📰 Preventing student suicides
The rising number of cases must provoke a discussion on how outcomes of education are perceived in India
•The end of 2018 brought with it some deeply unsettling cases of student suicides. The deaths of 49 students in Navodaya Vidyalaya schools in the last five years, and of three students preparing for the IIT entrance examinations in Kota in a span of four days, brings the issue of youth suicides to the fore again. More youths are taking their lives due to the fear of failing in examinations, constant flak from teachers, bullying from peers, family pressure and a loss of a sense of a decent future. These cases force us to recognise that youth suicides are ubiquitous, and the educational ecosystem must take the blame for this.
Current scenario
•The Kota case is not an aberration. There have been frequent news reports of suicides taking place in coaching centres that train students for medical and engineering entrance examinations. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, between 2014 and 2016, 26,476 students committed suicide in India. Of them, 7,462 committed suicide due to failure in various examinations.
•The rising number of these cases provokes a serious discussion on the way in which outcomes of education are perceived in India. The instrumental value of education in India is its potential in generating socio-economic and cultural capital through a promise of decent job opportunities in the future. But the education system has not been successful in generating enough job options. For instance, the International Labour Organisation’s World Employment and Social Outlook Trends Report of 2018 says that in 2019, the job status of nearly 77% of Indian workers would be vulnerable and that 18.9 million people would be unemployed. With their job future being so bleak, students are put under constant pressure to perform. They have failed to learn to enjoy the process of education. Instead, the constant pressure and stress has generated social antipathy and detachment among them. Sociologist Emile Durkheim had famously hypothesised that suicides are a result of not just psychological or emotional factors but social factors as well. With a loss of community and other social bonds, students in schools, colleges and coaching centres end up taking their lives.
•Following the reports of suicides in Navodaya Vidyalayas, the National Human Rights Commission sought information from the Ministry of Human Resource Development on whether trained counsellors were present on campus. In the recently concluded winter session of Parliament, the HRD Minister said that an expert committee has been set up to look into the matter. According to Navodaya Vidyalaya Samitis, merely one or two training sessions are included to sensitise the teachers and principals regarding safety and security of the children and to prevent suicidal tendencies. The framework for implementation of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) recognises the role of guidance and counselling services to students. In 2018, the government approved an integrated school education scheme subsuming the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the RMSA, and Teacher Education from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020. However, without any significant rise in budgetary allocations for education, it is likely that there would be cuts in “non-productive” areas of education such as guidance and counselling.
The way forward
•First, stop-gap solutions to setting up expert committees and counsellors in schools have not been able to solve the problem. The deep-rooted causes must be addressed. The government must undertake a comprehensive study on the reasons behind these suicides. Second, the curriculum should be designed in ways that stress the importance of mental exercises and meditation. The Delhi government’s initiative on the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ may be a step in the right direction. Third, with regards to higher education, 12 measures were suggested by the Justice Roopanwal Commission. One of them stressed on making Equal Opportunity Cells with an anti-discrimination officer functional in universities and colleges. Finally, it is high time we seek to reinvent our educational ecosystem in ways that impregnate new meanings, new ideas of living, and renewed possibilities that could transform a life of precarity into a life worth living.
📰 36 years after law, girls still forced into devadasi custom
With no will to enforce the 1982 Act, girls from marginalised communities in Karnataka are still trafficked
•More than thirty-six years after the Karnataka Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act of 1982 was passed, the State government is yet to issue the rules for administering the law. Meanwhile the practice of dedicating young girls to temples as an offering to appease the gods persists not just in Karnataka, but has also spread to neighbouring Goa.
•Two new studies on the devadasi practice by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, paint a grim picture of the apathetic approach of the legislature and enforcement agencies to crack down on the practice, particularly prevalent among oppressed communities of north Karnataka.
•A disturbing aspect revealed by the new studies is that special children, with physical or mental disabilities, are more vulnerable to be dedicated as devadasis — nearly one in five (or 19%) of the devadasis that were part of the NLSIU study exhibited such disabilities.
•The NLS researchers found that girls from socio-economically marginalised communities continued to be victims of the custom, and thereafter were forced into the commercial sex racket. The TISS study buttresses the point by stressing that the devadasi system continues to receive customary sanction from families and communities.
