📰 Lessons from a tragedy
The indigenous communities and settlers in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands must be equal stakeholders in a common future
•The tragic death of a young American adventurer in the protected “tribal reserve” of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago has triggered global media interest in the region once again. Much of the debates on the alleged killing of John Allen Chau by “hostile” islanders remains focused on the intent, circumstances and tragic upshot of his misadventure, while others raise larger and more disturbing questions about the North Sentinel tribal community at large and the efficacy of the Indian government’s tribal welfare policies. The first set of debates regarding Chau’s evangelical calling and his almost willing surrender to the hazards it entailed are not of interest to us at this moment nor are the details of the investigations that are being carried out by the local police and administration.
Understanding ‘hostility’
•What is of greater significance is the commentary on the “hostility” of the Sentinel islanders and the many experiences of heroic “contact” by visiting anthropologists and government officials. The broader media interest is in the peculiar and almost brutal hostility displayed by the Sentinel islanders towards the outsider. Some see it as signs of a pathological “primitivity” and the result of “complete isolation” from “civilisation” while others interpret it as an effect of the historical memory of colonial brutality. Given the fact that we do not know their language nor have had any opportunity to understand their varied gestures of hostility, it’s hard to come to any definitive answer.
•But it is the question of “isolation” that demands more critical attention. We are not entirely sure if it can be established that the Sentinelese, or the “Sentinel Jarawas” as they were classified in colonial records, were or are completely isolated. Both colonial records and Census reports up to 1931 reveal that officials did set foot on the islands and were able to walk through it to collect information. The Government of India’s own official “contact” photographs from the 1970s onwards reveal interesting signs that question the “complete isolation” thesis.
•If we carefully analyse this visual record, we can see how the shape of Sentinelese outrigger canoes has changed and how they continue to use large quantities of iron to make adze blades and arrowheads. We also notice small glass bead necklaces around their necks. Where are these glass beads, trinkets, large tarpaulin sheets and ready supplies of iron coming from?
Different images
•Images of angry Sentinelese pointing at or shooting arrows at a passing helicopter or at the sight of an incoming boat abound in the media. Yet while these images remain in constant circulation, there are other images of them receiving coconuts, bananas and other gifts from government contact parties. Out of the Anthropological Survey of India’s recorded 26 visits to the islands, it is stated that seven were met with overt hostility. In other words, the argument that the hostility of the Sentinelese is chronic or pathological needs to be seen in perspective. Evidently the Sentinel Islanders decide what kind of visitations pose a threat to their survival or dignity and what are “safe” or “useful”. Their hostility towards the outsider is then to be regarded as “strategic” and deliberate and therefore key to their survival.
•Some have asked why the Indian state cannot devise a method by which the Sentinelese could be “pacified” and brought under the welfare net. It goes to the credit of the Indian government that unlike its colonial predecessors it has completely abjured all kinds of coercion against the indigenous communities of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Colonial punitive expeditions, kidnappings, forced confinements that devastated the Andamanese populations at large are a thing of the past. Tribal welfare policy in the islands remains committed to protection and clearly “pacification” via coercion is no option. The policy today is to ensure “protection” but also to accept their right to self-determination.
Nuancing ‘protection’
•Yet here’s where the problem begins. Policies of “protection” demand strong surveillance infrastructures, empowered staff, coordination among police, forest and welfare agencies and, more importantly, investment in projects of sensitisation. The settler population on the islands clearly remains conflicted. There is an understanding that the islands’ indigenous communities are sources of tourist interest and potential revenue churners, yet the fact that public monies are invested to sustain them in their habitats remain a source of discomfort. Apart from a small segment of progressive citizens, there are clear marks of stress in settler-indigene relations on the islands.
•It is tensions like these that allow collusive breaches of the law and the undermining of the protective cover for the Sentinelese and other Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) like the Jarawas. What aggravates such tensions are the skewed developmental priorities that mainland India imposes on these islands.
•The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have historically been treated as terra nullius, or empty space, wherein mainland governments could inscribe their authority and initiate projects of control. The British initiated these projects treating the islands first as a strategic outpost and then a penal colony. The Indian government gave it a free society but used it as a space to settle its “excess” population. Hence the refugee rehabilitation schemes in the post-Partition years. It is this resettlement of the islands in independent India that demanded a renegotiation of its relations with the Islands’ indigenous communities. They had to be protected and cared for but moved out of their original forest habitats into newly designated “tribal reserves”. As a result of continuous settlement and often ill-conceived developmental projects on the islands over the past six decades, these reserves have become increasingly vulnerable to the intrusions of poachers, encroachers and tourists.
