‘High mortality rate in heart patients in India’
•Indians have one of the highest rates of mortality after diagnosis of heart failure, greater than several developing countries in the world, says a study .
Evolutionary secrets help Red Sea corals withstand heat
However, they face other risks like fertilizers, pesticides and oil pollution
•In the azure waters of the Red Sea, Maoz Fine and his team dive to study what may be the planet’s most unique coral: one that can survive global warming, at least for now.
•The corals, striking in their red, orange and green colours, grow on tables some eight metres underwater, put there by the Israeli scientists to unlock their secrets to survival.
•They are of the same species that grows elsewhere in the northern Red Sea and are resistant to high temperatures.
•Mr. Fine’s team dives in scuba gear to monitor the corals, taking notes on water-resistant pads. “We’re looking here at a population of corals on a reef that is very resilient to high temperature changes, and is most likely going to be the last to survive in a world undergoing very significant warming and acidification of sea water,” Mr. Fine said at his nearby office ahead of the dive.
•Global warming has in recent years caused colourful coral reefs to bleach and die around the world — but not in the Gulf of Eilat, or Aqaba, part of the northern Red Sea. That is what has prompted Mr. Fine’s work, both in the Red Sea and on its shores.
•At the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat, dozens of aquariums have been lined up in rows just off the Red Sea shore containing samples of local corals. A robot slowly dips its arms into each glass container, taking measurements and uploading them to a database.
•“We exposed corals to high temperatures over long periods of time, beyond the current peak summer temperatures and even beyond the model-based temperatures we predict for the end of the century,” said Mr. Fine, a marine biology professor from Bar Ilan University in central Israel. He explained: “They didn’t undergo bleaching.”
Survival of the fittest
•According to Mr. Fine, the Gulf of Eilat corals fare well in heat thanks to their slow journey from the Indian Ocean through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, between Djibouti and Yemen, where water temperatures are much higher.
•“Over the past 6,000 years, they underwent a form of selection through a very, very hot body of water, and only those that could pass through that hot water body reached here, the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Eilat,” he said.
•The world just marked its three hottest years in modern times, with scientists pointing to increases in heat-trapping emissions such as carbon dioxide as a driving factor. Oceans also absorb about one-third of the carbon dioxide released by human activities, resulting in increasing acidification that is harmful to corals.
•Coral reefs, most famously Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, are experiencing in recent years unabated mass bleaching and die-offs.
•Often mistaken for a form of vegetation, corals “are in fact an animal that lives in symbiosis with an algae, a plant,” said Jessica Bellworthy, a Ph.D student under Mr. Fine’s supervision taking part in the Eilat research.
NASA to test flexible solar panel on ISS
•NASA will test a flexible solar panel on the International Space Station.
•The panel rolls up to form a compact cylinder and may offer substantial cost savings as well as an increase in power for satellites in the future.
•Traditional solar panels used to power satellites can be bulky with heavy panels. Smaller and lighter than traditional solar panels, the Roll-Out Solar Array consists of a centre wing made of a flexible material containing photovoltaic cells to convert light into electricity.
•On either side of the wing is a narrow arm that extends the length of the wing to provide support. The arm can be flattened and rolled up.
‘Solar push could mean 3 lakh jobs by 2022’
Currently, the solar and wind sectors employ just 21,000 workers, says report
•Were India to be able to meet its commitment of adding 1,60,000 MW of renewable power (solar and wind power) by 2022, it would generate employment for 3,00,000 new workers, says a new report by the think tanks, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Ninety per cent of these jobs would be in the solar sector.
•Currently both these industries employ around 21,000 people. But with a strong domestic manufacturing policy in place, another 45,000 could find indirect full-time jobs, according to the study. Seventy per cent of the new jobs would be in the labour-intensive rooftop solar segment, which tend to generate “seven times more jobs” than large-scale projects such as solar farms, which are more typically associated with India’s solar push.
Job creation
•This study is the third in a series of reports that look at job creation in the renewable sector. The findings were based on a survey of 37 solar companies, eight solar manufacturers, and nine wind companies. In all, 60% of the solar companies that responded were developing ground-mounted plants, while the rest were involved in rooftop solar projects.
