📰 PM Modi announces Rs. 500 crore aid
Fresh rains force Kuttanad evacuation; thousands marooned; CM seeks Rs. 2,000 cr. in immediate relief
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced an immediate financial assistance of Rs. 500 crore to rain-battered Kerala after reviewing the flood situation, even as rescue operations continued in Pathanamthitta and Thrissur districts amid heavy rain.
•Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan later tweeted that the Prime Minister has sanctioned Rs. 500 crore as immediate relief.
•“As per the initial estimate, the State has suffered a loss of Rs. 19,512 crore. The actual loss can be ascertained after the water recedes in the affected areas. The State has sought an immediate assistance of Rs. 2,000 crore,” he said.
•Complimenting the State authorities for their efforts in the adverse situation, Mr. Modi also announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh per person to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to those seriously injured from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), a PMO statement. After a high-level review meeting in Kochi, Mr. Modi undertook an aerial assessment of worst-hit Aluva and Thrissur regions. He was accompanied by Governor P. Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Union Minister K.J. Alphons and officials.
•The rescue operation for flood victims in Pathanamthitta and Thrissur districts continued on Saturday with response teams battling strong river currents and heavy rains.Meanwhile, a parallel crisis unfolded in the Kuttanad region, where rising floodwaters inundated thousands of houses, forcing a mass evacuation. A total of 58,506 people were rescued from different locations on Saturday while the toll in rain related incidents since August 8 reached 194.
📰 Revise trade laws, tariffs: U.S. Ambassador
Kenneth Juster says you can’t attract investment and build industry by creating higher duties or more regulation
•Calling upon India to rethink trade barriers, tariffs and regulations in order to become a “hub” for innovation and production, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Juster says that India and the U.S. need to see trade relations as an “important strategic element” of their ties.
•“I still think there’s a notion here that you can attract investment and build industry by creating higher tariffs or more regulation, or by directing resources in a certain direction,” Mr. Juster said at a function in the capital to talk about the bilateral relationship.
•He made a particular mention of barriers for the technology industry, including a Reserve Bank order telling technology companies to base all their servers in India.
•“I worry now with this talk of data localisation. There is a legitimate concern over data privacy, but do not construct these laws in a way that will make it more difficult for India to be a hub for technology companies all over the world,” Mr. Juster warned over the issue that has become one of a growing number of economic differences between New Delhi and Washington over the past few months.
Intense negotiations
•After rounds of intense trade negotiations since June, India agreed this month to put off until late September its plan to hit the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs worth $ 235 million on 29 American products.
•The action was in response to the U.S. raising tariffs on steel by 25% and aluminium products by 10%, which India has failed to get a waiver on. The U.S. is also taking a decision on whether to cancel India’s Generalised Systems of Preferences (GSP) status over the tariffs issue.
•The U.S. Ambassador’s comments are an indicator that trade issues will be highlighted during next month’s “2+2” ministerial engagement between India and the U.S., though the main purpose of the talks is the inaugural engagement of Defence and Foreign Ministers on both sides.
On visa policy
•In an answer to Parliament last month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made it clear that she would raise the US’s proposed legislation to cut down H-1B visas during the talks as well. “We are already raising the issue formally at various fora... We will raise it humbly at the 2+2 dialogue on September 6 in New Delhi,” Ms. Swaraj said in the Rajya Sabha, admitting that the government had several “apprehensions” about the U.S. visa policy.
•Countering those concerns, Mr. Juster said the problem was that India’s economy was not “open” enough. “There is simply no reason there shouldn’t be more innovation and entrepreneurship taking place in India, rather than having 300,000 Indian entrepreneurs doing their work in the United States,” Mr. Juster told a gathering at the American Centre in Delhi.
‘Makes no sense’
•“It doesn’t make sense to me, and I ask myself why. And I truly believe it is because the Indian economy needs to open up further to get the full benefits of this innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said, comparing restrictions on the Indian economy unfavourably with those prevalent in smaller countries such as Israel and Estonia.
