📰 U.S. quits UN human rights body
•The United States on Tuesday announced its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) terming it “hypocritical and self-serving.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley blamed the UNHRC for bias against Israel and refusing to eject members who are violators of human rights.
•Announcing the decision at the State Department, the officials named Russia, China, Cuba and Egypt for thwarting U.S. efforts to reform the Council.
•The UNHRC has been among the targets of President Donald Trump’s politics against global organisations and treaties. Under his presidency, the U.S. has withdrawn from the U.N. climate treaty and the UNESCO.
•UNHRC was founded in 2006. Then President George W. Bush was dismissive of the body. Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. joined it in 2009.
📰 Trauma at the border
The U.S. policy of separating children from undocumented migrant parents is cruel
•As part of its “zero-tolerance” approach to dealing with undocumented migrants, the Donald Trump administration in the U.S. has been separating parents and children within migrating families, leading to outrage over the burgeoning number of minors lodged in foster care. Reports suggest that between October 2017 and May 2018 at least 1,995 children were separated from their parents, with a significant majority of the instances between April 18 and May 31. In recent weeks, disturbing images and videos have emerged of screaming toddlers in the custody of Customs and Border Protection personnel, or in what appear to be chain-link cages in facilities holding older children, as well as one disturbing audio allegedly of wailing children at one such unit. Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed deep concern about the ethics of using children, facing trauma from separation from their parents, to discourage further undocumented border crossings. Mr. Trump, however, has refused to accept sole responsibility for the family separations. Instead, he took to Twitter to blame his Democratic opponents for not working with Republicans to pass new immigration legislation to mitigate the border crisis.
•His response begs two questions. First, why, when both Houses of the U.S. Congress are under Republican control, is Mr. Trump unable to garner the numbers to pass legislation to end family separations? The answer is that poignantly tragic though the fate of these broken families may be, the issue as such has failed to garner even as much bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill as Mr. Trump’s rescinding of the Obama-era immigration order on Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals. The second question is whether the policy of separating migrant families is new, or if there was indeed “bad legislation passed by the Democrats” that supports this action, as Mr. Trump claims. The answer is that both are true. Mr. Trump’s critics are correct in that there is no single U.S. law requiring families to be separated. Rather, what the White House referred to as “loopholes” in legislation are two legal provisions: a law against “improper entry by aliens” at the border, and a decree known as the Flores settlement. The first is a federal law that makes it impossible to summarily deport certain vulnerable categories of migrants, such as families, asylum-seekers and unaccompanied minors. To get around this the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama adopted the policy of “catch and release” — whereby these migrants would be released from custody pending their deportation case adjudication. Family separation was unnecessary at that time, but under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance approach, all undocumented migrants are charged in criminal courts. Here the Flores settlement applies, because it limits to 20 days the length of time migrant children may be held in immigration detention. While their parents face charges, the children are transferred to a different location, often with devastating consequences for their families. This is unspeakable cruelty.
📰 Right on Kashmir’s rights?
What prompted this human rights report?
•The first ever report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Jammu and Kashmir, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, published last week, has been in production since 2016. A new wave of violence had then hit the Kashmir Valley, when protests sparked by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani were met with force by security personnel; about 51 protesters and civilians were killed in the months that followed, while more than 9,000 were injured by pellets and bullets. Consequently, the OHCRC asked India and Pakistan to allow its teams access to the State, a request that was refused.
Why is this report controversial to India?
•Apart from being irked by the report’s criticism of India’s handling of the protests, alleged extra-judicial killings and hard tactics, the Ministry of External Affairs is also upset by the terms used to describe militants. For example, Hizbul Mujahideen, which is regarded as a terrorist organisation by India, was described in the report as an “armed group”. Wani, regarded as a terrorist by Indian security forces, was described as the “leader” of the organisation. India in its official statement said the report “undermines the UN-led consensus on zero tolerance to terrorism”. Finally, it makes specific recommendations aimed at India, including removing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from areas and instituting inquiries into alleged human rights violations.
What was the methodology used?
•In the absence of direct interviews, the OHCHR used “remote monitoring” from local sources to write the report.
Is there a political or diplomatic implication of the report that can hurt India in the long run?
•India has said that the report violates its “sovereignty and territorial integrity” as it has used terms such as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” and “Gilgit Baltistan” to describe the part of the State under Pakistani control. India does not consider Pakistan’s control over a part of Kashmir as legitimate and describes the region as Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
•After decades of delay, Pakistan, May 27, 2018, integrated Gilgit-Baltistan region into its federal structure despite strong protest from India. The OHCHR’s decision to use these terms in the report can be interpreted as a sign of recognition of these regions as being part of Pakistan.
