The Ministry of Power noted that hydrogen was poised to play a vital role and build on the rapid scale-up of renewable resources across the globe as the world rapidly moves to decarbonise the entire energy system…reports Asian Lite News.
India will host a summit on Green Hydrogen initiatives where BRICS nations will share their initiatives and discuss how to take it to the next level.
The online event will be held via a video conference on June 22-23.
To be anchored by global energy major National Thermal Power Corporaition (NTPC), the virtual summit will bring the best brains, policy makers and major stakeholders from the BRICS nations. They will deliberate and discuss at length the future of hydrogen in the energy mix, the Ministry of Power said on Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6TAFhy6nwY
On Day 1, the representatives from each country would be sharing respective initiatives undertaken by their countries on utilization of hydrogen and their future plans. The speakers will also share the relevance of different technologies developed on hydrogen and its priorities for their country, the ministry said.
Day 2 will witness panel discussions on ideas integrating hydrogen in overall energy policy framework by different countries. The discussions to entail financing options for the emerging green hydrogen technologies and the institutional support needed to create the requisite ecosystem for the technology to flourish.
The Ministry of Power noted that hydrogen was poised to play a vital role and build on the rapid scale-up of renewable resources across the globe as the world rapidly moves to decarbonise the entire energy system.
Hydrogen when produced by electrolysis using renewable energy is known as Green Hydrogen which has no carbon footprint.
This gives hydrogen the edge over other fuels to unlock various avenues of green usage. However, challenges lie in terms of technology, efficiency, financial viability and scaling up which the summit will aim to address, the ministry explained in a press release.
Green Hydrogen has innumerable applications. Green Chemicals like ammonia and methanol can directly be utilized in existing applications like fertilizers, mobility, power, chemicals, shipping etc. Green Hydrogen blending up to 10% may be adopted in CGD networks to gain widespread acceptance.
Further scaling up with greening of hard to abate sectors (like steel and cement) through hydrogen needs to be explored. Many countries have brought out their strategies and defined targets and roadmaps based on their resources and strengths, the ministry said. (INN)
Foreign Ministers of five countries viz. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa held a meeting under India’s Chairmanship….reports Asian Lite News
Welcoming the announcement of the Gaza ceasefire beginning May 21, BRICS countries on Tuesday stressed upon the urgency of the restoration of peace in full in the war torn areas along the Gaza strip.
Foreign Ministers of five countries viz. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa held a meeting under India’s Chairmanship.
“They mourned the loss of civilian lives resulting from the violence and urged the international community’s immediate attention to providing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population, particularly in Gaza,” media statement issued after the BRICS Foreign Ministers on Tuesday maintained.
The Ministers reiterated their support for a two-state solution resulting in comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders, it added.
The BRICS Foreign Ministers supported the Secretary General’s call for the international community to work with the United Nations, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), on developing an integrated, robust package of support for a swift and sustainable reconstruction and recovery.
A street directly hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip is seen in the central Israeli city of Holon on May 12, 2021. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI via Xinhua/IANS)
They also reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic.
They expressed their conviction that there can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict. They also reaffirmed their support to a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned, UN- facilitated political process in full compliance with UNSC Resolution 2254.
They noted in this context the importance of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva, launched with the decisive participation of the countries-guarantors of the Astana Process and all states engaged in efforts to address the conflict through political means, and welcomed the efforts of Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Syria, to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of the Committee.
They reiterated their conviction that in order to reach general agreement, members of the Constitutional Committee should be guided by the commitment to compromise and cooperate constructively without foreign interference.
They emphasized the fundamental importance of allowing unhindered humanitarian aid in accordance with the UN humanitarian principles and the post-conflict reconstruction of Syria that would create conditions for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons to their places of permanent residence thus contributing to achieving long-term stability and security in Syria and the region in general.
India and South Africa have been pushing for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization (WTO) since last year….reports Asian Lite News
The Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping on Tuesday endorsed an India-South Africa proposal for patent waivers for Covid-19 vaccines and called for sharing of doses, transfer of technology, and development of vaccine production capacities in order to turn the tide in the fight against the coronavirus disease.
“The Ministers reaffirmed the need to use all relevant measures during the pandemic, including supporting ongoing consideration in WTO on a Covid-19 vaccine Intellectual Property Rights waiver and the use of flexibilities of the TRIPS agreement and the Doha Declaration on TRIPS Agreement and Public Health,” a joint statement published after a virtual meeting of foreign ministers of BRICS states read.