📰 In rhino country, a division to boost conservation efficiency
From August 14, the Kaziranga National Park has been split into the Eastern Assam and Biswanath divisions, with the Brahmaputra coming in between
•In about a week’s time, an entire forest division in Assam will start moving 160 km northeast. The one-horned rhino of the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is the reason for this “long march”.
•On August 14, Assam’s Environment and Forest Department issued a notification saying the KNP had been split into two divisions — the existing Eastern Assam Wildlife and the new Biswanath Wildlife — for “intensive wildlife management”.
•The Brahmaputra separates the two divisions straddling a total area of 1,030 sq.km. Kaziranga had an area of only 232 sq.m when it began its journey as a proposed reserve forest on June 1, 1905.
•The KNP officials said the creation of the Biswanath Wildlife Division, with headquarters at Biswanath Chariali in northeastern Assam, will entail relocating the Central Assam Afforestation Division at Hojai 160 km away. In fact, the afforestation division has been renamed a wildlife division.
•All these years, the KNP was being administered by the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division with headquarters at Bokakhat on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra. This division was formed in 1966, two years before the State government designated Kaziranga a national park, though it was given the official status in 1974.
•The Eastern Assam Wildlife Division had five ranges — Eastern or Agratoli, Kaziranga or Kohora, Western or Bagori, Burapahar and Northern — until the split. All except the Northern Range are on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra. Now, the Northern Range, with an area of 401 sq.km, has been upgraded to the Biswanath Wildlife Division with four ranges of its own — Eastern or Gamiri, Central or Biswanath Ghat, Western or Nagshankar and Crime Investigation Range.
•“Much of the rhino poaching was being done from the northern side of the Brahmaputra, which was difficult to manage for officers posted on the southern side. Splitting the KNP into two divisions means there will now be two divisional forest officers under one director (based in Bokakhat near the Agratoli range), ensuring better vigil,” Assam’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forest N.K. Vasu told The Hindu .
•“We will start moving to Biswanath in six or seven days. Not all the officers and staff of the division to be shifted might be suited for wildlife protection, so there could be transfers. But at the end, Kaziranga will now have many more hands,” he said. He could not provide an estimate of the number of people to be shifted to Kaziranga.
•The KNP, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, currently has a staff strength of nearly 1,300. Wildlife officials estimate that the park would require at least 3,000 men if they were to be deployed in eight-hour shifts.
•Between 2015 and February this year, 74 rhinos fell to poachers in Assam. Many of these rhinos were from the KNP, though there have been fewer cases of poaching since 2017.
•According to the last rhino census in March, the KNP has an estimated 2,413 rhinos. The park also has 57% of the world’s wild water buffalo population, one of the largest groups of Asian elephants and 21 Royal Bengal tigers per 100 sq.km – arguably the highest striped cat density.
📰 Dropout rate soaring after school mergers in tribal belts
NITI Aayog-MHRD decision has negative impact, say activists
•The flawed policy of the NITI Aayog and the Human Resource Development Ministry to close public schools that have low enrolment rate or single teachers in tribal districts is leading to a huge spike in dropout rates.
•A national convention organised by the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, the Students’ Federation of India and the Centre for Adivasi Research and Development which saw participation from Adivasi students, parents and teachers raised this and many other issues that have been leading to exclusion of tribal people from education.
•Research by the Centre for Adivasi Research and Development has revealed that following the NITI Aayog recommendations in Jharkhand, 1,300 primary and middle schools were merged or closed and the government was targeting another 4,600 schools this year.
•In Karnataka, both government and aided schools located within 1 km from other schools and having low enrolments will be merged with the nearest schools. This is expected to result in the merger of 28,847 schools with 8,530 nearest ones. In 2014, the Rajasthan government merged 17,000 of the 80,000 government schools in the State into the other schools. Another 4,000 schools are planned to be merged in the near future.
•Odisha has identified 4,200 schools that have under 10 students each for merger or closure. Rayagada district alone has witnessed closure of 121 government schools, followed by 90 schools in Kandhamal. The two districts have more than 60% tribal and Dalit population.