Is the report particularly focussed on India and spares Pakistan?
•While the report’s primary focus is the deteriorating human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, it also deals with the excesses of the Pakistani security forces in their interactions with the PoK population.
Why did India react so strongly to the report?
•India’s response can perhaps be explained by the fact that the report refers to the final political settlement of the Kashmir issue to avoid continued human rights abuse by both parties — India and Pakistan. India maintains Kashmir is a bilateral issue that does not have space for a third party, including the UN.
📰 Kim, Xi agree on resolution of key issues
North Korean leader promises cooperation on securing ‘true peace’ in the region
•North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping came to an understanding on issues discussed at a summit of the two leaders, including denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, the North’s state media said on Wednesday.
•Mr. Kim and Mr. Xi assessed the historic meeting Mr. Kim had with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore last week and exchanged opinions on ways to resolve the issue of denuclearisation, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
•Mr. Kim also promised during a meeting with Mr. Xi in Beijing to cooperate with Chinese officials to secure ”true peace” in the process of “opening a new future” on the Korean peninsula, it said. Mr. Kim wrapped up his two-day trip to Beijing on Wednesday with a visit to an agricultural sciences exhibition and the Beijing subway command centre, said Xinhua.
Joint exercises
•The U.S. and South Korea said on Tuesday that they had agreed to suspend a joint military exercise set for August. On Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa said the decision to suspend the exercise could be reconsidered, based on future developments with North Korea.
•It was widely expected that Mr. Kim would visit Beijing to brief Mr. Xi on his summit with Mr. Trump, which included Pyongyang agreeing to hand over the remains of troops missing from the 1950-53 Korean War.
•Two American officials told Reuters on Tuesday that North Korea could start that process within the next few days.
📰 Sanctions act passes, sans any waiver provision
•The U.S. Senate has ignored the Donald Trump administration’s request for inclusion of waiver provisions in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The act requires the Congress to impose sanctions on countries that have “significant” defence relations with Russia.
•The Senate version of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for 2019 was passed on Monday and has no waiver provisions. The version of the NDAA 2019 passed earlier by the House of Representatives had provisions for waiver, but that is inadequate to address India’s concerns about the law.
Setback for India
•The House version allows for waivers for 180 days, provided the administration certifies that the country in question is scaling back its ties with Russia. This formulation is inadequate as it links waiver to India rolling back its ties with Russia.
•India is currently caught in the crossfire of the bipartisan law against Russia, due to its defence relations with Kremlin. The House and Senate versions of the Bill are usually reconciled through a conference process, but any hope of a legislative resolution to the CAATSA headache now appears out of reach.
•People lobbying for changes in the law in order to ensure that India’s increasing defence purchases from America won’t be interrupted by sanctions said lawmakers would be more amenable to change after the November 2018 midterm elections.
📰 Oli’s China visit to focus on connectivity
Nepal PM says the nations have common views on trans-Himalayan network
•Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s visit to China, which began on Tuesday, will focus on advancing cross-border connectivity, including through a railway corridor to Kathmandu, which could be extended to India in the future.
•In an interview with Xinhua news agency ahead of his departure, Mr. Oli said that during his visit, which will also take him to Lhasa, he would focus on a Trans-Himalayan transport corridor. “Our two countries have common views on the concept of Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Transport Network. Based on this broad framework, we want to seek cooperation with China on cross-border connectivity of railway, road, transmission lines and other related areas for mutual benefit,” he observed.
•Nepal has been seeking improved connectivity with China via Tibet, after New Delhi was accused of blockading essential supplies across the India-Nepal border in 2015.
A balancing act
•Mr. Oli has been trying to establish a “balance” between Nepal’s ties with India and China, which has also included symbolic gestures such as choosing to visit New Delhi first after becoming Prime Minster for the second time.
•Mr. Oli quoted Panchsheel — the five principles of peaceful coexistence — as the template for an independent foreign policy that would include a simultaneous engagement of India and China.
•"Our relations are based on the solid foundation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence," Mr. Oli said. He added: “Harmonious co-existence founded on the principle of good neighbourliness characterises our relationship. It has always been our sincere desire to maintain friendly relations with our neighbours."
•Mr. Oli pointed out that Nepal had recently proposed some infrastructure projects covering roads, railway, energy, transmission lines with China under the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had alluded to the formation of the Trans-Himalayan economic corridor that could be extended to India.
