📰 Bengal’s medicinal plants face threat
Forest Department has documented 581 of these species in a unique 600-page-volume
•The West Bengal Forest Department on Friday came out with a unique publication that provides details on 581 species of medicinal plants found across different regions of south Bengal.
•The plants are being conserved in situ, that is, where the plants are naturally found, at four medicinal plant conservation areas (MPCA) across south Bengal — Bonnie Camp MPCA South 24 Parganas district, Kakrajhore MPCA at Janagal Mahal in the south-western part of the State, Garh Panchkot MPCA in the Panchet foothills in the Purulia district, and Susinia MPCA located in Bankura near Raghunathpur.
•Collections from two ex-situ (conserving in an area where the plants were not originally found) conservation sites at the Amlachati Medicinal Plant Garden about 20 km from Jhargram town and the Digha Medicinal Plant Garden at the Purba Medinipur district have also been included in the 600-page book titled Medicinal Plant Resources of South Bengal .
•Out of 20,000 medicinal plants listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), India’s contribution is about 5,000 species. “The publication lists 581 species, which means that one of every 10 species of medicinal plants found in India have been listed in the book,” Santhosha G. R., Divisional Forest Officer, Midnapur Silviculture Division, told The Hindu .
Brink of extinction
•Mr. Santhosha emphasised that increasing use of medicinal plants as raw materials by different pharma companies has pushed many of these species to the brink of extinction.
•Stating that the volume will help scientists, foresters, researchers and Ayurveda practitioners, N. K. Pandey, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, West Bengal, said that the publication is part of ongoing measures taken up by the State Forest Department to conserve medicinal plants.
•A large number of plants compiled in the book are from the Amlachati Medicinal Plant Garden, which boasts of the largest collection of medicinal plants in the country, though it is located in a small area comprising of a few hectares of land. The publication lists medicinal plants in alphabetical order as per their scientific names. For instance, it provides details of three species of asparagus, a climber: Asparagus adscendens, Asparagus officinalis and Asparagus racemosus. All three species are found across south Bengal.
•According to the authors of the book, while Asparagus officinalis is used for the treatment of jaundice and rheumatism, Asparagus racemosus is not only used to treat human ailments but also that of cattle, and is sold in the markets of south Bengal by locals.
Significant uses
•The roots of a rambling herb Gloriosa superba found across south Bengal are poisonous, but they have certain anti-carcinogenic and anti-malarial properties and are widely sought by pharma companies.
•The bark of the medium-sized evergreen tree Saraca asoca (commonly called Asok tree), which is a threatened tree species classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, is used in the treatment of a number of ailments, including heart disease.
•One of the authorssaid that sloth bears are reported to feed on the pulp of the Cassia fistula (amaltus) fruit for stomach ailments. The plant also has medicinal properties for treating skin diseases in humans.
•“The publication will not only serve as a very important data bank of medicinal plants in the country, but will also generate interest among common people to come forward and conserve medicinal plans by growing them into their home gardens,” Mr. Santhosha said.
📰 Guardian UAV deal with U.S. still a work in progress
Defence sources say New Delhi is evaluating options
•An American approval for the sale of 22 Guardian maritime surveillance has come India’s way, but defence sources say the actual deal is a long way off as New Delhi is evaluating the options available.
•“They gave a willingness. We have to look at the options as we have specific requirements. There are a few options available. This specific issue is on the table now. We got the offer and we will look into it,” a senior defence official told The Hindu .
•Another official said government-to-government discussions were under way but declined to put any timeline as to when it could be concluded. There was much speculation that the deal, likely between $2-2.5 billion, would be announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month. However, while there was no such announcement, the U.S.-India joint statement issued at the end of the visit said Washington had “offered for India’s consideration the sale of Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial Systems” which would enhance India’s capabilities and promote shared security interests.
