📰 India appreciates sanctions waiver
MEA commends U.S.’ understanding
•The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday expressed appreciation for the United States’ waiver on India-Iran energy trade and the Chabahar Port project.
•MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the port would be of importance in helping the situation in Afghanistan, but reiterated that India would continue to import Iranian energy.
•“India is a major importer of crude oil from Iran. This is very important for our own energy security needs. We appreciate the fact that the U.S. has shown understanding of our position and has said that its intention is not to hurt India,” said Mr. Kumar, adding that India was studying the details of the exemption.
•The formal response from India came days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared a waiver for India and seven other countries on energy trade. Iraq has also received a waiver for the import of electricity from Tehran.
•Mr. Pompeo has urged the exempted countries to reduce their energy import from Iran, but the Indian spokesperson did not provide any indication on this subject. “I am not at the liberty to give you details about the quantum of crude oil that we will continue to import [from Iran],” said the spokesperson.
•He also expressed India’s appreciation of the waiver for the India-Iran Chabahar Port project, and underlined the importance of the port in regional affairs. “We appreciate that the U.S. recognised the role which this port will play to bring strategic and long-term benefits to Afghanistan, as well as enhance Afghanistan’s connectivity with the outside world,” Mr. Kumar said.
•Sources said the waiver was discussed at the recent ‘2+2’ dialogue between India and the U.S.
📰 Not in direct talks with Taliban: MEA
No compulsion to participate, says Ministry after its turnaround raises queries
•Facing a barrage of questions on its sudden shift in policy on attending talks with the Taliban, the Centre on Friday clarified that its delegation at the second 12-nation ‘Moscow format meeting of consultations on Afghanistan’ would not hold direct talks with the insurgent group there.
•“We have said we will be taking part in a meeting on Afghanistan which is hosted by Russia; and we decided that our participation in the talks would be at the non-official level,” the MEA’s official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters. “But we didn’t say anywhere that there will be talks with the Taliban.”
‘Consistent with policy’
•The government said its policy on Afghanistan was “consistent”, despite its decision to send two former diplomats, Amar Sinha and TCA Raghavan, to the talks. It would mark the first time an Indian delegation would be at the table with a Taliban delegation from its political office in Doha.
•India had refused to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan (1996-2001) and had opposed talks with the Taliban at least until a few years ago, insisting thus far on an “Afghan-owned, Afghan-led and controlled” process.
•The five-member Taliban delegation present at the Moscow hotel venue for the talks included top political envoy Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai and his deputy, Abdul Salam Hanafi. Kabul, for its part, sent a 4-member delegation of its High Peace Council (HPC), which has been tasked with the reconciliation process. Sitting between the two sides, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian President Valdimir Putin’s special envoy on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov — who are being credited for bringing several regional rivals including India, Pakistan, U.S., Iran, China, and five Central Asian states including Uzbekistan together at one meeting — addressed the delegates.
•“Russia, as the meeting organizer, sees its role jointly with the regional partners and friends of Afghanistan gathered around this table to render every possible assistance to launching a constructive inter-Afghan dialogue,” Mr. Lavrov said. “It is clear that on the way to this goal it is necessary to overcome a lot of obstacles, including mutual grievances and mistrust accumulated by the parties,” he said, adding that the purpose of the talks was to create conditions favourable to “direct negotiations between the [Ghani] government, the Taliban Movement and representatives of the country’s broad public and political circles.”
•Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government faced questions from Opposition leaders on its surprise decision to attend the meeting, a turnaround from its position on Russia’s September 4 proposal for a meeting, which India had declined. It is understood that Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had during his visit to Delhi later in September, pitched for India to be more flexible on the issue of joining talks that included the Taliban.
•The Congress sought to know why India had sent representatives to the talks when they weren’t being led by the Ghani government.
•“The INC believes that the Afghan peace process should be Afghan led and Afghan driven and unfortunately the Afghan government is not on the table in Moscow,” Congress leader Manish Tewari told The Hindu. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked why the government had not shown the same flexibility with “non mainstream stakeholders” as it had with the Taliban.
•Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked if sending a “non-official” delegation to talks including the Taliban was acceptable, then “why not a “non-official” dialogue with non-mainstream stake holders in J&K?” “Why not a “non-official” dialogue centred around J&K’s eroded autonomy & its restoration?” he asked in a tweet.
•Asked for the rationale behind the turnaround, the MEA spokesperson denied that the decision had been taken under pressure from either Moscow or Kabul. “There was no compulsion here. Whatever we think will take the process forward, consistent with our policy, we will participate in. And we made it very clear that our participation at the meeting will be at the non-official level,” Mr. Kumar said.
📰 Army fire power gets booster shot
M777 Ultra Light Howitzers and K9 Vajra-T self-propelled artillery gun inducted into the force
•Emerging from the shadow of the Bofors scandal, the Army on Friday inducted its first artillery gun systems in three decades. The M777 Ultra Light Howitzers from the U.S. and K9 Vajra-T self-propelled artillery gun from South Korea were inducted at the Devlali Field Firing Ranges in Maharashtra. The third equipment inducted is a common gun tower.
•The Army last inducted an artillery gun system — the Bofors guns procured from Sweden — in the early 1980s. Attempts to buy new guns did not make progress.
•Three guns of each type were inducted in the presence of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat. In all, the Army will get 10 K-9 guns this year.
•“A third equipment is also being inducted today — The common gun tower, a 6x6 vehicle with cross-country capability. Required to tow the medium guns. These are made by the Indian company Ashok Leyland,” Ms. Sitharaman wrote in a tweet.
•In April 2017, the Indian engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and South Korea’s Hanwha Techwin signed a contract to make the K9 Vajra-T guns. The gun was short-listed by the Army after extensive trials. The deal is worth Rs. 4,500 crore for 100 guns. The K9 Vajra-T is a 155-mm, 52-calibre self-propelled gun with a maximum range of 40 km. It has been customised from the original K9 Thunder. Its fire control system has been customised for desert conditions.
•Under the agreement, the first 10 guns will be imported from South Korea and the rest will be made by L&T in India. The first regiment will be in place by July 2019 and all 100 guns will be delivered by November 2020.
Howitzer deal with U.S.
•India signed a $737-million deal with the U.S. in November 2016 under the Foreign Military Sales Programme for 145 M777 Ultra Light Howitzers. Twenty-five guns will be imported and the rest will be assembled in India in partnership with Mahindra Group. Deliveries will be completed by mid-2021. “The M777 brings a new level of capability to the artillery unit by offering rapid deployment and extreme accuracy,” Joe Senftle, vice-president and general manager of BAE Systems’ weapon systems business, said after the induction.
•The M777 is a 155-mm, 39-calibre towed artillery gun. It weighs just four tonnes, making it transportable underslung from helicopters.
•The Army’s Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan, 1999, envisages induction of 3,000 guns of various types for 220 artillery regiments.
📰 HAL trainer clears crucial spin test
HAL said it expected production clearance for the HTT-40 by the end of this year.
•HTT-40, the indigenously-built basic trainer aircraft, on Friday cleared a challenging milestone — its first spin test — Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. said.
•A few more tests are due to follow before the aircraft can get its operational certification, likely in mid-2019, according to a person familiar with the programme.
DAC approval
•HAL said it expected production clearance for the HTT-40 by the end of this year. The Defence Acquisition Council has approved buying of 70 HAL-built basic trainers for the Indian Air Force. The HTT-40, when acquired, will join the 75 Swiss Pilatus PC-7 Mark II trainers that are already in service.
•Congratulating the design and project team, HAL CMD R. Madhavan said, “The successful start of the spin testing gives a boost to HAL and also restores [its] credibility in successfully designing a spin-worthy aircraft.”
•Around 1.30 p.m., test pilots Gp Capt (retd) K.K.Venugopal, and Gp Capt S. Chaki (retd) flew the aircraft and achieved the feat.
•The spin test is the most crucial phase in developing a safe and airworthy aircraft, according to HAL. Novice military pilots begin their flying careers with a basic trainer and then graduate on to fighters and transport planes.
