| Reports | Description |
| World’s Forests 2024 Report | By Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) |
| The theme for this year is “Accelerating forest solutions through innovation.” Key highlights include a decrease in the deforestation rate to 10.2 million hectares per year in 2015-2020 from 15.8 million hectares per year in 1990-2000, with India ranking 3rd for average annual net gain in forest area from 2010-2020. | |
| Non-timber forest products support the livelihoods of about 275 million people in India. | |
| There is a pressing need for innovation in the forest sector to address climate change stress through resilient forest and land management strategies against wildfires and pests. | |
| Innovations Enhancing Forest Potential: | |
| Technological: Remote sensing and cloud computing improve forest management by generating high-quality data (e.g., NASA and ESA’s Landsat and Copernicus programs). | |
| Social, Policy, and Institutional: Engaging women, youth, and Indigenous People through dynamic innovations (e.g., India’s Joint Forest Management Programme mandates 1/3rd female representation on committees). | |
| Financial: Innovations to enhance the value of standing forests and boost restoration efforts (e.g., SCRIPT – Soft Commodity Risk Platform). | |
| Report “The strategic role of data centers in empowering India’s digital revolution” Released | A joint report by ASSOCHAM and PwC highlights the role of data centres in advancing India’s digital landscape. |
| Data centres are secure spaces housing computing and networking equipment for data collection, storage, processing, and distribution. Data centres facilitate data localisation by enhancing storage capabilities. | |
| Indians are projected to consume the most data globally by 2028 | |
| Recommendations include improving regulatory compliance, increasing R&D investments to reduce power consumption, and creating data centre ecosystems in Tier 2 cities. |
Key Phrases: World’s Forests 2024 Report, Data centres, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Reports in News
