Talanoa Dialogue
- Enhancing climate action every five years, informed by periodical progress and identifying new opportunities for action, is a fundamental premise of the Paris Agreement on climate change
- The 2018 facilitative dialogue for stocktaking exercises on climate change is called the Talanoa Dialogue.
- The dialogue will assess global progress towards meeting the Paris long-term goals.
- It will also highlight opportunities to step up action, and help spur countries to move forward on enhancing their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by 2020.
- This dialogue will be launched as a pivotal change, with a new momentum to drive the investment and action needed to achieve a climate resilient future.
India’s State Action plan on Climate Change
- India’s State Action Plan on Climate Change is implemented by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change.
- It supports the integration of national climate change goals into subnational policies.
- India has committed to meet its current target of 33% reduction in emission intensity of the 2005 level by 2030, by generating 40% of its energy from renewables.
- States are important for the realisation of this goal and they are considered as Sub national modules.
- The Under2Coalition, a MoU by subnational governments to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions towards net-zero by 2050, is generating a unique precedent for bold climate leadership, with its member states and regions surpassing 200 in number.
- Currently, Telangana and Chhattisgarh are signatories to this pact from India.
ISRO’s 100th satellite
- India is likely to launch ISRO’s its indigenously built 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission.
- 31 spacecrafts, including weather observation Cartosat-2 series satellite, will be launched by PSLV-C40
- Cartosats are earth observation satellites indigenously build in India.
- It will be launched from the first launch pad of the SatishDhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
1stPIO Parliamentarian Conference
- The 1st PIO(Persons of Indian Origin) Parliamentarian Conference was held in New Delhi.
- This conference was hosted by the Ministry of External affairs.
- PIOs are honoured through this conference as have an important position in the Action Agenda till 2020, drafted by the NITI Aayog.
- Parliamentarians of Indian Origin from over 20 Democracies of the World gathered to share Parliamentary best practices and mutually enrich each other with their experiences.
Equal pay at workplace
- Iceland becomes the first country to legalise equal pay at workplace
- Iceland imposed a new law under which all kinds of firms will have to prove that they pay equally to all their employees, irrespective of gender
Akash Missile
- Recently Indian army planned to procure Akash Missiles.
- Akash was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.
- It is indigenously developed short-range surface-to-air missile (SR SAM) with a range of 25 km.
- It can simultaneously engage multiple targets in all weather conditions and has a large operational envelope from a low altitude of 30 metres to a maximum of up to 20 km.
Source: Business Line, PIB, the Hindu
