📰 Most buses inaccessible to the disabled
Only 7% are fully equipped to cater to wheelchair users, show govt. data
•Less than 7% of public buses in the country were fully accessible to wheelchair users as of December 2020, with the target of 25% of buses being accessible by June 2022 under the Accessible India Campaign getting closer, according to government data.
•According to data from the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) via a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways report in January, 42,169 buses or 28.6% of the total 1.47 lakh buses operated by State road transport undertakings were “partially accessible” and 10,175 buses or 6.9% were “fully accessible”. In addition, 3,217 bus stations in 24 States and Union Territories out of 3,487 were made accessible, the DEPwD data showed.
•When the Accessible India Campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, the deadline for making at least 25% of public buses fully accessible was March 2018.
•However, the deadline had been pushed back to June 2022, a DEPwD official said.
•Out of the total buses operated by States, 1.02 lakh are inter-city buses and 44,768 function in urban areas, the report said. Of the inter-city buses, 210 were fully accessible, 27,133 were accessible and 75,257 were not accessible as of December 2020.
•Among urban buses, 9,965 were fully accessible, 15,036 partially accessible and 19,767 were not accessible, the data showed.
•Apart from public buses, the Accessible India Campaign, was aimed at making government buildings, airports, railway stations and government websites accessible to persons with disabilities.
Nearly 200 in Karnataka are diagnosed with the rare genetic disease
•A gene therapy costing ₹16 crore is the only shot of life for nearly 200 children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 1, a rare genetic disease, in Karnataka.
•Last month, the therapy — Zolgensma — was offered free to a 14-month-old baby from Bhatkal (Uttara Kannada) who was the lucky winner of a lottery through a compassionate access programme by Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker. This lottery is held once in two weeks for SMA children across the world and doctors at Baptist Hospital, that has a dedicated Paediatric Neuromuscular Service, are hoping more children will benefit.
One-time infusion
•“The therapy is a one-time infusion that takes about an hour,” Ann Agnes Mathew, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist and Neuromascular Specialist, at Baptist Hospital told The Hindu. The therapy was approved by U.S. regulators in May 2019 and has since then turned into a miracle drug for this rare disorder that destroys a baby’s muscle control.
•“SMA is a disease caused by loss of nerve cells, which carry electrical signals from the brain to the muscles. The protein needed for this signalling is coded by a gene for which everyone has two copies - one from the mother and the other from the father. A child develops this disorder only if both the copies are faulty. Without treatment, this disease is ultimately fatal,” said Dr. Mathew. The disease as it progresses, makes it extremely difficult for the babies to carry out basic activities like sitting up, lifting their head or swallowing milk.
•Pointing out that the current treatment options range from medicines, which increase these proteins, to replacing the faulty gene, the doctor said, “Zolgensma is a revolutionary treatment, which works by supplying a healthy copy of the faulty gene, which allows nerve cells to then start producing the needed protein. That halts deterioration of the nerve cells and allows the baby to develop more normally.”
Delay in customs
•The drug has a 14-day shelf life and when it was sent from U.S. for the Bhatkal baby, it was stuck with customs for three days in mid-January making doctors jittery. Dr. Mathew said she had to personally meet the Customs officials to get it released. “When we explained the situation to them, they immediately released it. Any further delay would have been risky. The parents have taken a house on rent and are staying near the hospital for follow up. The baby is doing fine now,” she said.
•Pointing out that 38 babies had succumbed to the rare disease in Karnataka in over one-and-a-half years, Dr. Mathew said most families have given up hope as they cannot afford the treatment.
Special centre
•The Paediatric Neuromuscular Service at Baptist Hospital is a pioneering centre in the country with a multidisciplinary team of a paediatric neurologist, paediatric neuromuscular specialist, paediatric geneticist, paediatric pulmonologist, paediatric intensivist, paediatric cardiologist and paediatric endocrinologist providing comprehensive care under one roof. This service is run in collaboration with Organisation for Rare Diseases India, a NGO.
Crowdfunding effort
•A Bengaluru-based couple - Naveen Kumar and Jyothi - have taken to crowdfunding on ImpactGuru.com, a crowdfunding platform, to cover the cost of Zolgensma therapy for their 10-month-old baby Janish who was diagnosed with SMA.
