📰 India rejects U.K. proposal on DNA tests for ‘illegal migrants’
Govt. refuses to sign pact citing ‘privacy issues’
•India rejected a proposal by the U.K. to use DNA sampling to establish the nationality of illegal migrants living there citing “privacy issues”.
•Although a Memorandum of Understanding on return of illegal migrants was initialled after due approval of the Union Cabinet in January by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, India refused to sign the final pact during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to U.K. in April.
•As per the original MoU, security agencies in India were to verify the antecedents of illegal migrants without documents in the U.K. within 72 days and those with documents within 15 days.
•If no report was given within the stipulated time frame, the illegal migrant would be deported automatically.
•The agreement was put on indefinite hold after National Security Adviser Ajit Doval conveyed that the 15-day limit was unworkable.
Unethical, said India
•“In one of the meetings, the U.K. authorities suggested that the nationality of document-less illegal migrants suspected to be Indians could be established by matching DNA samples of their family members living here. We raised objections that this was a breach of privacy and unethical. How do we know that the document-less person is an Indian,” said a senior Home Ministry official who attended the meeting.
•According to the British government’s estimates, there are around 1,00,000 Indians overstaying their visa in the U.K.
•India has contested this and said that as per their estimate, the number will not be more than 2,000.
•Post-April, at least two high-level delegations from the U.K. have raised the issue with India.
•During her first visit to India on November 7, 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the U.K. would consider an improved visa deal “if at the same time we can step up the speed and volume of returns of Indians with no right to remain in the U.K.”
Twists and turns
•In January, Union Cabinet approved the contents of a MoU on “return of illegal migrants” to be signed with U.K.
•MoS Home Kiren Rijiju, who led a delegation to U.K the same month, signed the MoU.
•In April, the pact was expected to be signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to London, but it was not included in the official list of business.
•As per the original MoU, the security agencies in India were to verify the antecedents of document less illegal migrants in the U.K within 72 days and those with documents within 15 days. India pulled out of the pact saying the time frame was not feasible.
📰 Making ‘lateral entry’ work
How India can tap into new sources of leadership talent
•Most CEOs are grappling with one particular challenge, irrespective of industry or geography: getting the right leadership talent. Governments face this challenge too. The Indian government has responded to this challenge by taking the initiative to invite executives from beyond the ranks of the civil service to apply for certain Joint Secretary posts. While the idea clearly has merit, success is not automatically guaranteed. At Egon Zehnder we have worked extensively with governments around the world on similar initiatives, and have identified five elements that increase the chances of success.
•Establish objective criteria: The key decision makers involved in making a senior appointment rarely agree on what skills, qualities and experiences the role requires— and when they do, there is no guarantee that the requirements agreed to are the ones that are actually needed to be successful. This is why the process must begin with a real probing of the position and its larger context. For example, prior to one county’s national elections, we were asked to establish the hiring criteria for 100 key governmental appointments. We interviewed current and former officeholders; mapped strategic priorities; and factored in the cultural differences between ministries. The result: a foundational talent strategy that could be used by whichever party won.
•Having objective criteria also gives decision makers confidence that their appointments will be able to stand up to public scrutiny without fear of seeming biased towards or against candidates for caste, geography, political affiliation or other considerations.
•Target the talent you need: Public announcements inviting lateral entry applicants for open government positions preserve transparency but are not very effective recruiting strategies. Top talent has many options outside of public service. Government, therefore, cannot sit back and wait for these candidates to present themselves. It must proactively identify and approach executives with the desired skills and experience. Precisely because the competition for talent is so intense, most successful corporations — even those regarded as highly desirable employers — follow this strategy. Very often governments are reluctant to follow suit so as to not appear to favour candidates. This is where the objective criteria come in. The fact that a given executive is approached and encouraged to apply is no guarantee that he or she will be appointed.
•We worked with a freshly installed administration in Latin America to build an extensive database of hundreds of private sector leaders considered to have the skills necessary to help fight the country’s urgent economic and social challenges. These executives were then proactively invited to apply and added to the pool of open application candidates. We then assessed this expanded group and recommended numerous successful candidates to key roles.