The meeting, chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and attended by his counterparts from other countries– China’s Wang Yi, Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Franco França, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and South Africa’s Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, focused on the response to the Covid-19 crisis and equitable access to vaccines during their deliberations.
India and South Africa have been pushing for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization (WTO) since last year.
Further, the ministers reiterated the need for sharing vaccine doses, transfer of technology, development of local production capacities and supply chains for medical products, and promotion of price transparency, and sought “due restraint in the implementation of measures that could hinder the flow of vaccines, health products and essential inputs”.
Recognizing the role of extensive immunization against COVID-19 as a global public good for health in preventing, containing, and stopping transmission to bring the pandemic to an end and foster a rapid, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient recovery, the ministers underlined the urgency for expeditious development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, especially in developing countries, and called for further close cooperation between various stakeholders for a diversified vaccine portfolio.
While acknowledging the measures taken by the World Health Organization, governments, non-profit organizations, academia, business and industry in combating the pandemic, the BRICS nations also expect the international community to reform and strengthen policy responses of WHO to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and other current and future health challenges.
Lastly, the ministers recommitted to strengthening and reforming the multilateral system through enhanced cooperation and close coordination in all relevant multilateral fora and international organizations including, the UN and G20. (INN)
Stress need to restore the normal functioning of all WTO’s functions as highlighted in the Joint Statement by BRICS Trade Ministers on Multilateral Trading System and the WTO Reform of 2020, reports Asian Lite News
BRICS Foreign Ministers, during their standalone meeting, held in a virtual format reaffirmed their support for a transparent, rules-based, open, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core.
They reiterated their support for the necessary and urgent reform which would inter alia, preserve the centrality, core values and fundamental principles of the WTO and consider the interests of all members, including developing countries and LDCs, recognizing that the majority of the WTO members are developing countries.
It is critical that all WTO members avoid unilateral and protectionist measures that run counter to the spirit and rules of the WTO, BRICS Foreign Ministers said in their joint statement.
They stressed the need to restore the normal functioning of all WTO’s functions as highlighted in the Joint Statement by BRICS Trade Ministers on Multilateral Trading System and the WTO Reform of 2020.
They emphasized the primary importance of ensuring the restoration and preservation of the normal functioning of a two-stage WTO Dispute Settlement system, including the expeditious appointment of all Appellate Body members.
The Ministers acknowledged that global economic governance in an increasingly interconnected world is of critical importance for the success of national efforts for achieving sustainable development in all countries, and that, while efforts have been made over the years, there remains a need to continue improving global economic governance and to strengthen the role of the United Nations in this regard with extensive consultations and joint contributions for the shared benefits.
The Ministers reiterated the important role of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in the integrated treatment of trade and development, finance, technology, investment and sustainable development and reaffirmed support for its vital mandate and promotion of an open and inclusive global economy and provision of development oriented policy analysis.
On international financial architecture, the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to broadening and strengthening the participation of emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs) in the international economic decision-making and norm-setting processes, especially in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
To that end, they stressed the importance of continuing efforts to reform the international financial architecture, noting that enhancing the voice and participation of EMDCs, including the least developed countries, in the Bretton Woods institutions remains a continuous concern.
The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to a strong Global Financial Safety Net with a quota-based and adequately resourced IMF at its center and expressed their deep disappointment at the failure in addressing the quota and governance reforms under the 15th General Review of Quotas (GRQ).
They called for the timely and successful completion of the 16th GRQ by December 15, 2023, to reduce the IMF’s reliance on temporary resources and to address under-representation of EMDCs for their meaningful engagement in the governance of IMF and to protect the voice and quota shares of its poorest and smallest members and have a new quota formula that better reflects the economic weight of members.
The Ministers called for governance reform in the recruitment processes of the World Bank and the IMF by ensuring selection through an open and merit- based process, noting that the true potential of the Bank and Fund would be realized only by building more democratic governance structures and strengthening their financial capacity.
Fresh push on UNSC reform
In their joint statement, Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on Tuesday recommitted to instill new life in the discussions on reform of the UN Security Council and continue the work to revitalize the General Assembly and strengthen the Economic and Social Council.
They took note with satisfaction of the 2020 review of the peace building architecture and agreed to reinforce their coordination in the peace building commission.
The Ministers recalled the 2005 World Summit Outcome document and reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of the developing countries so that it can adequately respond to global challenges.
China and Russia reiterated the importance they attach to the status and role of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs and supported their aspiration to play a greater role in the UN.
They also commended India and South Africa for their respective present and recent terms served in the UN Security Council. They also recognized the candidacy of Brazil as a UN Security Council member for the 2022-2023 biennium.