•“The Right to Education Act promises neighbourhood schools. Moreover because of the geographical conditions of the tribal region you need a decentralised system. Many villages are in remote locations and even if only for few children, the school must be located within the village,” CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said at the convention.
Scholarships unpaid
•Participants at the convention said the government had not paid the post-matric and pre-matric scholarship for students and has an arrears of Rs. 716 crore in unpaid scholarships.
•The convention demanded that the medium of instruction at the primary level should be in Adivasi languages.
•The students should be given right to choose the language of instruction at pre-matric and post-matric levels. Participants also criticised the government’s decision to stop funds for ashram schools without providing a viable alternative.
📰 Walkabouts help the brain
Study finds two-minute breaks from sitting, every half hour, can help long-term brain health
•Sitting for hours without moving can slow the flow of blood to our brains, according to a cautionary new study of office workers — a finding that could have implications for long-term brain health. But getting up and strolling for just two minutes every half-hour seems to stave off this decline in brain blood flow and may even increase it.
Importance of blood flow
•Delivering blood to our brains is one of those automatic internal processes that most of us seldom consider, although it is essential for life and cognition. Brain cells need the oxygen and nutrients that blood contains, and several large arteries constantly shuttle blood up to our skulls.
•Because this flow is so necessary, the brain tightly regulates it, tracking a variety of physiological signals, including the levels of carbon dioxide in our blood, to keep the flow rate within a very narrow range.
•But small fluctuations do occur, both sudden and lingering, and may have repercussions. Past studies in people and animals indicate that slight, short-term drops in brain blood flow can temporarily cloud thinking and memory, while longer-term declines are linked to higher risks for some neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia.
•Other research has shown that uninterrupted sitting dampens blood flow to various parts of the body. Most of those studies looked at the legs, which are affected the most by our postures, upright or not. Stay seated for several hours, and blood flow within the many blood vessels of the legs can slacken.
•Whether a similar decline might occur in the arteries carrying blood to our brains was not known, however.
Findings of study
•So for the new study (published in June in the Journal of Applied Physiology ), researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in England gathered 15 healthy, adult, male and female office workers.
•The scientists wanted to recruit people who habitually spent time at a desk since, for them, long hours of sitting would be normal.
•The researchers asked these men and women to visit the university’s performance lab on three separate occasions. During each, they were fitted with specialised headbands containing ultrasound probes that would track blood flow through their middle cerebral arteries, one of the main vessels supplying blood to the brain.
•They also breathed briefly into masks that measured their carbon dioxide levels at the start of the session, so that scientists could see whether levels of that gas might be driving changes in brain blood flow. Blood carbon dioxide levels can be altered by changes in breathing, among many other factors
•Then the men and women spent four hours simulating office time, sitting at a desk and reading or working at a computer.
•During one of these sessions, they never rose unless they had to visit the bathroom, which was close by.
•During another visit, they were directed to get up every 30 minutes and move onto a treadmill set up next to their desks. They then walked for two minutes at whatever pace felt comfortable, with an average, leisurely speed of about two miles an hour.
•In a final session, they left their chairs only after two hours, but then walked on the treadmills for eight minutes at the same gentle pace.
•Scientists tracked the blood flow to their brains just before and during each walking break, as well as immediately after the four hours were over. They also rechecked people’s carbon dioxide levels during those times.
•As they had expected, brain blood flow dropped when people sat for four continuous hours. The decline was small but noticeable by the end of the session.
•It was equally apparent when people broke up their sitting after two hours, although blood flow rose during the actual walking break. It soon sank again, the ultrasound probes showed, and was lower at the end of that session than at its start.
•But brain blood flow rose slightly when the four hours included frequent, two-minute walking breaks, the scientists found.
•Interestingly, none of these changes in brain blood flow was dictated by alterations in breathing and carbon dioxide levels, the scientists also determined. Carbon dioxide levels had remained steady before and after each session.
