Agasthyamala, UNESCO - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Agasthyamala

Explanation:
India’s special Agasthymala Biosphere Reserve in The Western Ghats is among 20 new sites added by top UN cultural body UNESCO to World Network for Biosphere Reserves. The total number of biosphere reserves has now shot up to 669 in 120 countries including 16 trans boundary sites. Located in the Western Ghats. This reserve includes peaks of 1868 m above sea level. Comprising mostly tropical forests, the site is home to 2254 species of higher plants of which 400 are endemic.

ANSWER: Peru

Explanation:
Held in Lima, Peru, this event from 14 March to 17 March 2016 will address different issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post 2015 Development Agenda.
Event is organized by the Secretariat of the Man and Biosphere Programme, the Ministry of Environment of Peru and its National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State, and the MAB National Committee of Peru. UNESCO Committed and Man and Biosphere Program executives are working in the implementation of these reserves.

ANSWER: UNESCO

Explanation:
India was re-elected on Friday as a member of the executive board of the UN educational, scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO), an official said.

The election was held at the 39th session of the general conference of UNESCO in Paris, he said. "The news is quite significant and indicates the position of India globally.

The executive board is the top decision- making body, so it is an important achievement,

The general conference consists of the representatives of the states members of the organisation. It meets every two years, and is attended by member states and associate members, together with observers for non-member states, intergovernmental organisations and non- governmental organisations (NGOs), according to the UNESCO.

Each country has one vote, irrespective of its size or the extent of its contribution to the budget. The general conference determines the policies and the main lines of work of the organisation.

Its duty is to set the programmes and the budget of the UNESCO. It also elects the members of the executive board and appoints, every four years, the director-general.

ANSWER: Tamil Nadu

Explanation:
The Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam has bagged an award of merit from Unesco for protecting and conserving cultural heritage, thus becoming the first temple from Tamil Nadu to grab the prestigious honour from the UN body.

The traditional method of renovating temple premises as well as re-establishment of rainwater harvesting and the historic drainage system in preventing flooding are the two key parameters that earned the temple the award.

Launched in 2000, Unesco Asia-Pacific awards for cultural heritage conservation programme is aimed at acknowledging the efforts taken to restore and conserve historical structures without affecting their heritage value in the region comprising 48 countries.

Unesco had invited applications earlier this year to submit conservation projects either taken up by individuals or in public-private partnership model in the last 10 years for the awards.

HR&CE sources said that the temple had received the international recognition for the INR 20 crore (from HR&CE and donors) renovation project taken up prior to a consecration ceremony in November 2015, especially without affecting its centuries' old architectural design.

There were 43 applications from 10 countries for the 2017 Unesco Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. Mumbai's Christ Church and Royal Bombay Opera House were the other monuments in India that received the Award of Merit this year.

UNESCO merit awards: Know More

• The awards are classified under four categories -- Award of Excellence, Awards of Distinction, Awards of Merit and Award for New Design in Heritage Context.
• They are being given to encourage the efforts of all stakeholders and the public in conserving and promoting monuments and religious institutes with rich heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.
• A jury comprising nine international heritage conservation experts reviewed the documentation of the conservation project taken up by Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple management.

ANSWER: 51st

Explanation:
The 51st International Literacy Day is being celebrated on 8th September, 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi and the theme announced by UNESCO is `Literacy in a digital world’.

The programme would include; felicitation to the dignitaries, distribution of Saakshar Bharat Awards to the best performing States, Districts, Gram Panchayats and NGOs.

