📰 Ahead of COP26, Indian database highlights emissions gap
Climate Equity Monitor underlines India’s demands for climate justice being at the heart of negotiations
•A day ahead of the commencement of the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland, India has officially endorsed a website, made by Indian climate experts, that lists the historical carbon dioxide emissions of developed countries.
•The database aims to highlight the disparity between the emissions of developed and developing countries with countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and in Western Europe shown as having a net carbon debt while developing countries, including India and China, having net credit.
•The key fact that the database highlights is that it is only fair that developed countries must commit to steeper targets towards curbing emissions than developing countries.
•India is the third largest emitter of carbon emissions annually but the sixth largest when historical emissions are considered, and when accounting for the size of its population it is among the lowest per capita emitters. This underlines India’s demands for climate justice being at the heart of negotiations and its reluctance to agree to a fixed time frame to reach net zero, or when — in balance — it will cease to emit greenhouse gases.
•India is the only significant emitter that hasn’t committed to a net zero target and, in the run-up to COP26, faced immense global pressure to commit to one.
•“The website is intended to debunk the narrative provided by many developed countries, and global non-government organisations that focus attention continually on what developing countries must do, constantly demanding greater commitment and action from them,” says an accompanying press statement from Environment Ministry.
•Several officials from the the Ministry, including Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav are in Glasgow to participate in the meeting that is expected to go on till November 12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be addressing the meeting in person along with 120 other heads of state.
•“Welcome the scientific initiative, Climate Equity Monitor, (https://climateequitymonitor.in) which went live today. Its focus on equity & climate action from a data and evidence-based perspective will encourage vigorous discussion on the crucial issue and engage experts from all nations,” Mr. Yadav tweeted from his official handle.
•The 'Climate Equity Monitor,' as the site is called, is aimed at monitoring the performance of Annex-I Parties under the UNFCCC (developed countries) based on the “foundational principles” of the Climate Convention, namely equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC).
•The performance and policies of the Non Annex-I Parties (developing countries) will be also provided for comparison, the statement notes, “Existing “tracking” websites on climate policies are based in the global North and routinely do not address the crucial aspects of equity and differentiation. Others websites...bury the key issues in complexities that are not transparently dealt with.”
•The website was conceptualised and developed by the Climate Change Group at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering department at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bengaluru, with other independent researchers.
•The MSSRF team was led by Prof. T. Jayaraman, Senior Fellow, Climate Change and the NIAS team by Dr. Tejal Kanitkar, Associate Professor, the statement noted.
•The database lists historical emissions, the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted given the aim of keeping it below 2c and 1.5 C and each country’s corresponding fair share, the promises of each country to reduce emissions and the existing trajectory of their emissions.
📰 G20 ends without time-bound promise on climate change
Final text only commits to ‘net zero’ emissions by or around mid-century.
•India pushed for “safeguarding the interests of the developing world” as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the G20 summit at sessions on climate change and sustainable development on Sunday, said G20 Sherpa and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
•No time-bound agreements were reached as leaders of the world’s top economies ended the summit in Rome, recommitting to providing $100 billion a year to counter climate change, and pushing for greater vaccine equality to fight the COVID pandemic. G20 countries also committed to ending international financing for all new coal plants by the end of 2021, but made no mention of domestic commitments on ending coal power generation.
•The final communique, which was agreed after negotiations overnight spoke only of the “key relevance of achieving global net zero” on carbon emissions “by or around mid-century”.
•Amongst the other highlights of the Rome Leaders statement was a decision to pursue the recognition of more vaccines by the World Health Organization under a “One Health approach” for the world, and providing finances and technology for vaccine production at “mRNA Hubs” in South Africa, Brazil and Argentina, and to mobilise more international public private financing for “green” or environmental projects.
•Addressing the media, G20 Sherpa and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal hailed the communique for acknowledging India’s concerns on climate justice, and for getting developed nations agreed to providing finance and providing technologies to help less developed nations.
•“We have also been able to push the commitment of the developed world to provide $100 billion every year through from now until 2025. And the commitment of all the countries to mobilize greater levels of capital for the less developed countries and the emerging economies,” he said, referring to the previous commitments made at the Paris agreement, which have not yet been fulfilled.
