Swedish woman jailed for keeping Yazidi slaves in Syria

FRANKFURT: Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the international community will have to deal with a disregard by the new US administration for established diplomatic rules.
“The new American administration has a very different world view to ours, one that has no regard for established rules, partnership and grown trust,” said the German head of state, whose office is largely ceremonial.
“We have to accept that and we can deal with it. But I am convinced that it is not in the interests of the international community for this world view to become the dominant paradigm,” he added, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Indian entrepreneurs and innovators have presented their inventions and new solutions at India Energy Week 2025 in New Delhi, displaying their efforts to contribute to the country’s energy transition programs.

Tens of thousands of visitors, officials and delegates took part in the Indian government’s flagship annual energy event, which ran at the Yashobhoomi convention from Tuesday through Friday, featuring exhibitions by 700 local and international industry players.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who opened India Energy Week, highlighted the country’s vision of transformation and decarbonization, as the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases seeks to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070

“What we are seeing today is a recalibration of strategy — prioritizing near-term profitability while keeping long-term transition efforts in play ... the primary focus remains on increasing the adoption of biofuels, renewables and hydrogen,” he told the event’s participants.

“The transition isn’t about eliminating hydrocarbons overnight but leveraging them strategically while scaling renewables to mitigate emissions ... Even when renewables become the dominant energy sources, oil and gas will continue to play a pivotal role — not just in power generation but in stabilizing grids, industrial hydrogen and energy storage innovations.”

India aims to generate 500 GW of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, under its nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement.

The solar power sector is the dominant contributor to the country’s renewable energy growth, accounting for 47 percent of the total installed renewable energy capacity. It 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 country is also heavily investing in green hydrogen — and emerging future alternatives to fossil fuels. Developing technologies to produce it is part of India’s flagship initiatives.

Also known as renewable hydrogen, green hydrogen can be used as fuel and is produced from the electrolysis of water. The process does not generate polluting carbon emissions but is currently very expensive.

India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission launched in 2023 aims to reduce production costs and increase the scale of the industry by 2030, as it targets the production of 5 million tons of green hydrogen generating 125 GW of power a year.

Renewable energy growth is fueled by local production and inventions, with India’s private sector being a top contributor to the transition process.

“There is a green hydrogen mission from the government of India to produce 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen by 2030 ... there are incentive programs run by the government,” said Rohish Kalvit, vice president of Pune-based h2e Power Systems, one of India Energy Week’s exhibitors, told Arab News.

His company is manufacturing electrolyzer stacks and fuel cell stacks, which are critical components in the production and use of hydrogen energy,

“We are helping in the national green hydrogen mission in terms of manufacturing that particular molecule ... as well as doing a lot of R&D (research and development) activities on the material part and the technology part (to) produce cheap and affordable hydrogen in the near future,” Kalvit said.

“India Energy Week is a platform which is being set up by the government of India to bring all the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), vendors, suppliers as well as offtakers to come and understand at what level each company is working in the hydrogen sector ... people are coming with open minds in order to join hands together at multiple levels to grow in this particular business.”

Raj Process Equipments and Systems, one of the leading process equipment manufacturers in India, was presenting its biogas-based solutions.

“The future is completely about biogas, compressed natural gas. We will be replacing petrol and diesel with this CBG — compressed Biogas ... it is the same as CNG (compressed natural gas), but in case of compressed biogas we get the gas from waste. From municipal waste we make biogas, we upgrade it we make it equivalent to CNG and this we use for vehicles,” said Binu Panickar, the company’s vice president.

“Biogas will be the future. It will completely replace the oil, petrol, diesel. People will completely rely on this technology.”

For him, India Energy Week was like “Maha Kumbh Mela” of the country’s energy sector — a reference to the country’s biggest religious pilgrimage, which draws millions of worshippers.

“Various technology providers are taking participating in it and we have seen a good platform to show the people what we can provide. We can see good number of visitors coming. They are getting knowledge from this event.”