National Conference on Land Administration and Disaster Management, Gandhinagar

Introduction

• A twoday national conference focused on Land Administration and Disaster Management.
• Centred on modernising land governance, strengthening disaster resilience, and ensuring citizens’ land rights through digitisation and innovation.

Why in news?

• Began on 3 October 2025 at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar.
• Inaugural address by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel emphasised digitising land records, leveraging indigenous technology, and adopting a citizencentric approach.
• Provides a platform for states to share best practices and innovations in land and disaster management.

Background

• Organised by the Department of Land Resources (Ministry of Rural Development) in collaboration with Gujarat’s Revenue Department.
• Aligned with a nationwide push to upgrade land governance systems and disaster preparedness.

Significance

• Advances secure land rights at grassroots levels through digitised, citizenfocused processes.
• Expands institutional reach with newly inaugurated revenue offices.
• Enhances efficiency via the Revenue Diary and Integrated Land Administration (ILA) System, streamlining land record keeping, registration, court case management, and resurvey workflows in a unified digital interface.
• Strengthens property rights for families from nomadic tribes through distribution of SVAMITVA cards.
• Promotes resilient development by integrating disaster risk considerations into land use planning and infrastructure.
• Builds capacity and skills within land administration through focused human resource development.

Facts/General knowledge

• Duration and venue: Twoday conference starting 3 October 2025 at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar.
• Key launches and inaugurations:
• New revenue offices to reinforce institutional reach.
• Launch of Revenue Diary and the Integrated Land Administration (ILA) System.
• Distribution of SVAMITVA cards to families from nomadic tribes.
• Participants: Revenue officers and domain experts from across India contributing to panels and thematic discussions.
• Themes and focus areas:
• Modernising revenue laws to align with new land governance goals.
• Upgrading registration and land record systems, including paperless and online workflows.
• Urban land record mapping and resurveying, integrating GIS and remote sensing.
• Process reforms in revenue courts and land acquisition.
• Disaster risk management best practices, particularly in land use planning and resilient infrastructure.
• Human resource and capacity building in land administration.

India at the 68th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC)

Introduction

• An Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Om Birla is participating in the 68th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC).
• The delegation spans both Houses of Parliament, alongside representatives from State and Union Territory Legislatures.

Why in news?

• India’s leadership presence includes the Lok Sabha Speaker addressing the General Assembly and chairing a workshop on digital democracy.
• Indian parliamentarians are engaging in CPA Executive Committee deliberations and Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) sessions.

Background

• The CPC is organised annually by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to convene presiding officers, parliamentarians, and secretaries from member nations to exchange ideas and best practices on governance.
• The 68th edition focuses on the theme: “The Commonwealth – A Global Partner.”

Significance

• Serves as a vital platform for dialogue among lawmakers of Commonwealth nations.
• Fosters the strengthening of democratic institutions, technological transformation, and inclusive governance.
• Emphasises legislatures’ roles in promoting democracy, sustainable development, and digital inclusion.
• Highlights empowerment of women legislators and inclusive participation in policymaking.
• Encourages the use of digital tools for citizen engagement and legislative transparency, alongside strategies to bridge digital inequalities.

Facts/General knowledge

• Venue and dates: Bridgetown, Barbados; 5–12 October 2025.
• Composition of the Indian delegation:
• Shri Om Birla, Speaker, Lok Sabha (Leader of Delegation)
• Shri Harivansh, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha
• Shri Anurag Sharma, MP (Lok Sabha) & CPA Executive Committee Member
• D. Purandeswari, MP (Lok Sabha) & CWP Steering Committee Member
• K. Sudhakar, MP (Lok Sabha)
• Rekha Sharma, MP (Rajya Sabha)
• Ajeet Madhavrao Gopchade, MP (Rajya Sabha)
• Shri Utpal Kumar Singh, SecretaryGeneral, Lok Sabha
• Shri P. C. Mody, SecretaryGeneral, Rajya Sabha
• Additionally, 36 Presiding Officers and 16 Secretaries from 24 State and UT Legislatures will participate.
• Key agendas and participation:
• Shri Om Birla will address the General Assembly on the conference theme.
• He will chair a workshop titled “Leveraging Technology: Enhancing Democracy through Digital Transformations and Tackling the Digital Divide.”
• Shri Anurag Sharma will attend as Treasurer of the CPA.
• Shri Bishwajit Daimary, Speaker, Assam Legislative Assembly, will join as one of the Regional Representatives from the Indian Region.
• D. Purandeswari will represent India in the CWP Steering Committee and serve as a panellist on “Good Practices and Strategies for Realising GenderSensitive Parliaments across the Commonwealth.”

IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 – Abu Dhabi Outcomes

Introduction

• The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 concluded in Abu Dhabi, shedding light on evolving global environmental governance.
• Delegates addressed the planet’s most pressing environmental issues through decisions shaping conservation and sustainability agendas.

Why in news?

• Held for the first time in the United Arab Emirates and concluded on 15 October.
• IUCN Members adopted a 20year Vision and a 2026–2029 Programme for the Union.
• Outcomes were anchored by the Abu Dhabi Call to Action and 148 adopted motions setting new standards for biodiversity protection, climate resilience, and inclusive governance.
• The Congress secured ISO 20121:2024 certification, demonstrating compliance with rigorous sustainability standards across economic, environmental, social, and governance dimensions.

Background

• The Abu Dhabi Call to Action served as the definitive declaration, articulating five principles for transformation:
• Reaffirming Nature as Foundation: protect all ecosystems; recognise nature’s role in health, culture, and development; defend Indigenous custodians of nature.
• Strengthening Multilateralism: align all sectors and policies with naturebased goals; ensure accountability through collective global action.
• Ensuring Justice and Inclusive Participation: adopt a rightsbased approach empowering women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and environmental defenders in shared decisionmaking.
• Advancing Science, Knowledge, and Innovation: integrate scientific, traditional, and Indigenous knowledge; invest in research, citizen science, and sustainable technologies.
• Scaling Up and Aligning Resources: redirect finance toward a climateresilient economy; eliminate harmful subsidies driving environmental degradation.
• A 20year Strategic Vision commits the Union to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
• The framework integrates three interconnected aims: conserving biodiversity effectively; addressing connections between biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate change; and advancing a more just and equitable society, formalising integration required for crosscutting mandates like ‘One Health’.
• The Quadrennial Programme for 2026–2029 provides concrete outputs and measurable deliverables aligned with critical 2030 global deadlines.
• IUCN’s strategic framework outlines four focus areas, including scaling up conservation action, transforming response, and mobilising and managing key resources.

Significance

• Establishes a comprehensive direction for conservation by linking biodiversity with geodiversity, water, food systems, and public health under an integrated approach.
• Provides an actionable pathway to 2030 through measurable deliverables, supporting timely implementation of global commitments.
• Sets a sustainability benchmark for future global conservation events through ISO 20121:2024 certification.

Facts/General knowledge

• Participation: over 10,000 delegates from 189 countries.
• Programme: 2026–2029 “Nature 2030: One nature, one future”.
• Strategic Vision: “Unite for Nature on the path to 2045: A 20year Strategic Vision”.
• Alignment with 2030 milestones: Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Gaza Peace Summit and 20Point Peace Plan

Introduction

• The Gaza Peace Summit was cohosted by the USA and Egypt in Sharm ElSheikh to advance peace in Gaza and stability in the Middle East.
• India’s Minister of State for External Affairs attended and appreciated the efforts towards a lasting peace in the region.

Why in news?

• Four ceasefire mediators—the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey—signed a declaration inaugurating the USA’s 20point peace plan, known as the Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity.

Background

• The plan commits to resolving future disputes through diplomatic engagement and negotiation rather than force or protracted conflict.
• It calls for Hamas’s disarmament and an internationally supervised reconstruction of Gaza.
• It stipulates that no Palestinians will be militarily forced to leave Gaza.
• Israel will agree not to occupy or annex the Gaza Strip.
• The plan does not guarantee a twostate solution or the creation of the state of Palestine.

Significance

• Regional prosperity: could aid the expansion of the Abraham Accords and unlock broader peace and prosperity.
• Strategic location: the region’s oil and gas resources and position at the Red Sea, Strait of Hormuz, and Suez Canal are critical for global lines of communication.
• Contemporary geopolitics: great power competitions risk regional fragmentation in the absence of peace, with Russia showing security interest and China having economic interests.
• Global trade and markets: one of the youngest, fastestgrowing populations, projected to reach around 580 million by 2030, offers a significant market in times of peace.
• Importance for India: energy security and remittances are vital; India imports nearly 70% of its annual oil from the region and is engaging through initiatives/groupings like the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor and I2U2.

