📰 Reconsider poll boycott: Mizoram CEO
Urges civil societies not to deprive people of their democratic rights
•Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra on Tuesday appealed to a conglomerate of civil societies and student bodies to reconsider its decision to boycott the April 11 Lok Sabha election in the State and observe indefinite bandh from April 8.
•The NGO Coordination Committee had on Monday said that it would boycott polls to the lone Mizoram parliamentary seat if special polling booths were established in the State for Bru refugees staying in neighbouring Tripura.
•Mr. Kundra urged the civil societies not to deprive the people of their democratic rights and to ensure that people of Mizoram has representation in Parliament.
•“At a meeting held before the Assembly election last year, it was decided that Bru voters living in the relief camps would exercise their franchise inside Mizoram, and it was arranged. Officials of the EC, the NGOCC and the State election department had attended the meeting,” Mr. Kundra said.
•He said that as far as he knew, there was no agreement that the Bru refugees will cast their votes in those polling stations of Mizoram where they were enrolled as voters.
•The NGOCC had earlier threatened to launch agitation if temporary polling stations were set up for the Brus.
•The organisation was of the opinion that those living outside Mizoram should not be allowed to vote in the State.
Thousands of passengers are likely to face longer flights and pay higher airfares.
•Thousands of passengers travelling this summer are likely to face longer flights and pay higher airfares due to the closure of Pakistan airspace, in place for more than a month now after the Balakot airstrike. Among the worst affected are airlines from West and Central Asia as their proximity to India and Pakistan means that they have to now take a much longer route to comply with the ban.
•Passenger demand between Kabul and Delhi is now a tenth of what it used to be before the ban as airfares have more than doubled – increasing from ₹18,000 to ₹42,000 for a return journey, according to the Ariana Afghan Airlines’ India head, Barun Birla.
•The fall in demand is despite SpiceJet and Air India cancelling their flights to Kabul and is an indication that a vast majority of those who travel from Afghanistan to India for medical treatment may be forced to delay their travel plans.
•“The airspace closure forced the flights between Delhi and Kabul to take a longer route. As a result the flying time increased to five hours (from 2 hours and 10 minutes) and the airfare doubled. Considering the fact that a large number of Afghans travel to Delhi for treatment, this has caused the cost of travelling for them to go up,” Mohammad Khairullah Azad, Charge d’affaires, Afghanistan Embassy told The Hindu.
•With summer vacations around the corner, students returning from India will also be badly affected, he added.
•Goods exported from the country are also now twice as expensive, according to Janaga Naweed from the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce.
•“For every dollar earned, we are spending $2. Costs have increased in all areas - fuel, crew rotation, passenger handling, catering and other costs,” Kazakhstan carrier Air Astana’s Regional General Manger for Gulf and Indian subcontinent Karlygash Omurbayeva said in an e-mail interview.
•The airline now takes 8 hours from Delhi to Almaty as well as Astana, instead of 3 hours and 50 minutes and 4 hours and 30 minutes, respectively. Air Astana has also seen passengers cancelling their bookings because of the long flying hours during peak tourist season, though it has decided to absorb the increase in costs instead of raising airfares. Air Astana had 11 flights per week to Delhi, which are now down to seven and may be slashed further.
•“We have tolerated these very expensive diversions for over a month, in the hope they would prove temporary. But we cannot continue to bear these heavy financial losses and have decided to suspend Astana-Delhi-Astana and a few Almaty-Delhi-Almaty flights in April. Furthermore, we are considering cancelling some more flights if the situation remains unchanged.”
•“Everyone is affected badly by this decision,” said UAE Ambassador to India Ahmed Al-Banna, adding flights to Abu Dhabi and Dubai had become an hour longer and seen a 25% increase in fuel costs. “This is an internal matter between India and Pakistan, but I hope this will be resolved soon,” he added.
•A representative of Russian airline Aeroflot said the increase in flight duration by two hours has resulted in a mismatch with “a vast majority of connecting flights”, hitting transit passengers. Many air travellers flying to Europe take Aeroflot’s one-stop flights via Moscow because of attractive airfares offered by it.
•Travellers to and from Uzbekistan have seen more than two-fold increase in their flight duration – from three hours to seven or eight hours - causing many to miss their connecting flights, according to an industry source.
•An airline executive from Iran’s Mahan Air said the change in flying time has resulted in difficulty in acquiring new slots, which are hard to come by at a busy airport like Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
📰 The many and different faces of terror
It is premature to read the Islamic State’s defeat as the start of a more peaceful phase
•Terrorism is a well-recognised form of asymmetric warfare, and has been around for centuries. Some terror strikes tend to resonate more than others, for reasons that are inexplicable. The Munich Olympics massacre in 1972, the 9/11 terror attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, and the November 26, 2008 terror attack on multiple targets in Mumbai are, for instance, more deeply etched in the memories of people than many other terror events. It is important, however, not to take an episodic view of terrorism, since history is relevant to a proper understanding of the threat posed by terrorism.
