Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today participated in the USISPF- 3rd Annual Leadership Summit on the theme of “Navigating New Challenges.”

Minister Pradhan talked about the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy and the consequent energy demand contraction. He added that with the gradual pick up of economic activity in India, energy consumption is anticipated to reach pre-Covid levels soon. 

Speaking about Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, Shri Pradhan said the campaign launched under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi calls for a self-reliant India, seeking to convert Covid-19 challenges into an opportunity, to merge domestic production and consumption with global supply chains, and aims to transform India into a global manufacturing hub of the 21st century.

The Minister underlined the importance of energy infrastructure as a key to transformation in India and invited US industry leaders to take advantage of the opportunities being created in Indian energy sector.

Shri Pradhan talked about the growing bilateral hydrocarbon trade between India and the US, which touched above US$ 9 billion during FY 2019-20 and is expected to increase further as companies are looking to source more crude oil and LNG from the US at competitive rates. 

The Minister talked about the importance of gas sector in the Strategic Energy Partnership as India is working to transform itself into a gas based economy by increasing the share of gas from 6% to 15% in the energy mix by 2030, with an estimated investment of $60 billion lined up in the sector, developing a “One Nation, One Gas Grid.”He also expressed happiness at global oil & gas majors like BP, Shell, Total, Exxon Mobil expanding their footprints in India and invited the US companies to take advantage of reforms in the exploration and production sector and participate in the next oil and gas block bidding rounds.

Minister Pradhan also added that India and the US have been working in close collaboration, including in stabilizing global energy markets and it is reassuring that despite the Covid-19 induced challenges, the industry leaders are quite optimistic about reinvigorating the energy linkages between the two countries.

Dr. Mukesh Aghi, CEO, USISPF said that the USISPF will facilitate greater collaborations between the US and Indian companies for the success of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

After actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Bandra residence in Mumbai, reports claimed that the actor had been suffering from depression because of professional setbacks engineered by nepotism in Bollywood.
The film industry has been traditionally guilty of promoting family raj at the expense of outsiders. Rajput was a promising actor without being an A-lister or having a godfather in Mumbai. The infinitely bigger developing story of the same period was the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rajput died on June 14, a period in time when the dreaded virus had been infecting unsuspecting people the world over, including India.
Two and a half months later, India is among the worst-hit nations in the world.

Each new day is the forerunner of bad news with thousands falling sick and many dying a few days after getting infected. The nation’s economy has hurtled towards a big crash with the GDP shrinking by 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2020-21.Lakhs of Indians have experienced job losses, among them daily wage earners whose lives are a struggle for survival even under normal circumstances.
Troubled by the news of sickness and deaths, faced with the possibility or reality of unemployment, and aware that there is no reliable vaccine and well-defined route of treatment, many are doing what they can to protect themselves from the wrath of the virus.
Other ‘brave’ ones who are being inexplicably reckless are not only more susceptible to the illness, but the infected ones among them are also guilty of spreading it among those taking precautionary measures. The presence of such irresponsible individuals is a significant worry for the Indian society.
Given a choice between continuous coverage of the pandemic and prolonged focus on the SSR death case, where should the media look? It must concentrate on the pandemic and its aftermath by delivering stories on health, economy and society to the consumer. The entry of the girlfriend in the script (Rhea Chakraborty, a national name now) followed by hysteria on social media enhanced the focus on the case, which is providing with the recipe for action in the media each day.
Cacophonic drama is irresistible for certain news anchors, who are capitalising on the story’s ability to deliver entertainment packages. These anchors are analysing the case endlessly, knowing they will find a captive audience that the coverage of Covid-19 may not guarantee.
The need to find viewers for TV shows and online visitors in an eternal rat race has made rationality disappear in many sections of the media. While that is not a good thing, don’t expect such disproportionate coverage to end anytime soon. The treatment of the Sushant Singh
Rajput case by many TV news channels is a good example of how the interrelated concerns about ratings and revenues drive news coverage in substantial parts of the electronic media. The mainstream electronic news media, it can be argued , has demonstrated a serious lack judgment by distorting national priorities. They also include the pandemic that shows a sign of abating with cases rising exponentially and putting public health system under unbearable strain

Looking back at the past 70 years, China-India relations have moved ahead despite wind and rain and gone through an extraordinary development path. In the 1950s, the leaders of the older generation of the two countries made the historical decision to establish diplomatic relations between China and India, and jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. “Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai” (Indians and Chinese are brothers) resounded throughout our two countries. From the 1980s, the two sides agreed to solve the boundary question through peaceful and friendly consultation, established strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity, and achieved all-round development of bilateral relationship.

