📰 New Arunachal monkey named after mountain pass
Sela macaque was identified and analysed by a team from the ZSI and the University of Calcutta
•A new species of old world monkey recorded from Arunachal Pradesh has been named after a strategic mountain pass at 13,700 ft above sea level.
•Sela macaque (Macaca selai), the new-to-science primate was identified and analysed by a team of experts from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the University of Calcutta. Their study has been published in the latest edition of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
•Phylogenetics relate to the evolutionary development and diversification of a species or group of organisms.
•The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Sela macaque was geographically separated from the Arunachal macaque (Macaca munzala) of Tawang district by Sela. This mountain pass acted as a barrier by restricting the migration of individuals of these two species for approximately two million years, the study said.
•Sela is situated between Dirang and Tawang towns in western Arunachal Pradesh.
•“We found the new macaque species in western and central Arunachal Pradesh while exploring the Arunachal macaque’s wild population for genetic insights. It was found to be genetically different from the other species of monkeys reported from this region,” ZSI’s Mukesh Thakur, one of the authors of the study said.
Major cause for crop loss
•The study describes the Sela macaque as genetically closer to the Arunachal macaque. The two have some similar physical characteristics such as heavy-build shape and long dorsal body hair.
•The zoologists identified some distinct morphological traits to differentiate the two species. While the Sela macaque has a pale face and brown coat, the Arunachal macaque has a dark face and dark brown coat.
•“According to the villagers, the Sela macaque is a major cause of crop loss in the West Kameng district of the State,” Mr. Thakur said.
•The study says the Sela macaque has a tail longer than the Tibetan macaque, Assamese macaque, Arunachal macaque and the white-cheeked macaque but shorter than the bonnet macaque and toque macaque. Sela macaque belongs to the sinica species-group of Macaca, but it differs from all other members of thisgroup through attributes such as brown collar hair and muzzle, and the absence of chin whiskers, the study says.
Economic and structural factors create more hurdles to hygiene management, good health, health-seeking behaviours
•In the past decade, significant progress has been made in India by government and non-governmental actors with regard to menstrual health and hygiene management (MHHM). Increased awareness about MHHM, enhanced access to female friendly/gender appropriate sanitation facilities and availability of menstrual products, in particular sanitary pads, are some of the visible outcomes of this progress. However, certain groups have been overlooked thus far, including girls and women with disabilities, who face an exceptional burden on account of the intersections between gender and disability.
Census data, Act’s ambit
•According to Census 2011, nearly 27 million persons (or 2.2% of the Indian population) are disabled. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 specifies that a person with disabilities has “long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which, in interaction with barriers, hinders [her]/his full and effective participation in society equally with others”. Persons with disability are unable to fully participate in many areas of daily life or may be excluded from doing so as a consequence of impairments/societal barriers or socio-cultural attitudes.
Magnified vulnerabilities
•The 2016 Act, while stipulating the rights and entitlements of persons with disability, recognised that women and children are particularly vulnerable, and that certain rights, such as reproductive rights, may be even more neglected or disregarded as compared to others. Despite the intent of the Act and its provisions, the realisation of rights and entitlements of persons with disability is poor, especially for those from socially and economically vulnerable groups. In India, girls and women with disabilities from poor households and marginalised communities, bear a triple burden that exacerbates their vulnerabilities.
•Deeply embedded prejudices and misconceptions about the reproductive anatomy and abilities of persons with disability result in their being considered asexual, unsuitable for marriage, and incapable of having and raising children. Access to sexual and reproductive health information and services are in turn compromised because of these social and physical barriers. Several studies bear testimony to this, and reveal that persons with disability are more likely to be denied information about sexual and reproductive health as compared to those without disabilities. Field experiences reveal compromised menstrual health, a basic physiological aspect of sexual and reproductive health, among persons with disability.