Looking ahead
•We hope that we will be able to draw a few lessons from the unfortunate death of John Allen Chau and question the ways in which mainland India views the islands from its distant perch in New Delhi. We can only hope that the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the announcement of new projects for “holistic” development take a context-sensitive “island view” of development and recognise settlers and PVTGs as equal stakeholders in a common sustainable future.
📰 A prescription for the future
While using cutting-edge technology, we need to find ways to continuously lower the cost of healthcare
•The world as we know it is changing so fast and so much. Global mega-trends only reinforce this fact. The Internet has taken over our lives, smartphone penetration is growing rapidly, demographics are evolving. For the first time, in 2019, millennials (born between 1981 and 1996), who feel fully at home in a digital world, will overtake the population of baby boomers. There are dramatic lifestyle and behavioural changes occurring every day, with strong implications for the future of our planet and its inhabitants.
Impactful changes
•Healthcare is no stranger to change — in fact, the most impactful transformations in human life have happened in healthcare. Time’s cover three years ago showed the picture of a child with the headline, “This baby could live to be 142 years old”. That is the extent of the breakthrough in longevity that modern medicine has been able to achieve. Healthcare in India too has been transformed over the last three decades, and as members of this industry, we can be proud of how far we’ve come in terms of improved indices on life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal deaths and quality of outcomes.
•But we cannot rest on these achievements now, because the pace of change is still scorching, and is fundamentally altering disease patterns, patient risk profiles and their expectations. Information technology and biotechnology are twin engines, with immense potential to transform the mechanics of care delivery, the outcomes we can achieve and, above all, the lives we can touch and save.
•There are several examples of the kinds of impact technology and biotechnology can make on healthcare. Telemedicine has already brought healthcare to the remotest corners of the country. The use of artificial intelligence for preventive and predictive health analytics can strongly support clinical diagnosis with evidence-based guidance, and also prevent disease. From the virtual reality (VR) of 3D-printing, we are now moving towards augmented reality (AR), by which, for example, every piece of node in a malignant melanoma can be completely removed, thereby eliminating the risk of the cancer spreading to any other part of the body. Biotechnology, cell biology and genetics are opening up whole new paradigms of understanding of human life and disease, and have made personalised medicine a way of life.
Largest health scheme
•So, the outlook is clear: those in healthcare who wish for status quo and for the comfort of the familiar run the risk of becoming irrelevant. And that goes for countries too. India needs to rapidly adapt to, embrace and drive change if it wishes to stay relevant in the global healthcare order.
•India’s change imperative has become even more pronounced with the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana Abhiyan, or National Health Protection Mission (NHPM), under the ambit of Ayushman Bharat. This major shift in approach to public health addresses the healthcare needs of over 500 million Indians in the first stage through what is probably the world’s largest public health-for-all insurance scheme. The vast scale of the programme requires reimagining an innovative model which will transform healthcare delivery in the country. By leapfrogging through smart adoption of technology and using emerging platforms such as Blockchain, significant improvements are possible in healthcare operations and costs.
•The private health sector is committed to support this programme, and ensure its success, because we are beneficiaries of society’s social licence to operate, and it is our responsibility to make sure this programme reaches the most vulnerable and the under-privileged, for whom it is intended. At the same time, we have a solemn responsibility to ensure that the sector is sustainable in the long term. For India to grow, healthcare as an engine of the economy needs to flourish. And the private sector, which has contributed over 80% of the bed additions in the last decade, needs to earn healthy rates of return on investment to continue capital investment in infrastructure, technology upgrades, and to have the ability to acquire top clinical talent, which can lead to differentiated outcomes. In our quest to achieve low-cost healthcare, we must not inhibit our potential for growth, nor isolate ourselves from exciting global developments.
The way forward
•The prescription is clear. We need to achieve a balance between staying at the cutting edge of clinical protocols, technology and innovation and continue to deliver world-class care, while finding increasingly efficient ways of operating to continuously lower the cost of care and bring it within the reach of those who cannot afford it. This is a difficult balance to achieve, but not impossible. And when accomplished, India would have found an answer that can be an example for the rest of the world to emulate.