•Look for potential to succeed in this environment: Our work with governments around the world suggests that in addition to the right motivation there are three key personal traits that predict success of lateral hires in such roles.
•The first is resilience. Government bureaucracy can be tough on outsiders; it is essential to have the ability to persevere in the face of constant pulls and pressures and aligning multiple stakeholders.
•Successful lateral hires also have a high level of curiosity. They acknowledge that they don’t have all the answers, are eager to learn and model their behaviour accordingly. These candidates know that while they may have many useful new ideas, they also have much to learn from career civil servants and that government has its own systems, formal and informal, that must be grasped before any innovations can be proposed.
•Finally, they have the ability to engage others. The ability to build consensus among stakeholders is essential.
•Less is more when it comes to selection panels: The government screening process traditionally includes appearing before a section panel of three to five interviewers, who each take their turn investigating topics they have divided between themselves. Unfortunately, this approach often results in only a surface-level understanding of the candidate. We have found that one-on-one or two-on-one interviews allow for a much more meaningful exploration of key points of a candidate’s career, their mindset and approach.
•More focussed interviews should be supplemented with extensive referencing with finalist candidates. This combination of data will provide insight into a candidate’s character, integrity and moral compass — all critical qualities for government roles.
•Accelerate the new hire’s integration: Successful recruiting is only part of the equation; the selected lateral hire must also be primed for success in his or her new organisation. We were able to demonstrate the benefits of a systematic approach with a senior executive that we hired for the cabinet of a European country. We started by identifying cultural differences between the executive’s old and new environments and helped develop strategies the executive could use to navigate this change. We then created an extensive playbook with detailed profiles of the management team outlining each person’s priorities and concerns, and provided coaching to help the executive best position himself with his new peers.
•India’s lateral entry programme has the potential to introduce new thinking and new expertise into key ministries. Leveraging on lessons learned elsewhere will allow India to more completely draw from the country’s rich array of talent while maintaining the objectivity necessary to preserve the public trust.
📰 How to move a mountain
Seven decades after Independence, the massive obstacle of caste is still difficult to dislodge
•At a recent lecture-demonstration of Koodiyattam, a complex form of Sanskrit theatre practised in Kerala, one of the leading exponents of this beautiful art, Margi Madhu Chakyar, performed an episode from the epic literature titled “Kailasoddharanam”, the lifting of Mount Kailasa. Ravana, finding Mt. Kailasa in the way of his chariot, asks the mighty peak to step aside for him. As Siva’s abode, the mountain refuses. Ravana climbs down from his vehicle, and by sheer physical prowess shifts the colossus. In the complete story, after an angry altercation, Siva, placated, bestows upon Ravana the indestructible weapon Candrahasa, a gleaming curved scimitar.
•At the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Vancouver, Canada, on July 12, Margi Madhu performed only the act where Ravana encounters Kailasa as an obstruction, lifts it, and sets it down elsewhere. Madhu’s ability to conjure the incalculably heavy weight of the mountain, the supra-human strength of Ravana and the clash of two titans, one animate and the other inanimate, had many spectators in tears. In the larger Ramayana Ravana may be the anti-hero, but in “Kailasoddharanam”, he is undoubtedly the hero.
•The intensity of the actor’s facial expressions and the taut muscles of his limbs conveyed the unsurpassable difficulty of the task and the enormity of Ravana’s will. Madhu’s arms flexed, his eyes bulged, his forehead creased, his calves pulled, his spine bent backwards. He trembled with concentration, his slender body stretched tight like a bowstring. Those watching believed he would collapse with strain. Koodiyattam’s expressive drums raised the crescendo of stress to an almost unbearable level. But Ravana’s determination allows him to succeed in his impossible goal. He hoists up the mountain with his bare hands and hurls it away like a mere rock.
