📰 Afghanistan, on a slow fuse
Erosion in the international consensus on rebuilding the country must be reversed before it’s too late
•The attack by the Taliban gunmen at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul last weekend was a grim reminder of the deteriorating security environment in Afghanistan. The siege at the hotel lasted more than 12 hours and claimed 22 victims, including 14 foreigners, before the gunmen were neutralised.
•Days earlier, in an interview with CBS, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had said that Afghanistan is “under siege”, with “21 international terrorist groups operating in this country” and “factories producing suicide bombers”. He acknowledged that without U.S. support, the Afghan national army would not “last more than six months” and the government would collapse. This is a bleak assessment indeed coming from an insider who has seen the situation unravelling.
Deteriorating situation
•Over the last 16 years, civilian casualties have mounted to 31,000, increasing progressively to over 4,000 a year. The Afghan security forces are losing nearly 7,000 men a year, an attrition rate difficult to sustain and twice the number of casualties that the international coalition forces suffered from 2001 till 2014 when they ceased combat operations and embarked on Operation Resolute Support to “advise, train and assist” the Afghan forces.
•The U.S. has contributed significant blood and treasure, spending over a trillion dollars (considerably more if long-term veterans’ care is included) and losing more than 2,400 lives in pursuing the longest war in its history. Of this amount, about $120 billion has been spent on reconstruction and development, more than the inflation-adjusted expenditure under the Marshall Plan for rebuilding Western Europe after World War II. The rest of the international community has also contributed. India is a significant partner, having spent over $2 billion on humanitarian assistance, infrastructure building and human resource development, with an additional billion dollars committed.
•U.S. President Donald Trump is determined to bring about a change in American policy and while authorising a limited increase in U.S. troop presence by 4,000 soldiers, has also been critical of Pakistan. On January 1 he tweeted: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” The tweet has been followed by a suspension of all military assistance to Pakistan. This has resulted in resentment in Pakistan but whether this will bring about a change in its army’s behaviour remains to be seen.
Eroding legitimacy
•Meanwhile, the legitimacy of the National Unity Government (NUG) consisting of Mr. Ghani as President and Abdullah Abdullah as Chief Executive (a newly created position) is increasingly under question. Cobbled together after the disputed 2014 election with political backing from the Obama-Kerry team, the Chief Executive’s position was to be legitimised through a constitutional amendment creating the post of Prime Minister, which has not happened. Without a clear division of power and responsibility, relations between the President and his Chief Executive have remained strained. With presidential elections due next year, it is clear that the NUG experiment will not be repeated. It is hardly surprising that since end-2016, there are growing questions about the legitimacy of the present arrangement.
•Meanwhile parliamentary elections, which were originally due in 2015, are yet to be held. Electoral reforms to ensure greater transparency have not been implemented. The decision to issue new election cards based on biometric voter registration has remained stillborn. The seven-member Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the five-member Electoral Complaints Commission were finally constituted in November 2016 after prolonged political wrangling between the President and the Chief Executive but the chairman of the IEC was sacked recently. While July 7 has been announced as the date for Wolesi Jirga (lower house) elections, most Afghans are certain that elections this year are highly unlikely.
•Given that elections are funded by the international community and one election is likely to cost $250 million, it is highly probable that the presidential and parliamentary elections will be clubbed together in the middle of 2019, for reasons of economy. However, whether these elections can be held at all will depend upon security. Currently, Taliban controls over 50 districts while another 120 districts are contested, leaving more than 200 districts where the Afghan government exercises control. In other words, the current security situation will not permit elections to be held in nearly 45% of the territory of Afghanistan. This is enough to raise doubts about the legitimacy of any electoral outcome. It is true that the Taliban cannot secure a military victory as long as the U.S. is present, but it is equally true that their ability to disrupt peace, prevent reconstruction and hamper elections continues to grow.