•Mr. Kumar, who works as an insurance surveyor and barely earns ₹30,000 a month, cannot afford the expensive treatment.
•The couple were counting their baby’s milestones after his birth in February 2020. They caught his first smile and his first laugh but baby Janish never went past his first two milestones. The parents then rushed him to a pediatrician and from there the baby was referred to Baptist Hospital, said Dr. Ann Agnes Mathew, who has been treating the baby for the last five months.
•Piyush Jain, co-founder and CEO, ImpactGuru.com, said over ₹22 lakh has been raised so far for baby Janish from over 1,500 donors.
📰 17 major OTT players adopt toolkit for regulation
The Internet and Mobile Association of India said it will set up an ‘IAMAI Secretariat for the Code’ to administer implementation their self-regulation code and the toolkit.
•Even as the government is soon expected to come out with regulations for OTT platforms, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on Thursday said 17 platforms, including Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video, have adopted a ‘toolkit’ for effective implementation of the self-regulation code introduced in 2020.
•The industry body added that it will also set up an ‘IAMAI Secretariat for the Code’, comprising representatives from the signatories to the Code as well as IAMAI.
•This will administer the implementation of the Code and the toolkit.
•Amit Goenka, Chair, Digital Entertainment Committee, IAMAI said, “This toolkit amplifies all the critical points that were addressed in the Code signed last year and aims to address feedback received from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, particularly on strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism. It further sets out clear tent poles that the OCCPs [Online Curated Content Provider] need to undertake to achieve a common goal of entertaining millions of Indians responsibly.”
•The toolkit, it added, not only aims to set out guiding principles and code of ethics for the reference of the signatories, it also addresses the feedback received from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on the issues of conflict of interest and prohibited content.
•The industry body said the toolkit will also provide for procedures to effectuate the various provisions of the Code; assist the signatories in fulfilling their commitments and responsibilities as set out in the Code and achieve effective self-regulation goals as envisioned by the signatories in the Code.
•The signatories to the toolkit, which is effective February 10 onwards, include ZEE5, Viacom 18 (Voot), Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, SonyLiv, MX Player, Jio Cinema, Eros Now, Alt Balaji, Arre, HoiChoi, Hungama, Shemaroo, Discovery Plus, Aha and Lionsgate Play.
•The toolkit will guide signatories on various dimensions like relevant laws of the land, grievance redressal mechanism, training programs for creative and legal teams, awareness programs for consumers, implementation of a detailed audit and compliance mechanism.
•The OTT players had in September last year announced adoption of the ‘Universal Self-Regulation Code for OCCPs’.
📰 Order at the border: On disengagement at the LAC
The disengagement at the LAC is vital for the broader relationship with China
•India and China finally reaching an agreement on disengagement at Pangong Lake, which has been at the heart of the recent LAC tensions, is a promising start towards restoring peace in the border areas. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said both sides will cease their forward deployments on the north and south banks of the lake in a phased, coordinated, and verified manner. China’s Ministry of Defence announced an agreement “to start synchronised and organised disengagement”. Both sides have agreed to a temporary moratorium on patrolling in the disputed areas north and south of the lake. The withdrawal of armoured elements, including tanks that have been in dangerously close proximity, began on Wednesday. All frontline personnel will subsequently be withdrawn over the next two to three weeks. North of the lake, China’s troops will return to their base at Sirijap, east of Finger 8, while India’s troops will similarly return to their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa post, at Finger 3. India previously patrolled on foot up to Finger 8 — there is no motorable road access from India’s side to areas east of Finger 4 — while China has dominated up to Finger 4, having already built a road there and enjoying superior logistics. Starting last summer, Chinese troops had prevented India from reaching Finger 8, leading to the crisis. Now, the entire contested area, from 4 to 8, will become a buffer zone and all temporary infrastructure built after April 2020 will be withdrawn. Similarly, both sides will return to their bases south of the lake, where India will vacate the heights it occupied in an effective countermove in late August in the Kailash range, which gave India much needed leverage to negotiate as well as demonstrated its resolve to match China’s actions.
