UNESCO - GS questions based on daily current affairs

ANSWER: Global Alliance for Literacy

Explanation:

• Global Alliance for Literacy has been launched by UNESCO to mobilize investment and promote innovative initiatives, with a focus on gender and new information and communication technologies.
• The new global partnership for literacy aims to bring governments, NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector together to look afresh at how to boost progress.
• The Global Alliance for Literacy within the Framework of Lifelong Learning (GAL) was born from deep concern expressed at the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 at the fact that the world’s literacy agenda remained unfinished.
• GAL aims to harness the potential of technology to increase access to quality literacy learning and stimulate and promote collaborative programmes which connect literacy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The initiative coordinated by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in Hamburg, comprises UN, government and private sector representatives, regional organizations, donors, national and international non-governmental organizations and experts.

ANSWER: 4

Explanation:

• Until the end of 2004, World Heritage sites were selected on the basis of six cultural and four natural criteria. With the adoption of the revised Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, only one set of ten criteria exists.
• Cultural criteria are – 1 to 7 and natural site criteria are – 7 to 10.

ANSWER: 2, 3

Explanation:
Three international non-governmental or intergovernmental organizations are named in the Convention to advise the Committee in its deliberations. They are –

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - is an international, non-governmental organization that provides the World Heritage Committee with technical evaluations of natural heritage properties.
• International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) - provides the World Heritage Committee with evaluations of cultural and mixed properties.
• International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) - is an intergovernmental body which provides expert advice on how to conserve listed properties, as well as training in restoration techniques.

ANSWER: Khangchendzonga National Park

Explanation:

• Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) in Sikkim has been inscribed as India's first mixed (cultural as well as natural) heritage site on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
• KNP exhibits one of the widest altitudinal ranges of any protected area which has valleys and spectacular snow-clad mountains including the world's third highest peak, Mt. Khangchendzonga.
• Incidentally, this was the first instance where both the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) gave what was termed a "clear and positive recommendation" for inscription of a Natural/ Mixed site from India.
• The number of Indian sites on the World Heritage List has now become 35 including seven natural, 27 cultural and one mixed.

ANSWER: UNESCO

Explanation:

• The Regional Centre for Biotechnology Bill, 2016, seeks to establish a Regional Centre for Biotechnology, an institution of education, training and research, under the auspices of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the National Capital Region and declare it to be an institution of national importance.
• The Regional Centre for Biotechnology will take up research and innovation and impart education and training in the new areas of Biotechnology at the interface of multiple disciplines of science creating a hub of technology expertise.
• Objectives: (i) Disseminate knowledge by providing teaching and research facilities in biotechnology and related fields, (ii) create a hub of biotechnology expertise, (iii) facilitate transfer of technology and knowledge in the SAARC region and generally Asia and (iv) Promote cooperation at the international level.

ANSWER: 1, 2 and 3

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Italy is home to the greatest number of World Heritage Sites with 51 sites, followed by China (48), Spain (44), France (41), Germany (40), Mexico (33), and India (32).

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:
Home to a high proportion of endemic plant species, the Blue and John Crow Mountains is a hotspot for biodiversity. The heavily forested mountainous region provided refuge for the indigenous Tainos fleeing slavery, as well as escaped African slaves during Jamaica’s early history. With such significance to both Jamaica’s history and its natural environment, the park is UNESCO’s only new “mixed” site, meeting both cultural and natural qualifications.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!