•Climate negotiators from the U.S., EU and UK had made a number of visits to Delhi over the past few months, pressing for India to update its commitments (NDCs) to include its target of 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030, and to set a date for ending the use of coal in power plants.
•However, Mr. Goyal said it would be necessary for developed countries to achieve much quicker emission cuts so that there is more “carbon space for the developing countries to pursue their development agenda”.
•“There are no adequate technologies to be able to absorb large amounts of clean energy into the grids and to maintain grid stability. And therefore, we will have to look at more technology and innovation playing an important role before we can identify a year for Net Zero,” Mr. Goyal said.
•UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the failure of the G20 summit to set a specific date for countries to achieve “Net Zero” carbon emissions, and on reducing global warming, had left his hopes “unfulfilled” but “not buried”, as the joint communique set the stage for tough negotiations at the COP26 Climate Change summit in Glasgow that begins on Monday.
•Mr. Modi will attend the opening ceremony of the 15-day event in the UK, where more negotiations, especially on global commitments to keep temperature increases at 1.5 degrees Celsius will take centrestage.
•Speaking at the session on Climate Change and Environment earlier, the host, Prime Minister Draghi had made an appeal for higher targets to be adopted by the 20 countries, that account for nearly 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
•“The decisions we make today will have a direct impact on the success of the Glasgow Summit and, ultimately, on our ability to tackle the climate crisis,” Mr. Draghi said on Sunday, at the summit that was marked by the absence of five key G20 leaders, from China, Russia, Japan, South Africa and Mexico, who addressed the conference virtually, and sent Ministers in their place. Indonesia will host the next G20 in 2022, and India will be its host in 2023.
📰 Navy takes delivery of guided missile destroyer Visakhapatnam
It’s equipped with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and long-range Surface-to-Air missiles
•The first ship of the four Project-15B state-of-the-art stealth guided missile destroyers, Visakhapatnam, being built at the Mazgaon Docks Limited (MDL), was delivered to the Navy last Friday. Delayed by three years, the ships will be commissioned very soon.
•“The 163-metre-long warship has a full load displacement of 7,400 tonnes and a maximum speed of 30 knots. The overall indigenous content of the project is approximately 75%,” the Navy said on Sunday.
•The contract for the construction of the ships was signed in January, 2011 at a project cost of about ₹29,643.74 crore. The design of the ships has been developed in-house by the Directorate of Naval Design and are a follow-on of the Kolkata class (Project 15A) destroyers. The four ships are christened after major cities from all four corners of the country — Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat, the Navy said.
•The keel of Visakhapatnam was laid in October 2013 and the ship was launched in April 2015. These ships are equipped with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and long-range Surface-to-Air missiles (SAM).
•The ship has several indigenous weapons systems like medium range SAMs, indigenous torpedo tube launchers, anti-submarine indigenous rocket launchers and 76-mm super rapid gun mount, the Navy said.
•“The induction of the destroyer, despite the COVID challenges, is a tribute to the collaborative efforts of a large number of stake-holders and would enhance the maritime prowess in the Indian Ocean Region.”
Enhanced stealth features
•The design of Project 15B has largely maintained the hull form, propulsion machinery, many platform equipment and major weapons and sensors as the Kolkata class to benefit from series production. However, these ships feature enhanced stealth features over the earlier class through shaping of hull and use of radar transparent deck fittings which make them difficult to detect and also feature significant advances in automation and networking.
•These ships are propelled by four gas turbines in Combined Gas and Gas (COGAG) configuration and have maximum endurance of 4000 nm at economical speed of 14 knots, the Navy had said earlier.
Informal workers continue to bear the brunt of pandemic’s adverse effects, says SBI report
•Signalling a greater shift towards formalisation of the economy, the share of the large informal sector in overall economic activity dipped sharply in 2020-21 even as informal workers continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic’s adverse effects, the SBI said in a research report.
•Concluding that the share of the informal economy may have shrunk to no more than 20% of the economic output from about 52% in 2017-18, SBI group chief economic advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh termed this “a positive development” amid the pandemic.