Since the 1980s
•Radical Islamist extremism has been the dominant terror narrative, post the 1980s. This was possibly an off-shoot of the decade-long Afghan war (1979-1989), which let loose an avalanche of ‘mercenaries’ who had honed their skills during the Afghan Jihad, and employed violence indiscriminately. Over time, terrorist outfits seemed to gain greater transnational reach, and were no longer fettered to geographical locations. New organisations, such as al-Qaeda and its acolytes, as also the Islamic State (IS), gained pre-eminence among a growing multitude of terror groups. Regional variants such as Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, the Pakistan-sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in South Asia, and the Boko Haram in Africa were no less deadly.
•More recently, especially in the West, a new narrative has been unfolding. Sporting different labels, extreme right-wing elements are proving to be no less violent and dangerous than jihadi terrorist groups. They appear, at present, less organised than many outfits, and the violence they perpetrate seems more random. Their targets, which included, for instance, a Jewish synagogue (in the U.S.), political personalities such as President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain, members of immigrant communities and minority groups (in Europe) are, nevertheless, carefully chosen. Many do appear to be lone wolves such as the Norwegian Anders Breivik (2011) and the Australian man responsible for the March 15, 2019 Christchurch massacre, in which 50 people were killed. Non-denominational terror, loosely described as right-wing terror, has in the process become as threatening as jihadi terror. Clearly, the topographical anatomy of terrorism does not change, even if motivations differ.
•The evolution of terrorism in the 21st century, and the constantly shifting tactics of terror groups, does make terrorism look like an ‘existential threat’. This would, however, be too far fetched. What does need to be recognised is that the terror threat is rapidly transcending from what we see happening, to what we can imagine might happen.
New breed of terrorists
•Take, for instance, the year 2016 in India. Pakistani terror outfits randomly carried out daring attacks on the Pathankot Air Force base, an Army brigade headquarters in Uri, and an Army base in Nagrota. In February this year, the JeM carried out its most audacious attack to date, targeting a Central Reserve Police Force convoy, in which 40 personnel were killed, the highest casualty figure for security forces personnel in Jammu and Kashmir. The use of a suicide bomber, driving a vehicle containing a few hundred kilograms of explosives to strike a high-profile target, represents a new pinnacle in terrorist violence. It is representative of the newer breed of terrorists, as also the transmutation in the nature of terror.
•Globally, spectacular jihadi attacks may be fewer, but attacks are on the increase. In January this year, Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, with links to the IS, killed 20 people attending a church service in Sulu province. In the U.K., on New Year’s Eve (2018-19), three people were stabbed at a Manchester train station by an IS supporter. In March this year, explosives were found at transport hubs in and around London, and also at the University of Glasgow, leading to a major terror scare in the U.K. Also in March, the Netherlands witnessed a terror attack in Utrecht, when a jihadi suspect indiscriminately shot at commuters in a city tram.
•Meanwhile, terrorists are further honing their skills, and are able to strike at targets at will. Cross-pollination of concepts and ideas among terror groups, and in many cases even pooling of resources, has made this possible. A decade of violence in Iraq and Syria has produced a reservoir of battle-hardened fighters, who are bolstering the capabilities of disparate terror groups in different parts of the world. As in the 1980s, we are seeing a majority of those who took part in the violence in Syria and Iraq currently adding to the cadres of existing terror groups in Asia, Europe and Africa.
•It would, hence, be premature to celebrate the decline of terrorism, based on the so-called demise of the IS. The territory controlled by the IS Caliphate may have shrunk dramatically compared to 2014, but its obituary cannot be written just yet. The IS remains a fount of support and inspiration for several hundreds of fighters across Asia, Africa and Europe. Many IS networks are still operating clandestinely. Many of their dispersed supporters are ready to revive their activities once the pressure relaxes. There are unconfirmed reports already that the IS has directed several of its recruits to return to their country of origin and strengthen the nucleus of IS groups there. The estimate is that anything up to 20% of those who were part of the IS bandwagon in Syria and Iraq have returned to their homelands. As the IS declines in Syria and Iraq, other IS entities such as the Islamic State of Khorasan (which includes parts of India) will be the beneficiaries.
Caliphate as an idea
•The Caliphate is an idea which is still relevant. The Internet remains its main vehicle for radicalising Muslim youth. What is most likely is that the IS will make a shift to guerrilla warfare tactics. It is likely to strengthen its ‘Emni’ (intelligence and security branch) to carry out reconnaissance before launching attacks. The lone wolf syndrome will be pursued with renewed vigour. Already, there are some indications of this. In December 2018, a lone IS gunman killed five people in Strasbourg (France); in January 2019, a suicide bomber at a restaurant in Manbij (Syria) killed 19, including four Americans. More such attacks could occur.