•Reporting of cases pertaining to the custom under the Karnataka law is very low, with only four cases filed between 2011 and 2017. None of these cases were filed in Ballari, where village and district authorities indicated that identifying and preventing the incidents was difficult. The law is used sparingly, and focuses on prosecution (including of the victims themselves) with no framework for rehabilitation.
•Despite sufficient evidence of the prevalence of the practice and its link to sexual exploitation, recent legislations such as the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, and Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act of 2015 have not made any reference to it as a form of sexual exploitation of children, the NLSIU’s Centre for Child and the Law noted in its report.
•Dedicated children are also not explicitly recognised as children in need of care and protection under JJ Act, despite the involvement of family and relatives in their sexual exploitation. India’s extant immoral trafficking prevention law or the proposed Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2018, also do not recognise these dedicated girls as victims of trafficking for sexual purposes.
•The State’s failure to enhance livelihood sources for weaker sections of society fuels the continuation of the practice, the studies underline. More inclusive socio-economic development apart, NLSUI has mooted a legislative overhaul and a more pro-active role from State agencies.
📰 Coercion used for toilet construction: survey
Study is misleading and does not reflect ground reality, says Sanitation Ministry
•Coercion — in the form of threatened fines, shaming or withheld benefits — has been used to encourage toilet construction and usage as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission in many parts of rural Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, according to a recent survey. Dalits and Adivasis were more likely to report such harassment, it showed.
•Authors of the study say such coercive methods are not just ethically wrong, but threaten the sustainability of the open defecation initiative. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has rebutted the study and The Hindu’ s earlier report on it, questioning the survey’s sample size and definitions.
•The study, titled “Changes in open defecation in rural north India: 2014-2018”, was released last week by the research institute for compassionate economics (r.i.c.e.). The Hindu had reported on its preliminary findings related to increase in toilet construction and reduction in open defecation, noting that the percentage of people who continued to defecate in the open – about 23% — remained unchanged between 2014 and 2018, indicating that the Swachh Bharat Mission’s results had been driven more by toilet construction than behaviour change.
Sample size dispute
•In its rebuttal, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation said that the study “grossly misleads the reader and does not reflect the ground reality.” One of its main concerns was the sample size of the survey, which covered 1,558 households in 157 villages against a total population of nearly five crore households and 2.3 lakh villages in the four States concerned. “Since the SBM is the largest behaviour change program in the world, to pick such a small sample and extrapolate results to an entire State is over simplistic,” it said.
•“Sample surveys will always have some sampling errors, but those are quantifiable and there’s a known science to it. It is non-sampling error that cannot be corrected,” said Sangita Vyas, one of the authors of the survey.She pointed out that the study used sample weights in accordance with usual practice. Major surveys conducted and cited regularly by the government, such as the National Sample Survey and the National Family Health Survey, are similar sample surveys, she said.
•The Ministry also raised concerns about the date of the survey — which was conducted between September and December 2018 — and the 21% of new households which were added between the 2014 and 2018 surveys.
‘Limited understanding’
•The Ministry added that “the report fails to distinguish between coercion and affirmative community action, like local Nigrani Samitis, or local Gram Panchayat or community level sanctions on open defecation, which reflects the limited understanding of the community approach to sanitation among the survey conductors and analysers.”
•While 12% of all survey respondents reported coercion in their own households, 56% were aware of some coercion in their village, said the study.
📰 SC notice to Centre on plea challenging snooping order
Petition says it’s violation of fundamental right to privacy
•The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the government to a batch of petitions seeking a declaration that the December 20 notification issued by the government listing 10 Central agencies which can snoop on people is a violation of the fundamental right to privacy.
•A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had in 2017 upheld privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 (right to dignified life) of the Constitution.
•The judgment had also directed the government to protect informational privacy of every individual.
•On Monday, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the government and sought a reply in six weeks to the petitions, including the one filed by advocate M.L. Sharma. The 2017 verdict had directed the government to balance carefully and sensitively individual privacy and the legitimate concerns of the State, even if national security was at stake.
•The December 20 order of the government allows the Central agencies to intercept, monitor and de-crypt “any information” generated, transmitted, received or stored in “any computer resource”.
