Gold Chain

 The fascinating journey of various forms of money in thousands of years of exchange and transactions ranged from early barter system, commodity money to metal coins made of copper, bronze and later silver and gold which have intrinsic value  or title to other debt instruments utilised. When the volume of goods  and services transacted increased several fold  in modern economies paper currencies evolved in the form of  money and served as a medium of exchange, unit of value, store of value and standard of deferred payments.Paper currency has been extensively used and issued by sovereign or central banks as its representative. Meantime not only the cost of issuing paper currencies increased but also checking counterfeit currencies and illegal activities posed grave  problem in India.Fortunately India has been continuously making rapid progress towards innovations in digital payment systems.Creation of robust round the clock electronic payment systems like Re...

 In COP 27, every country has to submit its long-term strategy document that was released at the climate change meeting tracing out how it plans to reach the net zero targets. Developed countries have to reach net zero status by 2050,China decided by 2060 and India by 2070.Net zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. We reach net zero by reducing emissions and implementing methods of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. India, as an important step, pushed for a deal to phase down all fossil fuels - oil, gas, and coal. Though the biggest oil and gas producers like US and Saudi Arabia initially remained silent about the deal but later US agreed to the deal essentially  because of the wording "phase down " not 'phase out' in the deal. Unfortunately even that could not find a place in the draft  circulated in the conference, despite study Report released in the climate conference showed e...

 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed in the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held at Rio in 1992.The UNFCCC came into force in 1994 and ratified by 197 countries. It is the parent treaty of both 1997 Kyoto  Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement.Koyoto Protocol was an international treaty  that commit countries to  reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on scientific consensus about global warming and human made CO2 emissions .The Protocol was adopted in Kyoto,Japan on 11th December 1997 by 192 members and came into force on 16th February 2005..In December 2012 Canada wihdrew from the Protocol. The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on Climate Change mitigation, adaptation, and finance adopted in 2015 in Paris by 196 parties. UN Climate Change Conference popularly known as Conference of the Parties is the 27th UN Climate Change Conference is being held from November 6th to 18th in Sharm EI Sheik,Egypt...

 India is assuming the presidentship of G 20 from Indonesia for the one year period of oo December 1st 2022 to November 30th 2023. The G20 or group of twenty is an intergovernmental forum founded on September 26th 1999 concieved by G7 In response to the series of  crises that occurred across emerging markets like Mexico, Brazil,Argentina, Russia and East Asia in 1990s. G 20 comprised of 19 countries and the European Union.(Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and European union). Together they account for 85 percent  of global GDP, 75 percent of international trade and two- thirds of the world population. It works to focus major issues related to the world economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development. India as G20 President will be inviting Bangladesh, Egypt, Mau...