📰 Scientists radio-tag Indian pangolin
This will help understand its habits: experts
•Scientists have, for the first time, radio-tagged the Indian pangolin, an endangered animal, that is rarely sighted in forests here.
•The Indian pangolin, which resembles an ant-eater but dons a thick scaly skin, is hunted for meat and use in traditional Chinese medicine. Researchers say tagging the animal will help understand the habits of the reclusive, nocturnal animal.
•Radio-tagging involves attaching a transmitter to an animal to monitor its movements. Several wild animals — tigers, leopards and migratory birds — have been tagged over decades.
•“The Special Task Force of the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has been actively working to curb wildlife poaching in the State. In recent years, we have successfully busted pangolin-smuggling syndicates that involved poachers and smugglers from more than nine States,” said Rajesh Shrivastav, Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh.
•Pangolins are among the most trafficked wildlife species in the world. The projected population declines range from 50% to 80 % across the genus.
•Out of the eight species of pangolin, the Indian Pangolin and the Chinese Pangolin are found in India. Both these species are listed under Schedule I Part I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
The deal could lead to withdrawal of American troops
•A senior U.S. official said on Friday the U.S. and the Taliban have reached a truce agreement that will take effect “very soon” and could lead to withdrawals of American troops from Afghanistan.
•The official said the agreement for a seven-day “reduction in violence” to be followed by the start of all-Afghan peace talks within 10 days is “very specific” and covers the entire country, including Afghan government forces.
•There were indications a formal announcement could come as early as the weekend.
•The official, who was not authorised to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Taliban had committed to a halt in roadside and suicide bombings as well as rocket attacks. The official said the U.S. would monitor the truce and determine if there were any violations.
‘Reduction in violence’
•Should the Taliban comply, the “reduction in violence” agreement would be followed by the signing of an agreement that would initiate peace negotiations that include all Afghan sides.
•A Taliban official familiar with the deal said that the second agreement would be signed on February 29 and that the inter-Afghan dialogue would begin on March 10. The officials said Germany and Norway have offered to host the talks.
•That Taliban official added that the withdrawal of foreign troops would start gradually and would be phased over 18 months.
•President Donald Trump previously called off the peace talks because of an attack that killed two Americans.
📰 ‘Overzealous interpretation of law poses risk to independent directors’
Penalising them for a company’s action would be counter-productive: Sinha
•Overzealous interpretation of the law regarding the duties and responsibilities of independent directors will make such directors risk- averse and the companies will suffer in the process, said former SEBI chairman U.K. Sinha.
‘Problem area’
•“This is a problematic area... I think the balance in law is there... Unfortunately, we had some examples in the last three years where there have been overzealous interpretations. And that has led to a problem,” Mr. Sinha said on the sidelines of the CII Corporate Governance Summit.
•The former SEBI chief further said that the rules clearly stated what the liabilities of an independent director were and action should be taken only if it was proved that there was an act of omission.
•Penalising independent directors for the company’s action about which the director had no knowledge would be counter-productive, he said. This assumes significance as there had been a few instances wherein even warrants had been issued against independent directors for decisions taken by the board at a time when the director was not even on the board of the company.
•HDFC chief executive officer Keki Mistry, while speaking at the event, said that independent directors needed some amount of immunity and should not be held accountable for the company’s actions that are beyond the control of such directors.
•“Some immunity and protection should be given to independent directors,” Mr. Mistry said.
•Further, he spoke about the increasing influence of shareholder activism, which at times, he said, even tried to influence board decisions.
•He highlighted a few instances wherein such activists objected to the directorship of long-serving individuals, including founders, on the board of the company.
Whistle-blowers
•While stressing that genuine whistle-blowers needed to be rewarded and protected, he said that those who tried to misuse the system should be “penalised”.
•Mr. Mistry also highlighted the role of proxy advisory firms, which, according to him, would become more ‘pronounced’ in the coming days making companies more careful in terms of corporate governance.