•“Given the Sea Guardian’s capabilities, such a U.S. response to the Indian Navy’s request demonstrates a major change in U.S. policy as this type of aircraft capability is only exported to a very select few of America’s closest defence partners. This represents tangible implementation of U.S. Congress’ designation of India as a Major Defence Partner,” Dr. Vivek Lall, Chief Executive, U.S. and International Strategic Development, General Atomics said.
Boosting capabilities
•The Navy currently operates Israeli Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAVs and is keen on acquiring High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) to augment its maritime surveillance capabilities. The other option is to go for Israeli HALE drones, which India is quite familiar with. Last year, the Navy asked General Atomics for the details of the Guardian, following which company officials made presentations on its capabilities.
📰 SC for conclusive proof in graft case
‘Mere possession of notes not enough’
•Mere possession or recovery of currency notes from a public official is not enough to substantiate that he took a bribe, there has to be conclusive proof that he did make a demand for illegal gratification in order to find him guilty of corruption, the Supreme Court has held.
•“In the absence of any proof of demand for illegal gratification, the use of corrupt or illegal means or abuse of position as a public servant to obtain any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage cannot be held to be proved,” a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy concluded in a recent judgment.
Dowry case
•The judgment concerns a police officer in Punjab who was convicted of taking a bribe of Rs. 2000 in 2009. The prosecution said he took the money as illegal gratification to allegedly exonerate an accused, Sarabjit Singh, another police officer, in a dowry harassment case.
•The prosecution argued that Mukhtiar Singh, who was the Station House Officer at the Ajnala Police Station, even threatened Sarabjit and the latter lodged complaint against the SHO with the Vigilance department.
•A trap was set and Mukhtiar Singh was allegedly caught having taken the money.
•The trial court sentenced him to a year’s imprisonment in the graft case. While the appeal was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mukhtiar Singh died. His legal heirs continued the fight for him, but eventually failed in the High Court, which confirmed the sentence. The High Court had believed the prosecution’s version that the SHO asked Sarabjit Singh if he had brought the money, and this amounted to a demand for payment of bribe.
•In the appeal, the Supreme Court held that a mere stray question like that did not confirm the accusation that Mukhtiar Singh had demanded a bribe. Besides, none of the prosecution witnesses could prove the date and time of the receipt of the bribe.
📰 Parliament, Assemblies in poll fervour
14 MPs to vote in the States and five MLAs in Parliament; Yogi Adityanath and Manohar Parrikar not to come to Delhi
•The Election Commission has permitted 14 Rajya Sabha and 41 Lok Sabha members to vote in the Assemblies for the presidential election, while five MLAs will vote in Parliament on Monday.
•Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who are yet to resign from the Lok Sabha, will vote at the respective Assemblies.
•Among the Rajya Sabha members are 12 from the Trinamool Congress. BJP president Amit Shah is among the five MLAs who will vote in Parliament.
•The President is elected through an electoral college that comprises MPs and State and Union Territory MLAs. There are 543 Lok Sabha members, 233 Rajya Sabha members, and 4,120 MLAs from 29 States and two Union Territories. The total number of votes is 10,98,903. Nominated members of Parliament or the Assemblies are not eligible to vote. Besides, members of the Legislative Councils are also not electors.
•As per the election rules, political parties cannot issue any whip to their MPs and MLAs for the presidential election. The counting of votes will be done on July 20. In consultation with the Union government, the Election Commission appoints the Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, by rotation, as the Returning Officer.
📰 GST: uncertainty persists for traders, exporters
A fortnight into roll-out, poor clarity spurs order slowdown
•Two weeks have gone by since the Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into force. Yet, confusion and doubts still persist. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), exporters and traders alike are still struck by a sense of uncertainty, and are hesitant to make their first purchases or raise the first sales invoice.
•The Indian arm of Danish major Danfoss, which used to receive 25% of its monthly orders in the first week of every month, had secured orders only for 5% of the monthly average in the first week of July. Lynk Logistics, a Ramco Cements group company, which saw a huge surge in its bookings in the last week of June, is witnessing a dip in its order book.
