📰 Paltry sanction of Nirbhaya fund
Victims unaware of scheme: NGO
•The Union government has released ₹20 crore for the Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) under the Nirbhaya Scheme to various States and Union Territories.
•This is only 10% of the total corpus of ₹200 crore allocated for the scheme.
•The details were revealed in a reply to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha by former Union Minister K. Rahman Khan on December 27, 2017. Mr. Khan also wanted to know how many rape victims had been compensated under the scheme in the last three years and how many cases were pending for disbursement of compensation.
•Speaking to The Hindu, the MP said the release of a mere 10% of the funds spoke volumes of the status of compensation given to the victims of sexual assault in the country. “This scheme is already three or four years old and the Centre cannot even provide data on the number of victims compensated,” Mr. Khan said.
Data unavailable
•In its response to the MP’s question, the Home Ministry said, “Applications for compensation from victims are made to States/UT directly. Therefore, the data on pending applications is not available with the Central government”.
•The highest amount of ₹28.10 crore was released for Uttar Pradesh, followed by Madhya Pradesh (₹21.80 crore), Maharashtra (₹17.65 crore). West Bengal received ₹12.65 crore. Delhi received ₹8.8 crore.
•Rishi Kant of the Shakti Vahini, a non-governmental organisation involved in rescue and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking, said most of the survivors of sexual assault or acid attacks were not aware that they were entitled to compensation by the State. “The law enforcement agencies of none of the States have taken much efforts to spread awareness about CVCF,” Mr. Kant said.
📰 Improving the quality of education
•India has made good progress in education since the introduction of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Right to Education Act, which guarantees a child free education for eight years. Enrolment at the primary level is now near-universal and enrolment ratios for higher education, too, have risen. However, critical lacunae in the system act against our children emerging as productive workers. As per the 2015 NCERT national achievement survey, less than half the children met the benchmarks for their age in reading comprehension and maths. On skill development, 127 million people need to be trained by 2022.
•The key issue across all levels of education in our country is quality. The particular priority for each of primary, secondary and higher education is, however, different. At the primary level, there are not enough teachers in government schools, with high vacancy rates across the country. Attendance of teachers can be ensured through use of biometrics. Having teachers group standards 2, 3 and 4 into one class (as often happens in thousands of our schools which have only 1-2 teachers) impacts quality significantly. Fewer but better, larger schools need to be balanced with local access. A complete revamp of our teacher training institutes is necessary — perhaps we can run them all in PPP mode. The Centre should also consider a pilot voucher scheme that gives parents the option to select schools. Competition among schools would foster better quality. A recent article in the Economist describes how the Punjab, in Pakistan, is using vouchers to improve school quality.
•Dropout rates are high at the secondary level. A good secondary school needs specialised teachers by subject. To feed much larger secondary schools, we will need to transport children to them from a catchment area. The Centre can provide resources for a programme of school consolidation, which needs strong political leadership at both national and state levels as it is unpopular with teacher unions, but popular with everyone else!
Research focus
•In higher education, apart from creating 20 world-class universities as mentioned in a previous Budget, these institutions and others should emerge as hubs of publicly-funded research. Doing research in universities is the way the world creates high-quality talent — those PhDs and masters’ graduates are the foundation of R&D and innovation. For this, research needs to be a much larger enterprise in our universities. The share of national R&D needs to rise 10 times from the current 0.04% of GDP to match the world average of 0.4%.
•The problem is not how much, but where, the state spends on R&D. The bulk of this goes to autonomous state R&D labs, run by CSIR, DRDO, ICAR, DAE and so on. Some ₹90,000 crore is spent each year. The Budget should freeze this in nominal terms and add the typical annual increase (₹8000-₹10,000 crore) to its funding of research in higher education.
•In one year, we would more than double the funding for research in higher education. Repeating this for a few years could transform our universities into world beaters. They should use this huge extra funding to attract good quality faculty to fill the hundreds of vacancies that plague even our best institutes.
