India, UK likely to announce ‘green grid’ at COP26 summit.
Both countries have been working towards achieving this concept, and the joint venture will be signed by energy ministers of the two nations in the presence of the two Prime Ministers, according to sources.
India and the UK are likely to announce a joint declaration on “one sun, one world, one grid” — or OSOWOG, a concept New Delhi has been pushing through its International Solar Alliance — at the upcoming COP26.
Both countries have been working towards achieving this concept, and the joint venture will be signed by energy ministers of the two nations in the presence of the two Prime Ministers, according to sources.
“We expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the conference. His UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, has personally invited the PM,” a source said.
The UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, is scheduled to be held between October 31 and November 12 in Scotland. The concept of OSOWOG, which the British have called a green grid, has been personally guided and pushed by Modi and found mention in his Independence Day speech this year. The concept pitches the idea of a transnational solar grid, from which different countries can draw power.
“While the declaration will be made by India and the UK, other countries will also participate, including the ASEAN nations, the US, EU and African nations, a source said. “The idea is to scale up the proposal and involve as many countries as possible. Our aim is that by 2050, a single power grid of renewable energy be accessible across continents — with production in one continent and distribution of power in another.”
The climate parliament secretariat is handling details of the proposal and more than 100 energy ministers from across the world will sign the proposal, the source said.
The government has been working on the concept of OSOWOG since 2015, engaging with other energy ministers. The idea was first floated by Modi in 2018 at the first meeting of International Solar Alliance, which will also take a lead on this venture. The climate secretariat will put a road map in place at COP26, on how to achieve this vision.
Technology of little use in pre-empting vigilantism.
Despite having the latest surveillance systems and high-end patrol vehicles, Hyderabad City Police have practically realized that they are no guarantee to yielding requisite Intel insights.
With lakhs of CCTV cameras, thousands of officers and hundreds of patrol vehicles, Hyderabad ranks as one of the safest cities in the world, but surprisingly two ‘communally sensitive incidents’ at Golconda and Nampally on last Friday and Sunday, respectively, wherein two youngsters were abused and roughed by vigilantes for travelling on two-wheelers with girls belonging to a different faith, came to the notice of the law enforcers only after the videos of the incidents went viral on the social media.
The recent incidents have also raised questions on the functioning of police patrol teams and whether they have any knowledge about what happens in their absence under their jurisdiction? It has also shown that there is no constant monitoring of CCTV cameras and human intelligence, even if such incidents take place on the busy roads in the heart of the city.
The incidents have proved that until videos taken by the passers-by goes viral on social media, the unruly elements have a free hand. In the sensational rape and murder of a six-year-old girl at Saidabad, police claimed that they had failed to nab the accused as there were insufficient CCTV footages, besides the accused not using any mobile phone.
At Nampally, even after the video footage made rounds on social media, it took more than half a day for the police to conclude and confirm that the incident happened at Nampally, let alone arresting the accused, a senior officer said.
When asked about the alleged lack of human intelligence in the recent incidents, Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar had redirected this correspondent to contact Joint Commissioners of Police of West and Central Zones, A.R. Srinivas and P. Viswaprasad, respectively. “I am under the impression that in both the cases, the accused persons have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody,” he said.
“Under Nampally police station limits there is only one patrol vehicle and in many cases, many a time such incidents do not get reported as both the parties leave the area after a few minutes of the scuffle,” Mr. Vishwaprasad said.
He said that the inter-faith friends who were stopped by vigilantes were not interested in approaching the police. Similar was the situation at Golconda, when a girl and a boy of different communities, both residents of Gajwel in Siddipet district, were stopped by a group of people after they noticed a religious cloth tied to the scooter on Toli Chowki road, and assaulted the boy.
“In both the cases, the youngsters were not ready to approach us. However, we insisted that they lodge the complaints, based on which cases were registered and four persons were arrested in two cases,” an officer said.
Cabinet clears doubling of Nimach-Ratlam railway line worth Rs 1,095.88 crore.
