📰 ‘Abnormal’ dinosaur egg found in India
Discovery of ‘egg-in-egg’ leads to new link of reptilian and avian evolution
•A team of researchers from the University of Delhi has discovered a unique set of fossilised dinosaur eggs, with one egg nesting within the other.
•While eggs-within-eggs are a rare phenomenon, they are so far known to occur only in birds and never known in reptiles. This discovery brings out newer connections between reptilian and avian evolution.
•The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, talk about the “egg-in-egg” phenomenon in a titanosaurid dinosaur egg found at Bagh in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district .
•Dinosaurs of the Sauropod family were among the largest land animals that ever lived and widespread millions of years ago in the territory that is now India. Fossils of these animals have been found in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya.
52 nests documented
•The Upper Cretaceous Lameta Formation of Central India is long known for its dinosaur fossils (both skeletal and egg remains), and scientists, some of whom were involved in the team reporting the latest findings, documented 52 titanosaurid sauropod nests near Padlya village close to Bagh town in Madhya Pradesh. One of these nests had 10 eggs, one of which was the “abnormal” egg.
•The egg has two continuous and circular eggshell layers separated by a wide gap like that observed in birds. Until this discovery, no egg-in-egg fossil egg was found in dinosaurs and other reptiles such as turtles, lizards and crocodiles.
•It was believed that dinosaurs had a reproductive function similar to that of turtles and other reptiles (unsegmented oviduct) in contrast to segmented reproductive tract of crocodiles and birds with separate regions of membrane and shell deposition.
Sequential laying of eggs
•Though crocodiles have separate regions of shell membrane and mineralised shell deposition, they ovulate and release all the eggs simultaneously like turtles and other reptiles. In birds, ovulation is sequenced and eggs are laid one at a time.
•“The new discovery of an ovum-in-ovo egg, which is characteristic of birds, in titanosaurids argues for a segmented oviduct like in crocodiles and birds, and possible sequential laying of eggs like in birds,” the authors note.
How is Pakistan aiming to get itself removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list?
•Ahead of the plenary session of the Financial Action Task Force from June 14 to 17, Pakistan is hoping to get its name removed from the FATF’s ‘grey list’.
•The grey countries are designated as “jurisdictions under increased monitoring”, working with the FATF to counter criminal financial activities. Black list countries are ‘high-risk jurisdictions subject to call for action’. These nations have huge deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing regimens.
•Pakistan was retained on the grey list in March as it was yet to address concerns on the front of terror financing investigations and prosecutions targeting senior leaders and commanders of UN designated terrorist groups.
•The story so far: Ahead of the plenary session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global financial crime watchdog, from June 14 to 17 in Berlin, Pakistan which continues to face an economic crunch, is hoping for some respite in the form of its removal from the FATF’s ‘grey list’ or the list of countries presenting a risk to the global financial system.
•In its last plenary meeting in March, the FATF had retained Pakistan’s listing, asking it to expeditiously address the remaining deficiencies in its financial system.
What is the FATF?
•The Financial Action Task Force is an international watchdog for financial crimes such as money laundering and terror financing. It was established at the G7 Summit of 1989 in Paris to address loopholes in the global financial system after member countries raised concerns about growing money laundering activities. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack on the U.S., FATF also added terror financing as a main focus area. This was later broadened to include restricting the funding of weapons of mass destruction.
•The FATF currently has 39 members. The decision-making body of the FATF, known as its plenary, meets thrice a year. Its meetings are attended by 206 countries of the global network, including members, and observer organisations, such as the World Bank, some offices of the United Nations, and regional development banks.
•The FATF sets standards or recommendations for countries to achieve in order to plug the holes in their financial systems and make them less vulnerable to illegal financial activities. It conducts regular peer-reviewed evaluations called Mutual Evaluations (ME) of countries to check their performance on standards prescribed by it. The reviews are carried out by FATF and FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs), which then release Mutual Evaluation Reports (MERs). For the countries that don't perform well on certain standards, time-bound action plans are drawn up. Recommendations for countries range from assessing risks of crimes to setting up legislative, investigative and judicial mechanisms to pursue cases of money laundering and terror funding.
