India largely safe from cyberattack
•While no major incident of the worldwide ransomware attack has been reported from India so far, Gulshan Rai, the Cyber Security Chief in the PMO, said a better impact assessment would be possible only on Monday when offices open.
•The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT— In), which on Saturday issued an advisory asking organisations to install updates to Windows systems, had, in fact, released a vulnerability note with a “Severity Rating of High” on March 15 for “a possible remote exploitation of this vulnerability.” The agency advised that the patch released by Microsoft be applied. Over 70 countries have been hit by the cyberattack.
•“We have been checking hundreds of systems since we were alerted to this cyberattack. The attacks seem to be the result of a vulnerability in the Microsoft windows OS, and we released a patch,” Mr. Rai told The Hindu . “We understand that systems in Andhra Pradesh are affected, but so far our assessment is that there isn’t much impact,” he added.
India to skip B&R Forum
Major snub to China, with not even Embassy officials attending the event
•India will be absent from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (B&RI) Forum beginning Sunday, the government said on Saturday. The External Affairs Ministry explained that while the government supported connectivity projects, they “must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity”. India has objected to the $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor part of the B&RI, as it includes projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
•“The international community is well aware of India’s position. No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday night, just hours ahead of the Forum’s inauguration.
•All neighbours of India, except Bhutan, will have senior-level participation at the forum. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and World Bank President Kim Yong will be present as China unveils plans for infrastructure projects estimated at $500 billion across Asia and Europe.
Debt trap
•In a dig at China’s high-interest project loans in the region, which India believes will lead to a “debt trap” in countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the spokesperson added that the B&RI must pursue “principles of financial responsibility to avoid projects that would create unsustainable debt burden for communities; balanced ecological and environmental protection and preservation standards; transparent assessment of project costs”.
•According to experts, India’s absence from the forum will be seen as a major snub to China, that is pitching it as a “prestige event” to which it has confirmed 110 official delegations and 29 heads of state and government.
•“Attendance doesn’t mean endorsement,” said expert Ravi Bhoothalingam at the Institute for China Studies, “But absence is a rebuff. Sending a representative at an appropriate level is what both the U.S. and Japan have chosen as their response,” he added.
•Both the U.S. and Japan are not signatories to the Belt and Road initiative, but will be represented by senior advisers to President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe respectively.
Market demands
•Hailing the decision by India not to participate unless China took its territorial concerns over PoK seriously, former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said India didn’t need to worry about losing out.
•“China needs the Indian market more than India needs Chinese investment. The Chinese should stop preening about their economic success which is real but not take it to mean that the world will fall at their feet,” Mr. Sibal said.
•The Chinese government had doubled efforts to convince India to join. In a speech last week, the Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui suggested a four-step initiative to repair ties damaged over differences on the CPEC, entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and UN designation for JeM chief Masood Azhar, and even suggesting that China could consider changing the name of the corridor through Pakistan. However, subsequently, the reference in the Ambassador’s speech was deleted online after Pakistan protested.
Pneumonia vaccine to be part of immunisation drive
Nearly 20% of global under-five pneumonia deaths occur in India
•India on Saturday rolled out the long-awaited anti-pneumonia vaccine as part of the government’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). The vaccine will protect children against severe forms of pneumococcal disease, such as pneumonia and meningitis.
•The vaccine programme aims to protect nearly 270 lakh newborns against 12 preventable diseases every year.
Access to all
•“Our goal is to ensure that no child dies in the country from vaccine preventable diseases. We stand committed to reducing child deaths and providing a healthier future to our children. While these vaccines in the private sector were accessible to only those who could afford them, by making them available under the UIP, the government is ensuring equitable access to those who need them the most, the underprivileged and underserved,” Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said while launching the vaccine.
•Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in children under five years of age globally and in India. India accounts for nearly 20% of global pneumonia deaths in this age group.
•The three-dose pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) will be rolled out in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, six districts of Uttar Pradesh and 17 districts of Bihar as a part of the first phase. The vaccine will give protection against 13 types of pneumococcal bacteria which cause pneumonia disease.
India’s burden
•Every year, 59 lakh children die worldwide before their fifth birthday, of them 9% die due to diarrhoea, 16% due to pneumonia. India shoulders the highest burden of child pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths with Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola taking up the next four spots.
•Currently, the vaccine is being rolled out to approximately 21 lakh children in Himachal Pradesh and parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the first phase. This will be followed by introduction in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan next year, and eventually across the country.
•There are over 90 different types of pneumococcal bacteria which cause a range of problems.
Chennai team unravels a ‘key’ to microbial-resistant infections
Study reveals the structures of surface proteins that help the bacteria bind to human host cells
•Bacteria have specific surface proteins which are used for binding to host cells. Scientists at the Centre of Advanced Study in Crystallography and Biophysics, at the University of Madras, have succeeded in characterising such surface proteins of some pathogenic bacteria including Streptococcus agalactiae andEnterococcus faecium. Infection by both of these bacteria can have deadly effects on humans.
