About:

• The Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA), established to “remove barriers” to the energy.
• It was set up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Denmark and the Global Wind Energy Council.
• The alliance is supported by a number of organizations which are actively promoting the offshore wind industry in their different regions.

Objective:

• It aims to provide the growing offshore wind industry with a one-stop shop overview of all offshore wind industry events around the world.
• Both IRENA and the International Energy Agency (IEA) expect that offshore wind capacity will need to exceed 2000 GW in 2050, from just over 60 GW today, to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degree Celsius and achieve net zero.
• To reach this target, GOWA will aim to contribute to accelerating growth to reach a total of at least 380 GW installed capacity by the end of 2030.

• In view of the increasing trend in the Air Quality Index, the Commission for Air Quality Management(CAQM) in Delhi-NCR and Adjoining areas has decided that ongoing actions implemented under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan- GRAP will continue.
• The Commission decided that stage- 3 of the GRAP should not be withdrawn as wind conditions have not been very favorable and accordingly dispersion of air pollutants has not been very effective.
• The Sub-Committee of the Commission for invoking actions under GRAP took the decision after comprehensively reviewing the air quality scenario following the significant spike in Delhi’s overall Air Quality Index from 260 to 346 in the last two days. 

Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)

• Formed by an ordinance, “Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance 2020”, in October 2020.
• The Commission will be a statutory authority. It will supersede bodies such as the central and state pollution control boards of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan.
• Composition: The new 18-member Commission brings together the Centre, states, and other stakeholders on one collaborative platform.

• • Chaired by a government official of the rank of Secretary or Chief Secretary. The chairperson will hold the post for three years or until s/he attains the age of 70 years.
  • It will also have five ex officio members who are either Chief Secretaries, or Secretaries in charge of the department dealing with environment protection in the States of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
  • Three full time technical members.

• Powers & Jurisdiction: It will have the powers to issue directions to these state governments on issues pertaining to air pollution.

• • Exclusive jurisdiction over the NCR, including areas in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, in matters of air pollution, and will be working along with CPCB and ISRO, apart from the respective state governments.
  • The Commission will have the power to impose a fine of up to Rs 1 crore and imprisonment of up to 5 years in case its directions are contravened.

• The year 2022 has been declared as the ASEAN-India Friendship year, as ASEAN and India commemorate 30 years of partnership. As a part of this programme, Indian media delegation is on a visit to Singapore and Cambodia under the ASEAN-INDIA Media exchange programme from 8th November to 13th November.
• On the first leg of the visit the delegation visited the Singapore-India Chambers of Commerce and Industries (SICCI) and had an exchange of thoughts on topics such as India-Singapore relations with a specific focus on business-friendly policies and the expectations of business community in Singapore from India.
• After the first leg of visit, the delegation has reached Cambodia.
• As a precursor to the visit of the Vice President of India to Cambodia for the ASEAN Summit, the delegation visited the Angkor Vat and Ta Prohm temple complexes and witnessed the prominent role played by the Government of India and the Archeological Survey of India in restoring these UNESCO World Heritage sites there. Vice President would be inaugurating the newly restored portions of the Ta Prohm temple complex during the visit.

About ASEAN

• It is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security cooperation.
• It was established in August 1967 in Bangkok,Thailand with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the founding fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
• Its chairmanship rotates annually,based on the alphabetical order of the English names of Member States.
• ASEAN countries have a total population of 650 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 2.8 trillion.It is India’s 4^th largest trading partner with about USD 86.9 billion in trade.

About ASEAN-India:

• ASEAN, a 10-nation grouping, is considered one of the most influential groupings in Southeast Asia.
• India and several other countries, including the US, China, Japan and Australia, are its dialogue partners.
• The ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of a sectoral partnership in 1992.
• This graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995 and summit-level partnership in 2002.
• Traditionally the basis of India-ASEAN tieshas been trade and people-to-people ties due to shared historical and cultural roots, a more recent and urgent area of convergence has been balancing China’s rise.
  • BothIndia and ASEAN aim to establish a rules-based security architecture for peaceful development in the region, in contrast to China’s aggressive policies.