Emergence of warlords
•In December, Mr. Ghani announced that he had accepted the resignation of Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor. Mr. Atta issued a denial, refused to step down and declared that he would arrest the new appointee Engineer Dawood if he entered the province. Mr. Atta is an influential leader of the Jamiat-i-Islami and had been in his current position for 13 years, emerging as the regional strong man. In earlier times, he had backed Dr. Abdullah but now he calls him ‘a snake’. When Kabul announced that his signatures were invalid and no provincial payments including salaries to officials would be forthcoming, Mr. Atta coolly declared that he would take control of the customs revenues from the Hairatan land port on the Uzbek border. He has been addressing public rallies questioning the authority of the government in Kabul.
•The message has not been lost on other regional strong men. Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek leader, in Turkey since last May, has supported Mr. Atta. Mr. Dostum was forced into voluntary exile amid investigations into allegations that he had arranged for the kidnapping of a political opponent who had then been raped and tortured by him and his guards. Further west, Ismail Khan, a former minister in the Karzai cabinet and governor of Herat, can take charge of the lucrative trade route with Iran. In Kandahar, police chief Abdul Razik, who has been in his position since 2011, has resisted attempts to shift him. To his credit, he has delivered a measure of security in Kandahar, in sharp contrast to neighbouring Helmand. He also controls the Spin Boldak crossing into Balochistan. In doing so, he relies as much on his loyal Achakzai militia as on the official police.
The global imperative
•The last two years have witnessed a significant shift in Russia’s position. While it has denied U.S. reports of having supplied weapons to the Taliban, Russia acknowledges that it has opened up communication channels and is prepared to both provide a venue and facilitate peace talks. At the recently concluded Raisina Dialogue in Delhi, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Igor Morgulov described the Islamic State as the principal threat to Afghanistan and the region. He questioned as to how its fighters had been brought into northern Afghanistan in unmarked helicopters when the airspace is under U.S. control. The U.S. flatly rejects such insinuations and questioned Russian and Iranian motives in weakening the Kabul government by giving recognition to the Taliban.
•After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, there was an international consensus on rebuilding Afghanistan and ensuring that it should not become a source of regional and global instability. That consensus has eroded over the last 16 years. Further, the Afghans who had returned in large numbers determined to reclaim their country and rebuild it are frustrated at the steady decline in both security and governance. The newly created Afghan institutions are unable to address the challenges without significant international support, both financial and material. However, with a breakdown in the international consensus, it may not be long before the slow fuse reaches ignition point. And 2019 may well become the critical year.
📰 The arc to Southeast Asia
•This week India will host heads of state or government of all 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the Republic Day celebrations in a dramatic declaration of intent by New Delhi to boost India’s ties with Southeast Asia. The year 2017 was an important landmark as India and the ASEAN commemorated 25 years of their partnership, 15 years of summit-level interaction, and five years of strategic partnership. The challenge now is to map out next steps in the India-ASEAN partnership at this time of unprecedented geopolitical flux in the wider Indo-Pacific.
Overcoming disillusionment
•There has been a sense of disillusionment on both sides about the present state of play in the relationship. While the ASEAN member states have been disappointed that India continues to punch below its weight in the region, New Delhi’s expectations regarding a more robust support for its regional outreach too have not been met. India’s capacity to provide development assistance, market access and security guarantees remains limited and ASEAN’s inclination to harness New Delhi for regional stability remains circumscribed by its sensitivities to other powers. The interests and expectations of the two sides remain far from aligned, preventing them from having candid conversations and realistic assessments.
•Though the Modi government’s ‘Act East’ policy is aimed at enhancing India’s strategic profile in East and Southeast Asia, New Delhi’s main focus remains on South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. There has been a shift in emphasis, of course, with India moving away from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and asserting its centrality in the evolving geography of the Indo-Pacific. But it is no match for China’s regional profile which is largely about viewing Southeast Asia as its backyard. India’s economic focus too is not in tune with other regional powers which view ASEAN as an important market for exports and investments. India’s export sector remains weak and the government’s focus has shifted to boosting manufacturing domestically.
