📰 Search for a highly potent Anti Snake Venom
There is only one venom extraction centre in the country, in Tamil Nadu
•The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT) is researching the venom of snakes from different Indian regions in order to create a highly potent Anti Snake Venom (ASV). Last week, well known herpetologist Romulus Whitaker and his team were in Maharashtra to collect venom samples from four snake species that cause the most number of snakebite deaths in India. The team had earlier collected samples from Kerala and Punjab; permissions from the Forest Departments of a few more States are being sought.
•A highly potent ASV is crucial for two reasons. First, it will offer better relief for snakebite victims. Second, it will reduce the quantity of ASV required for treatment — ASVs, produced after an intensive and long process, are currently not highly effective. There is only one venom extraction centre in the country, which functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Tamil Nadu. Venom supplied to about half a dozen ASV-producing companies comes from this region.
•Also, “We now know that snake venom varies regionally even within the same species. The aim of the ongoing research project is to determine the efficacy of the existing ASV against these venoms collected from various parts of the country,” said Ajay Kartik, co-ordinator, Snakebite Mitigation Project, MCBT. “This information could be used to upgrade the existing anti venom to become more effective pan India.”
•According to Mr. Kartik, small quantities of venom was collected from over 70 snakes in various parts of Maharashtra such as Roha, Alibag, Mahad, Baramati, Sangli and Thane. “We collected about 500 ml. from cobras and Russell’s vipers, and 50 ml. kraits and saw-scaled vipers, in total, after obtaining permits from the Maharashtra Forest Department, with the cooperation of snake rescuers across the State,” he added. The collected snake venom is stored at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. The study will begin after a few more States are covered and a considerable sample size is gathered.
Tedious process
•The tedious process of producing ASV involves injecting venom from four different species of snakes into horses. A few weeks later, blood from the injected horses is collected and plasma separated from it. While the remaining blood components are routed back to the horse, the purified form of the plasma is the ASV. Most companies offer the ASV in a powder form for better shelf life. From injecting the venom to the formation of the ASV, the process takes slightly more than one year. One horse can produce up to 50 vials of ASV depending on the weight of the animal.
•“But due to the low potency of the ASV, at times we require more than 40 vials to neutralise the venom in a snakebite patient,” said Mahad-based Dr. H.S. Bawaskar, an expert on snake and scorpion bites. He said that, at present, a Russell’s Viper bite victim requires about 40 vials of ASV; victims of cobra and krait bites require 20 vials, while a Saw Scaled Viper bite victim requires about five vials in Maharashtra.
•“This is mainly because the venom of snakes in Maharashtra varies from the ones in Tamil Nadu. If we have an effective ASV, we can reduce its usage by more than 50%,” said Dr. Bawaskar, adding that the hospital stay of a victim also ranges from two days to a month, depending on how soon treatment is sought and whether the organs have been affected with venom. “A potent ASV will also help in the faster recovery of patients,” he added.
More in monsoon
•Before administering an ASV, the physician injects about 10 ml. of distilled water into the vial and then transfers it to a saline solution that is administered to the patient intravenously. During the monsoon, Dr. Bawaskar sees 30-35 snakebite victims in a month; the number falls by 50% in other months.
•A 2011 study carried out by the Registrar General of India pegged annual deaths by snakebite to nearly 50,000. But government records say that only about 1,200-1,300 people die of snakebites every year. Besides mortality, snakebite survivors often have to live with severe morbidity, including tissue damage and necrosis, amputations, and kidney failure.
📰 VVPAT to be used in Gujarat polls
•The Election Commission of India will use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) gadgets with Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in all 50,128 voting booths in Gujarat, which goes to the Assembly polls at the end of this year.
•“This is the first time an entire assembly poll will be conducted using EVMs equipped with VVPAT,” Chief Electoral Officer B.B. Swain told mediapersons in Gandhinagar on Thursday.
•VVPAT machines, which will be attached to the EVMs, will allow voters to verify if their vote has gone to the intended candidate. This would ensure transparency in the voting process, the Chief Electoral Officer said.
•The machine is being put to use in Gujarat following a petition filed by Reshma Patel, one of the conveners of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti.