•The stand-offs on the north and south banks, involving troops and artillery, remained the hardest nut to crack over nine long rounds of talks between military commanders. With this agreement, the only pending problems now are smaller, less concerning stand-offs involving fewer troops in Patrolling Points 15 and 17A in the Gogra-Hot Springs area, which will be taken up 48 hours after disengagement at Pangong Lake is completed over the next few weeks. In the Depsang plains, there is no stand-off situation or heavy deployment of troops, but a long-running dispute over the LAC and blocking of patrols that predates the current crisis and as yet remains unresolved. The success of the new disengagement plan will finally depend on whether it is implemented on the ground in letter and in spirit. The events of last year have left enormous distrust, which remains a hurdle and China’s actions on the ground have not always matched its commitments. Both sides should keep in mind what is at stake for the broader relationship between the two most populous countries, which ultimately hinges on peace on the border.
📰 Tender cut: On cryptocurrencies and regulation
Instead of shutting out cryptocurrencies, the government must ensure smart regulation
•The government’s statement about bringing in a law on cryptocurrencies is welcome, as it could put an end to the existing ambiguity over the legality of these currencies in India. The vagueness exists notwithstanding the fact that the government has, from time to time, suggested that it does not consider them to be legal tender. It has not, however, been able to channel this understandable disapproval — arising out of the fact that such currencies are highly volatile, used for illicit Internet transactions, and wholly outside the ambit of the state — into any sort of regulation. In 2018, the RBI did send a circular to banks directing them not to provide services for those trading in cryptocurrencies. But this was eventually set aside by the Supreme Court, which found the circular to be “disproportionate,” given that the central bank had consistently maintained that virtual currencies were not banned in India. Also, the RBI could not show that entities that it regulated were adversely impacted by exchanges dealing in virtual currencies. The Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur, who on Tuesday confirmed in the Rajya Sabha that a Bill was in the offing, highlighted the complexity in regulation. He said, “Regulatory bodies like RBI and Sebi etc also don’t have a legal framework to directly regulate cryptocurrencies as they are neither currencies nor assets or securities or commodities issued by an identifiable user.”
•This legal ambivalence has not, however, been able to prevent cryptocurrencies from having a growing clientele in India. Their attraction may only grow now, given that the most well-known of them as also the most valuable, Bitcoin, has hit new peaks in price and is gaining influential followers such as Tesla founder Elon Musk. So, what will the Bill seek to do? Those associated with this niche but growing ecosystem will be worried about this question the most. Cryptocurrency exchanges, which have sprung up, are reportedly lobbying with the government to make sure these currencies are regulated rather than banned outright. Smart regulation is preferable, as a ban on something that is based on a technology of distributed ledger cannot be implemented for all practical purposes. Even in China, where cryptocurrencies have been banned and the Internet is controlled, trading in cryptocurrencies has been low but not non-existent, as an India inter-ministerial committee found out. Despite this and the fact that most countries it studied had opted for regulation, this committee still went ahead to recommend an outright ban. Of course, it encouragingly also batted for an official digital currency as well as for the promotion of the underlying blockchain technology. The government must resist the idea of a ban and push for smart regulation.
📰 The agonising cost of ham-handed development
India’s leaders must recommit themselves to the ideas and activism of environmentalists involved with Uttarakhand
•Following flash floods at Chamoli in Uttarakhand, defence personnel are looking for missing persons in a mélange of rock, mud, water, and debris, airlifting rations to inaccessible villages, and repairing bridges and telecommunication networks. Social scientists are assessing the disaster’s impact on the region’s economy. Scientists and policy makers are debating whether climate change or unchecked development in an ecologically fragile region was primarily responsible for the disaster and the death toll. News reports of ancient temples having been swept away in the Alakananda’s raging waters are bringing back traumatic memories of the Kedarnath floods in 2013. All these developments show the profound significance attached to this region and they prompt a historian to ask two fundamental and interrelated questions: How did the Uttarakhand Himalayas emerge as a deva bhumi and how did it develop into a focus of Hindu pilgrimage?
Borderland to sacred place
•A study of the archaeological record and inscriptional evidence suggests that many and varied agents and processes played important roles in gradually transforming this borderland into a sacred landscape. Artefacts found in the Himalayan foothills that are datable to the period extending from 300 BCE and 600 CE include an Ashokan rock edict, brick altars for conducting ashvamedha yagnas, coin hoards, and sculptures.
