📰 Manipur MLA Shyamkumar disqualified
He joined BJP after winning 2017 election on Congress ticket
•Manipur Speaker Yumnam Khemchand on Saturday disqualified Thounaojam Shyamkumar as a member of the Assembly for defection.
•Shyamkumar was elected to the Assembly as a Congress candidate on March 12, 2017, from 7-Andro constituency. The Congress had won 28 seats and the BJP 21. However, the BJP allied with the National People’s Party to form a government.
•Before he was sworn in as an MLA, Mr. Shyamkumar joined the BJP and became the Minister for Forest and Environment in the government led by N. Biren Singh on March 16, 2017. He was sworn in as a member of the Assembly on March 19.
•15 Congress MLAs filed petitions for Mr. Shyamkumar’s disqualification, arguing that he had violated the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. The 10th Schedule lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified for defection by the Speaker on a petition by any other member of the House. As the petitioners were not happy with the inordinate delay in the disposal of the case, they moved the Manipur High Court and the Supreme Court.
•On January 21 this year, the Supreme Court had set a deadline of four weeks for the Speaker to dispose of the case. As the Speaker did not comply with its order, the court on March 18 ruled that Shyamkumar had “ceased” to be a Minister and he could not enter the Assembly complex.
•Mr. Shyamkumar argued that the 10th Schedule could not be invoked in his case as he became an MLA only on March 19, 2017. The Speaker’s tribunal brushed aside this plea, citing several court rulings.
•On Thursday last, Mr. Shyamkumar submitted an official letter to the Speaker’s tribunal, expressing his “willingness” to resign from the Assembly.
•The development is bound to have a political fallout since several MLAs of the BJP and its allies have been demanding a Cabinet shuffle.
📰 How artificial intelligence can aid eye testing
A tool to detect diabetic retinopathy has been developed by Google and an international team of researchers
•From diagnostics to drug development, artificial intelligence (AI) today has become a valuable extension of the medical field. A new addition to its long list of uses is a hi-tech screening tool developed by Google and an international team of researchers for detecting diabetic retinopathy a diabetic complication in the eye.
•A study conducted at two eye care centres in India — Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai and Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai — which screened over 3,000 patients with diabetes, has shown that the AI’s performance exceeded the conventionally used manual grading method used to identify diabetic retinopathy . The AI had a specificity and sensitivity of around 90%. The results were published in JAMA Ophthalmology .
•A specialised retinal fundus camera was used to take photos of the eye. “Usually when we need to evaluate the retina, we dilate the pupil to allow more light to enter the eye and illuminate the back of the eye. But in this fundus photography it is not necessary as a coherent beam of light can enter the small gap (Pupil) and take an image in just two to three minutes,” explains Dr. Rajiv Raman from Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai and one of the authors of the paper.
•He adds that it is very easy to operate and the cost of the camera has also significantly reduced in the recent past. Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments already have over 150 of these cameras currently in use.
•Once the images are taken, it is fed into the computer and the AI tool screens it for diabetic retinopathy. A previous paper published by the team in 2016 in JAMA explains how the AI tool was shown over 120,000 images of the retina and taught to identify what each lesion meant. According to the International Clinical Diabetic Retinopathy scale, the AI tool was taught to grade the severity (none, mild, moderate, severe or proliferative) and give an instant report along with the recommendations.
Early intervention
•“Diabetic patients are normally asymptomatic when the eye is concerned until the late stages or advanced stage when treatment is difficult or not so effective. So it is important to find the patient at an early stage and help prevent loss of vision,” explains Dr. Kim Ramasamy from Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai.
•“What we have deployed here is an opportunistic screening. We placed the camera at the diabetologist’s clinic and trained their technician to take a picture of the back of the eye (retina) and upload it to the AI tool. In about two minutes, the patient can get their eye test report along with the other regular diabetic test reports. Based on this report, the diabetologist can further refer the patient to an ophthalmologist if needed.” he adds.
•Dr. Ramasamy explains how the team has been testing this AI at even small Health Centres in Tamil Nadu. “When about 100 patients are screened, about 20 will have any level of diabetic retinopathy and only four to five might need intervention. But to track down this small number we absolutely need to screen all the diabetics, and we currently don’t have the facilities now. It would be great if we can have these opportunistic screenings at offices, railway stations or other public places,” adds Dr. Ramasamy.