•India’s interest in ASEAN as a multilateral forum remains lacklustre as it continues to privilege bilateral partnerships to further its own interests. As New Delhi’s gaze shifts to the Bay of Bengal, Myanmar and Thailand have emerged as key players in its southeastern outreach. The hope is to use these nations as a bridge to ASEAN. The temptation to prioritise these countries over others in ASEAN may also prevent others from looking at India as a regional stakeholder. New Delhi is signalling, perhaps inadvertently, that it is more interested in becoming a member of various regional organisations because of global power credentials even when its substantive engagement with such platforms remains limited.
•It is important for India and ASEAN to chart out a more operational, though modest, agenda for future cooperation. The three Cs of commerce, connectivity and culture have been highlighted but a more granular perspective is needed in terms of a forging a forward-looking approach. There is no getting away from enhancing trade and economic linkages between India and ASEAN. They also need to focus on areas such as digital technologies. India, as a fast emerging major player, has significant comparative advantages. As Chinese giants begin to dominate the digital space in Southeast Asia and concerns rise about their ability to own data, the Indian IT sector may take some advantage of the seeming reluctance of ASEAN states to put all their eggs in the Chinese basket. India as a facilitator of the ASEAN-wide digital economy would not only challenge China but also emerge as an economic guarantor of its own.
Focus on projects
•Instead of talking about ASEAN-wide connectivity projects, New Delhi now needs to focus on more effective delivery of projects it is already committed to. In this context, prompt completion of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, which will run from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar, is key. The plan is to extend this highway to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in an attempt to project India’s role in the emerging transportation architecture. With China having three times more commercial flights than India to Southeast Asia, improving air connectivity between India and ASEAN countries should also be high on the agenda. Besides, the Bay of Bengal can be used as an exploratory ground for the development of an India-ASEAN maritime framework.
•Finally, the cultural connect between the two needs strengthening. While India offers scholarships to students from ASEAN states to study at Nalanda University, this initiative should be extended to the IITs and the IIMs. Tourism too can be further encouraged between India and the ASEAN with some creative branding by the two sides.
•While India and the ASEAN have been very ambitious in articulating the potential of their partnership, they have been much less effective in operationalising their ideas. The need now is to focus on functional cooperation and make the idea of an India-ASEAN partnership more exciting.
📰 Security issues to be in focus at ASEAN leaders' commemorative summit in Delhi
Leaders of 10 ASEAN nations gather for 25th year commemorative summit; security issues to be focus of meetings
•Symbolism and ceremony will mark the 25th year commemorative summit of the ASEAN-India dialogue partnership on Thursday, but officials say security issues in the Indo-Pacific will be the focus of discussions among the 10 leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
•“Maritime Cooperation & Security”, the theme during the Leaders’ Retreat, will find “prominent mention” in the joint statements, said officials involved in the planning. It is understood that Vietnam, which is tasked with drafting the statement, and India have both been keen on cooperation on Freedom of Navigation, access to waterways and countering piracy on the high seas as a key part of the Delhi Declaration, which would be seen as a strong message to China.
•The 10 leaders of the ASEAN countries began arriving on Wednesday beginning with the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Phuc, and then followed by the Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Laos, the President of the Philippines, Myanmar State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Sultan of Brunei, Darussalam. The last to arrive will be Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday, after which the leaders will be hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for lunch, followed by the traditional “Retreat” where leaders will meet informally for two hours. They will then gather for the plenary session of the ASEAN-India summit, opened by Mr. Modi, and this year’s ASEAN Chair, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. On Friday, they will officiate as joint chief guests at the Republic Day parade.
Three ‘C’s
•The ASEAN-India joint statement, on the theme of “Shared Values and Common Destiny” will focus on the “three Cs of connectivity, commerce and culture”, along with the issues of maritime security, cybersecurity and cooperation on fighting terrorism, according to an official briefing ahead of the summit. Sources said other areas of divergence, that will not be in the joint statement could be taken up during the Retreat, where leaders will sit together informally in the majestic setting of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
•Among them is the Rohingya issue, with the repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh being delayed after many including the UN cited a lack of guarantees for their safety in Myanmar. India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh gave a statement supporting the process last week. However, the ASEAN-India grouping may find the issue too sensitive to broach in any formal way with Aung San Suu Kyi, an ASEAN envoy told The Hindu.