•Al-Qaeda, the other leading jihadi outfit, is separately engaged in enlarging its global network. Violence by al-Qaeda affiliates might have been overshadowed by the IS more recently, but al-Qaeda affiliates in Africa, such as the Boko Haram, have not been far behind. Al-Qaeda affiliates in East and South Africa, the Sahel and Yemen are the largest and most feared terrorist groups in their regions. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) is said to be exploiting alleged incidents of violence against Muslims in the subcontinent to strengthen itself.
•Al-Qaeda affiliate LeT (based in Pakistan) represents the main terror threat to India, along with the JeM. The rest of Pakistan’s network of terror reads like an alphabetic soup, viz. HUJI (Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami), the (Harkat-ul-Mujahideen) and HM (Hizbul Mujahideen). Pakistan is also reportedly training outfits to carry out underwater operations.
•Developments in technology, information and doctrine will in all likelihood alter the character of 21st century terrorism. In the Pulwama attack, the suicide bomber is reported to have used a ‘virtual SIM’ to contact his JeM handlers in Pakistan. It is difficult at this point to determine which of the disruptive technologies will turn out to be the most dangerous.
Guided by controllers
•The concept of ‘enabled terror’ or ‘remote control terror’, viz, violence conceived and guided by controllers thousands of miles away, is no longer mere fiction. Internet-enabled terrorism, and resort to remote plotting, will grow as the 21st century advances. Counter-terrorism experts will need to lay stress on multi-domain operations and information technologies, and undertake ‘terror gaming’ to wrestle with an uncertain future that is already upon us.
📰 Poll-time censorship: on gag order obtained by BJP’s Tejasvi Surya
The gag order obtained by a Bengaluru Lok Sabha candidate defies freedom of speech
•The Bengaluru civil court’s blanket order restraining 49 newspapers, television channels and other media outlets from publishing anything ‘defamatory’ about Tejasvi Surya, the BJP’s candidate for the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency, is contrary to the law and the Constitution. The temporary injunction violates the basic principle in free speech law that bars ‘prior restraint’ or pre-censorship of any publication, including the media. As recently as in 2017, a Supreme Court Bench made it clear that pre-broadcast or pre-publication regulation of content was not in the court’s domain. In R. Rajagopal (1994), the court noted that there is no law that authorises prior restraint. The existence of a prima facie case is a precondition for an interim injunction, and a restraining order may be obtained only if some material deemed defamatory has been published, and when further publication ought to be prevented. Arraying print and electronic media outlets that had not previously disseminated anything defamatory about an individual fails this test, rendering any injunctions obtained against them illegal. Judge Dinesh Hegde’s order takes note of two factors in granting Mr. Surya’s request for an injunction: that some allegations against him surfaced after he filed his nomination papers, and “some defamatory messages” against him “are in transit” in the media. He cites a 1986 Karnataka High Court decision, but misses the point that the High Court’s justification for an injunction concerned an individual who had made public utterances about the plaintiff, and it was not an omnibus order against a class of persons. In any case, there is enough case law from the Supreme Court to bar prior restraint orders.
•The allegations that have aggrieved Mr. Surya seem to originate in an individual’s opinion on him on Twitter. It is possible that this piece of information was or is likely to be used against him by his electoral rivals. However, this cannot be a reason for a public figure — and a candidate of a major political party, even a debutant, is definitely one — to claim a right to gag the entire media from writing about him. Even if the argument is that the order only prevents ‘defamatory’ content and not responsible reporting or criticism, that doesn’t justify a judicial gag order, as it may be used to prevent the media from writing anything adverse to his campaign. It may also prevent defendants in a future proceeding from using ‘publication of the truth in the public interest’ as a defence. Requests for omnibus restraining orders against media outlets seem to find favour with some civil judges in Karnataka. This newspaper itself faces in Karnataka around a hundred petitions for injunction filed by individuals and entities, most of them unlikely to be mentioned in its columns ever. The Karnataka High Court or the Supreme Court must examine this trend and strike down such blanket gag orders.
📰 How to achieve 24x7 power for all
Three steps to help rural India overcome electricity poverty and reap immense socio-economic benefits
•Almost every willing household in India now has a legitimate electricity connection. The household electrification scheme, Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, or Saubhagya, has been implemented at an unprecedented pace. More than 45,000 households were electrified every day over the last 18 months. Against such an achievement, it is important to ask these questions: what did it take for India to achieve this target? Why is electricity access not only about provision of connections? And, how can we ensure 24x7 power for all?
