Defending India’s IPR

India’s IPR regime, never in the background, has come under sharp focus recently for a variety of reasons.

It is ten years since India amended the Indian Patents Act, 1970 to bring its laws in line with the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The most important of those amendments related to the introduction of product patents for 20 years, including for pharmaceutical products. Significant safeguards were built into the legislation. These included debarring of ever greening patents, a process by which the patent holder seeks to extend the life of patents by some minor tinkering with the products. The amended legislation also expanded the scope of compulsory licensing and introduced for the first time post grant opposition to patents (Provisions relating to pre-grant opposition were retained).The legislation raised the bar for what constitutes an invention and what cannot be patented in India.

The above provisions served Indian consumers well by keeping the price of some important drugs dealing with critical illnesses such as cancer under check. The Patent office’s rulings have by and large been upheld by the highest courts. Inevitably big pharma have lobbied with their governments to force India to dilute the provisions.

The new government under pressure

The NDA government’s approach to the IPR issues has been a subject of intense discussion, especially in the context of repeated attempts by the US Trade Representative (USTR) to put India and some other countries on the mat over the alleged weaknesses in their IPR regime. The Office of the USTR is part of the executive office of the American President and apart from being the chief trade negotiator of the U.S. government has enormous clout over the conduct of trade across the world.

On April 30, the office of the USTR named India and China among 13 countries, which were placed on a priority list, requiring close scrutiny for their alleged IPR weaknesses in diverse areas including pharma, IT and publishing.

The report called upon these governments to plug what it thinks are the lacunae in their IPR regimes so as to align them with global standards. For India the USTR action has been a persistent thorn. As soon as the NDA government took office it had to face a similar report. In fact out of last year’s inclusion in the priority list, India faced a mid-term appraisal.

However, the U.S. authorities noted some improvement — a conclusion no doubt arising out of improving relations between the two countries at the highest levels.

There has been one saving grace on both occasions: India while being on the priority list was not designated a priority watch country, which might have led to penal action against India. In practical terms that means being able to stand up to influential lobbies such as seen spectacularly in pharma. The consolation prize of avoiding punitive action by the developed countries is simply not enough.

Draft of a new policy

India needs to fashion a policy that will be in tune with global standards and at the same time protect special Indian strengths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said as much: “India should align its IPR laws with global standards.” Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman remarked earlier that “We need an integrated policy,” While nothing significant can be inferred from these statements the government has done well to release a draft IPR policy in the public domain. Taking a balanced approach, it says that existing laws — that seek to protect the rights and incentives of innovators on the one hand and public interest on the other — would remain. However it also calls for legislative changes to keep pace with economic and technological developments.

A challenging task

It is going to be an extremely challenging task to stick to that position. Of special concern have been the developments in the pharma industry where India is facing maximum pressures from extremely well funded lobbies set up by big pharma from the U.S. and other developed countries (although it must be reiterated that pharma is not the only area).

IPR challenges have to be met increasingly through political action and diplomacy. The government needs to strengthen its decision-making process and boost the skills of its negotiators. In this connection an important initiative of the NDA government has been the setting up of an IPR think tank which among other tasks, will help in the formulation of a National Intellectual Property Rights policy for the first. The draft paper is the first step. The government has called for feedbacks before it finalises a new IPR policy.

The domestic constituency of the NDA government also cannot obviously be ignored. Already there have been rumblings over the composition of the technical committee that will advise the government.

To reiterate, the main challenge is to eradicate even the faintest of suspicions that the government is acting under external pressure. India does not have an IPR policy but it has a strong legal foundation. Important precedents have been set especially in pharma-related matters. Besides, there is a well functioning Patents office with sufficient experience to grant patents and uphold consumer interests. From here a new, well balanced policy should not be too difficult. Resisting the big lobbies which have the support of the political establishments of developed countries is an entirely different matter.

The building of the BRICS bank

Sanjay Vijayakumar has more about BRICS bank in this explainer

Last week, India named veteran banker K.V. Kamath to be the first President of the New Development Bank, popular as the BRICS bank. The focus of this bank will be to invest in infrastructure. Mr. Kamath, 67, is a veteran banker, who was credited with developing ICICI Bank into India’s second-largest lender. He headed the bank for 13 years until 2009 and is now its Non-Executive Chairman. He is also Non-Executive Chairman of India’s second-biggest software services exporter Infosys.

What is BRICS?

In 2001, the then Goldman Sachs Group economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC to describe the growing prominence of Brazil, Russia, India and China in the global economy. Not yet considered developed countries, the four were grouped together for being at the same stage of economic development.

BRIC country leaders started meeting as a bloc in 2009. South Africa joined them later, though there was some scepticism that as a country of less than 50 million people it is too small to join the group. So, BRIC is now BRICS.

What is BRICS bank?

It is how the New Development Bank is better known as. Last July, the BRICS countries agreed to set up a development bank, whose purpose, according to its articles, is to “mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects” not just in BRICS countries but also in other emerging economies. It seeks to do so by supporting public and private projects through loans, guarantees and equity.

But doesn’t the world already have enough institutions to do that — the IMF/World Bank, for instance?

True. It’s clear their presence hasn’t been ignored in the creation of the New Development Bank. The articles of the bank do say that its creation is to complement “the existing efforts or multilateral and regional financial institutions.” But, in a sense, the BRICS bank was born because the countries that represent this have long realised they need an alternative system to IMF/World Bank, one in which they have greater say.

How will the New Development Bank be different?

So, BRICS account for about 40 per cent of the world’s population and a combined economy of about $16 trillion. Although they account for over one-fifth of the global economy, together they garner only 11 per cent of votes at IMF. On the other hand, developed countries such as the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K. and France hold 40 per cent of the voting power. In the BRICS bank, the founding members have equal voting rights.

Is there more to its founding?

Definitely! Hongying Wang, senior fellow at global think-tank Centre for International Governance Innovation, reckons dissatisfaction toward traditional multilateral financial institutions to be just one of the three reasons.

One of the other reasons is that the creation of a joint development bank is a milestone in the evolution of the BRICS. That is, it turns the informal co-operation among those countries into a concrete institution. Finally, the bank seeks to fill the enormous hole that exists in infrastructure financing in many developing countries.

The last point assumes significance because the traditional development banks have reduced funding for infrastructure in recent decades while private investors have been reluctant to take on long-term projects of this kind. The infrastructure financing deficit in developing countries is estimated to be $1 trillion annually. BRICS countries, especially China, have accumulated financial resources that enable them to fill the gap to some degree.

How will the bank be structured and run?

The bank will begin with a subscribed capital of $50 billion, divided equally between its five founders, with an initial total of $10 billion put in cash over the next seven years and $40 billion in guarantees.

The group has also agreed to a $100 billion currency exchange reserve, which member-countries can tap during balance of payment problems. China, the biggest foreign exchange reserve-holder amongst them, will contribute the major portion of the currency pool. Brazil, India and Russia will contribute $18 billion each while South Africa will chip in with $5 billion.

In a crisis, China will be eligible to ask for half its contribution, South Africa for double its contribution while the others can get back what they put in.

The bank will be based in Shanghai. After a five-year term at the helm by an Indian, the President’s post would by turn go to a Brazilian and then to a Russian.

The bank can add more members. Media reports suggest Russia has invited Greece, which has a huge economic battle on its hands, to be a member. Even if more members are added, the capital share of BRICS can’t drop below 55 per cent.

How does the bank’s creation play out for each of its member-countries?

Hongying Wang says, for China, this is an opportunity to export its infrastructure over-capacity. China can reduce its mammoth reserves and improve financial returns on its external assets while at the same time learn to play a leading role among the developing countries. For India and South Africa, this promises to be a welcome source of much-needed infrastructure financing. For Russia, the benefit at the moment is largely seen to be political, given that the country has been isolated in the international arena over the Ukraine issue. For Brazil, the new development bank could bring financing for its oil exploration projects.

What would be the challenges?

Raj M. Desai, Non-resident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings, says the main challenges will be in setting up and operating a bank in which shares are equally divided among countries that do not have much in common, apart from their distrust of the current global governance system.