What are FATF’s ‘grey’ and ‘black’ lists?
•While the words ‘grey’ and ‘black’ list do not exist in the official FATF lexicon, they designate countries that need to work on complying with FATF directives and those who are non-compliant, respectively.
•At the end of every plenary meeting, FATF comes out with two lists of countries. The grey countries are designated as “jurisdictions under increased monitoring”, working with the FATF to counter criminal financial activities. For such countries, the watchdog does not tell other members to carry out due-diligence measures vis-a-vis the listed country but does tell them to consider the risks such countries possess. Currently, 23 countries including Pakistan are on the grey list.
•As for the black list, it means countries designated as ‘high-risk jurisdictions subject to call for action’. In this case, the countries have considerable deficiencies in their AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing) regimens and the body calls on members and non-members to apply enhanced due diligence. In the most serious cases, members are told to apply counter-measures such as sanctions on the listed countries. Currently, North Korea and Iran are on the black list.
•Being listed under the FATF’s lists makes it hard for countries to get aid from organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the European Union. It may also affect capital inflows, foreign direct investments, and portfolio flows.
Why is Pakistan on the grey list?
•Pakistan was retained on the grey list in March as it was yet to address concerns on the front of terror financing investigations and prosecutions targeting senior leaders and commanders of UN designated terrorist groups. Diplomatic sources in Pakistan told The Hindu that steps had been taken in this direction such as the sentencing of terror outfit chief Hafiz Saeed, prosecution of Masood Azhar, arrest of about 300 other designated terrorists, and the seizure of more than 1,100 properties owned by terror groups. India meanwhile, a member of FATF, suspects the efficacy and permanence of Pakistani actions.
•Pakistan is currently banking on its potential exclusion from the grey list to help improve the status of tough negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to get bailout money.
•Pakistan has found itself on the grey list frequently since 2008, for weaknesses in fighting terror financing and money laundering. In 2009, the country began to cooperate with the FATF-like regional body, Asia Pacific Group (APG), for a ME process.
•On completion of the ME in June 2010, Pakistan made a “high-level political commitment” to the FATF and APG to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. It was given an action plan which required demonstrating adequate criminalisation of money laundering and terrorist financing as well as showing adequate measures to identify, freeze and confiscate terrorist assets.
•It was taken off the list in 2015 owing to its progress but was put back on it in 2018. It was given a 27-point action plan to restrict terror financing activities. After warnings and two deadline extensions on the first plan, Pakistan was prescribed another seven-point action plan by the APG in 2021, focused specifically on combating money laundering. In March, Pakistan informed FATF that it had completed 32 of the total 34 action items in the two plans but was retained on the list. The FATF gave it time till January 2023 to complete the 2021 plan.
📰 Understanding the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Why was the OIC established? What has been its role in the international arena?
•The OIC was established at a 1969 summit in Rabat (Morocco). It endeavours to establish solidarity among member states, support restoration of complete sovereignty and territorial integrity of any member state under occupation; protect, defend and combat defamation of Islam, prevent growing dissention in Muslim societies and work to ensure that member states take a united stand on the international stage.
•India’s association with the 57-nation grouping has not been easy. Even though the country has good relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, its membership and engagement has been constantly challenged by Pakistan.
•Al Sharq Forum analyst Abdullah al-Ahsan, in an article in 2019 noted that the OIC has failed to establish a cooperative venture among its members, who were either capital-rich and labour-scarce or manpower-rich and capital scarce countries.
•The story so far: On June 5, the General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) “condemned and denounced” the comments on Prophet Muhammed made by two erstwhile national spokespersons of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Referring to it as part of “growing spate of hatred and defamation of Islam in India”, it sought that the perpetrators are bought to justice and held accountable. In response, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs, stated that India rejected the OIC Secretariat’s “unwarranted” and “narrow-minded” comments. He said that the views expressed by the two individuals did not reflect the views of the Indian government and that relevant authorities had already initiated strong actions against them.
What is the OIC?