•Solar jobs would be distributed fairly evenly across the country, with a pronounced tilt in favour of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. However, wind jobs were likely to be concentrated in a few States that have high wind potential.
•“Clean energy expansion is generating thousands of new jobs while meeting India's climate and economic goals. With this tremendous opportunity, India is stepping up as a global leader in demonstrating how a growing economy can scale up renewables, generate employment, and meet rising energy demands,” Nehmat Kaur, who works with NRDC’s India team and is based in New Delhi, said in a statement.
•Neeraj Kuldeep, programme associate, CEEW added, “80% of the new clean energy workforce will be employed during the construction phase. However, despite these being contractual jobs, the large pipeline of renewable energy projects creates enough opportunities for workers to stay employed. Also, since most of these jobs are in the rooftop solar PV segment, central and state governments must provide greater policy support to the rooftop sector.”
•As part of its commitments to dealing with global warming, India has committed to installing 1,75,000 MW of green power by 2022. Of this, only 10% has been installed so far.
India to stick to nuclear policy
•The Defence Minister, Mr. Swaran Singh, to-day [June 21, New Delhi] condemned, in a statement before the two Houses of Parliament, the Chinese explosion of hydrogen bomb as “further evidence of China’s callous indifference to the opinion of the rest of the world”. He said the Government viewed this development with grave concern. Mr. Swaran Singh took the occasion to explain India’s nuclear policy. He made it clear that the Government would continue to give its most careful attention to India’s security in the context of China’s nuclear policy. The Defence Minister assured Parliament that “all practicable ways and means of ensuring our security are constantly under examination”. At the same time, he said, India would steadfastly adhere to the policy of developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and added “the effect of this policy on our security is also kept under constant review”.
A moment for realism
The case for India-U.S. partnership has been always strong, but the romanticism accompanying it is on test
•When Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump shake hands and perhaps embrace each other next week, the mandatory encomiums about India and U.S. being the world’s largest and oldest democracies, respectively, would have a sombre undertone to them. Both these democracies are passing through testing times.
Two nations in churning
•Powerful political forces are trying to re-litigate principles that have held for decades in India, and have evolved over centuries in America. This ongoing re-litigation involves, at the functional level, some fundamental questions about citizenship, individual and collective rights, particularly religious rights, the terms of engagement between the state and citizens, the balance of power between various branches of the government, the role of the media, etc. At the conceptual level, what is being debated is the question of national identity itself. As recurring incidents show in both countries, this process is oftentimes violent, and not based on a commonly agreed set of facts. And facts are being invented and misrepresented, including in cases where historical records and scientific evidence do not leave any such scope. This internal debate on democracy is also testing the resilience of institutional checks and balances, the bedrock of both democracies. While both India and the U.S are pondering over the values that define them as nations, talking of shared values — the bond between the two countries — may sound incongruous.
•The other shared bond is of interests. America is deeply divided on what its national interests are. It is unable to decide who are its friends and who are its enemies. Indian commentators have over the years admired America for its single-minded pursuit of its strategic culture, its ability and willingness to use military power to change the course of world politics. But the Trump movement is based on a public repudiation of this strategic culture. The President has repeatedly called out the country’s war planners and strategic thinkers. It is not that he is offering any alternative thinking; in fact, his actions are contradicting his own stated positions on so many fronts. He believes that championing a new era of military build-up is essential for making America great again, though he has called American interventions in recent decades “stupid”. It is unlikely that America’s strategic behaviour would change dramatically, but the fact remains that it now has a President who believes that what America has been pursuing all this while is not its national interest.
•Resisting Chinese expansionism has been a shared interest between India and the U.S in recent years, and the rising defence cooperation between the two countries is testimony to that. But the American attitude to China, and the way it sees India in that equation, is more nuanced than the linear notion prevalent in India. In the order of American threat perceptions, China appears to be quite low at the moment, with Russia climbing to the top as a conventional threat — yet another point on which the security establishment and the President are not on the same page. Islamism and the potential for nuclear adventurism by North Korea or Iran come much higher on the list than China.
