, who ruled over the Delhi sultanate in 1323 AD.
The restoration project of the temple mandapa is taken up by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

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The Kozhikode Tourism Promotion Council has applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the famous Beypore Uru.

Beypore Uru is a wooden dhow (ship / sailing boat / sailing vessel) handcrafted by skilled artisans and carpenters in Beypore, Kerala.
Beypore is situated on the banks of Chaliyar River.
Uru making in Beypore is a centuries old tradition, established since India began its maritime trade with Mesopotamia.
The Beypore Urus are a symbol of Kerala’s trade relations and friendship with the Gulf countries.

Miniature Beypore Uru will be part of the official prizes of the FIFA World Cup 2022 held at Qatar.

beyporeuru

The Beypore Urus are purely made of premium wood - a special teak from the Nilambur Forest.
The wood used is still sawed in the traditional way and joined manually to build urus which requires immense expertise.
Usually an Uru is built by a team of 50 men over a period of at least 4 years.
These ships are made on the instructions of maistry (chief carpenters) on daily basis without any work plan or blueprints.
Several communities are traditionally associated with Uru-making, the Odayis and Khalasis (Mappila Khalasis) are prominent among them.
Odayis manage the technical matters of ship building and their family name comes from Odam (a small ship).
Mappila Khalasis are world-famous for their skill and expertise in launching the completed Urus into the water by using only traditional methods.

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Ganga Project is recognised by the United Nations for their role in restoring the river.

Clean Ganga is an ambitious project that aims to improve the health of the Ganga.
Restoring the health of the Ganges brings a wide range of benefits to the 520 million people living around its vast basin.
Namami Gange - The government-led Namami Gange initiative was launched in 2014.
The initiative is rejuvenating, protecting and conserving the Ganges and its tributaries, reforesting parts of the Ganges basin and promoting sustainable farming.
It also aims to revive key wildlife species, including river dolphins, softshell turtles, otters, and the hilsa shad fish.

World Restoration Flagships

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a global movement coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Under UN Decade 10 pioneering initiatives that are restoring the natural world were declared World Restoration Flagships.
The selected flagships are eligible to receive UN-backed promotion, advice or funding.

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The first G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting under India’s presidency took place in Bengaluru.

The G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting took place in Bengaluru marking the beginning of G20 Finance Track.
The meeting was co-chaired by Union secretary (economic affairs) and RBI deputy governor.
Around 184 representatives of central banks and finance deputies from 20 countries, guest countries and international institutions participated in the two-day summit.
In this meeting, 7 discussion sessions and 2 side events were organised.

financetrack

India about financial inclusion said - Digital public infrastructure leading to financial inclusion, and financial inclusion is not limited to just the bank accounts but also transactions.

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The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Department of Space signed a MoU to develop a Krishi-Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS).

Krishi–DSS is a Decision Support developed by the Union Agricultural Ministry on the lines of Gati Shakti.
The Krishi-DSS will be developed using geospatial technologies and related databases such as RISAT-1A and VEDAS.
The Krishi-DSS integrates systems of ICAR with MOSDAC and BHUVAN (Geo-platform) of ISRO.
This will enhance evidence based decision making capability of all the stakeholders in the agriculture sector.
With this technological intervention the agricultural production, productivity, quality of production and including export opportunities will increase.

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