•The efforts under Saubhagya have come upon decades of hard work preceding it. The enactment of the Electricity Act, in 2003, and the introduction of the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, in 2005, expanded electrification infrastructure to most villages in the following decade. But the rollout of the Saubhagya scheme, in 2017, gave the required impetus to electrify each willing household in the country.
•However, over the last year, several engineers and managing directors in electricity distribution companies (discoms), their contractors, State- and Central-level bureaucrats, and possibly energy ministers have been working at fever pitch. Discom engineers have evolved in their attitude, as we saw during our on-ground research — from one of scepticism to that of determination. Their efforts to meet targets even included crossing streams in Bihar on foot with electricity poles, and reaching far-flung areas in Manipur, through Myanmar, to electrify remote habitations with solar home systems.
Beyond connections
•Despite such massive efforts, the battle against electricity poverty is far from won. The erection of electricity poles and an extension of wires do not necessarily mean uninterrupted power flow to households. By tracking more than 9,000 rural households, since 2015, across six major States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal), the Access to Clean Cooking Energy and Electricity Survey of States (ACCESS) report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), has highlighted the gap between a connection and reliable power supply. While the median hours of supply increased from 12 hours in 2015 to 16 hours a day in 2018, it is still far from the goal of 24x7. Similarly, while instances of low voltage and voltage surges have reduced in the last three years, about a quarter of rural households still report low voltage issues for at least five days in a month.
Vital steps forward
•In order to achieve 24x7 power for all, we need to focus on three frontiers. First, India needs real-time monitoring of supply at the end-user level. We achieve what we measure. While the government is bringing all feeders in the country online, we currently have no provision to monitor supply as experienced by households. Only such granular monitoring can help track the evolving reality of electricity supply on the ground and guide discoms to act in areas with sub-optimal performance. Eventually, smart meters (that the government plans to roll out) should help enable such monitoring. However, in the interim, we could rely on interactive voice response systems (IVRS) and SMS-based reporting by end-users.
•Second, discoms need to focus on improving the quality of supply as well as maintenance services. Adequate demand estimation and respective power procurement will go a long way in reducing load shedding. Moreover, about half the rural population across the six States reported at least two days of 24-hour-long unpredictable blackouts in a month. Such incidents are indicative of poor maintenance, as opposed to intentional load-shedding. Discoms need to identify novel cost-effective approaches to maintain infrastructure in these far-flung areas. Some States have already taken a lead in this. Odisha has outsourced infrastructure maintenance in some of its rural areas to franchisees, while Maharashtra has introduced village-level coordinators to address local-level challenges. Such context-based solutions should emerge in other States as well.
•Finally, the improvement in supply should be complemented with a significant improvement in customer service, which includes billing, metering and collection. Around 27% of the electrified rural households in the six States were not paying anything for their electricity. Despite the subsidies, constant loss of revenue would make it unviable for discoms to continue servicing these households in the long run. Low consumer density along with difficult accessibility mean that conventional approaches involving meter readers and payment collection centres will be unviable for many rural areas. We need radically innovative approaches such as the proposed prepaid smart meters and last-mile rural franchisees to improve customer service and revenue collection. Rural renewable energy enterprises could especially be interesting contenders for such franchisees, considering the social capital they already possess in parts of rural India.
•Electricity is the driver for India’s development. As we focus on granular monitoring, high-quality supply, better customer service and greater revenue realisation at the household level, we also need to prioritise electricity access for livelihoods and community services such as education and health care. Only such a comprehensive effort will ensure that rural India reaps the socio-economic benefits of electricity.
📰 The principle and procedure in Lokpal
It is disappointing that the appointment of the Lokpal was shrouded in secrecy
•The Supreme Court’s ultimatum to the Centre to appointment a Lokpal within a given time frame, and the subsequent appointment of the first Lokpal in the country, is to be welcomed. After all, the fight for a Lokpal has been long-drawn-out.
A brief history
•From 1963, India has been nurturing the ambition to appoint a Lokpal, a phrase coined by L.M. Singhvi. Copied from Sweden’s Ombudsman and its adaptation in the U.K. in 1967, the idea was to expose ‘maladministration’, which British MP Richard Crossman defined as “bias, neglect, inattention, delay, incompetence, ineptitude, arbitrariness and so on”. Despite affirmations to its need, no one really wanted a Lokpal in India, preferring instead the mild Vigilance Commission from 1964 to 2003. In one sense, the National Human Rights Commission and the various national commissions dealing with Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, children and even safai karmacharis are all special Lokpals within their areas. But nobody fears them because they are promotional and deal with individual grievances. They hurt no one and have become semi-ineffective. No one wanted a strong Lokpal because it would demand accountability from politicians and bureaucrats.