Hongying Wang has a similar view. The differences are many, as amplified by their political systems (example: China and Russia v. India, Brazil and South Africa), economic interests (example: commodity exporters v. importers), and enormous power discrepancies (China’s economy, trade, and foreign reserves being much larger than the rest combined).

Dr. Pallavi Roy, who teaches at the University of London, points out that one of the threats could, interestingly, be another development bank incubated by China. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), backed by China, has more capital and members than the BRICS Bank.

Can the BRICS bank take on IMF, World Bank?

Brookings’ Desai points out that the capital base of the World Bank and the ADB combined is about $400 billion, so it would take the participation of several other middle-income countries for the BRICS bank to be able to compete with those institutions.

But the contingency reserve account also proposed as part of the BRICS effort may provide an alternative source of stabilisation support. In this, it could potentially compete with the IMF, which has had very few takers from BRICS economies on this front in recent years.

Investment via P-Notes shrinks

Experts feel that fears and uncertainty over the levy of minimum alternate tax may have a negative impact on investment sentiment in India

Investments into Indian markets through participatory notes (P-Notes) have dropped to Rs.2.68 lakh crore ($42 billion) at the end of April, after hitting over 7-year high in the preceding month.

P-Notes, mostly used by overseas HNIs (high net worth individuals), hedge funds and other foreign institutions, allow such investors to invest in Indian markets through registered foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

This saves time and costs for them, but the flip side is the route can also be used for round-tripping of black money.

According to data released by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), total value of P-Notes investment in Indian markets (equity, debt and derivatives) declined to Rs.2.68 lakh crore at the end of April, from Rs. 2.72 lakh crore at the preceding month-end.

What are Participatory Notes?

Participatory Notes or P-Notes are financial instruments issued by foreign institutional investors to investors and hedge funds who wish to invest in Indian stock markets. These are also called offshore derivative instruments

Who gets P-Notes?

P-Notes are issued to real investors on the basis of stocks purchased by the FII. The registered FII looks after all the transactions, which appear as proprietary trades in its books.

— S. Varadharajan

Market experts are of the view that fears and uncertainty over the levy of minimum alternate tax (MAT) may have a negative impact on investment sentiment in India.

In March this year, investment through P-Notes surged to the highest level since February 2008, when the cumulative value of such investments stood at Rs 3.23 lakh crore.

However, the quantum (percentage) of FII investments through P-Notes rose to 11.4 per cent last month from 11.3 per cent in March.

Till a few years ago, P-Notes used to account for more than 50 per cent of the total FII investments, but their share has fallen after SEBI tightened the disclosure norms and other regulations for such investments.

P-Notes have been accounting for mostly 15-20 per cent of the total FII holdings in India since 2009 while it used to be much higher — in the range of 25-40 per cent — in 2008.

It was as high as over 50 per cent at the peak of Indian stock market bull-run in 2007.

Capital account convertibility: an inescapable choice?

Keeping any restriction for too long could prove self-defeating, says RBI Executive Director

G Padmanabhan, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has suggested that India should move towards making the rupee more convertible for capital transactions by foreign investors.

Addressing a meeting at MSNM Besant Institute of PG Management Studies in Mangaluru recently, he said that `` greater opening of capital account is inescapable as the Indian economy grows further and becomes global in dimension.’’

The text of his speech has since been put up on the website of the RBI.

Stating that India would become a truly globalised economy in the not-too-distant a future, he felt that the country could not afford to remain isolated for a very long period of time. ``Sooner than later, it will need to get closely integrated with the rest of the world,’’ he pointed out.

Significantly enough, Mr. Padmanabhan’s observation comes in the wake of the RBI allowing Indian companies to raise rupee debt offshore. Also, this has to be read in the context of Governor Raghuram Rajan’s recent call for full convertibility of the rupee in a "short number of years.’’

Mr. Padmanabhan conceded that there were risks associated with full capital account convertibility. Yet, he felt that resisting liberalization over an extended period could prove futile and counter-productive. As the economy got more globalised, it would become harder to maintain closed capital accounts, Mr. Padmanabhan said. "Increasing openness to international trade may create opportunities for circumvention of capital account restrictions through under- and over-invoicing of trade transactions, and the increasing sophistication of investors and global financial markets makes it much easier to do so,’’ he conceded. Corporates could use transfer pricing to get around capital account restrictions, he said. However, keeping any restriction for too long could prove self-defeating as people ended up finding new methods of bypassing that restriction, he added. Ipso facto, he felt, India should move towards full capital account convertibility. "There is simply no escape from it,’’ Mr. Padmanabhan asserted.

How fast that movement should be would, however, depend on how fast the country could meet the pre-conditions such as fiscal consolidation, inflation control, low level of NPAs (non-performing assets), low and sustainable current account deficit, strengthening of financial markets, prudential supervision of financial institutions etc. ``India has already made visible progress on these fronts. There are, of course, risks, but we need to accept these risks and move forward boldly while controlling the risks as far as practicable,’’ he said. Sound policies, robust regulatory framework promoting a strong and efficient financial sector, and effective systems and procedures for controlling capital flows greatly enhanced the chances of ensuring that such flows fostered sustainable growth and did not lead to disruption and crisis, he said. "India has all these in place, and we need to keep on strengthening them,’’ he pointed out.

What does capital account convertibility mean?

Essentially, it means freedom to convert local financial assets into foreign ones at market-determined exchange rates.

What can it do?

It can lead to free exchange of currency at lower rates. Also, it can result in unrestricted mobility of capital.

How does it benefit a nation?

It can trigger stepped up inflow of foreign investment. Transactions also can become much easier, and occur at a faster pace.

What are the negatives?

It could destabilise an economy especially if there is massive capital flows in and out of the country. Currency appreciation/depreciation could affect the balance of trade.

Where does India stand now?

India currently has full convertibility of the rupee in current accounts such as for exports and imports. However, India’s capital account convertibility is not full. There are ceilings on government and corporate debt, external commercial borrowings and equity.

Camphor-scented leaves found in Western Ghats

The species, which is endemic to the Ghats region of Kerala, was named as Cinnamomum agasthyamalayanum.

A new tree species that gives out strong smell of camphor when its leaves and stem are crushed has been reported from southern Western Ghats.

The species, which is endemic to the Ghats region of Kerala, was named as Cinnamomum agasthyamalayanum after the type locality, Agasthyamala hills, from where it was reported. The find attains significance as this is considered the only endemic species that gives out the smell of camphor. Now, the challenge is to find out whether camphor can be distilled from the plant at commercially viable level. While natural camphor is extracted by distilling the leaves and bark of Cinnamomum camphora, a native to China, Taiwan, southern parts of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, it is also synthetically produced. Camphor oil is extracted by steam from the chipped wood, root stumps and branches of the camphor tree. It is then rectified under vacuum and filter pressed, explained scientists.

Camphor has a wide range of medicinal applications especially in Ayurveda. Camphor has pain-relieving effect. It is an ingredient in a few externally applied oils to relieve muscle spasm. It also has mild mucolitic property and can reduce bronchospasm. It is also used in mild dosage in internal medicines. Cinnamomum agasthyamalayanum was identified by A.J. Robi, P. Sujanapal and P.S. Udayan of the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Thrissur.

It was found distributed between Attayar and Chemungi of Agasthyamala in Thiruvananthapuram. Isolated populations were also recorded from Rosemala in Kollam district of Kerala. The finding was recently published in the International Journal of Advanced Research.

Though Cinnamomum camphora would grow in Indian climatic conditions, it need not yield camphor at commercially viable levels. The new species can grow up to 8 metres in the dense wet evergreen forests of the Ghats at an altitude between 500m and 1400m, said scientists.

It was found “distributed in the windward evergreen forests of Agasthyamalai phyto-geographical region of southern Western Ghats. The population was found to be very low in all regions which were surveyed.

The leaves and stems of the new species have the smell of camphor probably due to the high content of volatile oil,” said Mr. Sujanapal of the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Thrissur, Kerala.

