French President Emmanuel Macron said  that he would visit China in April, and urged Beijing to pressure Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the conflict, even as it has maintained close ties with Russia and helped scuttle a joint statement condemning the war at a G20 gathering in India.

It published a 12-point position paper that called for urgent peace talks and a "political settlement" to end the conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky  has also expressed hopes to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, calling it "important for world security".

India's top oil firm IOC will set up green hydrogen plants at all its refineries as it pivots a Rs 2-lakh crore green transition plan to achieve net-zero emissions from its operations by 2046, its chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is remodelling business with an increased focus on petrochemicals to hedge volatility in the fuel business, while at the same time turning petrol pumps into energy outlets that offer EV charging points and battery swapping options besides conventional fuels as it looks to make itself future-ready, he said.

The company intends to expand its refining capacity to 106.7 million tonnes per annum from 81.2 million tonnes as it sees India's oil demand climbing from 5.1 million barrels per day to 7-7.2 million bpd by 2030 and 9 million bpd by 2040.

Hydrogen -- the cleanest known fuel that discharges only oxygen and water when burnt -- is being touted as the fuel of the future, but its relatively higher cost then alternate fuel currently limit its usage in industries.

Refineries, which turn crude oil into fuel such as petrol and diesel, use hydrogen to lower the sulfur content of diesel fuel. This hydrogen is currently produced using fossil fuels such as natural gas.

IOC plans to use electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar to split water to produce green hydrogen.

Currently, IOC's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, emanating majorly from the company's refining operations, is 21.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) per annum.

This will rise to 40.44 MMTCO2e by 2030 after considering the expansions planned and taking the emissions of its subsidiaries into account.

The company plans to use natural gas in refineries in place of liquid fuels as well as replace grey hydrogen (produced from fossil fuel) with green one that is manufactured from renewable power.

IOC is also looking at carbon offsetting through ecosystem restoration and Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), among others.

Out of its current emissions, 96 per cent are on account of processes like direct fuel burning for deriving energy from heat, steam, electricity and cooling, which are part of operations.

These constitute the Scope-1 emissions. The balance 4 per cent is on account of sourcing electricity from the grid which constitutes Scope-2 emissions.

India and the UK have agreed to make further progress on the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) and also to swiftly organise the next bilateral Economic and Financial Dialogue soon, the British government has said.

India has recently concluded the seventh round of talks with the UK.

At the conclusion of UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's India visit for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, held under India's 2023 Presidency, the UK's Treasury department said the finance minister held talks with Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman with a focus on deepening bilateral economic and financial ties.

Hunt, on his first international visit as UK Chancellor, also met with business leaders in Bengaluru and visited the offices of tech multinational Wipro which employs over 4,000 people in the UK.

The Chancellor, alongside Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, attended a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on Feb 23 .

They were joined virtually by Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.

Negotiations with the UK started on January 13 last year with an aim to boost bilateral trade and investments.

The bilateral trade between the two countries increased to USD 17.5 billion in 2021-22 compared to USD 13.2 billion in 2020-21.

India's exports stood at USD 10.5 billion in 2021-22, while imports were USD 7 billion.

Adani Power Maharashtra (APML), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Powerhas  terminated a pact  between APML and Orient Cement for utilisation of a parcel of land in Maharashtra. 

The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on September 23, 2021, for allowing utilisation of a parcel of land on sub-lease basis, which has been taken on lease by APML from MIDC at its power plant at Tiroda, Maharashtra. 

Sweden-based telecom equipment maker Ericsson is going to lay off 8,500 employees globally as part of its plan to cut costs. According to the reports, chief executive Borje Ekholm wrote in the memo that the way headcount reductions will be managed will differ depending on local country practice.

While technology companies such as Microsoft, Meta  and Google parent Alphabet have laid off thousands of employees citing economic conditions, Ericsson’s move would be the largest layoff to hit the telecoms industry. 

Ericsson is a 5G vendor to India’s top two telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Jio gave it a contract to roll out 5G Standalone (SA) in the country. Ericsson employs more than 105,000 worldwide. The company announced it would cut about 1,400 jobs in Sweden on Feb 20.

Q1. Name the German Chancellor who visited India recently ?

1. Olaf Scholz
2. Angela Merkel
3. Helmut Kohl
4. Helmut Schmidt
5. None of These

Q2. Name the great grandson of C Rajagopalachari who resigned from the  Congress ?

1. G. Gomathisankara Dikshidar
2. Deivanayagam
3. K. S. Alagiri
4. CR Kesavan
5. None of These

Q3. Name the Anti-money laundering group  which has suspended  Russia's membership ?

1. UN Human Rights Council
2. Amnesty International
3. FATF
4. European Commission
5. None of These

Q4. Name the Indian-American business leader who has nominated by the  US  President Joe Biden to lead the World Bank ?

1. Rahul Gupta
2. Ajay Banga
3. Neera Tanden
4. Vinay Reddy
5. None of These

Q5. Name the Gulf Arab state which has decided to allow Israeli planes to fly through its airspace recently ?

1. Qatar
2. Bahrain
3. Yemen
4. Oman
5. None of These

Answers

1----------------1 Olaf Scholz

2----------------4    CR Kesavan

3---------------3   FATF

4----------------2   Ajay Banga

5-----------------4   Oman

The visit of the Crown Prince of Denmark, Frederik Andre Henrik Christian, to India is likely to give a boost to setting up a bio-based power project that uses stubble as feedstock. If this is cleared it would be a boon for people living in the national capital territory as they have to bear the brunt of inhaling polluted air due to stubble burning every year.

India and Denmark have a green strategic partnership, launched in 2020. Under a five-year plan (2021-26), four pacts were signed in order to boost cooperation in green technologies and managing natural resources like groundwater. Meanwhile, India and Denmark have also been in talks for constructing an off-shore wind energy plant in Tamil Nadu. There is a possibility of having a similar plant in Gujarat too.

The ongoing visit of Crown Prince Frederik may give this process a push. They are accompanied by representatives of nearly 40 firms and over a dozen deal with ways of reducing the wastage of water which is a huge problem in India and 26 firms that deal with energy, including offshore wind energy.

While in India, the Crown Prince will meet PM Modi, President DroupadiMurmu, Chief Ministers Stalin of Tamil Nadu and Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh. Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Rasmussen will meet with EAM Dr S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval.

The European Commission has banned TikTok on official devices used by staff amid concerns over data protection.

The ban also means European Commission staff cannot use the Chinese-owned video-sharing app on personal devices including phones that have official apps installed.

Employees must remove the app as soon as possible and should do so by March 15.

TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, has faced increasing Western scrutiny in recent months over fears about how much access Beijing has to user data.

The United States last year banned the app from federal government devices, and some US lawmakers are trying to prohibit TikTok from operating in the United States.

Last month, the Dutch government reportedly advised public officials to steer clear of the app over similar concerns.