THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 23 APRIL
Taliban attack leaves 140 soldiers dead in Afghanistan
Toll could rise in assault on 209th Corps headquarters near Mazar-e-Sharif
•A day after the lethal Taliban assault on an army base near Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday that at least 140 soldiers had been killed.
•“Today, there was even a shortage of coffins,” said Ibrahim Khairandish, a member of the provincial council in Balkh province, where the attack occurred. Citing information from army officials, Mr. Khairandish said 60 soldiers had been wounded in the attack.
•The soldiers, most of them unarmed, were shot while eating lunch or emerging from Friday prayers at the headquarters of the Afghan army’s 209th Corps in Balkh by assailants in military uniforms, who entered after another attacker had detonated explosives at a check post. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assault. “Most of those killed were in the mosque; some of them were in the dining facility,” Mr. Khairandish said. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence, said on Saturday that “more than a hundred soldiers were killed and wounded” in the attack, but he declined to discuss precise numbers. “This was against all human and Islamic values,” he said.
•President Ashraf Ghani arrived in Balkh to visit the army base. The Taliban released the names and a picture of 10 men who they said had taken part in the assault. All were dressed in Afghan military uniforms. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the assailants had been led inside the base by four soldiers who had long been working for the militants.NYT
Soon, underwater tunnels will connect Howrah with Kolkata
A first in India, the two 520-metre structures are part of a 10.8 km underground stretch and are crucial to the East West Metro project
•On April 14, a day considered auspicious in many parts of the country as it marks the beginning of New Year, a gigantic Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) began cutting deep inside the bed of the Hooghly river, commencing the construction of the first underwater metro tunnel in the country.
•By the end of July, two tunnels running parallel will connect the twin cities of Howrah and Kolkata located on either side of the Hooghly. The tunnels are being dug at a depth of 30 metres below the earth’s surface and 13 metres below the riverbed.
•The twin tunnels, about 520 metres long, are crucial to the much-awaited ₹ 8,900 core East West Metro project that will connect Salt Lake Sector V in the eastern part of Kolkata to the Howrah Maidan across the river.
•Of the 16.6 km East West Metro route, 5.8 km is on an elevated corridor and 10.8 km will run underground. The 520-metre tunnels under the river are part of the 10.8 km underground stretch.
Optimistic estimate
•“As per our optimistic estimate by the end of May or the first week of June this year, the first under-river tunnel of India will be complete. One tunnel-boring machine is already under the water, and the second machine will also start working by the end of May. Both the tunnels will be complete by July,” Satish Chandra, Managing Director of the Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Limited (KMRCL) told The Hindu.
•TBM 2, which has gone deep into the bed of the river, has already progressed a distance of 100 metres.
•Explaining the nature of the soft clay soil under the riverbed, Mr. Chandra, who is also Assistant General Manager, Eastern Railways, said the two TBMs could not work simultaneously. “One machine goes ahead and the second follows. They cannot work together for various technical reasons. For instance, the ground movement will be very high if they work simultaneously,” Mr. Chandra said.
•The diameter of the two tunnels running across the river is 5.5 metres and the distance between the two tunnels will vary at different places — 16.1 metres under the river, 18 metres at the Howrah station, and 13 metres at the Howrah Maidan (from where tunnelling started in May 2016).
•About 250 people are working round the clock on the tunnelling. Alongside, a dense concrete layer is being used to seal the tunnel, prevent the subsidence of earth, and stop seepage of water — a primary concern for the engineers working on any water tunnel.
•While tunnelling and construction of East West Metro Project are in full swing, it has had to overcome a number of challenges.
•When one of the German-made TBM machines went under the ground at the Howrah Maidan, cracks appeared in the Howrah District Library. The KMRCL authorities had to take a lot of precaution when the tunnel reached near Colvin Court, a 94-year-old railway building made of red bricks, which now serves as residential quarters for railway staff.
•The protective measures subsequently taken by the engineers included widening the foundation of the building and grouting of the soil, the authorities said.