📰 Hope in Darjeeling
The Union and West Bengal governments and the GJM must urgently begin tripartite talks
•With a breakthrough ending the 104-day-long blockade in the Darjeeling hills, the Union and West Bengal governments must move forthwith to consolidate the ‘truce’ and address the setback to livelihoods and the local economy suffered over this period. The announcement on ending the bandh came from Bimal Gurung of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which had led the agitation. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s appeal to the protesters and his tentative offer of talks brought about this turnaround, but it is his specific mention of the beleaguered Mr. Gurung, who has been on the run from the West Bengal police, that made the difference. The blockade had severely hit life in the hill districts, and it is clear that local support for the agitation was waning. A section of the GJM, led by Binay Tamang, had shown an inclination to negotiate with the State government. In a move to cash in on the differences within the GJM, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had, a week ago, named Mr. Tamang the chairperson of a new board of administrators to head the now-defunct Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, which had been set up in 2012 as a semi-autonomous body with substantive powers. This followed statements from Mr. Tamang asking for a pause in the stir pending talks between the State government and rebel GJM members and allies. Mr. Gurung now found an opening in Mr. Singh’s appeal. While the Minister did not commit to “tripartite talks” on the separate statehood issue as demanded by the GJM, he promised discussions on other issues while impliedly recognising the leadership of the official faction. That the blockade truly ended after Mr. Gurung’s call suggests that the official faction of the GJM enjoys considerably more support in the hills than the rebels.
•The current impasse is a direct outcome of the failure to substantively devolve power to the GTA as promised. While this summer’s agitation was sparked by grievances over Ms. Banerjee’s initial statement about Bengali being made a compulsory language of study in the State, the stir revived the demand for statehood. Put together, the maximalist position of the agitators, the discomfort within the BJP government at the Centre on officially responding to such aspirations, and Ms. Banerjee’s ploy of using the issue to sharpen a Bengali chauvinist appeal in the rest of the State to gain more support for her Trinamool Congress, all contributed to the stalemate. Mr. Singh’s appeal provided a face-saver to the GJM. The State government has suggested that it is not averse to tripartite talks over some of the GJM’s demands, but it is not clear whether Ms. Banerjee will agree to talk to Mr. Gurung. Talks involving the Centre, the State government and the GJM are, however, essential. This is the best mechanism to discuss the empowerment of the GTA, which is necessary to address the grievances of the residents of Darjeeling.
📰 India signs MoU to train Afghan police
Chief Executive Abdullah meets PM
•India and Afghanistan exchanged a memorandum of understanding on Thursday, which will see Afghan police forces trained in India for the first time. The agreement followed a meeting between Afghanistan Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.
•“Prime Minister [Modi] reiterated India's commitment to extend full support to Afghanistan's efforts for building a peaceful, united, prosperous, inclusive and democratic Afghanistan,” said a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs.
•“The two leaders exchanged views on the security environment in Afghanistan and the extended region, and, in this context, agreed to continue close coordination and cooperation,” the statement added.
•As The Hindu had reported last week, the MoU on Technical Cooperation on Police Training and Development will see India expand its capacity building of Afghan troops to include policemen and security forces, who are facing the brunt of Taliban attacks in the country, under a UN Development Programme project.
•Dr. Abdullah’s visit was delayed by a day due to a sustained rocket attack on Kabul airport even as U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis landed there. The attacks also prevented Dr. Abdullah from inaugurating the India-Afghanistan trade and investment exhibition in New Delhi, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development.
•Dr. Abdullah, who is in India on a “working-visit”, also met with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and President Ram Nath Kovind, and discussed deals under the Strategic Partnership Council this month, which included an Indian commitment to 116 “New Development Projects” as well as enhanced security cooperation.
📰 Centre to review flexi-fares on select trains, says Goyal
Around 700 trains set to run faster: Railway Minister
•The Union government will review the flexi-fare system introduced in premium trains last year, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
•The Railways were also planning to reset its timetable by reducing the travel time for 600-700 trains through rescheduling and increasing speed, he said. “We are holding discussions to review flexi-fare system in a way that passengers do not face inconvenience and the Railways are also able to meet its revenues. There are chances of a few changes in the flexi-fare system,” Mr. Goyal said at a press conference.
•Minister of State Railways Manoj Sinha said the government was not considering any hike in the rail fares at present.
•The Railways introduced the flexi-fare scheme in September last year in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains, under which 10% of the seats were sold at normal fare. The fare was increased thereafter by 10% for every 10% of the berths sold. The highest fare was 50% more than the normal price of the ticket.
•The Railways had delayed the release of its timetable by a month to November 1 to redraft it focussing on speed and efficiency. The Railways are also in discussions with the Indian Space Research Organisation to use GPS technology to monitor trains for punctuality.
