Lithium Finding in India

In News

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has found lithium resources in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time.
  • The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has established “inferred” lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes in Salal-Haimana area of Reasi District of Jammu and Kashmir. 

What are ‘Inferred’ Resources?

• Mineral Resources are sub-divided into inferred, indicated and measured  categories, based on the order of increasing geological confidence.
• Inferred Mineral Resource is  a mineral resource for which quantity, grade (or quality) and mineral content can be estimated with a low level of confidence. It is inferred and assumed from geological evidence but not verified geologically.

Stages of Geological Exploration for Lithium

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has categorised the recent discovery of resources in preliminary exploration, called the G3 stage. 
• According to The United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC), there are four stages of exploration for any mineral deposit: reconnaissance (G4), preliminary exploration (G3), general exploration (G2), and detailed exploration (G1).
• The mineral extraction process typically begins with the G4 stage.

Significance of Findings

• Lithium also called “white gold” is a metal of strategic nature with following applications for india
• Electric mobility: with the current government’s focus EV’s are expected to be nearly three-fourth of Indian two-wheelers  by 2030, and all new cars are expected to be EVs. The majority of them will have to be powered by lithium-based battery packs in the near term.
• Climate change mitigation: Technologies such as lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells are likely to play a key role in India’s plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35% from its 2005 levels by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2070
• Energy Transition: The success of transition from combustion vehicle to an electric vehicle depends on battery, which accounts for at least 30% of the vehicle’s cost. India’s demand for these critical resources has risen 6 fold in the last five years as it tries to be the electronic and solar manufacturing hub.
• Energy security: According to the Central Electricity Authority, the country will need 27 GW of grid-scale energy storage systems by 2030. This will require large amounts of lithium.
• Economy: As various government schemes like PLI are focussing on electronics and semiconductors. Availability of lithium resources can help in establishing end to end supply chains.
  • It also reduces imports and boosts employment opportunities. The country currently imports all of its lithium needs. India was heavily dependent on Hong Kong and China for its Lithium requirements.

About Lithium

• Lithium is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. 
• Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. 
• Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable, and must be stored in vacuum, inert atmosphere, or inert liquid such as purified kerosene or mineral oil.

Global reserves

• Chile, Australia, Argentina, Bolivia and China contain most of the reserves discovered so far globally. 
• In South America, 54% of the world’s Lithium reserves are found in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The area is referred to as the ‘Lithium Triangle’ and is concentrated in various salt pans present in the Atacama Desert and neighbouring arid regions.

Other Potential sources of Lithium in India

• In India, there is some potential to recover lithium from brines of Sambhar and Pachpadra areas in Rajasthan, and Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. 
• The major mica belts located in Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh and the pegmatite belts in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, alongside rock mining being undertaken at Mandya, Karnataka, are other potential geological domains of the country.

Concerns related to recent findings in J&K

• The new find is categorised as “inferred”. The “inferred” mineral resource is the part of a resource for which quantity, grade and mineral content are estimated only with a low level of confidence.
• The lithium find in J&K, in inferred terms, is also comparatively small, considering that proven reserves in Bolivia are 21 million tonnes, 17 million tonnes in Argentina, 6.3 million tonnes in Australia, and 4.5 million tonnes in China.
• There are also environmental concerns associated with such extractions that  need to be dealt with carefully.

About GSI

• Geological Survey of India (GSI) established in 1851. It is an attached office to the Ministry of Mines.
• The principal function of GSI relates to creation and updation of national geoscientific data and mineral resource assessment, air-borne and marine surveys and conducting multifarious geotechnical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies.

Source: TH

India-US: Exercise to respond to nuke & bioterror attacks

In News

• In a first, India-US conduct drills on nuke, chemical, bio terror attacks prevention.

More about the news

• Exercise TARKASH:
  • The exercise by the National Security Guard (NSG) and US Special Operations Forces (SOF) is being held in Chennai.
  • Indo-US joint exercise has for the first time included “Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) terror response” in its drill.
  • During the course of joint exercise, both forces also conducted joint mock counter-terrorism drills at multiple locations in Chennai to enhance interoperability and coordination between the two special forces.
• Sixth edition:
  • This is the sixth edition of the exercise which began on January 16 and will end on February 14.
• Significance:
  • Russian allegations:
    • The exercise comes in the backdrop of Russian allegations against Ukraine recently that Kyiv had orchestrated a chemical attack in Kharkiv. 
  • Opportunity:
    • The training provided an opportunity for both the forces to gain proficiency and enhance skill sets for an effective CBRN terror response. 
    • Subject matter experts in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear warfare from the US Special Forces and the NSG exchanged valuable knowledge in handling CBRN threat in an urban counter-terrorism environment.

