Impact of Heatwaves on Children: UNICEF

• In a recent report titled "Coldest Year of the Rest of Their Lives - Protecting children from the escalating impacts of heatwaves," UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) predicted that by the year 2050, nearly all children worldwide would be exposed to more frequent and severe heat waves.
• The United Nations (UN) has a special programme called UNICEF that supports national initiatives aimed at enhancing children's health, nutrition, education, and welfare in general.

What conclusions does the UNICEF report reach?

Present Situation:

• Around 624 million children are exposed to one of the other three high heat measures, including high heatwave duration, high heatwave severity, and extremely high temperatures, while approximately 559 million children are exposed to high heatwave frequency.
• By 2020, one in four children resided in areas where the typical heatwave event lasts 4.7 days or more.
• By 2050, this proportion will increase to more than three in four children in a low-emission scenario.
• Children experience heatwaves that last longer in southern, western, and south-eastern Asia, eastern, and southern Europe, and northern Africa.

Future Effect

• By 2050, there will be over two billion children who have experienced extreme heat waves, up from 24% in 2020.
• With an estimated 1.7°C of warming in 2050, practically every child on the planet will experience extreme heat waves.
• 94% of children will be exposed to high heatwave duration at 2.4 degrees warming, with only a few small areas of southern America, central Africa, Australasia, and Asia being spared.

Children are more vulnerable than adults:

Children are more susceptible to heat injury during heat waves that last longer than adults because they spend more time outdoors participating in sports and other outdoor activities.

Health Effects:

• Increased mental health issues in kids and teens, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, have been linked to high temperatures.
• The education and future livelihoods of children will essentially be impacted by extreme heat.
• The following health risks are associated with heatwaves: heat stroke, heat stress, allergy, chronic respiratory conditions, asthma, diseases carried by mosquitoes, cardiovascular disease, undernutrition, and diarrhoea.

Children's Safety at Risk

• As pastures and household income dwindle, communities are forced to search for and compete for food and water resources. Children face serious risks of physical harm and violence as a result of the migration, displacement, and conflict that result.

[Note: In July 2022, organisations supported by the UN published guidelines to create the first-ever global policy framework to safeguard children who have been uprooted by climate change.]

• It includes nine principles that address the particular vulnerabilities of uprooted children.
• The principles are informed by current operational frameworks and guidelines and are based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

What suggestions are made?

• The need to ensure that the most vulnerable have the means to access the vital social services necessary to safeguard them.
• Nations must take immediate action by: defending children from the effects of climate change by promoting social services
• educating children about the effects of climate change
• children and young people as a priority in climate finance and resources
• preventing a global warming disaster by lowering greenhouse gas emissions
• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's 27th Conference of Parties (COP-27) must make progress on loss and damage by putting children's resilience and that of their communities at the forefront of discussions on action and support.

What Other Related Indices Exist?

Climate Risk Index for Children: UNICEF:

• It ranks nations according to how exposed and vulnerable children are to climatic and environmental shocks, such as heatwaves and cyclones, based on their access to basic services.

ND-GAIN Index: Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative

• It has demonstrated how children all over the world are affected by climate change.
• It explains that a combination of these factors, including food shortages, diseases and other health risks, water scarcity, and risk from rising water levels, will have an impact on the children.

Read Also : Global Climate Risk Index 2021

Rupee's Internationalization

• The benefits and dangers of the internationalisation of the rupee were recently emphasised by a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor.

What is rupee internationalisation?

• The process of internationalising the rupee entails using it more frequently in cross-border transactions.
• It entails encouraging the use of the rupee in import and export trade as well as other current account transactions before moving on to capital account usage.
• The rupee is fully convertible in the current account but only partially convertible in the capital account.
• The two parts of the balance of payments are the current and capital accounts. While the capital account is made up of the cross-border movement of capital through investments and loans, the current account primarily deals with the import and export of goods and services.