•Viewers were overwhelmed with empathy for Madhu’s protagonist. This episode raised the question for anyone facing an enormous obstacle: How to lift a mountain? How to get something humongous, static and immovable out of one’s way? If the obstruction presents itself as organic and immutable, a very fact of nature, to what inner reserves of courage can one have recourse? Who is more obstinate, our adversary or us? How can we achieve what is apparently outside the purview of our capacities?
•The Koodiyattam was staged at the 17th World Sanskrit Conference in Vancouver. I was scheduled to speak in a public forum on caste and gender in Sanskrit studies, along with Kaushal Panwar, who teaches Sanskrit at a college in Delhi University. We were to tell the ‘story of our Sanskrit’ (the title of the event) to Mandakranta Bose, a senior Sankritist at UBC. We were asked to both share our experiences and draw on our expertise. The conversation took up from Marathi Dalit academic Kusum Pawde’s classic essay, “The Story of my Sanskrit” (1981), Prof. Panwar’s moving and inspiring account of her own journey from manual scavenger in rural Haryana to Sanskrit professor in the capital, as told on the television show “Satyameva Jayate” (2012) and my column echoing Prof. Pawde’s piece (2014).
•That night Prof. Panwar analysed the low status of women and sudras in the Manusmriti and the Rig Veda. I discussed Sanskrit as a philological resource and a tool of historical research, which nevertheless presents peculiar challenges to women scholars on account of the deeply entrenched orthodoxy and patriarchy of Sanskrit pedagogical environments. Prof. Bose described how as a young student in Kolkata, she was forced to switch from the study of Mimamsa (Vedic Hermeneutics) to Natyasastra (Performance and Aesthetics), because the former was considered a prestigious subject reserved for male scholars, while the latter was a lesser topic open to females.
Caste, gender and Sanskrit
•The large audience, consisting mostly of Indian scholars, including women, attacked us vociferously. The Western academics present maintained an uncomfortable silence, as though passively witnessing an internal dispute among Indians. The disrespectful behaviour of the learned assembly was appalling. Our testimonies were not controversial; we presented genuine and truthful personal observations gathered over decades of study and reflection. As invited speakers, we told our story of Sanskrit calmly and authentically, despite grave provocation and repeated interruption.
•The low status of women, sudras and communities considered polluted was raised systematically by Jyotiba Phule, B.R. Ambedkar and E.V. Ramasamy ‘Periyar’, as also other significant thinkers in the Hindu reform sects of Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra, and the non-Brahmin discourses of the south, throughout the colonial period. The combined legacy of modern India’s critical anti-caste and feminist thought stood solidly behind our remarks. Yet we found Sanskrit professors at leading universities making absurd claims, for example that caste is unrelated to birth; that Hindu society is inherently gender-blind; or that if the term “varna” does not occur, there is no discrimination.
•The evening hit significant roadblocks: one, the meaning and provenance of the word “Harijan”; and two, the question of equality and inequality in the Hindu Vedas, smritis and sastras, versus the Indian Constitution. Great Sanskrit pundits found it politic to lecture us about the grammatical rules by which “Harijan” can mean “child of god” in Gujarati (as envisaged by Gandhi) or “embodiment of god” (in Sanskrit), disregarding the Dalit movement which has unequivocally rejected this label for its patronising tone. We did not expect to hear this moniker uttered and defended.
•Many colleagues identified themselves as Hindus, giving primary allegiance to their “sacred texts”, not as Indians committed to egalitarian citizenship guaranteed by the laws of the land. They did not treat Sanskrit texts critically, as scholars, only as unquestioning believers. Some claimed that reservations policy discriminates against Brahmins whilst encouraging undeserving SCs, STs and OBCs. Others alleged that India’s Constitution favours minorities, leaving Hindus exposed and vulnerable. The resentment and bitterness of an empowered and dominant majority was disturbing to see.
Dislodging Caste
•After this troubling encounter with the regressive face of Indology, watching the Koodiyattam performance inevitably recalled the mountain that is caste. The founders of the republic thought they would dislodge it through Herculean efforts, but generations later, citizens still find it unshaken and their fundamental rights obstructed.