•With clarity and focus, we can create a blueprint for the legacy we wish to build and set the trajectory for Indian healthcare for the next several decades. The decisions we make today are decisions we make for our children, a future we will create for them. Will they lead healthier lives than we do? Will they approve of our choices and actions? Are we building an inclusive and sustainable world for them? We have it in our hands to shape the winds of change we face today into the aero-dynamics that will definitively propel our collective destinies forward.
📰 Ukraine declares martial law
Emergency measures to be in place in border areas for 30 days; move comes after incident near Crimea
•Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any “reckless acts” after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow’s seizure of three of its Navy vessels.
•The Ukrainian Parliament late on Monday voted in favour of President Petro Poroshenko’s request for the introduction of martial law in border areas for 30 days.
Capture of ships
•The move came after Russian forces fired on, boarded and captured three of Kiev’s ships on Sunday off the coast of Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years.
•The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east.
•It has raised fears of a wider escalation — in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 — and prompted international calls for restraint.
•Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas.
•In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Putin expressed “serious concern” over the introduction of martial law, the Kremlin said in a statement.
•Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sunday’s confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Mr. Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia.
•Russian state television late on Monday aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscow’s security services.
Sailors in custody
•One of the sailors is heard saying “the actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocatory character” — parroting the version of events put forward by Russian authorities.
•Meanwhile, a court in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday ordered three Ukrainian sailors to be held in custody for two months.
•“For now, the court has ordered three people held until January 25” on accusations of crossing into Russian territory illegally, sajid Crimea’s rights ombudswoman Lyudmila Lubina.
📰 RBI Governor stresses need for autonomy of central bank
House panel on finance told monetary policy must be exclusive domain of bank
•Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel batted for autonomy of the institution in strong terms in his deposition before the Parliamentary Panel on Finance on Tuesday.
•Mr. Patel made a presentation on the impact of demonetisation and the status of non-performing assets in the banking sector.
Avoids controversy
•According to sources, while he steered clear of controversial questions, including the recent friction between the government and the RBI, Mr. Patel assured the Committee, headed by Congress MP M. Veerappa Moily, that he would submit written answers to all the questions posed by the members.
•Another source said that given the large number of questions, the Governor was asked to file written replies in 10-15 days.
•Mr. Patel made three key points at the meeting. First, he said, depositors’ interests were of primary importance for which autonomy was non-negotiable. Second, monetary policy should be the exclusive domain of the RBI.
•He also asserted that maintaining the central bank’s reserves was extremely essential to maintaining the country’s AAA rating.
•“He told us that it is only the experts and technocrats who should have a say in the country’s monetary policy. There would be a direct conflict of interest if any other committee is given say in the matter,” an Opposition MP told The Hindu.
•The issue of central bank autonomy rose to the fore again following RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya’s speech last month, in which he cautioned against the Centre impinging upon the RBI’s autonomy and trying to direct its policy on key issues such as the prompt corrective action (PCA) norms, the classification of power sector NPAs, and the quantum of surplus to be transferred to the Centre.
‘G20 obligation’
•Following a public back-and-forth between the central bank and the Finance Ministry, the issue came to a head when the Central Board of the Reserve Bank met on November 19 to take decisions on the issues raised.
•BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Shivkumar Chanabasappa Udasi asked why India should follow the Basel III norms for the banking sector to which Mr. Patel said it was “obligatory” to follow the norms as per G20 commitments made by the government.
•Mr. Patel also made a presentation about the state of economy, which he said was doing well.
•The Committee will take stock of the developments at the crisis-hit IL&FS Group for three days from December 3, an official said on Tuesday.
•On October 1, the government superseded the board of IL&FS after some of its group entities defaulted on debt payments which triggered concerns of a liquidity crisis in the financial market. The total debt of the group was pegged at ₹94,215.6 crore as of October 8. As part of efforts to rescue the group, the government appointed a new board with Uday Kotak as its executive chairman.
📰 ISRO to launch new imaging satellite HysIS on Thursday
•HysIS, the country's first hyperspectral imaging satellite for advanced Earth observation, is slated for launch on Thursday from Sriharikota. About 30 small satellites of foreign customers will be its co-passengers on the PSLV launcher, numbered C-43, the Indian Space Research Organisation has announced.
•The launch from the first launch pad is set for 9.57 a.m. on November 29, 2018, subject to final clearances.
•A hyperspectral imaging camera in space can provide well-defined images that can help to identify objects on Earth far more clearly than regular optical or remote sensing cameras, ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said earlier.