Why Does the Rupee Need to Be Internationalized?

• The rupee accounts for just 1.7% of global foreign exchange market turnover, highlighting the need to push the currency much further to gain an international reputation. The dollar commands 88.3% of this market turnover, followed by the euro, Japanese Yen, and pound sterling.
• The 'exorbitant' privileges in the case of the dollar, an international currency, include immunity from Balance of Payments crises because the USA can cover its external deficits with its own currency.

What are the various benefits of the rupee's internationalisation?

• Currency risk is reduced for Indian businesses when using the Rupee in international transactions. Protection from currency volatility improves business growth and lowers operating costs, increasing the likelihood that Indian companies will expand internationally.
• The requirement for maintaining foreign exchange reserves decreases. Reserves have an impact on the economy even though they help control exchange rate volatility and project external stability.
• India becomes less susceptible to outside shocks by reducing its reliance on foreign currency. For instance, excessive foreign currency liabilities of domestic businesses result in a de facto domestic tightening during phases of monetary tightening in the US and a strengthening dollar. The discomfort of reversing capital flows would be significantly lessened by reduced exposure to currency risk.
• The bargaining power of Indian business would increase as the rupee's use increased, adding weight to the Indian economy and raising India's stature and respect internationally.

What difficulties face the internationalisation of the rupee?

• The RBI introduced a system to streamline cross-border trade in rupees in July 2022.
• Enabling external commercial borrowings in Rupees (especially Masala Bonds).
• The Asian Clearing Union is also looking into a plan to settle transactions using local currencies.
• A bilateral or trading bloc agreement that gives each country's importers the option to pay in their own currency is likely to be favoured by all parties, so it is worthwhile to investigate.

Way Forward

• The recent initiative to invoice trade in rupees stems from a different global requirement and order, but opening up trade settlement in rupees alone will not be sufficient for true internationalisation and wider use of the rupee abroad. It is more crucial to continue opening up and liberalising rupee settlements for different financial instruments on both Indian and international markets.
• An effective swap market and a robust foreign exchange market may also be necessary for rupee internationalisation.
• The health of the financial sector and general economic fundamentals will both continue to improve, which will boost the confidence in the rupee and prepare it for the next leg of its international journey.

Read Also: Drop in Foreign Exchange Reserves

Kushanas & their coins

Recently discovered coinage depicting gods and goddesses dates back to the Kushans.

More information on Kushana Coins

Coin introduction:

• Vima Kadaphises, the Kushan emperor, was the one who introduced India's first gold coins.
• The Double Dinar is considered the Indian subcontinent's first gold coin.
• He issued gold and copper coins, many of which have survived to the present day.
• Kanishka minted coins in two metals: gold and copper.
• Dinar (or stater) and quarter Dinar gold coins were minted in two denominations.
• Kushana coins were undoubtedly influenced by their predecessors, the Indo-Greeks, who were defeated by the Kushanas.

Kushana coin images include:

• Gods: The coins depict Greek, Roman, Iranian, Hindu, and Buddhist deities.
• Historians believe that the Kushanas were the first to depict Goddess Lakshmi on their coins, alongside Ardochsho, the Iranic Goddess of wealth.
• In their coinage, they also depicted Oesho (Shiva), the moon deity Miro, and Buddha.
• Kushan coins reveal a lot about the images of the kings that they wanted their subjects to see.
• Portraits of Vima Kadphises on Kushana gold/copper coins are incredibly individualistic, often depicting him as a full-bearded, big-nosed, fierce-looking warrior chieftain, possibly with a deformed skull, wearing a high helmet, tunic, overcoat, and felt boots.

Indian coins

The first step:

• India's coinage began between the early first millennium BCE and the sixth century BCE, and consisted primarily of copper and silver coins in its early stages.
• Karshapanas or Pana coins were used during this time period.