•There are wide variations in the formalisation levels in different sectors but the SBI estimated that the informal economy is possibly at a maximum of 15% to 20% of formal GDP in 2020-21, with at least ₹13 lakh crore coming into the formal economy through various channels in recent years.
•An IMF policy paper earlier this year estimated that the share of India’s informal economy in the Gross Value Added (GVA) was at 53.9% in 2011-12 and improved only marginally to 52.4% in 2017-18. As per a National Sample Survey of 2014, around 93% of the workforce earned their livelihoods as informal workers.
•The informal sector consists of “own-account” or unorganised enterprises employing hired workers, with the highest share of such unorganised activity being in agriculture where holdings are small and fragmented.
Informal agriculture sector shrinks
•The SBI projections suggest that the informal agriculture sector has shrunk from 97.1% of the sector’s GVA in 2017-18 to just 70%-75% in 2020-21, driven by the increased penetration of credit through Kisan credit cards. Real estate has also seen a significant dip in informal activity from 52.8% in 2017-18 to 20%-25% last year.
•The report estimated that about ₹1.2 lakh crore of cash usage has been formalised since the COVID-19 pandemic. Formal agriculture credit flows have grown ₹4.6 lakh crore between 2017-18 and 2020-21, with digital payments for petrol and diesel rising around ₹1 lakh crore in the same period.
•“Though the pandemic has led to a huge devastating impact on all the sectors of the economy, the impact has been felt more by the informal sector. While the formal sector is now back to its pre-pandemic level, the informal sector still continues to bear the brunt,” the report pointed out, emphasising that its projections are based on the assumption that “the shrinkage in economy post-pandemic is mostly informal”.
•“For India, post-2016, a plethora of measures which accelerated digitisation of the economy, emergence of gig economy, have facilitated higher formalisation of the economy — at rates possibly much faster than most other nations,” Mr. Ghosh said.
•“Since 2017-18, a lot has changed in the economy landscape. The IMF has also noted that formalisation of economy has increased since the adoption of GST, enhanced digitalisation and demonetisation.”
‘Review fuel taxes’
•Estimating that 57.2 crore people are now part of the formal economy, the report said: “If we take each household supporting a family of 5, we get 11.4 crore which is roughly equal to the number of tax payers in the economy. Adjusting for the consumption of those below poverty line, these 11.4 crore tax paying households — 8.5% of the population — contribute to 65% of the private final consumption expenditure.”
•Mooting a rethink of high fuel taxes in this context, the SBI’s top economist said: “We believe that the Government should ensure that the existing tax structure is favourable to this tax paying population that constitutes 8.5% but cross subsidises 91.5% of the population. To that extent, the existing tax structure particularly of indirect taxes on fuel should not be consumption negative.”
📰 Underestimated utility: On rural jobs scheme fund crunch
Lowered outlay for rural guarantee scheme has led to used up allocation and wage delays
•That as many as 21 of 35 States/UTs have utilised, by October 29, over 100% of their allocated funds under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for FY2021-22 is not a surprise. In the previous year, the allocations for MGNREGS were increased by ₹50,000 crore to meet the demand for work, with the Revised Estimates for spending for the scheme going up to ₹1,11,500 crore. MGNREGS was a life-saver for the poor, especially migrant labourers, following the sudden lockdown announced by the Union government. In this year’s Budget, the Finance Minister allocated ₹73,000 crore for the scheme, which was higher than the previous year’s absolute number in Budget allocations, but this amounted only to 2.1% of the Budget expenditure, the lowest outlay in those terms in the last six years. By October-end, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh had utilised more than 130% of their respective allocations for the scheme, indicating the extent to which rural workers depend on the scheme even in relatively better-off States. Clearly, the Union government has underestimated the demand for work under the scheme, which even if it involves arduous and menial labour has accounted for a large chunk of rural employment at a time when the economy suffered a steep contraction due to the effects of the pandemic.