Not a military threat
•China is not a military threat to the American mainland unlike Russia, which has the capability even if not the intent. Economic ties are no guarantee against conflict, strategic commentators have argued citing pre-World War trade links among European countries. But U.S.-China economic links are of a different nature qualitatively. American companies fume about unfair state interventions and IPR (intellectual property rights) losses in China, but the Chinese market and manufacturing processes are essential for their global operations. For the American state, China, as a threat, comes in the category of ‘important, but not urgent’. Moreover, China is a valuable partner dealing with some more urgent questions. During the Obama years, they were climate change and North Korea. Under Mr. Trump, the single-minded focus is on dealing with North Korea. Mr. Trump also hopes for Chinese cooperation in his plans for the America economy. His administration has taken a benign view of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative while American companies are trying to get as much business out of it as possible.
Reining in Pakistan
•India has complained of American lack of sympathy for its concerns in its policy towards Pakistan. There has been increasing appreciation among Washington’s strategic thinkers and policymakers of Pakistan’s duplicity in the conflict in Afghanistan. That Pakistan exports terror to its neighbouring countries has now been stated in multiple government documents and Congressional hearings. However, successive U.S. administrations have viewed India’s attempts to influence America’s Pakistan policy with scepticism. While India wants the U.S. to rein in Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism, it does not want American opinion on Kashmir — a position that American policymakers consider contradictory. While Americans increasingly appreciate the fact that India has been a victim of Pakistani aggression, they also believe New Delhi could be more appreciative and supportive of American efforts to stabilise the region. Stabilising Pakistan and seeking a political deal with the Taliban have been part of that approach.
•Previous administrations would be more guarded in expressing such concerns with India, which may not be case with Mr. Trump. Already, by offering to negotiate between India and Pakistan, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has stirred up a hornet’s nest in India.
•While it will take continuous engagement for India and the U.S. to explore their shared interests in Asia-Pacific and Af-Pak, any misalignment between the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon is no good news for India. Mr. Trump has cut the budget for the former while committing more money to defence, and the White House has declared that the new administration believes in hard power, not soft. The Pentagon sees each bilateral relationship from a military planning perspective while the State Department places it in a broader strategic calculation. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Defense has been a champion of enhancing cooperation with India, and its initiatives often do not pass muster with the Department of State. For instance, the Pentagon supports the sale of Guardian drones to India, while the State Department has raised the red flag that the technology has been given only to South Korea, a treaty ally of the U.S., so far in the region. Resolution of such intra-government disputes can only be achieved by a strong-willed political leadership committed to ties with India.
•The India-U.S. partnership has inherent reasons to survive. But the romanticism that characterised the hype of well-meaning advocates of a stronger partnership needs to be tempered with a dose of realism. The heady romance is taking a pause, but the companionship will endure, loveless as it could be.
Jailing a judge
Justice Karnan’s imprisonment should have been avoided to keep the judiciary’s dignity
•The imprisonment of Justice C.S. Karnan, who recently retired as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, for contempt is the culmination of a series of unfortunate and unpleasant developments. It was a step that was best avoided in the interest of maintaining the dignity of the judiciary. It is indeed true that Justice Karnan’s offences in making wild and totally unsubstantiated allegations against a number of fellow judges, and his tactics of intimidation against Chief Justices who tried over the years to discipline him, were shocking and completely unacceptable. However, a Supreme Court that allowed him to enter the hallowed portals of the higher judiciary would have done better had it adopted a more pragmatic approach. Mr. Karnan was due to retire and it would have been sufficient if he was allowed to do so under a dark cloud of dishonour, after spending his last days in office stripped of judicial work. It is an extraordinarily low moment for the institution that a man who the Supreme Court felt needed his mental health evaluated should be sentenced for contempt of court, arrested and sent to jail. As for alternatives to imprisonment, recommending his impeachment to Parliament was a possibility the Supreme Court may have also done well to consider. There is no defence of Justice Karnan’s disdainful refusal to answer the contempt charge or going into hiding to avoid arrest for nearly seven weeks — actions that only served to reinforce his waywardness and disregard for the law.
