In the arid vastness of Oman of the Arabian Peninsula rocks naturally react with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turning it into stone.
This natural process is called as carbon mineralization.
Carbonate surrounds pebbles and cobbles, turning ordinary gravel into natural mosaics.
Scientists say that if carbon mineralization process could be harnessed, accelerated and applied inexpensively on a huge scale it could help fight climate change.
Rocks could remove billions of tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
The carbon-capturing formations, consisting largely of a rock called peridotite, are in a slice of oceanic crust.
Similar smaller amount of peridotite are found in Northern California, Papua New Guinea and Albania, among other places.
Special 301 Report
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has placed India on ‘Priority Watch List’ in its annual Special 301 Report.
The report identifies USA’s trading partners that do not adequately or effectively protect and enforce intellectual property (IP) rights.
In other words, it identifies trade barriers to U.S. companies and products due to the intellectual property laws, such as copyright, patents and trademarks, in other countries.
It calls on U.S. trading partners to address IP-related challenges with a special focus on the countries identified on the Watch List and Priority Watch List.
The report called India’s implementation of the patent act as restrictive.
Peace Mission
India and Pakistan will participate together for the first time in a multi-nation counter-terrorism exercise in Russia later this year.
The military exercise is being conducted by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The drill will also see the resumption of bilateral military exercise between India and China.
It is termed as “Peace Mission”, which will be held at the Ural Mountains of Russia.
Its main aim will be to enhance counter-terror cooperation among the eight SCO member countries.
India and Pakistan were admitted as full members of the bloc last year.
At present, SCO represents over 40 per cent of humanity and nearly 20 per cent of the global GDP.
Internet Shutdown
The Indian economy is estimated to have suffered a loss of USD 3 billion due to Internet shutdown in the country from 2012-17.
According to the report by ICRIER 12,615 hours of mobile Internet shutdowns in India cost the economy approximately USD 2.37 billion.
Similarly 3,700 hours of mobile and fixed line Internet shutdowns in India resulted in a loss of approximately USD 678.4 million.
E-Commerce businesses and online freelancers who operate out of small towns and are completely dependent on a functioning Internet are the most affected by Internet shutdowns.
As tourism has also become increasingly dependent on the Internet it was also significantly affected.
Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) is an autonomous, policy-oriented, not-for-profit, economic policy think tank established in August 1981.
World debt hits $164 trillion
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its Fiscal Monitor Report stated that the world debt has ballooned to a record $164 trillion.
The Global public and private debt swelled to 225 percent of global gross domestic product in 2016.
China China has accounted for almost three-quarters of the increase in private debt since the global financial crisis.
Another observation is that more than one-third of advanced economies had debt-to-GDP levels above 85 percent, three times more nations than in 2000.
A fifth of emerging markets and middle-income countries had debt levels above 70 percent of GDP.
It was led by Brazil at 84 percent and India at 70.2 percent.
Gross government debt in China stood at 47.8 percent last year.
