Important Facts for Prelims (12th February 2019)

• 12 Feb 2019

Buddhist Tourism Circuit

• Recently the Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned five new projects under the Buddhist Circuit.
• The five states where the project under Buddhist Circuit has been sanctioned are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
• The Buddhist Circuit is one among the fifteen thematic circuits identified for development under Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

Swadesh Darshan Scheme

• Swadesh Darshan, a Central Sector Scheme, was launched in 2014 -15 for integrated development of theme based tourist circuits in the country.
• Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for infrastructure development of circuits.
• This scheme is envisioned to synergise with other schemes like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill India, Make in India etc. with the idea of positioning the tourism sector as a major engine for job creation, driving force for economic growth, building synergy with various sectors to enable tourism to realise its potential.

World Sustainable Development Summit 2019

• Recently, the three-day World Sustainable Development Summit 2019 was inaugurated in New Delhi.
• The theme of summit was 'Attaining the 2030 Agenda: Delivering on our Promise'.
• The World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) is the annual flagship event of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
• It has been conceptualized as a single platform to accelerate action towards sustainable development and climate change.
• The goal of the World Sustainable Development Summit is to bring together global leaders and thinkers in the fields of sustainable development, energy and environment sectors on a common platform.
• It was earlier known as Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

• TERI is a non-profit research institute.
• It conducts research work in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development for India and the Global South.
• It was established in 1974 as Tata Energy Research Institute and renamed to The Energy Resources Institute in 2003.

Light House Projects Challenge

• The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has instituted a challenge for States/ UTs to select six sites across the country for constructing the Lighthouse projects under Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC)-India.
• The winning six States/ UTs that score the highest marks across the prescribed criteria will be awarded lighthouse projects. The States/ UTs will receive Central Assistance to construct these projects as per Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) guidelines.
• The selected sites for lighthouse projects will be used as an ‘open laboratory’ for live demonstration and will receive due attention from academia, practitioners, policy makers (Central/ State) and media apart from felicitation/ recognition in Grand Expo-cum-Conference.

Global Housing Technology Challenge

• Global Housing Technology Challenge – India is an initiative by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India, with an aim to identify, evaluate and shortlist a basket of proven & potential innovative technologies from across the globe and subsequently mainstream them in Indian construction sector that are sustainable, green, disaster resilient.
• GHTC-India has following three components:
  • Component 1 - Conduct of EXPO-Cum-Conference
  • Component 2 - Identifying Proven Demonstrable Technologies :Inducting suitable established technologies from across the globe to the Indian market through shortlisting and actual construction of Light House Projects.
  • Component 3 - Establishment of Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators India (ASHA-India) for Indian technologies which have potential but not market ready yet.