CBRN weaponsCBRN weapons, which are also classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMD), have been used by States and terror elements in the past. The most recent use of CBRN in the form of a sarin gas attack was witnessed in Syria in 2017 when more than 100 people died.According to the UN, the prospect of non-state actors, including terrorists and their supporters, gaining access to and using WMDs or CBRNs is a “serious threat to international peace and security”.Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)WMDs are weapons with the capacity to inflict death and destruction on such a massive scale and so indiscriminately that its very presence in the hands of a hostile power can be considered a grievous threat. Modern weapons of mass destruction are either nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons—frequently referred to collectively as NBC weapons.

India-USA Relations

• About:
  • India and US share values of democracy, rule of law, human rights, religious freedom that bind the countries together.
• Bilateral engagement:
  • India and the United States enjoy a comprehensive global strategic  partnership covering almost all areas of human endeavour, driven by  shared democratic values, convergence of interests on a range of issues,  and vibrant people-to-people contacts.
  • Regular exchanges at the leadership-level have been an integral  element of the expanding bilateral engagement.
  • Despite COVID-19 pandemic, India-U.S. cooperation witnessed  intense engagement under various bilateral dialogue mechanisms in a wide  range of areas including defence, security, health, trade, economic, science  & technology, energy and people-to-people ties.
• Defence and Security: 
  • India-US defence cooperation is based on “New Framework for IndiaUS Defence Cooperation”, which was renewed for a period of ten years in  2015. 
  • In 2016, the defence relationship was designated as a Major  Defence Partnership (MDP).
    • The MDP recognizes a shared desire to build  a comprehensive, enduring and mutually beneficial defence partnership. 
  • Several defence agreements have been signed in recent years. These  include:
    • Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Association (August 2016) 
    • Memorandum of Intent between the U.S. Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) 
    • the Indian Defence Innovation Organisation – Innovation for Defence Excellence (2018)
    • Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (September 2018)
    •  Industrial Security Agreement (December 2019);
    • Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (October 2020).
  • Bilateral military exercises and defence exchanges are important  aspects of deepening military-to-military cooperation.
    • In addition to a number of service-to-service exercises, in 2019 a tri-services exercise– Tiger Triumph– was conducted in November 2019. 
    • Bilateral and regional exercises include: Yudh Abhyas (Army); Vajra Prahar (Special Forces); RIMPAC; Red Flag. 
    • In November 2020, the Royal Australian Navy joined the U.S.-India-Japan MALABAR Naval Exercise held in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. 
    • Both sides have conducted  a number of PASSEX with the US carrier groups in the Indian Ocean Region.
• Quad: 
  • The four Quad partners (India, Japan, United States & Australia) first formed a “Core Group” in 2004, to swiftly mobilise aid during the joint response to the 2004 Tsunami. Since 2017, Quad engagements have increased and intensified.
  • In 2019, the first Quad Foreign Ministerial Meeting was held in New York (December 2019).
• Counter Terrorism Cooperation:
  • Cooperation in counter-terrorism has seen considerable progress with information exchange, operational cooperation and sharing of counterterrorism technology and equipment. India-U.S. Joint Working Group on  Counter-Terrorism oversees the expanding CT cooperation.
• Cyber Security Cooperation:
  • The India-US Cyber Framework signed in September 2016, provides for expanding cooperation in the cyber domain.
• Trade & Economic Relations: 
  • The rapidly expanding trade and commercial linkages form an important component of the multi-faceted partnership between India and the United States. 
  • The U.S. is India’s second largest trading partner and a major destination for our exports of goods and services. 
  • Bilateral trade in goods and services stood at US$ 146 billion in 2019.
  • During the financial year 2020-21, India received the highest ever foreign direct investment amounting to USD 81.72 billion, as per data published by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. 
  • The US replaced Mauritius as the second largest source of foreign direct investment into India during 2020-21 with inflows of USD 13.82 billion. 
  • The US is one of the top 5 investment destinations for Indian FDI.
• Energy sector:
  • India and the US have a strong bilateral partnership in the energy sector.
  • In 2010, bilateral Energy Dialogue was launched. 
• Science and Technology:
  • India-US cooperation in Science and Technology is multi-faceted and has been growing steadily under the framework of the India-US Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2005, which was renewed for a period of ten years in September 2019.
  • ISRO and NASA are working together to realise a joint microwave remote sensing satellite for Earth observation, named NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). 
• Education partnership: 
  • It is an important pillar of India-US ties and both the countries share strong linkages and history of higher education collaborations.
  • The United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI) was set up after a bilateral agreement on education exchange was signed between India and the US on February 2, 1950
• Indian Diaspora: 
  • About 4.2 million Indian Americans/Indian origin people reside in the US. The Indian Americans [3.18 million] constitute the third largest Asian ethnic group in the US.