Last hurdle
•However, the last hurdle being faced by the East West Metro Project is the threat the tunnelling work may pose to three heritage buildings in Kolkata. The Currency Building, an Italian structure that served as one of first banks of the country, and two 19th century Jewish monuments — the Maghen David Synagogue and the Beth-El Synagogue — stand close to the Metro tunnels.
•As per the existing rules, construction and mining operations are prohibited within 100 meters of protected monuments — but the Currency Building is 24 metres away from the Metro’s alignment, and the Beth-El and Maghen David synagogues are at a distance of about 17 metres and 9.8 metres respectively.
•After the issue was raised by the Archaeological Survey of India, an expert committee from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, was constituted to look into the matter. The committee said there would be no “ adverse affect” on the protected monuments.
•Union Minister for State for Heavy Industries Babul Supriyo, who inspected the project, expressed hope that that the last hurdle would be cleared soon.
India calls for dismantling of terror havens
After Mazar-e-Sharif attack, MEA targets Pakistan in call to end sanctuaries that support terrorism
•India strongly condemned Friday’s attack in Afghanistan and blamed externally backed terrorists for the incident that killed at least 140 soldiers of the Afghan National Defence Forces.
•Indirectly pointing at Pakistan for offering support to the Afghan Taliban that carried out the attack in Mazar-e-Sharif, India called for dismantling of safe havens of terrorism. Following the attack which targeted soldiers praying in a mosque, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences on social media even as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called for justice.
•“The terrorist attack is a stark reminder of the need to immediately dismantle the safe havens and sanctuaries that support and sustain terrorism in Afghanistan from outside its borders. India remains steadfast in its support to Afghanistan in fighting all forms of terrorism and bringing perpetrators of terrorist violence to justice, wherever they may be,” an MEA press release said.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on a social media platform, “I strongly condemn the cowardly terror attack in Mazar-e-Sharif. Our prayers and condolences to the families who lost loved ones”.
•India’s envoy to Afghanistan, Manpreet Vohra also paid a brief visit to Mazar-e-Sharif soon after the attack.
•A source in the Indian consulate in the city said the attack, which targeted 209th Corps of the Afghan army, took place approximately 20 miles from the main diplomatic area. No Indian citizens and diplomats were in the vicinity of the targeted area at the time when suicide attackers drove into the base and shot down dozens of soldiers who were just concluding their Friday prayers, added the source.
•Significantly, the attack came on a day when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Mr. Modi discussed the situation in Afghanistan with the High Representative of the European Union Federica Mogherini in Delhi.
A step forward for Indo-Bangla ties
Land acquisition for construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Bridge begins
•The Tripura government has commenced the land acquisition process for the construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Bridge over river Feni that demarcates boundaries between the two countries in south Tripura. The process for acquiring land for a four-lane approach road and a connecting road on Indian side in southern Tripura has also begun.
•Government of India is bearing theentire burden of expenditure towards the construction of the 150-metre bridge which will connect Sabroom of India and Ramgarh in Bangladesh.
•Rehabilitation package is ready to compensate people who would be dislodged for construction purposes, an official of state PWD told The Hindu on Saturday.
•“Land is required for the bridge, approach road and connecting road. Acquisition work started yesterday”, the official added.
Port of call
•The bridge would facilitate implementation of a protocol India earlier signed with Bangladesh to use Chittagong sea port as a ‘port of call’. The port is 72 kilometre away from Sabroom.
•India is also expanding rail network up to Sabroom to handle cargo consignments that would arrivefrom Chittagong port. Ultimate connectivity plan is to benefit Tripura and other landlocked northeastern States with international and domestic shipments using the sea port.
More aerosol in atmosphere results in heavier rainfall
Though high aerosol loading leads to a delay in the onset of rainfall, once it sets in there is heavier and widespread rainfall
•Contrary to the general notion that pre-monsoon aerosol loading results in decrease in seasonal rainfall, a long-term (2002-2013) satellite observational study and model-based analysis by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has found that higher aerosol loading results in delayed but more rainfall over Central and Northern India. Higher aerosol loading changes cloud properties in terms of size (both height and width) and microphysics, which results in more rainfall. The results were published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
Size matters
•Fourteen microns is the agreed raindrop size, and until it reaches this size, the growth of droplets in the cloud is primarily driven by condensation. When aerosol particles are higher, the number of nucleation sites increases resulting in far too many number of droplets. Under such circumstances, it takes time for the droplets to grow in size through condensation.