Briefing the media on the key decisions taken by the Cabinet, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that the doubling of Nimach-Ratlam and Rajkot-Kanalus railway lines will benefit passengers as well as the entire industrial belt.
The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the doubling of the Nimach-Ratlam railway line at a total estimated cost of Rs 1,095.88 crore, Union Minister Anurag Thakur announced.
1.Cabinet approves doubling of Nimach-Ratlam and Rajkot-Kanalus railway line
– The Cabinet approved the doubling of the Nimach-Ratlam railway line at a total estimated cost of Rs 1,095.88 crore: Union Minister Anurag Thakur announced.
– The total length of doubling of the Nimach-Ratlam railway line is 132.92 km. The project will be completed in four years.
– The total estimated cost of the doubling Rajkot-Kanalus railway project will be Rs 1,080.58 crore. The total length of the doubling of line is 111.20 km. The project will be completed in four years.
– Doubling of Nimach-Ratlam and Rajkot-Kanalus railway lines will benefit passengers as well as the entire industrial belt, Thakur said.
2. Cabinet approves listing of Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) on stock exchanges
– The Cabinet also approved the listing of Export Credit Guarantee Corporation Ltd. (ECCG), an unlisted CPSE, on the stock exchange, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said.
– He added that Rs 4,400 crore will be invested in ECGC Ltd in five years beginning from the financial year 2021-22 to provide support to exporters as well as banks.
– The proposed listing of ECGC would unlock the true value of the company, promote ‘people’s ownership’ by encouraging public participation in the equity holding of the company and also promote corporate governance through transparency and greater accountability, the government said in a statement.
– Listing may enable ECGC to mobilise fresh capital from the market either through the same IPO or subsequently through a follow-on public offer (FPO) and thereby help in increasing the Maximum Liability cover for it.
3. Cabinet approves continuation of National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) scheme
– The Cabinet approved the continuation of the National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) scheme and announced an infusion of Rs 1,650 crore grant-in-aid over five years from FY 2021-2022 to FY 2025-2026, Goyal said.
– The capital infusion in NEIA Trust will help the Indian Project Exporters (IPE) to tap the huge potential of project exports in focus market. Support to project exports with Indian content sourced from across the country will enhance the manufacturing in India, the government said in a release.
4. Government to launch new scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman’
– A new scheme called ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman’ will be launched by the government, to provide nutritious food to crores of school-going children, Thakur said.
– The scheme costing Rs 1.31 lakh crore to run for five years, he informed.
Another dispute: Telangana opposes Andhra’s plan for canal from Tungabhadra.
In Tungabhadra Board meeting, TS Irrigation officials also ask Karnataka for DPR on proposed reservoir.
HYDERABAD: Telangana Irrigation officials have opposed a proposal for construction of a parallel canal from Tungabhadra foreshore by Andhra Pradesh. Telangana officials also wanted Karnataka to submit a detailed project report (DPR) on the proposed balancing reservoir at Navali village, so that the State could then give its opinion on it. Telangana engineer-in-chief C Muralidhar and inter-State SE R Koteswara Rao participated in the Tungabhadra Board meeting through virtual mode from Hyderabad on Wednesday.
When Karnataka officials raised their proposal to construct the balancing reservoir, AP officials said that they would construct a parallel canal from Tungabhadra foreshore to draw two tmcft per day, so that Karnataka need not construct a new barrage at Navali on the upstream of Tungabhadra dam. However, Telangana officials outrightly opposed AP’s proposal for a parallel canal. They also told their Karnataka counterparts that they would give their opinion on the reservoir at Navali once Karnataka submitted the project’s DPR. The storage capacity of the Navali project is 40 tmcft.
Karnataka proposed the balancing reservoir as the storage capacity of Tungabhadra dam was reduced by 31 tmcft from the designed capacity of 134.7 tmcft. Meanwhile, Telangana officials also wanted the Board to include the representatives from the State in the Fisheries Wing of the Board. However, AP officials refused the same, stating that Telangana share was just eight per cent in the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS). AP also raised objections over Karnataka drawing nine tmcft of water from small lift irrigation schemes, against their quota of around four tmcft. AP engineer-in-chief C Narayana Reddy too participated in the meeting.
