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Asking the three Services to be ready to tackle new and emerging threats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government is taking all steps to equip the Armed Forces with necessary weapons and technologies.
He also complimented the Armed Forces for their role in nation building and providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) assistance to friendly countries.
He was addressing top military commanders on the third and concluding day of the Combined Commanders’ Conference-2023 in Bhopal.
It’s a biennial event where the country’s top military brass come together to brainstorm on military matters and national security.
In a statement Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said that during the valedictory session of the conference, the Prime Minister reviewed the security situation and operational readiness of the Armed Forces.
He was briefed by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on the various discussions conducted during the conference.
On March 30, The Indian Express reported on the range of topics on the conference table, including theaterisation, data digitisation and absorption of Agniveers.
The Ministry, in its statement, said that on the final day of the session, topics including aspects of digitisation, cyber security, challenges of social media, self-reliance in defence, absorption of Agniveers and jointness were discussed.
In a significant development from the past, the scope of the conference was expanded this year, wherein, a few multi-layered and interactive sessions were conducted with participation of soldiers from every command of the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, including the Tri-Services Andaman and Nicobar Command.
Russia, China in mind G20 Sherpas to work on new diplomatic language for summit (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The meeting of the G20 Sherpas is broadly coming to an agreement that they will work on a “new” consensus-based diplomatic language on the Russia-Ukraine war over the next five months, just in time for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in September this year.
This was the broad takeaway after two days of meetings between top officials — named Sherpas and their deputies, the Sous-Sherpas — at the scenic Kumarakom in the Kerala backwaters.
We cannot agree on a language on the Russia-Ukraine war right now, since the leaders’ summit is some months away. So, the Sherpas will meet just before the summit and finalise a consensus new language, which will be different from the Bali Declaration. This has been necessitated because of the changed situation.
The ground situation too, the sources said, may change over the next few months, and it makes more sense to negotiate a common language closer to the summit based on the battlefield situation.
The second meeting of the Sherpas, the sources said, is like the “middle overs” in a cricket match. “These are not the opening overs or the slog overs, but the middle overs. So we are working on the text of the language on other issues,” the sources said.
While the Bali Declaration, adopted after the G20 summit in Indonesia last November, was based on consensus between all the G20 countries, the meetings of the G20 Finance Ministers in Bengaluru and Foreign Ministers in New Delhi did not lead to a consensus document. Instead there was a Chair’s Summary, issued by India.
Govt & Politics
Vijayan, Stalin open centenary event of anti caste movement, talk of unity (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 1, History)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Vaikom Satyagraha, affirming that the two states would stand together for progressive causes, just as their people had done during the anti-caste movement. They were speaking at a gathering in Vaikom town of Kerala’s Kottayam district.
The non-violent struggle began on March 30, 1924 in the temple town of Vaikom in the princely state of Travancore, marking the beginning of “temple entry movements” across the country.
Stalin said the Vaikom Satyagraha was a pioneering struggle that inspired several movements against untouchability in many parts of the country.
Secular and democratic forces have to work together so that the social justice-led ideology of reformist leader Periyar Ramasamy prevails over the right wing, he said.
Vijayan said both Kerala and Tamil Nadu are being governed by movements that have been instrumental in carrying forward the legacy of the renaissance movement.
This unity between the two states in preserving the language and culture will grow into a struggle for protecting the common interest of the country in future.
We had taken together the movements of social reformation and nationalist struggle. Political parties can emulate this approach.
Economy
India and Malaysia can now use India rupee to settle trade says MEA (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India and Malaysia can now use the Indian rupee to settle trade in addition to other currencies, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
The move follows the decision by the Reserve Bank of India in July last year to allow settlement of international trade in Indian currency.
Trade between India and Malaysia can now be settled in Indian Rupee (INR) in addition to the current modes of settlement in other currencies.
This follows the decision by the Reserve Bank of India in July 2022 to allow settlement of international trade in Indian Rupee.
The MEA said the RBI's initiative is aimed at facilitating the growth of trade and supporting the interests of the global trading community in the Indian rupee.
India International Bank of Malaysia (IIBM), based in Kuala Lumpur, has operationalised this mechanism by opening a special Rupee Vostro account through its corresponding bank in India that is Union Bank of India.
Coal fired projects back on mega lithium battery storage push in new power policy blueprint (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
A new blueprint for the country’s power sector planners – the National Electricity Plan for 2022-27 – marks a discernible reversal in the policy thrust from its last edition, where the focus was almost entirely on renewable energy for incremental capacity addition and fresh coal-fired capacity was virtually ruled out.
The fresh draft, in a tacit admission of the ground realities, cites the need for fresh coal-based capacity ranging from 17 GW to nearly 28 GW till 2031-32, over and above an under-construction coal based capacity of 25GW (1 giga watt or GW is equal to 1000 mega watts or MW).
The renewable energy thrust of the last ten years also means a projected battery storage requirement in 2031-32 of between 51 GW to 84GW and assumes a daily usage rate of 5-hours.
This, at estimates of Rs 10 crore per MW, could translate into investments into battery storage of between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 8 lakh crore over the next ten years as backup for renewable capacity, that too for operations for less than a quarter of a day on an average.
Despite projecting an increase in the PLF of coal fired plants from 55 per cent up to 2026-27 to 62 per cent in 2031-32, the continuing reliance on old, inflexible coal-fired plants for base load capacity and a pronounced reliance on renewable generation for meeting capacity addition targets over the past decade or so has thrown up challenges of a grid being increasingly powered by renewables available only during certain parts of the day that do not necessarily align with the peak demand curve.