•The studies by the group have also shown that the structure of the surface protein of E. faecium has a special fold which sets it apart from all known categories of protein structure known so far. These results have been published in journals Royal Society of Chemistry Advances and Federation of European Biochemical Society Journal, respectively. The findings can be used to develop drugs to target bacteria that are resistant to treatment with antibiotics.
Lock and key
•In order to colonise a host cell, bacteria need to attach themselves to the surface of the host using certain surface proteins.
•The surface protein on the bacterial cell functions as a “key” to the protein on the host cell membrane which acts as a “lock” — that is to say, the former fits snugly into the latter. This linking up by means of the lock and key mechanism is crucial for the infection to proceed. Therefore, drugs may be developed to hinder this process of formation of the link. The crucial thing to know in this case is the structure of the surface proteins of the bacteria, which is what the group works at.
•The strain S. agalacticae is a Gram positive bacterium that causes life-threatening diseases such as bacterial sepsis and meningitis in newborn babies and several diseases including pneumonia in non-pregnant adults. The group has characterised the structure and binding properties of its surface proteins.
•But the more exciting discovery is the structure of the SgrA protein of E. faecium.This antibiotic-resistant bacterium causes urinary tract infection and surgical site infections. Catheter-induced infections could also be caused by this strain as its surface protein SgrA is known to be able to bind to abiotic surfaces, such as polystyrene.
•“In E. faecium we determined the crystal structure of surface protein SgrA. This protein is one of those critical for bacterial colonisation and biofilm formation on inserted medical devices,” says Prof. Karthe Ponnuraj, who is head of the department and a coauthor.
X-ray diffraction
•The process involved first cloning and purifying the protein and crystallising it. The structure was discovered by X-ray diffraction. “We had to go to Italy multiple times to do this as the facility is not available in India. The third time we were able to get the crystal structure,” says Prof. Karthe, referring to the Elettra Sincrotrone facility at Trieste in Italy.
•To their surprise the team discovered that the structure of SgrA contained a fold that did not fit into the known catalogues of protein structures in the Protein Structure Database.
•The discovery can be used by drug developers to target these unique surface adhesins and thereby tackle, among others, catheter-related infections.
Aquatic animal diseases revisited
More new pathogens have been detected
•The national surveillance programme for aquatic animal diseases in India, one of the largest fish disease surveillance programme implemented in the country, is all set to begin a new phase.
•A road map proposed for taking the surveillance programme to the next level includes developing disease-free zones and targeted active surveillance for fish pathogens in India. The programme is led by the ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBFGR), Lucknow; J. K. Jena is the national coordinator. The programme is currently being implemented in 16 States and three Union Territories.
•There has been significant improvement in the reporting of aquatic animal diseases, the researchers say. As a result, more new pathogens are being detected from the Indian waters.
•The mass mortality of goldfish in West Bengal in 2014 was confirmed to have been caused by cyprinid herpesvirus-2. The presence of another important pathogen, Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei, was reported for the first time from the shrimp species Litopenaeus vannamei and infection caused by Perkinsus olseniwere reported in Asian Green Mussel, a new host.
•The information gathered from the ground is being compiled in a national aquatic animal disease database, which is maintained by the National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics, Bengaluru.
•The focus of the programme is on strengthening the “passive surveillance system in the country,” and to improve disease reporting by farmers and state fisheries officers, explained Kuldeep K. Lal, Director of NBFGR. Around 1,100 farms in as many as 110 districts across the country are being monitored regularly.
•Diagnostic capabilities for major OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health)-listed diseases of finfish, crustaceans and molluscs were developed under the surveillance programme and capability for diagnosis of emerging pathogens is also being continuously upgraded in the 16 States and three Union Territories.
What is the lowdown on the directive to RBI on bad loans
What is it
•The Central government has amended the Banking Regulation Act to give more powers to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to fast-track resolution of stressed assets in a time-bound manner. Section 35A of the Act was amended for the purpose, and two Sections were inserted: 35 AA authorises the RBI to issue directions to banks to initiate the insolvency process in case a party has defaulted under the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, and 35 AB allows the RBI to issue directions to banks for resolution of stressed assets. The banking regulator has also been allowed to specify one or more authorities or committees to handle bad loans.
How did it come about
•Stressed assets in the banking system, or non-performing assets (NPAs), have reached unacceptably high levels and need urgent attention, the government ordinance to amend the BR Act noted. According to industry estimates, bad loans in the banking sector could be as high as ₹14 lakh crore. The NPAs in the banking system have gone up sharply in the last couple of years, particularly after the Asset Quality Review of the RBI in December 2015. Following the review, the RBI handed out a list of borrowers to the banks and asked them to classify which of the loans could be termed NPAs.
