VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

 The bodies of India's defence chief and 12 others who died in a helicopter crash laid draped in the Indian flag at a defence cantonment on Thursday, before being flown to New Delhi, where the general will be laid to rest with full military honours.

General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 12 defence personnel were en route to a military staff college in southern India when the air force helicopter they were travelling in came down near the town of Coonoor on Wednesday.

Only one of the 14 on board survived the crash. The cause of the crash is being investigated. read more

In a brief statement in parliament, India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the remains of all the deceased would be brought to New Delhi and Rawat would be cremated with full military honours.

Rawat, 63, was appointed as India's first chief of defence staff by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in late 2019. The position was set up with the aim of integrating the army, navy and air force.

Singh said the Mi-17 V5 helicopter took off at 11.48 a.m. (06:18 GMT) on Wednesday from the Sulur Air Base. The base lost contact with the aircraft seven minutes before it was scheduled to land at a hillside military area at 12.15 p.m.

"Locals spotted a fire in the forest near Coonoor and rushed to the spot where they observed the wreckage of military helicopter engulfed in flames," Singh said.

At a colonial-era barrack in Wellington, the military cantonment town where Rawat and his entourage were headed, uniformed soldiers carefully laid out the coffins, in the presence of officers from all three services of the Indian armed forces.

Military personnel, veterans, politicians and others then paid their last respects, offering floral wreaths and flowers by the coffins.

At a military hospital nearby, the lone survivor of the crash, an air force group captain, lay on life support.

"All efforts are being made to save his life," Singh said. (Reuters)

 Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed on Thursday to do his utmost to push for meaningful progress at a January meeting to review the Non-Proliferation Treaty and encourage action to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The comment by Kishida, who hails from the nuclear memorial city of Hiroshima, comes after the previous such meeting, in New York in 2015, failed to adopt a final document following disagreement over a plan for a nuclear-free Middle East.

The review meeting before that, in 2010, had adopted a final document laying out an action plan for nuclear arms reductions.

"I'll make an all-out effort to have a final document adopted at the next NPT review conference, which will be substantial progress toward a world without nuclear weapons," Kishida told a meeting of security experts.

Kishida said he would send his special adviser on nuclear disarmament, Minoru Terada, a Harvard-educated lawmaker from his ruling party, to visit the relevant nations in an effort to build consensus ahead of the January meet. (Reuters)

Britain on Thursday said it had agreed a digital trade deal with Singapore, the first digitally-focussed trade pact signed by a European nation.

Britain said the agreement in principle would overhaul outdated trade rules and open up opportunities in Singapore, viewed as a global leader in digital.

"It is the first digital trade deal ever signed by a European nation and will slash red tape, cut costs and support well-paid jobs across the whole UK," trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said.

Last month the UK's Board of Trade said that a Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore would demonstrate the potential for digital trade rules to others in the World Trade Organization. read more

Britain said the trading relationship with Singapore was worth 16 billion pounds ($21 billion) in 2020.

"While we await further details on how these provisions will work for firms practically, we also look forward to seeing similar agreements announced in 2022 with our partners and friends across the world," said City of London Corporation Policy Chair Catherine McGuinness. (Reuters)

 Asia's demand for carbon offsets is picking up as more companies in global supply chains, IT and banking sectors seek to lower their carbon footprint following the COP26 November Glasgow Climate Pact, the head of Asian exchange T-RECs.ai said.

The hard-fought Glasgow Climate Pact sent a clear message to global companies to reassess business strategies and carbon footprints to reap monetary rewards, or lag and risk losses.

As a result, there is a growing demand for carbon offset instruments, such as renewable energy certificates (RECs), as renewable energy sources currently only account for a fraction of global energy supply. 

While offset products have been criticised for undermining efforts to fight climate change by allowing fossil fuels to still be consumed, they are viewed as a viable way for businesses to lower net emissions totals. read more

Singapore-based T-RECs.ai has seen demand for 20 million RECs this year on its trading platform, equivalent to half of the city-state's power consumption, Kang Jen Wee, founder and CEO of the exchange, told Reuters.

But the platform was only able to fulfil demand for 500,000 certificates, he said. Each REC represents 1 megawatt hour of renewable electricity generated.

"We're limited by supply," Kang said, adding the company was stepping up efforts to get more renewable power suppliers in the region to register their credits.

The exchange is targeting to grow volumes to 10 million RECs next year and 100 million by 2025, Kang said, adding that it was also in talks with potential partners to sell a 20% equity stake. He declined to name the investors.

RECs generate additional revenue for renewable power plants and are bought by companies seeking to offset carbon emissions from operations powered by fossil fuels in the same country.

Some of the buyers belong to the so-called RE100 initiative, whose members have committed to using 100% renewable energy and include well known brands such as Apple (AAPL.O), Danone (DANO.PA), Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Nike (NKE.N).

HOW T-RECS.AI OPERATES

T-RECs.ai, one of eight companies approved by U.S. registry APX TIGR to register and verify RECs on behalf of renewable power generators, gets a fee once the certificates are sold on its platform, said Kang, who started the company in late 2018 with $100,000 investment from a blockchain venture capital firm.

T-RECs.ai has registered RECs owned by TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and China Envision Group, and is in talks with state utilities in France, China, Malaysia and Thailand, Kang said. read more

Multinationals are mandating that their suppliers across Asia purchase RECs to offset carbon emissions, Kang said.

He added that the platform makes it easier for buyers who are seeking a range of RECs from various locations depending on where their operations are based.

The price of each REC typically ranges from $3 to $30, depending on where the electricity is generated, Kang said.

REC costs in Singapore are at the top of the range as renewable electricity is scarce and demand is high, he added.

To enable tracking and prevent double-counting, the platform allows buyers to trace each certificate to the originating power plant source using satellite imagery, and also regularly scours public databases, he added. (Reuters)