The court is still in session

Judicial delay must be discussed in the public sphere and not just as an internal, administrative matter to get a methodical solution

In 1984, Saeed Mirza made a movie called Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho about an elderly gentleman who spends many years and all his savings in a court battle against a better-funded, better-connected landlord. Look into India’s database and, 31 years later, you may find Mohan Joshi's case still going on. Recent Bollywood movies about the courts blithely ignore the one thing that progress has not changed: judicial delay.

In the ordinariness of courtrooms, there seems to be only the drama of patience. Litigants wait for months or years to be heard. Alleged criminals spend more time awaiting trial than their crimes would mandate, unscrupulous participants leverage a system designed to be fair and transparent to delay their cases and defer punishment. People with little or no means have to spend lifetimes and small fortunes to see their legal battles through in court. The courtroom as maidan-e-jung is a relevant metaphor, but in real life, it is an ultra slow motion battlefield.

Statistics show that there is a staggering number of cases being heard across the judiciary, and it is now cliché that justice, in being delayed, is denied. Even Article 21 of the Constitution has been read to include the right to a speedy trial, and quick justice is now considered indispensable. However, as a common aphorism goes, the course of justice often prevents it.

Why the delay?

The truly unfortunate issue of the problem is that nobody really knows why there is so much delay. Why does the legal process take so much time? Why does a petitioner need to appear in front of a judge for all of 10 seconds, only to be recalled a few months later?

There have been a number of informed, even scholarly initiatives, to identify the factors for delay. Most of them have been focussed studies using a small set of cases and data from the courts themselves.

Even the report by the 245th Law Commission states that there is no scientific data available to analyse the problem meaningfully.

This non-availability of a large enough set of data has hampered wide-ranging and meaningful analysis. As a response to the problem of lack of data, The Rule of Law Project at Daksh, an initiative that works with quantitative research to map the administration of justice in India, is putting together a database of all pending cases in a searchable, reportable online format. All the data is already available in the public domain, but Daksh is collating the data to make it easily accessible to interested parties who can use it to address and perhaps solve the problem.

Currently, our data for 10 High Courts includes 5,66,000 cases and 26,87,362 hearings. Each court has an average of 22,000 hearings a day. Every judge hears roughly 70 cases a day, which would be about 350 a week. This means that a judge gets about six minutes to hear each case.

On an average, it takes between 1,000 and 1,600 days for a case (in our database) to be disposed of — not court days but calendar days. That is roughly three to five years per case. However, for cases pending in the system, Daksh is unable to ascertain whether this trend will continue or whether the average figure will increase. And we are only beginning to collect the data.

From our database, we see that the oldest case in the system has been in the High Court of Jharkhand since January 1, 1958. At 57 years, this case appears to be nearly as long as the average life expectancy of an Indian. It has been around for so long that the High Court of Jharkhand, whose jurisdiction the case is currently under, was 32 years away from coming into existence when this case was filed in 1958. Of course, this may be an outlier case, but it is symptomatic of the deep malaise in the system.

Looking at ratios

One of the more worrying inferences from our recent work has been the ratio of case admissions to disposals. In some courts, nearly 2,000 new cases are admitted every day for every one case disposed. In the High Court of Gujarat, on a particularly challenging day, we saw 2,670 hearings, of which 1,827 were admissions of new cases. And that day, only two cases were resolved. Again, like the case from 1958, this may be an extreme example, but with an average Disposed-to-Admitted ratio of 1:50, we are most certainly not going to resolve the issue of pendency via small, incremental steps.

Need for a database

One of the secondary inferences that we have made is that an understanding of pendency and delay needs a coherent database that is standardised across the board. At the moment, each court is an island in the way it organises its information.

For example, take these simple questions: ‘What kinds of cases take three to five years to be disposed of?’ Or ‘Can public interest litigation be compared with company appeals?’ It is currently impossible to make this kind of analysis across courts. The types of cases across 24 High Courts are categorised in 2,553 different ways — which, if standardised, would be only 300 types of cases. A writ petition (which characterises cases dealing with citizen grievances with the state) is labelled in 120 different ways. Only if this information is standardised will we be able to meaningfully speak about the average number of days a particular type of case takes in court.

Judicial delay is not a problem solely for the state or for the judiciary. What matters is that cases be heard and dealt with in a timely manner, for the sake of the litigant. The issue needs to be discussed in the public sphere and not just as an administrative issue. So far, the litigant has mostly been excluded from the analysis.

What we hope is that our database will assist a wide-ranging analysis of the problem of pendency, and that this can include the social, political and economic fallouts of delayed justice. Judicial reform can be more effective if it is methodical and does not rely on random, on-the-fly solutions.

Kick-starting an economic revival

When Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014, there were great expectations from him making decisive moves to put the economy back in recovery mode and on to a high growth trajectory of a ‘10+’ per cent per year growth rate. It is ‘10+’ because the Finance Ministry had chosen to use Paasche’s Index instead of Laspeyres Index to calculate growth rate, which, under present inflationary conditions, will artificially raise growth rate figures (see Paul Samuelson and Subramanian Swamy, “Invariant Economic Index numbers and Canonical Duality”,American Economic Review , 1974, and alsoEconomic Journal , 1984 for the reasons.)

Hence, what I have been stating in the past, of a 10 per cent growth rate target as being desirable is now, by the Finance Ministry’s revaluation of index numbers, more than a 10 per cent target now, perhaps even 12 per cent.

The blueprint for such a recovery, to a ‘10+’ growth rate, had already been prepared before the general election, and the steps to be taken were documented by a committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Nitin Gadkari, now Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, had been entrusted with task. On his suggestion, I had collaborated with a number of committed intellectuals to produce a ‘Vision Document 2020’, a road map for Mr. Modi to implement as soon as he became the Prime Minister. These steps have still to be taken.

• Regressive markers

The regressive markers in the projected path of the economy today make it worrisome as these indicate that if not rectified soon, the Indian economy can go into a tailspin. Though these markers are a consequence of the disastrous tenure of the previous government, now nearly a year on, they cease to be a credible excuse.

Some of these markers are: the Basel III norms for banks (effective from 2018) which require Rs.2,40,000 crore for capitalisation. Moreover, to retain 51 per cent of the equity of public sector banks by the government, it will need, this financial year, Rs.1,21,000 crore. The 2015-16 Budget has provided for only Rs.11,200 crore, which is not even a tenth of this. With rising non-performing assets of banks, there is a risk of a banking crash much like the 1997-98 East Asian crash.

This year, the rainfall deficit affecting 67 per cent of the single crop farmers, will cause inflationary pressures and a substantial shortfall in production, thus causing more misery to the farmer. While rainfall is in nobody’s control, the economy, even today, lacks the necessary financial cushion to absorb the liabilities arising from crop failure and farmer destitution.

The rupee is on the edge of a fall as it happened in 2012-13. This is because there has been a large-scale sell-off or dumping of shares of Indian companies purchased by foreign investors earlier last year. Some foreign direct investment (FDI) companies have also pulled out. The fall in the rupee was a little moderated three months ago, but for the wrong reason: the increased inflow of funds from the subversive, corroding, money-laundering Participatory Notes (PN) derivative. But PNs are hot money derivatives and so can be pulled out anytime to cause a further devaluation of the rupee.

All these destabilising trends have had a profound impact on the stock market. One of these is in the form of market valuations now being well below the long-term average and even below the level in 2013. Therefore, it is no surprise that the top 10 corporate entities have reached a stage where their annual profits do not cover even their yearly debt repayments.

• Negative factors

While India has demonstrated impressive prowess in IT, biotechnology, automobile ancillaries and pharmaceuticals, and has also accelerated its growth rate to become the third largest nation in terms of GDP at PPP rates, nevertheless, it still has a backward, agricultural sector employing 62 per cent of the labour force and where farmers are ending their lives unable to repay their loans.

The Indian economy is also saddled with a national unemployment rate that is over 15 per cent of the adult labour force, and a prevalence of child labour arising out of nearly 50 per cent of children not making it to school beyond standard five, a deeply malfunctioning primary and secondary educational system, 300 million illiterates and 250 million people in a dire state of poverty.

Moreover, India’s educated youth is skill deficient, risk averse in attitude and largely unemployable in the cutting-edge manufacturing sector. According to Macaulay’s Minute on Education, our universities still produce clerks for government administration and not innovators of the future.