•India’s difficulties with the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will also be on the agenda for talks, as most ASEAN countries are keen to conclude the negotiations by 2018-end.
•While India is holding out over concerns of unfettered access to Chinese goods, and the lack of access for Indian services, Prime Minister Modi’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, where he lashed out at protectionism, is being seen as a sign the government maybe more flexible.
•Officials say India is keen to discuss its concerns over China’s Belt and Road Initiative. However, this may not find as much traction.
📰 Will biometrics help fight crimes, asks Supreme Court
Kapil Sibal replies that citizens do not know if personal data handed over the to state is in safe custody
•The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the argument put forth by petitioners in Aadhaar cases that collection of personal information of citizens by the state would lead to totalitarianism. It asked whether the state’s access to personal and biometric data was necessary to combat terrorism and crimes such as money-laundering.
•Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, one of the five judges of the Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra hearing the challenge to the Aadhaar scheme as a violation of the fundamental right to privacy, said an individual ought to have no objection if the state accessed his or her personal data to check if he was paying taxes. What would be the problem if personal information was used only for the limited purpose for which it was collected, he asked.
•But senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that at present, a citizen who had parted with his personal data and biometrics was in the dark about how the state was using them and whether or not these were safe at all. “By the time the citizen gets to know, the Big Brother would have become a ‘Bigger Brother’,” he said.
•Senior advocate Shyam Divan and advocate Vipin Nair, for the petitioners, argued that the whole idea was to prevent such a situation.
Google Maps analogy
•As for state surveillance, Justice Chandrachud compared it to Google Maps. An individual accepted the fact that the application was tracking him, he said. “Google is not the Indian state,” Mr. Divan responded. He said there was a difference between persons giving an informed consent and opting for services and being compelled into it.
•Mr. Divan submitted that cancellation of Aadhaar now would amount to turning off the switch on a person. The authorities could do this if Aadhaar appeared fraudulent to them. Justice A.K. Sikri asked what was wrong in cancelling an Aadhaar number procured through fraud.
•But Mr. Divan said there should be other alternatives to Aadhaar and a person’s very existence should not hinge on just one source. He said a situation had arisen wherein a person ceased to exist and became a ghost, if his biometrics did not match. The arguments will continue on January 25.
📰 UDAN 2 to link 73 airports, helipads
About 26.5 lakh seats a year will be covered under the scheme with an airfare cap of ₹2,500: Choubey
•The Centre on Wednesday said 73 underserved and unserved airports and helipads would be connected under the phase 2 of the regional connectivity scheme UDAN.
•Of the 90 proposals awarded to provide flight connectivity to more than 300 regional routes, Interglobe Aviation, the parent firm of IndiGo, was awarded a maximum of 20 proposals followed by SpiceJet with17. Jet Airways won 4 proposals.
•“The scheme will provide around 26.5 lakh seats per annum that will be covered with [an] airfare cap of ₹2,500/hr of flying,” said R. N. Choubey Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.
•“In addition, around two lakh RCS (regional connectivity scheme) seats per annum are expected to be provided through helicopter operations,” he said.
•The States with maximum number of airports and helipads which will see activation under UDAN 2 scheme include Uttarakhand (15), Uttar Pradesh (9), Arunachal Pradesh (8), Himachal Pradesh (6), Assam (5) and Manipur (5).
•Some of the cities that would now be connected include Kargil, Darbhanga, Kasauli, Bokaro, Dumka, Hubli, Kannur and Pakyong, among others.
•This was the first time bids were received from helicopter operators under the scheme.