Detecting breast cancer
•The corresponding author of the paper Lily Peng adds in an email to The Hindu: “Beyond diabetic retinopathy we are also working on a number of other research projects using AI to tackle healthcare problems. Earlier this year, we showed in a research paper that AI models can help detect breast cancer in mammography images more accurately than doctors. Our research is still in the early stages, but it shows that AI can be a path forward to improve screenings for breast cancer and boost the chances of survival.”
📰 All shook up
Why has the stock market been so volatile? How long will the bear phase last?
•The story so far: On Friday, even after the Reserve Bank of India announced a slew of measures to boost the economy in the time of a pandemic, shares fell 1% to close at 29,416 points. The stock market has seen a lot of volatility with the benchmark Sensex having fallen as much as almost 40% from the highs it touched in January.
Where was the Sensex in January?
•On January 20, the Sensex touched an all time intra-day record high of 42,274 from where it fell a massive 16,635 points to touch a 52-week intra-day low of 25,639 points on March 24. This assumes significance as a fall of over 20% is typically looked upon as a bear phase in the markets. While the 30-share barometer has recovered 4,177 points or 16% from the lows, it is still experiencing a lot of volatility with underlying weakness. Incidentally, the India VIX index, which is considered a measure of near-term volatility in the market, has surged more than six times this year, rising from 11.7 in December to the current levels of 70.4. The intensity of the fall can be further gauged from the fact that the current month has seen the indices hitting their lower circuit breaker of 10% on two occasions while registering some of the biggest single-day falls as well.
What is the reason for the huge plunge?
•The single biggest reason of the ongoing volatility and fall is the global coronavirus pandemic. In India, the number of coronavirus cases stand at a shade below 1,000 (as on March 28) even as the country is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown as part of the government’s attempts to curb the spread. The pandemic has led to concerns that global economic growth will get deeply affected. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already said that the world has entered a recession that is as bad or worse as 2008 when the global financial crisis happened. In India, investor concerns have led to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) selling equities worth nearly Rs. 60,000 crore in the current month, the highest ever single month sales by overseas investors.
Is selling happening across all sectors?
•An across-the-board selling frenzy has gripped the markets with no sector insulated from the sell-off. Banking and financials, however, have borne the brunt as investors believe that the economic impact of the pandemic will lead to a rise in bad debts of such entities. Sector heavyweights such as HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finance, all part of the Sensex, have fallen significantly with some currently trading near multi-year lows. Automobile stocks have also been among the worst hit as most plants are shut on account of the lockdown. Some of the pharmaceutical and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks have been able to stem the fall to a limited extent though they are currently significantly lower compared to their highs.
Is anything being done to address investor concerns?
•Globally, governments and regulators are taking initiatives in the form of stimulus measures to support the economy. For instance, the U.S. Senate and House have approved a $2-trillion coronavirus relief package. Earlier, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a $700-billion stimulus package. In India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the key interest rate sharply by 75 basis points and allowed equated monthly instalments (EMIs) to be deferred by three months. The repo rate has been reduced by 75 bps while the reverse repo rate has been cut by 90 bps. Further, the cash reserve ratio has also been reduced that will release Rs. 1.37-lakh crore liquidity. Cumulatively, the RBI measures will lead to an infusion of Rs. 3.74-lakh crore into the banking system. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on its part, has relaxed many compliance requirements while tightening the norms for short selling and margins to ensure the smooth functioning of the equity markets.
What is the outlook?
•The consensus estimate is pessimistic due to the lack of any positive triggers. While policy makers worldwide are trying to provide stimulus, the uncertainty around the pandemic has made investors risk averse. They feel that since the current crisis is not due to a liquidity crunch, as was the case during the Lehman crisis, it is difficult to counter it with mere liquidity infusion. Most analysts expect the pandemic to affect corporate earnings over the next few quarters. Global financial major Morgan Stanley has lowered its year-end Sensex target by a little over 11% to 32,000, from the earlier 36,000, even as it believes that the current bear phase in the stock market is close to its bottom. Analysts are unanimous in their view that the pandemic will hit India’s growth rate and hence risky assets like equities are seeing a sell-off from investors across categories.
