GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

Russian and Iran signed a deal to finance and build an Iranian railway line as part of an embryonic international North–South Transport Corridor.

Rasht-Astara railway

• The Rasht-Astara railway is seen as an important link in the international North–South Transport Corridor, intended to connect India, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and other countries via railways and sea - a route that Russia says can rival the Suez Canal as a major global trade route.
• The 162 km (100 mile) railway along the Caspian Sea coast would help to connect Russian ports on the Baltic Sea with Iranian ports in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf.
  
  

Rival to Suez Canal?

• The Rasht-Astara railway is a route that Russia says can rival the Suez Canal as a major global trade route.

• Russia and Iran have been pushed to strengthen their political and economic ties by Western economic sanctions on each, which both say are unjustified.
• Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has been ostracised by the West and its economy crippled by a myriad of sanctions.
  • It holds around a quarter of the Middle East's oil reserves.
  • The West also imposed other set of restrictions over Iran's nuclear program
• Russia was sanctioned due to its actions in Ukraine.

India has expressed its apprehensions to the European Union regarding the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

Key-highlights

• The issue was discussed at the India-EU Trade and Technology Council’s ministerial meeting in Brussels.
• The meeting also saw India and the EU agreeing to ink a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the semiconductor sector.
  • India and the United States had on March 10 signed MoU to pave the way for joint projects and technology partnership for manufacturing semiconductors.

Brief of CABM

• The CBAM initiative proposed by the EU aims to levy 20%-35% taxes on carbon-intensive goods exported to any of its 27 member nations starting from January 2026.
• It imposes importers and non-EU manufacturers to pay for the carbon emission linked to the goods they sell within EU limits.
• Starting January 2026, the Indian steel, cement, aluminium, and fertiliser industries will pay steep Carbon Border Tax (CBT) imposed by the European Union (EU).
• The CBAM will walk on the footprints of ETS, i.e., importers will be required to purchase carbon import certificates/ permits for each metric ton of CO2 brought into the EU through specified goods.

In recent years, India has taken proactive steps to digitize land records under the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) to create an integrated land management system.

What government is doing?

• The government revamped the existing National Land Record Modernization Programme (NLRMP) by bringing into force, the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP)
  • DILRMP is a Central Scheme with 100 per cent funding.
  • The programme is slated to be fully implemented by March 2026, with completion of basic digitisation of Record of Rights (RoRs) and Cadastral Maps and integration of the the two , computerisation of Sub Registrar Offices (SROs), and integration of SROs and Revenue Offices by March 2024.

Where does India lack?

• In India, most property documents must compulsorily be registered under the Registration Act, 1908, failing which they cannot be admitted in court (in case of a dispute) as evidence.

• Despite being a crucial formality for legal documentation, the registration process in India still relies on the outdated physical mode of registration.
• In 2013, while the government sought to amend the Registration Act to allow the digitization of certain processes, these amendments were never enacted.
• The central Act must establish minimum standards for remote online registration to ensure that registration throughout India is undertaken in a safe and secure manner.

The world is almost certain to experience new record temperatures in the next five years, and temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, scientists have warned.

Key-highlights of the Report

• The report found there was a 66% likelihood of exceeding the 1.5C threshold in at least one year between 2023 and 2027.
  • For each year from 2023 to 2027, the global near-surface temperature is predicted to be between 1.1C and 1.8C above the pre-industrial average, taken from the years 1850 to 1900.
• Heat waves: New record temperatures have been set in many areas around the world in the heatwaves of the past year, but those highs may only be the beginning, as climate breakdown and the impact of a developing El Niño weather system combine to create heatwaves across the globe.
• El Niño and La Niña: El Niño is part of an oscillating weather system that develops in the Pacific. For the past three years, the world has been in the opposing phase, known as La Niña, which has had a dampening effect on temperature increases around the world.
  • As La Niña ends and a new El Niño develops, there is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest on record, the scientists found.

How would it impact?

• This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment.
• There is likely to be less rainfall this year in the Amazon, Central America, Australia and Indonesia.
  • That could have calamitous consequences for the planet, which relies on rainforests as massive carbon sinks.

Way Forward

This November, governments will meet for the Cop28 UN climate summit, where they will assess progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris agreement. Known as the “global stocktake”, this assessment is likely to show that the world is far off track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the 43% this decade that is required to have a good chance of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C.