•So something else about sitting and moving was affecting the movement of blood to the brain.
•Of course, this study was small and short-term and did not look into whether the small declines in blood flow to people’s brains while they sat impaired their ability to think.
•It also was not designed to tell us whether any impacts on the brain from hours of sitting could accumulate over time or if they are transitory and wiped away once we finally do get up from our desks for the day.
It’s ‘short and often’
•But the results do provide one more reason to avoid sitting for long, uninterrupted stretches of time, says Sophie Carter, a doctoral student at Liverpool John Moores University, who led the study.
•They also offer the helpful information that breaks can be short but should be recurrent.
•“Only the frequent two-minute walking breaks had an overall effect of preventing a decline in brain blood flow,” she says.
•So consider setting your computer or phone to beep at you every half-hour and get up then, she suggests. Stroll down the hall, take the stairs to visit a restroom a floor above or below your own, or complete a few easy laps around your office.
•Your brain just might thank you years from now, when you’re no longer tied to that office chair.
📰 Seeing through the smoke
•Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of deaths worldwide. It is reported to kill an estimated seven million people every year. On average, tobacco users lose 15 years of their life. Up to half of all users will die prematurely due to tobacco-related causes by any year or time estimation. Most of these deaths will be in middle- and low-income nations, accounting for almost 80% of all tobacco-related deaths. India is the third largest tobacco producer and the second largest consumer of tobacco worldwide. Tobacco-related mortality in India is estimated at upwards of 1.3 million people, with one million being attributed to smoking and the rest to smokeless-tobacco use.
•Traditionally, people have been using conventional products such as cigarettes, bidis and chewable tobacco. In the last decade, tobacco control in the form of restrictions and curbs being imposed by governments across the globe has taken centre stage, which in turn has affected the profits of tobacco firms. The tobacco industry is also attempting to maintain profits and keep people addicted by introducing new high-tech “heated tobacco products”, or HTPs, sticks of tobacco that are heated and look very similar to conventional cigarettes. These are being targeted at youth, who are being fed with the idea that they are less harmful than cigarettes because they do not burn tobacco and so produce lower levels of multiple toxicants (the main cause of smoking-related diseases).
•For example, the product, IQOS, is now available in 38 countries with the backing of a large transnational tobacco firm. And to sell it, there are boutique stores that have opened globally. The imagery used is of a clean, white and modern product with a suitable logo and tag line. While the claim is that the levels of harmful chemicals are much lower when compared to cigarette smoke, it must be noted that all the evidence supporting these claims is being driven by the tobacco lobby. Historically, there is strong evidence that studies backed by tobacco companies cannot be trusted.
‘Equally harmful’
•The World Health Organisation says “there is no evidence to demonstrate that HTPs are less harmful than conventional tobacco products”. The European Respiratory Society is clear that heated tobacco products are “harmful and addictive; undermine smokers’ wish to quit, and are a temptation for non-smokers and minors”. An expert scientific panel has advised the Food and Drug Administration to vote against applications by the tobacco giant to sell IQOS in the U.S. because there is no evidence that it is less risky than smoking cigarettes.
•The company now wants to bring IQOS to India, by marketing it as an aspirational product. India is a very young country. Half of its population is under the age of 25; two-thirds are less than 35 years. The promotion and marketing of HTPs is with the clear intent of attracting new tobacco users and not just to get smokers to swap. Some of those new users will inevitably be young people.
•India has been a pioneer in tobacco control, having enacted the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, and launched a dedicated National Tobacco Control Programme in 2007-08.
•Choosing between two evils is still an evil. On the one hand you have traditional tobacco products readily available in the market while on the other you are introducing a new tobacco product with the aim of attracting youngsters. The bottom line is to keep margins and sales up in a market which is young and has immense business potential.
•Central and State governments need to prevent the sale and marketing of HTPs just as many States have prohibited the sale of electronic cigarettes.