•“There is an increase in the condensation of water vapour into cloud droplets as the number of aerosol particles increases. But there is a reduction in radius of the drops formed near the cloud base,” says Sachchida N. Tripathi, from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur and the corresponding author of the paper. This results in delay in the onset and efficiency of the condensation process.
•“Although genesis of cloud systems is influenced by various meteorological parameters, aerosols are capable of strongly modifying the cloud structure, dynamics and composition during Indian summer monsoon,” says Chandan Sarangi from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur and the first author of the paper.
•Once cloud starts forming due to convection, the presence of more aerosol particles tend to modify the warm phase microphysics as well as ice phase microphysics.
•Two forces — gravity and updraft (vertical velocity) — tend to act on droplets. Under high aerosol loading, rather than falling down as raindrops, the smaller droplets tend to rise upwards in convective atmosphere due to updraft. As the droplets are lifted up they tend to cross the freezing level and turn into ice particles. The process of water droplets turning into ice particles releases more latent heat of freezing and further invigorates the cloud. “Ice turns into water by absorbing heat. Similarly, when water turns into ice it gives off heat. This release of heat further fuels the convection process and the clouds grow taller,” says Mr. Sarangi.“Satellite data showed that clouds are getting taller and wider under high aerosol loading,” says Prof. Tripathi. As the height of clouds increases, the ice particles generated at top of the cloud come in contact with numerous water and ice particles and become bigger in size. This results in more ice mass in the cloud and eventually more rainfall when the ice particles fall down due to gravity. “There is a delay in the onset of rainfall but once it starts raining it covers a wider area and may be heavier rainfall as well,” Prof. Tripathi says.
Suppression of convection
•In the absence of cloud, aerosol particles tend to absorb solar radiation and this leads to warming or less decrease in temperature with height. As a result, there is suppression of convection leading to further suppression of cloud formation.
•Till now scientists have shown that presence of more aerosol in pre-monsoon season may lead to reduction in total monsoon rainfall due to aerosol-solar radiation interactions. “But in our study we looked at co-located measurement of aerosol, cloud and rainfall system.
•The aerosol-cloud microphysical feedback suggests that higher aerosol loading can enhance the strength of convective rainfall and increase the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall during Indian summer monsoon,” says Mr. Sarangi.
IISc team unravels how vitamin C helps kill bacteria
Vitamin C inhibits the synthesis of a molecule essential for bacteria survival
•That vitamin C, an anti-oxidant agent, boosts and strengthens immunity is well known. Its ability to speed-up recovery from tuberculosis and impede the TB causing bacteria from causing disease, and even kill the bacteria in culture at high concentration are also known. Now, a study by a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has found the molecular mechanism by which vitamin C impedes and even kills Mycobacterium smegmatis, a non-pathogenic bacterium that belongs to the same genus as the TB-causing mycobacteria. The results were published in the journal FEMS Microbiology Letters.
Stress response
•During times of stress or hostile conditions, such as increased temperature and presence of antibiotics, bacteria tend to come together and form a biofilm to protect themselves. The stress response pathway is crucial for bacteria to survive during hostile conditions. So blocking this pathway is a sure way of killing the bacteria.
•In mycobacterium, the (p)ppGpp (Guanosine pentaphospahte or Guanosine tetraphosphate) is a key molecule in the stress response pathway. The (p)ppGpp is synthesised by Rel protein, which in turn is made by the Rel gene.
•The team led by Dipankar Chatterji from the Molecular Biophysics Unit at IISc looked at the effects of vitamin C on the stress response pathway. “We chose vitamin C because its structure is similar to (p)ppGpp,” says Prof. Chatterji. “So we hypothesised that vitamin C should be competing to bind to the Rel enzyme and inhibiting (p)ppGpp synthesis.”