•Not to suggest that caste society is some holy mountain, a divine abode of the gods, no. But our collective political will to remove this massive social structure has to be profound, shattering and furious. Alas, the unfortunate reality is that prevailing forces of orthodoxy and reaction will demonise, humiliate and attempt to subdue whosoever confronts the gigantic caste system.
•Periyar and Ambedkar set fire to the Manusmriti in their radical protest against caste almost a century ago. But in the age of Hindutva, outdated injunctions glorifying a hierarchical and unequal social order have risen again from the ashes. We must be ready with our torches, and our resolve to move mountains.
📰 Pune tops Ease of Living index; Patna ranked lowest of 111 cities
Ranking reflects ability to provide data as much as actual performance.
•Three cities in Maharashtra — Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai — top the first Ease of Living Index brought out by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The national capital, New Delhi, is ranked 65 among 111 cities, while Chennai is in 14th place. Kolkata did not participate in the survey.
•A city’s ranking reflects its ability to provide data, as well as its actual performance on four different parameters — institutions or governance, social indicators, economic indicators and physical infrastructure. Senior Ministry officials told The Hindu that cities which were unable or unwilling to provide data received low scores.
Data deficient
•For example, New Delhi has a score of “zero” on indicators regarding inclusive housing and mixed land use and compactness, and a score of just 0.12 on economy and employment.
•This does not mean that the capital actually performs so poorly on these indicators, according to members of the consortium which carried out the survey and produced the Index for the government. Instead, it probably means that the NDMC and the three Municipal Corporations which govern the city simply failed to provide any data on those indicators.
•“If Delhi is showing zero in any category, it probably means that no data was given for any indicator under that category,” a consortium member told The Hindu, explaining that urban local bodies had been required to respond to 553 questions in 15 different categories under the four parameters.
•Releasing the Index, Housing and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the ranking marks “a shift to a data-driven approach to urban planning and management.” He said future editions of the Index may also incorporate citizen and stakeholder feedback rather than relying on government data alone.
•A consortium member admitted that it was a challenge to collect some of this information from data-starved urban local bodies.
Complex administration
•Particular complications were seen in indicators such as health —where local governments did not have access to data from private hospitals. The consortium assisted cities in plugging the data gap with regard to certain indicators.
•“If cities are not able to provide data, how will they be able to plan and use their resources well? The first thing they need to learn is to get their data ecosystem aligned,” pointed out a consortium member.
•The other cities in the top ten include Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada and Bhopal. The three cities at the bottom of the rankings are Rampur, Kohima and Patna.
📰 Keeping dry: On Kerala floods
Kerala’s floods show the need for governments to strengthen resilience planning
•The catastrophic impact of monsoon rainfall on several districts of Kerala has come as a grim reminder that the vigil against unpredictable natural disasters must never be relaxed. More than three dozen people have died and an estimated ₹8,316 crore worth of economic assets have been lost in the seasonal rain, particularly over the past week. The gates of reservoirs in the Idukki system, a giant hydroelectric project, and several other dams have been opened, inundating riverside habitations downstream. At the peak of the havoc, about 60,000 people whose dwellings suffered damage were lodged in relief camps. In the northern districts, damage to houses, roads and other structures has occurred owing to landslips caused by incessant showers. There is genuine concern that a temporary respite in rainfall may be followed by another intense downpour from nascent weather systems; the India Meteorological Department has forecast rain until August 17. It is to Kerala’s credit that the deluge has led not to a partisan blame game over planning, relief and rehabilitation, but an all-round effort to look ahead and plan for reconstruction. The Centre has done well to get a first-hand estimate of the havoc from Home Minister Rajnath Singh, although the initial announcement of ₹100 crore towards relief is incongruous with the scale of the damage. Crucial support has come from the armed forces as well to normalise the situation.
