1. India Japan Energy Dialogue

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1 Topic: International Relations 1. India Japan Energy Dialogue The 9 th India Japan Energy Dialogue was held in New Delhi Both Japan and India, as the third and the seventh largest economies respectively, recognized that having access to reliable, clean and economical energy is critical for their economic growth and in achieving this, both Ministers agreed on further strengthening of bilateral energy cooperation for energy development of both countries, while also contributing to worldwide energy security, energy access and climate change issues. Both India and Japan with a view to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognized the importance of development and deployment of next generation technologies including hydrogen to realize decarbonization. Both India and Japan appreciated the relevance of the grid stability given the high penetration of variable renewable energy. Both countries agreed to initiate the discussion towards development of Electric Vehicles (EVs) by collaborating with "Policy dialogue on next generation/zero emission vehicles". Both India and Japan reiterated the continued importance of coal-based electricity generation in the energy mix in both the countries and also agreed to promote the cooperation on environmental measures for coal-fired power plants. Both India and Japan further confirmed their commitment to work together in promoting well-functioning energy markets and affirmed to promote transparent and diversified Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market through the relaxation of destination clause. 1 P a g e 2. NDMA Workshop for creating disaster database begins Topic: Polity and Governance A National Workshop on Data Requirements for Disaster Risk Reduction Database began here today. The workshop is being organized by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) with an aim to develop a uniform and credible national-level disaster database. The two-day workshop is aimed at developing a consensus among various stakeholders on disasters and thresholds and to develop standardised systems for

2 data collection, updation and validation to ensure accuracy and quality. Such a database would help track our progress towards achieving the targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR). Once ready, this database would be able to provide real time disaggregated data. This granular data would lend itself to generating evidences and analyses, which would help plan interventions that build disaster risk resilience. Officials from NDMA and representatives of concerned Central Ministries and Departments, State Governments, UN agencies, Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs), Disaster Management Institutes and Universities are participating in the workshop. Topic: Polity and Governance 3. National Safety Council NSCI Safety Awards for the year 2017 were recently awarded. NSC : National Safety Council is a premier, non-profit, self-financing and tripartite apex body at the national level in India. It is an autonomous body, which was set up by the Government of India, Ministry of Labour and Employment on 4 March 1966 to generate, develop and sustain a voluntary movement on Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) at the national level. It was registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and subsequently, as a Public Trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act, It performs activities including Conducting specialised training Courses, Conferences, Seminars & Workshops all over the Nation Conducting consultancy studies such as Safety Audits, Hazard Evaluation, Emergency Management Planning & Risk Assessment Designing and developing HSE promotional materials & publications Facilitating organisations in celebrating various campaigns e.g. Road safety week, Safety Day, Fire Service Week, World Environment Day Organised many national and international conferences e.g. XIII World Congress (1993) and XI APOSHO Conference (1995) and implemented many a prestigious project A computerised Management Information Service has been established for collection, retrieval and dissemination of information to achieve its Objective. A DVD of Fire Risk Assessment was prepared for education purpose by National Safety Council. 2 P a g e

3 Topic: International Relations 4. India-China Informal Summit Prime Minister of India, and President of People's Republic of China, held their first Informal Summit in Wuhan on April 27-28, 2018, to exchange views on overarching issues of bilateral and global importance, and to elaborate their respective visions and priorities for national development in the context of the current and future international situation. They believe that the simultaneous emergence of India and China as two large economies and major powers with strategic and decisional autonomy, has implications of regional and global significance. They shared the view that peaceful, stable and balanced relations between India and China will be a positive factor for stability amidst current global uncertainties. They also agreed that proper management of the bilateral relationship will be conducive for the development and prosperity of the region, and will create the conditions for the Asian Century. To this end, they decided to strengthen the Closer Development Partnership in a mutually beneficial and sustainable manner, in pursuit of national modernization and greater prosperity for their peoples. The two leaders agreed to push forward bilateral trade and investment in a balanced and sustainable manner by taking advantage of complementarities between their two economies. They also discussed ways to promote greater cultural and people-topeople exchanges and agreed to explore establishing new mechanisms in this direction. They reiterated the importance of building an open, multipolar, pluralist and participatory global economic order which will enable all countries to pursue their development and contribute to the elimination of poverty and inequality in all regions of the world. They spoke of their respective efforts to contribute to the regional and global economic development. The two leaders also shared views on their respective foreign policy visions of achieving global prosperity and security. They agreed to jointly contribute in a positive and constructive way in facilitating sustainable solutions for global challenges including climate change, sustainable development, food security etc. They underscored the importance of reform of multilateral financial and political institutions to make them representative and responsive to the needs of developing countries. The two leaders agreed that as two major countries and emerging economies, India and China, given their vast developmental experiences and national capacities, should join hands to take lead in offering innovative and sustainable solutions to challenges faced by humankind in the 21st century. These include combating diseases, coordinating action for disaster risk reduction and mitigation, addressing climate change and ushering digital empowerment. They agreed to pool together their expertise and resources in these areas and create a global network dedicated to these challenges for the larger benefit of humanity. 3 P a g e

4 They recognized the common threat posed by terrorism, and reiterated their strong condemnation of and resolute opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They committed themselves to cooperate on counter-terrorism. The two leaders highly assessed the opportunity for direct, free and candid exchange of views offered by the Informal Summit and agreed on the utility of holding more such dialogues in the future. The forward-looking dialogue raised the level of strategic communication about the perspective, priorities and vision that guide their respective policy choices domestically, regionally and globally. It also helped them in forging a common understanding of the future direction of India-China relations built upon mutual respect for each other's developmental aspirations and prudent management of differences with mutual sensitivity. 5. LCA Tejas Achieves Yet Another Milestone Towards FOC Certification Topic: Science and Technology More on TEJAS: Tejas, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) successfully fired Derby Air-to-Air Beyond Visual Range Missile to expand the firing envelope as well as to demonstrate safe operation of the aircraft during missile plume ingestion into the aircraft engine under worst case scenarios. LCATejas has been designed & developed by DRDO s autonomous society Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). LCATejas has successfully completed a series of captive flight trials to clear Derby for the full operational capability in the entire FOC envelope. In the past, Tejas has qualified for the armaments and missile release related trials. The HAL Tejas is an Indian single-seat, single-jet engine, multirole light fighter designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force and Navy. The aircraft has a tail-less compound delta-wing configuration, which provides for high maneuverability. It came from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India's ageing MiG-21 fighters. In 2003, the LCA was officially named "Tejas", which means "Radiant" in Sanskrit Tejas has a pure double delta wing configuration (wing root leading edge sweep 50, outer wing leading edge sweep 62.5 and trailing edge forward sweep 4 ), with no tailplanes or canard, and a single dorsal fin. It integrates technologies such as relaxed static stability, fly-by-wire flight control system, multi-mode radar, integrated digital avionics system, composite material structures, and a flat rated engine. It is the smallest and lightest in its class of contemporary supersonic combat aircraft. 4 P a g e

5 National IAS Academy , Lucky Paradise, 2nd floor, 8th 'F' main road, 22nd cross, Opp. ICICI bank, 3rd Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore P a g e

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