2 September 2015 important current affairs / Gk updates : India got UNESCO prize “Award of Excellence” 2015.
India wins this award for conserving Sree Vadakkunthan Temple in Kerala.
About Award :
- This is the top award given in the Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
- The award recognises the conservation effort of sacred sites and its tangible attributes with conservation techniques emphasising on architecture and construction.
- Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple is an ancient Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Thrissur district of Kerala.
Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports decided to recognize Yoga as sports discipline.
- The decision was taken by Ministry while reviewing and revising the categorization of various Sports disciplines.
- The sport of Fencing was upgraded from Others to General category based on the major past performance at international events.
NASA started SERVIR-Mekong Project in collaboration with US agency International Development (USAID).
- It seeks to strengthen the environmental monitoring in Southeast Asia region.
- It has been launched in the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok, Thailand to serve the 5 countries of the Mekong River Basin viz. Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
- The focus of this project is to host vital issues in the Mekong river basin region in the five countries which is often called as rice bowl of Asia.
NTPC Limited appointed AK Jha as its Interim CMD.
NTPC stands for “National Thermal Power Corporation Limited”.
Presently, he is NTPC’s Director (Technical) and will be interim CMD for three months from September 1, 2015.
AK Jha joined NTPC as an Executive Trainee in 1977 and was directly associated with its flagship project Singrauli (5×200 MW).
E-commerce portal Snapdeal acquired Silicon valley startup Reduce Data.
- Snapdeal has acquired Silicon Valley-based startup Reduce Data, a programmatic display advertising platform, the New Delhi-based online marketplace announced on Wednesday.
- Reduce Data team will join Snapdeal, as the latter’s bid to build a world class discovery platform and associated tools for brands as well as over 200,000 sellers on the marketplace.
- This is the twelfth buyout announced by Snapdeal since 2010.
Los Angeles selected as US candidate for bidding to host Olympics 2024.
- Los Angeles will bid in contest — along with Paris; Rome; Budapest; and Hamburg, Germany — that some cities have grown increasingly hesitant to enter in recent years, as the financial pitfalls of hosting the Games have become more apparent.
- Boston, the U.S.O.C.’s original choice to bid for the 2024 Games, backed out earlier this year when concerns about costs the city might incur eroded public support.
Commonwealth Games 2022 host : Durban, South Africa.
- The decision in this regard was at the Federation’s general assembly in New Zealand on Wednesday.
- Commonwealth Games would be held from 18 to 30 July, opening on the birth date of the late South African President and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