Dawoodi Bohras Community

In News

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court referred to a larger Bench of nine judges, a series of petitions challenging the authority of Dawoodi Bohra community leaders excommunicate their members.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Dawoodi Bohra community’s Arabic Academy at Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah (The Saifee Academy) in Mumbai.

Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah It is a world-class Arabic academy dedicated to producing graduates of the highest calibre. The centuries-old pursuit of providing intellectual nourishment at Aljamea is brought to fruition in four state-of-the-art campuses across the world under the guidance and leadership of the 53rd al-D??? al-Mutlaq Dr. Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin TUS, who is the sole benefactor of the institute.

Who are the Dawoodi Bohras?

• They are Shia Muslims  and they trace their heritage to the Fatimi Imams, direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, in Egypt. 
• The Dawoodi Bohras throughout the world are guided by their leader known as the Al-Dai-Al-Mutlaq.  (unrestricted missionary), who first operated from Yemen and then, for the last 450 years, from India.
• The present leader is the 53rd al-Dai al-Mutlaq, His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin. 
• They today are generally highly educated, thriving business people and qualified professionals in numerous fields. 
• Aggregating to around 1 million members, the Dawoodi Bohras have settled in over 40 countries across the globe to practice their faith and lead meaningful and prosperous lives
• Power to excommunicate 
  • The leader of the community is recognised by the members as having the right to excommunicate its members.
    • In practical terms, excommunication means not being allowed to access a mosque belonging to the community or a burial dedicated to the community.
      • Among the members of the community who have faced excommunication in the past are those who contested the headship of the leaders.
• Arguments against In November  1949, the Bombay Prevention of Excommunication Act (now repealed) was enacted, which sought to prevent the practice of excommunication prevalent in certain communities, as it led to the deprivation of legitimate rights and privileges of its members and in “keeping with the spirit of changing times and in the public interest”.
• Arguments for: The 51st leader of the community challenged the constitutional validity of the Act, stating it violated fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution under Articles 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) and 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs).
• It was submitted that the power of excommunication was part of the management of community affairs in matters of religion, and depriving the Dai-ul-Mustlaq (leader) of the right and making its exercise a penal offence “struck at the very life of the denomination and rendered it impotent to protect itself against dissidents and schismatics”
• Supreme Court’s Observations: .

• Earlier: A Constitution Bench of the SC held in 1962 that Dai’s position is an essential part of the community and the power to excommunicate is to enforce discipline and preserve the denomination, not to punish. (Sardar Syedna Saifuddin v. State of Bombay).
• Recent: A Constitution Bench led by Justice S K Kaul said that the 1962 judgment needed a relook. 
• The court held that the consideration was needed mainly on two grounds: balancing the rights under Article 26(b) — the right of religious denominations to manage their own affairs in matters of religion — and Article 21 — whether the practice can be protected under Article 26(b) when tested on the touchstone of constitutional morality.

Khatna(Female Genital Mutilation)Female genital mutilation is a practice that involves altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons.In India, it is practised predominantly within the Bohra Muslim community It has been recognised by the United Nations as a human rights violation that can harm the health and integrity of women.UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) jointly lead the world’s largest programme to end FGM. Launched in 2008, the programme partners with communities to raise awareness of the harms caused by FGM and to shift social norms towards collective abandonment.

