China tops dubious methane emitters’ list

India may continue to depend on its coal mines for a couple of more decades to meet its growing energy requirement but the country would still not be close to the top methane emitters among coal users such as China, Australia and Russia. India will, in fact, not emit even one-tenth of what the world’s biggest polluter China would be emitting during a 20 year period.

A new report on climate impact of methane emissions from proposed coal mines worldwide, said if new proposed coal mines across the globe proceeded as planned without mitigation measures in place, level of climate-damaging methane emissions would increase by 30% over current emissions.

Globally, all 432 proposed coal mines would emit 1,135 million tonnes of annual CO2-equivalent on a 20-year horizon. Methane is the second biggest contributor to global warming after CO2, with a shorter atmospheric lifetime, but much stronger potency and warming potential.

The report, brought out by the Global Energy Monitor, noted that the proposed coal mines in China, United States, Turkey, Poland, and Uzbekistan could emit 40-50% of their greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane, making them among the gassiest proposed coal mines in the world.

“Coal mine methane has dodged scrutiny for years even though there is clear evidence it poses a significant climate impact. If new coal mines proceed as planned, without mitigation measures in place, then a major source of GHG will go unrestrained,” said Ryan Driskell Tate, a research analyst at Global Energy Monitor and author of the study.The countries with the highest amount of methane emissions from proposed coal mines are China (572 Mt), Australia (233 Mt), Russia (125 Mt), India (45 Mt), South Africa (34 Mt), the US (28 Mt), and Canada (17 Mt).

“The climate impact of methane emissions from proposed coal mines worldwide could rival the CO2 emissions from all US coal plants,” said the first-of-its-kind report that surveyed 432 proposed coal mines globally and modeled methane emission estimates at the individual mine level.

According to the Global Coal Mine Tracker which has estimated emissions at major operating mines, the world’s leading emitters are located in China, with major mines in Shanxi province releasing the most methane. Outside of China, gassy coal mines are operating in Poland, Indonesia, the US, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Australia.

“At major operating mines, the companies most responsible for global mine methane emissions rank among the world’s largest producers, including China’s National Energy Investment Group, Coal India, Glencore, China Coal, and Peabody Energy,” said the report.

Lanka’s ‘Sita stone’ to be used in Ram temple

A stone from Sita Eliya, a village located in central province of Sri Lanka , the place where Sita is believed to have been held captive by Ravana , would be used in the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The stone is expected to be brought to India by Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Milinda Moragoda. There is a temple in Sita Eliya dedicated to Goddess Sita. It is believed that this is the place where she prayed daily during her captivity.

The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka shared the development on its official Twitter handle saying, “A stone from Sita Eliya in Sri Lanka for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be a pillar of strength for India-Sri Lanka ties. This stone was received at Mayurapathi Amman Temple by High Commissioner designate of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda in presence of the High Commissioner.”

The stone was handed over on Thursday.

Telangana: 13th century Trimurthi sculpture found in Nalgonda

Archaeologists have found a rare sculpture of Trimurthi in Nalgonda district when the villagers were clearing the debris in Yogananda Narasimha Swamy temple at Nomula village in Nakrekal mandal.

E Sivanagi Reddy, archaeologist, discovered the sculpture on Wednesday.

“The temple was built during the Kakatiya period and is in ruins due to lack of maintainance,” said Sivanagi Reddy.

“We found several sculptures like Bhairava, Mahishasura, Chandi, Chamunda, Veerabhadra, Bhadrakali and Ganesha at the old Sivalayam based on the information given by the villagers. Sivanagi Reddy visited the spot. We examined the sculptures,” an archaeologist said.

The Trimurthi sculpture carved out in black granite stone is one of its kind in Telangana, he said. The sculpture is unique as it represents the three Hindu gods.

India digs to find when continents split

Fresh excavations have begun at Mandro Fossil Park in Jharkhand to try and find answers to exactly when Australia and Antarctica split from India — with the help of plant fossils.

Nearly 50 fossils have been dug up between March 9 and 13 as part of the study, led by the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow with the Jharkhand forest department. Some of these were large specimens, buried about 1m deep, which need on-site conservation and careful extraction. The excavation area covers Gumri in the Rajmahal Hills and spans Sahibganj, Pakur, Dumka and Godda districts.

