02 Sep 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue
2. Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Energy
3. World Coconut Day
4. Blue straggler

1. UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue

Context:

The 11th India-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) was held virtually with the Finance Minister leading the Indian delegation.

Details:

• The Dialogue, inter alia, covered discussions on economic cooperation on multilateral issues, including G20 and COP26.
• Both sides deliberated on furthering of Financial Services collaboration with special emphasis on Fin-Tech and GIFT City, annual India-UK Financial Market Dialogue and measures underway to reform financial markets.
• Infrastructure development and promotion of sustainable finance and climate finance were also discussed.

Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI):

• During this Dialogue, the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India partnership was launched by both sides.
• The aim of the CFLI India project is to drive capital into India through public, private, and multilateral initiatives to help the country meet its 2015 Paris Agreement commitments.
• The Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) was founded and chaired by UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg.
• CFLI was created in 2019 to increase private sector investment in clean energy and climate solutions in emerging markets. In line with the Paris Agreement, the CFLI works to boost private sector investment in strategies, projects, and industries that lower carbon emissions to reduce the urgent health and economic risks posed by climate change.

Also read: India – UK Relations

2. Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Energy

Context:

Union Minister of State for Power chaired the “Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Energy” chaired by India.

Details:

• During this 6^th meeting of the BRICS energy ministers, the following were launched:
  • BRICS Energy Report 2021
  • BRICS Energy Technology Report 2021
  • BRICS Energy Research Directory 2021
• This Energy Ministers’ Summit of BRICS countries was the concluding event as part of the energy dialogue between member countries, since April 2021.
• Various events like hydrogen webinar, building energy efficiency and battery storage were conducted and saw participation of large number of experts from these countries.

3. World Coconut Day

Context:

September 2 is observed as World Coconut Day.

About World Coconut Day:

• This day is celebrated to emphasize and raise awareness of the importance as well as benefits of coconuts.
• This day started in 2009, on the day when the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) was founded.
  • APCC is an intergovernmental organization that supervises and facilitates Asian-Pacific states that produce coconuts.
• The theme of World Coconut Day 2021 is “Building a Safe Inclusive Resilient and Sustainable Coconut Community Amid COVID-19 Pandemic & Beyond”.
• In India, states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, etc. are the major producers of coconut.

4. Blue straggler

What’s in the news?

Carrying out the first-ever comprehensive analysis of blue stragglers, Indian researchers found that half of the blue stragglers in their sample are formed through mass transfer from a close binary companion star, one third are likely formed through collisions of 2 stars, and the remaining are formed through interactions of more than 2 stars.

What are blue stragglers?

• Blue stragglers are a class of star observed in old, dense stellar systems such as globular clusters.
• They stand out because old stellar populations are expected to be devoid of blue (high-mass) stars which possess very short lifespans. The blue stragglers in an old stellar population must therefore have formed long after the system as a whole.

How are they formed?

• A clue to their origin is that they are only found in dense stellar systems, where distances between stars are extremely small (a fraction of a light year).
• In these dense environments (for example the cores of globular clusters), collisions between stars are relatively common, and it has long been believed that blue stragglers are the result of the merger of two old, red stars.
• This merger produces a star with a greater mass (hence bluer in colour), and severely disrupts the two stars involved, mixing hydrogen into the stellar core and giving the star a new lease on life.

Read previous PIB here.

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