Besides these, India’s infrastructure is in a pathetic state, with frequent power breakdowns even in metropolitan cities, a dangerously unhealthy water supply system in urban areas, and a very poor road network where there are gaping holes even on the National Highways.

India’s infrastructure requires about $150 billion to make it world class, while the education system needs six per cent of GDP instead of 2.8 per cent today.

• Need for reform

These problems can be addressed only by comprehensive, second generation, systemic reform that makes the economy an efficient, competitive market oriented one that leverages our potentialities (such as our civilizational heritage of innovative intellect), and which minimises the inefficiency, squandering and corruption in the deployment of our vast resources.

India has much potential today to become a booming economy; it has a demographic dividend of a young population of average age of 28 years compared to China’s 35 years, the U.S.’s 38 years, Europe’s 46 years and Japan’s 49 years.

Internationally, Indian agriculture has the lowest yield in land and livestock-based milk products whose yield can easily be raised judging by the performance in experimental agricultural plots of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and by also borrowing agricultural techniques from Israel. Indian agriculture and milk products are also internationally at a low cost of production. With proper infrastructure and packaging, India can certainly become a global player in agricultural exports.

Even though India is also gifted with a full 12 months a year of farm-friendly weather, it grows just one crop a year in over 75 per cent of arable land when it can grow three crops a year. It also has the advantage of a highly competitive, skilled labour force and low wage rates at the national level, the advantages of which have been already proved to the world by the outsourcing phenomenon. What is needed is a bold commitment of sufficient resources to harvest this potential.

An open competitive market system can find these resources as has been demonstrated in the auction of the 2G Spectrum licences if the quality of governance and accountability is improved.

A transparent policy regime, auctioning of natural resources (if it is used for commercial private enterprise), and the unearthing of the vast $1.5 trillion in black money stashed abroad will enable the government to marshal sufficient resources for a massive investment in a second generation economic reform while reducing the tax burden on people.

As an economist, the only advice I can give the Modi government is to take some steps that will raise the morale of the consumer and investor. That means income tax abolition and reducing the annual interest rate to nine per cent.

The good news is that the built-in potential in the economy is easy to tap for revival, as is the basic resilience of the Indian people to face any situation as demonstrated from past crises.

Only one year of the mandate has elapsed, so there is still time to make the necessary course correction and put India on a fast, 12 per cent growth trajectory.

Taking a comprehensive view of quakes

The tragic Nepal quake is an opportunity to learn and understand the threats of great temblors




The Nepal earthquake of April 25 is the largest in the Himalayan region since the 1934 quake which measured 8.2 on the Richter scale and destroyed not only parts of central Nepal but also the plains of northern Bihar in India. Mahatma Gandhi, shaken by the Bihar tragedy, wrote in the Harijanthat the earthquake was “providential retribution to India’s failure to eradicate untouchability”. Although this statement dismayed the rationalist in Jawaharlal Nehru, it was Rabindranath Tagore who dared Gandhi by sending a letter to theHarijan saying, “Physical catastrophes must have origin in physical facts”. When Tagore, always far ahead of his times, made this insightful statement, the science of earthquakes had not developed. It was only in the 1960s that plate tectonics explained the origin of earthquakes.

Like other Himalayan quakes, the Nepal temblor is a dramatic manifestation of the ongoing tectonic convergence between the Indo-Australian and Asian tectonic plates that have built the Himalayas over the last 50 million years. A product of millions of years of crustal shortening, the Himalayas are under immense tectonic stress and occasional temblors. The last 200 years in the region have seen four great earthquakes. But central Himalaya has been an exception, researchers warn, and is considered to be susceptible to great temblors.

The Nepal quake is a painful reminder of what is in store for the communities that live in the region and in the adjoining Indo-Gangetic plains. Sadly, lessons after such tragic events are often short-lived in public memory. This quake, too, opens an opportunity to learn and understand the threats of great earthquakes which may occur in the vulnerable region of North India and we must retain these lessons.

Why was it so devastating?

The Nepal earthquake was devastating due to many factors. The source of the quake was shallow and the fault plane extended right up to densely populated Kathmandu. Added to this, Kathmandu is on a primitive lake basin that amplifies seismic wave energy. The slip of 1 to 3 metres recorded along the 160-km-long rupture showed strain built up over a century. Research implies that this segment has seen no great earthquakes in the last 700 years. Thus, the unspent accumulated slip needed to be released through this quake and will further be released through future quakes. This means that the segment, which includes parts of Uttarakhand, is capable of witnessing more damage. The Nepal earthquake rupture probably did not move towards the Indian plains in the manner that it did in the 1934 quake. But India may not be so lucky next time.

As India’s northern territory is interfaced with a 2,400-km-long seismically potential Himalayan arc, it needs to develop a workable strategy to lessen the impact of earthquakes in populated areas. The ability to minimise damage and prepare for the aftermath of an earthquake has to come from a deeper insight on earthquake processes, and analyses of large amount of data that will enable us to study the source and effects of a quake. The latest advances in seismic sensor technology, data acquisition systems, digital communication and computer hardware and software facilitate developing real-time earthquake information systems. In rapid data dissemination, India needs to learn from the U.S. Geological Survey. India’s close proximity to an active plate boundary makes rapid dissemination of seismic data necessary. India should give priority to not only install but also sustain dense networks of observatories for both weak and strong motion data — like Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. do. Using such data to understand source characteristics is one way of helping the seismological community understand and constrain the manner in which faulting occurred and its probable extent. This data can also be exploited to develop an earthquake alert system, which essentially uses the travel time difference between the body waves and surface waves. For example, a resident in Delhi can be given a few minutes of alert on a major Himalayan earthquake, originating about 250- km away, using the difference in travel time lag between the body waves and the damaging surface waves.

Better building practices

This would also allow us to quantify reasonably the expected ground motion in any region, which can be the basis for designing earthquake-resistant buildings. Our experience in the Himalayan towns, of moderate earthquakes (the 1996 Chamoli and the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquakes, for example), indicates that better building practices are major factors in lessening the impact of destructive events. Another learning experience is the historical example of the 1803 Uttarkashi earthquake which generated distant liquefaction in Delhi and Mathura and triggered landslides that smothered Himalayan villages. The top part of Qutb Minar toppled, too.

Yet, we haven’t made headway in risk assessment, the core database for disaster management. Risk assessment requires intense field studies, developing models that use data on the frequency and severity of a particular type of natural hazard that strikes an area, and combining this information with the nature and class of vulnerable structures. It would be prudent to calculate the earthquake risk in the region if such an earthquake were to happen in Uttarakhand. According to a study in 2000, if a 1905 Kangra earthquake were to occur today in the Himalayas, direct losses would amount to Rs.51 billion, cost around 65,000 lives and 4,00,000 houses. If all the houses were made earthquake-resistant, this would reduce to Rs.19 billion. The extra cost of retrofitting would be about Rs.19 billion, the loss of life would be reduced to one-fifth and the number of ruined houses would be reduced to one-fourth. It is also true that many new buildings in earthquake-prone areas do not comply with seismic codes because certificates of safety are easy to procure. People living in the hills should be encouraged to follow traditional building practices rather than concrete monstrosities. Laurie Baker, the legendary architect, had some meaningful suggestions to strengthen traditional houses in the Himalayas. Some of his pencil sketches, preserved in archives, will be useful in this regard. But it is also true that traditional stone houses using rounded boulders in the Himalayas are known for very poor performances during the earthquakes. The Indian Standard IS: 13828 (1993) suggests several methods to improve their design and construction to make them earthquake-resistant.

We need to focus not only on earthquake engineering but also on seismological research. For this to happen, along with an ambitious vision for a seismic network, we need trained manpower to conduct high-level seismological research. One way to reinvigorate both institutional and university-based research is to develop a strong framework where both can interact. Research without teaching and teaching without research are failed models, but we continue to follow this path. Seismology is a global science and interacting with the global research community should be encouraged. Our researchers must conduct research on equal footing with the international community. The Himalayas are a fantastic natural laboratory where earth processes can be captured live for new insights. Tackling future natural disasters will require a healthy mix of technology, scientific studies, trained and committed manpower, professionalism and the development of engineering skill and public awareness.