Despite 2020 marking 70 years of diplomatic ties between China and India, the border tension over the past month has been heightened again.Troops from the world’s two most populous countries engaged in a physical clash. Although the two Asian giants are not stranger to border incidents, it was the first time in decades that the border dispute turned deadly. The question of whether India can sustain and withstand retaliatory measures from China is one that requires much thought and deliberation from the government. India fears that China is violating rules of origin norms and pumping goods into India through their common trading partners in Asia, by abusing the loopholes in existing trade agreements. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry in India has called into scrutiny various free trade and bilateral agreements that India is roped into, with countries that have similar agreements with China.
India has already refused to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), fearing that it could pave the way to Chinese goods flooding the Indian market and overthrowing domestic manufacturers. However, if we are looking at backing out of other such regional and bilateral agreements as well, India has much more to lose than China does in the long run.
More concerning is the possibility that China may decide to strike back by throwing Indian companies out of China. We are already seeing reports of customs authorities in Hong Kong and China, holding back some consignments of Indian exports after Indian ports started inspecting Chinese imports. This is only going to get worse if India implements a blanket ban on Chinese imports, against all odds.
If India really seeks to check the unregulated flow of Chinese imports in India and create a dent in the Chinese economy, India would have to do a lot more than just cut down imports that are coming in directly from China. We would also have to narrow down all consumer products that are manufactured or processed, even in part, in China before finally being assembled and exported to India from another country. The obvious knee-jerk reaction of shutting down these big brands would only have a minuscule impact, if at all, on the Chinese economy. On the other hand, the question of whether India can sustain and withstand retaliatory measures from China is one that requires much thought and deliberation from the Indian government.
The coronavirus crisis, in particular China’s mismanagement of the initial stages of the outbreak, has generated intensely negative public sentiments against Beijing—in India and many other countries around the world. Countries have demanded an investigation into the origin and handling of Coronavirus. Indian app ‘Remove China Apps’ highlights backlash against Chinese business amongst the Indian public. Its popularity comes amid calls for a boycott of Chinese mobile apps in India as a border dispute in Ladakh fuels a backlash against products from China. It scans a user’s phone for apps such as ByteDance’s TikTok and Alibaba’s UC Browser and removes them. Popular Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev described deletion of Chinese apps as a “national service”.
The COVID-19 pandemic is reviving sentiments against Chinese products in the country. The recent backlash against China over faulty testing kits or alleged suppression of actual numbers of infection are fuelling online campaigns in India urging people to reduce dependence on Chinese electronics and refrain from buying them.Previous boycott calls have focused on Chinese goods, whereas this one especially targets Chinese apps.
This isn’t the first time that Chinese products or brands have drawn flak in India. Some experts point out that in the short term this will raise questions in people’s minds, but in the medium term they don’t see any impact of these campaigns on Chinese companies or products

It has been long since the scientists have been suspecting ocean acidification being the cause of affecting corals’ capacity of forming their skeletons. They were not able to isolate the effect as continuous heating of ocean temperatures due to warmer weather also contributed to effect on coral growth. The scientists of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution came up with new study according to which certain impact of acidification of ocean on reef was seen. The study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation which was later published in Geophysical Research Letters. In this study, scientists showed a remarkable reduction in coral skeletons’ density due to continuously increasing acidity since the 1950s, of the Great Barrier Reef which is one of the largest coral reef systems in the world.  

Because of the declining pH of the ocean (turning more acidic), the animals like corals are finding it difficult to build their skeletons as acidification of the ocean leads to less density, taking away coral’s strength in the same way as osteoporosis withers human’s bones. The scientists say that it can be easily detected just by seeing them that they are not stronger anymore and it will heavily affect the reef and break it.

Maharaja Gulab Singh brought Dugg-Dugge Brahmins from Rajasthan approximately 170 years back to accept ‘Shani Daan’ and to perform ‘Shani Dev Pooja’ as a priest as Hindu priests were not ready to accept ‘Shani Daan’ and denied to perform such ‘Pooja (worship)’ and accept ‘Daan (alms)’ related to ‘Shani Dev.’ The Brahmins who were bought on special request in 1970’s are now living in inhumane conditions and have not even issued domicile certificates till now. They still collect alms on Saturdays and some of them are seen on roads as astrologers or palmists.