•“This is a big boost [for the team]. We got the spin right after two generations, the last was in the 1980s for the Kiran,” said the official associated with trainer development.
•A statement said, “HTT-40 began the most awaited phase of the ‘spin test’ by successfully entering into a two-turn spin and subsequently recovering with the appropriate controls.”
•Arup Chatterjee, Director (Engg and R&D) said the spin trial met the test points of PSQR or `preliminary specifications qualitative requirements'; the completion of the spin test is the last milestone to be cleared before the aircraft enters service.
•The first spin test has been met five years since HAL took up the basic trainer project design in August 2013 at its own expense of around ₹350 crore. It has moved at a "breakneck speed" and already cleared the prior important stage of stall testing.
•The development comes as a morale booster to the State-owned defence aircraft manufacturer which has braved negative sentiment in recent months for being left out of the IAF's much-debated Rafale fighters acquisition programme.
•HTT-40, too, had been earlier rejected by the IAF which opted for the improted Pilatus.
•Over the past months, HAL’s Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) had conducted extensive wind tunnel tests and analysed mathematical models to arrive at the requirements of the spin test. "The entire study is put to test during those first few moments of spin testing," it said.
📰 Cause to remain alert: on Zika virus
Zika-associated birth defects could be a serious public health crisis in India
•Despite the recent announcement suggesting that the Jaipur Zika virus strains cannot cause foetal microcephaly, all possible measures to control transmission and monitor pregnancies should be taken. To the best of our knowledge, there is not a specific Zika virus strain — or mutation — linked to microcephaly. All Zika virus strains could possibly cause birth defects.
•Over the last few years, the international community has banded together to quickly address a growing international public health crisis — the Zika virus epidemic. After its detection in Brazil during 2015, observant clinicians began to notice a striking increase in the rates of babies born with microcephaly, a rare neurological condition characterised by underdeveloped brains and undersized heads. Epidemiological, clinical, and experimental data has indicated that microcephaly, and a range of other birth defects (such as miscarriages and ocular disease) could be caused by the Zika virus passing from a pregnant women to her foetus.
Many unknowns
•While the science on the Zika virus has rapidly progressed, there is still much that we do not know about how it causes birth defects. We do not know the long-term effects of children who were infected with the Zika virus in the womb. We do not know why some lead to stillbirths and miscarriages, some lead to neurological complications, and others seem perfectly healthy. We do not understand why we only noticed microcephaly and other severe forms of disease during the epidemic in the Americas, and not before. There could be biological answers to these: certain Zika virus strains are more likely to cause birth defects than others. But at this point, we do not know.
•The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently announced that the Zika virus strains causing the outbreak in Jaipur, Rajasthan, cannot cause microcephaly. This conclusion was based on a genetic sequencing of viruses isolated from the outbreak. In these sequences, the ICMR did not find a Zika virus mutation linked to microcephaly that was suggested in a Sciencemagazine study, in 2017. The problem with this conclusion is that the research was based on infection in mouse brains — not humans — and contains no epidemiological or clinical support. Numerous other studies suggest that all Zika virus strains may have the capacity to infect foetuses and cause neurological disease. Much more research is needed to determine if some strains are associated with a higher risk.
•It is also difficult to determine how extensive Zika virus outbreaks will be in India. If the Zika virus has been silently spreading in the country, as it did throughout most of Asia for the last 50 years, then enough people may be immune to the virus to prevent large outbreaks. According to the most recent updates, 159 people in Jaipur had confirmed Zika virus infections. Considering that most infections do not cause noticeable disease, and thus most infected individuals do not seek medical attention, the true number of cases may be more than 10,000. At least 50 of the infected individuals are pregnant women, but again, the true number is likely to be much higher. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S., only 5-10% of Zika virus infections during pregnancies lead to Zika-associated birth defects, and the rates of microcephaly are much lower. So, while the chances for the Zika virus to cause harm to an individual baby are low, there is still a chance, regardless of the Zika virus strain in circulation.