•For a vast majority of women and girls and persons with gender diverse identities, menstruation is more than a mere physiological process due to preconceived notions about menstruators and menstrual blood being impure or dirty. Economic and structural factors create additional hurdles to hygiene management, good health, and health-seeking behaviours. Constraints imposed by limited mobility, cognitive capacities and self-care pose even greater challenges for girls and women with disabilities.
Collaboration for solutions
•The United Nations Population Fund and WaterAid India are working together to understand the key challenges and constraints faced by persons with disability with regard to menstrual health and hygiene. The aim is to identify simple and potentially scalable solutions based on insights from individuals and organisations working with persons with disability across the country. There are critical areas for improving the menstrual health of persons with disability that have emerged. These include: Accessible and adapted Information, education and communication on menstrual health and hygiene for persons with disability based on their differential needs and capacities, and an enabling socio-cultural environment. For example, while the core messages related to menstruation and menstrual hygiene are the same for all, the manner in which information is communicated will vary depending on the type of disability and extent of impairment. Tactile models accompanied by audio explanations can help people with visual impairment, whereas the same models accompanied by materials with clear step-by-step visuals are useful for people with hearing impairments.
•The second is appropriate and safe menstrual products and hygiene promotion. Fewer than two-thirds of girls and women with disabilities aged between 15 to 24 years use hygienic menstrual protection methods (National Family Health Survey 2019-20). Thus, persons with disability and caregivers need to be educated on the diverse range of products available to enable them to choose the most appropriate product. Persons with intellectual impairments are highly sensitive to materials and may require those that are soft to touch and cause less irritation. Persons with mobility restrictions require products that can be worn for longer as changing them frequently poses a challenge.
•The third is responsive and inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, including disposal solutions in different settings. Accessible designs of WASH infrastructure for diverse needs exist and have been created in rural and urban contexts in India and particularly in schools, but need to be scaled up for wider coverage.
•The fourth is caregivers, both from within the family and institutions are vital for disability focused interventions and must be included as both participants and partners. From a policy perspective, there is a need to incorporate a disability-inclusive approach within the menstrual health and hygiene work in the country and to implement specific disability focused interventions to facilitate inclusion.
It is a right
•Every menstruating person has the right to menstrual health, irrespective of their gender identity, ability, or socio-economic status. While India has made significant progress busting stigmas around menstrual health and expanding access to hygiene products, let us not leave anyone behind. Let us raise the bar to ensure that all menstruating persons — abled or differently abled — enjoy the same dignity and rights every month of the year.
📰 IISc develops device to improve data security
‘This will provide protection for digital data like credit card details, passwords’
•A team at the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering (ECE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a true random number generator (TRNG), which, the team says, can improve data encryption and provide improved security for sensitive digital data such as credit card details, passwords and other personal information. The study describing the device has been published in the journal ACS Nano.
•“Almost everything we do on the internet is encrypted for security. The strength of this encryption depends on the quality of random number generation,” explained Nithin Abraham, a PhD student who is a part of a team led by Kausik Majumdar, Associate Professor at ECE, which has developed the device. Encrypted information can be decoded only by authorised users who have access to a cryptographic ‘key’. But the key needs to be unpredictable and, therefore, randomly generated to resist hacking. Cryptographic keys are typically generated in computers using pseudorandom number generators, which rely on mathematical formulae or pre-programmed tables to produce numbers that appear random but are not. In contrast, a TRNG extracts random numbers from inherently random physical processes, making it more secure, the IISc release explained.
•In IISc’s TRNG device, random numbers are generated using the random motion of electrons. “It consists of an artificial electron trap constructed by stacking atomically-thin layers of materials like black phosphorus and graphene. The current measured from the device increases when an electron is trapped, and decreases when it is released. Since electrons move in and out of the trap in a random manner, the measured current also changes randomly. The timing of this change determines the generated random number,” it added.
•“You cannot predict exactly at what time the electron is going to enter the trap. So, there is an inherent randomness that is embedded in this process,” explained Prof. Majumdar.