Gender Budgeting

In News

• Recent Budget 2023-24 sees marginal rise in allocation for WCD Ministry for women

Key Takeaways:

• The allocation under the Gender Budget rose from ?1,71,006.47 crore in 2022-23 to ?2,23,219.75 crore in 2023-24 which is an increase by 23% compared to 2022-23.
•  The gender component accounted for 4.9% of the entire Budget, compared to 4.23% in 2022-23.
• The allocation for the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development saw a small increase of 1%.
• Around 90% of gender budgeting is concentrated in five ministries: Rural Development, Women and Child Development, Agriculture, Health and Family Welfare, and Education.
• Key areas in need of attention like transportation, water collection and security remain ignored.
• The allocation for Mission Shakti, which includes key schemes for women’s protection, saw a decrease of 1.2%.
• Part A of the Gender Budget, which counts allocation for schemes exclusively for women, saw a 70% increase from last year.
• The majority of this increase went to the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana rural housing scheme whose inclusion in the Gender Budget is questioned, since it does not benefit women exclusively.

• Union Budget has also announced a new small savings scheme for women called the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate which will allow a deposit of up to ?2 lakh for two years at a fixed interest rate of 7.5%.
• Previously, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) released a Handbook on Gender Budgeting in 2015, which provides exhaustive guidance for operationalising GRB in practice.

Mission ShaktiThe Government of India launched “Mission Shakti,” an integrated women empowerment program. It is an integrated women empowerment programme as an umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women for implementation during the 15th  Finance Commission period 202l-22 to 2025-26. The norms of ‘Mission Shakti’ will be applicable with effect from 01.04.2022.It has two sub-schemes:“Sambal” or One Stop Centre (OSC)“Samarthya” or Swadhar Greh which is now a part of Shakti Sadan

Gender Budgeting

• Gender budgeting is defined by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) as a tool to achieve gender mainstreaming and ensure benefits of development reach women as much as men.
• The government publishes a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) every year along with the Union Budget to review programmes from a gender perspective and present information on allocations for women.
• It is analysis of the budget through a gender lens rather than creating a separate budget for women.
• The goal is to examine the gender-specific impact of the budget and align it with gender commitments.
• Examples of programs that benefit women more than men include: Nal se Jal (piped water supply), Ujjwala Yojana (cooking fuel), and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (toilet construction).

Importance of Gender Budgeting	Challenges of Gender Budgeting
Promotes transparency and accountability in government budgeting processes.Addresses persistent gaps in gender equality and women’s empowerment.Ensures allocation of resources to address specific needs and challenges faced by women and girls.Supports achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment, essential for sustainable development.	Lack of data and information on the gender impacts of government policies and programs.Resistance to change and limited understanding of the importance of gender budgeting.Lack of political will and resources for implementing gender budgeting effectively.Difficulty in integrating gender considerations into complex budget processes and decision-making structures.

ISRO’s SSLV-D2 launch

In News

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently launched the second development flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).

More about the news

• About:
  • The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D2) was launched successfully from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
    • It was ISRO’s first launch of 2023.
  • It will place the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) earth observation satellite EOS-07 and two co-passenger satellites Janus-1 and AzaadiSat2  in a 450-km circular orbit around the Earth.
    •  Janus-1 and AzaadiSat2 are developed by start-ups.
  • G20 logo:
    • The satellite will also carry the G20 logo to space and the NCC song to celebrate 75 years of the organisation.

Janus-1Janus-1 is a technology demonstrator satellite built by United States-based Antaris and its Indian partners XDLinks and Ananth Technologies.It weighs only 10.2 kg, is a six-unit cube satellite with five payloads on board — two from Singapore, and one each from Kenya, Australia, and Indonesia. The entire satellite was built in 10 months, less than half the time it usually takes to manufacture satellites of this size.AzaadiSat2The payloads have been built by 750 girl students from across India. The payloads contain: LoRa amateur radio, a sensor to measure radiation levels in space, and sensors to measure the health of the satellite such as temperature, reset count, and inertial data

Significance of SSLV

• Multiple satellites & multiple drop-offs:
  • SSLV is perfectly suited for launching multiple microsatellites at a time and supports multiple orbital drop-offs.
    • SSLV is capable of launching Mini, Micro, or Nanosatellites (10 to 500 kg mass) to a 500 km planar orbit. 
• Development of commercial Market:
  • The new vehicle was developed to capture the emerging small and micro satellite commercial market, with launches offered on demand.
    • The launch of small satellites has until now been dependent on ‘piggy-back’ rides with big satellite launches on ISRO’s work-horse
• Less time, manpower & cost-effective:
  • It will take only 72 hours to integrate, unlike the 70 days taken now for a launch vehicle.
  • Only six people will be required to do the job, instead of 60 people.
    • So, the entire job will be done in a very short time and the cost will be only around Rs 30 crore.
  • It will be an on-demand vehicle.