•The forms of these artefacts and their find-spots indicate deepening contact between communities living in the Gangetic plains and in the foothills. These very developments fostered the growth of Haridwar and Kalsi as cosmopolitan towns and as “gateways” into the Himalayas. Initially, mendicants in search of retreats, merchants eager to enlarge trading networks, adventurous princes in their quest to establish principalities, and artisans in search of employment passed through these gateway towns. Eventually, in the seventh century, a regional tradition of stone temple architecture commenced in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. The earliest shrines in this tradition were built at Palethi and Lakhamandal, just upstream from Haridwar and Kalsi, by visiting sovereigns.
Early developments
•However, these two sites with royal patronage never became major tirthas. Instead, Jageshwar, situated well east of Lakhamandal and Palethi attained this stature. Between the seventh and tenth centuries, builders at Jageshwar modified local geography and ecology to encourage comparisons between it and celebrated locales such as Kashi and Devadarunavana, Shiva’s legendary deodar forest. Eventually, Jageshwar came to have 150 stone temples. These early developments at Jageshwar are relatable to the sway of the Pashupatas and other Shaiva ascetics and not to the rise of local dynasties. In fact, the influence of these ascetic groups in this period distinguishes Uttarakhand from adjoining kingdoms where aristocratic lineages were the primary power brokers.
•In time, the development of a distinctive architectural tradition, increases in the priestly population, greater availability of skilled craftsmen, and the emergence of small principalities, helped further alter the status of this borderland and perceptions of it. By the twelfth century, architects, master-masons, and sculptors from lands as far away as Gujarat travelled to Uttarakhand to build temples in elaborate typologies associated with their homelands. And by the thirteenth century, larger entourages of ascetics, and occasionally rulers from distant lands began undertaking pilgrimages to established and emerging tirthas in this mountainous region. Their journeys and activities ultimately paved the way for the Char Dham Yatra.
The pilgrimage circuit
•The Char Dham Yatra today consists of a pilgrimage to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri. Like many other tirthas in Uttarakhand, Badrinath and Kedarnath have long been associated with gods and sages. For instance, in the Mahabharata, Badrinath is described as the site of Narayana’s discourse to Nara. Kedarnath is mentioned in the Skanda Purana, in medieval lists of jyotirlingas, and in the names of temples built as far away as Karnataka.
•Additionally, both Badrinath and Kedarnath are associated with Adi Shankara who is said to have visited them in the eighth century. Possibly his followers played a role in constructing temples at Pandukeshwar where medieval edifices built in the Dravida and Nagara modes stand side-by side. The oldest historical evidence of the establishment of a sacred centre at Badrinath comes from a charter dating to the ninth century preserved at Pandukeshwar.
•Issued by a hill ruler, the charter instructs priests living at nearby villages of Joshimath and Pandukeshwar to help brahmacharis upstream at Badrinath. Centuries later, in 1808, when a motley troupe of Englishmen reached the Badrinath temple in disguise, they reported it as welcoming 45,000-50,000 pilgrims annually. Given its location in an avalanche-prone valley above the tree line, it is likely that the Badrinath temple has been built and rebuilt several times in its history. Like the present Badrinath temple, the temple standing at Kedarnath today, dates to the early modern period.
•As sites located close to the glacial sources of the Ganga and the Yamuna, Gangotri and Yamunotri have also been given sacred associations. Historically sought out by fearless sadhus, in the more recent past they have been visited by intrepid Englishmen eager to participate in ongoing efforts to map India. In the early 20th century, the Jaipur royal family supported the construction of a temple at Gangotri. The shrines at Yamunotri today are ever newer.
Shifts, ecopressures
•Demographic, political, social and economic shifts that have occurred in the past six decades have led to an increase in the number of pilgrims visiting sacred centres in Uttarakhand. After 1962, the Indian government recognised that the world’s highest and loftiest mountain range no longer served as an insurmountable wall. To safeguard against future incursions, a massive development programme along the country’s mountainous northern border was launched. Agencies such as the Border Roads Organisation, the Indo Tibetan Border Police, and the THDC India Limited (formerly Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Limited) were established. They were granted sizeable budgets, and charged with the construction of roads, tunnels, bridges, cantonments, hospitals, dams, and telecommunication pylons.