📰 Helping build urban houses faster, cheaper
Tech innovation grant of Rs. 2.5 lakh planned for 6,000 lighthouse units
•The Centre will offer about Rs. 150 crore as a technology innovation grant to build 6,000 homes — cheaper, faster and better — using alternative technologies and materials under the Global Housing Technology Challenge launched on Monday.
•However, the challenge may not do much to actually speed the pace of construction under the urban section of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or Housing for All, which has completed just over 10% of its target as the scheme reaches its halfway point.
•“We cannot meet urbanising India’s housing needs with existing technologies,” said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, pointing out that most Indian developers take three years to complete a project. “Houses must be completed in four to five months time. What we need is not technology leapfrogging, but pole-vaulting.”
•After a global expo and conference in March, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will invite bids and identify proven demonstrable technologies from around the world, which are to be adapted and mainstreamed for use in the Indian context. By July, six winning bidders will be invited to design and build lighthouse projects of 1,000 housing units each. Apart from state and Central assistance of Rs. 1.5 lakh each, the Centre will offer an additional technology innovation grant of Rs. 2.5 lakh for each house, PMAY (Urban) mission director Amrit Abhijat said.
•Another section of the challenge will identify potential future technologies which may not yet be market ready, and offer incubation facilities and accelerator support in collaboration with four of the IITs.
‘Mindset change’
•Once innovative technologies have been tested and proved, they will be included in the Central Public Works Department list, with an approved schedule of rates. However, they will still be optional for use, and there is no guarantee they will be adopted by private or government builders, or even used to construct PMAY homes.
•“We cannot make it mandatory, we can only encourage states and developers to adopt them. If they are better and cheaper, we expect them to be used. But there is also a mindset change needed,” said Mr. Abhijat. He added that so far, only 12 lakh houses sanctioned under the PMAY (U) scheme have used one of the 14 alternative technologies already on the CPWD’s approved list.
📰 Science and reason in India
The history of science in India must be treated as a serious subject rather than a matter of speculation
•Another edition of the Indian Science Congress, another gift to the news cycle. The Congress, which is meant to be a premier forum for scientists to present and discuss their research, has in recent years become the stage for a series of blissfully evidence-free claims about Indian achievements in science through the ages. Added to the list in this year’s edition (January 3-7, in Jalandhar, Punjab), were claims about the existence of stem cell technology, test-tube babies, and fleets of aircraft in ancient India and Sri Lanka. The reaction was reassuringly swift. The organisers distanced themselves from the claims, prominent scientists denounced them, and protest marches were taken out.
•We should, however, be asking a more fundamental question. What motivates speakers to say these things? If, as seems plausible in many cases, it is wilful demagoguery or an attempt to curry political favour, it is irresponsible and deplorable. But let us be charitable and assume for a moment that those who make these statements actually believe them. At the very least, it is clear that there exists a sizeable constituency which wants to believe such claims. What does this tell us about our relationship — as Indians — to science and to history?
Rooted in colonialism
•A glance at the past confirms that this is a deep-seated anxiety rooted in the experience of being colonised. In his presidential address to the Institution of Engineers (India) in the early 1930s, Jwala Prasad, a top irrigation engineer in the United Provinces, referred to ‘the construction of the famous bridge over the sea at Cape Comorin’ and ‘the cutting of the Gangotri from a wonderful glacier through disinfecting rocks and land by [Rama’s] ancestor Bhagirath, before men knew how to dig a well.’ Prasad’s statements (unsupported as they were) may be read as a defiant assertion at a time when colonial stereotypes of Indians as unscientific were still prevalent. They were also made in the context of a time when Indian engineers were fighting to be recognised as competent members of a profession hitherto dominated by expatriate Britons.
•Other Indian scientists went further, undertaking a serious study of the past. Indeed, historians have shown how the colonial encounter prompted among Indian intellectuals a project of ‘revivalism’, a quest to show that Indian traditions were not devoid of rationality, objectivity, and other characteristics of modern science. The pioneering chemist and industrialist P.C. Ray (who presided over the Indian Science Congress in 1920) wrote a two-volume History of Hindu Chemistry (1902, 1908), while the philosopher Brajendranath Seal contributed a study titled The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus (1915). Although they were criticised at the time, both went through the hard slog of examining primary sources and were careful in the conclusions they drew.
