Daily Current Capsules

20 and 21 July 2023

NITI Aayog convenes India’s Electric Mobility Enablers under G20 Presidency

• The “Policy Support & Enablers to Accelerate India’s Electric Mobility” conference organized by NITI Aayog, charted an effective roadmap for the growth of electric mobility in India.
• Organized on the side-lines of the fourth Energy Transition Working Group (ETWG) meeting under India’s G20 Presidency, the conference brought national and international stakeholders on a common platform to showcase the growth of India’s electric mobility ecosystem and deliberate viable pathways for further growth.

India’s EV market

• India’s EV market is expected to grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49% from 2022 to 2030.
• India is taking rapid strides towards achieving its target of 30% EV market share by 2030.
• The growth of EVs will help in achieving net zero vision of 2070.
• In line with the Prime Minister’s vision for EVs revolving around the 7 Cs – Common, Connected, Convenient, Congestion-free, Charged, Clean, and Cutting-edge, we must electrify 100% of 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers, and 65-70% of buses by 2030.
• A low-cost financing framework, a robust charging infrastructure, and collaborative efforts among central, state, and city authorities, all underpinned by a consistent policy framework, will shape the future of e-mobility in India.

Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and Mission Innovation (MI) meetings

• The 4th Energy Transitions Working Group (ETWG) Meeting under India’s G20 Presidency held in Goa
• On the sidelines of the main event, the 14^th Clean Energy Ministerial and 8^th Mission Innovation Meeting too commenced
• The theme for this year is “Advancing Clean Energy Together.”
• CEM14 / MI8 also features a public-facing a Technology and Cultural showcase demonstrating cutting-edge advances in clean energy from India and around the world.
• The Technology Showcase will feature new and emerging technologies like Electric Vehicles, Hydrogen, and other clean technologies from across the world.

Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM)

• The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) brings together a community of the world’s largest and leading countries, companies, and international experts to achieve one mission—accelerate clean energy transitions.
• The CEM is an international clean energy leadership platform, a convening platform, an action platform, and an acceleration platform.
• The current 29 members of the CEM account for 90% of the world’s clean power and 80% of global clean energy investments, and the vast majority of public R&D in clean energy technologies.
• This forum encourages partnerships and collaboration between the private sector, public sector, non-governmental organizations and brings together many leading international experts and energy organisations to collaborate and fast-track the implementation of clean energy solutions.
• The CEM work programme spans the clean energy spectrum (Clean Power, Clean Transport, Clean Buildings, Clean Industry, Cross-Sectoral, and Enabling Environment), with topics ranging from scaling up of electric mobility to appliance efficiency, and variable renewable integration to clean hydrogen deployment.
• As of 2023, CEM members include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.
• CEM engagement is coordinated by an independent multilateral Secretariat housed at the International Energy Agency in Paris since 2016.

Mission Innovation

• It is a global initiative to catalyse action and investment in research, development and demonstration to make clean energy affordable, attractive and accessible to all this decade. This will accelerate progress towards the Paris Agreement goals and pathways to net zero.
• Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 23 countries and the European Commission
• Mission Innovation 2.0, launched on 2 June 2021, is catalysing a decade of action and investment in research, development and demonstration to make clean energy affordable, attractive and accessible for all.
• This will accelerate progress towards the Paris Agreement goals and pathways to net zero.

NITI Aayog releases Analytical Tools for managing Climate Change and exploring Net Zero Pathways

• A Revamped India Energy Security Scenarios (IESS) 2047 (IESS 2047 V3.0) to assess the integrated impact of various green energy policies of Government of India was released by NITI Aayog
• An open-source tool, IESS incorporates several policies related to alternative energy resources like Green Hydrogen, Energy Storage, Renewable Purchase Obligations, PM-KUSUM, offshore wind strategy, Electric Vehicle policy, Energy efficiency, etc.
• Assessing the demand and supply of energy in the country, the tool helps in analysing emissions, cost, land, and water requirements till 2047.

IESS 2047 -Highlights

• This version of IESS is easily downloadable and facilitates users to generate their own pathways.
• It will help researchers and think tanks to develop user-specific scenarios and the option of customised applications on the basis of share of industry/services/agriculture, population, the pace of urbanisation, end-use energy demand etc.
• IESS 2047 is a user-friendly interactive tool that can help ministries/ departments to develop a variety of energy transition scenarios to achieve net-zero.
• The tool is flexible enough to provide many permutations and combinations of net-zero pathways.
• It provides capabilities to compute the energy needs and estimates of the country and hence reduce India’s dependency on external agencies for the estimates.
• Designed with the help of IIT Bombay, the revamped IESS 2047 will be updated on yearly basis. The baseline has been standardised at 2020 and calibrated up to 2022.

India Climate Energy Dashboard (ICED)

• NITI Aayog released the India Climate Energy Dashboard (ICED) 3.0
• The ICED is the country’s one-stop platform for near real-time data on the energy sector, climate, and related economic datasets based on government published sources.
• Developed as a user-friendly platform, ICED 3.0 enables users to freely access and analyse datasets using an analytical engine.
• It will facilitate insights and enhance understanding about the energy and climate sectors while identifying the key challenges.
• The Portal will draw insights from the available data parameters and hence immensely useful in monitoring the progress of India’s clean energy transition journey.
• This dashboard offers more than 500 parameters, over 2000 infographics, and a number of interactive visualizations, allowing users to gain a holistic understanding of India’s energy sector.