•Members of the Madras Electrical Trades Association have forewarned about a 10% increase in the sale prices, though there has been a marginal decrease in tax rate. An upset Sivakasi Firework Association went on strike to protest against exorbitant GST tax rates. It was, however, a different matter that they withdrew the strike subsequently. Chennai-based Sivanandha Pipe Fittings, which does exports and deemed exports, has been facing short-term liquidity crisis as close to 20% of its working capital is locked in inventory.
•All these may appear as stray cases. These, nevertheless, give a clue to the after-effects of the GST roll-out.
‘Not prepared’
•The National President of All-India Manufacturers’ Organisation (AIMO), K. E. Raghunathan said that the SME sector was not fully prepared for the ‘untimely roll-out of the new tax regime’. The new order has put the SMEs in a spot, he said. They have to contend with a host of avoidable problems such as stagnation in existing orders, strapping of fund flow and non-payment of salary to workmen, according to him.
•“No one disputes the long-term benefits of GST. But the concern is on timing and methodology,” he said. “Lack of awareness, knowledge of users and software updates by service providers have only helped to confound the confusion.” Why did the Ministry take almost a week to release the app on tax rates and not before it, he asked?
•In the wake of declining sales, the Madras Electric Trades Association has called for the simplification of rules as it finds it hard to move goods from godowns to the shops without invoice.
•For Karthik Venkatesan, managing director, Sivanandha Pipe Fittings Ltd., the introduction of GST is a double whammy.
‘Locked up capital’
•“We have to pay first and then claim input tax credit later,” he said. “So, my raw material cost will go up by 18% and that amount will be locked up as IGST input tax credit. The time-frame for a refund is 120-140 days. Again, I have to import raw material, so another 18% gets locked up,... indefinitely. For a small enterprise, it will be a huge blow.”
•“Till recently, we imported seamless steel pipe on advance authorization basis without payment of basic customs duty, safeguard duty, countervailing duty and special additional duty. After the implementation of GST from June 1, these same advance authorization licences are valid for only basic customs duty and safeguard duties, with said import now attracting GST at the prevailing rate for that tariff code,” Mr. Venkatesan said.
•Till before the roll-out, the company’s sales to the merchant-exporter was cleared without payment of duty. As the product was meant to be sold outside India, no excise duty or sales tax was collected. “But things have changed now, and this will affect our liquidity”, he added.
•The Federation of Indian Export Organisations, AIMO and other export promotion councils have made representations to the Union Commerce and Finance Ministries to support small and medium enterprises by directing banks to lend the tax component as interest-free loans, along with working capital loans.
•“The need of the hour is to support exporters and grant increased access to working capital from banks to tide over this short-term liquidity crunch,” Mr. Raghunathan said.
•Even though timely refunds have been promised, practically, the cycle will take two-to-three months and this will effect the working capital requirement and cost of final products by 2.5% to 3%, said A. Sakthivel, chairman, FIEO Southern Region. The body has urged the Centre to address the issue of deemed exports at the earliest, ‘failing which SMEs will be the worst sufferers,’ he said.
•Mr. Sakthivel said that the composite drawback rates would add to the transaction costs and time. Pre-GST, exporters were allowed self-declaration of composite drawback rates. That should be continued with the same facility in the current GST regime instead of requirement of certificates from the department, he said.
📰 IBBI notifies rules for bankruptcy probe
It can investigate without intimation
•The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has powers to start probes against service providers registered with it without intimating them, according to new regulations.
•IBBI, which is implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), has notified the regulations for inspection and investigation of service providers registered with it.
•Insolvency professional agencies, professionals, entities and information utilities are considered as service providers under the Code.
•The Code, which provides for a market-determined and time-bound resolution of insolvency proceedings, became operational in December 2016.
•As per the regulations, the investigation authority has to serve a notice intimating the entity concerned about the probe at least ten days in advance. However, the requirement could be done away with on grounds such as apprehensions that the records of the particular service provider might be destroyed before the probe starts.