•“My preliminary assessment is that travel time will be reduced on 600-700 trains when we increase train speed and rewrite the timetable via organisation research keeping in mind efficiency and better utilisation of rail assets,” Mr. Goyal said, adding that around 48 ordinary mail or express trains would be upgraded to “superfast services.”
Maintenance work
•The timetable would also be realigned keeping railway safety in mind so that stoppage of traffic for maintenance work gets priority.
•“We have ordered that whenever a safety team demands a traffic block, it should be immediately given,” Mr. Goyal said.
•This move holds importance in the light of derailment of the Utkal Express near the Khatauli railway station in Uttar Pradesh that killed at least 21 people and injured more than 90 in August. The preliminary investigation had found that the Khatauli station officials did not allow stoppage of traffic for repairs and the maintenance team started working on the track without due permission.
📰 FM urges CPSEs to spend ‘aggressively’
Increased capital expenditure by public sector enterprises can boost investment in economy: Jaitley
•Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday asked central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to aggressively push capital expenditure and warned against any slackness as the government looks to boost growth through increased public spending.
•While reviewing the capital expenditure plans of important CPSEs, estimated at Rs. 3.85 lakh crore, the minister also asked them to give “liberal dividends” to the government so that the money could be used for funding physical-social infrastructure.
•The meeting took place against the backdrop subdued private investments and sagging growth, which slowed to a three-year low of 5.7% in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
•Heads of major CPSEs in sectors like petroleum, defence, power, road transport, railways, coal, mines, steel and atomic energy have assured the government of raising capital expenditure by an additional Rs. 25,000 crore, the finance ministry in a release.
•“Finance Minister, while addressing the Secretaries and CMDs, stressed that the CPSEs may not only complete their budgeted capital expenditure but should also look to aggressively push capital expenditure in the interest of boosting investment in Indian economy,” it said.
•Mr. Jaitley, while appreciating the commitments of the ministries and CPSEs, assured that the government would make available adequate resources but “no slackness under any circumstances would be acceptable“.
•He indicated that the capital expenditure programme would again be reviewed at the end of November/early December, the statement said. It added that in the discussions for raising capital investments, it also came to attention that most public sector undertakings have very low or no debt on their balance sheet which is reflected in their low debt to equity ratios.
‘Pay liberal dividends’
•“CPSEs were, therefore, asked to raise more debt and not to rely entirely on cash and free reserves for finding new investments and capital expenditure,” the release said.
•The CPSEs which have free reserves and surplus cash “were asked to consider declaring liberal dividends” so as to promote more productive use of such resources for financing much needed physical and social infrastructure, the finance ministry’s statement said.
•The CPSEs were also asked to release outstanding payments expeditiously to help improve the liquidity in the market, besides raising more resources through innovative financing arrangements like InvITs, and monetisation of assets.
•After the meeting, Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) CMD M. V. Gowtama said: “Already year-on-year capex has been increased by CPSEs. The government is ensuring we are on track... We have already given ambitious projects, they [government] are reviewing it.”
•Since private investment is low, public spending along with investment from CPSEs is expected to drive economic activities and help perk up growth.
📰 GST: small firms may get time to file returns
Centre mulling plan for quarterly filing
•The Centre is considering a proposal from the industry to allow small firms to file quarterly returns even as they pay taxes on a monthly basis under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
•This follows the troubles these small firms are having regarding complying with the GST norms due to their limitations in getting professional help, lack of connectivity and technological glitches.
•Sources said discussions were on regarding the threshold limit for small firms who could be granted such a relaxation.
‘Lack IT infrastructure’
•Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said in a statement that, “filing of GST return may be made on a quarterly basis, as against the current monthly filing requirement as the MSME sector is still not well equipped with the IT infrastructure and a qualified manpower; this small measure will help bring them into the GST mainstream.”
•The suggestion was made at finance minister Arun Jaitley’s meeting on Thursday with industry bodies and exporters to address their GST-related problems. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) raised demands including seeking exemption for merchant exporters from GST.
•“Merchant exporters account for over 30% of country’s exports who usually work on razor thin margins of 2-4%,” FIEO said in a statement. “The imposition of GST has made their costing go haywire, particularly for products having higher GST rate, as they have to pay GST and seek refund after some time lag.”
•They also wanted the Centre to expedite GST refunds to help them tide over the liquidity crunch. “... even in the best of situation, input tax credit refund would not be available before the first week of November,” FIEO said.
‘Financial wherewithal’
•“Most of the exporters, particularly from MSME category, hardly have financial wherewithal to pay GST liabilities for three months without having refund in the meantime.”
