📰 Proxima Centauri may host planetary system
Scientists detect dust belts around it
•Scientists have detected dust belts around Proxima Centauri, a finding that indicates the presence of an elaborate planetary system hosted by the closest star to the solar system.
•New observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile revealed the glow coming from cold dust in a region between one to four times as far from Proxima Centauri as the Earth is from the Sun.
•The data also hints at the presence of an even cooler outer dust belt and may indicate the presence of a system of planets. These structures are similar to the much larger belts in the solar system and are also expected to be made from particles of rock and ice that failed to form planets.
•Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun. It is a faint red dwarf lying just four light years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus.
•It is orbited by the Earth-sized temperate world Proxima b, discovered in 2016 and the closest exoplanet to the solar system. However, there is more to this system than just a single planet.
•The new ALMA observations reveal emission from clouds of cold cosmic dust surrounding the star.
📰 Mammals gave up night life only after dinosaur doom
This evolution would explain why relatively few in this class of animals follow a daytime-active or ‘diurnal’ lifestyle today, says study
•The earliest mammals were night creatures, which only emerged from the cover of darkness after the demise of the daytime-dominating dinosaurs, researchers said on Monday.
•This would explain why relatively few mammals follow a daytime-active or “diurnal” lifestyle today, and why most that do still have eyes and ears more suitable for living by night.
•“Most mammals today are nocturnal and possess adaptations to survive in dark environments,” study co-author Roi Maor of the Tel Aviv University said.
•“Monkeys and apes [including humans] are the only diurnal mammals that have evolved eyes that are similar to the other diurnal animals like birds or reptiles. Other diurnal mammals have not developed such profound adaptations,” he said.
•Mr. Maor and a team provide evidence for a long-standing theory that tens of millions of years of evading dinosaurs caused a nocturnal “bottleneck” in the evolution of mammals — the group of warm-blooded, milk-producing creatures that includes our own species.
•Because they hid out in darkness for so long, possibly to avoid competition with dinosaurs for food or territory, or being eaten by them, mammals today are not quite on par with fish, reptiles and birds when it comes to daytime vision.
•Mammals, apart from primates, lack a part of the eye known as the fovea, which many fish, reptiles and birds have and is replete with photoreceptor “cone” cells for seeing colour in high light.
•Instead, they tend to have more “rod” cells, which can pick up scant light in dim conditions, but provide relatively low resolution.
•Modern-day mammals, which are active mostly by day — including types of squirrel, tree-shrews, some antelope and many carnivores — also still tend to have a keen sense of smell and acute hearing, attributes required for living in the dark.
Computer algorithms
•Mr. Maor and a team analysed the lifestyles of 2,415 living mammal species, and used computer algorithms to reconstruct the likely behaviour of their ancestors, and their ancestors before them — going back to the very beginning of mammals.
•The earliest mammal ancestor emerged between 220 million and 160 million years ago, evolving from a reptilian forebear. And it was probably nocturnal, according to the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
•Dinosaurs, on the other hand, were likely day-dwellers seeking out sunlight to warm their bodies like reptiles today.
•The data revealed that mammals remained nocturnal throughout the Mesozoic period, which ended about 66 million years ago when a massive calamity, possibly an asteroid strike, wiped out the dinosaurs and about three-quarters of life on Earth.
•Mammals, then mainly small, scurrying animals, survived, and flourished.
Primates first
•Most stayed nocturnal, some embraced the daytime, and others, including cats, elephants and cows, are today a bit of both.
•Primate ancestors were among the first mammals to become strictly diurnal, possibly as long as 52 million years ago, the researchers found.
•This explains why our primate family is better adapted to the sunlit way of life — we have had more time to evolve and adapt.
📰 Probe ordered into Paradise Papers
Centre reconstitutes Multi-Agency Group to investigate disclosures on offshore accounts of 714 Indians
•The government reconstituted a Multi-Agency Group led by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman on Monday to investigate cases relating to the ‘Paradise Papers’ data disclosure.
•The Paradise Papers include about seven million loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork over nearly 50 years from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and also from Asiacity, a Singapore-based family-owned trust company.