International Literacy Day

• The International Literacy Day is celebrated on 8th September every year throughout the world.
• On this day, in the year 1965 the World Congress of Ministers of Education met in Tehran for the first time to discuss the programme of education at the international level.
• The UNESCO in its 14th Session in November, 1966, declared 8th September as the International Literacy Day.
• Since then, ILD is celebrated on 8th September every year by most of the member countries.
• The key aspect of the observance of ILD is to mobilize public opinion in favour of struggle against illiteracy.
• ILD is a forum to disseminate information on literacy and raise the public awareness and the significance of literacy for individual and national development.
• The National Literacy Mission Authority started celebrating International Literacy Day every year from 1988 onwards.
• The eradication of illiteracy has been one of the major national concerns of the Govt. of India since independence.
• The occasion of ILD is used for raising public awareness to eradicate illiteracy and create environment in favour of adult education programmes.
• From 1996 onwards some new elements were introduced to make the programme more attractive. In the year 1996 a ‘Mashal March’ was organized involving school students and literacy functionaries.

ANSWER: UNESCO

Explanation:
UNESCO has announced the winners of the 2017 International Literacy Prizes, which honours excellence and innovation in the field of global literacy.

The awards will be handed out to five laureates from Canada, Colombia, Jordan, Pakistan and South Africa on the occasion of International Literacy Day,which falls on September 8.

The prizes are divided into two categories -

• The UNESCOConfucius Prize for Literacy sponsored by China, and
• The King Sejong Literacy Prize sponsored by South Korea.

This year’s Confucius Prize is given to the AdulTICoProgram from Columbia, The Citizens Foundation from Pakistan, and the FunDza project from South Africa.

The King Sejong prize is shared by the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance from Canada and the We Love Reading program from Jordan.

ANSWER: 41^st

Explanation:
The World Heritage Committee, during its 41st session in Krakow from 2 July to 12 July 2017, added various cultural and natural sites in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The 41st session of the World Heritage Committee was chaired by Jacek Purchla, Founder and Director of the International Cultural Centre in Krakow.

The City of Yazd is located in the middle of the Iranian plateau, close to the Spice and Silk Roads.

It bears living testimony to the use of limited resources for survival in the desert.

Water is supplied to the city through a qanat system developed to draw underground water.

1. Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata (Japan):

Located 60 km off the western coast of Kyushu, the island of Okinoshima bans women and mandates male visitors to strip naked before going ashore.

This men only island encompasses some archaeological sites that have been preserved on the Island and are virtually intact and provide a chronological record of how the rituals performed there changed from the 4th to the 9th centuries CE.

Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries (Croatia, Italy, Montenegro): This site contains 15 components of defence works in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro.

It spans more than 1000 kilometres between the Lombard region of Italy and the eastern Adriatic Coast.

2. Kujataa Greenland (Denmark):

Kujataa is a sub-arctic farming landscape located in the southern region of Greenland.

It bears witness to the cultural histories of the Norse hunters-gatherers, Norse farmers, Inuit hunters and Inuit farming communities.

The landscape represents the earliest introduction of farming to the Arctic, and the Norse expansion of settlement beyond Europe.

Taputapuatea (France): Taputapuatea on Raiatea Island of France is at the centre of the Polynesian Triangle, a vast portion of the Pacific Ocean dotted with islands.

It is the last part of the globe to be settled by humans.

3. Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura (Germany):

Modern humans first arrived in Europe around 43000 years ago during the last ice age.

One of the areas where they took up residence was the Swabian Jura in southern Germany. Excavated from the 1860s, six caves have revealed items dating from 43000 to 33000 years ago.

Among them are carved figurines of animals, musical instruments and items of personal adornment.

Tarnowskie Gory Lead-Silver-Zinc Mine (Poland): Located in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, the site includes the entire underground mine with adits, shafts, galleries and water management system.

Mostly, the site is situated underground while the surface mining topography features the remains of the 19th century steam water pumping station.

4. Aphrodisias (Turkey):

Located in southwestern Turkey, the site consists of two components: the archaeological site of Aphrodisias and the marble quarries northeast of the city.

The temple of Aphrodite dates from the 3rd century BCE and the city was built one century later.

5. Kulangsu:

A historic international settlement (China): Kulangsu is a tiny island located nearby the Chiu-lung River and faces the Chinese city of Xiamen.

There is a mixture of different architectural styles including Traditional Southern Fujian Style, Western Classical Revival Style and Veranda Colonial Style.