•In the presence of Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali, who had visited Beijing to prepare for Mr. Oli’s visit, Mr. Wang said that China and Nepal had agreed to a “long-term vision of a multi-dimensional trans-Himalaya connectivity network”, under the BRI.
•These projects would cover seaports, railways, highways, aviation, power, and communication sectors. “We believe that such a network when well-developed can also provide conditions for an economic corridor connecting China, Nepal and India. We hope that such cooperation will contribute to the development and prosperity of all three countries.”
•During his visit, Mr. Gyawali said Nepal and China had agreed to start a feasibility study for a cross-border railway linking the countries.
•Soon after his arrival on Tuesday, Mr. Oli recalled his 2016 visit to China, when Beijing backed Nepal’s decision to diversify its trade and transit routes.
📰 Pattiseema will help revive Krishna delta, says CM
He lists measures being taken to bring the Krishna back to life, says Polavaram will put an end to water crisis
•The Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme will help revive the Krishna delta to its past glory and infuse life back into the Krishna that has dried up completely, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has said.
•Releasing water to the Krishna Eastern Delta from the new regulator here on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu said the Krishna delta, which was once highly fertile, had dried up and turned saline.
•Water could not be provided in time to the crops because of mushrooming reservoirs and barrages in Maharashtra and Karnataka. And because of delay in the release of water, the crops were often destroyed by cyclones that usually hit the State in November, he said.
•This year, water was released one week in advance, and farmers would benefit from it, Mr. Naidu added.
•The pumps of the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme were switched on and the Godavari water was expected to reach Prakasam Barrage on Wednesday evening.
•Mr. Naidu said a barrage, with a capacity of 10 tmcft, was being planned at Vaikuntapuram upstream the Prakasam Barrage. Similarly, another barrage, with a capacity of 2.7 tmcft, was being planned downstream at Chodavaram.
•Through such steps, the Krishna would be revived into a perennial river again, he said, and added that ₹180 crore was being spent to improve Nallamala drain and ₹382 crore to modernise the Guntur Channel.
•Unfortunately, the YSRCP created obstacles in the linking of the Godavari and the Krishna. Its leaders had provoked the farmers and prevented them from giving land for the Polavaram Right Main Canal. As a result, the farmers had to be convinced, Mr. Naidu said.
•“Opposition parties do not want people to be happy because happy people will become fond of the TDP,” he added. After releasing the water, Mr. Naidu unveiled a pylon that marked completion of several works taken up to improve and strengthen the Prakasam Barrage as part of the Krishna Delta Modernisation work.
•Mr. Naidu said modernisation works were being taken up in the Krishna delta with ₹4,573 crore. On completion of Polavaram, there would be no drought or drinking water shortage in the State, he asserted.
•Minister for Water Resource Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said the new regulator on the Krishna Eastern Main Canal had a life of 160 years. He said the government was providing water security to the farmers by releasing water in June. Deputy Speaker Mandali Buddha Prasad, Minister P. Pulla Rao, Principal Secretary Shashi Bhushan Kumar, MLA Jaleel Khan, MLC Buddha Venkanna, Mayor Koneru Sreedhar, and Irrigation Engineer-in-Chief M .Venkateswara Rao were present.
📰 Shillong bags Smart City tag
100th and last one to get it; total investment: Rs. 2.05 lakh cr.
•As the Smart Cities Mission enters its fourth year, the Centre has finally announced the 100th and the last city which will be part of the project: Shillong.
•This announcement also sets the end date for the mission as June 2023, as every city gets five years to complete its projects, according to a senior mission official. The first 20 cities were selected in January 2016, and they should now be at the halfway point of their mission.
2.5% fund spent
•The total proposed investment in the 100 cities will be Rs. 2.05 lakh crore, according to a statement by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs issued on Wednesday. Until May 2018, about 2.5% of that amount — Rs. 5,225 crore — has been spent on 316 completed projects, according to senior officials. Another 632 projects are under implementation, at a cost of about Rs. 25,000 crore, they said.
•“The entire life cycle of a project must be taken into account,” said joint secretary Kunal Kumar, when asked about the seemingly slow pace of a mission that was launched with great fanfare in June 2015. “Yes, three years have gone by, but the first one-and-a-half years were used to put the foundational elements in place. Simply creating infrastructure without an SOP [statement of purpose] and guidelines is of no use.”