•To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted experiments using M. smegmatis. M. smegmatis is used as a model organism for TB-causing Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Role of vitamin C
•In vitro studies showed “significant” inhibition of (p)ppGpp synthesis in the presence of vitamin C. The inhibition level was seen to increase as the vitamin C concentration increased. The more the vitamin C concentration, the greater the possibility of vitamin C binding to the Rel enzyme, thus inhibiting (p)ppGpp synthesis. At about 10 mM concentration, the synthesis of (p)ppGpp molecule was completely inhibited.
•The binding of vitamin C to the Rel enzyme is weak and this explains why high concentration of vitamin C is needed to inhibit (p)ppGpp synthesis.
•“Using Mycobacterial cells we found that 1 mM of vitamin C produced 50% inhibition in (p)ppGpp synthesis. Vitamin C is able to get inside cells and inhibit (p)ppGpp synthesis,” says Kirtimaan Syal from IISc, the first author of the paper.
•When 2 mM of vitamin C was added, “significant” defect in biofilm formation was seen. There was more than 50% reduction in viability of cells in a matter of four days when M. smegmatis was treated with 2mM of vitamin C. The viability of cells reduced even further with time, raising the possibility of therapeutic implications.
Therapeutic potential
•“This suggests that vitamin C can act as a precursor for more potential inhibitors; it can be chemically modified into more potential derivatives,” they write. “Vitamin C is natural, and it can form one of the nutrient-based treatments of the disease. Vitamin C is water soluble and has no toxic effect,” says Dr. Syal.
•“We are trying to synthesise derivatives of vitamin C to enhance inhibition of (p)ppGpp synthesis even at lower concentration,” Dr. Syal says.
More aerosol in atmosphere results in heavier rainfall
Though high aerosol loading leads to a delay in the onset of rainfall, once it sets in there is heavier and widespread rainfall
•Contrary to the general notion that pre-monsoon aerosol loading results in decrease in seasonal rainfall, a long-term (2002-2013) satellite observational study and model-based analysis by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has found that higher aerosol loading results in delayed but more rainfall over Central and Northern India. Higher aerosol loading changes cloud properties in terms of size (both height and width) and microphysics, which results in more rainfall. The results were published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
Size matters
•Fourteen microns is the agreed raindrop size, and until it reaches this size, the growth of droplets in the cloud is primarily driven by condensation. When aerosol particles are higher, the number of nucleation sites increases resulting in far too many number of droplets. Under such circumstances, it takes time for the droplets to grow in size through condensation.
•“There is an increase in the condensation of water vapour into cloud droplets as the number of aerosol particles increases. But there is a reduction in radius of the drops formed near the cloud base,” says Sachchida N. Tripathi, from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur and the corresponding author of the paper. This results in delay in the onset and efficiency of the condensation process.
•“Although genesis of cloud systems is influenced by various meteorological parameters, aerosols are capable of strongly modifying the cloud structure, dynamics and composition during Indian summer monsoon,” says Chandan Sarangi from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur and the first author of the paper.
•Once cloud starts forming due to convection, the presence of more aerosol particles tend to modify the warm phase microphysics as well as ice phase microphysics.
•Two forces — gravity and updraft (vertical velocity) — tend to act on droplets. Under high aerosol loading, rather than falling down as raindrops, the smaller droplets tend to rise upwards in convective atmosphere due to updraft. As the droplets are lifted up they tend to cross the freezing level and turn into ice particles. The process of water droplets turning into ice particles releases more latent heat of freezing and further invigorates the cloud. “Ice turns into water by absorbing heat. Similarly, when water turns into ice it gives off heat. This release of heat further fuels the convection process and the clouds grow taller,” says Mr. Sarangi.“Satellite data showed that clouds are getting taller and wider under high aerosol loading,” says Prof. Tripathi. As the height of clouds increases, the ice particles generated at top of the cloud come in contact with numerous water and ice particles and become bigger in size. This results in more ice mass in the cloud and eventually more rainfall when the ice particles fall down due to gravity. “There is a delay in the onset of rainfall but once it starts raining it covers a wider area and may be heavier rainfall as well,” Prof. Tripathi says.
Suppression of convection
•In the absence of cloud, aerosol particles tend to absorb solar radiation and this leads to warming or less decrease in temperature with height. As a result, there is suppression of convection leading to further suppression of cloud formation.