📰 ‘RBI push to resolve Rs. 8 lakh cr. bad loans’
Ordinance to act as trigger, says study
•Emboldened by the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to push for resolution of bad loans worth about Rs. 8 lakh crore by March 2019, a move that could bring down the non-performing assets and improve the financial health of banks, a study by Assocham said.
•“So, it should be safe to assume that the non-performing assets (NPAs) mess would largely be resolved by the first quarter of financial year 2019-20,” Assocham study titled ’NPAs Resolution: Light at the end of tunnel by March 2019’ said. This would be helped by a combination of several factors — turnaround in the economic cycle and some resolute steps by the government and the RBI to fix the issue, it said. Although entire NPAs could be put on the altar of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) resolution mechanism, it has to be seen how much and how fast they actually go out from the balance sheets of banks, which, at this point in time, seem very stressed, it said.
•NPAs are a big drain on the financial health of banks especially public sector banks (PSBs).
•For example, 27 PSBs collectively made an operating profit of Rs. 1.5 lakh crore in 2016-17, but after allowing for the provisioning for bad loans, among others, net operating profit slipped to a paltry Rs. 574 crore.
Corporate lending
•If balance sheet numbers are anything to go by, it simply brings home the fact that banks have no capacity to do fresh corporate lending that is necessary for pushing subdued private sector investment. Releasing the report, Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat said it is to be noted that the 16-month Asset Quality Review (AQR) exercise that ended in March 2017 pulled out NPAs from the closet and after this deep surgery, strong medicine was required to quickly heal the system. “So, somewhat bitter medicine came in the form of the Ordinance promulgated by the President in May.
•The government gave wide-ranging legislative powers to the Reserve Bank of India to issue directions to lenders to initiate insolvency proceedings for the recovery of bad loans that have reached unacceptably high levels,” he said.
•Soon after the notification of the ordinance amending the Banking Resolution Act 1949, the RBI eased the decision-making process in the Joint Lenders’ Forum (JLF) and Corrective Action Plan (CAP) under the ‘Framework for Revitalising Distressed Assets in the Economy.’
•To begin with, the RBI, empowered by the ordinance initiated the process of resolution and identified 12 accounts each having more than Rs. ,000 crore of outstanding loans and which accounting for 25% or nearly Rs. 2 lakh crore of total NPAs of banks for immediate referral for reaching a conclusion under the IBC.
📰 Govt. clears three export infra plans
Cargo terminal at Imphal airport, modernisation of Karnataka facility for marine exports receive nod
•With deficient infrastructure severely hurting the competitiveness of India’s exports, the Centre – for the first time under a new scheme launched in March to address the problem — has given its approval for three proposals including one to establish an Integrated Cargo Terminal (ICT) at the Imphal International Airport.
•The other applications that received the green signal from an (Inter-Ministerial) Empowered Committee (EC) chaired by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia were: modernisation of infrastructure facility in Karnataka for marine exports – where the total cost is Rs. 13.34 crore; and construction of a new ‘Standard Design Factory’ building at Cochin Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for which a total of Rs. 61.63 crore will have to be spent, official sources told The Hindu .
•The EC on ‘Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES)’ — in its first ever meeting that was held on June 9 — deferred on technical grounds an application to set up “the first dedicated facility” in India to test medical devices.
•This is proposed to be established at the Andhra Pradesh Med Tech Zone in Visakhapatnam – with four separate facilities at a total cost of about Rs. 169 crore.
•The Indian medical device market was worth about $4 billion in 2015 and exports of these items from India were close to $1 billion (in 2016).
•The EC has, however, granted an in-principle nod for a proposal to establish a ‘Coastal Cashew Research and Development Foundation’ in Karnataka, for which the total cost estimated is Rs. 10 crore.