•It is also time for some introspection within the judiciary on the manner in which judges are chosen. That someone as ill-suited to judicial office as Justice Karnan entered the superior judiciary exposes the inadequacies of the collegium system. The absence of a mechanism to discipline recalcitrant judges is another glaring lacuna in the existing system. With the Constitution prescribing impeachment by Parliament, a long-winded and cumbersome process, as the sole means to remove a judge, Chief Justices of the High Courts are at their wits’ end when it comes to dealing with refractory judges who are not amenable to any discipline or capable of self-restraint. Non-allotment of judicial work and transfer to another High Court are measures available for the purpose, but in Mr. Karnan’s case these hardly had any chastening effect. Instead, he continued to make the self-serving claim that he was being victimised because he was a Dalit. He now has the option of moving the court to seek suspension of his sentence or appealing to the President for its remission. No one would really grudge Mr. Karnan an opportunity to secure his liberty, but one can only hope that in future he does not use his time in prison to play to the gallery and portray himself as a martyr in the cause of fighting corruption in the judiciary.
The high cost of ageing
Evidence shows that health systems must be recast to accommodate the needs of chronic disease prevention
•The National Health Policy (NHP), 2017, is long on banalities and short on specifics. In a somewhat glaring omission, little has been said about the rapid rise in the share of the old — i.e. 60 years or more — and associated morbidities, especially sharply rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and disabilities. In the context of declining family support and severely limited old-age income security, catastrophic consequences for destitutes afflicted with these conditions can’t be ruled out. Besides, continuing neglect and failure to anticipate these demographic and epidemiological shifts — from infectious diseases to NCDs — may result in enormously costlier policy challenges. An estimate provided for the 2014 World Economic Forum suggests that NCDs may cost as much as $4.3 trillion in productivity losses and health-care expenditure between 2012 and 2030, twice India’s annual GDP.
•Detailed projections of the old in India by the United Nations Population Division (UN 2011) show that India’s population, ages 60 and older, will climb from 8% in 2010 to 19% in 2050. By mid-century, their number is expected to be 323 million.
•Population dynamics and a rapidly changing age structure reflect the combined impact of increasing life expectancy and declining fertility. Life expectancy at birth in India climbed from 37 years in 1950 to 65 years in 2011, stemming from declines in infant mortality and survival at older ages due to public health improvements. The key question is whether longer lives have translated into healthier lives. Our evidence raises serious doubts.
Evidence from IHDS survey
•Our analysis, based on the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2015, the only nation-wide panel survey covering the period 2005-2012, throws new light on these issues. A major advantage of the panel survey is that the same individuals are tracked over a period of seven years.
•The prevalence of high blood pressure among the old almost doubled over the period 2005-12; that of heart disease rose 1.7 times; the prevalence of cancer rose 1.2 times; that of diabetes more than doubled, as also that of asthma; other NCDs rose more rapidly (i.e. by two and a half times).
•A related question is whether multi-morbidity (i.e. co-occurrence of two or more NCDs) also rose over this period. Often multi-morbidities occur non-randomly or systematically. The prevalence of high blood pressure and heart disease rose more than twice while that of high blood pressure and diabetes nearly doubled.
•Wealth quartiles were constructed to examine whether prevalence of NCDs varied across them and over time. The burden of NCDs shifted from the most affluent to the least affluent over this period. In both the first (least wealthy) and fourth (wealthiest) quartiles, the prevalence rose sharply in most cases but in all the rises were faster among the least wealthy. The ratio of high blood pressure in the first quartile relative to the fourth rose from 0.36 in 2005 to 0.40 in 2012; that of heart disease rose from 0.31 to 0.38; that of diabetes from 0.23 to 0.34; and that of blood pressure and heart disease rose from 0.11 to 0.58. As NCDs are associated with a large majority of deaths among the old — about 93% of the total deaths among 70 years or more in 2013 — they are now more vulnerable to mortality risk. In fact, the least wealthy have become more susceptible to this risk.
•By age 60, the major burdens of disability and death arise from age-related losses in hearing, seeing or moving, and NCDs (WHO, 2015). Thus co-occurrence of disability and NCDs poses a higher risk of mortality.