•Kerala’s unusually heavy monsoon this year is in contrast to the long-period trend of rainfall. According to an analysis of data on the monsoon between 1954 and 2003 by climate researchers at the University of Cambridge, overall this part of the country had become drier in summer, but with an emerging frequency of destructive flash floods in rare events. This trend is expected to become stronger. This points to the need for governments to strengthen their resilience planning. It should begin with a programme to relocate people away from hazard zones along the rivers that were in spate in Kerala over the past week after the shutters of more than two dozen dams were opened. Finding suitable land is, of course, a challenge in a populous, forested State, but it is an absolute necessity to prepare for the future. It is reasonable to expect that with its efficient primary health care network, Kerala will take all measures necessary to avoid epidemics in the wake of the floods. The spectacular disaster this year also underscores the role of the government as the insurer of last resort for the average citizen. In Mumbai last year, for instance, those who had private household insurance cover against disasters discovered the limitations of such policies, since the companies were unwilling to pay many home owners for a key risk such as costly displacement from homes since the houses were not structurally damaged. All States naturally look to Kerala, with its record of social development, for evolving best practices to handle such natural disasters.
📰 Growth may pick up, but concerns remain
India may well clock the highest growth rate globally, but more is needed to create jobs and reduce poverty.
•With more than one quarter of the year and two months of the monsoon over, it is time to take a look at what the whole year is going to be like. Are there signs of recovery? If there are, are they robust? What are the short- and medium-term concerns of the country?
Sectoral trends
•The monsoon has been somewhat below expectations — the overall rainfall deficiency was 3% (as of July 25). Though it may seem negligible, it has to be noted that there were 11 meteorological divisions (of a total of 36) which were deficient. The area sown has come down. Rice-producing Bihar, for instance, has been severely affected. However, the monsoon can pick up. There is no consensus on the future behaviour of the monsoon. Agricultural growth may at best be equal to what it was last year — 3.4%.
•The services sector may perform better because public expenditure will be maintained at a high level. This is to be expected, as this happens to be the year before the elections. As for the industrial sector, we have data for the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for the first quarter. They show substantial improvement over the corresponding period of the previous year. It is important to remember that the correlation between the IIP and national income data on manufacturing is poor. Some sectors (automobiles and railway freight traffic) in the first quarter have done well. The combined revenues and profit of 370 large companies have shown better performance in the first quarter, even though they are on a weak base. The problems of the goods and services tax (GST) may have been largely overcome, but it is still a work in progress. A pick-up in the growth rate in the manufacturing sector is likely.
•Looking at the overall GDP, after several quarters of low growth, there was a strong pick-up in the last quarter of 2017-18. If this momentum is maintained, the growth rate (2018-19) will certainly be above 7%. How much higher above 7% will depend on a number of factors. International financial institutions have forecast a growth rate of 7.3%. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expects it to be 7.4%. However, we need to take note of certain concerns that can come in the way of faster growth.
External environment
•The external environment is far from reassuring. Trade wars have already started and can get worse. The U.S. has raised duties on several products such as steel and aluminium, and on certain products imported from China. In turn, China has retaliated. India has also been caught in this exchange. It is difficult to forecast how much worse this will become. Besides these, there are country-specific sanctions such as those against Iran, which have a direct impact on crude oil output and prices. India benefited from the fall in crude prices earlier but this position has reversed. There has been some lull in crude prices. As a net importer, India’s balance of payments can take a beating if crude prices rise again. India’s current account deficit was as low as 0.6% of GDP in 2016-17. It rose to 1.9% of GDP in 2017-18, mainly because of crude price rise. India’s trade deficit has always remained high. In 2016-17, the merchandise trade deficit was 4.8% and rose to 6% of GDP the next year. The answer lies in raising
our export growth which has shown severe swings in recent years. It is partly a reflection of world trade. The fall in crude oil prices had also affected our export growth earlier. In 2017-18, India’s export growth rate was 9.78%. There is an inescapable need to raise our export growth rate.