•The cost of building the ICT at Imphal is Rs. 16.2 crore, of which the share of TIES is Rs. 12.96 crore and that of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is Rs. 3.24 crore. The AAI is learnt to have informed the EC that there was no cargo facility at the Imphal airport, and that the proposed ICT “would act as a hub for air cargo movement and air connectivity to South-East Asian countries.”
‘Rs. 600 crore allocation’
•The TIES, which is being implemented from FY18 till FY20, has a budgetary allocation of Rs. 600 crore. The scheme’s annual outlay is Rs. 200 crore.
•According to a March 2016 report on ‘Export Infrastructure in India’ by the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, “deficient infrastructure and the manner in which infrastructure is being operated (in India) are the major obstacles to ensure competitiveness in manufacturing of goods and exports thereof.”
•The report said Indian exports lose competitiveness on account of huge logistics costs. It noted that “the logistic cost in India is about 14% of the GDP whereas in advanced economies like the U.S. and the European Union, it is 8% and 10% of the GDP respectively.”
•The Standing Committee further said, “Owing to sub-optimal logistic capability, certain sectors dependent on logistics lose as much as 2% on sales return. An ASSOCHAM study conducted a few years ago shows that India runs against a disadvantage of about 11% of its trade due to deficient infrastructure.”
•According to an ASSOCHAM-Resurgent India joint study, “India can save up to $50 billion if logistics costs are brought down from 14% to 9% of country’s GDP thereby making domestic goods more competitive in global markets.” As per the Commerce Ministry, the objective of the TIES is to “enhance export competitiveness by bridging gaps in export infrastructure, creating focused export infrastructure and first-mile and last-mile connectivity.”
📰 Back to the classroom
Evidence-based policing is gaining credibility by the day — India’s police force must be exposed to it
•In a recent article in an American newspaper, the doyen among police scholars, Prof. David Bayley, expressed his anguish over what he considered to be a crisis in U.S. law enforcement. In his view this was caused mainly by three factors: race, police training and guns. There was an undeniable need for reform, but the prospects for this happening were bleak because of a multitude of factors, including the size of police forces, lack of political and community support.
•The Indian police is exactly in the same situation. People are dissatisfied with the quality of service they are getting from the grass roots. They are frustrated with the same old alibi trotted out by the police: political interference. Do rudimentary courtesy to the public at a police station, registration of an FIR when a complaint is received, and acting against harassment of women in public spaces all need political direction? Not at all. The system therefore needs drastic restructuring, beyond cosmetics, in order to make policing more professional and more acceptable to the common man. Look at what other professions have done. In my view, the analogy here should be one with public health service. Despite its many faults, cost being a main drawback, our medical services have improved vastly through sheer professionalism backed by learning from experimentation.
How to professionalise
•Those propounding evidence-based policing, a movement launched more than a decade ago both in the U.S and the U.K., often refer to success in the area of health care to strengthen the case for experiment-based law enforcement. Their plea is unexceptionable, especially in India, where the popular image of the police is not flattering. This is despite some remarkable work done by policemen at the cutting edge level. Notwithstanding some token efforts initiated by a few dynamic IPS officers in the larger cities, there is an overall reluctance to experiment with measures that could transform the police from a traditional outfit into a sleek modern force that is constantly looking for ways to upgrade delivery of its service.
•A recent international conference organised by the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University was the occasion for some serious brainstorming on the issue of how to infuse some fresh thinking into the twin problems of maintaining public order and combating conventional crime. In effect, the task was how to make the police shed their slumber and arbitrariness in reacting to field developments and make them acquire a fresh mindset to cope with the dire needs of a society under attack.
•On the face of it, the subject may appear cliched. In reality, however, the task of policing the community has become far too complex to permit the smug feeling that throwing increased manpower and use of new technology in themselves would be enough to steady a deteriorating situation. If this were so, policing all over the world would be in clover. The fact is, even in countries that have a strong legacy of clinical public administration, there is increasing disenchantment with the way the police handle major crises. This again leads us to only one question: can things improve with a greater scientific approach, and not necessarily the use of gadgets, to day-to-day police operations?