•Till now scientists have shown that presence of more aerosol in pre-monsoon season may lead to reduction in total monsoon rainfall due to aerosol-solar radiation interactions. “But in our study we looked at co-located measurement of aerosol, cloud and rainfall system.
•The aerosol-cloud microphysical feedback suggests that higher aerosol loading can enhance the strength of convective rainfall and increase the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall during Indian summer monsoon,” says Mr. Sarangi.
It’s a bad law, just dump it
Why won’t the government repeal the retrospective tax amendment?
•India Inc. doesn’t like it. Foreign investors hate it. But the taxman, to steal a phrase from McDonald’s, is clearly “lovin’ it”. Which is why, just when we thought that the fires lit by the retrospective amendment to tax laws had finally been doused by the soothing assurances of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Income Tax authorities once again fanned the embers back into the flames this week, by slapping a whopping ₹30,700 crore penalty on Cairn Energy, the erstwhile U.K. parent of India’s largest private sector crude oil producer, Cairn India.
•This is just the penalty. With the original tax demanded, the total jumps to over ₹40,000 crore, an amount large enough to make governments sit up and take notice. Explanations 4 and 5 to Section 9(1) (i) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 (Indirect Transfer Provisions), as amended in 2012 — otherwise known as India’s infamous “retrospective tax amendment” — is back in business with a bang.
Still in the statute books
•That the tax authorities are persisting with their demands — firing off demands to the two high-profile assesses who have run afoul of the retrospective amendment: the Netherlands-based telecom major Vodafone PLC and the U.K.’s Cairn Energy — like clockwork every year is not in itself surprising. The retrospective amendment has made such demands legal. And as Mr. Jaitley himself has admitted candidly, a tax officer who does not pursue a legal demand, that too of such proportions, is liable to get into trouble with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and with his own internal vigilance department.
•No, the issue is not that the tax authorities are persisting with their efforts to collect the money. The issue is why the retrospective amendment is being allowed to continue in the statute books, that too by a government which has more than once asserted its determination to root out “tax terrorism”, and has rolled out the red carpet to foreign investors with its ‘Make in India’ initiative.
•For those who may have forgotten, or been too distracted by more pressing matters of state like Sonu Nigam’s tonsure, here’s a quick recap. Both the Vodafone and Cairn cases involve a transfer of ownership of an Indian entity by way of an overseas transaction involving parties which did not fall under Indian tax jurisdiction. In the Vodafone case, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., a Dutch company, acquired 67% of an Indian company, Hutchinson Essar Limited, by buying 100% stake in CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, a Cayman Islands-registered company, which owned the Indian assets of Hutchison Essar.
•In the Cairn case, the assets held by Cairn India Holdings had to be transferred to a company registered in India, which was done by Cairn India (an Indian entity) buying the entire stake in Cairn India Holdings from Cairn U.K. Holdings.
•In both cases, the tax authorities argued that though the deal was between two overseas entities, the shares derived their value from assets held in India, and hence were liable for capital gains tax. The retrospective amendment itself came about after the Supreme Court struck down the demand in the Vodafone case. The government then amended the law to allow indirect transfers which derive substantial value from assets located in India to be subjected to tax.
Changing rules
•There are two problems with this. The first is that the amendment was used to nullify a judgment of the Supreme Court. The second, and by far bigger problem, is that the amendment kicked in with retrospective effect from April 1, 1962.
•Most foreign investors would, naturally, like to pay little or no tax, but actually have no quarrel with even a punitive or confiscatory tax regime, provided they can factor it into their business models. The problem arises when, after having started doing business, the rules are changed, with implications on business already done in the past.
•The amendments would not have created anything like the controversy they generated, or caused as much damage to India’s reputation as a safe destination for investments governed by the rule of law, if they had been made with prospective effect. Instead, any deal done after April 1962 is fair game. And as long as the provisions exist, the babus will try to use it.
•The demands have already cost India dear. It is fighting two international arbitration battles under provisions of bilateral investment treaties with the Netherlands and the U.K. and may well lose both. This will lead to significant quantifiable financial damages, quite apart from the non-quantifiable losses of potential investments missed out.