•Each selected city is required to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle which will actually carry out the mission, a process that takes at least six months, according to Mr. Kumar. “The original smart city proposals were aspirational. An SPV’s first job is to prepare a detailed project report which could then take another 6-18 months,” he said. While the initial proposals are available online, there is a need for transparent monitoring of the actual projects, said Partha Mukhopadhyay, a senior fellow researching urbanisation and infrastructure at the Centre for Policy Research.
📰 Country's first river interlinking project caught in U.P.-M.P. tussle
Land acquisition, water sharing issues impede Ken Betwa project
•Disagreements over water-sharing and difficulty in acquiring non-forest land impede the ₹18,000-crore Ken Betwa river interlink project.
•The scheme, which involves deforesting a portion of the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, was accorded clearance by the National Wildlife Board on the condition that the land lost would be made good by acquiring contiguous, revenue land. This is to ensure that wildlife corridors in the region aren’t hit. “The M.P. government has said that they are facing major difficulties over this,” said a senior person in the Water Ministry involved with the project.
Unlikely this year
•Another hurdle is a dispute over how Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — the two beneficiaries — will share water in the Rabi season.
•These “major” issues made it quite unlikely that the project will get under way this year.
•A person familiar with the deliberations told The Hindu, “New points of differences between the two States are constantly being raked up…there are still many things to be ironed out before the project can be sent for the [Union] Cabinet’s approval.”
•Conceived as a two-part project, this is the country's first river interlinking project. It is perceived as a model plan for similar interstate river transfer missions.
•The phase 1 involves building a 77 m-tall and a 2 km-wide dam, the Dhaudhan dam, and a 230 km canal to transfer extra water from the Ken river for irrigating 3.64 lakh hectares in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
•Originally, this phase envisaged irrigating 6,35,661 ha (hectares) annually (3,69,881 ha in M.P. and 2,65,780 ha in U.P.). In addition, the project was to provide 49 million cubic metres (MCM) of water for en route drinking water supply.
No longer valid
•While there’s a 2005 agreement between the two States on how water would be shared, Madhya Pradesh said last year that these assumptions were no longer valid and the only way to meet increased water requirements would be to include certain local water management projects — the Kotha barrage, Lower Orr and Bina complex that were envisaged in the second phase of the project — in the first phase.
•In theory, this could mean a completely fresh environmental appraisal. The Central Water Commission is yet to officially take a call, though government sources say the Centre is agreeable to the change. However, new demands by Madhya Pradesh for more water during the Rabi season are yet to be negotiated.
📰 Transmission troubles: on inefficient banking system
Customers of Indian banks continue to foot the bill for banking system inefficiencies
•The RBI continues to remain unable to influence the effective lending rates in the economy. In February, in its latest statement of intent to resolve poor monetary transmission, the RBI said it would instruct banks to switch base rate customers to the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) system from April 1, 2018. In April 2016, it had introduced the MCLR regime, scrapping the base rate regime, in place since 2010. “Since MCLR is more sensitive to policy rate signals, it has been decided to harmonise the methodology of determining benchmark rates by linking the Base Rate to the MCLR,” it had said. This was supposed to push banks to lower lending rates. Currently, under the base rate system, the lending rate at State Bank of India is 8.7%. The one-year MCLR rate is just 8.25%. This difference of 45 basis points could make a significant difference in borrowing costs, especially for smaller firms and retail consumers relying on equated monthly instalments. In the RBI’s assessment, a large proportion of outstanding loans and advances continues to be linked to the base rate system. This perhaps triggered the February statement.
•Yet, the RBI is yet to operationalise that intent. One can understand the banks’ reluctance to switch to the lower MCLR-based rates, given the multiple pressures they face, including record levels of non-performing assets and losses, and significant treasury losses. The RBI, which has often faced flak for poor monetary transmission, shouldn’t be swayed by these concerns. An RBI study estimates that public sector banks could take a ₹40,000-crore hit on revenue if they allow all base rate borrowers to switch to the MCLR rate. The RBI, which has just allowed banks to spread the booking of losses on the treasury front over four quarters — after talking tough about such rollovers — may not want to hurt them more. But this creates an unfair situation as new borrowers get MCLR rates while the older ones continue on the higher base rate system. While a base rate customer can shift to the MCLR regime only by paying a fee, this outcome is not too different from the previous attempt by the RBI eight years ago to influence transmission by shifting to base rates from what was called a Benchmark Prime Lending Rate regime. There was no sunset clause included then. For troubled banks, this is an asset-liability mismatch issue. Given the need to revive the economy through consumption and fresh investment, this impasse needs to be broken.