•In response to a report, officials in the Rural Development Ministry accused States of “artificially” creating demand, but this has not been borne out from ground reports which continue to indicate rising demand for work and wages in rural India; civil society activists claim that some workers have been turned away by officials despite the demand for work because of the paucity of funds. The Union Government must ensure that the allocation is adequate for wage payments to be done and for demand to be met in the remaining months of this financial year. The utility of MGNREGS as a scheme that alleviates distress has never been in question. From acting as an effective substitute in the absence of crop and weather insurance in aiding poor farm households and helping to provide wages during agrarian crises, to being an avenue for employment during the economic crisis induced by the pandemic and the response, MGNREGS has turned out to be a salve for farm workers and labourers. Delays in wage payments could also result in a decline in rural consumption, which plays a vital role in stimulating the economy. Besides the scheme’s utility in distress, it also has the potential, if works are upgraded suitably, to continue to improve rural development and infrastructure. The Union Government must consider this during allocations and not be conservative in its outlay or remain unmindful of the overall potential of the scheme.
📰 The Court’s order on Pegasus still falls short
Far too many cases have been diluted with the appointment of external panels, in turn compromising civil liberties
•On October 27, the Supreme Court of India appointed an independent committee to inquire into charges that the Union government had used the mobile phone spyware Pegasus to invade, access, and snoop into devices used by India’s citizens. The Court’s direction has been met with adulation. But the time to sing our paeans is not yet here. Much as the Court’s declarations of law brim with brio, its order still falls short of delivering justice.
No guarantee still
•Faced with the Government’s resolute refusal to file a proper affidavit, either confirming or denying the use of Pegasus, the Court, one might have thought, would have issued a writ compelling the state to adduce evidence. Instead, it left the fact finding to a committee of experts. There is no guarantee that a government that chose to remain silent before the Court will now somehow come clean before an external panel. The question then is this: should the Government fail to cooperate, how must the Court respond?
•The petitioners before the Supreme Court relied on an investigation conducted by a consortium of global media. These reports revealed that hundreds of phone numbers from India had appeared on a global list of more than 50,000 numbers that were selected for surveillance by clients of the Israeli firm, the NSO Group. The NSO has since confirmed that its spyware is sold only to governments, chiefly for the purposes of fighting terrorism. The petitioners said that forensic analysis had confirmed the presence of Pegasus on the devices of at least 10 Indians, including some of those before the Court.
Time-tested strategy
•But the cases presented a set of familiar challenges. In response to the allegations made against it, the Government invoked its most-beloved bogey: national security. It effectively claimed that the interests of the country’s safety meant that it was under no obligation to tell the Court whether it in fact used the software or not. What is more, according to it, the very adoption of this argument virtually forbade the Court from probing further. This is a strategy that has worked well in the past. In matters purportedly involving national security, the Court has shown an extraordinary level of deference to the executive.
•The cases also posed another hurdle: a contest over facts. The petitioners were asserting the occurrence of illegal surveillance. The Government was offering no explicit response to their claims. How then was the Court to unravel the truth? Again, in recent times, the Court has invariably veered towards rejecting claims made against the state on the basis that it cannot decide the veracity of a pleading without conducting a full-fledged trial, the conduct of which is beyond the bailiwick of constitutional courts.
•Now, to some degree, in its order appointing a committee, the Court has bucked the trend of absolute deference. The Court has held that there is no magic formula to the Government’s incantation of national security, that its power of judicial review is not denuded merely because the state asserts that the country’s safety is at stake.
A clear path of accountability
•The order recognises, correctly, that spying on an individual, whether by the state or by an outside agency, amounts to an infraction of privacy. This is not to suggest that all surveillance is illegal. But, as the order concludes, any limitation on a fundamental right must be proportional and based on evidence. “In a democratic country governed by the rule of law,” the judges hold, “indiscriminate spying on individuals cannot be allowed except with sufficient statutory safeguards, by following the procedure established by law under the Constitution.”
•In holding thus, the Court has effectively recognised that an act of surveillance must be tested on four grounds: first, the action must be supported by legislation; second, the state must show the Court that the restriction made is aimed at a legitimate governmental end; third, the state must demonstrate that there are no less intrusive means available to it to achieve the same objective; and, finally, the state must establish that there is a rational nexus between the limitation imposed and the aims underlying the measure.
•The test provides a clear path to holding the Government accountable. But for a coherent application of these standards the Court must arrive at a conclusion on facts. Ordinarily, in prerogative proceedings, evidence is taken on affidavit. In other words, the parties before the Court present their version of the facts through a sworn, written statement. The Court then appreciates the evidence to arrive at a deduction.