•In this context, we need to ensure that the rupee does not appreciate in real terms. Despite a current account deficit, India’s rupee had remained strong because of capital flows. With a rising trade deficit and some outflow of capital, the rupee has depreciated. This is not unnatural. The RBI should act only to ensure that the adjustment is smooth and there are no violent fluctuations. But what is really important is to make our exports competitive. The exchange rate is only one element. Improved efficiency in production and better infrastructure are equally important. Maintenance of domestic stability also plays a key role. Over the medium term, we need to search for an alternative fuel.
Reviving the banking system
•The banking system continues to be a source of concern. The RBI’s latest report on financial stability shows that the gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio of scheduled commercial banks rose to 11.6% (March 2018). The ratio for public sector banks was 15.6%. This is indeed a very high level of NPAs. Some part of the increase is also due to the adoption of a more rigorous definition of NPAs. The high NPA level has a dampening effect on the provision of new credit. In fact, credit to the industrial sector has slowed down considerably. Recapitalisation of banks has become an urgent necessity. Of course, this will impose a serious burden on the fiscal position. Many suggestions, which include asset reconstruction companies, have been made to resolve the NPA issue. A quick decision has to be made. Unless the banking system recovers fast, it is difficult to sustain a high growth of the industrial sector. Medium-term banking reforms will have to wait until the immediate problem is resolved.
Impact on the fisc
•The third concern relates to the fiscal position. So far in the current year, the Central government’s fisc has been within limits. At the end of the first quarter, the fiscal deficit as a percentage of total deficit for the year as a whole was 68.7% — a strong improvement over the deficit in the corresponding period last year.
•There are two aspects of the fisc which need to be kept under watch. One relates to GST. It is estimated that GST revenues are currently running behind budgetary projections. Perhaps revenues may pick up in the second half. But one doesn’t know. It is also not clear how much of the refunds are outstanding. Any significant shortfall can put the fisc under stress.
•The second concern relates to the impact of the proposed minimum support prices (MSPs) for various agricultural commodities. The MSPs have been raised sharply in the case of some commodities. Except in the case of rice and wheat (where there is unlimited procurement at MSPs), there is no indication of how the MSPs will be implemented in relation to other commodities. If market prices fall below MSPs, there are only two ways in which farmers can be assured of the minimum price. One is the M.P. model where the State pays the difference between market price and MSP. But this can turn out to be a serious burden if market prices fall steeply. This is apart from the administrative problems involved in implementing the scheme. The other alternative is for the government to procure excess production over normal production so that market prices rise. This alternative may be less burdensome. However, this alternative will not work if the MSP is fixed at a level to which the market price will never rise. Thus the burden on the government as a result of the new MSPs is uncertain and needs to be watched. The possibility of cutting expenditures if revenues fall below projections is remote in a year before elections.
•The expected growth rate of 7.3-7.4% may be reassuring. It may even be the highest in the world economy. Nevertheless, it falls short of our potential. It is below of what is needed to raise job opportunities and reduce poverty. It is true that the external environment is not helpful. All the same, a stronger push towards a much higher growth is very much the need of the hour.
📰 Huff and e-puff: On e-cigarette ban
Given conflicting claims about health effects, India should tread cautiously on e-cigarettes
•In a recent hearing on a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court, the Delhi government said it was planning to ban e-cigarettes. If it follows through, the NCT will join States such as Karnataka and Maharashtra in the ban. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a stand against e-cigarettes. But is a ban the right approach to regulate this technology, given that combustible cigarettes are freely available across India? The controversy exists partly because it is a new and rapidly evolving technology. This makes it hard for researchers to study the health effects. Still, the evidence so far indicates that e-cigarettes are safer than combustible cigarettes. Because they heat a liquid to generate a nicotine-containing aerosol, instead of burning tobacco, they do not produce toxic tars. That doesn’t mean they are completely safe. At high temperatures, e-cigarettes produce carcinogens such as formaldehyde, although these are fewer in number compared to regular cigarettes. They also increase the odds of lung disease and myocardial infarction, but to a lesser extent than normal cigarettes do.