📰 Neither new nor undesirable
But making a fetish of lateral entry of domain experts into government service will have grave consequences
•Our ceaseless search for the Holy Grail to fix the challenges of governance always leads us nowhere because the thing doesn’t exist. But what we find in the process is a counterfeit, of… well, nothing; it looks like a solution but it is in fact a problem. Good intentions, unless tempered by thoughtful deliberation and preparation, do not lead to good policy outcomes.
•The move by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) towards lateral entry in government service falls in this category. It has invited applications from “talented and motivated Indian nationals willing to contribute towards nation building” to be appointed as joint secretaries in 10 Departments/ Ministries at the Centre. One cannot question the good intentions behind the decision to make lateral entry more institutionalised than the case till now. Nor should one read too much bad faith into this, until and unless that bad faith comes into the open.
•Once we unwrap the new policy, however, what we find is a little incongruence that can one day grow into a monster. Since the problem that the new policy seeks to fix remains vague, we cannot hope for whatever improvements promised. It is also a distant cousin to the ‘committed bureaucracy’ bogey of the 1970s. Moreover, the lateral entry policy goes counter in spirit to the governance philosophy enunciated by the Constituent Assembly, insofar as it concerns the candidates from private sector, consultancy firms, international/ multinational organisations (MNCs).
•Traditionally, the services of outside experts were availed through consultative processes, a practice quite widespread with the erstwhile Planning Commission and to some extent with its new avatar, the NITI Aayog. It is not clear why the government determined that the practice was not effective.
Why and wherefore
•The lateral entry decision is based on the assumption that since our civil servants, especially those of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), are generalists and hence ill-suited to deal with policy implications of new technologies and new modes of thinking, the country is in dire need of domain experts. Nobody questioned the assumption so far as the government invoked it sparingly and also it is prima facie valid.
•The policy’s aim “also to augment manpower” can only mean that the lateral entry will be as wide as regular recruitment and used as regularly. In doing so the government is turning an exception into a rule but the whole enterprise also begs the question: what does all this mean?
•Neither the DoPT nor Ministries concerned cared to define ‘domain expertise’. For example, most of the 10 posts open for lateral entry are pretty generalist. A joint secretary in agriculture? And a candidate is merely directed to the website of agriculture ministry. Has the need for domain expertise in plant breeding been felt so as to look for another M.S. Swaminathan? Is there a need for a plant pathologist? A marketing expert? Or is the nation destined to have joint secretaries in all branches of a given Ministry? Therefore, we must recognise that domain expertise is salient only in a very narrow context.
A clear trade-off
•What is common between the lateral entry policy and the push for simultaneous polls is a certain restlessness that the system has become too unwieldy to speed up development. The sentiment is honourable but misplaced. The Founding Fathers felt that India needed a responsible government more than an efficient one. Trade-off, there is.
•While elaborating why the Constituent Assembly preferred the parliamentary over the presidential system, B.R. Ambedkar reflected the sense of the House that while the former is more responsible but less stable, the latter is more stable but less responsible. Is the country in such a state to opt for efficiency at the cost of accountability?
•Of the three methods at our disposal to ensure the government is responsible, one is independence of judiciary; the second is to subject the executive to constant scrutiny of the legislature; and the third is to maintain bureaucratic neutrality.
•Most democracies train their higher civil servants to be accountable rather than efficient and India is no exception. What haunts a civil servant is the spectre of having to answer to a quo warranto writ against his alleged action/inaction. If this dynamic renders bureaucracy slow to act, it’s a welcome trait. In any case, a civil servant is expected to follow the decisions taken by the political executive which is the real master.
•The new system is open to three groups: 1) officers of State governments; 2) employees of public sector undertakings and assorted research bodies; and 3) individuals in the private sector, MNCs, etc. Among the three groups, any metric of accountability, bureaucratic neutrality and fidelity to due process gets progressively worse from group 1 to 3.
•The nation cannot escape the havoc likely to be wreaked by a large number of private sector experts becoming joint secretaries on three-to-five year contracts. Whatever training or orientation that these new entrants will undergo cannot match 15-20 years of acculturation/on-job training that regular officers receive before they become joint secretaries.
•Unless the government is mindful of the dangers, lateral entry can result in large swathes of higher bureaucracy being consumed by the ‘nation-building’ zeal at the cost of accountability.