📰 Ensuring healthcare for all citizens
•India enjoys a one-time demographic dividend of a young and growing workforce, which is expected to fuel its growth well into the future. However, this can only be leveraged if our young people are healthy and productive. Healthcare is a concern for all citizens and universal access, financial assistance and good facilities are what Indians need when illness strikes.
•India comes in at 131st rank in the Human Development Index (HDI). Equally, the global gender gap report places Indian women at 141 rank of 144 countries in its health and survival index. Almost one-third of the Indians do not have access to primary healthcare facilities and about 63 million fall back into poverty due to spending on illnesses. Non-communicable diseases, malnutrition and lack of timely and affordable healthcare are the key issues to be addressed in the Budget which should set a target of reaching 50 in the HDI in a specified period.
National Health Policy
•The National Health Policy, brought out in 2017, promises to raise the level of public expenditure in the sector from the current 1.5% to 2.5% over three years, and we expect that the Budget would take a strong step towards this. The policy aims to provide free primary care and all public hospitals would ensure free drugs, diagnostics and emergency care services. The Budget could announce the establishment of public clinics and tertiary care hospitals to be set up within the next few years in all districts as also towns over a certain population size. Health insurance currently covers about a sixth of the population. It is important to raise this level to about 60%, when the focus would shift to prevention and targeted outcomes. Schemes by public sector insurance companies should be offered to low-income households at varying subsidies to provide assistance for illnesses.
•The lack of doctors and nursing staff is another challenge. As per estimates, the workforce requirement in the healthcare sector is expected to go up from 4.7 million in 2017 to 7.3 million in 2022. More teaching hospitals are required with seats for specialisation at the post-graduation level. Land should be identified for specialty hospitals in small towns under the Smart Cities and AMRUT schemes. In particular, the 15 AIIMS-like hospital institutions should be quickly set up as announced. While public spending on healthcare must increase over the next few years, it is also important to encourage private sector participation. The private sector accounts for a major chunk of household spending and plays a key role in pharmaceuticals, R&D, diagnostic services and medical devices production. Infrastructure status to the healthcare sector could encourage more specialty and super specialty hospitals to comes up. NITI Aayog is working on an innovative strategy of public-private partnerships in three non-communicable diseases of cardiology, pulmonology and oncology. State governments are being encouraged to set up joint ventures with private sector institutions to provide services at certain district hospitals. This could be extended to more illnesses, with Budgetary support. India’s health outcomes will determine the trajectory of its future growth. The government must accord high priority to preventive and curative programmes and ensure universal access to medical facilities in the shortest time.
📰 The lowdown on Doklam
What is it?How did it come about?Why does it matter?What Next?
•Several reports in recent days have spoken about the Chinese side beefing up its military presence in the disputed Doklam area, where Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a two-month stand-off in the summer of 2017. Recent satellite images and intelligence reports show the Chinese have erected several permanent military posts, a few helipads and new trenches not very far from where the two Armies faced off. About 1,800 Chinese troops are stationed, even in deep winter, in the Doklam area, according to other reports. India has also strengthened its presence in the region.
•Doklam, or Donglang in Chinese, is an area spread over less than a 100 sq km comprising a plateau and a valley at the trijunction between India, Bhutan and China. It is surrounded by the Chumbi Valley of Tibet, Bhutan’s Ha Valley and Sikkim.
•Despite several rounds of engagement between China and Bhutan, the dispute between the two over Doklam has not been resolved. It flared up in 2017 when the Chinese were trying to construct a road in the area, and Indian troops, in aid of their Bhutanese counterparts, objected to it, resulting in the stand-off. Doklam is strategically located close to the Siliguri Corridor, which connects mainland India with its north-eastern region. The corridor, also called Chicken’s Neck, is a vulnerable point for India.
