UNESCO World HERITAGE SITE

• In yet another landmark achievement, India’s nomination of the “Victorian and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai ” has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
• The decision was taken at the 42nd session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO at Manama in Bahrain today.
• As recommended by the World Heritage Committee, India accepted the renaming of the ensemble as “Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai”.
• India has been successful in securing the inscription of the “Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai” on UNESCO’s World Heritage List under Criteria (ii) and (iv) as defined in the UNESCO’s Operational Guidelines.
• This makes Mumbai city the second city in India after Ahmedabad to be inscribed on the World Heritage List.
• India now has overall 37 World Heritage Inscriptions with 29 Cultural, 07 Natural and 01 Mixed sites. 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 sixth in the world.

Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai

• The Ensemble comprises of two architectural styles, the 19th century collection of Victorian structures and the 20th century Art Deco buildings along the sea, conjoined by means of the historical open space of the Oval Maidan.
• Together, this architectural ensemble represents the most remarkable collection of Victorian and Art Deco buildings in the world which forms the unique character of this urban setting, unparalleled in the world.
• The Ensemble consists of 94 buildings primarily of 19th century Victorian Gothic revival and early 20th century Art Deco style of architecture with the Oval Maidan in the centre.
• These public buildings include the Old Secretariat (1857-74), University Library and Convention Hall (1874-78), the Bombay High Court (1878), the Public Works Department Office (1872), Watson’s Hotel (1869), David Sasoon Library (1870), the Elphinstone College(1888), etc.

The inscription has been done under Criteria (ii) and (iv) as defined in the UNESCO’s Operational Guidelines.

• 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
• Criterion (iv) refers to being an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage (s) in human history. This achievement is especially remarkable in the view of the successive inscription of another Indian city after Ahmedabad last year.

World Heritage site

• A World Heritage site is a landmark or area which is selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance, and is legally protected by international treaties. The sites are judged important to the collective interests of humanity
• The sites are intended for practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise would be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, unmonitored/uncontrolled/unrestricted access, or threat from local administrative negligence.

Background

• The United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The White House conference in 1965 called for a “World Heritage Trust” to preserve “the world’s superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry”.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, and they were presented in 1972 to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.
• A single text was agreed on by all parties, and the “Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.
• The Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of May 2017, it has been ratified by 193 states parties,including 189 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, and the State of Palestine. Only four UN member states have not ratified the Convention: Liechtenstein, Nauru, Somalia and Tuvalu.

Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES)

•  The Odisha government will collaborate with the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), based in Thailand, to manage all kinds of disasters.
• The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority signed a MoU with RIMES to enhance the early warning system for effective management of all disasters in the state.

Objective:

• Development and pilot implementation of decision support systems for automating risk assessment, advisory generation and dissemination. This will empower the state disaster management authority in the assessment and management of risks from flood, tsunami, drought, heat wave, lightning and road accidents.

RIMES

• RIMES came into existence as a multi-lateral technical cooperation platform formally on 30th April 2009 with the first batch of 5 countries signing the Cooperation Agreement on the RIMES for Africa and Asia in consonance with Articles 5 and 25 of the United Nations.
• RIMES had dedicated its efforts to build institutional structures for holistically dealing all aspects of multi-hazard and climate risk management for bringing a major shift to make all RIMES country partners fully disaster resilient by upgrading the early warning systems as per their national circumstances.

Agni V

Context: India’s longest-range ballistic missile, Agni-V, will be inducted into the nuclear arsenal very soon

• The Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) with a range of over 5,000 km can reach most parts of China. “It is a strategic asset which will act as a deterrent.
• The Agni series of missiles constitute the backbone of India’s nuclear weapons delivery, which also includes the Prithvi short-range ballistic missiles and fighter aircraft.

What is Agni V

• Agni-V is an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India. Agni V is part of the Agni series of missiles, one of the missile systems under the original Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.
• It is a surface-to-surface missile which can carry nuclear warhead weighing 1.5 tonnes to a distance of over 5,000 km and is the longest missile in India’s arsenal capable of reaching most parts of China.

AMCDRR

• A high level Ministerial delegation from India headed by Shri Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs participated in the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2018 (AMCDRR 2018) held in Ulaanbaatar.
• The theme of the AMCDRR 2018: ‘Preventing Disaster Risk: Protecting Sustainable Development’ reflects the essence of the Sendai Framework.
• Development that does not take risk into account cannot be sustainable. Thus, disaster risk reduction is a key instrument to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as highlighted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The theme of the AMCDRR 2018 is aligned with the theme of the 2018 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that focuses on ‘Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies’.
• The conference will represent a key milestone for reflection on three years into the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
• Specifically, the conference will enable governments and stakeholders to review progress made against the commitments at the AMCDRR 2016, i.e. the New Delhi Declaration, the Asia Regional Plan, and ten stakeholder voluntary action statements.

AMCDRR

• Asian ministerial conference for disaster risk reduction (AMCDRR) is a conference held first time at New Delhi, in November 2016, after the introduction of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
• The conference was organised seventh time in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). The motive of such conference was to mitigate the disaster risks.

Sendai Framework

• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) is an international document which was adopted by UN member states between 14th and 18th of March 2015 at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015.
• It is the successor agreement to the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015), which had been the most encompassing international accord to date on disaster risk reduction.

Ageing stars

• NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a stunning image of a huge collection of ageing stars, believed to be 10 billion-years-old.
• This rich and dense smattering of stars is a massive globular cluster, a gravitationally bound collection of stars that orbits the Milky Way.
• Globular clusters are denser and more spherical than open star clusters like the famous Pleiades. They typically contain hundreds of thousands of stars that are thought to have formed at roughly the same time.
• The hundreds of thousands of stars within the NGC 6139 are believed to have been formed over 10 billion years ago.
• As a result, they contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy, formed very early in the galaxy’s history.
• However, their role in galactic evolution is still a matter of study.
• This cluster is seen roughly in the direction of the centre of the Milky Way, in the constellation of Scorpius (the Scorpion).
• This constellation is a gold mine of fascinating astronomical objects.

Hubble Space Telescope

• The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation.
• The HST was built by the United States space agency NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble’s targets and processes the resulting data.
• Astronomers have used Hubble to track “Scorpius” many times to observe objects such as the Butterfly Nebula, surprising binary star systems, and other dazzling globular clusters.
• Earlier this month, Hubble also revealed the most comprehensive, high-resolution ultraviolet-light survey of nearby star-forming galaxies.