📰 The seeds of sustainability
How Zero Budget Natural Farming could be the model for the future
•In early June, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced that the State would fully embrace Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), a chemical-free method that would cover all farmers by 2024. Earlier in the year, he had revealed these plans at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
•Even though this revolution has been in the works for several years, this is still a momentous occasion and highlights the way to improve the welfare of farmers, reduce the cost of farm inputs, cut toxins in food, and improve soils. With successful pilot programmes that were initiated in 2015 and partners who brought experience in different aspects needed to carry out such a transformation, Andhra Pradesh has become the first State to implement a ZBNF policy.
•According to Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, the agency that is implementing the ZBNF, the programme will be extended in phases. This year, 5 lakh farmers will be covered, and at least one panchayat in each of the mandals will be shifted to this new method, bringing the programme to a tipping point. By 2021-22, the programme is to be implemented in every panchayat, with full coverage by 2024.
•Towards this end, substantial resource mobilisation for about Rs. 16,500 crore is in progress. Tenant farmers and day labourers are also being trained, to ensure that through the ZBNF, livelihoods for the rural poor will be enhanced. T. Vijay Kumar, a retired civil servant in charge of implementing the programme, views farmer-to-farmer connections as vital to its success. According to him, the role of the Agriculture Department is to just listen to farmers and motivate and assist them in different ways. Farmer’s collectives such as Farmer Producer Organisations need to be established and these would be critical to sustaining the programme. The Government of India provides funding through the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana. Additional resources have been made available through various philanthropic organisations.
Natural farming
•Natural farming is “do nothing farming”, according to Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer who, in the 1970s, was a proponent of no-till, no chemical use in farming along with the dispersal of clay seed balls to propagate plants. He found it important to apply nature’s principles in farming and developed a deep-rooted philosophy around the process.
•Subhash Palekar developed the ZBNF after his own efforts at chemical farming failed. He identified four aspects that are now integral to his process and which require locally available materials: seeds treated with cow dung and urine; soil rejuvenated with cow dung, cow urine and other local materials to increase microbes; cover crops, straw and other organic matter to retain soil moisture and build humus; and soil aeration for favourable soil conditions. These methods are combined with natural insect management methods when required.
•In ZBNF, yields of various cash and food crops have been found to be significantly higher when compared with chemical farming. For example, yields from ZBNF plots in the (kharif) 2017 pilot phase were found on average to be 11% higher for cotton than in non-ZBNF plots. The yield for Guli ragi (ZBNF) was 40% higher than non-ZBNF.
•Input costs are near zero as no fertilizers and pesticides are used. Profits in most areas under ZBNF were from higher yield and lower inputs. Model ZBNF farms were able to withstand drought and flooding, which are big concerns with regard to climate change. The planting of multiple crops and border crops on the same field has provided varied income and nutrient sources. As a result of these changes, there is reduced use of water and electricity, improved health of farmers, flourishing of local ecosystems and biodiversity and no toxic chemical residues in the environment.
•In early 2016, Sikkim was declared India’s first fully organic State. But organic agriculture often involves addition of large amounts of manure, vermicompost and other materials that are required in bulk and need to be purchased. These turn out to be expensive for most small farm holders.
Model for other States
•The changes taking place in Andhra Pradesh are a systematic scaling up of farming practices based on agro-ecological principles in opposition to the dominant chemical agriculture. Changes at this scale require many different elements to come together, but open-minded enlightened political leaders and administrators are fundamental.
•Over the years, Andhra Pradesh has supported and learned from its many effective civil society organisations such as the Watershed Support Services and Activities Network, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and the Deccan Development Society. A step-by-step increase in the area covered is another notable aspect. The scaling up relies primarily on farmers and local groups — all in all, very much a bottom-up process.
•With its combination of delta regions, arid and hilly tribal areas, districts in Andhra Pradesh are similar to those in other parts of the country and could therefore serve as a model for replication. The approach taken by APPI to monitor the improvements is vital to understanding the outcomes of large-scale changes that are under way; this is critical to expanding the ZBNF to other States. As ZBNF is applied in India’s various agro-ecological zones, making farmers the innovators is essential.
•Resilient food systems are the need of the day given the variability of the monsoons due to global warming and declining groundwater in large parts of India. The drought-prone Rayalaseema region (Andhra Pradesh) is reportedly seeing promising changes already in farms with the ZBNF. More encouraging is that the programme can have a positive effect on many of the sustainable development goals through improvements in soil, biodiversity, livelihoods, water, reduction in chemicals, climate resilience, health, women’s empowerment and nutrition.
