6 Dec 2023

#GS3: – 01. Global Warming

Each decade since the 1990s has been warmer than the previous one and we see no immediate sign of this trend reversing. We are losing the race to save our melting glaciers and ice sheets.

Glaciers shrank more than ever from 2011and 2020 and the Antarctic ice sheet lost 75% more compared to the previous 10 years
– PETTERITAALAS secretary-general, World Meteorological Organization

#GS3: – 02. Logistics & Skilling for Development

Developing a strong logistics framework is key to India becoming a manufacturing hub and that the country also needs to “up skill” its workers and increase female participation in the workforce to realize its “demographic dividend”. India has one of the youngEst working population sin the world, with nearly 53% of its citizens under the age of 30.
-S & P

#GS2: -03. Safest City

Kolkata has emerged as the safest city in India For the third consecutive year, recording the least number of cognizable offences per 100,000 population among metro polises, are port published by the National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) said. The eastern metropolis, which reported 86.5 cases of cognizable offencesper100,000people in 2022, was followed by Pune (280.7) and Hyderabad (299.2).
-NCRB Data

#GS3: – 04. Cloud Computing

Air India has shut down its two data centres and has moved its computational workload to the cloud, a move that will help the loss-making airline save nearly $1 million annually
– Air India

#GS2: – 05. Kala Azar

Bangladesh recently achieved a major public health goal when it eradicated visceral leishmaniasis, comm. Only known as kala-azar,raising the question of when India would wipe out the debilitating, often fatal, parasitic disease—the fight very much on but far from complete.
-Commentary in News

Disease incidence has gone down to Approximately 463 in 2023 from the previous 44,533 in 2014, a 99% decrease in case Numbers.
-Shyam Sundar, programme director of the Kala-Azar Medical Research Centre in Bihar

#GS3: -06. COP-28 : Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter

What sort of climate deal is a summit hosted by the world’s third- largest net oil exporter most likely to pull off? The type that boosts revenues for petroleum companies. The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter unveiled at the United Nations CoP-28 Summit in Dubai counts as one of the most substantive pacts to have emerged from The conference so far. The agreement includes most of the traditional Western oil majors, state producers from Saudi Arabia and hosts the United Arab Emirates, between them accounting for about 40% of global oil output. The agreement talks about cracking down on tones of methane pumped in to the atmosphere through leaks at oil and gas-fields and flares burning off surplus gas.

The Global Methane Pledge was one of the centerpieces of the Glasgow CoP-26 conference. Roughly a quarter of the warming to date has been caused by methane. Over the coming century, each tone of CH4 emitted will heat the atmosphere by as much as 28 tonnes of CO2.

Capturing that valuable commodity and Selling it—instead of venting it or burning it as waste gas—should be extremely profitable. About 41% of methane missions from oil and gas facilities can be eliminated at no net cost, according to the International Energy Agency.

An Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter is an oxymoron because the carbon is locked into the chemical structures of oil and gas molecules themselves. The only viable way to tackle that Is to stop burning fossil fuels. It’s a looming decline in oil and gas production itself, rather than any attempt to make the industry’s operations more efficient, that will make the real difference to the planet.
-David Fickling, Bloomberg

#GS3: -07. Technology & India

India will become the world’s second-largest economy by 2075. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times projects that by 2050, India’s purchasing power will eclipse that of the US by a staggering 30%, further contributing to the aura of inevitability that is increasingly becoming synonymous with the India brand.

Viewed through the lens of technology, the idea of ‘Inevitable India’ becomes not just an obvious choice, but a compelling one. My belief is not driven solely by national pride, though that sentiment is undeniably strong. Instead, it stems from an understanding of pivotal transitions that are reshaping the global landscape and India’s unique position in each of these transformations.

Let’s first talk about the all-important digital transition, a paradigm shift that goes beyond reshaping nations and industries—it’s a complete rewriting of the rules of competition. India’s remarkable journey started with our quest to provide a unique national ID to every single citizen in the country: Aadhaar. With digital IDs now in the hands of almost 1.4 billion people, who use it daily for around 80 million transactions, India has established a formidable foundation for a genuinely inclusive digital economy.