15 October 2024

• Energy: India's renewable energy capacity crossed 200 GW, with solar at 90.76 GW and wind at 47.36 GW. The 2030 target is 500 GW of non-fossil capacity.
• Nobel Economics follow-up: Acemoglu and Robinson's work on institutions and prosperity prompted analysis of India's institutional quality as a development variable.
• Migration: The Ministry of External Affairs launched the revamped e-Migrate Portal v2.0 to protect Indian workers going abroad.
• Defence: India launched its first multi-purpose naval support vessel, MV Samarthak, built by L&T.

GS area: Economy (Energy), Environment

India's total installed renewable energy capacity crossed 200 GW as of 10 October 2024.

• Breakdown: Solar power leads at 90.76 GW. Wind power at 47.36 GW. Small hydro, biomass, and other renewables account for the remainder.
• 2030 target: 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based electricity capacity. This is India's Nationally Determined Contribution commitment under the Paris Agreement.
• 2070 net-zero target: India committed to net-zero emissions by 2070 at COP26 in Glasgow.
• Key schemes driving growth:
  • National Green Hydrogen Mission: targets 5 million metric tonnes of green hydrogen production annually by 2030 with a budget of 19,744 crore rupees.
  • PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan): solar pumps and grid-connected solar plants for farmers.
  • Renewable Purchase Obligations: require electricity distribution companies to source a specified share of power from renewables.
• India's global rank: India is the third-largest renewable energy market globally, behind China and the United States.

Static linkage: Renewable energy targets, Paris Agreement, NDC (Environment and Economy).

GS area: Governance (Migration, Labour)

The Ministry of External Affairs launched the revamped e-Migrate Portal to strengthen protections for Indians migrating for work.

• What the portal does: It is the mandatory registration and contract-verification system for Indian workers going to Emigration Check Required (ECR) passport holder destinations. About 17 countries require mandatory registration before an Indian worker can be recruited.
• ECR passport holders: Indians whose educational qualifications are below matriculation. They are more vulnerable to exploitative recruitment and require the ECR system's protections.
• New features in v2.0: Multilingual 24/7 helpline; integration with DigiLocker for document verification; access to social security coverage through insurance partnerships; a mobile app for overseas job searching.
• Scale: Approximately 77 lakh Indian workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are covered by this system.

Static linkage: Indian diaspora, labour migration, Ministry of External Affairs (Governance and International Relations).

GS area: International Relations (Geography, Water)

The Cooperative Framework Agreement on the Nile River came into force on 13 October 2024 after being ratified by six of the eleven Nile Basin countries.

• The dispute: The Nile Basin has been governed by colonial-era treaties, primarily the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the 1959 bilateral agreement, that gave Egypt and Sudan veto rights over upstream water use and allocated the entire Nile flow between them.
• Upstream countries: Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, and others objected to downstream countries using colonial treaties to block their dam construction and water use plans.
• The new agreement: Replaces colonial-era frameworks with a cooperative management model. All basin countries have equal rights under it.
• Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: The multi-year dispute over this dam, being built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, is the sharpest expression of the tension the agreement aims to resolve.
• India relevance: Water-sharing disputes between upper and lower riparian states are a recurring geography question. The Nile case parallels situations on the Indus, Brahmaputra, and other trans-boundary rivers.

Static linkage: Trans-boundary rivers, international water law, Africa geography (International Relations and Geography).

GS area: Environment, Society

The WWF's Living Planet Report 2024 highlighted the Indian traditional diet as a model for sustainable nutrition.

• The finding: If global consumption patterns matched India's largely plant-based diet, only 0.84 Earths would be required for food production by 2050. The current trajectory (meat-heavy Western diets spreading globally) would require over 1.8 Earths.
• Why India's diet scores well: High proportion of cereals, pulses, vegetables, and dairy with low per capita meat consumption. Traditional diets are also low in processed food.
• Policy connections: The government's Shree Anna programme promotes millets as nutritious and drought-resilient food. The Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana supports conversion to organic farming.
• Caveat: India's nutritional profile includes significant undernutrition. A sustainably small ecological footprint co-exists with widespread protein and micronutrient deficiency. Sustainability and nutrition adequacy are not the same goal.

Static linkage: Food systems, sustainable agriculture, nutrition policy (Environment and Society).

GS area: Economy (Green Finance)

Achieving the 500 GW renewable target by 2030 requires an estimated 29 trillion rupees (approximately 350 billion dollars) in investment over the decade.

• Green bonds: The Government of India issued its first Sovereign Green Bonds in January 2023, raising 8,000 crore rupees. Green bonds finance renewable energy, energy efficiency, and clean transport projects.
• IRDAI Bima Sugam: Separately in finance, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India was developing Bima Sugam, a digital insurance marketplace, as part of the Bima Trinity initiative. Life and non-life insurance on a single platform.
• Renewable energy investment flows: Domestic lenders (SBI, Power Finance Corporation) and international development finance institutions (ADB, World Bank) are the primary financiers for large solar and wind projects.

Static linkage: Green finance, renewable energy, capital markets (Economy).

GS area: Science and Technology (Space)

SpaceX's Mechazilla system successfully caught the Super Heavy booster from the Starship test flight on its return to the launch site.

• What Mechazilla is: A 120-metre launch tower at SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas. It has two large mechanical arms (called "chopsticks") that can catch the booster as it lands vertically.
• Significance: Catching and reusing the booster eliminates the need to build a new landing pad, speeds up refurbishment, and is central to SpaceX's goal of rapid launch turnaround.
• Starship system: The most powerful rocket ever built (when fully operational). Super Heavy (the first stage, 71 metres tall) sits beneath Starship (the second stage). The full stack stands 121 metres.
• India relevance: ISRO's Next Generation Launch Vehicle is India's planned successor to the GSLV Mk III, targeting comparable lift capacity to support the Bharatiya Antariksh Station.

Static linkage: Space technology, reusable launch vehicles, ISRO (Science and Technology).