The most exceptional evidence of the fusion of various stylistic influences is a new architectural movement, the Amoy Deco Style, which is an amalgamation of the Modernist style of the early 20th century and Art Deco.

Mbanza Kongo (Angola): The town of Mbanza Kongo was the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo.

The historical area grew around the royal residence, the customary court and the holy tree, as well as the royal funeral places.

Mbanza Kongo illustrates the profound changes caused by the introduction of Christianity and the arrival of the Portuguese into Central Africa.

6. Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa (Eritrea):

Located at over 2000 metres above sea level, Asmara developed as a military outpost for the Italian colonial power from 1890s onwards.

Today, Asmara is an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context.

7. Khomani Cultural Landscape (South Africa):

Khomani Cultural Landscape is located at the border with Botswana and Namibia in the northern part of South Africa.

It bears testimony to the way of life that prevailed in the region and shaped the site over thousands of years.

8. Qinghai Hoh Xil (China):

Qinghai Hoh Xil is the largest and highest plateau in the world. This extensive area of alpine mountains and steppe systems is situated more than 4500 m above sea level.

The property shelters the complete migratory route of the Tibetan antelope, one of the endangered mammals that are endemic to the plateau.

9. Landscapes Of Dauria (Mongolia / Russian Federation):

Shared between Mongolia and the Russian Federation, this site is an outstanding example of the Daurian Steppe eco-region, which extends from eastern Mongolia into Russian Siberia and north-eastern China.

10. Los Alerces National Park (Argentina):

The Los Alerces National park is located in the Andes of northern Patagonia and has a western boundary, which coincide with the Chilean border.

The site is important for the protection of some of the last pieces of Patagonian Forest in an almost unspoiled state and is the habitat for a number of threatened species of flora and fauna.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
UN cultural agency Unesco on 8th July 2017 declared the 600-year-old walled city of Ahmedabad as a world heritage city, the first Indian city to make it to the list.

The World Heritage Committee of Unesco met in Karlow, Poland on Saturday night where the decision was made.

This journey began in 2010 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi proffered the dossier of Ahmedabad to Unesco.

With this title, the Walled City of Ahmedabad has joined Paris, Vienna, Cairo, Brussels, Rome and Edinburgh.

Of the 287 world heritage cities across the globe, the only two cities in the Indian subcontinent which enjoy the status are Bhaktapur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka.

The committee also added Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, to its list of World Heritage sites on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, it added Hebron-Al Khalil Old Town (Palestine) and W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (Benin, Burkina Faso) to the list.

It also added the site of Hebron-Al Khalil to the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

For over 600 years, Ahmedabad has stood for peace, as a landmark city where Mahatma Gandhi began India’s freedom struggle.

It has stood for unity with its elegant carvings in its Hindu and Jain temples as well as standing as one of the finest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture and Hindu Muslim art.

And beyond this, it epitomizes the United Nation’s objective of sustainable development as it accelerates in its development, chosen to be one of India’s first smart cities, while preserving its ancient heritage.

The nomination of Ahmedabad was supported by about 20 countries including Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, Portugal, Peru, Croatia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Korea, Croatia, Cuba and Poland.

Ahmedabad’s journey towards attaining a world heritage tag began in 1984 when the first study for conserving heritage structures was instituted by Ford Foundation.

In March 2011, Ahmedabad made it to Unesco’s tentative list of world heritage sites.

In January 2016, it was chosen over Delhi and Mumbai as India’s entry for the title.

Ahmedabad has about 25 ASI (Archaeological Survey of India)-protected structures, hundreds of ‘pols’(housing clusters in the walled city areas of Ahmedabad) that capture the essence of community living, and numerous sites associated with Gandhi, who lived here from 1915 to 1930.

This makes the walled city of Ahmedabad the first city in India and the third in Asia to be inscribed to the World Heritage List. In the past 3 years alone, India has managed to put five built heritage sites on the world heritage list of UNESCO.