•While India-Tibet trade flourished along the Siliguri corridor and Chumbi Valley, Doklam had very little significance. Even during British rule, Doklam did not command much attention. In recent years however, China has been beefing up its military presence in the Chumbi Valley, where the Chinese are at a great disadvantage militarily. Both Indian and Bhutanese troops are on a higher ground around the Valley.
•This is also the reason, the Indian security establishment suspect, why the Chinese have a deep interest in Doklam, which would give them a commanding view of and an easy access to both the Chumbi Valley and the Siliguri Corridor. The desolate Doklam region grabbed global attention after the stand-off. According to Indian claims, it began on June 16, 2017, when Chinese troops came to the area with equipment to extend a road southward in Doklam, towards the Bhutanese Army camp near the Jampheri Ridge, which according to both Bhutan and India are an integral part of Bhutanese territory. China says the ridge is the border. Two days later, a few hundred Indian troops entered Doklam, at the request of Bhutan, and stopped the construction.
•The Bhutanese government told China that “the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the agreements and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between our two countries.” On June 30, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “Such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.”
•The Chinese government released a map to accuse India of trespassing into its territory, and in a detailed statement in the first week of August, it said “India has no right to interfere in or impede the boundary talks between China and Bhutan.”
•India and China have one of the world’s longest disputed borders and areas — which include 37,000 sq km of uninhabited Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh with 1.4 million residents and over 84,000 sq km.
•Despite several rounds of negotiations between Special Representatives, the dispute is nowhere near a solution.
•Meanwhile, their Armies have been modernising at a frenetic pace. The two sides are also carrying out one of history’s biggest conventional military build-ups along their borders. Doklam adds yet another flashpoint along the disputed borders of the two Asian giants.
📰 Cambodia backs anti-terror efforts
Modi, Hun Sen call for blocking sources of terror financing and dismantling terrorist bases
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cambodian counterpart, Samdech Hun Sen, on Saturday held talks to boost ties in key areas of defence, security and counter-terrorism. The two leaders called for concerted global efforts to eliminate terrorism, including blocking sources of terror financing and dismantling terrorist bases.
•After the talks, the two countries inked four pacts, including the one to improve cooperation in the prevention and investigation of crimes and legal assistance in criminal matters and another on a line of credit from India to finance Cambodia’s Stung Sva Hab water resources development project for $36.92 million.
Defence programmes
•Expressing satisfaction at the current state of bilateral defence ties, including ship visits and training programmes, the two leaders agreed to further enhance ties, including through exchanges of senior-level defence personnel and capacity-building projects.
•Both sides expressed a keen interest in enhancing cooperation in maritime domain, including preservation of marine and coastal environment, anti-piracy cooperation, security of sea lanes of communication to maintain peace and ensure safety and security of navigation in the Indo-Pacific Region, and supported complete freedom of navigation and overflight and pacific resolution of maritime issues based on international law.
•Addressing a joint press event with Mr. Hun Sen, Mr Modi said India had also proposed a line of credit in several key areas such as health, connectivity and digital connectivity.
‘Curse on humankind’
•Describing terrorism as a “curse” on humankind which poses a “grave threat” to global peace, security and stability, the leaders unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, underscored that there was no justification whatsoever for acts of terrorism, and recognised that terrorism could not be and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic groups, according to a joint statement.
•Reaffirming their resolve to fight terrorism, the two leaders affirmed that those responsible for committing, abetting, organising and supporting terrorist acts must be held accountable and be punished.
📰 2017 witnessed a 38% rise in social media URL blocking
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube content was covered by official action
•A total of 1,329 social media URLs were blocked or removed on the recommendation of a government committee to deal with “objectionable content” last year till November 2017.
•This is an increase of nearly 38% from 964 social media URLs blocked or removed for the whole of 2016.
•URLs that were blocked or removed on account of court orders during the same period came down from 100 in 2016 to 83 in January-November 2017, according to an internal note of the Ministry of Electronics and IT. The action covered Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
•“While social media sites are a good medium to share and exchange information, some miscreants are also using this platform to spread rumours and posting objectionable content thereby causing disturbance in the society,” the note said.