•Andhra Pradesh is one of the top five States in terms of farmer suicides. When asked about agricultural distress across the country, Mr. Kumar had one message for decision makers: “Don’t listen to your scientists, listen to the farmers.” Technology is simply the systematic application of knowledge for practical purposes and according to Mr. Kumar, the ZBNF is a technology of the future with a traditional idiom. Agricultural scientists in India have to rework their entire strategy so that farming is in consonance with nature. The dominant paradigm of chemical-based agriculture has failed and regenerative agriculture is the emerging new science.
•The world is at critical junctures on many planetary boundaries, and establishing a system that shows promise in improving them while supporting people sustainably is surely one worth pursuing.
📰 Beating plastic pollution
The focus must be on waste management and recycling
•We celebrated ‘World Environment Day’ (June 5) with a critical theme: beat plastic pollution. Since India was the global host of this year’s event, and also one of the victims of plastic pollution, we should view this danger seriously. The theme urges governments, industries, communities and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives. It also urges this target group to reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastics, which are polluting our environment and threatening human health.
•Plastics are organic polymers of high molecular mass and often contain other substances. They are usually synthetic, mainly derived from petrochemicals. Due to their low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, non-corrosiveness and imperviousness to water, plastics are used for multiple purposes at different scales. Plastic was invented in New York in 1907 by Leo Baekeland. Further, many chemists, including Nobel laureate Hermann Staudinger (father of polymer chemistry) and Herman Mark (father of polymer physics), have contributed to the materials science of plastics. However, these scientists could not have anticipated such an exponential growth of plastic production.
Critical impact
•Plastic has become an indispensable material in modern society. Worldwide, one million plastic bags and one million plastic bottles are used every minute. About 50% of our plastic use is single use (disposable) and it constitutes 10% of the total waste generated. More than 9.1 billion tons of plastic are said to have been “manufactured since the material was initially mass-produced in the 1950s”. In 2015, scientists said that “of the nearly 7 billion tons of plastic waste generated, only 9% was recycled, 12% incinerated, and 79% accumulated in landfills or the environment”.
•In India, which accounts for almost 18% of the world population in 2.4% of the global land area, the accumulation of plastic waste is huge. An estimate in 2015 revealed that 60 cities across the country generated over 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Even if plastic is a convenient alternative, it is a difficult substance for nature to digest.
•Each year, 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans. A study revealed that 20 rivers (mostly from Asia) carry two-thirds of plastic waste to the ocean; the Ganga’s contribution to this is one of the highest. Researchers exploring the Arctic have found very high levels of microplastics trapped in the ice. Last year, a plastic spoon was found in the remains of a whale shark off Rameswaram. Experts explained that whale sharks are filter feeders and like to swallow everything floating in the sea. The economic impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems through fisheries and tourism losses and beach cleaning-up costs is estimated to be around $13 billion per year.
•Plastic disposed of on land degrades slowly and its chemicals leach into the surroundings. Drinking water samples analysed from 14 countries, including India, revealed that 83% have micro-plastics concentrations. According to a United Nations Environment Programme report, the overall annual natural capital cost of plastic use in the consumer goods sector is $75 billion.
What should we do?
•In reality, we cannot eliminate plastic use from our day-to-day activities. However, we should not allow plastic to reach the soil or water. The government should restrict plastic production and encourage recycling through appropriate policies. The ‘Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016’ need to be strictly followed.
•As most plastic items pass through our hands, public care, with behavioural change, is necessary. Household-wise waste segregation is the key. We should act as responsible citizens with a determination towards maintaining cleaner surroundings. Every shopkeeper should go in for abd encourage the use of biodegradable packing materials while shoppers should use cloth bags. Mass public awareness on the dangers of plastic hazards is a prerequisite.
•Eco-friendly substitutes (cloth/paper/jute bags, leaves/areca leaf plates, paper straws) should be developed. For this, scientific and financial support (soft loans and subsidies) is required. Charges for plastic bag use and deposit-refund for plastic bottles may be effective options. The recent decision by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on extending the mandate on packing food grains and sugar products in jute bags is welcome. Even if the intention is to promote the jute industry, it is a step that reduces plastic pollution. The Swachh Bharat Mission should emerge as a platform for plastic waste management.
•We cannot transform our world into a ‘plastic planet’. What is needed is collective public effort to stop plastic pollution and safeguard our ecosystem/biodiversity.
📰 Defining death
India needs clear standard operating procedures as well as a legal definition of death
•Literature, poetry and philosophy converge with medicine in recognising that the rhythm of life is dependent on the beating heart and pulsating brain. Yet it is only medical science that asks which organ’s cessation determines whether death has occurred.