Multilateral projects in this field can be useful for medicine and public health, reports Asian Lite News
India has reaffirmed its commitment to co-investment of resources, including funding, for supporting multilateral projects by BRICS member nations in the area of High Performance Computing (HPC).
Future directions of research collaboration among BRICS countries in areas such as HPC and its weather-climate-environment applications were among the issues taken up at the fifth BRICS Working Group meeting on High Performance Computing (HPC) and Information Communication Technologies (ICT).
The meeting was hosted and organised in online mode by South Africa on May 27-28.
Providing details about the meeting, the Ministry of Science and Technology said that participants at the meeting also discussed the application of supercomputers to drug design, artificial intelligence, and HPC based precision medicine and public health, particularly for fighting pandemics as well as geoinformatics for sustainable development.
Advisor & Head of the International Cooperation Division, Department of Science and Technology DST Sanjeev Kumar Varshney, who led the meeting from the Indian side, emphasized on the importance of this area in view of emergence of new disciplines like AI, big data, machine learning, and their potential applications in the areas of medical sciences, agriculture, earth science modeling and simulation.
More than 50 participants, including researchers, academicians, and government officials, took part in the meeting attended by all BRICS members – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
The Indian side highlighted the initiative of indigenous development of supercomputers under the National Supercomputing Mission and their applications in drug design to develop and deploy a user-friendly and comprehensive early warning system for flood prediction.
India will share the concept note on cooperation amongst the BRICS startups in deep technology in areas of healthcare, agriculture, and education.
China proposed AI+HPC+5 G-based digital twin platforms and an open-source ecosystem for smart manufacturing, precision farming, and precision medicine. Brazil and South Africa proposed the flagship project on Digital Earth.
The meeting was part of the BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Calendar of Activities 2020-21 adopted by all BRICS countries, the ministry pointed out.
The BRICS HPC & ICT Working Group provides a platform for researchers from BRICS member countries to discuss and deliberate on mutual interest areas to forge partnerships and develop deep technology-based solutions for societal challenges such as affordable healthcare, sustainable agriculture, extreme weather events, and weather, and climate modeling.
The key scientific institutions that participated from BRICS countries included the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC) from India; National Laboratory of Scientific Computation (LNCC), Brazil, Senai Cimatec, Research Institute in Brazil, Research Computing Center, Moscow State University (RCC MSU), Russia, Guangzhou University, Sun Yat-sen University from China. And Department of Science and Innovation, South Africa, National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa, South African Weather Service, South Africa.
India assumed the BRICS Presidency from January and about 100 events, including Ministerial level meetings, Senior official meetings, and sectorial meetings and conferences, will be organised during the year. (INN)
According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Thursday, representatives of International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Social Security Agency (ISSA) expressed willingness to provide technical support in facilitating conclusion of a Social Security Agreement (SSA)…reports Asian Lite News Desk.
BRICS member nations have resolved to enter into dialogue and discussion with each other to finalize a Social Security Agreement for the labour sector.
Participating in the 1st BRICS Employment Working Group (EWG) held earlier this week, the members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – also discussed formalization of labour markets and participation of women in the labour force.
According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Thursday, representatives of International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Social Security Agency (ISSA) expressed willingness to provide technical support in facilitating conclusion of a Social Security Agreement (SSA).
Member Nations also converged on devising multilateral framework for the same on a later stage.
“Social Security Agreement would help the international workers to port their benefit to their home countries thereby preventing loss of their hard earned money. Further, they will be exempted from contributing both in home as well as host countries,” the official release said.
At the same time, the member countries resolved to promote participation of women in remunerative, productive and decent work and to extend social security cover to the women workers engaged in informal sector.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the participation of women in labour force was also discussed.
Focusing on the formalization of the labour market, member nations discussed various initiatives taken by them towards formalization of jobs and how Covid-19 has enhanced informalization risk.
The two-day meeting, held in a virtual format on Tuesday and Wednesday, also discussed the role of gig and platform workers in the labour market.
Osaka – Japão, 28/06/2019) Presidente da República, Jair Bolsonaro, durante foto de família dos Líderes dos BRICS. Foto: Alan Santos / PR
The member nations noted how the proliferation of Digital Labour Platforms was transforming the labour processes in the world of work.
“Challenges faced by them and various measures being taken by member nations including extension of social protection system were also discussed,” the ministry release said.
Apart from representatives of member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the representatives of International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Social Security Agency (ISSA) also made valuable interventions and suggestions on the agenda issues. (INN)