Malicious purposes
•Also, the widespread usage of social networking sites and lack of awareness among users about the methods of cybercriminals, it added, is leading to a rise in the spread of malware such as Trojans and bots, and the theft of sensitive personal information. “It has been observed that the misuse of social networking sites for malicious purposes is on the rise. These websites are being used by malicious people to harvest personal information of the targeted users or group of users,” it added.
•A senior official of the Ministry said that social media sites are required to disable or remove any unlawful information as and when it is brought to their knowledge through a court order or by an appropriate government agency.
•There are provisions in the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 and Indian Penal Code to deal with “objectionable content” posted online.
•Cyber law expert and advocate Pavan Duggal said, “Blocking is a sovereign power that is given to the government by virtue of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. So under certain specified considerations, the power of blocking can be exercised… This power was inserted in the IT Act by virtue of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, which came into effect from October 2009.”
‘Outdated paradigm’
•He said this was increasingly being resorted to. “But my personal belief is that blocking as a phenomenon is an outdated paradigm. In today’s context of the Internet and its architecture, it is almost impossible to block any content.”
•Various law enforcement agencies notify social media sites for removal of content or disabling of content under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act 2000.
•The data shows that in the last four years, the number of social media URLs blocked on the recommendation of the government committee under Section 69A of the IT Act were 10 in 2014, 587 in 2015, 964 in 2016 and 1,329 till November 2017.
•Additionally, 432 URLs were blocked through court orders in 2014, 632 in 2015, 100 in 2016 and 83 till November 2017.
•Till November 2017, a maximum of 588 URLs blocked were from Twitter, as compared to 196 in 2016 and 27 in 2015. A total of 530 URLs were blocked on Facebook till November 2017, as against 363 in 2016, and 352 in 2015.
•For YouTube, it was 123 URLs blocked till November 2017, 3 in 2016 and 125 in 2015.
•Mr. Duggal pointed out that a number of these blocking events happen for political reasons. Often, the process is very non-transparent about how a particular content violates the parameters.
•“There is a lack of transparency in terms of having in place adequate parameters on what kind of instances the power of blocking can be exercised because parameters like sovereignty and integrity of India are vast. And a large number of things can be brought under it as per the subjective interpretation of the concerned authority,” he said.
•“Merely saying that blocking of a website or URL is in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, would not suffice. Clear illustration of how the same would impact the sovereignty and integrity will be far more helpful,” he added.
📰 In Lucknow, a crop crisis of plenty
•Potato farmers in Uttar Pradesh have a twin crisis on their hands — they brought in a record production of the crop but that has led to a slump in rates.
What happened?
•On January 6, several quintals of potatoes were found strewn outside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly as well as near the Chief Minister’s residence, in what appeared to be a mark of protest by distressed farmers. The BJP government dismissed the incident as a politically motivated conspiracy and filed an FIR against unknown persons. It also suspended five policemen for negligence. A few days later, the police arrested two persons linked to the Samajwadi Party from Kannauj on charges of conspiracy. However, the entire fiasco brought the much-needed focus on the dilemma faced by potato farmers.
Why have prices fallen?
•Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of potatoes in the country and in the 2016-17 season, it broke the previous records, growing 155 lakh metric tonnes. A record 120 lakh tonnes was also stored in the 1,708 cold storages in the State. But rather than bringing cheer, the bumper crop led to a fall in prices. The newly elected Yogi Adityanath government stepped in to launch a market intervention scheme in April, under which one lakh tonnes of potatoes would be purchased from growers at the minimum support price of Rs. 487 a quintal. However, farmers are not satisfied.
What are the problems?
•The grievances of farmers revolve around high input costs and low and unpredictable rates.