📰 Textile policy to be rolled out by mid 2020
Mega parks will help country scale, spurring cost effectiveness: Textiles Secretary
•The Central Government is expected to roll out a Textile Policy by the middle of this year, according to Ravi Capoor, Secretary of the Union Ministry of Textiles.
•“We are working on a policy. Two rounds of consultatations have been held with the stakeholders. Hopefully by mid-year we should have the new policy,” Mr. Capoor told The Hindu on Thursday.
•On the measures to be taken to attract investments in textiles and clothing, he said the need for cost effectiveness is a major challenge.
•One factor affecting cost effectiveness is lack of scale. “New industries should look at scale. The Ministry plans to develop 10 mega textile parks. Each one will be an integrated park. We hope to bring some economies of scale with this. India should be a destination for Foreign Direct Investment in textiles. We need good infrastructure for it.” The Ministry is talking to the States and a meeting will be held on Monday too. Any State which has minimum 1,000 acres ready for the park will be supported to develop it, he said.
•The Secretary was hopeful of textile and garment exports increasing this financial year compared to last year, when it was roughly $38 billion. Indian exporters are largely cotton based. “We should move to MMF (manmade fibre). If Indian exports in MMF grow to the level of cotton (ie, the share of Indian cotton product exports in global trade) the overall exports will increase by $20-25 billion,” he said.
•Another thrust area will be technical textiles. The Cabinet is expected to approve the National Technical Textiles Mission, announced in the Budget, soon. It will be rolled out in a couple of months. “We are going to spend Rs. 1,000 crore in developing raw materials for technical textiles; research associations will be asked to produce applications for these.”
📰 Choice and candidacy
De-criminalisation of politicscannot be achieved by judicial fiat alone
•The idea of removing the taint of criminality from electoral politics has been engaging the country for decades. Yet, whatever progress made in this regard has been through the initiative of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission. Political parties which ought to be cleansing the system with legislation and internal organisational reforms have done precious little, and their reluctance to avoid fielding those with criminal antecedents is quite obvious. The Court, in September 2018, sought to enforce greater disclosure norms about electoral candidates. On noting the “alarming increase” of those with a criminal background in the last four general elections, the top court has now come up with an additional requirement while hearing a contempt of court petition. Now, parties have been asked to explain candidate choice and why those with criminal cases pending against them were preferred over those with no such record. The Court has asked national and regional parties to disclose the reason for their selection “with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidates concerned”, and barred them from merely citing “winnability” as a reason. In addition to full disclosure of the cases pending against them on their official websites and social media accounts, the parties are also required to publish these details in a local regional language paper and a national newspaper. This is a forward movement from the present situation in which the burden of disclosure is on candidates through mandatory affidavits filed along with their nomination papers.
•The latest order is in line with a series of judgments aimed at preserving the purity of the election process: directions to ensure the asset disclosure and criminal records of candidates, the incorporation of the ‘none of the above’ option in the voting machine, and the invalidation of a clause that protected sitting legislators from immediate disqualification after conviction. In addition, the Court has directed the establishment of special courts in all States for the quick disposal of cases involving elected representatives. However, it must be underscored that de-criminalisation of politics cannot be achieved by judicial fiat alone. The political class has to respond to the challenge. Parties would probably justify their choice of candidates by pointing out that the law now bars only those convicted and not those facing charges, however serious they may be. Besides, they are apt to dismiss all pending cases as “politically motivated”. A legislative option is to amend the law to bar from contest those against whom charges have been framed. A more meaningful option would be for parties to refrain from giving ticket to such candidates. Beyond this debate, a larger question looms: what good will more information on the background of candidates do, if voters back a particular leader or party without reference to the record of the candidates fielded?
📰 A tale of outbreaks, both in China
Unlike the SARS crisis, Beijing has handled the coronavirus epidemic better; but its secretive attitude still causes concern
•The title of the third chapter of my China memoir, Smoke and Mirrors , was ‘Coronavirus’. This was not an act of precognition, but merely an account of having lived in Beijing during the 2003 SARS epidemic, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which was also caused by a coronavirus.