Take precautions
•Pregnant women and their families, including those planning to get pregnant, should take great caution to avoid mosquitoes — wear long sleeves and trousers, stay indoors when possible, use DEET/insect repellent, and remove standing water that mosquitoes use for breeding. Zika virus infection is not guaranteed upon mosquito bite, but the chances for infection rise with each new bite. Zika-associated birth defects could be a serious public health crisis in India, and, without a vaccine, all possible measures to control transmission and monitor pregnancies should be taken. Please, stay alert.
📰 Credit growth at 5-year high
Demand from firms, NFBCs drive loan growth; however, deposits grow slower
•In what could be an indication of a pick-up in private investment, loan growth of commercial banks is at a five-year high on the back of strong demand, latest data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.
•According to the data, year-on-year credit growth was 14.6% as on October 26, the highest in five years. In October 2013, credit growth was 16.6%.
•According to bankers, the credit growth started picking up by the end of August-early September. The month of September alone saw credit offtake of ₹2 lakh crore out of ₹3 lakh crore credit disbursed during the April-September period.
•“The credit growth is broad-based. There is loan demand from large corporates, for road projects, and also non-banking finance companies.
•“The October data corroborates the pick-up in credit growth that started in September,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, State Bank of India.
•Credit to major sectors like infrastructure, textiles, chemical and chemical products and engineering has accelerated. Retail credit is also growing at a healthy pace, particularly housing loans.
•SBI chairman had also said during an earnings media briefing earlier this week that credit growth had returned for SBI with the bank recording 11.11% year-on-year growth till September. The country’s largest lender expects 10-12% loan growth for the current financial year.
•Deposit growth, despite picking up was still lagging credit growth with the gap between deposit and credit growth widening. According to RBI data, deposit growth was 9% for the fortnight ended October 26.
Rise in interest rates
•The uptick in credit growth comes amid rising interest rates. The central bank has been increasing rates though there was a paused in the previous policy meeting in October, after two consecutive hikes. The next review of the monetary policy is due in December. Banks have also been increasing their lending rate since March.
•SBI, for example, has increased its one-year marginal cost of fund based lending rate (MCLR) — the benchmark rate to which all loans are linked — by 55 basis points since March 1.
📰 Most child deaths due to pneumonia in India
Report highlights India’s burden
•India continues to have the highest burden of pneumonia and diarrhoea child deaths in the world, with 158,176 pneumonia and 102,813 diarrhoea deaths in 2016. This was stated in the ‘Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report’ released on Friday by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
•The report, which looked at progress in fighting pneumonia and diarrhoea in 15 countries with the greatest number of deaths from these illnesses, finds health systems are falling woefully short of ensuring that the most vulnerable children have access to prevention and treatment services.
•The 15 countries that the report looked at account for 70% of global pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths in children under five. Globally, pneumonia and diarrhoea led to nearly one of every four deaths in children under five years of age in 2016. Authors at the IVAC have also called on the global community to collect better data and target communities of greatest need.
•The report was released ahead of the 10th World Pneumonia Day on November 12.
•The report analyses how effectively countries are delivering 10 key interventions — breastfeeding, vaccination, access to care, use of antibiotics, oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc supplementation — to help protect against, prevent, and treat, pneumonia and diarrhoea. The measures are proven to help prevent death due to these illnesses and could help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030.The Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, issued annually, finds that although countries are making progress in immunisation coverage, they seriously lag in efforts to treat childhood illnesses — especially among populations that are remote, impoverished or otherwise left behind.
•Progress in India — home to more under-five pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths than any other country in 2016 — has been mixed.
•Increasing coverage of Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) vaccine, as well as continued scale-up of rotavirus vaccines, first introduced in mid-2016, led to a bump in scoring for these interventions since last year’s report. Introduced in 2017, the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) has been included in only six States to date. Further scale-up of the vaccine to all States should be considered
📰 ‘Don’t compare air pollution to smoking’
Experts warn against trivialising issue
•Anti-tobacco activists have expressed concern that comparing the ill-effects of air pollution to that of smoking will result in trivialising the catastrophic effects of smoking.