•First, farmers say the minimum support rate set by the government is too low; the cost of growing a quintal of potato, including expenditure on transport and cold storage rent, comes up to Rs. 800-900. They are demanding that the minimum support price be increased to Rs. 1,000. Second, farmers claim the government did not actively purchase their produce as promised. Even in cases where the State purchased the potatoes, the farmers complained that the purpose was counter-productive due to the grading system, under which only the best quality was selected by government agencies. The bulk of average-poor quality potatoes was left with the farmers, who had the option of selling it in the market and dumping the rest in cold storages. Horticulture Department Director S.K. Joshi, however, says the State purchased 12,937 tonnes from farmers during April-May, causing the market price to increase by Rs. 100 a quintal.
Where to store the excess?
•The new produce from 2017 is already in the market even as cold storages are still flush with last year’s yield. Already bearing the loss of the input costs, farmers are faced with the dilemma of letting their produce rot in the storages or attempt to sell the old produce at throwaway prices in markets, while competing with the new potato. Many farmers chose to let their produce rot in the cold storages or threw them in their fields for cattle to eat, as the costs of transporting them to the market to sell at low prices was unfeasible. As farmers are unable to repay the cold storage rents, they too face losses as they have to incur operational costs.
•Authorities, however, say the potatoes being dumped by farmers are the rotting old stock, which would have been cleared from the cold storages sooner or later.
What happens next?
•The State has sent a proposal to the Centre for purchasing 2 lakh tonnes from farmers under the market intervention scheme for the new season. Once the Centre approves the rates proposed by the State, the Horticulture Department will start buying potatoes from farmers in districts where rates are lower than the minimum support price. Last year, purchasing was done in 41 districts. Potatoes for the new season are still being dug out and the situation will be clear by February-end.
📰 IIT Kanpur team finds possible cause of neurodevelopmental disorders
BMP signalling plays an important role in cerebral cortex development
•Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) are secreted signalling molecules which are already known to regulate the production of neurons from neural stem cells. Now, using mice models, a team of researchers led by Prof. Jonaki Sen from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has found that BMP signalling is active in the cerebral cortex during embryonic development as well as during later stages of development after birth, too.
•They found that BMP signalling regulates three processes — the migration of newborn neurons from stem cell niche to their destined place in the cortex, polarity (the axon forming the base and the dendrites forming the apical or top side) of neuronal cells, and branching of dendrites in the upper layer neurons of the cerebral cortex.
•The cerebral cortex has six neuronal layers formed in an inside-out manner. The early-born neurons form the inner cortical layers while the late-born neurons form the outermost layers. So any perturbation or delay in the migration of newborn neurons results in disturbed layer formation and lack of proper connectivity between neurons.
•Similarly, when polarity (alignment) or branching of dendrites is affected, the neurons will not be able to form proper electrical connections. Though there are other factors that determine migration and polarity, the role of BMP signalling in these two processes was not known till now.
BMP signalling
•“BMP signalling was previously known to play an important role in the early development of the brain. Our study is the first to show that BMP signalling plays an important role in cortex development by regulating the migration of newborn cortical neurons and the establishment of polarity in the upper layer of cerebral cortex,” says Dr. Monika Saxena from the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur and first author of the paper published in the journal Development.
•“There are many neurodevelopmental disorders linked to aberrant migration of neurons such as lissencephaly, autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia,” says Prof. Sen who is with the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering. “We now know that inhibition of BMP signalling leads to delayed migration and this may be one of the causes for such disorders. Thus, it might be possible to prevent or treat these diseases if further research is carried out.”
Two pathways
•BMP signalling can be through two pathways — phospho-SMAD or LIM kinases. When BMP signalling was totally inhibited, both the pathways were affected. As a result, all the three processes — migration, polarity and neurons not making enough branches — were affected.
•To understand the role of each pathway in affecting any of the three stages of neuronal development, the researchers selectively blocked one pathway at a time.
•“Both pathways have a role in the migration of neurons. When only one of the pathways was blocked, migration was affected but to a lesser extent than when both pathways were inhibited," Prof. Sen says.