Viability gap funding
•These proposals would required a viability gap funding (VGF) of ₹487 crore per annum for fixed wing operations and ₹130 crore per annum for helicopter operations in the priority areas — which include the north-eastern and hill States, taking the total funding need for the scheme in phase 2 to ₹617 crore. In the first phase, this amount stood at ₹213 crore per annum.
•The Centre said it had decided not to increase the ₹5,000 regional air connectivity levy charged from airlines flying on major routes to fund the UDAN scheme. It would now be partly funded by the dividend that AAI (Airports Authority of India) paid to the Government of India. “The Finance Ministry has agreed to fund the UDAN scheme through the dividend that AAI pays to the government every year,” said Mr. Choubey.
•“We already have got ₹200 crore from AAI as dividend share for this year. Next year also, a similar exercise will be done,” he said.
•Under the first round of RCS, which concluded in March last year, a total of 128 routes were awarded to five airline operators
📰 Capital adequacy ratio will go up by 44 bps: SBI chief
“This capital is for growth, not for regulatory purpose”.
•While most state-run banks that will received capital from the government will use it to meet provisioning requirement for accounts that facing bankruptcy proceedings as mandated by the banking regulator, State Bank of India (SBI)- the country’s largest lender - said the capital will be used to fund loan growth and not for regulatory purpose.P.K. Gupta, managing director of the bank discusses the bank’s plan in a exclusive interview.
SBI will receive ₹8,800 crore capital from the government this financial year out of ₹88,139 crore allocated to 20 banks. What was the main objective of this capital infusion?
•We were well capitlaised, we did not need the capital immediately. Going forward, for the purpose of funding credit growth, we might have required capital next financial year. So this will help in taking care of further growth capital requirement that we could have.
So, you are saying this capital is not for regulatory purpose…
•For us this capital is not for regulatory purpose but for growth. For regulatory purpose we are adequately capitalised.
What kind of loan growth you expect in the coming quarters?
•As I said, since capital was not a constraint for the bank, we have been doing whatever requirement of credit that was coming to us. But so far the loan demand has been very muted. The demand which we are seeing now, is from the retail side. The corporate demand is very little. Hopefully, next year we will see more corporate demand coming in.
With this capital do you need to raise any further capital to support growth?
•We don’t need to raise any further capital immediately. We had also raised Rs 15,000 crore from the market during the current financial year. Also some demonetisation of assets has happened…we did that part sell of SBI Life Insurance.
SBI’s capital adequacy ratio was 13.56% as on 30 September, 2017. What will be the impact on capital adequacy post this fund infusion?
•For us, the impact on capital adequacy ratio is about 44 bps points.
📰 Recalculating ease of doing business
Country rankings may have been influenced by politics
What is the controversy?
•Earlier this month, the World Bank announced that it would revise the methodology it uses to calculate the ease of doing business index, a move that is expected to affect the rankings of countries in the last four years. As its name suggests, the index ranks countries based on how welcoming they are to businesses, as measured by criteria like the number of days it takes to start a business or obtain a licence. The decision to revise the methodology comes after the Bank’s chief economist Paul Romer raised concerns that the rankings could have been influenced by politics. Incidentally, India recorded its best-ever improvement in the latest ease of doing business rankings.
Why is it significant?
•The ease of doing business index has become a popular tool tracked by governments trying to show the world that they offer a favourable investment climate for private businessmen. This stands true despite the fact that many countries, such as India, have expressed their displeasure in the past over their own standing in the rankings. Mr. Romer’s comments, however, mark the first time that a top official at the Bank itself has admitted to the possibility of political influence over the rankings. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Romer stated that he could no longer defend the integrity of changes made to the methodology used to rank countries. Meanwhile, some critics have pointed to Chile which has seen its ranking fluctuate widely based more on the ideology of the government in power than on underlying business conditions.
What are the other issues?