•Many public sector banks like Bank of India and IDBI Bank, to name a few, suffered huge losses owing to the exercise.
•According to RBI data, gross NPA, as a percentage of gross advances, went up to 9.1% in September 2016 from 5.1% in September 2015.
•During the same period, stressed assets, which are gross NPA plus standard restructured advances and write-offs, moved up from 11.3% to 12.3% and some estimates suggested it had doubled since 2013. Public sector banks share a disproportionate burden of this stress. Stressed assets in some of the public sector banks have approached or exceeded 20%.
Why does it matter
•The RBI had announced several schemes in the last two years to resolve the bad loans crisis such as Strategic Debt Restructuring and Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets. However, owing to lack of consensus among bankers in the Joint Lenders’ Forum (JLF), the schemes could not be implemented.
•The lenders’ committee or the JLF under a convener was set up to formulate a joint corrective action plan (CAP) for early resolution of the stress in accounts.
•The banks have always been wary of the deep ‘haircuts’ they may have to take during restructuring of bad loans. When a bank takes a ‘haircut,’ it gives up a part of its claims on a borrower. Bankers were worried that in case a deep haircut was taken, investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation would harass them, especially if the borrower could not repay the dues even after restructuring.
•Now, the RBI and the government are expected to give banks some assurance that they will not be hounded by investigating agencies if something goes wrong, as business decisions do not always yield the desired results.
•Following the amendment of the Banking Regulation Act, the RBI issued a notification about the lenders (both in number and value) required in the JLF to approve a resolution proposal — to 60% from 75% of lenders by value, and to 50% from 60% of lenders by number.
•The move was aimed at reaching consensus quickly.
What next
•The amendment to the Banking Regulation Act is expected to force banks to take a decision under a strict time frame. However, the devil will be in the detail as the RBI is expected to issue detailed guidelines under what circumstances a loan can be restructured.
•It is highly unlikely — contrary to what is speculated — that the RBI will take a call on specific accounts on the amount of haircut a bank will take while recasting the debt. In all probability, the RBI will prepare a broad framework, which the banks have to follow. At the same time, it is expected provide some comfort to the banks that bona fide decisions will not be questioned and both the central bank and the government are on board for such a decision. But, at the end of the day, it will be the bankers who will take the final call.
Why does the Indian Ocean rise and fall?
How is global warming affecting oceans?
•There are two broad mechanisms at work. Heat trapped in the atmosphere due to rising sea levels makes water expand and separately, melting ice sheets begin to add water to the world’s oceans. Were you to peruse NASA’s satellite data on the average rise and fall in sea levels, it shows that the seas on average have risen 85 mm since 1993, adding about 3.5 mm annually.
Why is the Indian Ocean peculiar?
•Since 2004, it has been known that the Indian Ocean has been rising particularly rapidly. However, it turned out that this was specific to a smaller stretch called the North Indian Ocean, which consists of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and a large part of the Indian Ocean until the 5 degree S latitude. This is an imaginary line cutting through Indonesia, central Africa and Peru. More surprisingly, as a team of oceanographers observed in a report published in the March edition of the peer-reviewed Climate Dynamics, the North Indian Ocean sea levels actually dipped between 1993 and 2004, at about 0.3 mm per year, but after 2004, the rise was 6 mm annually. Such a fluctuating trend hasn’t been observed for the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
Why did this happen?
•Unlike the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, the North Indian Ocean is hemmed in on all sides, except an outlet on the southern side. This influences the rate at which heat is absorbed and flushed out from within the system. According to their calculations, heat was moving out slower after 2004 than during the 1990s. Moreover, wind flows, which led to warm water welling up on the Indian Ocean surface, changed directions every decade and probably influenced sea level patterns.
What does this imply?
•This means a rise in average global temperature doesn’t mean a concurrent rise in sea levels everywhere. Every year in the last decade has broken temperature records that have held for over a century but researchers associated with this study are willing to wager that North Indian Ocean levels may see a fall over the next decade (like seen between 1993 and 2004). This points to a need for more research to understand the inherent variability of the Indian Ocean. This could help sharpen monsoon forecasts and predicting coastal erosion patterns. Better understanding of sea level undulations could also inform future reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Does this challenge conventional science?
•It doesn’t challenge it but certainly complicates it. Researchers use various models to extrapolate future trends on sea level rise and quantify the risk it poses to coastal populations. Several of these model, however, lack the resolution power to capture the vagaries of local climate and it is assumed that what is true for one sea will broadly apply to the others too. For this study the scientists relied on new data sources--from argo floats and satellite-based measurements — and it indicated numbers at variance from previous measurements, from tide gauges. More micro-level data with improved computing power would mean better local-level forecasts.