•They say that such comparisons also promote the theory that it is all right to smoke as the air that we breathe is equally harmful.
•“It is absurd to compare the health consequences of air pollution with that of smoking. Needless to say, both are equally important public health issues and the comparisons are being made to probably simplify it for lay people,” said anti-tobacco activist and cancer surgeon Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi.
•“Such comparisons are based on a formula proposed by a Berkeley Earth study that draws an equivalence between the hazards of air pollution and smoking. In the words of one of the co-author of the study ‘when you bring scientific terms to something so well known as a cigarette number, it helps to raise awareness and bring discussion. It hits people in the way they can understand.’ However, the author’s metaphor is being misinterpreted and it is belittling something as serious as tobacco control,” said Dr. Chaturvedi.
•“The common ingredients of air pollution are mainly carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and suspended particulate matter. Cigarette smoke, in addition to all the above, is made of nearly 7,000 toxic chemicals and at least 69 of them are highly carcinogenic,” he said, adding that the dose or concentration of the suspended particulate matter in the air per day and per lifetime is nearly 200 times lesser than that from cigarettes.
•Echoing Dr. Chaturvedi’s argument, Dr. P.C. Gupta, head of the Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, said: “Air pollution is of two types — outdoor and indoor. When a smoker is present in the room, the indoor pollution levels are much higher than outdoor pollution at times. A smoker not only exposes self to the carcinogens and toxic particles but all the others near him.”
•Activists are also worried that the misinterpreted comparison promotes a philosophy that one might as well smoke because it’s no worse than breathing polluted air.
•“This may justify continuation as well as initiation of the smoking habit,” said Dr. Chaturvedi, adding that the argument weakens the resolve of the government, the civil society and public health activists in controlling the tobacco menace.
📰 Indonesia’s Toraja tribe live among the dead
Ethnic group has few qualms living in vicinity of corpses
•Martha Kande's family lived with her greying, shrivelled corpse at their home in Indonesia for seven months, as they prepared an elaborate funeral that is central to the Toraja people's centuries-old death rituals.
•“We keep the body in a coffin at home,” Meyske Latuihamallo, the 81-year-old woman's granddaughter, told AFP .
•“But it's kept open before they are buried because we see them as sick so they are brought food and drink every day.”
•Torajans – an ethnic group that numbers about a million people on Sulawesi island – have few qualms when it comes to talking with an embalmed corpse, dressing them up, brushing their hair or even taking pictures with a mummified relative.
•Traditionally the embalming process involved sour vinegar and tea leaves but these days families usually inject a formaldehyde solution into the corpse.
•“After a week, there's no odour anymore”, local tourist guide Lisa Saba Palloan told AFP.
•It may seem a ghoulish practice to some: living side-by-side with an embalmed body for months -- or even years -- before paying homage in a ritualistic display of blood and guts.
•But the Toraja believe that a person is only dead -- and their soul freed -- after an elaborate funeral known as “Rambu Solo”.
Preserve tradition
•Wild boars howled and blood poured from a sacrificial buffalo's throat as Kande's family prepared her mummified body for the afterlife.
•Following the five-day ceremony, the octogenarian was placed in one of the many burial caves scattered around the mountainous region, where skeletal remains are arranged by social hierarchy.
•They sit alongside wooden dolls in traditional clothing, representing deceased nobility, while some bodies are kept in coffins that hang from steep cliffs -- owing to limited space.
•“These are the customs of our ancestors,” said Kande's 72-year-old nephew Johanes Singkali.
•“We maintain them to preserve these traditions and keep them sacred from outside influences.”
Death tourism
•The Indonesian government is trying to promote Torajan death rituals as part of ambitious plans to boost tourism across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago.
•While the Toraja region draws tens of thousands of tourists annually, it is a fraction of the millions who descend on holiday hotspot Bali.
•Growing Toraja tourism faces several hurdles, although opposition from locals does not appear to be among them.
•Rather, poor infrastructure and the absence of a major airport in the highland region make travel difficult.
