Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India has reduced emission intensity by 21 per cent over 2005 levels and it isn’t just on-track to achieve its Paris Agreement targets, but will exceed them beyond expectations. Modi was speaking at the Climate Ambition Summit hosted by the United Nations and United Kingdom to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
Modi said: “We have reduced our emission intensity by 21 per cent over 2005 levels. Our solar capacity has grown from 2.63GW in 2014 to 36 GW in 2020. Our renewable energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world. It will reach 175GW before 2022. “
He added that India has an even more ambitious target now: 450GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, and the country has also succeeded in expanding its forest cover and safeguarding its biodiversity.
Modi said the summit marks the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement: the most ambitious step in the fight against climate change. He added as the world is setting its sight to achieve higher targets, it must not lose sight of the past. “Also review our achievements against targets already set, only then can our voices be credible for future generations. India is not only on track to achieve its Paris agreement targets, but to exceed them beyond expectations”, said Modi.
He added that in 2047, India will celebrate 100 years as a modern independent nation. “To all fellow residents of this planet, I make a solemn pledge today that Centennial India will not only meet its own targets but also exceed your expectations,” said Modi.
Citing India’s contribution on a global level to fight climate change, Modi said on the world stage, India has pioneered two major initiatives — the international solar alliance and coalition for disaster resilience infrastructure.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The agreement was adopted by 196 parties at 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, on December 12, 2015, and was enforced on November 4, 2016.
Panic struck in the government circles in Canada soon after the Modi government summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi over Trudeau’s remarks and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar announced that he will skip the Canada-led Ministerial Coordination Group on Covid-19 (MCGC)…reports India Daily Newsdesk
Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The Narendra Modi-led government’s tough stand against foreign interference in India’s domestic affairs forced Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to mellow his rhetoric and support to the ongoing farmers’ agitation.
Last week, Trudeau had extended his support to India’s farm protests, claiming that the situation was “concerning” and Canadians were “all very worried about family and friends” in Punjab.
Sources in Toronto told IANS that soon after the Modi government summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi over Trudeau’s remarks and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar announced that he will skip the Canada-led Ministerial Coordination Group on Covid-19 (MCGC), panic struck in the government circles in Canada.
The Indian government had sent a clear message that such behaviour will affect the bilateral trade as it has already happened under the Trudeau government. The bilateral trade between India and Canada declined by around $1 billion from 2017-18 to 2018-19 after Trudeau’s pro-Khalistani approach.
Bilateral trade between India and Canada was worth $7.23 billion in 2017-18. India’s exports to Canada during this period were $2.51 billion and imports from Canada were $4.72 billion. In 2018-19, the trade was worth $6.3 billion.
Canadian investors view India as an attractive destination for investments, particularly in the post-coronavirus period. More than 400 Canadian companies have presence in India, and more than 1,000 companies are actively pursuing business in the massive Indian market.
Canada exports pulses, newsprint, wood pulp, asbestos, potash, iron scrap, copper, minerals and industrial chemicals and wants India to import more. The Canadian businesses would like their government to sign Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and Bilateral Investment Promotion and Partnership Agreement (BIPPA) with India, sources said.
After some deft diplomacy played by the Indian High Commission in Canada, sources said that Trudeau softened his stand when he was asked about the demarche issued by the Indian government. A humbled Trudeau in response said, “Canada will always stand up for the right of peaceful protest anywhere around the world and we’re pleased to see moves toward de-escalation and dialogue.”
Sources said Trudeau’s earlier rhetoric against India on the farm protests was driven by his political compulsions — he runs a minority government in his second term and continually needs to pander to his Khalistani vote bank.
Six lakh Sikh immigrants in Canada constitute a significant vote bank, with everyone from Trudeau’s Liberal Party to the opposition Conservative Party trying to woo them to their sides. Among the Sikhs in Canada, a substantial section is ideologically aligned with the Khalistan movement — a violent separatist Sikh militant movement in Punjab during the 1980s, sponsored by Pakistan. Thousands of innocent people in Punjab were killed by Khalistani militants before the Indian security agencies flushed them out completely.
Though the militancy was wiped out, in the last five years, Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, has been making efforts to revive the movement with the help of Khalistani diaspora in Canada, the UK and elsewhere.