•In April, the Kerala government issued protocols to confirm brain death caseswith the intention of making organ transplantation more transparent in the State. However, for all the advances in medicine (or perhaps because of them) there is a lack of clarity, medically and ethically, about assessing when the moment of death has occurred.
•Historically, death was noted to occur when the heart stopped pumping blood. Death was identified by cardiorespiratory failure; doctors would feel for a pulse, check for breath, and sometimes even hold a mirror before the nose to test for condensation. The arrival of the modern ventilator upended this simple understanding of the end of life. As intensive care medicine took shape, defining death became more complex, encompassing religion and ethics. In medicine, the definition entered the realm of neuroscience. Terms such as the “death of the nervous system” and “coma dépassé,” or irreversible state of coma and apnoea, became part of the medical lexicon.
•But could a person be declared dead if the heart and lungs continued to function after brain death? In India, two Acts give different answers. Brain stem death — different from brain death — is only acknowledged in the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, whereby a deceased person is one “in whom permanent disappearance of all evidence of life occurs, by reason of brain stem death or in a cardiopulmonary sense, at any time after live birth has taken place.” On the other hand, Section 2(b) of the Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969, excludes the diagnosis of brain death. It defines death as the “permanent disappearance of all evidence of life at any time after live-birth has taken place”. By its definition, a patient on ventilator support may not necessarily be dead.
•In the U.S., the case of 13-year-old Jahi McMath has fuelled the debate. Ever since she was declared legally brain dead after a tonsil surgery that went wrong, her parents have been fighting for the declaration to be revoked. She turned 17 last year and reached puberty while on life support, forcing many to question how she could be declared dead.
•American bioethicist and paediatrician Robert Truog wrote: “Although legal definitions are typically defined by bright lines, biology tends to be continuous.” He further argued that the diagnosis of brain death functions was a self-fulfilling prophecy as once the ventilators are disconnected, invariably cardiorespiratory death follows.
•While biology and law function differently, clear standard operating procedures as well as a legal definition of death in India could go a long way in establishing trust between patients and doctors.
📰 How high altitude shapes human body
Due to limited oxygen availability for growth, the body prioritises which segments need supply first
•Living the high life — growing up, in other words, at extreme altitude — forces a developing human body to conserve energy, and that can translated into shorter arms, according to a study published on Wednesday.
•Nepalese men and women born and raised at 3,500 metres and up are more likely to have curtailed forearms compared to people of similar ancestry from lowland areas, scientists reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science .
•Intriguingly, adjoining parts of the anatomy — the upper arms and hand — remain the same for both groups.
•A similar pattern was uncovered in earlier research among Peruvian children, reinforcing the notion that harsh mountain conditions were somehow responsible. “It was interesting to see that they both followed the same growth patterns,” lead author Stephanie Payne, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, said.
•The findings raise a host of questions, starting with this one: What is it about an high-altitude living that makes the body shape-shift?
Common features
•“This is most likely an adaptation to improving oxygen uptake,” said Ms. Payne.
•For similar reasons, indigenous peoples of the Himalayas and Andes often have barrel chests, the better to expand lung capacity and take in more oxygen. Although air contains 21% oxygen at all altitudes, it feels as if there is less of it in the mountains due to lower air pressure.
•Using the measure of “effective oxygen”, the level drops by just under 40% at 3,500 metres compared to sea level.
•In high-mountain regions, low oxygen availability results in inefficient conversion of food into energy, which means that there is less energy available for growth. This become especially true when combined with a nutrient poor diet.
Not evolution
•But what possible advantage is there to diminished forearms and lower legs, which also tend to be foreshortened among mountain-folk? And why not other parts of the body?
•It is not so much that there is something to gain, but more that there is nothing to lose, the study conjectured. “The human body prioritises which segments to grow when there is limited energy available for growth, such as at high altitude,” said Ms. Payne.
•“The full growth of the hand may be essential for manual dexterity, whilst the length of the upper arm is particularly important for strength.” But a shorter lower arm is apparently something humans can live with.
•To conduct the study, Ms. Payne and colleagues from Nepal and Canada trekked for two days to Namche Bazaar on the Everest Trail, getting more than a taste of altitude sickness along the way.
•Humans, like all living creatures, change in response to evolutionary pressures through the process of natural selection. Chance genetic mutations that turn out to confer an advantage enhance the chances of survival, and of being passed along to offspring.
•But Ms. Payne doubts that evolution is at work in this case. Rather, she said, the bodies of people born into the rarefied atmospheres of the Andes or the Himalayas react and adapt in real time, probably from the foetal stage.