•The technology will be an added advantage of watching over India from space for a variety of purposes such as defence, agriculture, land use, minerals and so on. While the ISRO coyly puts it down as another variety in remote sensing, knowledgeable sources have earlier conceded that it can be highly useful in marking out a suspect object or person and separate it from the background. This could aid in detecting transborder or other stealthy movements.
•“The primary goal of HysIS is to study the Earth’s surface in visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum,” ISRO said.
•HysIS will be ISRO's first full-scale working satellite with this capability. While the technology has been around, not many space agencies have working satellites with hyperspectral imaging cameras as yet.
•The space agency tested hyperspectral imaging technology twice a decade ago. In April 2008, a small 83-kg demonstration microsatellite called IMS-1 (Indian Mini Satellite-1) was launched as a secondary passenger with Cartosat-2A. In October the same year, it put a HySI or Hyperspectral Imager on the first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 and used it to scan Moon's surface for minerals.
Third longest mission
•The November 29 flight would last almost two hours. The satellites would be ejected in two orbits by restarting the rocket's fourth-stage engine twice. The PSLV, flying in its core-alone format, will first release HysIS to an orbit distant 636 km after 17 minutes from launch. later, two engines will restart after an hour from launch and again — 47 minutes later — all customer satellites would be put into a lower orbit at 504 km. This will be the third longest mission of PSLV.
•The longest mission, C-40 in January this year, lasted two hours and 21 minutes and put 31 satellites to orbit. In September 2016, C-35 lifted eight satellites in a flight lasting two hours and 15 minutes.
📰 Trail of destruction: on damage caused by Cyclone Gaja
The extent of damage caused by Cyclone Gaja is much worse than what was believed earlier
•It is now becoming clear that Cyclone Gaja is a major disaster, and its economic impact in Tamil Nadu is comparable to that of the tsunami of 2004. The devastation suffered by tens of thousands of people in several districts of the State has been severe, going well beyond the annual storm season losses. In the initial days after November 16, when the cyclone struck, the State heaved a sigh of relief since the death toll was relatively low. But it is now clear that the suffering, the loss, and the displacement in large parts of Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts is of an enormous magnitude. Communities in the affected areas are distraught as houses have collapsed, farms lie ruined, water sources are contaminated and electricity supply remains disrupted. Many areas remain inaccessible because fallen trees have blocked roads. In its report to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government has estimated the number of people rendered homeless at 3.7 lakh, and houses destroyed at 3.4 lakh. The cyclone has crippled agriculture and livelihoods in a fertile region, felling thousands of productive trees and killing livestock. Between 60% and 80% of the coconut trees in the region have fallen, hobbling Tamil Nadu’s farmers, who contribute a quarter of India’s coconuts with the highest unit yield. Unlike paddy or many other crops, bringing coconut plantations back to life will take years.
•The top priority for the Tamil Nadu government should be to restore administrative systems and service delivery in the affected areas. Only with physical access, electricity connections and public health facilities can effective relief work be undertaken. Solar power can get public facilities running overnight. It is equally important to assure the large number of stricken farmers that there will be a moratorium on any agricultural loans that they have taken, while a fair compensation scheme is prepared. Many of them have invested in trees and livestock expecting long-term returns, but have been rendered paupers overnight. The Tamil Nadu government has given the Centre a memorandum seeking nearly ₹15,000 crore for restoration, rehabilitation and mitigation, besides ₹1,431 crore for immediate relief work. The State’s requirements should be met in full. It is also worth pointing out that farm insurance under the Centre’s Fasal Bima Yojana covers only food crops, oilseeds and annual horticultural crops, making extraordinary compensation for farmers important. The average citizen is also keen on contributing money and material to the relief effort, as the experience with the Kerala floods shows. What she wants to see is administrative efficiency in rebuilding the shattered districts. Officials should not wait for people to launch protests before coming up with a response. Cyclone Gaja has wrought terrible devastation, and the relief programme must match it in scale.
📰 NPAs on downhill path since March peak, says RBI
‘However, higher provisions, fall in earnings from loan assets hit profitability’
•Both gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) of scheduled commercial banks have reduced in the two quarters ending September 30, 2018 since their peak in March 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday.
•However, the RBI did point out that the profitability of banks was still impacted due to a decline in earnings from loan assets and on higher provisioning required due to deterioration in asset quality.
•That said, it highlighted the bank credit growth that had accelerated over the last two quarters.
•The RBI, in its submissions to the Standing Committee on Finance, said that the gross and net NPAs of scheduled commercial banks had reduced due to the concerted efforts taken by the government and the central bank to address the problem.