• Cochin Shipyard has signed an MoU with Inland Waterways Authority of India to build the country’s first hydrogen fuel cell catamaran vessel for Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
• The Shipyard also signed another MoU for the construction of six electric catamaran vessels for Uttar Pradesh and two such vessels for Guwahati.
• The MoU was signed at Varanasi in the presence of Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Heavy Industry Mahendra Nath Pandey, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a host of other dignitaries.
• The air-conditioned hydrogen fuel cell catamaran vessel will have a seating capacity for 100 passengers. It will be deployed at Varanasi after test and trial in Kochi.
• The air-conditioned electric hybrid vessels, designed for short-distance commute in riverine waters, will have seating capacity for 50 passengers. The vessels will provide onboard accommodation for the crew, besides toilet and washroom facilities for the passengers.
• The vessels will significantly contribute to the reduction in pollution levels in the National Waterways.

• Responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s assertion that the import duty on apple had been levied at a maximum of 50% as agreed under the WTO pact, growers said the cess on the US produce was 70% since 2019.
• “If the import duty on apple from the US could be enhanced to 70%, why it can’t be done for the produce being imported from other countries, especially Iran,” said Sanyukt Kisan Manch convener Harish Chauhan.
• The apple growers have been demanding the increase of the import duty on apple to 100 per cent, especially on the cheap produce coming from Iran that’s hurting the domestic farmers a lot. “If the government wants, it can put apple in the special category status. It can then easily raise the duty,” said Lokinder Bisht, president, Progressive Growers’ Association.
• Apple growers have been constantly demanding that central and state governments raise duty on imported apples. It is imported to India from 44 countries across the world, but the ones eating into our profits the most are from Chile and Iran.
• Not just fruit growers from Himachal, but also those from Jammu & Kashmir, Uttrakhand and other apple-growing states are facing huge losses,” said Harish Chauhan, president of the Fruit, Vegetables and Flower Growers’ Association, Himachal Pradesh.
• The ₹60,000 crore apple market is the source of sustenance for around 1.75 lakh families in Himachal. The fruit is grown in seven of HP’s 12 districts with Shimla, Kullu and Kinnaur being the largest producers.

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has constituted a seven-member committee to prepare a national drugs database to strengthen the monitoring mechanism for quality drugs and create a uniform regulatory mechanism.
• State Drugs Controller Navneet Marwaha is enlisted as a member of the committee, which was notified by the Drugs Controller General of India on October 2.
• Marwaha said the committee would prepare a database on drugs that would include information such as their dosage form, strength, details of manufacturer, marketer, importer, etc.
• Himachal has been given representation in the committee as it houses the pharmaceutical hub of Asia in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial belt with every third drug in the domestic market being manufactured in the BBN region.
• The state has around 650 manufacturing units with an investment of about Rs 8,000 crore. It contributes 7 to 9% in the nation’s exports and 45 per cent to the exports of the northern region. The existing database available with various states and drug control departments, manufacturers, marketers, importers will also be examined by the committee, which is supposed to submit its report within three months.

• Against the backdrop of COP27 climate change meet which opened on Sunday in Egypt, the Government announced that it will continue the Bio Energy Programme till 2025-26, indicating its commitment to continue with the measures to mitigate its carbon footprints.
• The Union Ministry of New & Renewable Energy said that a budget outlay of Rs 858 crore has been allocated for the first phase of the programme that will aid the use of huge surplus biomass, cattle dung, and industrial and urban biowaste available in the country for energy recovery.
• On November 2, the National Bioenergy Programme was notified. It will include the three Sub-schemes: Waste to Energy Programme, Biomass Programme and Biogas Programme.
• The Waste to Energy Programme (Programme on Energy from Urban, Industrial and Agricultural Wastes /Residues) will support the setting up of large Biogas, BioCNG and Power plants (excluding MSW (municipal solid waste) to power projects).
• Biomass Programme (Scheme to Support Manufacturing of Briquettes & Pellets and Promotion of Biomass (nonbagasse) based cogeneration in Industries) will support the setting up of pellets and briquettes for use in power generation and non-bagasse-based power generation projects.
• The biogas programme will also support the setting up of family and medium size Biogas in rural areas. According to a team of researchers from IIT-Delhi and Mumbai, clean energy transition via utilizing biomass resources has been projected as an important climate change mitigation strategy.
• A vital characteristic of biomass is its localized nature; therefore, bioenergy utilization should follow decentralized planning.
• Agrarian countries like India can take advantage of its large agricultural biomass waste pool to produce clean renewable energy, they said in their study.
• “Sustainable utilization of biomass resources for decentralized energy generation and climate change mitigation: A regional case study in India,” published in the journal Environmental Research.