📰 Social factors too define skin colour of Indians
Interaction between genetic, environmental and social forces results in the patterns of skin colour
•Skin colour variation in Indians is determined not just by the environment and genetics but by sexual selection, too. A complex interaction between physical and social forces is responsible for patterns of skin colour seen in males and females in India, says a study by CCMB researchers who collaborated with an international team.
•The researchers looked at how skin colour varies between 10 different socio-cultural populations varied within and between the populations in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They also looked at variation in skin colour between males and females within and between populations. Then they studied the influence of ultraviolet radiation on skin colour and finally looked at the variations with respect to genetic data.
•“Our study showed that social factors along with genetics played a strong role in shaping skin colour diversity across India,” says Dr. Kumarasamy Thangaraj from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad and a coauthor of a paper published recently in the American Journal of Human Biology.
•Greater pigmentation and hence darker skin helps protect the skin from harmful UV rays near the equator while less pigmentation leading to lighter skin colour promotes season UV ray-induced vitamin D production in people living in higher latitudes. Women generally tend to have lighter skin than men highlighting the importance of cutaneous vitamin D production for enhanced vitamin D absorption during pregnancy and breast feeding.
•For the study, the researchers compared the skin colour data of people living in Hyderabad and belonging to five different castes, three castes in Tamil Nadu, and from Brahmins living in Uttar Pradesh and scheduled caste living in Bihar.
Melanin index
•The melanin index of people samples in Andhra Pradesh showed wide variation — 33.4 to 53. Three agricultural castes (Kapu, Naidu and Reddy) in the State had similar skin colour while Brahmins had far lighter colour and merchant caste (Vysya) had darker skin. In Tamil Nadu, Brahmins and Saurashtrians had lighter skin colour than pastoralist Yadava caste. Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh had fairer skin than scheduled caste in Bihar, and their melanin index range was nearly similar to their counterparts living in Andhra Pradesh. The melanin index range of scheduled caste in Bihar varied widely — about 46 to 79.
•“Clear differences in skin colour in men and women were seen,” says Dr. Thangaraj. Males belonging to the three agricultural castes in Andhra Pradesh showed darker skin than women. Even among Brahmins in the State, women had a lighter colour than men and there is greater difference in skin colour between the sexes. Though the merchant caste (Vysya) had darker skin than the other four, they showed the least difference in skin colour between women and men. The same differences and similarities were seen in the case of Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh and scheduled caste in Bihar.
•“We need to undertake a more detailed study by increasing the sample size, analysing few more genetic loci and including specific micro epidemiological factors that might be influencing skin colour for better understanding,” says Dr. Anushuman Mishra on less skin colour difference between women and men among Vysya population. Dr. Mishra is from CCMB and coauthor of the paper.
•The environment apparently plays a smaller role (16%) in determining skin colour in Indians, while social factors could explain 42% variation in skin colour. “This result is consistent with the observation that in India skin colour varies markedly even among populations living in the same geographic location,” they write. And the difference in skin colour in two north Indian populations that live close to each other and share important genetic history suggests that population-level variation have a role in skin colour.
Role of gene variant
•In Europeans, the SLC24A5 gene variant rs1426654-A is usually associated with lighter skin colour. But in the case of the scheduled caste population in Bihar the gene variant was found in “unusually high frequency” despite the population having dark skin. Similarly, in the case of UP Brahmins, despite the frequency of this gene variant being high, it did not have a significant effect on melanin index variation within the population.
•“Our study suggests that there could be other genetic variant(s) in scheduled caste population in Bihar that have the ability to override the skin lightening effect of the gene variant rs1426654-A,” says Dr. Thangaraj. “When we look at melanin index and the genetic variant together we find in addition to genetics, the social and environment factors also play a major role in determining the skin colour of a population.”
•The authors conclude that numerous migrations into India and admixture of populations might have provided sufficient room for novel genetic variants that determine skin colour to emerge and spread among people in India, thus overriding natural selection.
•And the population-dependent sexual selection for lighter skin and endogamy practised in India has ensured that skin colour variation has been maintained between different populations.