Govt’s move on CSAT draws mixed response, 33% qualifying marks for CSAT in civil prelims

33% qualifying marks for CSAT in civil prelims
UPSC’s decision to make CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) a qualifying paper for the Civil Services Exams has received a mixed response from the students’ community.
While the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has cheered the move, some civil services aspirants have expressed disappointment.
Just two days back, ABVP had protested in front of the UPSC headquarters in Delhi demanding that CSAT be either scrapped or made qualifying in nature. The Government has finally announced an expert committee to look into the various issues being raised from time to time regarding the Civil Services Examinations.
“Students preparing for Civil Services had been demanding that CSAT should either be scrapped or made qualifying in nature so that students from rural background or those pursuing Indian languages and non-technical backgrounds get an equal platform. Today, it is a historic win for the students’ movement,” Saket Bahuguna, Delhi State Secretary, ABVP said.
Till the time the Government takes a final decision on the recommendations of the committee, the paper 2 of the Preliminary examination (the Civil Services Aptitude Test, CSAT) has been made qualifying, which means that every student will be required to score a minimum 33 per cent marks in this paper and its marks will not be added to the final results of the preliminary examination. This change will be effective from CSE 2015 itself. Some civil services aspirants seemed disappointed.
Vikas Kumar, a student leader from Bihar preparing for his Civil Services Exams said: “We have been fighting for a level playing field for almost two years now… Today, a Government decision has shocked students that the CSAT paper was retained because UPSC’s own report for CSAT evaluation has found fault with the purpose of this paper. Overall, we are disappointed because we wanted this paper to be scrapped.”

Change will be effective from Civil Services Examination 2015

Why are all satellites and missiles launched from the east coast?

A launch near the equator towards the east direction will get an initial boost equal to the velocity of Earth surface.
Here's the answer to the question asked by A. Karthika from Chennai:
Before we discover the reason, let us know about the Earth’s rotation. When seen from the North Pole, the Earth rotates anti-clock wise. It means in general term, from west to east as we see the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

The surface velocity of rotation varies from point to point on the Earth. It is about 1600 km per hour or about 460 meters in a second near the equator.

The velocity gradually reduces as we move to the poles and it is practically zero there. A satellite launched from the sites near the equator towards the east direction will get an initial boost equal to the velocity of Earth surface. This is similar to an athlete circling round and round before throwing a discus or a shot put.

The initial boost helps in cutting down the cost of rockets used to launch the satellites.

This is the major reason for launching satellites in the east ward direction. But this benefit can be taken only for such satellites which are placed in geo-stationery orbit or which circle the Earth parallel to the equator. Such satellites are usually communication satellites or satellites used for scientific research such as ISS.

There are other satellites which are placed in polar orbits moving across the equator in north south direction and used mainly for mapping or some times for spying. Such satellites are generally launched in south ward or north ward direction and therefore cannot take advantage of the Earth’s rotation.

Another characteristic of launching satellites is that the launching stations are generally located near eastern coast line so that, just in case of failure of the launch, the satellite does not fall on built-up hinterland.

Govt. set to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh

Home Minister to submit a policy document to the Supreme Court soon.

The BJP-led NDA government is set to move forward on the question of granting citizenship to Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh and is expected to submit a policy document to the Supreme Court soon.
The document, being formulated by the Home Ministry, will decide the fate of thousands of Bangladeshi Hindus living in 18 States.


The Centre is expected to submit the document in response to a case filed in 2012 by two NGOs, Swajan and Bimalangshu Roy Foundation, which pleaded that Hindus and persons of other minorities from Bangladesh migrating to India to escape religious persecution must not be bracketed with illegal migrants and sent back. According to the Assam Accord, all persons who crossed over from Bangladesh after 1971 are to be deported.


Refugee status

The petitions demanded grant of refugee status to these persons, which could later be converted to citizenship. It was made clear that the focus of the case was on Assam where animosity towards refugees from Bangladesh is a strong political issue.
A national issue

However, in July 2013, the Supreme Court made the case into a national issue — the Bench hearing the case made 18 States a party to it, observing that the problem of religious minorities coming from Bangladesh to India was not confined to Assam alone. The UPA government was careful to go slow on the case since it involved the question of granting rights on the basis of religion. The files show that since 2012, the government had not filed any official response to the petition and had not even sent a lawyer to attend the hearings.
Since the NDA came to power in May last year, it has proactively followed the case and, in the words of one of the lawyers involved, made emphatic assurances that it would resolve the matter.

Pollution: particulate matter in India higher than WHO limit

In 2010, air pollution killed nearly 600,000 people in India, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The situation has not changed in the last five years. A recent study shows that a significant population of Indian subcontinent breathes air with much higher particulate matter that is lesser than 2.5 micrometre (PM2.5) in size than the limit set by the WHO. Outdoor air pollution as a whole, especially the particulate matter, has been declared as class-1 cancer-causing agent (carcinogen) in 2013 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of the WHO. Besides, it causes other respiratory and heart diseases.

The PM2.5 is particularly dangerous and can cause adverse health effects owing to its greater penetrability into the human respiratory system and eventual accumulation in human organs and blood. Rural women, children and elderly population are more prone to diseases caused by air pollution. Rural women, in particular, face a greater risk from indoor pollution — locally made mud stoves fuelled by solid biofuel emit a far greater amount of finer particulate matter.

Air quality of any area depends on local emissions, long-range transport, local and regional weather patterns, and to some extent the topography of the region. Due to increased buoyancy and efficient ventilation in summer, pollution plumes rise effortlessly to the free atmosphere. This leads to a reduced level of surface level PM2.5 concentration in our breathing zone. The problem gets aggravated during winter. Adverse conditions during winter help trapping of pollution leading to elevated level of surface PM concentration.

Compared with peninsular India and coastal regions, the situation is far worse in the Gangetic Basin, especially during winter months. The Himalayas act as a barrier to dissipation of pollution plumes emanating from the cities located in the Basin. As a result, cities in the Basin are more prone to sustained bad air quality.

Evidence is emerging that shows a strong positive relationship between increased pollution levels and occurrence of dense fog episodes. This clearly demands far more stringent emission norms in the cities located in GB if we have to achieve air quality to prescribed National Index. Although water is acknowledged as a precious resource, the air that we breathe is still not given a similar importance. It is time that an Air Resource Board be created, to begin with in a specific affected region of the country, which is equipped with larger and well-trained staff, technologists and legal aids, and has advanced monitoring stations — stationary and mobile — under it.

The state of California was infamous for its worst air quality in the U.S. in early 1950s due to large emissions and valley-like topography that allows trapping of pollution. However, with science-based policies, appropriate technologies and strict regulations, residents of California enjoy better air quality today despite a steady growth in transportation sector and continued industrialisation.

The State made effective use of diesel particulate filter (DPF) that does not allow emission of PM2.5 into environment in vehicular exhaust system. Refineries were augmented to produce low-sulphur fuel, a necessity for DRF installation. Recent epidemiological studies show reduced mortality and hospital admittance due to air pollution. The level of soot (therefore PM2.5) in California has reduced drastically over the last three decades, as a recent study reveals.

India has begun taking steps in the right direction. The National Air Quality index, introduced recently, has created greater awareness of air pollution amongst the people. Recently, plying of diesel vehicles older than 10 years has also been prohibited.

But the situation demands more action in order to restore good air quality and clear visibility. The economic gain due to avoidable loss of human life is too huge to be ignored. Technical intervention through efficient cooking stoves can significantly improve the lives of rural women. Improved power situation, especially in cold days, together with better handling of municipal waste and trash, can also help in achieving better air quality in the cities. Securing clean air, without compromising development, is achievable and sustainable. Environment protection is a challenge that has to be addressed more comprehensively.

Central Pollution Control Board can be divested into various regional air boards that will be responsible for securing the environment in a more proactive manner. If mandatory, more laws need to be enacted and strictly enforced to accomplish these goals.