•In the cases concerning Pegasus, each of the petitioners affirmed a set of facts, claiming that mobile phones of Indian citizens — from journalists and activists to politicians — had been subject to intrusion. In response, the Government refused to file anything more than what it described as a “limited affidavit”. Apart from a general denial of the petitioners’ case, this affidavit, the Court found, did not “provide any clarity as to the facts of the matter at hand.”
For the Court
•The absence of a categorical denial from the Government, the order holds, ought to lead to a prima facie belief, if nothing else, that there is truth in the petitioners’ claims. Having held thus, one might have expected the Court to frame a set of specific questions demanding answers from the state. These might have included the following: did the Government purchase Pegasus? Did it use the software on the phones of Indian citizens? If so, was such use backed by law? What were the reasons for which the use was authorised?
•If answers to these questions were still not forthcoming, elementary principles of evidence law allow the Court to draw what is known as an “adverse inference”. A party that fails to answer questions put to it will only risk the Court drawing a conclusion of fact against it. If, on this basis, the petitioners’ case is taken as true, there can be little doubt that there has been an illegitimate violation of a fundamental right. The Court then can grant any number of remedies: it can make a declaration that the Government was in the wrong; and it can issue a writ compelling the Government to disclose all materials relevant to the purchase and use of Pegasus.
•It is, therefore, unclear why we need a committee at all. Surely, the Court possesses the power to gather evidence on its own, to even allow, in exceptional cases, for cross-examination of important witnesses. A committee might well be necessary where the task of collecting evidence is somehow beyond the Court’s remit. But that is not the case here.
•Ultimately, in the future, the Court must think more carefully about questions of proof and rules of evidence. Ad hoc committees — sterling as their members might be — cannot be the solution. Far too many cases are consigned to the back burner on the appointment of external panels, and, in the process, civil liberties are compromised.
•For now, it is encouraging that the Court has kept these cases on its docket. If it finds in eight weeks’ time, when the cases are next scheduled to be listed, that the Government has been delaying or obstructing the committee, it must proceed to use its prerogative powers to both provide a declaration of illegality and issue a mandatory order to the state compelling it to perform its constitutional duties. Only then will the Court’s various eulogies to the values of privacy have any true meaning.
📰 Getting nutrition back on the school high table
COVID-19 or otherwise, educational institutions need to ensure that schoolchildren are nurtured and nourished
•With COVID-19 cases reducing in the country, several establishments, including schools, are opening again. While the reopening of all schools is on the anvil, the festive season ahead and the fact that children are not yet in the ambit of the vaccination drive are causing apprehension. We, as a society, must focus on the nutrition of children to ensure they are armed with good immunity as they get ready to take on new challenges especially after emerging from the confines of their homes. However, It is important to remember that even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, India was facing significant nutritional challenges. Hence, there is a need to pivot on children’s nutrition, using the novel coronavirus pandemic to better understand current nutrition and nutritional requirements for a healthy body and mind.
Tackling India’s triple burden
•India faces multiple problems of under-nutrition and overweight/obesity coexisting with deficiencies of micronutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium and several vitamins. This triple burden of malnutrition has to be identified, understood and addressed. It is much more important especially in the case of children and adolescents as it is during these phases of life that we see rapid growth of the body and development of food habits. Childhood and adolescence are two conjoined periods of continuous growth and development — a seamless duration. For instance, between two and 10 years of age, children tend to grow at an average of 6-7 cm in height and 1.5 to 3 kg in weight every year. But specifically, when the growth spurt happens at about 10-12 years in girls and two years later in boys during adolescence, their nutritional needs are vastly increased. In the case of girls, their nutritional status impacts not only their health but that of generations to come. Malnutrition in any form can put children and adolescents at risk of compromised immune function, thus making them vulnerable to infections.
Social factors
•To understand and foster their immunity, one also needs to understand disruptive social environment factors that affect diet quality. In urban as well as among middle class and affluent communities, restricted movement, constrained socialisation and even dwindling physical contact have become the new normal. COVID-19 isolation and fatigue have led to generalised stress, adding to the immunity challenge for children. These challenges coupled with a lack of diet diversity leading to imbalanced micronutrient intake or consumption of high carbohydrate and high sugar foods, endanger the child’s health by compromising their immunity and making them vulnerable to infections. Hence, the way we approach nutrition needs to change.