•“For ease of doing business especially for the MSME, provisional input tax credit period may be extended to 6 months from the current 2 months’ period; this will help cross matching of invoices through the GSTN portal and also save the blockage of the working capital for the small players,” said the CII’s Mr. Banerjee.
•Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) Council Member Satwinder Singh said concerns regarding reverse charge mechanism (RCM) and refund were raised in the meeting.
•“Under RCM, threshold exemption for payment of tax may be increased from the present Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 50,000 which shall help ease burden of excessive compliances especially for the MSME players,” the CII suggested. “Format of returns may also be simplified and only basic core details may be required to be furnished,” the CII added.
📰 ‘Banks may risk losing Rs. 3,800 cr. from cards’
Digital push could hurt lenders: report
•The Centre’s digital payments push, mainly card payments through PoS machines, may leave already capital starved banks bleeding by Rs. 3,800 crore annually, warns a report.
•After November’s note-ban, the government has pushed banks into deploying millions of point-of-sale (PoS) machines to encourage online payments.
•This has resulted in increase in debit plus credit cards transactions at PoS from Rs. 51,900 crore in October 2016 to Rs. 68,500 crore in July 2017.
•“We estimate that for OFF-US transactions, the aggregate annual loss for card transactions at PoS terminals is around Rs. 4,700 crore. However, the net revenue gain per annum from ON-US transactions at PoS would be around Rs. 900 crore only.
•“Therefore, the total annual loss to the industry is around Rs. 3,800 crore,” SBI Research said in a report.
📰 Will Swachh Bharat Abhiyan be a success?
The mission for a clean India will not work without breaking the link between caste and occupation
•In the third year since its launch, the purpose of Swachh Bharat is still not clear. We have to understand one thing: this entire campaign is to make India clean. But the people who actually make the countryswachh(clean), and have kept itswachhso far, have been left behind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to achieve this goal without their participation.
The caste link
•To clean the country, you have to address the problems of those who have spent a lifetime cleaning the country. You come out with your brooms and clean for a day. It is a photo opportunity for most of you. But I want to ask, what of the remaining 364 days? Who will clean your dirt? In India, there is an inexorable link between occupation and caste; the occupation of manual scavenging is linked with caste. We have to break the link between caste and occupation before we set out to achieve Swachh Bharat. It cannot be achieved by preaching ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’. You have made certain communities from particular castes clean the country. If that were not the case, why is it that for the last 4,000 years, the same communities are cleaning the countryside? Without breaking the chain, those who make Bharatswachhwill never be a part of the campaign. You will be projecting an illusion and to promote that, you will conceive of campaigns where the success of the illusion will depend on how well you promote it.
•The Prime Minister has already missed the target before he set out to achieve the goal. He has to come out openly and say that caste is the root cause of the problem he wishes to annihilate. He has to say that despite the Constitution declaring the abolition of untouchability in Article 17, it is still practised by perpetuating occupations such as scavenging. The cause has not been made clear by the Prime Minister. Cleaning India is not a spiritual experience and he should not glorify it. In the Indian context, manual scavenging is a misery, drudgery, so one cannot worship it. Can a manual scavenger worship his occupation by cleaning someone’s faeces? One has to begin by recasting society and its target, reconstructing society first by breaking the links between occupation castes. Slogans like ‘Clean-up India’ are an illusion.
Shaming no solution
•People are not using toilets because they neither have access nor the capacity to use one. You cannot organise campaigns to shame them. If your priority is the poor, let them choose what they want. The Constitution says the state cannot interfere in people’s lives. But by appointing whistle-blowers who shame those who do not use toilets, the state is terrorising people.
•Then, let us come to the toilets being constructed. Each toilet requires a septic tank. My question is, who will clean the septic tank? Instead of modernising the sewer lines and septic tanks and investing money and energy on smart techniques of sanitation, you are adding more problems to the existing problem. You have no concern for those who are dying cleaning sewers. People who have given up their lives in keeping Bharat clean, you have not spoken about their Right to Life. All of this shows the insensitivity in setting this goal. The sewers are being cleaned by those very people shamed in the campaign. Every month, there is news about people dying in manholes after being ordered to clean them. Why hasn’t any thought gone into mechanised cleaning of manholes in the city? Why is it the job of the most depressed man to clean up and lose his life in the process?