Facts/General knowledge

• Abraham Accords: a feature of U.S. Middle Eastern diplomacy involving peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, etc.

UNFCCC COP30 (Belém, Brazil)

Introduction

• The 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) to the UNFCCC was held in Belém, Brazil.
• It coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

Why in news?

• COP30 aligned with the 2025 deadline for countries to submit updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0).
• It concluded with adoption of the Belém Package by 195 Parties, covering just transition, adaptation finance, trade, gender, and technology.

Background

• Hosted in the Amazon region, the summit was framed as the “COP of Implementation”, “COP of Truth”, and the “Forest COP”.
• Key meetings included COP 30 (UNFCCC), CMP 20 (Kyoto Protocol), and CMA 7 (Paris Agreement).
• Outcomes were organised across implementation, forests and nature, finance and economy, energy and infrastructure, social and health, and emergency action, with work linked to the COP29–COP31 troika.

Significance

• Shift from pledges to delivery through actionoriented platforms to implement NDCs and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
• Major scaling of climate finance with clear pathways and investmentreadiness support, especially for adaptation.
• Strong emphasis on forests and land restoration, including direct flows to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
• Acceleration of energy transitions via power grid expansion, coal transition planning, and sustainable fuels uptake.
• Integration of social dimensions, including health resilience, gender equality, information integrity, and peoplecentred action.
• Enhanced preparedness and cooperation on early warning systems and wildfire resilience.

Facts/General knowledge

• [Implementation] Implementation Work Programme (Mutirão Decision) – Belém Mission to 1.5°C: An actionoriented platform under the COP29–COP31 troika to foster enhanced ambition and international cooperation across mitigation, adaptation, and investment; launched by the COP29–COP31 Troika (UAE, Azerbaijan, Brazil).
• [Implementation] Global Implementation Accelerator: A voluntary initiative to support countries in implementing their NDCs and NAPs; launched by the COP30 and COP31 Presidencies.
• [Implementation] NAPs Implementation Alliance: A new PAS (Plan to Accelerate Solutions) under the COP30 Action Agenda to support NAP implementation and mobilise public and private investment for national adaptation priorities; launched by UNDP, Italy, Germany, NAP Global Network, and NDC Partnership.
• [Forests & Nature] Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF): Establishes a $125 billion Tropical Forest Investment Fund to pay tropical forest nations for maintaining and expanding tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, mandating at least 20% of all payments flow directly to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities; supported by Brazil, Indonesia, DRC, China, etc.; India has joined as an Observer; Trustee and Interim host: World Bank.
• [Forests & Nature] Resilient Agriculture Investment for netZero land degradation (RAIZ) Accelerator: A project to restore 3 million hectares of degraded farmland using blended finance and private capital, based on “Green Way and Eco Invest in Brazil”; coordinated by FAO, FOLU, CGIAR, G20 Land Restoration Initiative, World Bank; Brazil and 10 partner nations; hosted by Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture under the FAO FAST Partnership.
• [Forests & Nature] Scaling JREDD+ Coalition: A new coalition of governments, Indigenous Peoples, investors, intermediaries, standard setters, and civil society offering a pathway to mobilise $3–6 billion per year by 2030 to halt and reverse tropical deforestation; participants include the UK, Singapore, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, etc.
• [Finance & Economy] Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T: The official pathway to mobilise the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of $1.3 trillion per year by 2035; led by the COP29 and COP30 Presidencies.
• [Finance & Economy] Tripling of adaptation finance: Increase adaptation finance to $120 billion per year, as part of the broader $300 billion per year in climate finance (NCQG) agreed at COP29.
• [Finance & Economy] Baku Adaptation Roadmap: Approves and establishes the work for 2026–2028, until the next Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement.
• [Finance & Economy] FINI (Fostering Investible National Implementation): Makes NAPs investible and implementationready, developing $1 trillion in adaptation investment pipelines by 2028, with 20% from private investors; led by Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center and Natural Resources Defense Council; supported by the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
• [Finance & Economy] Open Coalition on Compliance Carbon Markets: Harmonises carbon pricing and integrity standards across borders and collaborates on best practices for Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV); participants include Brazil, China, EU, UK, Canada, Germany, Singapore, etc.
• [Finance & Economy] Belem Declaration for Green Industrialization: Accelerates decarbonisation of heavy emitting industries and promotes green industrialisation to advance climate and development goals; endorsed by 35 countries and organisations (such as UNDP, UNIDO).
• [Energy & Infrastructure] Plan to Accelerate the Expansion and Resilience of Power Grids: Coordinates stakeholders towards grid expansion and a renewablespowered future; under the Green Grids Initiative (GGI).
• [Energy & Infrastructure] Plan to Accelerate Coal Transitions (PACT): A roadmap to fasttrack the transition from coal to clean energy while ensuring energy security; under the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA).
• [Energy & Infrastructure] Belém 4x Pledge on Sustainable Fuels: Quadruples the use of sustainable fuels (hydrogen, biofuels, efuels) by 2035 compared to 2024 levels; participants include Italy, Japan, India, and Brazil; the International Energy Agency will track progress.
• [Social & Health] Belém Health Action Plan: The world’s first international climate adaptation plan dedicated to health, with $300 million in initial funding to build climateresilient health sectors, especially in the Global South; supported by over 30 countries and 50 organisations.
• [Social & Health] Belém Gender Action Plan (GAP): Designed to implement the Lima Work Programme on gender; adopted by Parties at COP30 for 2026–2034.
• [Social & Health] Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change: Establishes shared international commitments to address climate disinformation and promote accurate, evidencebased information; first inclusion of information integrity in the COP Action Agenda; treats “information pollution” as a structural barrier and aims to protect public trust in climate science; advanced by the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change; endorsed by Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, etc.
• [Social & Health] Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and PeopleCentred Climate Action: Promotes actions addressing the unequal impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations; signed by 43 countries and the European Union.
• [Emergency Action] 2030 Strategy: Enables climate‑vulnerable nations to build early warning systems; under Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS).
• [Emergency Action] Call to Action on Integrated Fire Management and Wildfire Resilience: Acknowledges international cooperation for integrated fire management; led by Brazil.