They are scattered in the areas of Ramban and other parts of Jammu region. These communities’ people are still waiting for their domicile certificates whereas Gurkha and Valmiki communities were the first to get it by the BJP leaders after last year’s revocation of Article 370 and 35- A. The administration had been dawdling the matter of issuing Permanent Resident’s Certificate (PRC) to the people who had no land records or ration cards as these are necessary parameters for domicile certificates. They cast their vote in elections every year as they have been issued with Aadhar card  but can’t get PRC in the view of no land of theirs at the place.

There are 27 families comprising 136 members of the impecunious community residing at Maitra in Ramban district. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, who was the Prime Minister in Jammu and Kashmir at that time had allocated a piece of land at Phelti Maitra in Ramban to the nine families of this community. Though in 2012, the ruling government provided them ration cards which were discarded in 2015-16 due to unknown reasons.  They live in huts or shanties which have electricity connection but no water or toilet facilities and the area in which they reside is known as Bakshi Nagar after the Prime Minister who had provided them at least a place to live.

They can’t get proper education because of poverty, in the whole community there are only two boys who have got college education and a girl whose education is going on. Those two boys also left their education to do some menial work to earn money.

Though they have been given assurance by the government recently that their domicile certificates will be issued soon and it is a ray of light in their lives.

Pollution implies to interference in the natural environment that creates unfavourable changes. Pollution may take the form of liquids, noise, heat, or light, or chemical substances or energy. Pollutants, emission elements, maybe either alien materials/energies or pollutants that arise naturally. Emissions are often labelled as a point source or as emissions from non-point sources. In 2015, 9 million people worldwide have been killed by pollution. Significant pollution sources include ozone pollution, light pollution, noise pollution, plastic pollution, contamination of soil, radioactive contamination, thermal pollution and water pollution

The availability of Earth’s air and water helps all living organisms, from one cell bacteria to blue whales for living. All aspects of life are endangered when these resources are contaminated.

Forms of pollution-

Air pollution: release into the atmosphere of chemical compounds and particulates. Popular gaseous emissions include carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, fluorocarbons (CFCs) and industrial and motor vehicle produced nitrogen oxides. As nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons react to sunlight, photochemical ozone and smog are formed. Particles or fine dust are marked by the PM10 to PM2.5 micrometre scale.

Electromagnetic pollution: an overabundance of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves, etc., in which people, especially in big cities, are constantly exposed. Whether or not such types of radiation impact human health remains unknown.

Light pollution: Light intrusion, over-illumination and cosmic intrusion involved.

Noise pollution: like road noise, aircraft noise, industrial noise and sonar.

Plastic pollution: includes the build-up of plastics and environmental microplastics, which adversely impact ecosystems, wildlife or human life.

Soil pollution occurs when chemical contaminants are emitted by spill or underground leakage. Hydrocarbons, heavy metals, herbicides , pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons are among the most important soil contaminants.

Radioactive pollution arising from atomic physics activities under the 20th century, including testing, production and implementation of nuclear energy generation and nuclear weapons.

Water pollution:Water emission through waste disposal from commercial and industrial waste (intentional or by way of waste) into surface water; waste disposal from waste disposal from treated waste water and from contaminated chemicals, e.g. chlorine; disposal in surface runoff to surface waters (including urban runoffs and agricultural runoffs which may contain chemical waste and contaminants).

Control-

People and governments around the world are working to tackle pollution. For example, recycling becomes more prevalent. Waste is processed for recycling to make use of useful materials. It can be melted and reused with bottles, aluminium cans and various plastics. It may break down paper and turn it into new paper.

The waste that results in waste collection, incinerators and the rivers is decreased by recycling. The highest recycling rates exist for Austria and Switzerland. About 50 and 60% of the waste is recycled by these nations. About 30% of its waste is recycled by the US.

Reducing environmental, political and economic pollution requires leadership. Developed countries need to work towards material reduction and recycling while developing nations need to work to consolidate their economies without damaging their environment. Environmental protection for future use should be the common goal to developed and developing countries jointly work towards.