“We will collect sediments from the section where we get the fossil. The sediment is then used to determine the biostratigraphic (assigning relative age of rock layers) framework. That, in turn, will help us determine the age of the fossil,” research lead Dr Vivesh Vir Kapur from BSIP said. “Then, we will take pollen samples from the rock samples and the wood fossils from where the rocks have been taken,” said second scientist Dr Suresh Pillai. These will be compared with samples from Australia and Antarctica.

So, when a prehistoric plant is found on both, for instance, Australia and India, it would help understand the split better. “Right now, it is believed to have happened 140 million years ago,” said Dr Vandana Prasad, director of the institute.

The Cretaceous period (145 to 65 million years ago) is believed to have had warm climate and high sea levels. The first flowering plants on the planet began to emerge in the Early Cretaceous period. “They began to diversify during Late Cretaceous period (ending 65 million years ago). This rapid expansion of angiosperms (flowering plants) corresponds to an important phase in the breakup of Gondwana (the supercontinent from which India, Sri Lanka, Australia, South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar and Antarctica broke off) and a series of major sea-level fluctuations,” said a senior archaeologist working on the project.

MoD signs ₹1,200 crore contract for supply of anti-tank missiles

The defence ministry on Friday inked a Rs.1,188 crore contract with defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited for the supply of 4,960 Milan-2T antitank guided missiles to the Army.

The contract for these old second-generation ATGMs, with a range of 1.8-km, comes in the backdrop of the over13-lakh Army facing an acute shortage of advanced missiles to thwart enemy tanks. The Army had last year gone in for the emergency induction of a limited number of the third-generation Israeli Spike ATGMs to meet immediate operational requirements amidst the military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.

With the indigenous third-generation Nag ATGMs yet to be inducted, the Army is currently largely equipped with the Milan-2T and Konkurs (4-km) ATGMs, which have been produced by BDL under licence from French and Russian companies for years.

Restrain WhatsApp on privacy policy: Centre

The Centre has urged the Delhi High Court to restrain Facebook-owned WhatsApp from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of service which are to take effect from May 15.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology made the statement in its affidavit filed in response to a petition challenging the new privacy policy of social networking platform WhatsApp.

The petitioners, Seema Singh, Meghan and Vikram Singh, have contended that the new privacy policy indicates the “fissures” in Indian data protection and privacy laws. Under the new policy, users can either accept it or exit the app, but they cannot opt not to share their data with other Facebook-owned or third party apps.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh listed the matter for further hearing on April 20.

The Centre, in its affidavit, said, “It is humbly prayed that in view of the above submissions, the Respondent No. 2 (WhatsApp) may be restrained from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of service dated January 4, 2021 from February 8, 2021 or any subsequent date pending adjudication by this court.”

The affidavit further said that the IT Rules impose a host of obligations on a company in relation to the security of the data collected by it in the course of its business.

“Notably, the Rules require a body corporate who collects, stores or otherwise deals with data to issue a privacy policy providing for certain safeguards, in addition to imposing various other obligations. The impugned Privacy policy violates the 2011 Rules..,” it said

Household savings halved to 10.4% of GDP in Q2: RBI

Preliminary estimates show a substantial waning of the household financial savings rate to 10.4% of GDP in the second quarter of 2020-21 from a high 21% in the preceding quarter, as households switched from an “essentials only” spending to discretionary with the gradual reopening and unlocking of the economy, a Reserve Bank of India report showed on Friday.

However, the report also asserted optimism is taking hold among households, businesses, investors and markets. 

India is likely to decouple from other emerging economies that face rising financing costs and a debt pile-up. “Households’ financial savings rate might have fallen further in Q3:2020-21 with the intensification of consumption and economic activity,” the report said.

The state of the economy report said that there is an urgency to resume high growth, and incoming data point to even contact-intensive services, such as personal care, recreation and hospitality gathering traction and pace.

This, even as agriculture crosses production highs in various crops and in horticulture, and manufacturing stops contracting.

It said the COVID-19-induced spike in household financial savings rate in the first quarter of 2020-21 waned substantially in the second quarter in a counter-seasonal manner. While households’ deposits and borrowings picked up, their holdings of currency and savings in mutual funds moderated. Increased household consumption, particularly its discretionary component, could be attributed to resumption in economic activity following the easing of lockdown, it said.

“Going forward, optimism on account of mass vaccination is expected to further boost consumption demand and work further towards restoration of the pre-pandemic spending and saving pattern,” the report said. The RBI report also has been lavish in its praise of the Serum Institute of India for its role as a global vaccine supplier during the pandemic.