•Simply put, policing has acquired many new connotations and a certain immediacy which cannot brook any delay. Terrorism and cyber attacks in particular are heightening the levels of fear of the community. How well have the police responded to this serious challenge to stability?
Stop muddling along
•Talking to friends in the police across countries and continents, I get the feeling that many police leaders have thrown in the towel and are just muddling along. I may be accused of generalising and being cynical, but the basic truth is that policing has become far too routine and mechanical at a time when there is need for a drastically different response to events. Reactive policing was adequate to a community as long as it had its fundamentals unshaken. We are now living in tumultuous times, where violent crime grips major cities across the globe. How else would you account for the increasing number of homicides in an otherwise placid State such as Tamil Nadu? Here, anyone speaking against a rival political faction or a rival caste group now faces imminent threat. This in a region where there was until recently a fear of the law and an esteem for the police’s capacity to swoop on the offenders in quick time. Now, hired goons rule the day, and the police are afraid of them.
•Styled as a conference on evidence-based policing (EBP), the gathering of academics and active police leaders at Cambridge endorsed the imperative to fine-tune traditional styles, which placed an emphasis solely on the mechanical use of police resources rather than an intelligent application of available skills.
•Known as the father of EBP, Prof. Lawrence Sherman, the leading light of the Institute of Criminology, is a relentless crusader, who holds that mindless policing to appease the polity is wasteful and misdirected. He and his fellow scholars are pushing for rigorous experiments on the field and appraising their findings against the realities of the daily fight against crime. In their view, a controlled experiment will throw up any number of facts that could help sharpen police professionalism. They draw from the remarkable progress that medical science has made in recent decades by encouraging bold experiments.
Prediction and prevention
•There are two areas in which EBP could deliver. These are prediction and prevention. The strategy is one of identifying ‘hot spots’ of crime and spotting problematic individuals in a community. The former task requires an analysis of events which are either crimes by themselves or border on crimes defined by law. There are certain geographic areas in each police jurisdiction which report more incidents than others. EBP goes beyond statistics and pinpoints the time and opportunities presented to a potential offender. As the seminal essay ‘Broken Windows’ carried by the Atlantic magazine several years ago pointed out, where there is public apathy and civic neglect, the prospects of crime are high. Fixing a street light that is not burning for several days, for instance, is an action that could contain crime. EBP studies phenomena such as these and highlights findings that are germane to crime prevention. Similarly, monitoring patterns of behaviour of a class of individuals who had come to the adverse notice of law enforcement is a logical way to predict whether they will again lapse into crime. Despite the unfairness in targeting those who had indulged in anti-social behaviour in the past and keeping a tab on their day-to-day activities, there is an expected benefit of being able to predict future criminal behaviour. It is not as if every convict will go back to crime once set free. Several studies have strengthened the belief that recidivism is not uncommon, and that many future crimes can be foiled by pinpointing who, more than others, could be expected to offend once more. There is a certain inexactitude in this approach that one should learn to live with.
•These are the fundamentals to EBP, a discipline that is gaining credibility by the day. To dismiss it as pure academic hogwash would be irrational and blind to a fast deteriorating scene marked by high crime. I strongly believe that exposing our police officers to this concept would make them more professional, something that would certainly enhance the Indian police’s image, which is currently dismal.