•The OIC claims to be the “collective voice of the Muslim world”. It was established at a 1969 summit in Rabat (Morocco) after what it describes as the ‘criminal arson’ of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the disputed city of Jerusalem. The OIC endeavours to establish solidarity among member states, support restoration of complete sovereignty and territorial integrity of any member state under occupation; protect, defend and combat defamation of Islam, prevent growing dissention in Muslim societies and work to ensure that member states take a united stand at the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council and other international fora.
•The OIC has consultative and cooperative relations with the UN and other inter-governmental organisations to protect the interest of Muslims, and settle conflicts and disputes involving member states, among them being the territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the status of Jammu & Kashmir. Presently based in Jeddah, the organisation plans to permanently move its headquarters to East Jerusalem once the disputed city is ‘liberated’. Moreover, it aspires to hold Israel accountable for ‘war crimes’ and violations of international law.
•The organisation adheres to a charter that lays out its objectives, principles and operating mechanism. First adopted in 1972, the charter has been revised multiple times in line with emerging conditions in the developing world. The present charter was adopted in March 2008 at Dakar in Senegal. It enshrines that all members be guided and inspired by the noble Islamic teachings and values alongside committing themselves to the purposes and principles of the UN charter. Member states are expected to uphold and promote good governance, democracy, human rights, fundamental freedom and the rule of law — settling disputes through peaceful means and refraining from the use of threat or force.
•In addition, the OIC carves out a 10-year Programme of Action (PoA). Last instituted for the decade ending 2025, the PoA calls for measures to combat all aspects of terrorism globally. It also talks of implementing social schemes to eliminate two-thirds of extreme poverty and spurring industrialisation, investment, trade and overall economic and social growth among member states.
How does the OIC function?
•The Islamic Summit, composed of Kings and heads of state, is the supreme authority of the organisation. Convening every two years, it deliberates, takes policy decisions, provides guidance on issues relevant to the organisation and considers issues of concern to the member states. The Council of Foreign Ministers is the chief decision-making body and meets annually to decide on how to implement the OIC’s general policies. In addition, this council also appoints, for a period of five years, the Secretary General, who is the chief administrative officer of the grouping. The Secretary General follows up on implementation of the decisions, directs attention to competent organs’ specific issues of concern, creates a channel for coordination among the varied organs and submits annual reports on the work undertaken. Former Foreign Affairs Minister of Chad, Hissein Brahim Taha, is the current Secretary General, taking up the role in November 2021.
•UN members with a Muslim majority can join the organisation. The membership is to be ratified with full consensus at the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers. The same provisions apply for acquiring an observer status. All decision-making in the forum requires a quorum defined by the presence of two-thirds of the member states and complete consensus. In case a consensus cannot be reached, decisions shall be made by a two-thirds majority of members present and voting.
•The OIC is financed by the member states proportionate to their national incomes. Should a member fail to meet their obligations such that the amount of arrears equals or exceeds the amount of contributions due from it for the preceding two years, their voting rights are suspended. The member is only allowed to vote if the Council of Foreign Ministers is satisfied that the failure is due to conditions beyond the member’s control. The OIC also has standing committees for cooperation on information and cultural affairs, economic and commercial matters, scientific and technological initiatives and for Jerusalem.
What has been the nature of India’s relationship with the OIC?
•India’s association with the 57-nation grouping has not been easy. Even though the country has good relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, its membership and engagement has been constantly challenged by Pakistan. In 1969, Islamabad’s opposition to Indian participation at the first OIC Plenary resulted in the Indian delegation being turned back from the venue at the last minute.
•About 50 years later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj addressed the OIC Plenary of Foreign Ministers in Abu Dhabi as a guest of honour. The invitation was extended by the UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In 2018, Bangladesh had proposed India be given the observer status at the OIC considering its sizeable Muslim population – a move which received support from Turkey but was opposed by Pakistan. Political analyst Ketan Mehta of the Observer Research Foundation wrote in 2019 that Islamabad’s apprehension stems from the fear that India’s involvement in the grouping could influence the opinion of other Muslim states — not boding well for its influence.
What have been the criticisms against the OIC grouping?