Need for a balanced diet
•It is essential to look beyond minimum calorie requirements and ensure children consume a balanced diet with adequate diversity in order to ensure the required balance of all necessary nutrients. Providing children with a balanced diet packed with all the necessary nutrients provides them with a solid foundation for an active and healthy life. Often overlooked, micronutrients are essential for production of enzymes, hormones and other substances for good immune function, healthy growth and development. Each stage of the body’s immune response relies on the presence of many micronutrients. To combat hidden hunger, affordable, accessible and diverse food sources must be made available across India. Micronutrients that are primarily available in fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts, legumes and whole grains play a crucial role in enhancing the native and adaptive immune function and also aid ‘immune memory’ formation. A substantial serving of fresh fruits and vegetables, as much as about 300-500 gm per day per child is recommended depending on the age group. These, along with curd and nuts, can increase beneficial probiotic bacteria in the intestine. But it is better to help them choose fresh fruits rather than fruit juices. Thoroughly cooked meat/poultry and sea fish are very good for protein; sea fish also provide essential fats. About 300ml-400 ml of milk or curd can provide the required calcium, good quality protein and other nutrients.
•Among urban and affluent groups, indulgence in frequent munching of high-calorie snacks and sweetened beverages that are devoid of beneficial nutrients should be discouraged. However, fats need not be seen as a villain — children and adolescents need about 25g-50g a day, which should ideally be derived from more than two varieties of oils. Maintaining ideal body weight, regular physical activity, adequate water intake along with adequate sleep and low screen time can go a long way in building and regulating their immunity.
Noon meal scheme
•The Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana (PM POSHAN) — the mid-day meal programme in its new avatar — is all set to broad base itself even to students of pre-primary levels or Bal Vatikas of government and government-aided primary schools along with primary and upper primary schoolchildren who are already within the ambit of the mid-day meal programme. The PM POSHAN envisages providing 450 Kcal energy and 12g of protein for primary; 700 Kcal and 20g protein for upper primary children through diet diversity. In addition, monitoring haemoglobin levels of schoolchildren, appointment of nutritional experts to ensure the haemoglobin and growth status are continuously monitored; focus on nutrigardens are all welcome steps as we prepare to reopen schools. Moreover, special provisions for nutritional items for children in districts with high prevalence of anaemia and the involvement of farmer producer organisations and self-help group women will strengthen linkages and convergence for promoting children’s nutrition.
•COVID-19 or no COVID-19, good immunity will lay the foundation for long-term well-being. After all, good nutrition, safe food, and positive lifestyles are the cornerstones of great immune function. To ensure this, schools, when they reopen, should be avenues for teaching nutrition as a life skill than rhetorical pedagogy. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that our children are nurtured and nourished.
📰 A reminder from SARS-CoV-2
Provoking nature beyond a point can lead to unimagined and irreversible consequences for human beings
•Viruses are one of the most persistent and potent forces of evolution, writes Pranay Lal in his new book, Invisible Empire: The Natural History of Viruses. As SARS-CoV-2 has shown, a virus is a force to be feared. “Everything about viruses is extreme, including perhaps, the reactions they evoke,” says Lal as he profiles this abundant life form with the help of photographs, illustrations, anecdotes and paintings. An excerpt from the book:
•Much as we baulk at the idea, we are not unique. The human species, like all other living things, is an amalgam of creatures pieced together, gene by gene, and passed down by different life forms over deep time. Our genes were handed down to us from our ancestral ape, monkey, pig, shrew, gecko, fish, worm, grass, moss and bacterium, with several other creatures in between. Without genetic mutations, there would be no humans or, for that matter, any other life form that we see around us. These mutations — tiny errors in replicating the genetic code — occur randomly each time a cell (or virus) makes copies of itself, thereby becoming the starting point for an unexpected evolutionary journey. A very tiny number of mutations successfully create variation in a population. Natural selection then amplifies traits and creates variants which eventually can evolve into distinct species. These changes could be anything that confers an ability to thrive better in an evolving environment — blending a chameleon more effectively into a forest that is drying up; extending the necks of okapis and gerenuks so they can more easily nibble on the overhanging foliage of tall trees; or simply helping microbes evade a strong immune response and allowing them to attach themselves to a cell.