•Ray studied 14th century texts such as the Rasa prakasha-sudhakara, noting that they were based on experiment and observation. Seal (as quoted by historian David Arnold) cautioned that while the sages of antiquity may have had ideas compatible with the atomic theory of matter, they had depended upon a ‘felicitous intuition [resulting from] intense meditation and guided by intelligent observation’. This was a step removed from the modern scientific method, which relied on sophisticated experiments.
Stop the labels
•More than a century later, there is little reason for us Indians to harbour an inferiority complex, and no excuse for tackling it through rash and unfounded claims. Science has never developed exclusively within national boundaries. Recent research speaks of the ‘circulation’ of scientific ideas, practices, instruments and personnel across regions and continents in different periods of history, while acknowledging that there were unequal power relations between those regions. What we often call ‘western’ science builds on the contributions of scientists from all over the world today, and draws upon sources ranging from the ancient Greeks to the West Asian civilisations of a millennium ago. Once we rid ourselves of the need to label science as western or eastern and shake off the obsession with priority (i.e. which society was the first to discover or invent something), we will liberate ourselves to think about the further development, practice, and application of science.
•None of this should imply that exploring the history of science in ancient, medieval and non-European contexts is not worthwhile or legitimate. The solution is not to shut our eyes to the past but to engage in careful historical inquiry. This involves an emphasis on primary sources, on learning the relevant languages and preparing critical editions of texts, on peer review, and on viewing the past on its own terms, avoiding the pitfalls of what historians call ‘present-centredness’. It involves working with the insights of archaeologists, epigraphists, Sanskritists, Persianists, and metallurgists. It requires an open mind and a healthy scepticism. Such works have been undertaken, but many more are needed. The history of science, thus far woefully neglected in Indian institutions and university programmes, must be treated as a serious subject rather than a matter of speculation.
•As for the Indian Science Congress, a venerable institution, measures are already being discussed to restore to it a sense of gravitas. One hopes they will succeed. For those who make motivated claims not only tarnish the institution’s reputation but also take the focus away from the legitimate efforts of other delegates. A body which has among its past presidents such personages as Ashutosh Mukherjee, M. Visvesvaraya, C.V. Raman, Birbal Sahni and M.S. Swaminathan surely deserves better.
📰 Half done: on the ban on plastic
A plan is needed for plastic waste in packaging and manufacturing
•India won global acclaim for its “Beat Plastic Pollution” resolve declared on World Environment Day last year, under which it pledged to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022. So far, 22 States and Union Territories have joined the fight, announcing a ban on single-use plastics such as carry bags, cups, plates, cutlery, straws and thermocol products. Puducherry will implement a ban from March 1. Where firm action has been taken, positive results have followed. A Bengaluru waste collective estimates that the volume of plastic waste that they collect dropped from about two tonnes a day to less than 100 kg. Voluntary initiatives are having an impact in many States, as citizens reduce, reuse and sort their waste. Yet, this is only a small start. Waste plastic from packaging of everything from food, cosmetics and groceries to goods delivered by online platforms remains unaddressed. It will take a paradigm shift in the manner in which waste is collected and handled by municipal authorities to change this. Governments must start charging the producers for their waste, and collect it diligently, which will lead to recovery and recycling. But the depressing reality is that State and local governments are unwilling to upgrade their waste management systems, which is necessary to even measure the true scale of packaging waste.
•The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 are clear that producers, importers and brand owners must adopt a collect-back system for the plastic they introduce into the environment. Although the rules were notified in the same year, amended later and given high visibility by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, not much has been done to take the process forward. At the very least, local bodies should consult manufacturers or importers to assess the problem. Delaying such a measure has created the anomalous situation of small producers of plastics facing the ban, while more organised entities covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility clause continue with business as usual. Such enforcement failure is not an argument in favour of relaxing the prohibition on flimsy plastics that are typically used for under 15 minutes, but to recover thousands of tonnes of waste that end up in dumping sites. Cities and towns need competent municipal systems to achieve this. Again, there is little doubt that plastics play a major role in several industries, notably in the automotive, pharmaceutical, health care and construction sectors. But it is the fast moving consumer goods sector that uses large volumes of packaging, posing a higher order challenge. This calls for urgent action. Governments should show the same resolve here, as they have done in imposing the ban.