Assessing disability
•Disability is the umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. An assessment of functioning in activities of daily living (ADLs) is one method widely used to assess disability in older persons. Disability is usually measured by a set of items on self-reported limitations with severity of disability ranked by the number of positively answered items. Disabilities in ADL show dependence of an individual on others, with need for assistance in daily life.
•In select disabilities, there is a sharp rise with age and over time. Difficulty in walking was 1.7 times greater in the age group 70-plus years relative to 60-69 years in 2012. Over the period 2005-2012, overall prevalence rose 6.1 times. Difficulty in using toilet facilities was 2.3 times higher among the older group (70-plus years). Overall prevalence was five times higher in 2012. Difficulty in dressing was about 2.5 times higher in the older group. Overall prevalence jumped about five times between 2005-12. Hearing difficulty was just under twice as high among the older group in 2012, while the overall prevalence rose 4.7 times over this period.
•To assess severity of disabilities, these are classified into counts of 1-4 and greater than 4. The proportion of old women was larger than that of males in both groups and years. At the aggregate level too, disabilities grew in both groups, especially in the group greater than 4. Thus both prevalence and severity of disabilities rose during 2005-2012.
•As observed earlier, it is the co-occurrence of NCDs and disabilities that is more likely to be fatal. We find that in most cases there was an increase. Heart disease and disabilities (1-4) rose 1.3 times. Blood pressure and disabilities in this range rose 1.2 times, as also diabetes and disabilities. Blood pressure and heart disease and disabilities increased 1.4 times.
•In brief, that the curse of old age has become worse is undeniable. Along with expansion of old age pension and health insurance, and public spending on programmes targeted to the health care of the old, careful attention must be given to reorient health systems to accommodate the needs of chronic disease prevention and control by enhancing the skills of health-care providers and equipping health-care facilities to provide services related to health promotion, risk detection, and risk reduction.
Too much profit?
The GST’s ‘anti-profiteering’ clause makes no economic sense
•Businesses that receive the benefit of paying lower taxes under the new goods and services tax (GST) regime can’t keep it with them. Instead, according to the GST Act, they must pass it on to consumers by reducing the price of the products they sell. “Any reduction in rate of tax on any supply of goods or services or the benefit of input tax credit,” the Act reads, “shall be passed on to the recipient by way of commensurate reduction in prices.” If any business fails to comply with this rule, authorities from the National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAPA) will use the “anti-profiteering” clause of the Act to take action against them — by ordering a reduction of prices, imposing penalties, or even cancelling a company’s registration. The supposed intent of the clause is to prevent price rise induced by the imposition of the new national tax. In order to offset the higher taxes imposed on certain goods, the government wants to make sure consumers receive the benefits of lower taxes on other goods.
•The only problem is that the anti-profiteering clause makes no economic sense. It assumes that lowering the tax rate on businesses will improve their profit margin, so they should not complain about lowering prices. While it is true that a reduced tax rate can improve profit margins, it does not follow automatically that prices need to fall. This is because pricing decisions are based solely on consumer demand for a product, not the cost of production. Businessmen do not sell their products at a higher or lower price because their cost of production has changed after a change in the tax rate. In fact, it is the likely price that consumers will pay for a product that determines what businessmen will pay for its inputs. This is why the NAPA has been empowered to muscle businesses into lowering prices.
Aggressive stance
•The government has also been aggressive in its rhetoric against businesses hoping to profit from lower taxes. “We expect companies to cooperate. We hope we don’t have to use the weapon,” said Hasmukh Adhia, the Union Revenue Secretary, in a veiled threat. Simply put, the NAPA will soon be forcing businesses it targets to sell products at lower prices. Contrary to the intention of the anti-profiteering clause, this will not benefit consumers. Shortages are likely to follow as prices fall without a commensurate increase in supply. This is because profit-capping will distort business returns, thus discouraging new investment that could help ramp up production. In contrast, when the tax rate is reduced without a cap on profits, it usually leads to a similar fall in prices, but without shortages. This is because higher profit margins — due to lower taxes — attract new investment and increase supply.