India AI Mission: Relaxed AI Compute Procurement Norms

Introduction

• India’s AI Mission is an ambitious national effort led by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to catalyse AI innovation and deployment across priority sectors.
• MeitY has eased provisions in its norms for procuring AI computing capacity to better accommodate startups and smaller companies.

Why in news?

• Under the India AI Mission, MeitY has relaxed certain AI compute procurement norms to address concerns from smaller companies and enable greater participation by startups.

Background

• The Prime Minister announced the launch of an artificial intelligence mission at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit 2023 in New Delhi.
• Implementation will be carried out by the ‘IndiaAI’ Independent Business Division under the Digital India Corporation.
• The Mission targets establishing computing capacity of more than 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) and developing foundational models trained on datasets covering major Indian languages for sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and governance.
• AI Curation Units will be developed in 50 line ministries, and an AI marketplace will offer AI as a service and pretrained models for developers and users.
• The AI compute infrastructure will be implemented via a public–private partnership model with 50% viability gap funding.
• Of the total outlay of Rs 10,372 crore, Rs 4,564 crore is earmarked for building computing infrastructure.

Significance

• Advances the vision of “Making AI in India” and “Making AI Work for India”.
• Demonstrates positive, societyfocused applications of AI to the international community, boosting India’s global competitiveness.
• Builds a comprehensive ecosystem that catalyses AI innovation through strategic public–private programmes and partnerships.
• Enhances creativity and internal capabilities, safeguarding technological autonomy.
• Generates employment opportunities requiring advanced skills, leveraging India’s demographic advantage.

Facts/General knowledge

• 7 Key Features of India AI Mission:
• India AI Compute Capacity: Establish a highend, scalable AI computing ecosystem for growing demands from startups and researchers.
• India AI Innovation Centre: Develop and deploy indigenous Large Multimodal Models and domainspecific foundational models in critical sectors.
• India AI Datasets Platform: Streamline access to quality nonpersonal datasets for AI innovation.
• India AI Application Development Initiative: Promote AI applications for problem statements sourced from Central Ministries, State Departments, and others.
• India AI FutureSkills: Mitigate barriers to entry into AI programmes by expanding AI courses at undergraduate, Masters, and Ph.D. levels.
• India AI Startup Financing: Support and accelerate deeptech AI startups with streamlined access to funding for futuristic AI projects.
• Safe & Trusted AI: Implement responsible AI through indigenous tools and frameworks.
• A graphics processing unit (GPU) is an electronic circuit that processes images and accelerates the rendering of 3D computer graphics.