•Over time, these efforts stimulated the region’s economy, nurtured new settlements, and introduced infrastructure that facilitated pilgrimage to select sacred centres. The foundations laid by the agencies intensified after 2000 when owing to regional demands for greater political autonomy, Uttarakhand was carved out of sprawling Uttar Pradesh. Recognising religious tourism as an important source of income for a landlocked State mostly covered by snowcapped peaks and dense forests, a succession of governments have created further amenities for pilgrims, widely publicised initiatives, and embarked on the construction of new dams, multi-lane highways, and railroads. As a result of these efforts, many more individuals now undertake sacred journeys, which until 60 years ago were made by only the bravest, fittest, and most determined pilgrims.
Revisiting ideas
•The 2013 Kedarnath floods and the flash floods that have swept through the Alakananda Valley earlier this week suggest that ham-handed development in the name of god, or otherwise, can come at an agonising cost. Now is the time for our leaders to recommit themselves to the ideas and activism of Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Gaura Devi, Guru das Agrawal, Ravi Chopra, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Vandana Shiva, and other Gandhian environmentalists and social workers. Over the past few decades, they have mobilised local communities to protect Uttarakhand’s forests, created local employment, and questioned the wisdom of constructing large hydroelectric projects in a seismically sensitive sacred landscape. They have also reminded us that unless we change our course of action, another Himalayan miscalculation is imminent.
📰 A resilient future for Uttarakhand
The need of the hour is to invest in long-term crisis response mechanisms and resilience solutions
•Days after a glacier burst in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand caused flash floods, the scientific community is still struggling to understand what triggered the disaster. At the time of writing this article, the death toll was 34 with more than 170 people missing. The floods have also caused heavy damage to public and private infrastructure, including the NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydropower project and the Rishiganga mini hydro project. The incident was reminiscent of the 2013 disaster in Uttarakhand which killed thousands.
Why is Uttarakhand vulnerable?
•Uttarakhand is located in the midst of young and unstable mountains, and is subject to intense rainfall. But these natural characteristics can’t be solely responsible for devastations the State has witnessed in the past decade. For years geologists, glaciologists and climate experts have voiced their fears about an impending disaster due to climate change, rapid and indiscriminate construction activities, and the subsequent ecological destruction in the region.
•The occurrence of the current glacier burst was loosely attributed to erosion, a build-up of water pressure, an avalanche of snow or rocks, landslides or an earthquake under the ice. According to the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, a rock mass, weakened from years of freezing and thawing of snow, may have led to the creation of a weak zone and fractures leading to a collapse that resulted in flash floods. What has intrigued experts and the local community is that this avalanche occurred unexpectedly, out of the regular flood season.
•Experts also identified large-scale human settlements and expansion of agricultural activities leading to massive deforestation, as a possible trigger. Studies have shown that widespread settlements, farming, cattle grazing and other anthropogenic activities could destroy the natural barriers that control avalanches and floods, thereby enhancing the possibilities of a glacial lake outburst flood. The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment Report (2019) had pointed out that one-third of the Hindu Kush Himalaya’s glaciers would melt by 2100 and potentially destabilise the river regime in Asia, even if all the countries in the region fulfilled their commitments under the Paris Agreement. It also warned that any ecologically destructive activities would lead to more intensified disasters like landslides.
•Experts and activists have incessantly asked for scrutiny into the construction of hydroelectric power projects in Uttarakhand. There have also been allegations about the use of explosives in the construction of dams and other infrastructure. In 2014, an expert committee led by Dr Ravi Chopra, instituted to assess the role of dams in exacerbating floods, provided hard evidence on how haphazard construction of dams was causing irreversible damage to the region.
Some immediate steps
•The need of the hour is to invest in long-term crisis response mechanisms and resilience solutions. A few immediate steps include: (i) investing in resilience planning, especially in flood prevention and rapid response; (ii) climate proofing the infrastructure such as by applying road stabilisation technologies for fragile road networks and strengthening existing structures like bridges, culverts and tunnels; (iii) strengthening embankments with adequate scientific know-how; (iv) reassessing development of hydropower and other public infrastructure; (v) investing in a robust monitoring and early warning system; (vi) establishing implementable policies and regulatory guidelines to restrict detrimental human activities, including responsible eco- and religious tourism policies; and (vii) investing in training and capacity building to educate and empower local communities to prevent and manage risks effectively.
•The time for wake-up calls is long behind us. India needs to urgently rise up to the challenge by applying innovative and inclusive solutions that support nature and marginalised communities, to restore and rebuild a resilient future for Uttarakhand.
