Much of the natural gas being produced in the country does not command a market-determined price - that is, it is not determined by buyers and sellers based on demand-supply dynamics in the market. Rather, a formula - and a peculiar one at that - is used to fix the price of the fuel every six months. As per the formula, the domestic gas price is the weighted average price of four global benchmarks - the US-based Henry Hub, Canada-based Alberta gas, the UK-based NBP, and Russian gas. The domestic price is based on the prices of these international benchmarks in the prior year, and kicks in with a quarter's lag. It applies for six months. So, the price applicable from April 1 to September 30, 2019 is based on benchmark prices from January to December 2018.

This formula-based pricing has some interesting features and outcomes. One, the formula has no mention about gas actually imported into India. Typically, gas imported in Asian markets is costlier than many international benchmarks. In effect, the price of domestic gas is lower than that of gas imports. Next, the averaging of benchmark prices over the past year and then the time lag of a quarter mean that the domestic gas price movement is often out of sync with what's really happening on the ground. For instance, global gas prices were rising for a good part of the last year but have been on a decline in the last few months. But courtesy the formula, domestic gas producers have now been handed out price hikes, even as many global producers are taking price cuts.

Sentinel-3 is an Earth observation satellite constellation developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Copernicus Programme. Sentinel-3 uses the satellite data to plot the number of fires occurring monthly. The sensors on satellites measure thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces. This information is used to detect and monitor the heat emitted by the fires. This data is important as fires have a significant impact on global atmospheric emissions with biomass burning contributing to the global budgets of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

• Recently, the government clarified that it is not intended to bring 'water' in the Concurrent List from the State List.
  • Jal Shakti Minister was replying on the calling attention on the need for completion of National Irrigation Projects to tackle emerging water crisis and to transfer 'water' to Concurrent List from State List.
• The India Water Impact Summit is an annual event where stakeholders get together to discuss, debate and develop model solutions for some of the biggest water related problems in the country.
  • India Water Impact Summit jointly organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga)
• The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), operating under the Government of Kerala has launched the "Water 4 Change". Under the project, six prominent institutions from Netherlands will perform a long-term research and field level action on urban water management systems along with Indian scientists.

Refer: http://newsonair.com/News?title=Not-intended-to-bring-%e2%80%98water%e2%80%99-in-Concurrent-List%3a-Govt&id=375915 "

Three self-regulatory organisations jointly released a code for responsible lending for the micro-credit industry with an aim at bringing more transparency and address customer-centric issues.

The Code for Responsible Lending (CRL) was launched by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) and Sa-Dhan along with FIDC.

The code is aimed at keeping indebtedness of poor borrowers under check which would in turn improve the quality of loan assets for lenders. The code bars lending to a borrower whose loan has turned non-performing. No lending will also be allowed without update credit bureau report.

One of the major guidelines in CRL mandates that only three microcredit entities can lend to a client at the same time.

This means that if a client has three active loans from any provider, then a fourth entity will not be able to lend to the client.

• Article 29 provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Article 29 grants protection to both religious minorities as well as linguistic minorities. However, the Supreme Court held that the scope of this article is not necessarily restricted to minorities only, as it is commonly assumed to be. This is because of the use of words 'section of citizens' in the Article that include minorities as well as majority. Hence statement 2 is correct.

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