Previous development flight:

• Failure:
  • The vehicle’s first development flight that took place last August after repeated delays due to the pandemic, failed to place the satellites in precise orbit.
• Analysis:
  • A failure analysis report on why satellites were not injected in desired orbits during the August launch suggests that it was because of vibrations picked up by the accelerometers on-board, which led to the systems thinking that they were faulty.

About Polar Satellite Launch VehicleIt is the third generation launch vehicle of India.It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages.After its first successful launch in October 1994, PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017.The vehicle successfully launched two spacecraft – Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013 – that later travelled to Moon and Mars respectively.Difference: PSLV was developed to launch low-Earth Orbit satellites into polar and sun synchronous orbits whereas GSLV was developed to launch the heavier INSAT class of geosynchronous satellites into orbit.Difference between circular and elliptical orbitsMostly objects such as satellites and spacecrafts are put in elliptical orbits only temporarily. They are then either pushed up to circular orbits at a greater height or the acceleration is increased until the trajectory changes from an ellipse to a hyperbola and the spacecraft escapes the gravity of the Earth in order to move further into space.Satellites that orbit the Earth are mostly placed in circular orbits. One reason is that if the satellite is used for imaging the Earth, it is easier if it has a fixed distance from the Earth. If the distance keeps changing as in an elliptical orbit, keeping the cameras focussed can become complicated.

Source: TH

Data on Aarogya Setu

In News

• The Minister of State for Electronics and IT recently informed the Parliament that contact tracing data of citizens that were collected through the Aarogya Setu app has been deleted.
  • The app was launched as a contact tracing platform by the Centre during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. 

What Data Was Collected?

• It served as a contact tracing app, collecting personal details like a person’s name, phone number and gender, along with having access to their live location and Bluetooth.
• Who could access the data: Approved officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, State Health Departments, the National and State Disaster Management Authorities and District Civil Surgeons were given secure access to the data collected through Aarogya Setu.

Concerns with Aarogya Setu

• Mandatory Nature: The app was initially mandatory for rail and air travel, and the concerns raised that people may not own a smartphone, which was necessary to use the app. 
• Privacy Concerns: The government claimed the data was encrypted and anonymised, it was unclear what anonymisation protocols were being used.
  • The app also offered a static anonymisation ID, which privacy experts claimed was a weaker model compared to dynamic anonymisation IDs.

Karnataka High Court on Privacy Concerns of the App

• A petition was filed in the Karnataka High Court in 2020 against the mandatory nature of the app and its data collection practices. 
• The court refused to stay the use of the app, but held that the Centre cannot deny any services to a citizen on the ground that the user does not have Aarogya Setu and the data collected via the application cannot be shared with other parties beyond what is specified in the privacy policy presented to users.

Ayushman Bharat Health Account numbers

• The National Health Authority announced the integration of its flagship Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission with the Aarogya Setu app, allowing users to create 14-digit unique Ayushman Bharat Health Account numbers from the app.
• The app will also have additional functionalities like sharing health status through a QR code, Open API, health advisories, and testing lab details.

Aarogya Setu

• Arogya Setu app has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) in a public-private partnership model to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19.

PM inaugurates two new Vande Bharat Express

In Context

• Recently, PM flagged off two Vande Bharat trains set to ply between Mumbai and the pilgrim towns of Shirdi and Solapur.
  • For the first time, two Vande Bharat trains were inaugurated at one go.

About

• The two trains are Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Train and Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Train.
  • The Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat train is the 9th Vande Bharat train in the country, facilitating travel to important pilgrimage centres such as Siddheshwar in Solapur, Akkalkot, Tuljapur, Pandharpur near Solapur and Alandi near Pune.
  • Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Train will be the 10th Vande Bharat train in the country.
• Significance:
• It  is an important step towards fulfilling the Prime Minister’s vision of building better, efficient and passenger-friendly transport infrastructure for New India.

