‘Panchamrit’ targets announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Glasgow are related with:
- (a)Science and technology
- (b)Foreign policy
- (c)Climate change
- (d)Investment plans in other countries
Correct — C, Climate change.
'Panchamrit' — five nectars — is the label the Prime Minister gave to the five commitments in India's national statement at COP26, the UN climate conference held in Glasgow in November 2021. The subject matter is Climate change: energy, emissions and a net-zero year.
The five, as announced: 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030; half of India's energy requirements from renewables by 2030; projected carbon emissions cut by one billion tonnes by 2030; carbon intensity of the economy 45 per cent lower by 2030; and net zero by 2070.
The word itself is a Sanskrit coinage for a five-part set, so the label alone does not decide the subject. The place name does: Glasgow fixes the announcement to COP26, and COP26 is a climate summit.
- (a)Science and technology — The Panchamrit items are policy targets stated in gigawatts, in tonnes of carbon dioxide and in target years. They commit India to an energy mix and an emissions path, which is climate policy rather than a research or technology programme.
'Science and technology' is the right label for something like Mission Innovation, the clean-energy research and development pledge India joined at its launch alongside COP21 in Paris in 2015, where the deliverable is R&D effort rather than a national emissions target.
- (b)Foreign policy — The statement was delivered abroad, at a UN conference, but its content is India's own energy mix and emissions trajectory. A venue outside India does not turn a set of domestic targets into a foreign-policy doctrine.
'Foreign policy' is the right label for something like India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy, which describes how India orders its relations with other states rather than what it will install and emit at home.
- (d)Investment plans in other countries — Each of the five figures describes India's own capacity and emissions — what will be built here and what will be released here. The money question they raise is domestic investment in energy, not spending abroad.
'Investment plans in other countries' is the right label for something like India's assistance to hydropower projects in Bhutan, where Indian financing builds generating capacity on another country's soil.
'Panchamrit' (five nectars) is the name India gave to a package of five climate commitments — four dated 2030 and one dated 2070 — set out by the Prime Minister in the national statement at COP26.
It bundles two energy promises, two emissions promises and a net-zero year into one memorable label.
COP26 was the session at which countries were expected to raise ambition on their Paris Agreement pledges. Panchamrit was India's answer to that moment, and it is where India's 2070 net-zero year comes from.
Two of the five were later carried into India's formal treaty commitment. The updated Nationally Determined Contribution of August 2022 fixes a 45 per cent cut in the emissions intensity of GDP from 2005 levels by 2030.
That NDC also targets 50 per cent of cumulative installed electric power capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030 — a different measure from the Glasgow wording about 50 per cent of energy requirements from renewables.
- COP26, the twenty-sixth session of the UN climate conference, was held in Glasgow in November 2021 under the United Kingdom's Presidency.
- India's national statement at Glasgow was delivered on 1 November 2021, and the Prime Minister called its five commitments 'Panchamrit'.
- Panchamrit target: non-fossil energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030.
- Panchamrit target: meeting 50 per cent of India's energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
- Panchamrit target: reducing total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030.
- Panchamrit target: reducing the carbon intensity of the economy by 45 per cent by 2030.
- Panchamrit target: reaching net-zero emissions by 2070.
- India's updated NDC, submitted in August 2022, commits to a 45 per cent cut in emissions intensity of GDP from 2005 levels by 2030.
- The same Glasgow statement placed LIFE — Lifestyle for Environment — before the conference as a call for mindful consumption.
- The conference's outcome document, the Glasgow Climate Pact, called for accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power.
The five commitments in India's national statement at COP26, Glasgow, November 2021 — four dated 2030, one dated 2070.
- The label is generic: 'Panchamrit' simply names a five-part set, so it cannot by itself tell you the policy area. The discriminator sitting in the stem is Glasgow, which fixes the venue to COP26.
- India's net-zero year is 2070. Reaching for 2050, the year that appears in many other national pledges, or for 2060, which is China's announced carbon-neutrality horizon, loses the mark.