•Another fallout will be corruption and inefficiency as the government begins implementation of the clause. Bureaucrats with the power to interfere in the market will likely increase the burden on businesses than improve consumer welfare. This does not portend well for doing business in India.
SEBI eases norms to buy stressed assets
Acquirers of such assets to be exempt from open offers
•As part of the larger attempts of the government to resolve the massive bad debt issue, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday relaxed norms for investors acquiring assets in companies with stressed assets and facing bankruptcy proceedings.
•The board of the capital markets regulator has decided to exempt the acquirers from making open offers after buying stakes from lenders while including checks such as a three-year lock-in for new investors and mandating that such relaxation would have to be approved by a special resolution.
•This would come as a big relief to both lenders and acquirers concerned about a possible open offer since sizeable stakes could change hands.
•“It has been represented to SEBI that where the lenders have acquired and propose to divest the same to a new investor, they are facing difficulties as the new investor would need to make a mandatory open offer which would reduce the funds available for investment in the company,” the markets regulator said in a statement.
•The regulator has decided to provide a similar exemption for acquisitions post the resolution plans approved by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.
Stringent PN norms
•SEBI has decided to levy a ‘Regulatory Fee’ of $1,000 on each subscriber of offshore derivative instrument (ODI), which will have to be collected by the registered foreign portfolio investor (FPI) that issues the ODIs.
•The regulator had recently floated a consultation paper to further tighten the norms for issuance of ODIs. It has also decided to “prohibit ODIs from being issued against derivatives except on those that are used for hedging purposes.”
•SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi, however, clarified that the regulator did not intend to ban PNs, but would want the instrument to be used only to “test the waters” and that long-term investors should prefer the FPI route.
•Meanwhile, the regulator will soon float a consultation paper on easing investment norms for FPIs by expanding the list of eligible jurisdictions for grant of FPI registration and simplification of broad-based requirements and ‘fit and proper’ criteria.
Forensic audit
•The regulator is in the process of appointing a forensic auditor to look into the co-location matter of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), wherein it is alleged that certain brokers had received preferential access to the exchange systems for execution of trades.
•The regulator is examining whether there was any connivance between NSE staffers and brokers.
•Interestingly, the regulatory move comes after the NSE had its own forensic audit conducted by Deloitte.
•“Deloitte did not go in depth on the connivance issue. We are examining if unfair gains were made by brokers. It needs to be done comprehensively. We are personally engaging a forensic auditor and are in the process of appointing (the auditor),” said Mr. Tyagi.
Equity derivatives
•The regulator will also float a consultation paper on the equity derivatives segment to get market feedback on product suitability and the kind of investors participating in the derivatives space.
•Incidentally, the cash-to-derivatives ratio in the Indian market is among the highest globally and the regulator, in the past, had expressed concerns especially with retail investors getting into the segment.
•“It is a subject worth debating. Retail investors are not completely aware of the risks,” said Mr. Tyagi, who was appointed as the SEBI Chairman in March 2017.
‘Enforcement regime won’t be harsh on exporters’
Centre to advance FTP review to align it with GST roll-out
•The enforcement regime will not be harsh for the country and individual exporters in the initial phase of the roll-out of Goods and Services Tax (GST), said Union Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.
•At an interactive meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), EEPC India and the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Ms. Teaotia said that the Centre was planning to advance the mid-term review of the Foreign Trade Policy (introduced in 2015) to align it with the GST implementation. “There are several things that may need tweaking in the FTP,” she said.
The review is due in September.
•Director General of Foreign Trade A.K. Bhalla explained that at least three different schemes – the advance authorisation, export promotion capital goods (EPCG) and duty free import authorisation – would cease to exist once GST rolled out. Some other schemes would also need to be worked on once the new tax regime kicked in, he said.
•An exporter will need to pay the applicable taxes on transactions but can seek refund. Tax exemptions are not given to them as it could break the GST chain, it is learnt.
•Exporters who were getting refunds through many schemes as export incentives are worried that their competitiveness may now be eroded.
•FIEO President Ganesh Gupta pointed out that the cost of capital to Indian exporters was higher than the international benchmark.
