World Food India 2019                                                                                                 

India will lead by example in combating desertification                                          

Iran to breach uranium stockpile limit                                                                       

India to host UN meet on land degradation in September                                       

‘Financial stability is a key theme for monetary policy’                                           

EU leaders to debate push for zero emissions by 2050                                           

Bitcoin use causing huge CO2 emissions: Study                                                     

By 2027, India population to cross China’s: UN                                                      

World Food India 2019

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY -  Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.

Context :

• The World Food India event will be held during November 1-4 this year in the national capital as part of the government's effort to boost investment in Food Processing Sector.

• The tagline of the event will be “Forging Partnerships for Growth”.

World Food India :

• The government initiated a biennial event- World Food India to promote food processing sector at global level.

• The first such event was conducted in 2017 and received wide success.

• The event created Brand India in global food map by positioning India as a World Food Factory.

Key Facts and Data’s:

• Indian Food Processing Industry has grown tremendously recording 11% growth rate, which is twice the pace of Global Industry.

• The sector has recorded double digit growth rate across all major sub-segments of the sectors both in terms of value and volume.

• Despite huge domestic market of 1.3 billion customers with the youngest population globally and an abundant agricultural base, the processing levels in India remain low at 7.7% behind several economies such as China, Malaysia and the US. India’s share in global exports of processed food is only 2%.

                                                                                                                                                            Source :- PIB

India will lead by example in combating desertification

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Context :

• Union Environment Minister said that India will lead by example the fight against increasing land desertification.

Highlights :

• Minister further highlighted that with about 30% of country’s total geographical area being affected by land degradation; India has high stakes and stands strongly committed to the Convention.

• The Union Minister also launched a flagship project on enhancing capacity on forest landscape restoration (FLR) and Bonn Challenge in India.

• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in partnership with The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to partner this flagship project

• Aims to develop and adapt best practices and monitoring protocols for the Indian states and build capacity within the five pilot states on FLR and Bonn Challenge.

• The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.

• At the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge to bring into restoration

• The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement linking environment and development issues to the land agenda.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

Iran to breach uranium stockpile limit

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests, Indian diaspora.

Context :

• Iran on Monday said it will "drastically" increase the production of low-level enriched uranium after passing the limit of the stockpile permitted by the 2015 nuclear deal in 10 days, a move that is expected to heighten tension with the US.

Issue :

• The spokesperson for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran would reach the allowed 300kg level of enriched uranium at levels mandated by the agreement with world powers.

• Iran stopped complying with some elements of the nuclear agreement -- the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May, a year after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal.

Ramping up the Pressure on Other Signatories :

• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on May 8 the remaining signatories - the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia - had 60 days to implement their promises to protect Iran's oil and banking sectors from reimposed US sanctions.

• The aim is to increase the bargaining leverage and to put increasing pressure on Europe.

                                                                                                                                                            Source :- The Hindu

India to host UN meet on land degradation in September

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

Context :

• India for the first time will host the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in September.

UNCCD COP-14 :

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) :

• Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.

• The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.

• The Convention’s 197 parties work together to improve the living conditions for people in drylands, to maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and to mitigate the effects of drought.

• The new UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework is the most comprehensive global commitment to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in order to restore the productivity of vast expanses of degraded land, improve the livelihoods of more than 1.3 billion people, and reduce the impacts of drought on vulnerable populations to build.

UNCCD and India  :

                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

‘Financial stability is a key theme for monetary policy’

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• The RBI Governor has highlighted the importance of the central bank’s role to maintain financial stability, in the backdrop of liquidity crisis of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) threatening to spillover to other sectors.

More about the news :

• The primary objective of monetary policy is to maintain price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.

• However, post the global financial crisis, the central bank feels that The price stability may not be sufficient for financial stability and, therefore, financial stability has emerged as another key consideration for monetary policy.

• The central bank, he said, has accorded high policy attention to reform both banking and non-banking sectors, and has been taking steps to strengthen the regulatory and supervisory frameworks to increase the resilience of the banking system.