Genetic monsters
•Viruses together with other microbes speed up the gene exchange between similar and often unrelated life forms. From a virus’s perspective, all living creatures are genetic Frankenstein’s monsters that they have stitched together. Nearly 8% of our genes, for instance, are uniquely viral in origin, and despite thousands and millions of years of adding, editing and deleting genes, we remain genetically similar in many ways. A virus is capable of crossing over into us to cause infection because some of our shared genes, proteins and common cellular components enable it to establish itself.
•Take SARS-CoV-2, one of our most recent chance encounters. A few generations ago, a population of viruses acquired changes in their genes (and proteins) from an animal host which provided them with the ability to infect humans. The virus binds to a protein receptor, ACE2 (or Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; angiotensin is a protein hormone that causes blood vessels to become narrower and is vital for maintaining blood pressure and fluid balance in the body), which it recognises in us. ACE2 is found in several mammals, and in us they are primarily present in our lungs and guts. When virologists teased open the RNA of SARS-CoV-2, they found that it carried genes that are found in a variety of animals – in other viruses, bacteria, slugs, small mammals, and perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, nearly 94% of its genes are found in humans too. But a handful of its genes are completely unique to it and their functions are yet unknown. This makes it difficult to predict how SARS-CoV-2 will behave once it enters our bodies.
•Our technological progress, our ability to acquire instant (albeit often ephemeral) gratification, has lulled us into believing that we possess enough power to subdue and manipulate nature. We choose which relationships we want to foster and which we will cull and sever, and try to make nature serve us selectively and indefinitely. This kind of brinkmanship makes us feel that we can control nature, but as we have been slow to realise, this control is delusional. It is time we stopped looking at nature as a pliable variable or as an entity that impedes ‘progress’, or a tool of one-upmanship. I say this now because there are controversies about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 – did the virus jump from an animal to unsuspecting buyers in a wet market or did it leak from a lab? Was it designed as a bioweapon? For me, these questions are relevant only if we have the courage to take corrective action and hold institutions or governments accountable. Otherwise this is a futile blame game best left to politicians and diplomats. The origin of the virus could be significant for science if it helps us determine the virus’s lineage and identify its potential hosts which will help us plan future strategies.
•Regardless of how it originated, SARS-CoV-2 reminds us that provoking nature beyond a point can lead to unimagined and irreversible consequences. Anyone who understands nature’s processes knows that soils, mud, detritus, mulch, sand, gravel, grit and rock are crucial pieces in the climate change story, as are the ocean currents, wind circulation, the shapes and size of land masses and, of course, life forms – especially microbes, the principal primary energy producers on Earth that regulate the bulk of Earth’s carbon-oxygen cycle. When all these small pieces come together, they power Earth’s engines. This engine is an enormous, planetary scale, biogeochemical reactor – but it starts from small things. Viruses cause a billion infections a second. They tinker and shuffle genes at great speed, creating possibilities of making new varieties of life. Like geological processes which create and shape diverse landscapes, viruses and microbes enable speciation and find ways to fit new entities within ecosystems that their predecessors have shaped. Each ecosystem — a tropical forest, a vast grassland, a small pool or even microbiomes within every individual creature — has been thousands and even millions of years in the making, and is constantly evolving.
Here to stay
•Like any other pathogen that established itself as a persistent disease, SARS-CoV-2, too, was a chance occurrence. We enabled its crossover through destruction of habitats and trade in wildlife. And once the outbreak occurred, mass movements of people, weak and bigoted science, the fragmented response by agencies, a blunderbuss of regulations and distrust between states sustained the spread and evolution of the novel virus. For SARS-CoV-2, the pandemic is not just a one-off chance but an evolutionary moment. The effects of the pandemic will not wear off any time soon. The virus has triggered massive changes starting with our bodies and embracing the body politic and these will probably stay with us for a very long time. Perhaps forever.