India now has overall 36 World Heritage Inscriptions with 28 Cultural, 07 Natural and 01 Mixed site.

While India stands second largest in number after China in terms of number of world heritage properties in ASPAC (Asia and Pacific) region, it is overall seventh in the world.

Ahmedabad: Know More

• Founded in 15th century, the walled city of Ahmadabad, on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati river, presents a rich architectural heritage.
• Within this complex are 28 ASI Centrally Protected Monuments.
• The urban structures of the historic city of Ahmedabad are distinctive due to their puras (neighbourhoods), pols (residential streets), and khadki (inner entrances to pols) largely made of timber.
• The historic architecture reflects symbols and myths connected with its inhabitants.
• The urban fabric is made up of densely-packed traditional houses (pols) in gated traditional streets (puras) with characteristic features such as bird feeders, public wells and religious institutions.
• It is a unique example of multi-religious and multicultural coexistence.
• The inscription has been done under Criteria (ii) and (v) as defined in the UNESCO's Operational Guidelines, 2016. Criterion (ii) refers to the important interchange of human values, over a span of time on development of architecture, monumental arts, town planning and landscape while Criterion (v) refers to being an outstanding example of human settlement and land use.
• Thus, the acceptance of the proposal highlights historic city of Ahmedabad's exemplary settlement architecture and town planning.

ANSWER: Volango Wharf Archaeological Site

Explanation:
The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO on 9 July 2017 added Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site in the World Heritage List.

The committee, during its meeting in Krakow, Poland, stated that Valongo is the most important physical trace of the arrival of African slaves on the American continent.

Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site is located in central Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and encompasses the whole of Jornal do Comercio Square.

The place where the site stands is the former harbour area of Rio de Janeiro where the old stone wharf was built for enslaved Africans who arrived in South America through Valongo from 1811 onwards.

An estimated 900000 Africans arrived at that time.

Valongo was the place where the slaves, often sick after the voyage, were taken to be quarantined, sorted and sold.

The site possesses several archaeological layers, the lowest of which consists of floor paving in pe de moleque style, attributed to the original Valongo Wharf.

The Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site received support from the International Scientific Committee of UNESCO’s 2013 Project for its inclusion in the World Heritage List as it reiterates the history of slavery and its legacy in the Americas.

Presently, the Valongo site is not on the water, but on inland after the expansion of the original city.

The remains of the African slaves were discovered by accident in 2011 during the urban renovation of the central area of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

After few archaeological diggings, it was found that the Valongo complex included the Wharf, a group of warehouses used for quarantining, displaying and selling the Africans.

ANSWER: Sharjah

Explanation:
UNESCO has named Sharjah as the World Book Capital for 2019. Sharjah was chosen for its efforts to make books accessible to its entire population.

Sharjah was selected to underline the efforts taken by it to make books accessible for reading to as many people as possible, especially the marginalised populations.

It has followed an innovative and inclusive community-focused activity programme to engage people, in particular, the very large migrant population.

Sharjah is the 19th city to be named as World Book Capital by the UNESCO. The earlier cities which were named as World Book Capital are: Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogota (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Yerevan (2012), Bangkok (2013), Port Harcourt (2014), Incheon (2015), Wroclaw (2016), Conakry (2017) and Athens (2018).

Sharjah has become the first among the Gulf Cooperation Council and third in the Arab world and the Middle East to receive this prestigious recognition.

The GCC countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Earlier, it has received various accolades like Capital of Arab Culture (1998), Capital of Islamic Culture (2014), and Capital of Arab Tourism (2015) and so on.

World Book Capital City: Know More

• UNESCO has been annually designating a city as World Book Capital City beginning with the designation of Madrid as World Book Capital City in 2001.
• For designating a city, UNESCO invites the International Publishers Association, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and the International Booksellers Federation to nominate and take part in deciding the World Book Capital.
• The designation of a city does not include any financial prize.
• It acknowledges the programmes followed by the city dedicated to books and reading.