New Delhi: The 51st Conference of Governors and Lieutenant Governors took place in the Rashtrapati Bhavan today. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah attended the conference. According to the press release by the Rashtrapti Bhavan, this is the fourth meeting that President Kovind has presided over.
President Kovind extended congratulations to all those governors and lieutenant governors who were appointed to the office after November 2019. He also expressed his condolences on the demise of former politicians Kalyan Singh, Lalji Tandon and Mridula Sinha.
Addressing the ongoing pandemic, the President said that we all are meeting after a gap of two years. Giving credit to the frontline workers, he said that all our Covid-19 warriors dedicatedly worked towards fighting this pandemic. He also recognized the efforts put by the scientists and entrepreneurs in developing vaccines in the country. He appreciated the efforts of the state and said that various states adopted the best practices being followed by other states in controlling the pandemic.
The president also spoke about the recent 26th Conference of Parties that happened in Glasgow. He said that at the world stage India emphasized that it is the only large economic country in the world that made solid developments under the Paris Commitment.
President Kovind also enlisted five points that India had proposed towards climate change in the COP26 Summit. These points were:
- To increase the capacity of nonfossil energy production to 500 GigaWatt by 2030 in the country.
- Fulfilling half of the energy needs through renewable energy sources.
- To cut down projected Carbon emissions by 1 million tons.
- To reduce the economy's carbon intensity by more than 45 percent.
- To achieve net-zero emission by 2070.
He asked the governors and lieutenant governors, being chancellors of their respective state universities, to form task forces to engage youth towards climate action.