•In the American Annual Review of Public Health, in January 2018 a group of researchers argued that e-cigarettes must be viewed from a “harm minimisation” perspective. Given that combustible cigarettes are more noxious than electronic ones, switching from the former to the latter can only help addicts, they argued. Writing in the same journal issue, however, another group of researchers advocated the precautionary principle. Given that e-cigarettes are a young technology, they said, it will take time to uncover their ill-effects. Already we know some carcinogens in e-cigarettes have a non-linear effect on cancer. This means even the low doses in e-cigarette aerosols can be carcinogenic if inhaled for years. Recent surveys also show that e-cigarettes can act as a gateway drug for young people. A 2011 study of Korean adolescents found that e-cigarette users were more likely to turn into regular smokers eventually. Plus, 2004-2014 data from the U.S. National Youth Tobacco Surveys suggest that young people at low risk of taking up smoking are turning to e-cigarettes. Against this background, India must tread carefully. Completely banning the technology, while selling normal cigarettes, could take away a promising smoking-cessation aid. A more pragmatic option would be to regulate e-cigarettes tightly, by creating standards for the aerosols and banning underage and public use. This would leave smokers with a therapeutic alternative, while protecting youngsters from a gateway drug. Either way, conflicting evidence makes it a tough call for policymakers.
📰 The misunderstood knight?
An oxide of arsenic can help fight cancer
•Arsenic is an acknowledged villain because of the way it has contaminated groundwater reserves. Its reputation as a poison has a long history and stretches back to fourth century treatises on medicine. This has often led inventive physicians to use the metal’s poisonous nature to treat infections.
•Its elusive nature has also complicated an understanding of the relationship between arsenic and cancer. Beyond certain thresholds in drinking water, arsenic is strongly linked to various cancers; however, at other doses, it has been linked to unusually low rates of breast cancer.
•Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is an oxide of arsenic that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1995, and when used in combination with another drug called all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), it was effective against a kind of leukaemia called acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL). However, it wasn’t fully clear what cellular target(s) these drugs act on, how they interact with each other, or whether they might be effective against other types of cancer.
•Last week, U.S. researchers reported in Nature Communications that they had unearthed a vital clue: Arsenic in combination with an existing leukaemia drug worked to destroy Pin1, a unique enzyme that the same group of researchers had discovered more than 20 years ago. When given in clinically safe doses, the drugs effectively inhibited numerous cancer-driving pathways and eliminated cancer stem cells in cell and animal models as well as patient-derived tumour models of triple-negative breast cancer, which has the worst prognosis of all breast cancer subtypes.
•Pin1 is known as a master regulator of cancer signalling networks that activates more than 40 cancer-driving proteins and inactivates more than 20 tumour suppressing proteins. The enzyme was found to be over-activated in most human cancers and is especially active in cancer stem cells — a subpopulation of cancer cells believed to drive tumour initiation, progression, and metastasis, but not effectively targeted by current therapies.
•The researchers found that mice that lack expression of Pin1 were highly resistant to developing cancer even when their cells over-expressed oncogenes (cancer causing genes) or lacked expression of tumour suppressors. Notably, these animals displayed no obvious defects for over half of lifespan, suggesting that targeting this master switch of an enzyme may be safe.
•Although the anti-cancer effects of ATO are potently amplified by ATRA co-treatment, ATRA has a very short time span of effectiveness. This insight could help hitch ATO to existing therapies particularly triple-negative breast cancer.
📰 China to expand energy footprint in Iran
CNPC to replace France’s Total as the majority stakeholder in South Pars 11 project
•The next episode of friction between Beijing and Washington could be staged in Iran, where a top Chinese energy firm, defying latest U.S. sanctions, is likely to expand its stake in a giant Iranian gas field.
•Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA has reported that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the world’s third-largest oil and gas firm, has replaced Total, the French energy giant, in the South Pars 11 project. “China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has replaced Total of France with an 80.1% stake in the phase 11 of the South Pars (gas field),” IRNA quoted Mohammad Mostafavi, director of investment of Iran’s state oil firm NIOC, as saying.
