Russia invites Afghanistan’s Taliban to major economic forum

New Delhi: Thousands of top industry executives, innovators and policymakers gathered in New Delhi on Tuesday for the India Energy Week 2025, where they will be discussing energy access and sustainability.

More than 70,000 delegates, officials and visitors are expected to take part in the Indian government’s flagship annual energy event, which over the next four days will feature 500 speakers, 700 exhibitors, and 10 national pavilions from countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia displaying their newest technology.

Held at the Yashobhoomi convention center in New Delhi, the India Energy Week 2025 aims to spotlight energy access, security, and new global energy systems, in line with the South Asian giant’s vision of energy transition.

“India’s energy ambitions stand on five pillars: We have resources, which we are harnessing. Secondly, we are encouraging our brilliant minds to innovate. Thirdly, we have economic strength, political stability. Fourthly, India has strategic geography, which makes energy trade more attractive and easier. And fifthly, India is committed to global sustainability. This is creating new possibilities in India’s energy sector,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a virtual address to the event’s participants.

“The next two decades are very important for India’s development. And in the next five years, we are going to cross many big milestones. Many of our energy goals are aligned with the 2030 deadline. We want to add 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Indian Railways has set a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Our goal is to produce 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen every year by 2030 ... What India has achieved in the last 10 years has given us the confidence that we will definitely achieve these targets.”

India aims to generate 500 GW of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, under its Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement. Solar energy is the dominant contributor to its renewable energy growth, accounting for 47 percent of the total installed renewable energy capacity.

The solar power sector has observed a 3,450 percent increase in capacity over the past decade, rising from 2.82 GW in 2014 to 100 GW in January 2025, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The growth is fueled by local solar module production, which in 2014 had a capacity of only 2 GW.

“There is a lot of potential in India for manufacturing various types of hardware including PV modules. We are supporting local manufacturing,” Modi said. “India’s major focus is on Make in India and local supply chains.”

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who opened the India Energy Week, urged the participants to help chart a roadmap to stabilize energy markets and strengthen international cooperation.

“I am pleased that the event will see participation from more than 20 energy and other ministers, including deputies, from important stakeholders such as Qatar, UK, Russia, Brazil, Tanzania, and Venezuela,” he said.

“⁠It is our fervent hope that the India Energy Week becomes the definitive platform for shaping the energy agenda of the future. This is where transformative partnerships shall take shape, where game-changing technologies are unveiled, and the future of energy is written.”
 

MANILA: In her bid to convince lawmakers to legalize divorce, Filipino fruit vendor Avelina Anuran has publicly testified about the abuse she said she regularly endured at the hands of her husband.
She also keeps a copy of the medical certificate from the bloody injuries she says he inflicted, hoping it might one day serve as evidence in court.
But the mother of two-turned-activist has gotten no closer to ending her marriage.
The Philippines is one of just two countries — along with Vatican City — where divorce remains illegal.
Last week, the latest attempt to introduce a divorce law evaporated as the upper house ended its session without even a hearing.
“They kept passing it around,” Anuran said.
The last time such legislation made its way to the Senate in 2019, she painstakingly detailed her experience for a public hearing. But the bill foundered.
Spouses have a “right to be free,” she said, adding that she would keep pushing for a law.
“Hopefully it will (pass) next year, with new senators coming in.”
Ending a marriage in the deeply Catholic society of 117 million is possible only via annulment or “nullification.”
But few Filipinos can afford the fee of up to $10,000, and the process does not consider domestic violence, abandonment or infidelity as qualifying grounds.
“I just want to be free from this marriage,” said Anuran, whose estranged husband remains the beneficiary on a life insurance policy she cannot change without his consent.
Campaigners like Anuran believe the tide of public support for divorce is turning, with surveys showing about half of Filipinos now firmly back a change.
Before taking office in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos said he was open to supporting divorce.
But the latest effort to introduce such a bill still faced strong opposition in the Senate.
The proposed law would have compelled courts to provide free legal and psychological assistance to low-income petitioners, capped lawyers’ fees at 50,000 pesos ($859) and mandated divorce petitions be resolved within a year.
The divorce bill’s co-author, lawmaker Arlene Brosas, said it was “unacceptable” that the Senate had refused to tackle the measure given the “strong public demand.”
She said her Gabriela Women’s Party will refile it when a newly elected Congress convenes in July.
“We will continue fighting for the divorce bill, no matter the composition of the Senate and House of Representatives in the next term,” Brosas said.
The previous bill was likely influenced by the mid-term elections in May, family lawyer Lorna Kapunan said.
“Because (half of senators) are seeking re-election, they are afraid of the backlash of the Catholic Church,” Kapunan said.
Senate President Francis Escudero had argued the bill would “create divisiveness,” suggesting instead that the grounds for nullification could be expanded while avoiding the word “divorce.”
Father Jerome Secillano of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, meanwhile said divorce contravenes the Church’s teachings on marriage and would ultimately destroy families.
“We will see more couples separating. We will see children who don’t know where to go,” Secillano said.
He also argued the number of domestic abuse victims would “double” as divorced men would “have another chance to be violent again” to new spouses.
Kapunan called the existing laws “very complicated, very expensive, very anti-woman and anti-child.”
Despite the opposition and failed previous attempts to legalize divorce, Anuran remains determined.
“No one’s backing down. Win or lose, the fight will continue.”