📰 JNCASR: A new, robust form of gold
JNCASR’s gold microcrystallite does not dissolve in mercury
•Researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, have developed a new type of gold in the form of very small crystals — microcystallites. The microcrystal gold has been found to be nobler than gold — it do not dissolve in mercury and Aqua regia (a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid), and showed the least interaction with copper.
•The microcystallites were synthesised by decomposing an organic complex containing gold and other ions under controlled conditions. The newly formed microcystallites, about 3 micrometre in length were found to be of a different crystal structure. Normal gold has a (face-centered) cubic structure, while the new ones exhibit deformed cubic structure — tetragonal and orthorhombic cells.
Copper growth
•The researchers then examined copper growth on these gold crystals when subjected to plating without the use of electrodes. Electron microscopy images revealed that thick copper got deposited on normal gold within minutes, while no detectable copper was seen on the central portion of the new crystals even after an hour. “We found deposition of copper only on the tips of the new crystallites while the rest of the crystal surface was devoid of copper. This may be due to the different arrangement of the new facets,” explains Chaitali Sow, Ph.D student at JNCASR and one of the authors of the paper published recently in Angewandte Chemie.
•The researchers then investigated the stability of the gold microcystallites using corrosive agents like mercury and Aqua regia. While normal gold disappeared in a matter of minutes when immersed in mercury and also in aqua regia, the gold crystallites remained intact. Microscopy imaging showed that the surface was undamaged.
•“All these properties make our new crystallites an ideal candidate for catalytic purposes. Gold in itself is not a catalyst but the new gold microcystallites have very active surfaces. Compared with other catalysts like palladium and ruthenium, gold is cheaper and it can also be easily recovered,” explains Prof. Giridhar U. Kulkarni, Director at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru and corresponding author of the paper. “Though the production cost of the crystallites is a little high, we are optimising it to bring down the cost. More studies are needed to understand them fully in the context wide range of applications in the offing,” he added.
📰 Meghalayan farms are also bird habitats
More than 100 species thrive in wooded farms near a protected area
•We know agricultural landscapes near protected areas are important habitats for wildlife in some regions. Now, researchers have proved this to be true in Meghalaya with the finding that wooded cultivated areas support multiple bird groups that play various roles — from insect controllers to fruit-eating seed dispersers — in the ecosystem. There are more than 100 bird species in the cultivated areas.
•While several of India’s natural ecosystems including forests are now ‘Protected Areas’ (PAs), there are many patches that fall outside PA-limits but also support wildlife. Meghalaya's Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary and reserve forest are surrounded by community-managed forests and wooded betel leaf farms. A recent study by Wildlife Conservation Society-India found out how important these wooded areas are for birds.
•The researchers studied how different groups (guilds) of birds — including nectar drinkers like sunbirds and insectivores such as drongos — use these two habitats and the different woodland vegetation found there. They find that areas outside the protected areas were used by all guilds of birds, suggesting that these areas maintained a functional bird community.
•Studying the presence of such birds in these areas, the team examined the effects of vegetation structure — trees and shrubs — on the use of sites by different guilds of birds. They find that tree cover did not matter because most of these areas are highly wooded; shrub cover and bamboo influenced use of wooded areas by birds.
Species richness
•The team also studied species richness in these areas. Surprisingly, agricultural woodlands supported more bird species than the protected areas did: bird species richness was higher in the wooded areas than in the protected areas due to increased number of generalist birds.
•But that does not mean protected areas are not important; some specialised species are still dependent on them. “Birds including large woodpeckers were not spotted as much in farmlands,” said Syiem. “So wooded agricultural areas are important supplementary bird habitats.”
•A lot of forests are at risk in Meghalaya because they are being converted into permanent open cultivation; encouraging regenerating forest areas or crops that require tree cover would be important, he added.
•This well-designed study reinforces that at the landscape level, we can maximise the number of species we conserve by not just protecting natural habitats but also by ensuring the persistence of wooded areas (like regenerating forest) between protected areas, Princeton University-scientist Umesh Srinivasan says in an email.