📰 Expanding the common ground
James Mattis’ visit buttressed the growing India-U.S. convergence on regional and global security issues
•Hours after U.S. Secretary of Defence James Mattis landed in Kabul, he was welcomed with six rockets landing near Kabul’s international airport, as if to remind Washington what’s at stake in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. This visit came weeks after the Trump administration unveiled its South Asia strategy which in many ways marks a radical departure from the past by putting Pakistan on notice and bringing India to the centre stage of Washington’s Afghanistan policy.
•This was reinforced by Gen. Mattis during his visit to India this week when he suggested India and the U.S. would work together to fight terrorism. “There can be no tolerance of terrorist safe havens,” he said. “As global leaders, India and the United States resolve to work together to eradicate this scourge.” While announcing his new Afghanistan policy, U.S. President Donald Trump had mentioned, “We appreciate India’s important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the U.S., and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development.”
•In line with this, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made it clear that while “there shall not be boots from India on the ground in Afghanistan,” New Delhi will be stepping up its development and capacity-building engagement with Afghanistan.
Wider role in Kabul
•India has decided to take up 116 “high-impact community developmental projects” in 31 provinces of Afghanistan. India and Afghanistan have also agreed to “strengthen security cooperation”, with New Delhi agreeing “to extend further assistance for the Afghan national defence and security forces in fighting the scourge of terrorism, organised crime, trafficking of narcotics and money laundering”. India will be training Afghan police officers along with Afghan soldiers. This is aimed at sending out a message to Pakistan, which continues to assert that India has “zero political and military role” in Afghanistan.
•After handing over four attack helicopters to Kabul as part of its assistance package, India is keen to expand the scope of its security cooperation with Afghanistan which had remained limited in the past not only due to geographical constraints, but also due to Washington’s desire to limit India’s security engagement in the country.
•The U.S. is sending about 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan, most of which are preparing to arrive in the coming weeks. “A lot is riding on this of course as we look toward how do we put an end to this fighting and the threat of terrorism to the Afghan people,” Gen. Mattis said in Kabul. “We are here to set the military and security conditions for that but recognise ultimately the responsibility for the Afghan leadership to step up and fully own the war.”
•The convergence between India and the U.S. on Pakistan has evolved at an extraordinary pace. The Trump administration’s hard-line approach on Pakistan’s support for terrorism comes at a time when New Delhi has led an active global campaign to marginalise Islamabad and bring its role as a state sponsor of terror to the forefront of the global community. During Gen. Mattis’s visit, Ms. Sitharaman reminded the U.S. that “the very same forces which did find safe haven in Pakistan were the forces that hit New York as well as Mumbai”. Mr. Trump had made it clear that Washington “can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organisations, the Taliban and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond”. The Xiamen BRICS declaration earlier this month also listed Pakistan-based terror organisations for the first time. It is not surprising, therefore, that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister has had to admit that terrorist Hafiz Saeed and terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) are a “liability” for his country and for the South Asian region.
Stronger ties with U.S.
•The visit of Gen. Mattis also underscored the growing salience of defence ties in shaping the trajectory of Indo-U.S. relations. Washington is no longer coy about selling sensitive military technologies to India. China’s growing assertiveness in the wider Indo-Pacific is a shared concern and this was reflected in the reiteration by the two countries of the critical importance of freedom of navigation, overflight and unimpeded lawful commerce in the global commons. Bilateral defence ties have been growing in recent years, “underpinned by a strategic convergence”. As Gen. Mattis suggested, the U.S. is looking forward to “sharing some of our most advanced defence technologies” with India “to further deepen the robust defence trade and technology collaboration between our defence industries.”
•The sale of 22 Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial Systems, which was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S. earlier this year, is high on the agenda. With this deal, the Indian Navy will not only acquire the world’s most advanced maritime reconnaissance drone, it will also lead to greater defence technology sharing.
•As India and the U.S. expand military cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, new alignments are emerging which have the potential to reshape the regional security architecture. In the past, India had been reluctant to play an active role in East and Southeast Asia. Now as part of its ‘Act East’ policy, India’s engagement with the region has become more robust and Washington has been encouraging India to shape the regional strategic realities more potently. At a time when regional security in the wider Indo-Pacific has taken a turn for the worse, the U.S. is looking at India to shore up its presence in the region. And India, driven by China’s growing profile around its periphery, is keen to take up that challenge.
•Gen. Mattis’s visit has highlighted the growing convergence between the U.S. and India on key regional and global security issues. As the two nations move ahead with their ambitious plans, the challenge will be to sustain the present momentum given the myriad distractions that Washington and New Delhi have to contend with.