•After the Emergency, a new model of Lokpal emerged, a model for ‘regime revenge’. The ‘maladministration’ model gave way to an anti-corruption model with a sweep clause of five years. This meant that the Lokpal would re-examine Emergency and target the Indira Gandhi government. It meant that it would target politicians, but not bureaucrats. The power of the bureaucracy to stultify anti-corruption measures is well known. This model continued with regularity.
•The 2011 Anna Hazare movement, which fought to get the Lokpal Bill passed, faltered in many ways. When the Modi government came to power, it did not appoint a Lokpal either. It did not want Lokpal accusations and investigations to mar its tenure.
•Directed by the Supreme Court, the Lokpal appointment process began in 2018, which was too late to scrutinise the Modi government before the 2019 general election. The government constituted a eight-member Search Committee in September 2018, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to recommend names for the posts of Lokpal chairperson and members. The names recommended were scrutinised by a Selection Committee, comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi; the Chief Justice of India’s nominee, Justice S.A. Bobde; Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan; and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi. The ‘special invitee’, who was Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, refused to attend the meetings. We can see that the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker are from the BJP. The eminent jurist was the Attorney General of India from 2014 to 2017. Only the Chief Justice’s nominee is not connected to the party.
Neither transparent nor fair
•Was this entire procedure transparent and fair? Unfortunately, no. When the matter was argued in the Supreme Court, advocate Prashant Bhushan asked for the names of those who had applied for the post. This suggestion was shot down during the argument. We don’t know who applied to be considered as chairperson and as a member of the Lokpal. Did former Supreme Court judge, Justice Pinaki Ghose, apply even though he was a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) at the time? Who were the others? Section 4(3) of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act of 2013 states that the Selection Committee “may also consider any person other than the persons recommended by the Search Committee”. This makes the procedure futile. The Search Committee Rules, 2014 stated that the Selection Committee would select one of the five names recommended for the post of Chairperson of the Lokpal and eight of 24 names recommended for the post of members of the Lokpal. The Selection Committee was to lay down the criteria for appointment and decide by majority in cases of difference of opinion. The public is entitled to know the list proposed by the Search Committee. It is entitled to know who all were considered and why. That the appointment of the Lokpal is shrouded in secrecy is an affront to the very concept of the Lokpal.
Background of members
•Justice Pinaki Ghose is not known for any path-breaking judgments, so it is curious why he was chosen over other retired judges, especially as he was already a member of the NHRC. No less than a sitting judge could have been offered this post. The other judicial members are Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty, who was Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court; Justice Abhilasha Kumari, who served on the Gujarat High Court and was a chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Gujarat; and Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi, who was Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court. The first woman chief of the Sashastra Seema Bal, Archana Ramachandran, is a non-judicial member, as are former Chief Secretary of Maharashtra D.K. Jain, former Indian Revenue Service officer Mahender Singh, and former Indian Administrative Service officer of the Gujarat cadre, I.P. Gautam. The question is, should IAS and IPS officers be appointed, especially since they have to deal with fellow officers? The field was wide open from non-government sectors as well.
•Mr. Hazare was right in being overjoyed that a Lokpal has been appointed at last. And Aruna Roy and others were right in insisting on a wider jurisdiction on maladministration and delivery of services. This Lokpal will always be known as a secretly appointed one. It is supposed to be an anti-corruption institution. Much will depend on how it is used and against whom. Will we find out who is the chor (chief) and who is the chowkidar (watchman)? Or will this be another playground for politics?
📰 Supreme Court quashes RBI circular on insolvency issued last year
•The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the RBI circular of last year that pertains to the provisions for declaring a company bankrupt even on a one-day overdue.
•The bench headed by Justice R.F. Nariman said, “We have declared the RBI circular ultra vires.”
•Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on February 12, 2018 had issued a circular saying that lenders have to provide for resolution plan within 180 days in case of large account of ₹2,000 crore and above.
•It said that if a resolution was not found by August 27, Non Performing Asset (NPA) accounts should be sent to bankruptcy courts.
•However, during the pendency of the matter, the apex court on September 11 last year asked banks to maintain status quo and not to initiate insolvency proceedings against loan defaulting companies.
📰 Enzyme to arrest bacteria cell growth discovered
It opens up fresh ways to target microbes, leading to a new wave of antibiotic drugs
•Scientists at the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) have discovered a new enzyme which helps in breaking cell walls of bacteria and hence, offers a potential for a new drug delivery route to arrest the anti-bacterial resistance through existing antibiotic drugs.
•At a press conference here on Tuesday, CCMB director Rakesh Mishra and senior scientist Manjula Reddy explained that it is crucial to know how cells grow in bacteria to understand the anti-bacterial resistance to currently available antibiotics.