•A common criticism of the ranking is that it limits its sample size to just a few major cities, thus projecting an imperfect picture of overall business conditions. Others have wondered if governments may be gaming the rankings by tailoring their policies to specifically fit the World Bank’s criteria instead of trying to enact wider structural reforms. Another criticism is whether the bank is right to measure a country’s business environment based on written legal rules rather than investigating the actual ground conditions in which businesses operate. Many businesses, for example, may be able to bribe their way out of bad rules.
•In fact, in their 2010 paper “How Business is Done and the ‘Doing Business’ Indicators”, Mary Hallward-Driemeier and Lant Pritchett found that there was significant variation between World Bank’s surveys and actual business conditions.
📰 ‘Fraud, cyber and security risk cases on the rise’
•India witnessed a significant increase in fraud cases involving corporates with 89% of executives reporting that their companies fell victim to at least one instance of fraud in the past 12 months, up from 68% in 2016, according to Kroll Annual Global Fraud & Risk Report 2017-18.
•As per this report India witnessed the highest incidence of fraud globally across three categories: theft of physical asset or stock (40%), IP theft, piracy or counterfeiting (36%) and corruption and bribery (31%).
•The findings revealed that most common perpetrators of fraud incidents in India in the past 12 months were joint venture partners with 45% respondents naming them as the primary perpetrators.
•Last year existing and former employees were the main perpetrators of fraud within a company. This year, junior employees were the second most common perpetrators causing fraud incidents (43% respondents), as per the report.
•“In India, the percentage of respondents affected by fraud increased significantly by 21% in 2017 to 89% while the global average this year is 84%,” Reshmi Khurana, Managing Director and Head South Asia, Kroll said.
•As much as 33% of respondents in India suggested that the extent of loss suffered by their company due to fraud was more than 7% of the revenues.
•This is significantly higher than 23% of respondents witnessed globally. Mexico was the only country where a larger proportion of respondents suffered loss of over 7% of revenues due to fraud (39% respondents).
•Cyber security remained an area of concern with 84% of Indian respondents saying they had experienced a cyber-attack in the past 12 months, indicating an 11% point increase from 2016 (73%).
•The Kroll Report reveals that respondents are experiencing a heightened sense of vulnerability to fraud, cyber, and security risks, with information-related risks now being the area of greatest concern.
•49% of respondents in India felt they were most vulnerable to information theft, loss or attack such as data theft. This is similar to the global view with highest proportion of respondents feeling most vulnerable to information theft, loss or attack (24%).
•Tarun Bhatia, Managing Director, Kroll South Asia said, “The silver lining for India is that while higher proportion of companies witnessed fraud during 2017, increasing number of companies are also becoming aware of risks related to fraud and are taking preventive measures to tackle the issue,”
•“In coming years, however, combating information security risks would gain priority as fraud risk due to information theft is only likely to increase as India chases its digitization dream," he added.
📰 Submit time-bound action plan on Bellandur lake: NGT
Raps Karnataka govt. over recurring instances of fire at the polluted waterbody
•The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday rapped the Karnataka government for not taking measures to prevent recurring fires at the severely polluted Bellandur lake, most recently on January 19, when it raged for over 24 hours.
•A Bench, headed by NGT acting chairperson U.D. Salvi, directed the government to submit a time-bound action plan by January 29. Slamming the government for not taking measures despite previous instances of the lake catching fire, the Bench said: “This is the sixth occurrence. The magnitude might differ but the pattern is similar. You are the State, you can take action against miscreants.”
•A senior official of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) informed the tribunal that investigations carried out in earlier instances had attributed the cause of fire to be “accidental or intentional”.
•The State government representative contended that local residents were in the habit of venturing into the lake to collect grass for cattle feed, and that the dry grass was resulting in the fire. The official said that 70% of the weeds had been cleared. In response, the panel asked: “If 70% has been cleaned, then how did it catch fire?”
•Counsel appearing for petitioner M.P. Kupendra Reddy said the recurrent cases of fire were because of the froth in the lake. “Commissioner of the BDA explains that this was because of individuals going in the lake for collection of grass as cattle feed. This contention is refuted by the counsel for the applicant who submits that fire in Bellandur lake is due to froth generated in the lake as a result of unregulated discharge of domestic and industrial sewage,” the Bench observed.