Gupta Tokens:

• The Gupta Empire issued numerous gold coins depicting Gupta kings performing various rituals.
• The magnificent gold coinage of the Guptas, with its many types and infinite varieties and Sanskrit inscriptions, is the finest example of coinage that we have.

India's dynasties with gods on their coins

Coinage depicting gods and goddesses has a long history in India.

Vijayanagara Kings:

• Vijayanagara kings issued coins depicting Hindu deities. Brahma-Saraswati, Vishnu-Lakshmi, and Shiva-Parvati coins were introduced by Harihara II (1377-1404).
• Even after the kingdom was snuffed out in 1565, the Vijayanagara coins remained in circulation and commanded a premium when French traveller Tavernier visited the region.

British East India Company:

• The British East India Company minted coins known as the Three Swamy Pagodas, which depict Lord Balaji flanked on either side by Sridevi and Bhudevi.
• Not every coin was newly minted. Some of them were repurposed. Some were distributed to demonstrate continuity.

About The Kushana Empire

Origin:

• The Kushans were one of five branches of the Indo-European nomadic Yuezhi confederation.
• During the first three centuries, the Yuezhis ruled over most of the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia.
• In India, the Yuezhi nomads later became a ruling elite in a vast area stretching from Afghanistan to the Indus Valley and the North Indian Plain.

Kanishka's role:

• Kanishka is regarded as the greatest king of the Kushan dynasty, which ruled over the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and possibly areas of Central Asia north of Kashmir.
• He is best known, however, as a great supporter of Buddhism.

Eurasian superpower:

• During his reign, the kingdom was recognised as one of the four major Eurasian powers of the time (the others being China, Rome, and Parthia).
• The year 78 marks the start of the Shaka era, a system of dating that Kaniska may have invented.
• Kushanas adapted the Persian satrapy administrative system into the Indian kshatrapa administration.
• The Kushan regime granted local institutions such as castes, guilds, and Buddhist monasteries significant autonomy while gaining support from those communities.

Trade with Rome:

• As evidenced by their large gold coin issues, the Kushans became prosperous through trade, particularly with Rome.
• The Kushan Empire benefited economically from Silk Road trade while also receiving knowledge from distant countries and facilitating the transfer of knowledge to the visions of the Romans, Parthians, and Chinese.
• Buddhism and Indian art schools: The Kushans were important in spreading Buddhism in Central Asia and China, as well as developing Mahayana Buddhism and the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art.
• Unfortunately, very little evidence of Kushan rule remains today.
• Kushan coins are possibly the best evidence we have of this illustrious dynasty in this regard.

Read Also: Buddha Purnima-All about Buddhism

Emission Gap Report 2022: UNEP

The Recent publication of the "Emissions Gap Report 2022" by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Concerning the Report

• The Report's current edition is its thirteenth.
• Theme: The Closing Window: Climate Change Requires Rapid Social Transformation
• Overview of the discrepancy between projected greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 and where they should be in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Major Findings

• The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement's goals have not been met by the entire world.
• Right now, there is no plausible plan in place to keep global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• 55 per cent of the world's GHG (Greenhouse gas) emissions in 2020 came from the top seven emitters (China, the EU27, India, Indonesia, Brazil, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America) as well as international transportation.
• Emissions have increased in 2021 in India and six other major emitters, surpassing levels prior to the 2019 pandemic.
• 75 percent of all G20 members' emissions of GHGs are collectively to blame.
• In 2020, the average global per-person GHG emissions were 6.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e).
• According to the report, in order to prevent a global catastrophe, emissions must be reduced by 45 percent.

Suggestions

• Over the next eight years, the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions to previously unheard-of levels.
• Alternative technologies are required in heavy industry to stop the increase in carbon intensity of global steel production.
• To achieve the significant reductions required to limit GHG emissions by 2030, transformation is urgently required.
• These percentages must reach 30% and 45% in order to be on the most cost-effective path to keeping global warming to 2°C or 1.5°C.