TB treatment programme may be generating more MDR cases

The RNTCP currently treats patients without knowing their resistance profile: JMM
The Joint Monitoring Mission 2015 has come down heavily on the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for their inability to handle the MDR-TB crisis in the country. The report released last month reflects on the findings, conclusions, and recommendations made by it in 2012.

Despite its inability to diagnose drug-resistant TB, the national programme’s heavy dependence on the century-old, insensitive smear microscopy as a primary diagnostic tool has been strongly criticised. Besides the lack of sensitivity, the microscopy is ill-equipped to diagnose drug-resistant TB. This is particularly worrying as the number of drug-resistant cases is steadily increasing.

The Standards for Tuberculosis Care in India (STCI) — a document drawn up by the Central TB Division in consultation with the WHO and national TB institutes — advocates drug sensitivity testing for all presumed MDR-TB cases. However, this may not become a reality in the near future. “Progress is threatened by slow uptake of the new molecular test” the JMM says. “Procurement of these tests is unaccountably delayed.”

“The RNTCP currently treats patients without knowing their resistance profile,” states the Joint Monitoring Mission report. This along with its current regimen of thrice weekly drugs even to those with prior resistance has been associated with “failure and amplification” of resistance to rifampicin drug. “It is therefore likely, under programme conditions, to be generating more MDR cases,” it says.

While private doctors treat patients with daily dosing, the RNTCP follows a thrice weekly strategy. The report has emphasised the need to “accelerate implementation of the transition to daily dosing.”

According to the report, turning to “universal drug susceptibility testing and switching to a daily regimen with adherence support” can go a long way in addressing the problem of unwittingly exacerbating TB drug resistance in the country.

According to Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director of the Chennai-based National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, the RNTCP is planning to start daily dosing using fixed dose combination in 5-6 States and then expand it to the rest of the country. “RNTCP is currently procuring drugs to make this shift,” she said.

Another failing of the TB programme pertains to the mandatory TB notification by the private practitioners. “In spite of mandatory notification, TB patients [treated by private doctors] are not notified to the RNTCP,” the report says. It wants the Ministry to develop e-Nikshay, an advanced version to the existing Nikshay system for notifying TB patients.

The national strategic plan (NSP) for TB control for 2012-17 developed by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had raised the bar for tackling the rapidly growing TB epidemic in the country. The main goals of the strategic plan are to provide universal access to early diagnosis and treatment and improve case detection.

Due to faltering on both counts, the JMM reports that the “implementation of the NSP for 2012-2017 is not on track — projected increases in case detection by the RNTCP have not occurred, vital procurements are delayed and many planned activities have not been implemented.”

Worse, about two-thirds of the recommendations made by the Joint Monitoring Mission 2012 have “not been fully implemented.” For the most part, the Central TB Division has “completed the policy work requested. Work is held up for lack of timely decisions, especially at central level,” it states.

Recommendations
With the cost of treating a person with TB going up to 39 per cent of the household’s annual expenditure, the report has recommended that the Ministry of Health minimises the out-of-pocket expenditure by families by “supporting the cost of TB testing and [providing] free drugs.” It also wants the government to eliminate taxation on TB diagnostics and drugs considering TB as a public health emergency.

In order to ensure that patients receive the standards for TB care for India, the JMM has recommended that the government establishes a “state-of-art TB surveillance system for capturing all TB cases, public and privately-treated.” This is essential for the country to “capture and respond to local and focal epidemics.”

RS passes Bill on land pact with Bangladesh

In a rare display of bonhomie and unanimity, the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday cleared the Constitution Amendment Bill to enable the ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj won the day for the government by reaching out to the Opposition. She credited the erstwhile UPA government with introducing the Bill and assured members that the government will rehabilitate those who wish to relocate to India from the enclaves in Bangladesh.
Even as discord between the Opposition and the government marked the day in the Lok Sabha, the Bill was passed with historic unanimity in the Upper House with 180 members giving their nod to the issue hanging fire since 1974.
The Opposition was lavish in its praise of Ms. Swaraj for her “honest” admission in presenting a Bill that was introduced by the UPA and opposed then by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool Congress and the Asom Gana Parishad. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said if the government was to follow Ms. Swaraj's example, there would be no acrimony in the passage of Bills and conduct of business.
Earlier, Ms. Swaraj admitted that the BJP was opposed to the Bill introduced in Parliament by the UPA in December 2013 because it felt that it had not taken into account Assam’s views.
She said the Trinamool, which has now extended support to the Bill, was also concerned about the impact of the agreement on West Bengal. Clarifying the BJP’s initial decision to go ahead with the agreement, leaving Assam out of the discussions, she said her party sensed opposition from the statements made by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. She said the decision was reversed after she received a letter from Mr. Gogoi to include Assam and following discussions with CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad, Shashi Tharoor and Anand Sharma among others.
Ms. Swaraj said during her stay in Bangladesh, which was her first visit abroad after assuming office, she had discussed the issue with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who wanted the Protocol of 2011, which she had signed with Dr. Manmohan Singh, to be taken forward. Expressing happiness that Dr. Singh was present during the passage of the Bill, Ms. Swaraj said: Kaam to unhone kiya, hum to pura kar rahe hain (Work was done by him, we are only completing it).”
Rehabilitation package
On the issue of rehabilitation of the people in the enclaves on the Indian side, Ms. Swaraj said the Centre has met West Bengal’s demand for a Rs.3008.89-crore package, which can be used for as many as 35,000 people.
The Minister said even though an audit showed only 3,500 people had shown interest in migrating to India from Bangladesh, the government was making provisions for 35,000.

Brushing aside concerns of large land parcels being lost to Bangladesh, she said of the total 730 acres that are with Bangladesh as per the Protocol of 2011, India will get 268 acres in Assam.

A new concept called ecological engineering to reduce pests

Erode district alone has 32,000 hectares under paddy cultivation. The district runs across the Cauvery and Bhavani river basin.

Due to unfavourable climatic conditions pest infestation such as rice stem borer, leaf folder, ear head bug, gall midge, rice thrips — all common in paddy cultivation — create havoc every season leading to nearly 30 per cent yield loss.

Many farmers mostly rely on chemical pesticides (insecticide and fungicide) for managing both pests and infestations. If they are advocates of organic farming then they use bio pesticides to keep the menace under control.

Biodiversity
Presently a new technology called Ecological engineering for pest management has been introduced by National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM), Hyderabad to aid farmers maintain the biodiversity and keep pests under control while at the same time maintaining the paddy eco-system.

Since in southern Tamil Nadu, it is season for paddy cultivation efforts are currently in progress to popularise this concept for promoting bio-intensive integrated pest management method.

The technology trial was adopted in Singiripalayam village and Mr. Karthikeyan, a paddy farmer who adopted this technology in his field, says:

“Due to excessive pesticide use farmers like me often encountered environmental problems. The soil health also got deteriorated. I find the new technology encouraging, since there is a 45 to 50 per cent reduction in pest population.

“I have also observed natural predators on pests like damsel fly, praying mantises and spider population have increased in my field.”

The specialist team conducted an analysis to study the pest defender ratio for plant health and found that the natural enemies are able to maintain the pest population which are infesting the paddy crop.

Natural predators
“In normal situation we use to go for chemical spray, sometimes even three to four sprays to control pests and diseases. By adopting this technique no chemical spray is required. Natural enemies which prey on the pests are allowed to flourish in the fields. By adopting this method I could save nearly Rs.5,000 for a hectare towards the cost of purchase of chemical pesticides during one cropping season,” says Mr.Haridas another farmer. The trial has been implemented for different crops such as blackgram, cowpea, green gram, mustard, sesame, marigold, tulsi, castor and sunflower and found effective.

The Kendra initiated a capacity building programme for farmers in the district and on farm training was given on production of bio-control agents and bio-pesticides to ensure the timely availability of bio-inputs at the farmer level.

Community approach
“A collective approach by the farming community on adoption of this technology will not only suppress the pest population but also enhances the soil health through organic bio-fertilizer utility.

“About 25 farmers from Andhipalayam village near Gobichettipalayam and 30 farmers from Kallipatti in T.N.Palayam block have been initiated into this concept,” explains Dr. P. Alagesan, Programme Coordinator, Myrada Krishi Vigyan Kendra,, Gobichettipalayam, Erode.