📰 Where the rich got their way: on the climate change convention at Katowice, Poland
Katowice signals a global climate regime that leaves the fate of the world hanging in the balance
•The 24th Conference of the Parties (COP-24) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held at Katowice in Poland, brings little cheer on the climate front for developing countries. With the passage of the so-called “rulebook” for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the developed countries have largely succeeded in establishing a global climate regime that gives them the strategic advantage and assuages some of their core concerns. This signals the making of a new, contradictory situation where the scope and complexity of the regime are fundamentally at odds with the very purpose for which the regime has been constructed.
Rollback of differentiation
•At the heart of this strategic success is the substantial rollback of differentiation between the global North and South in climate action. The first step of this process began with the Paris Agreement, when the developed nations were allowed to make voluntary commitments to climate mitigation, on par with the developing nations, without any benchmark to ensure the relative adequacy of their commitment. At Katowice this process went further, with uniform standards of reporting, monitoring and evaluation for all countries. These reporting requirements, while superficially impressive, appear in their true light when we realise that in their uniformity they are intended as much for Maldives as the U.S. The real targets of this uniformity are, of course, not the poorest nations, who have been provided exemptions, but the larger developing nations. While all developing nations are ostensibly allowed flexibility in these reporting requirements, the concession has been hedged in with a number of conditions, with the intention of forcing them to full compliance in short order.
•The reporting requirements are also marked by a pseudo-scientific concern for stringency, which is far in excess of the accuracy of climate science itself. Indeed, the recent Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on global warming at 1.5°C estimates substantial uncertainties in the quantum of cumulative global emissions that are still allowed before the global carbon budget of the world is exhausted. In the face of such uncertainty, the requirement of reporting as little as 500 kilo tonnes or 0.05% of national emissions per country has little scientific significance. More pernicious is the uniformity of the stringency in reporting being expressed in percentage terms. Elementary mathematics informs us that a smaller percentage of the emissions of a large emitter will be a larger quantity in absolute terms compared to the larger percentage of emissions of a small emitter.
•But the crux of the problem is the contradiction between the onerous nature of these universal rules and the total lack of initiative by the developed countries in taking the lead in climate mitigation. All developed countries continue to invest in fossil fuels either through direct production or imports. Some do so because of the downgrading of nuclear energy due to domestic political pressures. Others are still trying to wean themselves off coal by shifting to gas. Overall, as the International Energy Agency reports, the use of fossil fuel-based electricity generation continues to rise for OECD countries.
•In the event, the dispute that broke out at COP24 over whether the Special Report of the IPCC should be welcomed or merely noted must be considered a red herring. Despite the vociferous pleas of the Least Developed Countries and the Small Island Developing States for the former choice, in the absence of adequate action, such symbolic gestures are clearly of little value. Indeed, the report itself appears to have been used to generate a sense of urgency in stampeding countries into approval of the “rulebook” rather than point the way to more substantial mitigation by the developed nations.
•The Special Report, for instance, did little to inspire the developed countries to increase the quantum of climate finance as well as speeding up its delivery. It has been the long-standing argument of the developing world that the bulk of climate finance must be from public sources. In contrast, the developed countries have succeeded in putting other sources of finance, including FDI and equity flows, on par in the accounting of the flow of climate assistance that developing countries need. As the “rulebook” stands today, private sector flows or loans, which will increase the indebtedness of developing countries, are to be considered adequate fulfilment of developed country obligations under the UNFCCC.
•Much of the pressure exerted by developed countries at COP24 had the active backing and instigation of the U.S. Despite the public posturing by other G-8 heads of state outside the climate summits, the marked synergy between the U.S. and its political and strategic allies in pushing through several critical elements of the “rulebook” was no secret.
•India, despite its articulation of the need for equity in climate action and climate justice, failed to obtain the operationalisation of these notions in several aspects of the “rulebook”. Even though it pushed for equity, particularly in the benchmarks for the periodic review of the Paris Agreement, it failed to press home its point. Successive dispensations in New Delhi have fallen short of doing the needful in this regard. In contrast, Brazil held its ground on matters relating to carbon trading that it was concerned about and postponed finalisation of the matter to next year’s summit. Regrettably, while India has not been shy to hold out against the global nuclear order it has not extended this attitude to protecting its interests in the emerging global climate regime.