•The performance of the device on the standard tests for cryptographic applications designed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has exceeded their expectations. “Min-entropy is a parameter used to measure the performance of TRNGs. Its value ranges from 0 (completely predictable) to 1 (completely random). The device from Majumdar’s lab showed a record-high min-entropy of 0.98, a significant improvement over previously reported values, which were around 0.89,” the release said, adding that the team’s electronic TRNG is also more compact than its clunkier counterparts.
📰 Sex as work
Laws should free consenting sex workers from stigma, and grant them rights
•A long-standing demand of sex workers that their work be decriminalised has been partially fulfilled with the Supreme Court passing an order on May 19 that adult sex workers are entitled to dignity and equal protection under law. Directing the police to respect the rights of consenting sex workers, the Court observed that “... notwithstanding the profession, every individual ... has a right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution”. It reiterated what the Court had ruled in Budhadev Karmaskar (2011), that sex workers are also entitled to a “life of dignity”. With the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill yet to see the light of day, the Court invoked powers under Article 142 to issue guidelines till the legislation is in force. In 2011, it had set up a panel to look at prevention of trafficking; rehabilitation; and conditions conducive for sex workers who wish to continue work. As the Court awaits the Government’s response to the panel’s recommendations that adult sex workers should not be “arrested or penalised or harassed or victimised,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao did well to direct the police to treat “all sex workers with dignity and should not abuse them, ... verbally and physically, subject them to violence or coerce them into any sexual activity”. During the hearings, the Additional Solicitor General Jayant Sud had conveyed to the Court that the Government has “certain reservations” on some of the panel’s recommendations.
•The Court has asked the Government to respond to the panel’s suggestions in six weeks. By holding that basic protection of human decency and dignity extends to sex workers and their children, the Court has struck a blow for the rights of an exploited, vulnerable section. Coming down heavily on the brutal and violent “attitude” of the police toward sex workers, the Court said “it is as if they are a class whose rights are not recognised”. It has asked State governments to do a survey of protective homes under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the legislation governing sex work in India, to review the cases of “adult women” detained there and process their release in a time-bound manner. The ITP Act penalises acts such as running a brothel, soliciting in a public place, living off the earnings of a sex worker and living with or habitually being in the company of one. The Court’s general observations should help sensitise the police, media and society toward sex workers, who have generally been invisible and voiceless. The ball is in the Government’s court to draw up appropriate legislation to free consenting sex workers from stigma, and grant them workers’ rights. In that too, the Court suggested the Centre and States involve sex workers or their representatives to reform laws.
📰 India to get semi-high speed freight train
The ‘Gati Shakti’ train will run from December
•To tap the growing freight sector in the country, the Railways is aiming to introduce the country’s first semi-high speed freight train by December 2022.
•Based on the Vande Bharat platform, the 16-coach ‘Gati Shakti’ train will be able to run at 160 km/hour, and will be manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.
•“The design work for these trains has already started. We have also given the order for material…By December this year, we will be able to manufacture two of these trains,” ICF General Manager A.K. Agarwal said.
•Mr. Agarwal added that the overall target of 25 such trains had been set.
•The final number of trains would depend on how the initial trains will be received by market, he said.
Focus on e-commerce
•With these trains, the Railways plans to target the e-commerce and courier parcel segment.
•Quoting data from IBEF, an ICF official added that with the turnover of $50 billion in 2020, India had become the 8th largest market for e-commerce.
•“India’s e-commerce market is expected to reach $111 billion by 2024, $200 billion by 2026 and expected to reach $350 billion by 2030,” the official said.
•The official added that the Railways has planned to capture the small size parcel shipments by running dedicated high speed freight trains.
•Additionally, each train would have two refrigerated wagons — the first and last cars in the train, to ferry perishable items such as fruits and vegetables.
•The Railways is aiming to increase its share in freight transportation from the present 27% to 45% by 2030 through better infrastructure and business development plans, according to the National Rail Plan.