📰 The past catches up
The SC rightly rules that extra-judicial killings cannot be overlooked owing to lapse of time
•By ordering an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into more than 80 cases of suspected extra-judicial killings in Manipur, the Supreme Court has reiterated the principle of accountability as an essential part of the rule of law. These cases involved either suspected fake encounters or the use of excessive or retaliatory force. The court has rightly rebuffed an attempt by the government to stall any probe into these deaths on the ground that they were too old to be raked up now. It has taken the view that the killing of a person who was possibly innocent cannot be overlooked owing to mere lapse of time. The state cannot take advantage of its own inaction and scuttle a probe by citing the delay as a reason. Last year, the court had ruled that the armed forces cannot escape investigation for excesses even in places where they enjoy special powers, and that the legal protection provided by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, will have to yield to the principles of human rights. It is surprising that even after this ruling on petitions demanding an inquiry into 1,528 deaths in counter-insurgency operations in Manipur, the Attorney General had argued against the court ordering an investigation into some specific instances. In fact, he had come up with the unpalatable argument that inquiries conducted by the authorities in Manipur were biased in favour of the citizens owing to local pressure and the ground situation. The court stood firm in its assessment, deprecating the suggestion that all inquiries were biased and motivated.
•The court’s order is yet another reminder that AFSPA has contributed to the climate of impunity in States where it is in force, especially in Manipur, and this may trigger a fresh demand for its repeal. The situation under AFSPA is so hostile to the concept of human rights that in many of these cases there was no inquiry at all. In some instances, the First Information Report was against the victim and not against the alleged perpetrators. It will not be easy for the investigators to get to the bottom of these incidents. It is possible that the special team to be constituted by the CBI Director will find witnesses hard to come by and face difficulties in gathering evidence in many cases. However, that cannot be a reason for denying or putting off a formal criminal investigation as required in law. Justice will be served if there is successful prosecution in at least some cases. Another worrying aspect in the domain of human rights is that the National Human Rights Commission has been reduced to a “toothless tiger”. It is grossly understaffed despite its increasing workload, and many State governments show little respect for its guidelines and instructions. The court’s directive that the Centre take note of the NHRC’s concerns and remedy the situation could not have come a day too soon.
📰 When too much is too little
The issue of food wastage must be fully understood, so that an effective strategy can be drawn up
•When Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought up the issue of food wastage on his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme about two months ago, he endorsed a valid point when he asked people not to waste food. Though he raised an extremely critical issue of national importance, he could also have used the occasion to propose some government-led mechanism to handle it.
•He was right to an extent when he linked food wastage to people’s behaviour. However, there are wastages which happen in any case due to food’s perishability and the absence of an effective distribution mechanism and legal framework. Looking at the scale of problems, it is wise to frame a comprehensive strategy by combining the efforts of the government and private sectors and civil society. The government can create a time-bound task force under Niti Aayog, with experts from different sectors, to frame a national policy to tackle this gigantic issue, which can recommend the legal framework to support initiatives to reduce food loss and waste. As a nation, we need to give priority to tackling this issue so that we can handle the social, economic and environmental ill-effects of wastage of food.
One third of food wasted
•According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), “One third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year.” It also states: “Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production to final household consumption.” The losses, it says, represent “a waste of resources used in production such as land, water, energy and inputs, increasing the green gas emissions in vain”.
•Food wastage has multiple socio-economic and environmental impacts. In a country like India, not only is food scarce for many poor families, it is a luxury for many others. Though hunger cannot be tackled directly by preventing food wastage, a substantial amount of food that is wasted in our country can feed many hungry people. India ranked 97th among 118 countries in the Global Hunger Index for 2016. About 20 crore people go to bed hungry and 7,000 people die of hunger every day; wastage of food is not less than a social delinquency. According to one estimate, 21 million tonnes of wheat are wasted in India every year. A recent study by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, revealed that only 10% of food is covered by cold storage facilities in India. This, coupled with poor supply-chain management, results in significant wastage, both at pre- and post-harvest stages, of cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables.
•The wastage of food entails loss of considerable amount of resources in the form of inputs used during production. For example, 25% of fresh water and nearly 300 million barrels of oil used to produce food are ultimately wasted.
•The increasing wastage also results in land degradation by about 45%, mainly due to deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, and excessive groundwater extraction. Wastage results in national economic loss. To put a monetary value to the loss in terms of wastage, India loses Rs. 58,000 crore every year, to quote The CSR Journal .