Poor articulation of needs
•It is now evident that New Delhi underestimated what was at stake at Katowice and the outcome portends a serious narrowing of India’s developmental options in the future. A number of environmental and climate think tanks, NGOs and movements have also done their share to disarm the government in the negotiations. Buying uncritically into the climate narrative of the developed nations, they have been continually urging unilateral domestic action on moral grounds, while ignoring the elementary fact that global warming is a global collective action problem. Despite the significant number of Indians at COP24, the broad articulation of India’s needs was at the lowest ebb seen in the last several years.
•At the final plenary of COP24, the Like-Minded Developing Countries grouping echoed India’s reservations on the neglect of equity and climate justice in the final form of the “rulebook”, while the broader G77 plus China combine expressed its regret at the unbalanced nature of the outcome, with its undue emphasis on mitigation by all. But with the “rulebook” nevertheless having been adopted, COP24 signals a global climate regime that benefits and protects the interests of the global rich, while leaving the climatic fate of the world, and the developmental future of a substantial section of its population, still hanging in the balance.
📰 Centre to award UDAN-III routes soon
Ministry to unveil Vision 2040 for aviation sector at two-day global summit
•The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation will shortly award new regional connectivity routes under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagarik) III, Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu said in Mumbai on Monday.
•“Very soon, we will be declaring results for a very successful round in UDAN III. We will announce it formally in the next two days. The new routes will meet lot of unmet demand and futuristic requirement of people,” Mr. Prabhu said ahead of a two-day Global Aviation Summit.
•“[In this round] We want to do something which is completely ready and fool-proof. In the past, some airlines that had bid and succeeded in bagging routes did not take off [from those routes]. We do not want to see a repeat of that kind. We want to make sure that UDAN is really flying,” the Minister added.
‘Starting’ trouble
•He was referring to Air Odisha and Air Deccan which, despite bagging many regional connectivity routes, could not launch many flights due to lack of resources. The third round of bidding under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for domestic routes concluded recently and 15 airlines had bid for a total 111 routes. These include a bulk of the 56 (RCS) routes withdrawn from Air Odisha and Air Deccan because of their inability to launch flights. The two airlines between them had 84 routes bagged by them in round one of UDAN
•As the two airlines accounted for two-thirds of the total 128 routes bagged by five operators in round one, their inability to start these routes meant a setback for the scheme.
•“We are connecting incredible, inaccessible parts of India. We are going ahead with more connectivity, and working with State governments. We are also coming out with a template of doing joint ventures with States for airport development,” he said.
•He added that at the summit, the Ministry would unveil a Vision 2040 for the aviation sector. Delegates from about 86 countries are participating in this first-of-its-kind summit.
📰 India to unveil Air Cargo Policy
Aims to fuel growth of aviation sector, boost economy
•India’s first Air Cargo Policy will be unveiled at the two-day Global Aviation Summit starting here on Tuesday.
•Despite registering a double-digit growth for nearly four years in a row, India has remained without a specific policy for air cargo.
•Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, announcing this, said that over 30 countries were participating in the first-of-its-kind aviation summit.
•“A policy to provide thrust to air cargo has been drafted for the first time and will fuel the growth of the aviation sector and boost the country’s economy,” he said.
Safety, affordability
•Emphasising that security, safety, convenience and affordability were the key aspects, the Minister said the aviation vision for 2040 would address all the issues so that India will have sustainable growth in the sector at all times.
•“We are trying to make a policy for air cargo so that the aviation market can grow, which, in turn, will boost the trade and economy of the country,” he said.
•Mr. Prabhu said that the success of the aviation sector in the country was completely propelled by the participation of private players, adding that infrastructure for the movement of air cargo could be created in the same way.
•The Minister said night hours, when air passenger traffic was negligible, could be used to airlift cargo.
•Civil Aviation Ministry officials said that solutions to critical issues relating to agriculture and manufacturing output and their supplies had been sufficiently explored in the policy which was integrated with logistics.
•Mr. Prabhu indicated that the government is of the view that the basic objective on which the logistics and cargo policy is being put in place is based on the premise that its context is important because both logistics and cargo are one of the biggest growth-driven sectors in India after services.