PM to launch swachh mission 2.0 on Oct -1
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban 2.0 and AMRUT 2.0 on 1st October.
Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said, it is organizing special events and programmes throughout the country from 27th September to 3rd October this year as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. The Mahotsav will be celebrated as a Jan-Utsav in the spirit of Jan-Bhagidari. To celebrate the seven years of Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban, the Ministry is organising Swachhata Se Sampannata – Celebrating 7 years of Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban Programme tomorrow where ‘Swachhata App 2.0’ and ‘Swachh Survekshan 2022’ will be launched.
States fears over GST regime have come true.
States suffer as GST regime sans federal spirit, say Tamil Nadu, Kerala.
The Goods and Services Tax regime is against India’s federal structure and states have very little say on the decision as against some of the advanced countries such as USA, Palanivel Thiagarajan and K N Balagopal, Finance Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively said on Wednesday.
Blaming the Center for collecting indirect taxes in the name of cess and not sharing it with the states, Thiagarajan said the ratio of cess as of the total taxation has gone up 110 per cent to 124 per cent in recent times.
“For somebody who came into politics about five years ago, it strikes me fast as to how shaky the system (GST regime) is for something that is supposed to serve a country of billion and almost 400 million people…
You put all of the pieces together, one thing that is very clear to me is the fear of loss of autonomy ( of states) has been fully realized,” the Tamil Nadu minister said in South India GST Conclave – an online interaction with the Ministers of Southern States, organised by FICCI.He said he had already voiced his concerns on how the states are losing “flexibility or freedom” on taxation issues.According to him, GST was not designed to tackle systemic risks or pandemic type issues.
The Kerala Minister said that prior to the GST regime, his state had an income growth of 14 to 16 per cent every year. After the introduction of the new tax system, there was stagnation in the initial two years and then there was a negative growth due to the pandemic situation.He said he and CPI leader D Raja vehemently opposed the introduction of GST in the country and made a dissent note in the Parliamentary Committee concerned.
“The GST is very much against the principles of federalism. I said (then) that true federalism will be (negatively) affected up after the introduction of the GST,” Balagopal said.Stating that Kerala is collecting less tax on Diesel as against the Centre, the minister said the Union Government is collecting Rs 31 on diesel in the name of Cess, which is not being shared with states through devolution of funds.
Murugesh Nirani, Karnataka Minister for Industries said though there is a long way to go in the implementation of GST, the system was introduced as part of One Country-One Tax model being adopted by the NDA Government.
India, Australia Sign Terms of Reference for Navy Talks.
In a subsequent tweet, the caption read, “The Joint Guidance document signed by #CNS #IndianNavy & @CN_Australia sets the Navy to Navy #N2N talks as the ‘Principal’ medium for guiding the #bilateral relationship (2/2). #BridgesofFriendship #NavalCooperation
The “Joint Guidance” agreement designates India-Australia Navy to Navy talks as the “Principal” method of managing the bilateral relationship. Over the years, India and Australia’s bilateral defence ties have become stronger. The ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,’ Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, trilateral Maritime Security Workshop, and RAN participation in Exercise MALABAR, according to the release, are significant milestones that highlight the role played by both Navies in enhancing this relationship in recent years. The document will be critical in solidifying the Indo-Pacific region’s united commitment to peace, security, stability, and development.
READ | India, Australia among 17 nations aiming to host ICC white-ball events in next cycle
India-Australia relations
In 2005, the first Navy-to-Navy meeting with Australia took place. Since then, the two countries’ navies have grown closer at all levels, and after more than a decade of bilateral negotiations, they are more devoted than ever to strengthening and deepening this vital Navy-Navy partnership.
India, Australia to hold major discussions on defense, security in 2+2 Dialogue
The document lays the groundwork for the overarching goal of increased mutual understanding, trust, and transparency, as well as improved goodwill and knowledge of each other’s problems and future directions, and gives detailed instructions for the conduct of India-Australia N2N talks. It also allows for separate agreements to be implemented based on the specific outcomes of the Talks.