In Canada, Khalistani politics continues to influence the Liberal Party and its foreign policy towards India. In the Trudeau government, Khalistani and Pakistani Canadians have assumed significant positions. While Canada’s Defence Minister, Harjit Singh Sajjan, is a Khalistani sympathiser, the leader of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, too is a staunch supporter of Khalistanis.
British Acting High Commissioner to India Jan Thompson
India is a leader on renewables and a natural partner for Britain in the shared mission to create a greener planet and enable a clean and resilient recovery from Covid-19, British Acting High Commissioner to India Jan Thompson said on Friday.
In a statement on the eve of the Climate Ambition Summit, Thompson said: “We are proud to partner with India on climate initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
“On December 12, the UK and India will come together with the global community, including civil society, business, academia, indigenous groups and young people, for the Climate Ambition Summit. This will be a landmark moment to maintain global momentum on climate action, putting our planet on a sustainable path.
“I am grateful to Prime Minister Modi for his involvement in the Summit and the continued commitment from India to work with the UK to help build a better future.”
The United Nations, Britain and France will co-convene the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, in partnership with Chile and Italy on December 12, exactly five years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The summit is a major step on the road to the next UN Climate Conference, COP26, which will be hosted by the UK next November in Glasgow.
It will provide leaders with a global platform to showcase commitments to tackle climate change.
The summit will highlight the fast-growing coalition of countries, cities, regions, businesses and investors committing to net-zero emissions and boosting ambition in climate finance, and resilience and adaptation.
It will feature leading examples of countries producing concrete near-term plans and policies to deliver on their longer-term climate ambition, highlighting the work ahead for other countries to deliver new Nationally Determined Contributions through 2021 in advance of COP26.
The summit will feature speeches from co-convenors UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte, President of Chile Sebastian Pinera, COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma, and dozens of other world leaders who will present ambitious climate commitments.
The event will also provide a global platform for voices from business, sub-national governments and civil society, including youth, indigenous and faith-based climate champions.
“At the Climate Ambition Summit, we are calling on countries to showcase commitments which align with the Paris Agreement,” COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma said in a tweet.
The petrol price march towards all time high levels has been temporarily halted by the oil marketing companies (OMCs) as they chose to keep the retail rates of petrol and diesel static for the fourth consecutive day even though global oil prices remained firm with crude above $ 50 a barrel.
Accordingly, there was no change in retail price of auto fuels on Friday with price of petrol remaining at Rs 83.71 a litre and diesel Rs 73.87 a litre in Delhi. Across the country as well the price of the two petroleum products remained unchanged.
Surprisingly, OMCs have gone on a pause mode at a time when the news of successful coronavirus and expectations of a big pick up in demand had kept crude on the boil with prices breaching $ 50 a barrel mark.
Petrol price was very close to breaching the all time high level of Rs 84 a litre (reached on October 4, 2018) when it touched Rs 83.71 a litre on Monday. But the march has been halted ever since then with no price revision by the OMCs.
Global crude prices have risen almost $ 10 a barrel in the last one month to reaching over $ 50 a barrel now. But even at this level, it is far less than an average crude price of $ 80.08 a barrel in October 2018 when petrol prices reached highs of Rs 84 a litre in the national capital.
With Friday’s pause, fuel prices have now increased on 15 of the past 22 days with petrol price rising by Rs 2.65 per litre and diesel by 3.41 a litre.
Petrol price had been static since September 22, and diesel rates hadn’t changed since October 2.
Though retail pricing of petrol and diesel has been deregulated and oil marketing companies were following a daily price revision formula, the same was suspended for almost two months to prevent volatility in international oil markets from impacting fuel prices regularly during the pandemic.
India has moved down seven spots in the global home price index to 54th rank in Q3 2020 against 47th in Q3 2019, with a decline of 2.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in home prices, international property consultant Knight Frank said in its latest research report — Global House Price Index Q3 2020.
According to the index, the ranking of India remained unchanged to 54th spot amongst 56 countries compared to previous quarter Q2 2020.
The Global House Price Index tracks the movement in mainstream residential prices across 56 countries and territories worldwide using official statistics.