•“Therefore, our efforts have been in that direction so that following announcement of the policy, the growth of agriculture, manufacturing multiply exponentially with air cargo movement picking up the anticipated movement with affordable tariff structure,” he said.
📰 An open-air lab to study effects of climate change
Scientists analysing marine species of Chile’s Seno Ballena
•In one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, the southernmost part of Chile’s Patagonia region, scientists are studying whales, dolphins and algae in order to help predict how climate change will affect the world’s oceans.
•For the study, four researchers from the Austral University of Chile embarked from Punta Arenas for the remote Seno Ballena fjord.
•The fjord produces the kind of conditions that should be seen in other marine systems in the next few decades, when dramatic changes are expected in the environment due to increased carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere and the melting of glaciers. “This place is like an actual experiment in nature because it allows us, without needing to conduct experiments in the lab, to know what will happen without imagining it,” marine biologist Maximiliano Vergara said.
Dire consequences
•The researchers are analysing the chemical, physical and biological variables of the waters, which show lower levels of pH, salinity and calcium, especially in the most shallow areas, as a consequence of climate change.
•The chilly fjord waters provide one of the most productive marine habitats in the world, where sardines and krill can be found in huge numbers.
•But climate change poses a threat to its ecosystem as the melting of a glacier on Santa Ines island and increased rainfall have led to rising levels of freshwater. If that continues, it would have dire consequences for whales as the plankton they feed on could disappear.
•“A change in the microalgae could generate changes in the secondary structure (of the marine system) or the animals that feed on these,” marine biologist Marco Antonio Pinto said.
•Under normal circumstances, when there is an abundance of microalgae, these provide food for the zooplankton that subsequently nourish the food chain all the way up to whales, said Mr. Pinto.
•The expedition members are taking samples from eight stations around Seno Ballena to measure the effects of the melting glacier on Santa Ines.
•“The waters of high latitudes, both in the northern and southern hemispheres, contain a huge amount of biological and physiochemical information that can be used as a basis to take crucial decisions for environmental preservation projects in developed countries,” said biologist Maximo Frangopulos, a professor at the University of Magellanes and leader of the expedition.
‘It’s like a puzzle’
•For now, researchers have noted a slight drop in the number of humpback whales but an increase in other species such as sea lions, which previously were not present in that region, and dolphins.
•They also found a lower concentration of calcium carbonate, something which can affect the shells of marine organisms such as mollusks or krill, a staple of a whale’s diet.
•“It’s like a puzzle that we’re trying to put together... to see how climate change can affect not just the baseline marine system, but also the large mammals, something that would have an impact on the region,” said Mr. Pinto.
•The crab, a species vital to the economy of the region around the strait, could be affected as it needs calcium to harden its shell.
📰 Water desalination plants harm environment: UN
They produce highly salty waste water and toxic chemicals
•Almost 16,000 desalination plants worldwide produce bigger-than-expected flows of highly salty waste water and toxic chemicals that are damaging the environment, a U.N.-backed study said on Monday.
•Desalination plants pump out 142 million cubic metres of salty brine every day, 50% more than previous estimates, to produce 95 million cubic metres of fresh water, the study said.
•About 55% of the brine is produced in desalination plants processing seawater in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, according to the study by the U.N. University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
•The hyper-salty water is mostly pumped into the sea and, over a year, would be enough to cover the U.S. state of Florida with 1 foot of brine, it said of the fast-growing and energy-intensive technology that benefits many arid regions.
•Brine, water comprising about 5% salt, often includes toxins such as chlorine and copper used in desalination, it said. By contrast, global sea water is about 3.5% salt.
•Waste chemicals “accumulate in the environment and can have toxic effects in fish”, said Edward Jones, the lead author.
•Brine can cut levels of oxygen in seawater near desalination plants with “profound impacts” on shellfish, crabs and other creatures on the seabed, leading to “ecological effects observable throughout the food chain”, he said.
•Vladimir Smakhtin, director of UNU-INWEH, said the study was part of research into how best to secure fresh water for a rising population without harming the environment.
•“There are all sorts of under-appreciated sources of water,” he said, ranging from fog harvesting to aquifers below the seabed. The study also involved the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea.