•The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and its Indian partner The Indian Express, late on Sunday night released data on offshore entities involving people and companies from 180 countries.
•India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names that feature in the papers.
•The disclosure comes 18 months after a similar ‘Panama Papers’ disclosure, which named several prominent Indian politicians, actors, and businessmen as having offshore undisclosed bank accounts.
A few names so far
•While 714 Indians are said to be part of the list, the government noted that the names of “only a few Indians [legal entities as well as individuals] have appeared so far” in the public domain.
•“Even the ICIJ website (www.icij.org) has not yet released the names and other particulars of all the entities,” the Finance Ministry said.
Information in phases
•“The website of ICIJ suggests that information will be released in phases and structured data connected to the Paradise Papers investigation will be released only in the coming weeks on its Offshore Leaks Database.”
•“The Investigation units of the Income Tax Department (ITD) have been alerted to take note of revelations for immediate appropriate action,” the Ministry said in a statement.
•“It has been reported that many cases of offshore entities are already under investigation on fast track. As soon as further information surfaces, swift action as per law will follow.”
•“Further, the Government has directed that investigations in cases of Paradise Papers will be monitored through a reconstituted Multi Agency Group (MAG), headed by the Chairman, CBDT, having representatives from CBDT, Enforcement Directorate, Reserve Bank of India and the Financial Intelligence Unit,” the statement said.
Panama investigations
•The MAG was previously constituted in 2016 following the Panama Papers disclosure. “Like in the Panama leaks case, a lot of people have said that it is legitimate to hold such offshore accounts,” NC Hegde, a partner at Deloitte India and an expert in international taxation, said. “So, any wrongdoing will have to be determined only once it is known what is in those accounts, if there is income that has not been disclosed. Just holding an account is not illegal.”
•“The Panama Papers contained brief particulars of about 426 persons, prima facie, Indians or persons of Indian origin,” the CBDT said in a separate statement on Monday. “The Income Tax department conducted enquiries in all 426 cases, inter alia, through making 395 references to 28 foreign jurisdictions. Based on analysis of the information obtained and investigation conducted, the outcome so far indicates 147 actionable cases and 279 non-actionable cases (non-residents/no irregularities etc).”
•Out of the 147 actionable cases, the CBDT said investigations have led to the detection of undisclosed funds worth about ₹792 crore, so far. Searches have been conducted in 35 cases and surveys in 11 cases. In other cases, the persons have been confronted with the evidences. In five cases, criminal prosecution complaints have been filed.
•In seven cases, notices were sent under Section 10 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, the CBDT said, adding that further investigation was under way.
📰 Public credit registry to speed up digitisation: Vishwanathan
•Reserve Bank deputy governor N.S.Vishwanathan on Monday said the introduction of a public credit registry will further speed up digitisation that has already changed the way banking is done in the country.
•Describing the importance of data in today’s digital world, he said, “Control of data is going to give human beings the power of divinity” as the intersection of IT, bio-genetics, AI (artificial intelligence) and nanotechnology is revolutionising the world at a breakneck speed, and the mankind may not be able to apply the brakes on it.
•“Digital brought a welcome change to the way of banking is done in our country. Digital banking has increased in recent times because of several policy changes and an enabling environment,” he said, addressing the annual banking summit organised by industry body Ficci.
•He said digitisation can help the country leapfrog over the developed countries and “we are in a sweet spot on digitisation.”
•“Digital services will facilitate business even further with the introduction of a public credit registry,” he said, adding the relevance of ‘brick and mortar’ banking is diminishing. Branches are now being replaced with banking outlets as the point of customer services.
•On the mushrooming of payments banks, which now act as banking channels of regular lenders, he said they can revolutionise banking services.
•Already, many institutions have come together to provide financial services, reducing the need for intermediation, the RBI deputy governor said.
•However, he cautioned that all these benefits also come with challenges and specifically mentioned cyber security as the main challenge and called up on banks to put in place strong IT systems to prevent frauds.
📰 Plotting social progress
We need a cohesive measure of social progress in individual States
•The accomplishments of modern India are recognised around the world. A country that was a symbol of hunger and poverty at the time of Independence and admonished for its Hindu rate of growth during the initial decades has now transformed itself into one of the the fastest growing major economies.
