Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called on all nations to work together to cut global emissions drastically, and announced a “green credit” initiative that focuses on creating carbon skins with people’s participation.

At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, PM Modi today said India’s emissions are very low compared to other nations whose population is much less.

“India’s population is 17 per cent of the global population, but in global carbon emissions India is only at 4 per cent. We are moving fast in achieving the NDC targets. In fact, we reached our non-fossil fuel targets nine years before the deadline,” PM Modi said, referring to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

“We do not have much time to correct the mistakes of the last century,” PM Modi said, and asked every nation to work sincerely to meet their NDC targets.

The Conference of Parties (COP) is a decision-making body that reviews the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Environment Ministry has introduced two initiatives that indicate India’s proactive approach to tackling climate change, and sustainability take forward ‘LiFE’ – ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ movement announced by PM Modi in 2021.

The “green credit” initiative seeks to encourage environmentally friendly practices rooted in tradition and conservation reflecting the ideas of the ‘LiFE’ concept.

The fourth T20 international between India and Australia will be played today at Raipur’s Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh stadium. But with just hours to go for the crucial encounter, there is no electricity in parts of the stadium. Reason: An electricity bill which hasn’t been paid since 2009.

The stadium has an outstanding bill of Rs 3.16 crore, due to which the electricity connection at the stadium had been cut 5 years ago. A temporary connection was installed at the request of the Chhattisgarh State Cricket Association, but that only covers the spectators’ gallery and boxes. The floodlights during the match today would need to be run using a generator.

Raipur Rural Circle in-charge Ashok Khandelwal said that the Secretary Cricket Association has applied to increase the capacity of the temporary connection of the stadium.

At present, the capacity of the temporary connection is 200 KV. An application to upgrade it to 1 thousand KV has been approved, but work on it hasn’t started yet.

In 2018, there was an uproar when athletes participating in a half-marathon realised that there was no electricity supply at the stadium. It was then announced that the electricity bill hadn’t been paid since 2009, and had gone up to Rs 3.16 crore.

After the construction of the stadium, its maintenance was handed over to the Public Works Department (PWD), while the remaining expenses were to be borne by the Sports Department. The two departments have been blaming each other for the unpaid power bill.

The electricity company sent several notices to PWD and Sports Department for clearance of dues, but no payment has been made yet.

Three international cricket matches have been organised in the stadium since the power connection was cut in 2018.

The Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh (CSCS) which currently manages the stadium, said that there is no payment that they owe to the electricity department.

“We can’t comment on the previous dues of the department that the stadium was under prior to CSCS coming in. That connection where dues maybe there was in the name of the relevant government department,” said Jubin Shah, President-CSCS.

The Indian Navy has appointed the first woman commanding officer in a naval ship in sync with its philosophy of ‘all roles-all ranks’ for female personnel, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Kumar said the Indian Navy’s ships, submarines, and aircraft have sustained a high operational tempo in the strategic waters in the last one year.

On China’s increasing forays into the Indian Ocean, he said Indian Navy monitors all activities in the region.

“Our ships, submarines, and aircraft have sustained a high operational tempo – undertaking missions and tasks encompassing military, diplomatic, constabulary and benign roles,” he said.

“Our units were mission deployed across the Indian Ocean Region and beyond, to protect and promote our national interests,” he said.

The Navy has “remained a ‘Combat-ready, Credible, Cohesive, and Future Proof’ force enabled by what we call our ‘ships first’ outlook where every single action that we take is aimed to enable our women and men in operational units to perform their duties very well.” On the operational front, the Navy’s sheer footprint of deployments has been satisfying as its ships have been persistently present across the Indo Pacific.

Admiral Kumar said the Indian Navy has appointed the first woman commanding officer in a naval ship.

“The overall strength of women Agniveers has now crossed the 1,000 mark. These statistics stands testament to our philosophy of ‘all roles, all ranks’ approach to deployment of women in the service.” He also said the Indian Navy is fully committed to jointness and cohesiveness.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)