A three days field training was organized for the farmer club members, to get first hand information on this approach and an exposure visit was organized by National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM), Hyderabad for a week.

In both the villages, farmers are collectively involved in the production of bio-inputs, predators and parasites for managing the pest population.

Pesticide free
The community approach on this ecological engineering is expected to bring the region as pesticide free zone and enhance the soil microbial activity in the paddy eco system. Plans are on to introduce this method in other crops like cabbage, cotton and groundnut in the coming season.

NITI Aayog

The Government has replaced Planning Commission with a new institution named NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). The institution will serve as ‘Think Tank’ of the Government-a directional and policy dynamo.

This comes after extensive consultation across the spectrum of stakeholders, including state governments, domain experts and relevant institutions.

Its role:
The centre-to-state one-way flow of policy, that was the hallmark of the Planning Commission era, is now sought to be replaced by a genuine and continuing partnership of states.
NITI Aayog will seek to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the development process.
NITI Aayog will emerge as a “think-tank” that will provide Governments at the central and state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy.
The NITI Aayog will also seek to put an end to slow and tardy implementation of policy, by fostering better Inter-Ministry coordination and better Centre-State coordination. It will help evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, and foster cooperative federalism, recognizing that strong states make a strong nation.
The NITI Aayog will develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans to the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government. It will ensure special attention to the sections of society that may be at risk of not benefitting adequately from economic progress.
The NITI Aayog will create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and partners. It will offer a platform for resolution of inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues in order to accelerate the implementation of the development agenda.
In addition, the NITI Aayog will monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes, and focus on technology upgradation and capacity building.

NITI Aayog will aim to accomplish the following objectives and opportunities:
An administration paradigm in which the Government is an “enabler” rather than a “provider of first and last resort.”
Progress from “food security” to focus on a mix of agricultural production, as well as actual returns that farmers get from their produce.
Ensure that India is an active player in the debates and deliberations on the global commons.
Ensure that the economically vibrant middle-class remains engaged, and its potential is fully realized.
Leverage India`s pool of entrepreneurial, scientific and intellectual human capital.
Incorporate the significant geo-economic and geo-political strength of the Non-Resident Indian Community.
Use urbanization as an opportunity to create a wholesome and secure habitat through the use of modern technology.
Use technology to reduce opacity and potential for misadventures in governance.

The NITI Aayog will comprise the following:
Prime Minister of India as the Chairperson
Governing Council comprising the Chief Ministers of all the States and Lt. Governors of Union Territories
Regional Councils will be formed to address specific issues and contingencies impacting more than one state or a region. These will be formed for a specified tenure. The Regional Councils will be convened by the Prime Minister and will comprise of the Chief Ministers of States and Lt. Governors of Union Territories in the region. These will be chaired by the Chairperson of the NITI Aayog or his nominee.
Experts, specialists and practitioners with relevant domain knowledge as special invitees nominated by the Prime Minister
The full-time organizational framework will comprise of, in addition to the Prime Minister as the Chairperson:
Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by the Prime Minister
Members: Full-time
Part-time members: Maximum of 2 from leading universities research organizations and other relevant institutions in an ex-officio capacity. Part time members will be on a rotational basis.
Ex Officio members: Maximum of 4 members of the Union Council of Ministers to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
Chief Executive Officer : To be appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed tenure, in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.
Secretariat as deemed necessary.

Gasping little hearts

Delhi tops the chart in India with 21% of its school-going children suffering from poor lung capacity, reveals a nation-wide survey.

How often have you insisted that your child or the little ones in the family go outside and get a whiff of fresh air? Think twice. Maybe it's not a good idea after all.

According to a nation-wide survey report, (Breathe Blue '15), 35 per cent of the school-going children in the country fared badly in the Lung Health Screening Test (LHST), indicating that poor air quality across India, especially Delhi, could have a serious impact on their growing years. 21 per cent of the children surveyed in the Capital fared ‘poor’ in the LHST, followed by Bengaluru (14 per cent), Mumbai (13 per cent), and Kolkata (9 per cent). Another 19 per cent fared as 'bad'.

“The survey, conducted by the Breathe Blue Trust, which works in the area of controlling air pollution, confirms and presents the evidence that rising air pollution could be contributing to the deteriorating lung though it cannot be isolated as the only cause for ill-lung health among school-going children in India, noted Dr Preetaish Kaul, representative of HEAL Foundation, an NGO working in the area of health.

The survey, which included over 2,000 school students in the age group of 8-14 from across the country, was aimed at screening the lung health of children. “The LHST determines how much air the lungs can hold, how quickly one can move air in and out of his/her lungs, and how well the lungs take oxygen in and remove carbon dioxide out from the body. The tests can detect lung diseases and measure the severity of lung problems. Poor results on LHST mean compromised lung function and high possibilities of contracting pulmonary diseases,” added Dr Kaul.

He also noted that the worst-affected are children who commute in unpacked vehicles as they seem to be even more exposed to dust and particles in the air in comparison to children who travel in packed vehicles.

In Delhi alone, around 92 per cent of children using UPT (unpacked transport) fared ‘poor’ versus just 8 per cent of those who use packed transport.

“While rising air pollution in the country poses serious health risks for all, it is more worrisome for children as they are yet in their growth years with vital organs of the body physiologically not mature enough to deal with it. This calls for an urgent need to raise awareness among people and figure out ways to address this issue effectively,” said Dr Raj Kumar, HOD Department of Respiratory Allergy and applied Immunology, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute.

Algorithms are like invisible judges that decide our fate

Companies now use ‘voice analysis’ software to determine whether to hire us. And, once we’re employed, to predict if we’ll stay

Imagine that you’re a contestant in an audition round of The Voice, where you belt out your best I Will Always Love You. A minute passes. No reaction from the celebrity judges. You keep singing. Another minute, still no encouraging smile or nod.

You strain to hit your highest note, pleading with your performance: “Please, please accept me! I am doing my best!” The song ends. No one wants you. Your family bow their heads in shame. Your mom cries. You stand on the stage, alone in the spotlight, heartbroken. A trap door opens beneath your feet and you slide screaming into Adam Levine’s basement torture maze.Dehumanising

Think that’s bad? In the real world, science has come up with something worse. A company called Jobaline offers “voice profiling” to predict job success based on how candidates sound; its algorithm identifies and analyses over one thousand vocal characteristics by which it categorises job applicants on suitability.

It’s horrible and dehumanising, like all our other profiling (the racial kind is always a big hit!) and reliant on born-in, luck-of-the-genetic-draw factors that we can neither avoid nor control.

This is not the only creepy algorithm system HR departments have been employing to help the company bottom line. Companies like Wal-Mart and Credit Suisse have been crunching data to predict which employees are “flight risks” who are likely to quit (easily remedied with a simple anklet attaching the worker to his or her cash register or cubicle) versus those deemed “sticky,” meaning in-it-for-the-long-haul. The information lets bosses either improve morale or get a head-start on a search for a replacement.

The inventors of such programs often enjoy the impeachable, amoral cloak of scientific legitimacy. When it comes to voice profiling, computers are not judging the speakers themselves; only the reactions the speaker’s voice provokes in other (presumably human) listeners. ‘Mechanical judge’

“The algorithm functions as a mechanical judge in a voice-based beauty contest”, wrote Chamorro-Premuzic and Adler in The Harvard Business Review. “Desirable voices are invited to the next round, where they are judged by humans, while undesirable voices are eliminated from the contest.”

The makers of voice profiling programs tout this as a moral achievement. Human beings bring loads of biases into any evaluation; computers are blissfully unaware of differences in race, gender, sexual preference or age. “That’s the beauty of math!” Jobaline CEO Luis Salazar told NPR. “It’s blind.”

The problem is, when applied in a capitalist system already plagued by unfairness and inhumanity, this blindness sounds really, really dangerous. An impersonal computer program gets first say as to who gets to earn money to buy food and who doesn’t, based on an application of a binary code too subtle and complex for us to understand. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015

NASA launches project to search for alien life

The programme aims to better understand the various components of an exoplanet.