•The energy spent over wasted food results in 3.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide production every year. Decay also leads to harmful emission of other gases in the atmosphere; for instance, decaying of rice produces methane. Food waste emissions have a major impact on climate change and result in greater carbon footprint.
Laws to encourage donation
•Many countries have legislation providing for global best practices, such as the 1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act in the U.S., which was intended to encourage donation of food and grocery products that meet quality and labelling standards by protecting the donor and the recipient agency against liability, except in the case of gross negligence and/or intentional misconduct. France has taken a lead by becoming the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities or food banks or send it to the farmers to be used as fertilisers in crop production.
•In India, there are many civil society, private sector and community initiatives aimed at distributing food among the poor. The government is also committed to securing availability of food grains for two-thirds of the 1.3 billion population, under the National Food Security Act, 2013. While securing food for all or feeding them through such initiatives is important, addressing wastage of food in all forms is equally critical to complete the cycle of food sufficiency and food sustainability. There are initiatives such as India Food Banking Network (IFBN), which is promoting the concept of collaborative consumption with support from the private sector and civil society organisations. Such initiatives, creating networks and channels of distribution between those who have surplus food and those who are in need of them, are necessary.
•The government needs to do more and should play a larger facilitating role. The Prime Minister’s call to the nation needs to be followed up with further interventions. There is an urgent need to understand the complexity of the problem and then to devise a national-level strategy to combat it so that surplus of food can be turned into an advantage instead of resulting in wastage. Hunger and food wastage are two sides of the coin. The cycle of hunger cannot be broken without channelising the wasted food to help the needy. Without stopping wastage of food, we cannot do justice to millions of hungry people, our economy and the planet.
📰 A looming threat
All children diagnosed with TB must get paediatric fixed-dose combination drugs
•About 5,500 of over 76,000 children tested in nine Indian cities have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, 9% of them with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), highlighting the silent spread of the disease. Though the actual prevalence of MDR-TB among children in India is not known, the results from a limited number of children tested in this sample, under the Revised National TB Control Programme, is worrying. According to a 2015 study, of the over 600 children who had tested positive for TB in four cities, about 10% showed resistance to Rifampicin, a first-line drug. Since the incidence of TB among children is a reflection of the prevalence of the disease in the community at large, the high prevalence of both drug-sensitive TB and drug-resistant TB in children from these nine cities is a grim reminder of the failure of the health-care system to diagnose the disease early enough in adults and start them on treatment. Very often, children who test positive for TB have been in close contact with adults with the disease in the same household. With up to a couple of months’ delay in diagnosing the disease being the norm, there is a continuing threat of TB spreading among household contacts and in the larger community. In line with World Health Organisation guidelines, the RNTCP requires all household contacts, particularly children, of a newly diagnosed pulmonary TB patient to be tested and started on treatment if needed. Children below six years of age in the household of a newly diagnosed patient are required to be given the drug Isoniazid as a prophylactic even when they do not have the disease.
•A proactive approach to testing helps in early and correct diagnosis of all contacts and in cutting the transmission chain. Unfortunately, as several studies have shown, the RNTCP guidelines on contact screening are heeded mostly in the breach. The results from this limited study should now compel the government to take up contact screening more urgently. In 2010, WHO had revised the dosage of certain TB drugs for children. Fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs that take into account the revised dosages for children were finally made available in late 2015. The FDCs are meant for treating children with drug-susceptible TB and cannot be used to treat children who require second-line drugs or who have MDR-TB. After more than a year’s delay, a few months ago India finally introduced FDCs in six States. The remaining States will be covered by the end of this year. Adherence to treatment will improve, and correct dosage for children weighing less than 25 kg will become easier when child-friendly FDCs become available throughout the country. Using the Xpert molecular diagnostic test to screen children with TB is a positive step and should be welcomed, but all the diagnosed children should be guaranteed paediatric FDCs. It would be unethical to deny them this lifeline.