📰 A turtle recovery plan
Integrated conservation measures are needed to protect sea turtles
•Every year, thousands of sea turtles are accidentally captured, injured or killed by mechanised boats, trawl nets and gill nets operated and used by comercial fishermen. They can also sustain internal injuries from fishing hooks or suffer serious external injuries after becoming entangled in nets. Each year, environmentalists record a high number of dead turtles washing up ashore. This heavy toll, of injuries and deaths, occurs when turtles begin migrating to their nesting grounds on beaches and in fishing areas that are their feeding grounds.
•There are five species in Indian waters — Leatherback, Loggerhead, Hawksbill, Green and Olive Ridley. In India, though sea turtles are protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, under the Schedule I Part II, they face grave threats. Bycatch is one such example, which is the name given to ocean animals that are unintentionally caught by fishing gear. Scientists are now working on programmes such as new fishing nets and gear that reduce the amount of bycatch while fishing. Growing public interest in bycatch reduction programmes is motivated by factors such as an appreciation for endangered species and concern for maintaining marine biodiversity.
•The turtle breeding season is usually between November and December. In Tamil Nadu, for example, the Olive Ridley nests between December and April along the Chennai-Kancheepuram coastline. The eastern coastline is the feeding area for Olive Ridley, juvenile Hawksbills and Green turtles. Off-shore waters are also migratory routes for the Olive Ridley while moving towards beaches in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Role in marine ecosystem
•Sea turtles, especially the leatherback, keep jellyfish under control, thereby helping to maintain healthy fish stocks in the oceans. The Green turtle feeds on sea grass beds and by cropping the grass provide a nursery for numerous species of fish, shellfish and crustaceans. The Hawksbill feeds on sponges in the reef ecosystem and opens up crevices for other marine life to live in. Turtles are also transporters of nutrients and energy to coastal areas. Unhatched eggs, eggshells and fluids help foster decomposers and create much needed fertilizer in sandy beaches.
•As turtle populations in general decline, so does their ability to play a vital role in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans. Integrated conservationmeasures are needed to rebuild their populations to healthy levels so that they can carry out the full extent of their key roles in ocean ecosystems.
Workable solutions
•Under current regulations, mechanised trawl boats are not allowed to operate within 8 km of the shore in Andhra Pradesh, 5.5 km in Tamil Nadu and 5 km in Odisha. However, these limits are not being enforced. Similarly, nets set for ray fish are banned under the law during the season. However, their use by some categories of fishermen is widespread. The ban needs to be enforced at all levels of fishing and monitored by the respective Fisheries departments, marine police and the Indian Coast Guard. All areas where fishing boats land need to be monitored.
•In the U.S., all trawl shrimp fishing vessels need to be equipped with turtle excluder devices or TEDs, which are two-dimensional net inserts with large escape openings for turtles. Likewise in India, trawlers meant for shrimp fishing are required by law to be fitted with TEDs. If used correctly, TEDs have been found to reduce turtle captures by 90%.
•There are closed seasons for certain types of fishing vessels. In Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the closed season for commercial fishing boats is from April 15 to May 29 (east coast) and June 15 to July 29 (west coast). Here, mechanised fishing trawlers are banned from fishing. In Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, the season is between April 15 and May 31. Trawlers and motorised craft with an engine output greater than 25 hp are banned. In all these areas/States, all non-motorised and motorised craft with an engine output of less than 25 hp are permitted to fish during this season. Unfortunately, none of these closed seasons takes into account the sea turtle nesting season that falls between January and April. Areas where sea turtles forage and congregate need to be identified and additional seasonal closures need to be implemented within these areas.
•If sea turtle conservation is to have meaning, all trawl boats should be fitted with a vessel monitoring system that must be kept on at all times. This will provide a simple system of monitoring by the Coast Guard. These small but meaningful measures will help the sea turtles that are our marine heritage have another chance at survival.
