U.S. ends Waiver for India on Iran Oil
Category: International
- The U.S. will not renew exemptions from its sanctions for importing oil from Iran.
- The exemptions were granted last November for a 180-day-period for India and seven other countries and are due to expire on May 2.
- India, China and U.S. allies Japan, South Korea and Turkey will be the most impacted by the non-renewal of waivers.
- The other three currently exempted countries — Italy, Greece and Taiwan — have already reduced their imports to zero. “We’re going to zero.
Cost of Saving the Planet
Category: Environment
- Saving the diversity and abundance of life on the earth may cost $100 billion a year, say scientists who have proposed a policy to prevent another mass extinction event on the planet.
- The new science policy proposal to reverse the extinction is called “A Global Deal for Nature” (GDN).
- The policy’s mission is to save the diversity and abundance of life on the earth — for the price tag of $100 billion a year.
- Societal investment in the GDN plan would, for the first time, integrate and implement climate and nature deals on a global scale to avoid human upheaval and biodiversity loss.
- The Global Deal for Nature is a time-bound, science-based plan to save the diversity and abundance of life on Earth.
- The three overarching goals of the GDN are
- to protect biodiversity by conserving at least 30% of the earth’s surface by 2030;
- mitigate climate change by conserving the earth’s natural carbon storehouses; and
- reduce major threats.
Extinction Rebellion
Category: Environment
- Some of ’s busiest streets in U.K re-opened for the first time in a week as climate change protesters regrouped and plotted a new course after police made over 1,000 arrests.
- The so-called Extinction Rebellion took over the heart of the U.K. capital in a bid to focus global attention on rising temperatures and sea levels caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
- The grassroots group was established last year in Britain by academics and has used social media to become one of the fastest-growing environmental movements in the world.
- The group wants the government to “create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice”.
Electoral Bonds
Category: Polity/ Governance
- State Bank of India — the only bank authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds by the government — has issued bonds worth Rs 2,772.78 crore for funding political parties, since the scheme was launched on March 1 last year.
- The government had implemented the Electoral Bond scheme as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of its efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
- The Supreme Court had earlier this month directed all political parties to submit details of political funding received so far to the Election Commission of India in “sealed covers” by May 30.
- The Mumbai main branch of SBI issued Electoral Bonds worth Rs 471.30 crore, followed by Rs 179.92 crore in Delhi and Rs 176.92 crore in Kolkata during the period of March 1-15 this year.
- Electoral Bonds are valid for 15 days from the date of issue. This means a bond issued on March 1, 2019, will be valid up to March 15, 2019.
- The bonds can be redeemed only by an eligible political party by depositing the same in its designated bank account maintained with an authorised bank.
- The bonds are issued in the denomination of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
- The extant instructions issued by the Reserve Bank of India regarding ‘know your customer’ (KYC) norms of a bank’s customer will apply for all applicants of the electoral bonds.
Vacuum Extinguish Method (VEM)
Category: Sc & tech
- Scientists have developed a novel fire extinguisher for use in space environments that sucks in the flame as well as combustion product.
- The technology is called Vacuum Extinguish Method (VEM).