•Scientists all over the world are trying to understand this phenomenon and the lab of Dr. Reddy has been working on how e. coli bacteria cells function, divide and grow to understand diseases like cholera, leprosy, tuberculosis and so on for the past decade.
Principal players
•Dr. Reddy and her research scholar Ch. Pavan Kumar have been working on how the cell governs the synthetic machinery to build the cell wall in the first place, identified the principal players behind the process and discovered the new mechanism or enzyme through which the cell regulates growth of its wall.
Blocking function
•Other bacteria, too, have the same enzyme working on cell division as the cell wall is fundamental for bacterial growth and division. Therefore, by blocking this ‘scissors enzyme’ from functioning, new ways to target microbes could be found, leading to a new wave of antibiotic drugs.
•In contrast, the classical antibiotic drugs target the last stage of cell synthesis to prevent cell growth like penicillin that hits the machinery that creates the cell wall — a mesh-like structure of cross-linked sugars and peptides.
New combination
•“What has been found is very novel. Now the next step is to find out the molecule of the enzyme endo-pepcidine and it has to be followed by the drug trials to unravel a new combination of drugs to replace existing antibiotics though it is difficult to forecast a time frame,” said Dr. Mishra and Dr. Reddy.
📰 Starting May, ISRO to launch a string of ‘defence’ satellites
Launches of some earth observation satellites advanced
•Between now and early 2020, the space above India looks set to see an unprecedented rush of satellites meant solely or mainly for the country’s military.
•Starting May, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to send up at least eight earth observation (EO) satellites of varied hues and at the rate of almost one a month.
•Communication satellite GSAT-32 is also in the offing next year to replace GSAT-6A, which was lost in a failed launch and was meant to mainly serve the ground forces. Until now, such defence-use satellites were spaced out over a few years; or were put up only once a year as in the case of the Cartosat-2 series high-resolution imaging satellites.
•Looking at the last three launches, we could even say the train has already started. HysIS, launched in November; Microsat-R in January; and the EMISAT sent into orbit on April 1 are all for what is called “strategic use”.
DRDO payloads
•While traditionally, payloads for ISRO’s satellites come from the Space Applications Centre, the payloads of the Microsat-R and EMISAT were from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
•Soon after EMISAT’s launch, ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, K.Sivan, announced that the next mission would be the radar imaging satellite RISAT-2B, followed by a high resolution mapping satellite Cartosat-3.
•Both are understood to be useful militarily and seen as overdue assets.
Equal treatment
•In a recent interaction, Dr. Sivan had told The Hindu that the space agency does not distinguish how ISRO’s EO satellites serve various departments and national agencies.
•“To us, every satellite is just that, another satellite of national relevance. We don’t worry about its demarcation [as a military or a civil one],” he said. This is also how successive Chairmen of ISRO have argued the case for ISRO’s production of ‘military’ satellites.
Objects of desire
•Cartosat-3 will have 30 cm resolution, which is at a par with the world’s best, according to public information already put out by ISRO. It means the satellite can clearly ‘see’ and capture images of guns, devices, objects or human movement at that scale from space.
•There are already half-a-dozen Cartosat-2 series satellites in orbit, though these possess a lower resolution capability than the upcoming Cartosat-3.
•Radar imaging satellites like India’s RISAT series can provide almost an uninterrupted view of earth, day or night, rain or shine, a handy feature for the forces to detect border infilitration.
•And so, we should see many more RISATs or next-gen Cartosats coming up as the military’s objects of desire from the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. A few of them would serve civil agencies as well.
•RISAT-2B, which was earlier planned after RISAT-2A and was not due before next year, is now slated to fly in May. Explaining the move, Dr. Sivan said, “We brought a few of them forward based on the demand, either from the civilian or other side. After all, if their national requirement is now, what is the point in putting them up later?”
•While the RISAT-1 of 2012 is dead, RISAT-2 of 2009 (said to have been imported from Israel) still works.
•A number of foreign satellites that have been flown to space on the PSLV are also for earth observation, space situational awareness and ship monitoring, which again may be useful as military information.
•Dr. Sivan said ISRO launches satellites for any legitimate customer, Indian or international. “Often, what is useful for civil purpose can also be useful for strategic purposes. To us a satellite is just a payload and makes no difference,” he said.
📰 India space debris may have doubled after Mission Shakti
NASA warns of risk to International Space Station
•The amount of Indian space debris may have almost doubled in the aftermath of the Mission Shakti anti-satellite strike but this is still significantly less than the existing space debris generated by China, Russia and the United States.
•Data from SPACE-TRACK.org, a public access repository maintained by the U.S. defence wing that tracks space activity, notes only 80 pieces of “space debris” attributable to India in orbit.
•This, however, doesn’t include debris from MICROSAT-R, the DRDO satellite that was pulverised by India’s anti-satellite missile.