•Brookings Institution analyst Turan Kayaoglu wrote in 2020 that the OIC had become a premise for ‘window dressing’, more interested in the rights of Muslim minorities in places such as Palestine or Myanmar than the human rights violations of its member states. The author noted that the body lacks power and resources to investigate human rights violations or enforce its decisions through signed treaties and declarations.
•Experts have also pointed to the fact that the organisation is largely restricted to arbitrating in conflicts where both parties are Muslims. This is because the organisation is centred around Quranic values, which, it believes, makes it a qualified arbitrator. The according of observer status at the UN to the Palestine Liberation Organisation is considered among its major successes.
•Al Sharq Forum analyst Abdullah al-Ahsan, in an article in 2019 — the 50th anniversary of the organisation— noted that the OIC has failed to establish a cooperative venture among its members, who were either capital-rich and labour-scarce countries or manpower-rich and capital scarce. “...the organization has not evolved to become a significant player either in international politics or in the area of economic cooperation,” Mr. Al-Ahsan wrote.
📰 Musings on ‘Indic civilisation’ and Indianness
India’s civilisational heritage must be treated as a matter of pride — as one that unites every Indian
•I have been musing about the nature of Indian nationhood for at least the last four decades, ever since a distinguished foreigner said to me: ‘You Indians have allowed yourself to forget that there is such a thing as Indic civilization. And we are its last outpost.’
•The words were spoken to me in 1982, when I headed the United Nations office in Singapore, by the Khmer nationalist politician and one-time Prime Minister, Son Sann, lamenting India’s support for Vietnam in its conquest of Cambodia in 1979. To Son Sann, a venerable figure then already in his late seventies, Cambodia was an ‘Indic civilization’ being overrun by the forces of a Sinic state, and he was bewildered that India, the fount of his country’s heritage, should sympathise with a people as distinctly un-Indian as the Vietnamese. Given that Vietnam’s invasion had put an end to the blood-soaked terror of the rule of the Khmer Rouge, I was more inclined to see the choice politically than in terms of civilisational heritage. But Son Sann’s words stayed with me.
The long reach of culture
•They came back to mind during a visit to Angkor Wat, perhaps the greatest Hindu temple ever built anywhere in the world — and in Cambodia, not in India. To walk past those exquisite sculptures recounting tales from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, to have my Cambodian guide tell me about the significance of the symbols protecting the shrine — the naga, the simha, and the garuda, corresponding, he said earnestly, to today’s navy, army, and air force — and to marvel at the epic scale of a Hindu temple as impressive as the finest cathedral or mosque anywhere in the world, was also to marvel at the extraordinary reach of a major strand of our culture beyond our own shores. Hinduism was brought to Cambodia by merchants and travellers more than a millennium ago. It has long since disappeared, supplanted by Buddhism, also an Indian export. But at its peak, Hinduism profoundly influenced the culture, music, dance, and mythology of the Cambodian people. My Cambodian guide at Bayon, a few minutes’ drive from Angkor Wat, spoke with admiration of a sensibility which, in the 16th century, saw Hindus and Buddhists worship side by side in adjoining shrines within the same temple complex. That seems inconceivable today in India, where contestations over places of worship have been reduced to winner-takes-all.
Last outpost standing
•Perhaps Son Sann was right, and Cambodia is indeed the last outpost of Indic civilisation in a world increasingly Sinified. But what exactly does that mean? At a time when the north of India was reeling under waves of conquest and cultural stagnation, our forefathers in the South and East were exporting aspects of Indianness to Southeast Asia. It was an anonymous task, carried out not, for the most part, by warriors blazing across the land bearing swords of conquest, but by individuals who had come in peace, to trade, to teach, and to persuade. Their impact was profound. To this day, the kings of Thailand are crowned in the presence of Brahmin priests; the Muslims of Java still bear Sanskritised names, despite their conversion to Islam, a faith whose adherents normally bear names originating in Arabia; Garuda is Indonesia’s national airline, and Ramayana its best-selling brand of clove cigars; even the Philippines has produced a pop-dance ballet about Rama’s quest for his kidnapped queen. Many Southeast Asian countries also mirror the idea of a ‘sacred geography’: the old Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya derived its name from the Indian Ayodhya, and places in Thailand are associated with events in the Ramayana epic, such as a hill where Hanuman was sent to find the Sanjeevani. Since 1782, Thai kings are still named Rama in continuation of the Ramayana tradition; the current monarch, Vajiralongkorn, is styled Rama X. (The Javanese city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia is also a transliteration of Ayodhya).
