1) River-Cities Alliance: Recently, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) organised the ‘River-Cities Alliance (RCA) Global Seminar: Partnership for Building International River-Sensitive cities’ in New Delhi
- Although the Alliance began with the Ganga basin cities, it was extended to include cities beyond the basin as well
- Objectives:
– To provide the member cities with a platform to exchange information on aspects that are vital for sustainable management of urban rivers
-To work towards adopting and localising national policies and instruments with key river-related directions
DHARA (Driving Holistic Action for Urban Rivers) 2023:
- The first annual meeting of the RCA – DHARA 2023 was held in February 2023 in Pune
- DHARA 2023 was aimed to inspire members of the RCA to engage in progressive actions for urban river management in their cities
- It featured key sessions on international best practices and examples for urban river management
2) Carbon Credit Trading Scheme for Decarbonization: This scheme will be developed by the Ministry of Power and Ministry of Environment
- The government plans to develop the Indian Carbon Market (ICM)
- A national framework will be established at ICM to decarbonise the Indian economy by pricing the Green House Gas (GHG) emission through trading of the Carbon Credit Certificates
- GHG emissions intensity benchmark and targets will be developed, which will be aligned with India’s emissions trajectory as per climate goals
- The ICM will develop methodologies for estimation of carbon emissions reduction and removals from various registered projects
- The ICM will facilitate to achieve the NDC goal of reducing emissions intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030 against 2005 levels
3) SCO Startup Form 2023: Recently, DPIIT organized the 3rd edition of the first-ever physical SCO Startup Forum in New Delhi
- The engagement aimed at expanding the startup interactions amongst the SCO Member States, nurturing the spirit of innovation, generating more employment and encouraging young talent to build innovative solutions
- The forum witnessed physical participation from SCO Member States including a delegation of government officials, private industry players, incubators and startups