• Further,he said that the endeavour of RBI is to ensure price stability under the flexible inflation targeting regime and simultaneously focus on growth when inflation is under control.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

EU leaders to debate push for zero emissions by 2050

GS PAPER  - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Context :

• EU leaders have announced that they would discuss setting a target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Zero Emission by 2050 :

• The European Commission proposed last year that the bloc adopt a mid-century net zero emissions goal, meaning the EU would absorb as much greenhouse gases as it emits.

  • Member country leaders are set to discuss the bloc's long-term climate strategy at a European Council summit

• European Union leaders meeting in Brussels will debate the 2050 target of “climate neutrality”.

• The environmental group WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) says that this has the support of 16 of the EU’s 28 countries.

• The EU aims at engaging in an in-depth transformation of its own economy and society to achieve climate neutrality.

• EU countries want more debate on financing the shift from an economy running on fossil fuels, especially those in Eastern Europe, to one driven by clean energy.

• The growing stress on climate action comes after the elections to the European Parliament where Green parties made substantial gains.

• Under the 2015 Paris climate change treaty, the EU pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

Bitcoin use causing huge CO2 emissions: Study

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Context :

• According to the study, Increased use of electricity in the production and transaction of bitcoins generate carbon dioxide (CO2) between 22 and 22.9 megatonnes per year, which is similar to cities like Bengaluru and Chennai that emit more than 21 million tonnes of the harmful greenhouse gas.

Issue :

• Until November 2018, the annual electricity consumption by Bitcoin was estimated to be about 46 Terawatt-hour (TWh)

• The teams also explored large-scale mining “farms” set up by professional operators, as “extra energy is needed just for the cooling of the (such) data centre”.

• The production of bitcoin or mining involves mathematical puzzles that requires a lot of computing power that increases CO2 emissions and causes an additional burden on the climate..

• According to the Emissions Gap Report 2018, global greenhouse emissions show no sign of peaking. It reached a record high 53.5 gigatonnes (Gt CO2) of equivalent carbon dioxide in 2017.

• In 2018, global energy-related CO2 emissions rose 1.7 per cent to a historic high of 33.1 Gt CO2, said an International Energy Agency report.

  Wa Forward:

• The researchers have recommended that cryptocurrency mining should be regulated in regions where power generation is especially carbon-intensive. Also, to improve the ecological balance, more mining farms can be linked to additional renewable generating capacity.

                                                                                                                       Source :- Down To Earth

By 2027, India population to cross China’s: UN

GS PAPER - 01 SOCIETY - Population and its associated Issues.

Context :

• According to ‘The World Population Prospects 2019’ published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2027.

Global Findings :

• World's population is expected to increase by two billion people in the next 30 years, from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050.

• By 2050, one in six people in the world will be over age 65 (16 per cent), up from one in 11 in 2019 (9 per cent).

• The number of people aged 80 years or over is projected to triple, from 143 million in 2019 to 426 million in 2050.

• Although overall life expectancy will increase (from 64.2 years in 1990 to 77.1 years in 2050), life expectancy in poorer countries will continue to lag behind.

India Specific Findings :

• India is expected to add nearly 273 million people between 2019 and 2050, while the population of Nigeria is projected to grow by 200 million. Together, these two countries could account for 23% of the global population increase to 2050.

• The 2017 world population report, released by the UN two years ago, had estimated that the population of India will surpass that of China's by around 2024.

• China, with 1.43 billion people in 2019, and India, with 1.37 billion, have long been the two most populous countries of the world, comprising 19 and 18 per cent, respectively, of the global total in 2019.

• After  this  re-ordering  between  2019  and  2050,  the  ranking of the two largest countries is projected to be preserved through the end of the century, when India   could   remain   the   world’s   most   populous   country with nearly 1.5 billion inhabitants, followed by  China  with  just  under  1.1  billion.

                                                                                                                                                       Source :- Indian Express

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