Vande Bharat Express – Indigenously built semi-high-speed trainVande Bharat is India’s first indigenous Semi High-Speed Train.The first ‘Vande Bharat Express’ train was flagged off by Shri Narendra Modi on the New Delhi – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi- route in February 2019.The Vande Bharat Express, earlier known as Train 18, is an electric multiple-unit train designed and manufactured by the government-owned Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai. It can achieve high speeds due to faster acceleration and deceleration and also reduce journey time by 25% to 45%.

Rise in jobs in Renewable sectors

In Context

• According to a recent study, Eight-fold rise is seen in jobs in solar and wind energy sectors.
  • The study was jointly conducted by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Natural Resources Defence Council India and Skill Council for Green Jobs.

Methodology

• The report considered only full-time jobs which is calculated by a formula wherein a co-efficient, called FTE, for each sector —solar rooftop, utility solar and wind was computed by dividing the time spent by an employee on a particular activity to the number of standard working hours in a year. 
• These FTE numbers are used as coefficients to estimate the total workforce expected to be employed in the solar and wind energy project deployment process based on excess capacity added every year (MW).

Key Findings of the Report

• India’s solar and wind energy sectors added 52,700 new workers in project development roles in the last financial year which is an eight-fold increase from financial year 2021.
  • India’s solar and wind energy sectors employed 1,64,000 workers as of FY’22, showing a 47% increase from FY’21.
  • Nearly 99% of the new workforce (52,100 workers) were employed in the solar energy sector. 

• The study also pointed to a “huge shortage” of workers trained in upstream manufacturing segments such as making poly-silicon, ingots, wafers and cells. 
• The bulk of the current jobs are in assembling solar modules.

Renewable Energy in IndiaIndia has a massive demand for energy to fuel its rapidly growing economy. From a power deficit nation at the time of Independence, the efforts to make India energy-independent have continued for over seven decades. Today, India is a power surplus nation with a total installed electricity capacity of over Four lakh MW.India is the world’s third largest producer of renewable energy, with 40% of its installed electricity capacity coming from non-fossil fuel sources.In 2019, India announced that it would take up its installed capacity of renewable energy to 450 GW by 2030.India is the 5th in the world regarding usable hydropower potential.Solar energy remained the fastest-growing sector. India also  has the 4th largest wind power capacity in the world.

Urban20 (U20)

In News

• The inaugural meeting City Sherpa meeting of the sixth Urban20 (U20) cycle was organised in Ahmedabad on 9-10 February 2023.

Priority areas for the Urban 20 event

• Encouraging environmentally responsible behaviors, 
• Ensuring water security, 
• Accelerating climate finance, 
• Championing ‘local’ identity, 
• Reinventing frameworks for urban governance and planning, and
• Catalysing digital urban futures.

About U20

• U20 is a group of cities from the G20 countries and was first convened in Buenos Aires in 2018.
• The U20 brings together mayors from G20 cities under a common framework and coordinates a joint position to inform the discussions of national leaders.
• Contributions from the U20 are shared with the G20 Presidency and Heads of State, enhancing the role of cities as global economic and political leaders.

Participants

• The U20 brings together a group of Participating Cities. 
• These cities are important economic or population hubs, made up of major C40 and UCLG member cities from G20 countries
  • C40 Cities: C40 connects 96 of the world’s largest and most influential cities, representing 700+ million citizens and one-quarter of the global economy.
  • United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG): UCLG is the world organization of local and regional governments and their associations, representing and defending their interests on the world stage.
    • UCLG’s network represents 70% of the world’s total population and is present in all world regions. 

Objectives 

• Build a platform on behalf of urban centers and in close collaboration with global networks of local governments, to be shared collectively with G20 leaders.
• Enrich the G20 agenda by exploring synergies and contributing unique perspectives and good practices from cities.
• Propose joint solutions to enhance climate action and sustainable economic development by presenting a communique that leverages existing G20 policy recommendations and international frameworks as well as recommendations from cities.
• Invite G20 members to include in each annual discussion strategic or urgent urban subjects that require synergistic solutions with national governments from the short to the long term