•There are obvious parallels between the epidemics of 2002-2003 and 2019-2020. Both began in winter and featured cover-ups and whistle-blowers. The origins of both were traced to China’s unregulated wet markets and the sale of wildlife. Both resulted in quarantines, empty streets and considerable panic. They featured the jaw-dropping feats of entire hospitals being constructed within a few days’ time. And both demonstrated the pros and cons of China’s authoritarian political system: the ability to implement drastic measures to contain a crisis, but only after the unnecessary escalation of the crisis resulting from a repressive culture of censorship.
•But there are also differences. SARS was far deadlier, with a mortality rate of about 10%. The mortality rate for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is yet to be established, but appears to be about 2%. However, it is much more infectious. More than 1,300 people have died from the new virus, a number that is already greater than SARS’ final death toll of 774. It took eight months for SARS to spread to more than 8,000 people. The COVID-19 has infected over 63,000 people in about six weeks.
More openness this time
•There are also differences in the government’s handling of the epidemics. With SARS, the cover up went on for far longer than it did in the present instance. Although the SARS virus first began appearing in November 2002, China’s then Heath Minister, Zhang Wenkang, gave a televised press conference as late as April 3, 2003, assuring the world that Beijing had only a handful of infections. Then suddenly on April 20, it was announced that the capital in fact had 339 confirmed cases, 10 times more than the 37 infections made public until then.
•With regard to the current epidemic, the first instances of COVID-19 appeared in early December. By the end of the month, China had already alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to several cases of A SARS-like pneumonia in the city of Wuhan. By the second week of January, China had genetically sequenced the virus and shared it with WHO. On January 23, Wuhan suspended all public transportation; all outbound trains and flights were halted. In the days that followed, travel restrictions were applied to neighbouring cities as well, eventually affecting well over 50 million people.
How other nations reacted
•But despite these almost-draconian measures and the improved speed with which the Chinese authorities have responded to the ongoing epidemic, the global response has been more fearful and arguably more xenophobic than during SARS. The restrictions on travel to and from China are more punitive, even as there is a resurgence of racist tropes portraying Chinese food habits and other customs as unsafe and unsavoury.
•The U.S. (with some exceptions) and Australia have banned entry to all foreign nationals who have been to China in recent weeks. Other countries, including India, Malaysia, Russia, Vietnam and Italy, have temporarily stopped issuing certain classes of visas to travellers from Hubei Province, where Wuhan is situated, or China altogether.
•What accounts for this larger, arguably “excessive” reaction? Social media certainly plays into it. SARS occurred in the pre-Facebook/WhatsApp/Twitter era, although text messaging was already well established then. Also, far greater numbers of Chinese are travelling abroad today.
•There are certainly genuine concerns about public and personal health, but these have meshed with the discomfiture that many around the world feel towards China, a country that has exponentially grown in economic and military heft. The widespread mistrust of China’s political system and anxieties about its geostrategic intentions are mingling with an ugly schadenfreude as China is exposed to censure. It is perhaps unavoidable. China’s new status as a major world power means that its handling of crises will inevitably be subject to global scrutiny.
•And although compared to SARS, this handling has shown improvements, it nonetheless throws the deficiencies, even fragility, of China’s political system, into sharp relief. The severity and extent of the disease in Wuhan was underestimated for weeks. Information was not adequately shared. Worse, those like Dr. Li Wenliang (the whistle-blower who subsequently contracted the virus and died) who tried to voice their concerns were muzzled by the police. The egregious consequence of the weeks-long official silence was that it facilitated the movement of some five million people in the days before Wuhan was quarantined.
•In some way, it would seem that the more things have changed in China, the more they have remained the same. The larger context of the Chinese political system, in particular its overly controlling attitude towards information, has proved persistent. Local government incompetence is hardly confined to China, but in less restrictive societies, whistle-blowers such as Dr. Li would likely have found the means to get their message out. Under China’s President Xi Jinping, state control over the media has only deepened, which, together with his unabated emphasis on maintaining social order, means China remains vulnerable to crises despite surface strength.
