(20 Mar, 2019)



International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

Recently an International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (IWDRI) was held in New Delhi.

  • The two-day workshop was organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), and in partnership with the Global Commission on Adaptation, United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.
  • The objective of workshop were to:
    • Identify good practices of disaster risk management in key infrastructure sectors,
    • Identify specific areas and pathways for collaborative research on DRI (Transport, Energy, Telecom and Water),
    • Discuss and co-create the broad contours of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) as well as a notional roll-out plan for the next three years, and
    • Build a forum for members to work on areas of common interest and make specific commitments.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

  • The UNISDR was established in 1999 as a dedicated secretariat to facilitate the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).
  • It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
  • It is mandated to serve as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among the disaster reduction activities.
  • It is an organisational unit of the UN Secretariat and is led by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction (SRSG).
  • UNISDR's Strategic Framework 2016-2021 has a vision to substantially reduce disaster risk and losses for a sustainable future with the mandate to act as the custodian of the Sendai Framework, supporting countries and societies in its implementation, monitoring and review of progress.

Background

  • The first International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (IWDRI 2018) was held in January 2018 in India.
  • India announced the creation of a Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) soon after the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which was held in New Delhi in 2016.
    • The CDRI is envisaged as a knowledge exchange and capacity development partnership.
  • Various international agreements have also reiterated the importance and long-term benefits of investing in resilient infrastructure.
    • The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, identifies investing in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for resilience and to build back better in reconstruction as priorities for action towards reducing disaster risk.
    • Similarly, Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes disaster resilient infrastructure as a crucial driver of economic growth and development.
    • Besides reducing infrastructure losses, disaster resilient infrastructure will also help achieve targets pertaining to reduction in mortality, number of affected people and economic losses due to disasters.

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 

  • The SFDRR 2015-2030 outlines seven clear targets and four priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks:
    • Understanding disaster risk;
    • Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk;
    • Investing in disaster reduction for resilience and;
    • Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
  • The Sendai Framework is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders.
  • It aims to achieve the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries over the next 15 years.
  • The Framework was adopted at the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, on March 18, 2015.

Aurora Supercomputer

The United States has decided to build the fastest supercomputer.

  • The supercomputer is named as Aurora.

About Aurora

  • It is scheduled to be delivered to the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago in 2021.
  • It will be the first machine to reach a milestone called “exascale” performance, i.e. one billion billion calculations per second.
  • This speed is around seven times the speed of the most powerful system built to date, or 1,000 times faster than the first “petascale” systems built in 2008.
  • The new machines will let researchers create significantly more accurate simulations of phenomena such as drug responses, climate changes, the inner workings of combustion engines and solar panels.
  • An International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation system called Summit(OLCF-4), built for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA is the fastest supercomputer in the world with a clocked speed of 143.5 petaflops.

Supercomputer in India

  • India’s first supercomputer called PARAM 8000 was launched in 1991.
  • At present, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has Pratyush supercomputer, which is the fastest supercomputer in India, it has a speed of 4.0 Petaflops.
  • National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting has Mihir, which has a speed of 2.8 petaflops.

Unit of Computing Speed

  • Teraflops: It is a unit of computing speed equal to one million million (10^12) floating-point operations per second (FLOPS).
  • Petaflops: It is a unit of computing speed equal to one thousand million million (10^15) floating-point operations per second (FLOPS).
  • Exaflops: It is a unit of computing speed equal to one billion billion (10^18) floating-point operations per second (FLOPS).

Abel Prize

Karen Uhlenbeck, a mathematician and professor at the University of Texas, has been awarded Abel Prize for 2019. It's the first time the prize has gone to a woman.

  • She has been awarded the prize for her work in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.
  • The Abel Prize was established by the Norwegian government in 2002 on the occasion of the 200th birth anniversary of the 19th century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. The Abel Prize recognizes contributions to the field of mathematics that are of extraordinary depth and influence.
  • The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awards the Abel Prize based on a recommendation from the Abel committee. The prize carries a cash award of 6 million Norwegian kroner ($7,03,000) and has been awarded annually since 2003.
  • In addition to honouring outstanding mathematicians, the Abel Prize also contributes towards raising the status of mathematics in society and stimulating the interest of children and young people in mathematics.
  • There is no Nobel Prize in mathematics, and for decades, the most prestigious awards in math were the Fields Medals, awarded in small batches every four years to the most accomplished mathematicians who are 40 or younger. Maryam Mirzakhani, in 2014, is the only woman to receive a Fields Medal.
  • Along with the Fields Medal, which is awarded every four years at the Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), Abel Prize is one of the world's most prestigious maths prizes in the field of mathematics.

Important Facts For Prelims (20th March 2019)

Ind-Indo CORPAT 2019

  • The opening ceremony of 33rd Edition of India-Indonesia Coordinated Patrol (Ind-Indo Corpat) took place at Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India.
  • The 33rd IND-INDO CORPAT, also coinciding with 70 of the establishment of India-Indonesia diplomatic ties.
  • Under this exercise, the ship and aircraft from both the countries would undertake to patrol on the respective sides of 236 nautical miles long International Maritime Boundary line.
  • As part of the Indian Government’s vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), the Indian Navy has also been involved in assisting countries in the Indian Ocean Region with Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Surveillance, Search and Rescue, and other capacity-building and capability-enhancement activities.

SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region)

  • The vision of SAGAR was enunciated by Prime Minister in March 2015. It is an articulation of India’s vision for the Indian Ocean.
  • SAGAR has inter-related elements and underscores India’s engagement in the Indian Ocean. These are enhancing capacities to safeguard land and maritime territories & interests; deepening economic and security cooperation in the littoral; action to deal with natural disasters and maritime threats like piracy, terrorism.
  • It also includes engaging with countries beyond our shores with the aim of building greater trust and promoting respect for maritime rules, norms and peaceful resolution of disputes

Mitra-Shakti VI

  • Annual joint military exercise Mitra-Shakti 2019 between India India-Sri Lanka will be conducted in Sri Lanka.
  • The aim of the exercise is to build and promote close relations between armies of both the countries and to enhance the ability of joint exercise commander to take military contingents of both nations under command.
  • This exercise is one of the major bilateral defense cooperation initiatives between India and Sri Lanka since 2013.

Copyright License for Google

  • Google has been granted a copyright license by the Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS).
  • The copyright license will enable Google to use IPRS members’ work and material in India on YouTube and other services.
  • Google recently launched YouTube Music, a paid music streaming service, in the country.
  • IPRS is the country’s only copyright society, authorized to carry out the copyright business for musical works and literary works (lyrics), associated with its members.
  • Members of IPRS comprises of the author (lyricists), music composers and music publishers.
  • The IPRS was founded on 23rd August 1969.
  • The IPRS is a representative body of Owners of Music, viz. The Composers, Lyricists (or Authors) and the Publishers of Music and is also the sole Authorised Body to issue Licences for usage of Musical Works & Literary Music within India by any person.