- 500 GW is non-fossil installed capacity, which takes in nuclear and large hydro alongside solar and wind. Reading it as a renewables-only figure merges it with the separate 50 per cent target.
- Carbon intensity is emissions per unit of GDP. A 45 per cent cut in intensity is not a 45 per cent cut in total emissions, and it can sit alongside rising absolute emissions.
- Announcing a target on foreign soil does not make it foreign policy. Ask what the numbers govern — here, India's own energy mix and emissions.
The idea surfaces as a label-to-subject match: a coined name such as Panchamrit or LIFE is put in front of you with a city or a summit attached, and you are asked which policy area it belongs to. When the coined name is generic, the city or summit is what carries the information.
It also surfaces as a figure-to-target match, where 500 GW, 45 per cent, one billion tonnes or 2070 is swapped for a near neighbour, and you must pin each number to the right commitment.
UKPSC_2021_PRE_GSI_Q1202021Same commission and the same skill — placing a single Prime Ministerial event from late 2021 correctly. What differs is the file it belongs to: that item turns on where a foundation stone was laid for an airport, this one on what a named announcement made at Glasgow was about.
UPPSC_2019_PRE_GSI_Q1152019Also a Prime-Minister-abroad recall item, and it is the shape that sits behind option (d) here: it asks which India-assisted hydropower plant in Bhutan was inaugurated, that is, an Indian-financed project on foreign soil. Panchamrit instead announces targets for India's own energy and emissions at a multilateral summit.
UPPSC_2018_PRE_GSI_Q22018Another named initiative attached to a foreign engagement, testing whether you can tie a coined name to a place and a date. The difference is the domain and the forum — a bilateral tourism and cultural circuit there, a climate target set delivered at a UN conference here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In the 'Panchamrit' set out by India at the Glasgow climate summit, the net-zero emissions target was announced for the year:
- (a)2030
- (b)2050
- (c)2060
- (d)2070
Answerd — India's Panchamrit put the net-zero year at 2070.2030 is the horizon for the other four Panchamrit commitments, not for net zero. 2050 is the year that appears in many other national net-zero pledges, not India's. 2060 is China's announced carbon-neutrality horizon.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following was one of the five 'Panchamrit' commitments announced by India at COP26?
- (a)Achieving 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030
- (b)Banning the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030
- (c)Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement's global stocktake process
- (d)Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050
Answera — the 500 GW non-fossil capacity target by 2030 is the first of the five. The set runs: non-fossil capacity, the renewable share of energy requirements, a one-billion-tonne cut in projected emissions, a 45 per cent cut in carbon intensity, and net zero by 2070.Option b substitutes a vehicle-sales measure that is not among the five. Option c inverts India's position, since the statement raised India's ambition inside the UNFCCC process. Option d moves the net-zero year from 2070 to 2050.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Glasgow Climate Pact, the outcome document of COP26, called for which of the following in relation to unabated coal power?
- (a)An immediate global ban on coal-fired generation
- (b)Accelerating efforts towards a phasedown
- (c)A complete phase-out by 2030
- (d)Unrestricted expansion in developing countries
Answerb — the adopted text called for accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power, a wording settled at the close of the conference.Option a overstates it: the pact set a direction of travel rather than a ban. Option c uses 'phase-out', which the same sentence applies to inefficient fossil fuel subsidies rather than to coal power, and adds a date the text does not carry. Option d reverses the direction of the pact.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The initiative 'LIFE — Lifestyle for Environment' was placed before the world by the Indian Prime Minister in his national statement at:
- (a)COP21, Paris (2015)
- (b)COP24, Katowice (2018)
- (c)COP26, Glasgow (2021)
- (d)COP28, Dubai (2023)
Answerc — LIFE was introduced in the same Glasgow statement that carried the Panchamrit commitments.COP21 at Paris produced the Paris Agreement and is where India co-launched the International Solar Alliance. COP24 at Katowice agreed the rulebook for implementing the Paris Agreement. COP28 at Dubai concluded the first Global Stocktake.