•These economic achievements are extensive, especially when considering the challenges that arose from following democratic governance after decades of oppressive colonial rule and being a multi-religious secular entity. But the potential for growth remains strong despite some slackening.
Still unquantified
•The societal reach of this economic growth still remains unquantified. There have been efforts to track individual social outcomes such as health, education and safety. For instance, the National University of Educational Planning and Administration and the Government of India (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy) compute an Educational Development Index for primary and upper primary levels of education that compare States on different aspects on education universalisation. Similarly, NITI Aayog has rolled out the health, education and water index. Apart from these individual indices, there have also been efforts to look at progress through the lens of a human development index but that does not isolate the impact of economic growth. A common measure to quantify the social progress of Indian States that can pinpoint the achievements and the challenges is still missing.
Some insights
•A Social Progress Index could bridge this gap. We ranked States using social and environmental indicators on the basis of their capability to provide for basic needs such as shelter, water, and sanitation; a foundation for well-being with education, health, and communication facilities; analysing the prejudices that prevail in a region prohibiting people from making their personal decisions; and evaluating whether citizens have personal rights and freedom or whether they are susceptible to child labour, human trafficking, corruption, etc.
•The study (2005-2016) helps analyse whether States, especially using social and environmental indicators, are heading in the right direction. It is also essential to help adjust policies as well as public and private investments.
•First, the overall social progress score for the country now stands at 57.03 (on a 0-100 scale), approximately eight points higher than in 2005. The country performs better in the provision of basic human needs rather than opportunities for its citizens. Therefore, creation of a society with equal opportunities for all still remains an elusive dream. But it is encouraging to note that the scores for opportunity have increased over the years followed by smaller, but important improvements in the areas of basic human needs and foundations of well-being.
•Second, all the States have climbed the social progress ladder, with the group of States that had the worst performance in 2005 — Tripura, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar — now showing improvement. This suggests that States with a relatively low level of social progress can improve rapidly. Similarly, in States that have achieved a threshold level of social progress, driving improvements becomes more difficult. This is backed by the fact that average improvement is the lowest among the group of States that were categorised as “Very High Social Progress” in 2005.
•The third major finding is that the greatest improvements have been in areas where social progress most often accompanies economic prosperity. On the other hand, areas where performance has declined or stagnated is where the correlation with economic development is weak. For instance, “Access to Information & Communication and Inclusion” depicts a strong relationship with per capita GDP and are the ones that have improved the most over the years. And “Health and Wellness & Environmental Quality”, that are least correlated with economic development, have eroded. This suggests that States should focus on policies that target social issues. The focus on economic parameters will result in unbalanced social development.
•The overall findings show that while the economy is on the right track, there is an urgent need to identify and focus on social parameters. The reliance on the idea that economic development will automatically transform social conditions will hamper further improvements in social progress. Social progress needs to be stimulated by focussing on policies directly targeting social issues.
📰 On the margins: how demonetisation has affected refugees in India
•Ever since demonetisation was introduced, the government has been making a strong push for the adoption of digital payment systems. With the government now trying to make Aadhaar the basis for achieving a unified financial infrastructure, those without access to banking systems or Aadhaar will soon find themselves excluded from the economy. One such group will be the refugees living in India.
•Although India has not signed the Refugee Convention and does not have a domestic asylum law, it has a history of being a generous host to refugees. However, refugees do not have a formal legal identity and are often wrongly perceived to be “illegal immigrants”. This ambiguous status has forced them to the margins and has left them wholly dependent on the parallel economy for their survival. Its collapse in the aftermath of demonetisation had a devastating impact on refugees, especially women, who lost every avenue for their sustenance. The lack of documentation to open bank accounts rendered them without the means to convert their cash into new currency, and virtually wiped out their entire savings. They struggled even to buy essential provisions or avail medical services.