•“As a consequence of these measures, the gross NPAs as well as net NPAs of the scheduled commercial banks, after peaking in March 2018, have registered declines for two consecutive quarters,” the RBI said in its submission reviewed by The Hindu.
•The data shows that gross NPAs of all scheduled commercial banks were at ₹10.36 lakh crore at the end of the March 2018 quarter, and subsequently declined to ₹10.14 lakh crore by the end of the September quarter.
•Public sector banks account for an overwhelming proportion of these gross NPAs but even their contribution had marginally come down since March 2018. Where public sector banks accounted for 86.6% of all gross NPAs of scheduled commercial banks, this fell to 85.9% by September 30, 2018.
•Net NPAs for all scheduled commercial banks fell from ₹4.54 lakh crore in the March quarter to ₹4.10 lakh crore as of September 30. Correspondingly, the net NPA percentage fell from 7.97% to 7.19% over the same period.
Sharp fall in slippages
•“The annualised slippage ratio (i.e. the percentage of fresh NPAs as percentage of standard advances at the beginning of the quarter) has also witnessed a declining trend over the past two quarters, which is again reflective of the improving credit discipline,” it said.
•“The profitability of banks, though, continues to be impacted on account of the decline in earnings from loan assets, and given the higher provisions that are required to be maintained to reflect the deterioration in asset quality, which will eventually crystallise as actual losses,” the RBI added. “However, the decline in NPAs, particularly fresh slippages, will reflect in the improved profitability going forward.” The RBI said that although weak bank balance sheets had created significant headwinds for credit growth, this had still been picking up on a year-on-year basis. Credit growth for scheduled commercial banks stood at 5.82% in September 2017 compared with the same month in the previous year, which grew to 10.7% in September 2018.
•“For the week ending October 26, 2018, growth in gross bank credit had further accelerated to 14.6%,” the central bank said.
📰 NASA's InSight spacecraft lands on red planet after six-month journey
NASA last landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover.
•A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red planet Monday after a six-month, 300 million-mile (482 million-kilometre) journey and a perilous, six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere.
•Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped out of their seats and erupted in screams, applause and laughter as the news came in.
•“Touchdown confirmed!” a flight controller announced.
•The three-legged InSight spacecraft reached the surface after being slowed by a parachute and braking engines, the space agency said. Updates were coming in via radio signals that take more than eight minutes to cross the nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometres) between Mars and Earth.
•It was NASA’s ninth attempt to land at Mars since the 1976 Viking probes. All but one of the previous U.S. touchdowns were successful.
•NASA last landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover.
•Viewings were held coast to coast at museums, planetariums and libraries, as well as New York’s Times Square.
•The plan called for the spacecraft to go from 12,300 mph (19,800 kph) to zero in six minutes flat as it pierced the Martian atmosphere and settled on the surface.
•“Landing on Mars is one of the hardest single jobs that people have to do in planetary exploration,” said InSight’s lead scientist, Bruce Banerdt. “It’s such a difficult thing, it’s such a dangerous thing that there’s always a fairly uncomfortably large chance that something could go wrong.”
•Mars has been the graveyard for a multitude of space missions. Up to now, the success rate at the red planet has been only 40 percent, counting every attempted flyby, orbital flight and landing by the U.S., Russia and other countries since 1960.
•The U.S., however, has pulled off seven successful Mars landings in the past four decades, not counting InSight, with only one failed touchdown. No other country has managed to set and operate a spacecraft on the dusty red surface.
•InSight was shooting for Elysium Planitia, a plain near the Martian equator that the InSight team hopes is as flat as a parking lot in Kansas with few, if any, rocks.
•This is no rock-collecting expedition. Instead, the stationary 800-pound (360-kilogram) lander will use its 6-foot (1.8-metre) robotic arm to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground. The self-hammering mole will burrow 16 feet (5 metres) down to measure the planet’s internal heat, while the seismometer listens for possible quakes.
•Nothing like this has been attempted before at our next-door neighbor, nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometres) away. No lander has dug deeper than several inches, and no seismometer has ever worked on Mars.
•By examining the interior of Mars, scientists hope to understand how our solar system’s rocky planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they turned out so different — Mars cold and dry, Venus and Mercury burning hot, and Earth hospitable to life.
•InSight has no life-detecting capability, however. That will be left to future rovers. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, for instance, will collect rocks that will eventually be brought back to Earth and analysed for evidence of ancient life.