In the 12-month percentage change for the period Q3 2019 – Q3 2020, Turkey continues to lead the annual rankings with prices up by 27.3 per cent YoY, followed by New Zealand at 15.4 per cent YoY and Luxembourg with 13.4 per cent YoY. Morocco was the weakest-performing territory in Q3 2020, with home prices fallen to 3.3 per cent YoY.
The report highlighted in Q3 2020, Ireland, Spain, India and Hong Kong witnessed the weakest price growth year-on-year.
According to the Knight Frank India’s recent report titled India Real Estate Update (July-September 2020) — analyses the residential and office market performances across eight major cities for the Q3 2020 period. It estimates that home sales volume jumped by 2.5 times to 33,403 units in Q3 2020 compared to 9,632 in Q2 2020. New residential unit launches increased by 4.5 times to 31,106 units in Q3 2020, compared to 5,584 units in the previous quarter.
Mainstream residential prices across 56 countries and territories worldwide saw a slight price correction, which stood at an annual rate change of 4.5 per cent on average, compared to Q2 2020 at 4.7 per cent.
According to the report, 16 per cent of the surveyed global countries and territories registered a decline in yearly price growth. In Q2 2020, many housing markets remained frozen and saw a sharp rebound in sales and prices in Q3 2020, including New Zealand, the UK and the US, while others witnessed only a marginal impact on pricing, including China, France and Germany.
The socio-economic and cultural contributions of Indian diaspora in Manchester with its impact on the United Kingdom and India will be recognised at a forthcoming virtual event reports Arundhati Mukherjee from Asian Lite International news desk
Rahul Laud, Curator & Reasearcher, Indian Influencers List Manchester
Indian influencers list in Greater Manchester 2020 has been scheduled to be launched early next year. On 26th January, the selection committee and organisers have scheduled an online event announcing the names of such personalities of Indian origin, whose influence in trade and commerce in Greater Manchester cannot be overlooked. The entire project has been conceptualised, coordinated, curated, researched, and executed by Rahul Laud, Associate Editor, Asian Lite International.
The endeavour is to make a comprehensive list of names of individuals who have risen above religion, gender, ran that extra mile to improve the living of the communities in Manchester in different ways. These individuals are essential contributors from the corporate world, some from social and cultural organisations, and some individuals who have a global presence and made Indians proud internationally.
Chief guest Dr Shashank Vikram, IFS – Consul General of India, Birmingham
Members of the Jury in the selection panel so far confirmed are – Esme Ward, Beth Hewitt, Laxmi Kaul, , Reshma Ruia, Dr. Rajan Madhok ,Ghanshyam Nabar, Manish Tiwari, Anasuddhin Azeez. Selection will be based on Concrete contribution in one or many fields, which includes creating jobs, innovation, and research, service to society through arts, culture, sports, over the last ten years; and apolitical unbiased service during ongoing Covid.
The final list of influencers will be published following an online event on 26th January. The Chief Guest for the evening will be Dr. Shashank Vikram, IFS – CONSUL GENERAL OF INDIA, CGI OFFICE, BIRMINGHAM. Guest speaker will be Shruti Chandra, Senior Asst Vice President from Invest India. Keynote address will be delivered by an internationally reputed speaker whose name is yet to be finalised.
Guest speaker Shruti Chandra, Senior Asst Vice President from Invest India
Eminent speakers with a special guests list for the event is being drawn up. The online brochure will include names and bio of the nominated influencers of Greater Manchester.
Explaining the rationale behind the activity , Rahul Laud says, “In my course of reporting consistently on the India- United Kingdom corridor, we have noticed, observed and often written about various individuals and activities of Indians from Manchester who have influenced society and nailed Manchester on the UK and international map. In the city, we have Indian corporates with their dynamic professionals with their active growing presence in Greater Manchester, and various socio-cultural organisations actively strengthening the LIVING BRIDGE between the two countries . This has emerged as a force to reckon with. Various events led by the Indian diaspora, game of cricket, festivals and engagement with the iconic assets- landmark institutions in the city of Manchester has displayed its identity and community cohesion both.”