•In the case of polarity, inhibiting the LIM kinase pathway seemed to be less effective than inhibiting the phospho-SMAD pathway. “Using mice models we determined that the phospho-SMAD pathway was more important than LIM kinase pathway for polarity establishment,” Prof. Sen says.
•But the reverse was true in the case of the branching of dendrites. Inhibiting the LIM kinase pathway had a greater effect on dendrites branching than inhibiting the phospho-SMAD pathway.
•The researchers found that BMP signalling seems to selectively regulate migration of upper-layer neurons. The migration of neurons to form the lower layers, which are the first to be formed, is not affected even when BMP signalling is blocked.
•Even when both the pathways of BMP signalling were blocked, migration was only delayed and not completely stopped. But the delay in migration causes problems. “When neurons finally reach the upper layers (layer II/III), they don’t have proper polarity,” Prof. Sen says.
Evidence in mice
•The gestation period in the case of mice is 20 days. The migration delay was seen two days after BMP signalling was blocked on gestation day 15.5 and continued till at least the day of birth. Disturbed polarity was manifested on the sixth day after birth. Defects in dendrite branching was first seen 15 days after birth and fully manifested 21 days after birth.
📰 Star molecule from IIT-M
Designer molecules can help drug delivery
•It is a marvel of synthetic chemistry that today we can build molecules pretty much like we make up structures with building blocks. Using this method for their science at Dillip Kumar Chand’s lab at the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, researchers have made a molecule that looks like a five-pointed star with its tips truncated.
•All you have to do to build the molecule is to get together the component molecules and ligands and shake them with a solvent in a “one-pot.” Of course, the hard work is in knowing what components you will add to the solvent and in what measure. Prof. Chand’s team calculated the structures using the density functional theory, to work out the architecture of the molecule they were building.
Designer molecules
•Such designer molecules with cavities in them can be used for drug delivery. Prof. Chand explains: “Molecules having a cavity are used for binding the guest [molecule] and transporting the guest to another site.” For example, binding a drug and delivering the drug. In building this molecule, the researchers introduce more than one cavity in a single molecule. This makes it more interesting.
•In order to build the desired molecule, the team uses three components: One is palladium (II) which can bind to molecules at four places 90 degrees apart. The second is the molecule 4-4’-bipyridine which is like a rod that can bind at its two ends. And the last is the molecule 1,4-phenylenebis(methylene) diisonicotinate which is like a stick bent twice along its length and can bind to two molecules at its two ends. By throwing in five measures each of the three components, the team comes up with a star-shaped resultant molecule as shown in the picture.
•The use of palladium(II) itself is unusual and new. Further, binding it to two different ligands has never been done before. Normally, using a rigid rod-like ligand would usually yield a square arrangement but in this case it yields a pentagonal star-like arrangement. “Since we anticipated a pentagonal architecture, it excited us to put our full effort on the project. In nature there are many pentagonal structures whereas among chemicals, the pentagonal structure is very rare,” says Prof. Chand.
•The team now aims to make different variations of this design and use the cavity for binding drug molecules and transport them to required sites. “Also, we want to utilise the related molecules in catalysis,” he adds.
📰 Health Ministry to study 2017 spike in vaccine-related adverse events
Not all 1,139 deaths post immunisation can be attributed to vaccines: officials
•The Union Health Ministry is to study a reported rise in “adverse events” following vaccinations in 2017 as compared to the two previous years.
•Between April and December last year, reports from across States recorded that 1,139 children had died following immunisation. By comparison, there were 176 and 111 such deaths during the same period in 2016 and 2015. The statistics have been compiled by a Health Ministry database.
•Sources, however, stressed that along with children who may have died due to adverse reaction to a vaccine or improper administration or due to inherent defects in the vaccine itself, the numbers include children who were already seriously ill or had congenital diseases but had died during a specified period after vaccination.