•NASA on Monday criticised India for the test, describing it as a “terrible, terrible” thing that had endangered the International Space Station (ISS) and led to the creation of nearly 400 pieces of orbital debris.
•NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said some of the debris posed a risk to astronauts on board the ISS. Mr Bridenstine said of the nearly 400 pieces, only 60 were being tracked and 24 of them were going above the apogee of the ISS (the farthest point from the earth of the ISS’ orbit). The latter posed the maximum risk to the ISS, he said.
•Prior to the March 27 test, for India’s 80 pieces, there were 4,091 pieces of debris by the U.S., 4,025 by Russia and China’s 4,038, according to SPACE-TRACK.
•Orbital debris are tracked by a variety of ground-based radar and space stations. The speeds at which these objects — between 1mm to 10 cm across — hurtle through space travel makes them extremely dangerous, various studies have showed.
•That said, the International Space Station is among the most fortified space objects. It has debris shields deployed around the crewed modules, each composed of two metal sheets, separated by about 10 cm. The outer bumper shield exploits the impact energy to shatter the debris object, such that the inner back wall can withstand the resulting spray of smaller-sized fragments.
•Between the walls, fabric with the same functionality as in bullet-proof vests is deployed. This design enables the shield to buffer against debris objects up to 1 cm in size.
•The U.S. Space Surveillance system can calculate if an object will veer too close to the ISS and — if need be — the station can be moved out of the orbit of the offending projectile. By the end of 2012, the Station had performed more than 15 of these manoeuvres, according to the ESA.
📰 ‘Early brain function affected in poor kids’
Study says children from lower income background had weaker brain activity
•Children born into poverty show key differences in early brain function, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).
•Researchers studied the brain function of children aged between four months and four years in rural India and found that children from lower income backgrounds, where mothers also had a low level of education, had weaker brain activity and were more likely to be distracted.
Study in U.P.
•The team carried out the study in Uttar Pradesh, the highly populated region in India.
•Lead researcher John Spencer from UEA’s School of Psychology said: “Each year, 250 million children in low and middle income countries fail to reach their developmental potential. Therefore, there is a growing need to understand the global impact of poverty on early brain and behavioural development.”
•He explained that previous work has shown that poverty and early adversities significantly impact brain development, contributing to a vicious cycle of poverty. But few studies have looked at brain function early in development.
•“We wanted to find out more about the functional brain development of children born into poorer backgrounds to see why many do not reach their full potential,” he said.
•Using a portable ‘functional near infrared spectroscopy’ (fNIRS) device, they measured the brain activity of 42 children aged between four months and four years in rural settings.
•They investigated the children’s ‘visual working memory’ — or how well they are able to store visual information and detect changes in the visual environment when they occur.
•The results of the study were compared with children from families in Midwest America.
•The research team found that the children in India from families with low maternal education and income showed weaker brain activity and poorer distractor suppression in the left frontal cortex area of the brain that is involved in working memory.
📰 The unkindest cut
Reducing funds for MGNREGS has caused disenchantment among two groups which are politically powerful
•To do well in this general election, the BJP must overcome several serious obstacles of its own making. It has failed to fulfil the stirring promise of massive job creation. Demonetisation severely affected many farmers, households and enterprises. Huge numbers of vulnerable people have been denied vital services and benefits because of Aadhaar malfunctions. Among its failures, a misjudgment that has attracted less attention is the reduction in funds for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). It has caused disenchantment among two different groups, both of which are politically powerful.
•First, it has hit poor villagers who are in dire need of wages from the programme. For many, it is the difference between one meagre meal and two nutritious meals per day for their families. MGNREGS began to address the problem of malnutrition and stunting in India, which cause irreparable damage to the bodies and minds of children. Many MGNREGS workers have used their earnings to improve small plots of land or to buy livestock. This modestly but crucially enhanced their assets and autonomy.
•In recent years, most of the labour on MGNREGS work sites has been done by women, who gain greater independence in their households from their earnings that reach their bank accounts. As The Verdict, a new book by Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala, reveals, turnout at elections by rural women has been increasing. The MGNREGS has also provided benefits to Dalits and Adivasis.
•When he was Rural Development Minister, Birendra Singh opposed the constriction of funding for the Scheme because demand for employment on work sites remained strong. It has been higher in 2018-19 than in the last eight years. The government brushed his views aside. Now it seems to acknowledge the problem, but too late after three years of fewer person-days worked. The Centre has also been slow in sanctioning funds for State governments, adding to the serious decline in work opportunities.