World’s largest gas field
•South Pars is the world’s single largest natural gas field, which is being developed in several phases. In 2017, Total acquired a 50.1% stake in the South Pars 11 project, following the 2015 sanctions-easing Iran nuclear deal. CNPC held a 30% stake, while the rest was allocated to Iran’s Petropars Ltd. But after its withdrawal from the Iran atomic deal in May, Washington gave foreign firms 90 to 180 days limit to scrap their businesses from Iran. It warned that non-compliance would entail “secondary sanctions”, which would bar dissenting firms from doing business in the United States.
•Following the U.S. demand, Total has apparently fallen in line. Bloomberg quoted Total head Patrick Pouyanne as saying last month that, “Within the U.S. legal framework, we can’t work in Iran.” He added: “It’s impossible for a company like ours, and for most or even all global companies, even maybe the Chinese. Our partners haven’t told us yet that they will take over our stake in our project.”
•Reuters had previously reported that the $1 billion deal signed last July gave the Chinese firm the option to take over Total’s stake if it left Iran. In a separate report in May, after the Trump administration walked out of the Iran nuclear deal, the agency quoted an industry source as saying that if Total winds up from the South Pars field, CNPC is prepared to step in.
•Tweaking remarks made earlier to IRNA, Mohammad Mostafavi of NIOC said on Saturday that there is change in the contract to develop the South Pars 11 gas field. “The role of the members of the consortium developing this project is in accordance with the provisions of the contract, and there is still no formal change in these provisions.”
•Chinese Foreign Ministry in the past has maintained that it is opposed to “unilateral sanctions” imposed by the U.S. against Iran.
•“China and Iran, under the precondition of not violating their respective international obligations, have maintained normal exchanges and cooperation. This is reasonable, legitimate, legal and beyond reproach. Meanwhile, China is always opposed to unilateral sanction and long-arm jurisdiction. China’s legitimate rights and interests should be upheld. This position is firm and clear,” Chinese Foreign Ministry said earlier this month.
•The first round of U.S. sanctions was implemented last week, and additional follow-up curbs are expected in November.
•Mr. Trump has personally declared that those companies defying the ban will be barred from doing business in the United States. “Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States,” Mr. Trump tweeted on August 7.
📰 Coral reefs could survive global warming, says study
Their relationship with algae has endured numerous climate change events in the past
•There may be hope for marine reefs to survive modern-day global warming, say scientists who have found that coral-algal partnerships have endured numerous climate change events since the age of dinosaurs.
•The relationship between corals and the mutualistic micro-algae that enable them to build reefs is considerably older and more diverse than previously assumed, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology.
•“Past estimates placed the initiation of these symbiotic relationships at 50 to 65 million years ago,” said Todd LaJeunesse, an Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University in the U.S.
•“Our research indicates that modern corals and their algal partners have been entwined with each other for much longer — since the time of the dinosaurs, approximately 160 million years ago,” said Mr. LaJeunesse. “
•They have faced severe episodes of environmental change, but have managed to bounce back,” he said.
•The micro-algae, commonly called zooxanthellae, lives inside the cells of corals, allowing them to acquire energy from sunlight and to build the massive, economically valuable reef formations upon which countless marine organisms rely for habitat.
•“The fossil record shows that today’s reef-building corals exploded in diversity around 160 million years ago,” said Mr. LaJeunesse.
Genetic evidence
•“Finding that the origin of the algal symbionts corresponds to major increases in the abundance and diversity of reef-building corals implies that the partnership with Symbiodiniaceae was one of the major reasons for the success of modern corals,” said Mr. LaJeunesse.
•The team used genetic evidence — including DNA sequences, phylogenetic analyses and genome comparisons — to calculate the micro-algae’s approximate age of origin.
•They also used classical morphological techniques, in which they compared visual characteristics of these symbionts using light and electron microscopy, along with computer modelling and other methods, to discover that in addition to being older, the algae family is far more diverse than previously perceived.
•“Using genetic techniques, we provide evidence that the family actually comprises at least 15 genera,” said Mr. Parkinson.
•This is important because some micro-algal symbionts have characteristics that make them more resilient to environmental changes.
