End of Tribal Insurgency in Assam, India

from Republic World, 28 April 2023, and EastMojo

The signing of a tripartite Memorandum of Settlement between the Centre, Assam government, and representatives of DNLA/DPSC on Thursday, is considered to be a significant milestone towards creating an insurgency-free Northeast region by 2024.

The agreement according to which over 168 cadres of DNLA have joined the mainstream by laying down their arms, proposes to end the insurgency in the Dima Hasao district of Assam. As per this agreement, Dimasa Welfare Council will be set up by the Assam government to protect, preserve and promote a social, cultural, and linguistic identity to meet political, economic and educational aspirations and will ensure speedy and focused development of the Dimasa people residing outside the jurisdiction of the Autonomous Council. The DNLA representatives have agreed to give up violence and surrender, including surrendering arms and ammunition, disbanding their armed organisation, vacating all camps occupied by the DNLA cadres and joining the mainstream. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah lauded the agreement, saying, “This agreement marks another significant milestone towards making the Northeast insurgency-free by 2024 and fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a peaceful and prosperous Northeast… PM Modi has put forward the vision of a terror-free, violence-free, and developed Northeast before the country and the Ministry of Home Affairs is making forward strides in this direction.”

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma also hailed the tripartite agreement and said, “For the first time since Independence, Assam has become completely free from insurgency in tribal areas… With the signing of today’s Memorandum with Dimasa National Liberation Army, curtains have finally closed on armed movements in tribal areas.”

Despairing about climate change? The unstoppable growth of solar may change your mind

from The Conversation, May 11, 2023

Last year, the world built more new solar capacity than every other power source combined.

Solar is now growing much faster than any other energy technology in history. How fast? Fast enough to completely displace fossil fuels from the entire global economy before 2050.

The rise and rise of cheap solar is our best hope for rapidly mitigating climate change.

Total solar capacity tipped over 1 terawatt (1,000 gigawatts) for the first time last year. The sector is growing at around 20% a year. If this continues, we’ll hit 6 terawatts around 2031. In capacity terms, that would be larger than the combined total of coal, gas, nuclear and hydro.

By 2050, Earth will have a population of about 10 billion people. To supply everyone with enough electricity to live a good life, we’ll need about 200 billion megawatt-hours per year (equal to 200,000 terawatt-hours per year).

Let’s assume that solar does the heavy lifting for decarbonisation, completing two-thirds of the task with the remaining one-third left to wind, hydro and everything else put together. Is it possible?

Yes. If sustained, solar’s growth rate of 20% per year is easily fast enough to reach 80 terawatts of installed capacity in 2050 – enough to provide 130,000 terawatt-hours per year and (with help from wind) to entirely decarbonise an affluent world.

As well as eliminating most greenhouse emissions, we will also get rid of car exhausts, smokestacks, urban smog, coal mines, ash dumps, oil spills, oil-related warfare and gas fracking.

In Australia, 99% of new generation capacity is now solar and wind because it is cheap. To read the full article, follow this link: https://theconversation.com/despairing-about-climate-change-these-4-charts-on-the-unstoppable-growth-of-solar-may-change-your-mind-204901

$100 million to save Brazil’s Amazon rainforest

from Business Standard, May 27, 2023

Britain pledged Friday to give about USD 100 million to the Brazilian government’s fund to protect the Amazon rainforest, as the South American country beefs up protection of the environment under its new leadership.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Brazil’s President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, announced the contribution to the Amazon Fund on Friday after meeting in London ahead of Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III.

The fund was launched in 2009 to fight against deforestation and build sustainable initiatives in the Brazilian rainforest, a vital natural reserve soaking up fumes from oil, natural gas and coal in South America. The committee that governs it was partially dismantled when rightist President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, and rebooted by the leftist Lula this year.

“President Lula has exhibited great leadership on climate change,” Sunak said on Twitter, adding that he was pleased that Britain would contribute 80 million pounds (USD 101 million) to the fund, “so we can help stop deforestation and protect biodiversity.”

Earlier this year, U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to join Norway and Germany in resuming donations to the initiative that had been suspended during Bolsonaro’s presidency.

Kuwaiti women achieving gender equality sparks hope for Gulf countries

from Kuwait Times

Kuwaiti women have come a long way in terms of political representation in the National Assembly. Historically, women have faced significant barriers to their participation in public life, but recent efforts have led to increased female representation in Kuwait’s political field. Women in Kuwait were only granted the right to vote and hold public office in 2005. Since then, Kuwaiti women have gradually been increasing their representation in the Kuwaiti political field and proving their worth and capabilities.

Minister of Social Affairs and Women and Childhood Affairs Mai Al-Baghli highlighted the state’s empowerment of Kuwaiti women, noting Kuwait is first among Gulf states in achieving gender equality. Baghli also confirmed that Kuwait looks forward to reaching the goal of increasing women’s active participation in the state’s development plans.

In addition to providing women with the right to vote and run for office, Kuwait has implemented several measures to encourage and support women’s participation in politics. In comparison to other Gulf states, Kuwait has taken great strides in empowering women and promoting gender equality. This has been made possible by a series of important reforms and initiatives. Allowing women to earn their own money helped in eliminating traditional societal norms that restricted women’s participation in economic activities. This law has further provided opportunities for women to hold key positions in the political field as well as public and private sectors, which were previously reserved for men.

The country has become a role model, and other countries in the region can learn from Kuwait’s progressive approach. It is essential that Kuwait continues to work towards promoting gender equality and women’s rights. With the state’s direction towards equally supporting its female half of the society, achieving full gender equality may soon become a reality in the region.

Follow link to read the full article: https://www.kuwaittimes.com/kuwaiti-women-play-equal-role-in-accelerating-state-development/