📰 HPV vaccine gets immunisation nod
Decision on manufacture hinges on Supreme Court decision in 2012 case
•The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), an advisory body that recommends vaccines for India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), has given the green signal to the introduction of the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the UIP.
•However, the decision of who will make the HPV vaccines will depend on the outcome of a 2012 Supreme Court case. This is reported in the minutes from a December 19, 2017 meeting of the NTAGI, published on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Wednesday.
•A spokesperson from the Ministry also told The Hindu that media reports published earlier this month alleging that the Ministry had dropped the vaccine from the UIP after a letter from the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch protested its inclusion, were incorrect.
•The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch is an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh which deals with economic issues.
•As on today, two HPV vaccines are available in India, developed by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) and GlaxoSmithkline (GSK), while one vaccine developed by an Indian firm is in clinical trials. But a 2012 writ petition in the Supreme Court of India asks for the licences of the MSD and GSK vaccines to be revoked, because they were allegedly approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) without adequate clinical trials. This is why the inclusion of these vaccines in the UIP will wait till the Supreme Court decides on the case, the Ministry spokesperson said.
•HPV vaccines have been at the centre of a controversy in India since 2009, when a clinical trial conducted by the American non-profit PATH, in partnership with the Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat governments, went wrong. Around 24,000 pre-adolescent girls were given MSD and GSK vaccines in the trial, overseen by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and DCGI. When eight of these girls died, health activists said PATH and others had violated research-ethics by giving the girls the vaccine without informed consent from their parents.
•They also pointed out that trial-researchers had not set up a system to track the vaccine’s side-effects. These allegations led to a 2012 writ petition in the Supreme Court by the activists, demanding action against the DCGI, ICMR, PATH, MSD, GSK and the two State governments. The case is still continuing.
•India has one of the world’s highest burdens of HPV-related cancer. Around 67,000 women die from this disease each year, more than India’s maternal mortality burden of 45,000. But opponents of the HPV vaccine say it is unnecessary, because screening for cervical cancer alone can prevent many deaths.
•Proponents say that while screening is important, it is difficult to implement this in Indian healthcare settings. The NTAGI meeting minutes acknowledged this difficulty in mass-screening programmes in Tamil Nadu.
•Vaccine opponents have also raised the issue of rare side-effects. Since the introduction of HPV vaccines worldwide, Japan and Denmark have reported some cases of autoimmune illnesses in vaccine recipients. But no study, so far, has demonstrated a link between the vaccines and these illnesses.
•As a result, the World Health Organization and Global Advisory Committee, among others, have declared the vaccine safe.
📰 First India-designed vaccine passes WHO test
•For the first time, a vaccine conceived and developed from scratch in India has been “pre-qualified” by the World Health Organisation.
•The Rotavac vaccine, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited last year, was included in India’s national immunisation programme. To be “pre-qualified” means that the vaccine can be sold internationally to several countries in Africa and South America.
•While several vaccines from India have been pre-qualified, this is the first that was entirely developed locally and, according to experts, is a sign that there is a credible industrial, scientific and regulatory process in place to develop vaccines in India.
•The Rotavac vaccine protects against childhood diarrhoea caused by the rotavirus and was built on strain of the virus isolated at the the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here over 30 years ago.
•India included the Rotavac in its national immunisation in 2016, with about 35 million doses delivered till date. A dose costs between ₹55-60, according to the company.
•Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech, said that about 9 million children in nine Indian states have been vaccinated. Some medics have raised concerns that the rotavirus vaccine carried a small chance of causing infants to develop a bowel disorder; but the Rotavac vaccine, having been tested in the field for over a year, have not shown any negative effect, he claimed.
•The Pune-based Serum International also has developed a rotavirus vaccine called Rabishield that has also been included in India’s immunisation programme.
•Rotavirus is responsible for an estimated 36% of hospitalisations for childhood diarrhoea around the world and for an estimated 200,000 deaths in low- and middle-income countries.
