1) Beijing Issues Yellow Air Pollution Alert.
- Beijing city issued its first yellow alert for air pollution with Met department forecasting that smog will continue to engulf the Chinese capital.
- The alert puts restrictions on work at construction sites, outdoor barbecues and straw burning by farmers.
- The reading of Air Quality Index (AQI) in Beijing was between 200 and 300 meaning heavy pollution.
- The National Meteorological Center issued a yellow alert for smog that will be dispersed by a cold snap.
- Wang Zifa, a researcher with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, expects north China to face more bouts of smog in autumn and winter.
2) India – Singapore Finance Dialogue.
- India and Singapore decided to set up a Finance Dialogue, to be co-chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore, to further strengthen bilateral trade and economic ties.
- The two sides discussed furthering Singapore and India’s strong economic ties, for instance, by setting up a Finance Dialogue between the finance ministries of the two countries.
- Singapore is the second largest source of foreign direct investment in India. The total FDI from Singapore to India has totalled USD 45.88 billion or 16 per cent of the inflows during the period.
- The bilateral ties were upgraded to the level of a Strategic Partnership with Singapore. More than 8,000 Indian companies are present in Singapore.
3) Myanmar scraps stringent emergency law.
- Myanmar has scrapped a stringent law which had been used by the former military leaders to silence opponents.
- The Emergency Provisions Act was introduced in 1950 after independence from Britain.
- It allowed the authorities to detain people without charge and prescribed jail or execution for a wide range of offences considered treason.
- It allowed punishments of up to seven years for crimes like disrupting public morality or spreading false news.
- The National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept to power in Myanmar ending decades of military rule, had been trying to get rid of the law.
- But the move faced opposition from some of the military, which still holds a mandatory 25% of seats in parliament and who argued the law was still necessary for national security.
4) France becomes first country to ban plastic cups and plates.
- France has become the first country in the world to ban disposable plastic cups and plates.
- The country has passed a law in 2016 that will go into effect in 2020. The law will require all disposable tableware to be made from 50% biologically-sourced materials that can be composted at home. That number will rise to 60% by 2025.
- The measure is an addition to France`s Energy Transition for Green Growth Act, a wide-reaching law adopted in 2015 with the aim of mitigating the impact of climate change.
- France imposed a total ban on the distribution of lightweight plastic bags at supermarket checkouts.
- As per the French Association of Health and Environment, ASEF One hundred and fifty single-use cups are thrown away every second in France, which counts to 4.73 billion per year.
- Only 1 per cent of the cups is recycled, largely because they are made of a mixture of polypropylene and polystyrene.
5) India – Switzerland Signs 3 Agreements.
- India and Switzerland signed 3 agreements including mutual visa exemption agreement for holders of diplomatic passports, technical arrangements on identification and return of illegal migrants and arrangement for dependent person of diplomatic, consular, technical and administrative staff of diplomatic and consular mission to perform gainful employment.
- The Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh met the visiting Minister for Justice and Police of Swiss Confederation, Simonetta Sommaruga.
- The Union Home Minister also sought a more liberal visa regime for Indian business people since India has been offering multi-year multiple entry visas to Swiss businesses in a bid to enhance bilateral trade and investment.
- During the meeting, other subjects of interest to the 2 countries were also discussed including cooperation in transfer of sentenced persons and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal matters that would help in combating terrorism, transnational organized crimes and corruption including money laundering.