Ideas that are inadequate
•Indeed the pioneering French Indologist, Sylvain Lévi, spoke and wrote of ‘le monde Indien’ or ‘greater India’, a concept echoed in the American Sanskrit scholar, Sheldon Pollock’s ‘the Sanskrit cosmopolis’. Both terms refer to countries whose cultures were Indic in the sense of having been strongly influenced by Sanskrit language and literature. For such scholars, the geographical idea of India (the subcontinent bordered by the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Himalayan mountains) and the geopolitical idea of India (today the Republic of India; at its biggest extent, the British Raj as it was in 1914, or more pragmatically, the British India of 1947) are inadequate—for the civilisational idea of India is much broader.
•In a perverse way, it is also narrower, for Indic civilisation was often not as well-entrenched in some parts of today’s Republic of India as it was in countries that were not, for long, part of any Indian polity, such as Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Java, Bali, or Sumatra. These countries, at least during large parts of the first millennium CE, were ‘culturally as much Indian as Andhra Pradesh or Bangladesh during that very period’, argues the French Indologist, Gérard Fussman. ‘In these countries, non-Sanskritic languages were spoken and local gods were worshipped. But the language of culture and politics was Sanskrit as in India proper, or Pali; the upper strata’s cults were Hindu or Buddhist, as in India proper; artists and architects followed the precepts of Sanskrit technical treatises.’
•But contemporary international politics has rendered all this much less significant than the modern indices of strategic thinking, economic interests, and geopolitical affinities. India is far less important to the countries that still bear such ‘Indic’ influence than, say, China, whose significance is contemporary, rather than civilisational.
The idea of India and beyond
•Should we care, and what, if anything, does this have to do with the idea of India? Of course, we should care: no great civilisation can afford to be indifferent to the way in which it is perceived by others. But what, today, is Indic civilisation? Some have argued that India is a “civilization-state” rather than a “nation-state”, but they anchor the idea of Indian civilisation solely in the Hindu dharma, with no regard for the multiple non-Hindu influences that have undoubtedly helped shape contemporary Indian civilisation. The Huntington idea that the principal fault lines in the world would be between civilisations rather than ideologies — over identity rather than ideas — appeals to votaries of the Hindutva movement, who see Hindu civilisation as the defining characteristic of the Indian nation. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had stated bluntly: “For me, Hindu Nation and Indian Nation are synonyms.” But this is a highly contestable proposition. Can we afford to anchor ourselves in a purely atavistic view of ourselves, hailing the religious and cultural heritage of our forebears without recognising the extent to which we ourselves have changed?
A hybrid
•The examples I have cited are, after all, all from the Hindu tradition. But is not Indian civilisation today an evolved hybrid that draws as much from the influence of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and Sikhism, not to mention two centuries of British colonial rule? Can we speak of Indian culture today without qawwali, the poetry of Ghalib, or for that matter the game of cricket, our de facto national sport? When an Indian dons a ‘national dress’ for a formal event, he wears a variant of the sherwani, which did not exist before the Muslim invasions of India.
•When Indian Hindus voted a few years ago, in a cynical and contrived competition on the Internet, to select the ‘new seven wonders’ of the modern world, they voted for the Taj Mahal constructed by a Mughal king, not for Angkor Wat, the most magnificent architectural product of their religion. So, does not Indianness today — composed of elements influenced by various civilisations that have made their homes on Indian soil — subsume the classical Indic civilisation that Son Sann was referring to? It does, and we are all much better for it. Let us treat our civilisational heritage as a matter of pride, and not of parochialism; as a heritage that unites, rather than divides one Indian from another.