•A Health Ministry official told The Hindu that the 2017 numbers — termed deaths due to Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) — appeared “marginally higher” than the previous years, but the process of investigation was still on.
•The database also records 21,450 AEFI cases that caused rashes and related skin reactions and abscess, as well as 2,66,879 ‘other’ AEFI cases for 2017.
Link not established
•India’s AEFI data is compiled by district officers, and the Union Health Ministry’s national AEFI committee follows up on reports, sifting out deaths that may have a link with vaccine administration.
•The National AEFI committee said that during 2012-2016, there were only 132 serious AEFI cases, in which 54 persons died while 78 were treated in hospital. About 50% of those who survived were classified as having had reactions. No deaths were attributed to vaccines alone.
•Pradeep Haldar, who heads the Health Ministry division dedicated to tracking immunisation-related reactions, said data supplied by States on adverse events was not always accurate.
•“This data is collated from States and there are quality issues. Only after we follow up on each and every adverse event can we reliably attribute the cause of death or other serious reactions,” he said. “Data reported in, say 2014, may sometimes take three years to verify. However there is a marginal increase in AEFI this year, according to preliminary reports.” The 2017 numbers emerged in response to Right To Information activist Chetan Kothari’s query to the Health Ministry. The Ministry said the data could be sourced from its public database, where The Hindu independently verified the numbers.
•Gagandeep Kang, a member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and a paediatrician involved in the development of India’s first homegrown rotavirus vaccine, said adverse events from vaccinations were under-reported in India so far because the AEFI panel met only four times a year and reviewed just 100 cases at a time.
•The WHO has recommended the use of performance indicators for AEFI functionality assessment. Ms. Kang said it was important to note that all events were not deaths, nor was there any indication of a causal association with any vaccine, but they gave an indication that safety following immunisation was being monitored.
•“It is estimated that for every 1,00,000 children immunised, there should be at least 10 serious adverse events (including deaths and hospitalisation). So if you take 26 million children getting three vaccines in their first year, you are talking about 2,600 such events,” she added.
•India’s Universal Immunisation Programme has vaccines for 12 diseases. Vaccination coverage is about 65%, and the government aims to ensure 90% coverage by the end of the year.
📰 Sensors in Andamans to monitor earthquakes
Scientists can get real time seismic data to act faster
•The Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS) of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is in the process of setting up an elaborate system of sensors on the Andaman & Nicobar Islands for real-time monitoring of earthquakes.
•Strong Motion Sensors with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have been installed at 28 locations on the islands. Three more ‘cabins’ housing the sensors deep in the forests are awaiting permission from the environment and forest departments, according to INCOIS director Satheesh C. Shenoi.
More locations
•The plan was to have such sensors at 35 locations. These would be put inside six-by-six metre structures. They would be interconnected and would have a satellite-linked facility to enable scientists here to monitor minute land mass movements and seismic data in real-time and be in a position to get a better estimate of the impact and act quickly, he explained.
•Eight of the sensor stations had been linked via satellite, while the remaining were recording data, which could be accessible once they were interconnected.
•This was likely to happen in a couple of months. Four more sensor stations were in the pipeline.
Waiting for clearances
•They were waiting for the requisite forest clearances to come through, said the director.
•INCOIS, which comes under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has in place a fail-safe satellite-based communication system, Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs), with VSAT based VoIP phone and fax, electronic display board, a computer-based earthquake alert and web access system.
•The system is capable of displaying ticket messages related to tsunami events and triggering of a built-in siren alert system audible for up to 1 km, which can be triggered by INCOIS or by the EOCs.
Tsunamigenic quakes
•The ITEWS comprises a real-time network of seismic stations, tsunami buoys and tide gauges to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes and to monitor tsunamis.
•The real-time data is collated at INCOIS in collaboration with the Indian Meteorology Department, the National Institute of Ocean Technology, the Survey of India and international sources.
•It detects globally occurring earthquakes of 5 magnitude and above within 5-10 minutes of the event.
