UPSC Daily Current Affairs : 23-June-2020

Topic Covered :

DECARBONISING TRANSPORT IN INDIA

Why in news?

NITI Aayog in collaboration with International Transport Forum (ITF) will launch the “Decarbonising Transport in India” project on 24 June, with the intention to develop a pathway towards a low-carbon transport system for India.

Highlights:

India has been a member of ITF, an intergovernmental organisation for transport policy, since 2008.
The “Decarbonising Transport in India” project will design a tailor-made transport emissions assessment framework for India.
It will provide the government with a detailed understanding of current and future transport activity and the related CO2 emissions as a basis for their decision-making.
The India project is carried out in the wider context of the International Transport Forum’s “Decarbonising Transport” initiative. It is part of the “Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies” (DTEE) family of projects, which supports transport decarbonisation across different world regions.
India, Argentina, Azerbaijan, and Morocco are current participants.
The DTEE is a collaboration between the ITF and the Wuppertal Institute, supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

Source : PIB ( https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1633408 )

US BLOCKS PAKISTAN'S EFFORT TO TERM INDIA TERROR BACKER

Why in news?

Pakistan's efforts, after the UN ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, to draw a moral equivalence with India on the issue of cross-border terrorism have been nullified by the US.

Highlights:

Venu Madhav Dongara, an engineer with an Indian construction company active in Afghanistan, is 1 of the 4 Indian nationals Pakistan had linked with terror attacks on its territory.
Pakistan was hoping to get Dongara listed as a global terrorist by the UNSC with support from China.
The US had in September last year put the proposal on a technical hold, expecting Pakistan to produce more evidence to prove its allegations against Dongara.
With fresh evidence not forthcoming, but Pakistan still insisting on his listing by the Sanctions Committee, the US last week blocked the proposal, bringing it to an end formally.
If Pakistan still chooses to target Dongara, it will have to seek a new proposal.
The US action has again underscored the significance of Indo-US cooperation on the issue of coss-border terrorism in all its forms.
It is important to recall here that even the ban on Azhar last year by UN was made possible after the US gave an ultimatum to China that if the latter didn't drop its opposition by a certain date (April 23), the same proposal would be directly introduced in UNSC, bypassing the 1267 committee.

De Facto IAS