•Resentment among a second group also carries grave risks for the BJP. The funding cuts have alienated elected members of India’s gram panchayats, many of whom have real political clout at the grass-roots level. By law, at least half of MGNREGS funds must go to gram panchayats, and some State governments provide as much as 90%. Five years ago, local councillors in several States proudly told this writer that they controlled as much or more money than their MLAs. The programme’s shrinking budget has eroded their power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party can ill afford a backlash from these people.
📰 SC verdict could delay resolution of stressed assets
Prospects of recovering ₹3.8 lakh crore loans is uncertain; lenders can still refer cases to NCLT without citing February 12 circular, say bankers
•The prospect of recovering ₹3.8 lakh crore of stressed loans of over 70 large borrowers has become uncertain after the Supreme Court (SC) quashed the controversial February 12, 2018 circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on resolution of stressed assets.
•The circular, which was opposed by banks as well as industry players, directed lenders to classify a loan account as stressed and start resolution process within one day of default. If banks start resolution of an asset, they have to set aside higher capital, known as provision in banking parlance. Banks were also asked to refer all loan accounts of over ₹2,000 crore for bankruptcy proceedings if resolution is not achieved in 180 days. Also, all the existing loan restructuring facilities like corporate debt restructuring were withdrawn and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) became the only option for resolution of stressed assets.
•Bankers and other stakeholders said resolution of stressed assets could now be delayed. “The current SC ruling, quashing the February 12 [2018] RBI circular on NPAs may have its own merit. However, with respect to an escalation of default cases, this ruling will raise significant questions around the timely reporting and resolution under IBC — the primary reason behind IBC’s enactment,” said Vikram Babbar, partner and financial services lead, forensic and integrity services, EY.
Adds to uncertainty
•“We believe that the development will be negative for lenders and may prolong the recovery phase for the banks. It also adds to uncertainty on the existing accounts’ classification, provision requirements etc,” said Lalitabh Shrivastawa, analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas. Anil Gupta, sector head — financial sector ratings, ICRA, said the total estimated debt impact due to the circular is of ₹3.8 lakh crore across 70 large borrowers, and 92% of this debt was classified as non-performing by banks as on March 31, 2018.
•“Banks have made provisions of over 25-40% on these accounts and hence, should not impact the reported asset quality of profitability numbers.
•However, the resolution process, which was expected to be expedited, may get delayed,” Mr. Gupta said. Bankers said they still had the option to refer an account to NCLT without referring to the circular. But what happens to the cases referred to NCLT that cited the circular is uncertain. The way forward, according to bankers, is that, the RBI should file a review petition with the Supreme Court, and think of an alternative mechanism for solving the issue.
📰 Adding egg or milk can reduce stunting in young children: study
Bengaluru researchers say that animal product protein is better digested
•About 38% of children in India below the age of five years are stunted. Research suggests that the reason for this is that young children consume mainly cereal-based food, which lacks quality protein that can be well digested and is limited in the content of certain essential amino acids such as lysine.
•Researchers at St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru measured the digestibility and quality of commonly used complementary foods in young children. They found that mung bean, which is a legume and is considered to be a high-quality protein source, is not as well digested and absorbed as other high-quality food proteins such as egg.
•The team found that the risk of stunting in children aged 1 - 3 years (in the National Family Health-4 survey) was reduced by 10% when high quality proteins such as egg and milk were consumed along with a combination of cereals and pulses. This food-based reduction of risk can be achieved by adding 200 ml of milk or milk products (including curd), an egg or 45 grams of legume (dal) to the daily diet of a child.
•If these foods are added to the diet of children aged less than two years, the risk of protein inadequacy reduces to 7% for egg, 8% for milk and 11% for legumes (dal).
•“Stunting happens early before children turn three. While consuming quality protein that contains adequate amounts of digestible essential amino acids does help in reducing the risk of stunting, it cannot completely prevent it. Several other factors including genetics, poverty and sanitation play a role,” says Anura V. Kurpad from the institute’s Department of Physiology and senior author of a paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Ideal diet
•“Young children’s diet between the age of 1-3 years should contain a minimum of 100 grams of cereal (rice or wheat) and 45 grams of legume per day. Unfortunately, this is not followed in a consistent way anywhere in India,” he says. “The equivalent will be the addition of an egg or 200 ml of milk or milk products to the diet every day, which makes it expensive for many people.”
•The researchers measured the essential amino acid digestion of four foods — rice, finger millet, mung dal and egg — commonly consumed complementary food by children below two. While the digestibility of essential amino acids was least for mung dal (65%), it was highest for egg (87%).
•It was 78.5% and 68% for rice and finger millet, respectively.
•“We choose these four food items as they are the most common complementary food given to babies after six months of exclusive breast feeding. Ragi (finger millet) is the main complementary food after six months, and legume (mung dal) and rice are given when the baby is aged nine-twelve months,” says Nirupama Shivakumar from St. John’s Medical College and first author of the paper.