NASA has launched an ambitious project that will lead the search for signs of life beyond our solar system.

The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative will bring together the “best and brightest” and marshal the expertise of 10 universities, three NASA centres and two research institutes, the US space agency said.

The programme aims to better understand the various components of an exoplanet, as well as how the parent stars and neighbouring planets might interact to support life.

The programme brings together planetary scientists, Earth scientists, heliophysicists and astronomers to identify and search for biosignatures, or signs of life.

“This interdisciplinary endeavour connects top research teams and provides a synthesised approach in the search for planets with the greatest potential for signs of life,” said Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science.

“The hunt for exoplanets is not only a priority for astronomers, it’s of keen interest to planetary and climate scientists as well,” said Green.

One NExSS project, called “Exoplanets Unveiled,” will specifically address this question: What are the properties of exoplanetary systems, particularly as they relate to their formation, evolution and potential to harbour life?

The project is led by James Graham, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and will draw upon the expertise of Bruce Macintosh, a professor of physics at Stanford University and the principal investigator for the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI).

Most exoplanets are detected through the Doppler technique — measuring the “wobble” of the parent star as an unseen planet’s gravity tugs on it — or though detection of a transit, as the planet’s orbit brings it between the star and Earth.

As the newest generation of instruments for imaging exoplanets, GPI blocks out the bright star to directly see the faint planet next door.

GPI has already imaged two previously known exoplanets and disks of planetary debris orbiting young stars where planets recently formed.

“Getting a complete picture of all the incredibly strange planetary systems out there will require every different technique,” Macintosh said.

“With this new collaboration, we will combine the strengths of imaging, Doppler and transits to characterise planets and their orbits,” said Macintosh.

The first image of an Earth-ize exoplanet is still likely years away. GPI is currently only sensitive enough to detect infrared emission from hot, bright planets the size of Jupiter.

Detecting the faint, reflected light of cooler, smaller planets will require next-eneration technologies and techniques, which MacIntosh said will be developed via instruments like GPI for eventual use on future planet—finding missions such as NASA’s Wide-ield Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

The bricks to rebuild IBSA

Google the acronym “IBSA” and you will get news about the International Blind Sports Federation and the Illinois Baptist State Association. When was the last time you heard about the other IBSA? At the time of its launch a decade ago, IBSA was referred to as the coming together of the “biggest democracies” of Asia, Latin America and Africa — India, Brazil and South Africa. In his address at IBSA’s first summit in Brasilia, in September 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “The idea of IBSA is without precedent.” Today, the Indian Foreign Minister is trying hard to find a meeting date convenient to all to host a pre-summit meeting; the next summit is scheduled to be held in New Delhi later this year.

The rise of BRICS

IBSA was visualised as the coming together of three great democracies of the developing world, all three, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multicultural, committed to the rule of law in international affairs and the strengthening of multilateral institutions. IBSA, its founding heads of government said, would not just be a trilateral gathering of officials; it would also facilitate the coming together of businesses and civil societies in these three democracies.

Launched with much fanfare and promise, as an association of developing country democracies that believe they have a right to claim permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), IBSA has been overshadowed over the past few years by that other acronym without an adjective, BRICS. Launched by Russia and repeatedly injected with life by China, BRICS has moved beyond ritual to claim for itself the status of being a counterpoint to the Group of Seven (G7). Cleverly manipulated by Russia and China, and with India adding purpose to it with its sponsorship of the idea of a BRICS New Development Bank, the summit of the five-nation BRICS gets 6,40,000 search results on Google, compared to the 88,200 results for an IBSA summit.

But the issue is not about such trivial differences. The fact is that the political leadership of both Russia and China have shown greater commitment to the idea of BRICS, and pushing their anti-West agenda through it, than have the political leadership of Brazil, India and South Africa to IBSA, and to its pro-democracy agenda. IBSA observers — and there are not too many of them around — believe that China has been successfully influencing South Africa’s current leadership to ignore IBSA and pay more attention to BRICS.

UNSC link

However, to be sure, in a world where countries have multiple interests and loyalties, most are members of several and a growing number of associations. Indeed, many countries have become members of associations that often have conflicting objectives. In a globe where no one wants to be left out of any new group, the proliferation of groups has crowded the travel itinerary of foreign ministers. It’s like New Delhi’s elite who seek membership of all available clubs but have no time for any, given their hectic professional and personal life. Nations too join many associations, after a fashion, and end up paying little attention to most.

Something like this fashion victimhood has befallen IBSA. Its government leaders are so busy at home and with other summits that they have no time for IBSA. One reason for this is that the compelling shared objective that brought IBSA into being a decade ago, namely UNSC restructuring and membership, seems to have become less compelling. Countries aspiring for UNSC reform and restructuring and for permanent membership seem to have given up all hope of change.

Reviving IBSA

Interestingly, though, there seems to be a change in India’s stance on this score. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled a renewed commitment to the goal of UNSC membership when he told an audience in Paris earlier this month that permanent membership of the UNSC is “India’s right”, and not just a favour it begs for. Are Brazil and South Africa also ready to assert this right?

The argument that since the world’s status quo powers are only paying lip service to UNSC reform and expansion and will not allow any change, the IBSA must give up staking their claim is ridiculous. The UN governance system, as indeed that of all the post-Second World War multilateral institutions, has become moribund. The bankruptcy of the UNSC is all too visible in its inability to deter unilateral action by powerful countries. So, if the UNSC had failed to prevent action by the United States in Iraq, it failed to thwart Russian action in Crimea and Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen. Against this backdrop, the voice of the three great democracies of the developing world would carry weight, if properly and appropriately articulated. But IBSA need not be about UNSC alone. The three countries have some common security concerns. Drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism is one such. Maritime security is another. Just as the world has sought stability and the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region, IBSA could articulate the need for maritime peace, stability and the rule of law in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. If Brazil dominates the South Atlantic and India dominates the Indian Ocean, South Africa shares a coastline with both oceans.

As the dominant power of what can be called the Indo-Atlantic region, Brazil, India and South Africa can come forward with a maritime doctrine for the region based on international law and democratic principles. Maritime security, freedom of navigation, climate change and energy security could be the common agenda that IBSA can pursue, adding meat to the trio’s skeletal structure.

While distance acts as a disincentive in Brazil-India relations, the structure of their economies is such that there is great complementarity. Brazil has a high land-man ratio, with ample natural resources on a per capita basis, and India has a low land-man ratio, and is resource poor on a per capita basis. This creates synergy. Equally, Brazil and India can work together to build a stronger manufacturing base, with untapped potential in defence manufacturing. The potential for India-South Africa business relations remains high and not fully tapped.

As ‘East-West’ bridge

Beyond the potential for deeper and wider bilateral economic relations, IBSA have shared political concerns. While all three emerging powers feel equally frustrated by the West’s unwillingness to yield space in global governance, they also have a shared concern in China’s growing influence in their own individual neighbourhoods. If India worries about China’s rising profile in South Asia, Brazil worries about China’s growing clout in Latin America, and South Africa finds its influence in Africa receding as more of its neighbours turn to China.

Thus, both on account of their inability to get the G7 and the P-5 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council) to raise their stake in global governance, and on account of the challenge they face within their own neighbourhood from China’s growing economic presence, IBSA have a substantial, shared, meaningful agenda to chalk out and pursue. The problem is that not many in the three capitals are paying any attention to these issues.

Also, recall the fact that while the international community responded with alacrity to the Trans-Atlantic financial crisis of 2008-09 and elevated the G20 into a summit level forum of developing and developed economies, the G20 have since been riven by differences between the G7 and BRICS. While some portray the G7 vs BRICS interplay as a “North-South” divide, the fact is that IBSA are today the real representatives of the South on most multilateral economic issues and on subjects pertaining to global governance.

Rather than being content with membership of BRICS, there is a case for IBSA — the Indo-Atlantic powers — to step up their interactions in dealing with both the countries of the North Atlantic and the rising powers of Eurasia, and arrive at a shared strategic perspective on a range of global issues. As countries of the “South”, and given their shared concerns, IBSA could in fact act as a bridge between the “West” and the “East”, so to speak.