• Giving a boost to self-reliance, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) launched Hull Module of Submersible Platform for Acoustic Characterization and Evaluation (SPACE) facility at Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory   (NPOL) Kochi
• It is a state-of-the-art testing and evaluation facility for sonar systems developed for use by the Indian navy onboard various platforms, including ships, submarines and helicopters.
• The SPACE facility is based on the concept design and requirements projected by the NPOL and constructed by Larsen and Toubro(L&T) Shipbuilding, Chennai. This will be mainly utilized for evaluating sonar systems, allowing for quick deployment and easy recovery of scientific packages such as sensors and transducers.
• The SPACE is one-of-a-kind facility in the world. The uniqueness of this facility lies in the specially designed submersible platform, which can be lowered up to depths of 100 meters using a series of synchronously operated winches.
• The design and construction of the platform meet all the statutory needs of Indian Register of Shipping and the vessel classifying authority and strictly adhere to the inspection and registration criteria as per Kerala Inland Vessel Rules, they said.

• Rajasthan accounts for 70 per cent of the country’s stone production and more than 10 lakh people are getting employment, Chairman of RIICO (State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation) and CM’s Principal Secretary Kuldeep Ranka claimed.
• Speaking at India Stonemart-2022, the largest international exposition on the stone industry and a showcase of the world of natural dimensional stones, Ranka said, “There are abundant deposits of marble, sandstone, granite, cotstone, slate, etc. By adopting their scientific exploitation and processing, the stone industry has made a special identity in the last decades.”
• “There are 4,920 mining leases in the state. Rajasthan produces 90 percent of the marble and sandstone in the country. About 10 lakh people of the state are getting employment directly from this sector”, he claimed.
• Earlier in his inaugural speech, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the recently-held Investment Rajasthan summit had signed a major chunk of MoUs worth Rs. 800 crore related to the stone industry.
• Elaborating on the state’s investment friendly environment, Gehlot said, “Infrastructure with mineral reserves, efficient human resources and implementation of effective policies has increased the possibilities of investment on a large scale in the state”.
• Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme-2022 (RIPS) has recently been launched in the sequel to the environment that the state government has created for employment and economic development by implementing NERIPS-2019.

About India Stone Mart

• India Stone Mart is being organized biennially by Centre for Development of Stones (CDOS) with FICCI as co-organiser and is supported by the Government of Rajasthan and other reputed institutions.
• Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation Ltd. is the Principal Sponsor of the event.
• The mart is a brainchild of Ashok Gehlot, in the year 2000 when he served his first tenure as the Chief Minister of the state. It was conceptualized for developing the domestic and overseas markets for Indian stones.

• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted the significant growth of the India-US economic relations driven by the common interest of promoting sustainability, emerging technologies, globally resilient supply chains, and small businesses.
• He also reiterated the importance of such dialogues in leveraging this momentum. Mr Goyal was chairing the India-U.S. CEO Forum with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo through video conferencing.
• The U.S. Commerce Secretary thanked Piyush Goyal and other members for their participation and insightful identification of common focus areas that will bolster the bilateral partnership between the two nations.
• CEOs from leading Indian and US-based companies participated in the forum. This is the sixth time that the forum has been convened since its reconstitution in December 2014.
• It continues to be an effective platform for dialogue across key sectoral themes, and to identify areas for closer collaboration for mutual benefit of both economies.
• This dialogue will serve as a framework under which specific recommendations will be charted out during the sixth edition of the India-US CEO Forum to be held early next year.