Champions of Earth Award 2024
UNEP has announced Champions of Earth Award, 2024.
- UN’s highest environmental honour.
- Awarded annually since its inception in 2005
- Purpose – To honour individuals and organizations working on innovative and sustainable solutions to restore land, enhance drought resilience, and combat desertification.
Coastal Hardening
As per study, about 33% of the world’s sandy beaches have hardened
- Refers to rigid, semi-impermeable structures created by humans that alter natural landscape
- These structures include impervious infrastructure like seawalls, harbours, roads, highways, railway revetments etc.
- Impacts – Decrease in biodiversity; Changes in ecological community that can favor invasive species; Loss of sandy coastline etc.
- As per this latest study, Bay of Bengal occupies 1st position with 84% coastal hardening.
T+0 Settlement Cycle
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) expands the scope of the optional T+0 rolling settlement cycle.
- Refers to a mechanism wherein Settlement of trades will be done on trade date only
- That is, shares are credited in investor’s account on the day of trade itself.
- All investors are eligible
- Currently it’s optional
Lok Adalat
Executive Chairman, NALSA highlighted that over 7 crore 70 lakh cases were resolved through 3 National Lok Adalats (NLA) organized by NALSA in 2024.
- An Alternative Dispute Redressal mechanism wherein civil or criminal pending cases or cases at pre-litigation level are settled/ compromised amicably.
- Given statutory status under Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
- Decision is deemed final and binding with no appeal.
Receivables Securitization
Receivables securitization gaining popularity among MSMEs for accessing liquidity.
- A financial process where companies convert their accounts receivable into cash by selling them as securities in the capital markets.
- Companies pool their receivables & transfer them to a 3rd party which finances the purchase by issuing securities that are sold to investors in the financial markets.
- Allows MSMEs to unlock the value tied up in outstanding payments & gain access to funds quickly.