Global Yatra

• Startup20 Engagement Group, under India’s G20 presidency, has taken another transformative leap towards revolutionizing entrepreneurship across India by collaborating with Jagriti Foundation, a renowned non-profit organization dedicated to fostering robust entrepreneurship ecosystems in Tier 2/3 cities in India.

The Jagriti-Startup20-G20 Yatra 2023

• It is a one-of-a-kind event that embodies the spirit of inclusive entrepreneurship, cross-border collaboration, sustainability, and innovation on both a national and international scale was launched today at the premises of Atal Innovation Mission NITI Aayog.
• It is set to be one of the world’s largest entrepreneurship journeys ever undertaken, with a diverse cohort of 350 Indian participants and 70 foreign delegates from G20 countries.
• This diverse group of entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers will come together to exchange ideas, forge partnerships, and create solutions for some of the most pressing challenges faced by our societies over a 14-day national train journey.
• The journey will start from Mumbai on 28^th October 2023 and end on 10^th November 2023.
• Within these 14 days, it will span across four mega events hosted in prominent Indian cities, including Bangalore, Vizag, Varanasi, Deoria, Delhi and Ahmedabad among others.
• Participants will have the opportunity to visit successful enterprises, gain valuable insights from industry leaders and founders, build their own business ideas solving problems of Middle India through a business planning exercise, and learn from the diversity that the Yatra offers.

National Geoscience Awards – 2022

• The President of India will be conferring the prestigious National Geoscience Awards – 2022 on 24^th July 2023

The Ministry of Mines confers National Geoscience Awards every year in three categories:

1. National Geoscience Award for Life Time Achievement,
2. National Young Geoscientist Award
3. National Geoscience Award in various fields of geosciences.

• Instituted in 1966, the National Geoscience Awards (NGA) is a symbol of recognition and appreciation for exceptional individuals and organizations that have demonstrated excellence, dedication and innovation in the realm of Geosciences.
• The awards are presented in the field of Mineral Discovery and Exploration, Basic Geosciences, Applied Geosciences and Mining, Mineral Beneficiation and Sustainable Mineral Development.

About National Geoscience Awards

• The National Geoscience Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious national awards in the field of geosciences, instituted by the Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India in the year 1966.
• Before the year 2009, these awards were called as National Mineral Awards.
• The objective of this National Level Award is to honour individuals and teams for extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in various fields of geosciences.
• In the year 2022, as per the guidelines/ suggestions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the National Geoscience Awards have been rationalized and the e total number of awards has been reduced from 21 nos. to 12 nos.

Cell Broadcast Alert System

• Department of Telecommunications in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority, conducted a Cell Broadcast Alert System testing to enhance emergency communication during disasters and ensure the safety and well-being of our valued citizens.
• These tests will be performed from time to time in various regions across country to gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency alert broadcasting capabilities of the systems in place, of various Mobile Operators and Cell Broadcast System.

Cell Broadcast Alert System

• The Cell Broadcast Alert System is a state-of-the-art technology that allows us to send critical and time-sensitive messages for disaster management to all mobile devices within a designated geographical area, irrespective of whether the recipients are residents or visitors.
• This ensures that important emergency information reaches as many people as possible in a timely manner.
• It is used by government agencies and emergency services to inform the public about potential threats and keep them informed during critical situations.
• Cell Broadcast is commonly used to deliver emergency alerts, such as severe weather warnings (e.g., Tsunami, Flash Flood, Earthquake, etc), public safety messages, evacuation notices and other critical information.
• During the testing period, people may receive simulated emergency alerts on their mobile devices.

Written reply in the Rajya Sabha

National Biopharma Mission

• The National Biopharma Mission is supporting more than 150 organizations including academia, start-ups and MSMEs.
• These projects have engaged 1065 manpower including 304 scientists/ researchers.
• The Mission is also supporting development of human capital by providing specific trainings to address the critical skill gap for strengthening product development.
• The National Biopharma Mission (NBM) is a Cabinet approved Program entitled Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission for Accelerating Discovery Research to Early Development for Biopharmaceuticals

National Biopharma Mission, entitled “Innovate in India (i3)

• The National Biopharma Mission, entitled “Innovate in India (i3) – Empowering biotech entrepreneurs & accelerating inclusive innovation” was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in May 2017.
• This ambitious Mission of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is being funded by the Government of India at a total project cost of Rs 1500 Crores for five years on a 50% cost sharing basis via World Bank loan and is being implemented at the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) – a Public Sector Undertaking of DBT.
• The Mission is designed in alignment with the key components of the National Missions such as “Make in India” and “Start-up India” and also aims to take forward the commitments made by DBT in the National Biotechnology Development Strategy.
• Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.
• BIRAC is a industry-academia interface and implements its mandate through a wide range of impact initiatives, be it providing access to risk capital through targeted funding, technology transfer, IP management and handholding schemes that help bring innovation excellence to the biotech firms and make them globally competitive.

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TEAM CL/GKP