•Refugees in India typically have a refugee card; a limited number have temporary visas. Those who tried opening bank accounts with these documents report that banks refused to recognise these as valid documentation for proof of ID or residence. Now with Aadhaar becoming mandatory to access any financial service, it is not clear whether refugees are eligible to apply for the same. While the Aadhaar Act states that anyone residing in India for 6 of the 12 months preceding the date of the application is eligible to obtain the card, many refugees who fulfil this requirement report that they have been turned away by local Aadhaar centres. Thus, it is almost impossible for refugees to open a bank account. This has forced them to remain at the mercy of local agents and touts, which is contributing to the perpetuation of the parallel economy.
Need for a formal legal identity
•As policies are created in the aftermath of demonetisation, it is critical for the government to take steps towards integrating such marginalised groups into the mainstream. It is recommended that the government confer a formal legal identity to refugees and issue uniform documentation to this community. With regard to Aadhaar, the first step would be to clarify whether refugees are eligible to apply for the same. There have been some concerns that the possession of Aadhaar would allow non-nationals to access schemes meant exclusively for citizens; however, this can be addressed by issuing a limited version of the Aadhaar card to refugees. Alternatively, the government can also explore the possibility of allowing refugees to use other forms of documentation such as their refugee card and visa, to access basic financial services. Without such measures, the core objective of demonetisation — eliminating the underground economy and achieving full financial inclusion — will remain an unfulfilled vision.
📰 Teaching ethics to aspiring civil servants
We need to debate the future of the IPS
•The arrest in Chennai of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer on probation, for cheating during the civil services examination, raises questions on future recruitments to the All India Services and the training of officers. It is tellingly ironic that the incident occurred around the same time when the nation was commemorating the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who stood for integrity in government and was considered the chief architect of post-Independence civil services. The incident also took place some months after the government approved all the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, which was done in the hope that more pay would mean greater levels of honesty and dedication on the part of public servants.
•Unlike in normal criminal justice matters, the burden here of proving innocence rests with the offender, as long as the decision is to proceed against him in an internal inquiry and terminate his services thereafter. However, going by the severity of the offence, it is doubtful whether the ends of justice will be met by resorting only to departmental action. There is always a public perception that double standards are applied when punishing criminality in high places. This is why there is no option but to prosecute the officer in a court of law. Of course, he should be given every opportunity to defend himself, but the dice seems heavily loaded against him. The punishment aside, what needs to be revisited in this context is the provision in civil service rules that permits a serving officer to constantly look for opportunities outside the service to which he or she had been allotted in the first instance.
A wider malaise?
•The question is, is this instance of misconduct by a public official, chosen on merit and pampered later with enviable perquisites, a mere aberration or is it symptomatic of a wider malaise? What is worrying is that there are growing accounts of dishonesty among public officials, especially in the State governments.
•This is not to say that amid widespread corruption, senior civil servants cannot but yield to a dishonest political executive. Ultimately it is the moral fibre of an individual officer that counts. A substantial percentage of senior officials still stick to the path of virtue and act according to the codes of good conduct. It is this phenomenon that gives us hope that all is not lost.
Improving instruction
•The pride of the Indian Police is the National Police Academy in Hyderabad that trains IPS recruits. It offers comprehensive training to shape the profile of police officers. In recent years, some measures have been initiated to impart instructions in ethics. The Chennai incident throws serious doubts over the quality of such inputs aimed at character-building. It is not my case that a greater emphasis on ethics will measurably improve civil service conduct. However, we also cannot say nothing can be done in the matter; that would be disastrous.
•The NPA faculty, including its director, must enhance the quality of instruction in ethics. The institution will receive ample support from the Home Ministry, which has been most generous in granting the finances needed to sharpen police training in the country. In sum, there must be indoctrination of trainees in ethical behaviour. Other training inputs take a back seat.
•Further, supervisors in the State Police do not play the role required of them to train IPS probationers once they are assigned for field training after finishing the course at the NPA. Only a few senior officers take interest in instilling the right values in IPS trainees. This is not only because of sheer indolence and the low priority accorded to responsibility of monitoring training, it is also because of the declining moral standards of senior police officers themselves.
•If the IPS stands somewhat discredited in the present time despite its glorious record in maintaining order in the most difficult of terrains, including in Jammu and Kashmir and Naxalism-affected areas, it is because a large number of senior officers concentrate on their own careers at the cost of guiding trainees. A vibrant and well meaning national debate on the future of the IPS therefore seems appropriate.