Laxmi Kaul, jury member
Elaborating the rationale further , he also says, “It is extremely important that we recognise and felicitate the unsung heroes of Manchester. These champions contribute immensely to the social, political growth of not only in Manchester but also leave an impact on the UK. These champions will strengthen the existing Indo-UK business and trade relations. It is also imp that the UK signs a free trade agreement like it has done with Japan. And to achieve this the Indian diaspora in the UK must tell the whole world about the huge contribution that India does to the United Kingdom. The Indian diaspora, Indian champions, the Indian unsung heroes need this recognition. And this is exactly what the influencer’s list will attempt to do.”
Ghanshyam Nabar, jury member
India’s leading Bank in UK the ICICI and Future Bricks have agreed to collaborate with the project. The project is receiving overwhelming response. A professional secretariat – team of content specialist Subhadrika Sen , an alumnus of Salford University and Aditi Jain, alumnus of LSE for client management have joined . Asian Lite International and Global Indian Stories will render media support. Invest India has assured support to the project. The Manchester Museum has agreed to partner with the event. The Confederation of Indian Industry will also offer extensive cooperation in the endeavour and support. UK’s prime advertising, marketing communications agency Here and Now 365 will lend creative, PR and technical support to the event. Indian company Swaraj IT services will lend technical support.
Farmers from Punjab and Haryana continued to protest against the new agricultural laws for the 15th consecutive day at Delhi-Haryana's Singhu Border
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Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, experienced midfielder in the Indian men’s hockey team, feels it will be the responsibility of players to ensure they do their best to follow the safety protocols when they return home for a break from the ongoing national coaching camp which concludes on Saturday.
“It is very important we follow safety protocols when we return home for a break. We have been given strict instructions from our coaching staff and Hockey India on SOPs to follow when we return home. We completely understand the risks involved with life outside the camp bubble and we will need to act responsibly to ensure we continue to be covid free,” Chinglensana was quoted as saying by Hockey India.
The experienced midfielder further said that the players will be given a regime to follow that will help them keep up their fitness levels during the break.
Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (R)
“Despite these tough circumstances where we have not been able to compete, we have hit the fitness levels we projected in February this year during the FIH Hockey Pro League. It is very important we don’t drop this level when we go on a break. Hence, like always, Robin Arkel (Scientific Advisor) will give us a regime to follow and a list of do’s and dont’s in terms of food intake etc when we are back home for the holiday season.”
Speaking about his own experience over the last four-and-a-half months, Chinglensana said, “This is probably the first time we have been in national camp for so long without breaking for competitions. It’s no doubt been challenging especially because there is zero interaction with the outside world.”
“But this is a very important year for us and the pandemic demands these small sacrifices in order to remain in training and focused on our goals for the Olympic Games next year,” he added.
Led by women workers, India is showing a strong return-to-office trend and the number of people returning to work in November has risen to 10 per cent of pre-COVID levels, a new report revealed on Thursday.
Overall, 375 per cent more people returned to office in November as compared to April in the country.
Based on the data collected from more than 4 lakh employees across the country, the report by hybrid workplace solutions provider WorkInSync and employee transport solutions service MoveInSync said that Mumbai and Delhi-NCR lead the ‘return-to-office’ trends, currently at greater than 20 per cent of pre-COVID levels.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad are currently at less than 5 per cent of pre-COVID levels among the metro cities.
However, 20 per cent workforce in the rest of India has returned to offices compared to 10 per cent in Metros to pre-COVID levels.
The data suggested that women employees are way ahead of their male counterparts in the effort to get back to office.
While the rate of return to office is faster for women than men, overall ratio of women vs men remains low at 0.53 vs 0.72 pre-Covid.
“The data clearly shows that India wants to get back to business as usual very quickly. The index is also indicating the fact that with the hope of a vaccine in 2021, return-to-office levels in IT, ITeS & BPO sector could potentially reach 50 per cent of pre-COVID levels by May 2021 and up to 80 per cent by September,” said Deepesh Agarwal, CEO of WorkInSync.
Companies in Pharma sector (27 per cent) and IT, ITeS and BPO sector (16 per cent) are returning to office at a faster rate, compared to pure-play software product companies (3 per cent).
“Since the phase II of re-opening, there has been a consistent upward shift in the way employees have returned back to work and that trend will pick up pace in the next few months,” Agarwal said.
