📰 India cautious over Maldives curbs on envoy
Ambassador facing travel restrictions
•New Delhi appears to be weighing diplomatic options after Male reportedly placed restrictions on the movement of the Indian Ambassador to the Maldives.
•Asked to comment on reports that travel restrictions had been imposed on the Indian High Commissioner, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said, “I don’t think this information is correct.”
•According to reports, the Maldives’ Local Government Authority has mandated that foreign diplomats in Male obtain government approval before meeting any Maldivian official. The government suspended three members of a local body allegedly for meeting Indian Ambassador Akhilesh Mishra without permission.
•However, Ibrahim H. Shihab, International Spokesperson at the President’s office, said the Indian envoy was a friend of the Maldives.
•“The Maldives respects norms of diplomacy and diplomatic engagement and no diplomat posted to the Maldives by any country is restricted in their freedom of movement — anyone making such claims are severely misinformed,” he said.
•However, instead of delving into the issue of restrictions on movement, Mr. Kumar, during a briefing this week, indicated concerns around the recent Free Trade Agreement between Beijing and Male. “We are actually trying to understand the implications of this. It needs to be carefully studied. In such situations governments do engage in diplomatic discussions…,” he said.
•Maldivian Ambassador to Colombo Mohamed Hussain Shareef said all diplomats had to follow the regulations laid down by the host Foreign Ministry and take due permission to travel across the country.
•“A number of resident and non-resident Ambassadors take the liberty of not informing the Foreign Ministry when they meet local officials. And some atolls seem to be getting a lot of love from resident and non-resident Ambassadors, especially those where the local government is controlled by the Opposition. That is bizarre,” Mr. Shareef said.
•The British, Australian and German envoys to the Maldives tweeted strongly against the development. Reiterating its commitment to “democracy, development and stability” in the Indian Ocean nation, New Delhi recently reminded the Maldives about its “India First” policy.
•The development comes at a time when former President Mohammad Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party, now in Opposition, has been raising concern over Male’s foreign policy that it sees as being detrimental to India’s. The party accused the President Abdulla Yameen administration of rushing through an FTA with China, an allegation the government denied.
•More recently, a paper published an editorial that termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a Hindu extremist” who is “anti-Muslim”.
•The Opposition took serious objection and its leader Mr. Nasheed tweeted: “Strongly condemn anti-India diatribe in regime mouthpiece Vaguthu. Prez YAG’s reckless foreign policy is destroying our relationship with India. Maldives must be sensitive to India’s security and safety.”
•Denying that the paper was pro-government, official sources said the editorial had been removed. “We are confident that the matter will be considered and appropriate actions taken — this speed of response is a clear indication that our regulators and institutions continue to function professionally,” said the spokesman at President Yameen’s office.
📰 ‘Doctors have no business to be inhuman’: IMA
•The Indian Medical Association has issued what can be best described as a “good behaviour advisory” for doctors, which comes at a time when physicians are under the scanner for inconsiderate behaviour and are often subjected to physical violence at the hands of patients.
•IMA president Dr. K.K. Aggarwal said, “Poor, inconsiderate and uncompassionate communication is why most patients sue.”
•He added that doctors have “no business to be inhuman. We not only need to be scientifically and legally correct but also morally and ethically correct. We are supposed to follow two bioethics principles: non-maleficence (first do not harm) and beneficence (welfare of all). Our main business is compassion. It should be demonstrated in practice as much as felt. A compassionate attitude in practice is more important than the science. Poor, inconsiderate and uncompassionate communication is why most patients sue.”
•“Today everybody wants to regulate us. If we are what we claim we are, then we do not need a regulator. God regulates others. We the medical professionals need to wake up and follow IMA self-regulation policies and also regulate policies for the corporate,” he said.
•According to a study done earlier this year, nearly one in every two doctors suffer violence at public hospitals. The survey, done by the Maulana Azad Medical College, covered 169 junior residents and senior residents, working mostly with the LNJP and G.B. Pant hospitals. It noted that verbal abuse (75%) was the most common form of violence, followed by threats (51%) and physical assault (12%). The survey report, published in the National Medical Journal of India, added that doctors who faced the abuse felt angry, frustrated and fearful.
📰 Why are farmers distressed across India?
What’s the problem?
•The year 2017 was marked by several farmers’ protests nationwide, with a few turning violent. Last month, in New Delhi, 184 farmer groups came together from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana to take part in a ‘protest walk.’ The protest once again highlighted the plight of farmers and the extent of agrarian distress.
•The agriculture sector is characterised by instability in incomes because of various types of risks involved in production, market and prices. The National Commission of Farmers (2006), chaired by M.S. Swaminathan, had pointed out that something “very serious and terribly wrong is happening in the countryside.” The agriculture growth rates have been unsteady in the recent past. While it was 1.5% in 2012-13, it rose to 5.6% in 2013-14. In 2014-15, the rate dipped to (-) 0.2%, while in 2015-16 it was 0.7%. The provisional estimate puts it at 4.9% in 2016-17. The trend reflects the distress in the agriculture sector.
Why the crisis?
•The main reason for farm crises is the rising pressure of population on farming and land assets. Government data show the average farm size in India is small, at 1.15 hectare, and since 1970-71, there has been a steady declining trend in land holdings. The small and marginal land holdings (less than 2 hectares) account for 72% of land holdings, and this predominance of small operational holdings is a major limitation to reaping the benefits of economies of scale. Since small and marginal farmers have little marketable surplus, they are left with low bargaining power and no say over prices.
•As farmers have been demanding “freedom from debt and remunerative price” through several platforms, they carry on fighting risks in production, weather and disaster, price, credit, market and those in policy.
•While crop production is always at risk because of pests, diseases, shortage of inputs like seeds and irrigation, which could result in low productivity and declining yield, the lower than remunerative price in the absence of marketing infrastructure and profiteering by middlemen adds to the financial distress of farmers. Also, the predominance of informal sources of credit, mainly through moneylenders, and lack of capital for short term and long term loans have resulted in the absence of stable incomes and profits.
•Further, it leads to defaults and indebtedness. Uncertain policies and regulations such as those of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC Act), besides low irrigation coverage, drought, flooding and unseasonal rains, are some other factors that hit farmers hard.
What about prices?
•Farmers face price uncertainties due to fluctuations in demand and supply owing to bumper or poor crop production and speculation and hoarding by traders. The government’s economic survey for 2016-17 points out that the price risks emanating from an inefficient APMC market are severe for farmers in India since they have very low resilience because of the perishable nature of produce, inability to hold it, hedge in surplus-shortage scenarios or insure against losses.
•Lakhwinder Singh, an agriculture expert at Punjabi University, Patiala, who has been mapping rural Punjab for decades, points out that along with the slowdown in agricultural growth, the costs of farm inputs have increased faster than farm produce prices. The cost of capital too has increased manifold over the years.
•This turned agriculture into an unprofitable occupation and compelled farmers, especially the small and marginal, to borrow costly money from informal sources of credit, which deepened the crises.
•While the farming sector has its own set of risks, like any other economic activity, to increase and ensure stable flow of income to farmers it is vital to manage and reduce the risks by analysing, categorising and addressing them.
📰 The lowdown on diphtheria and its resurgence
What is it?
•Diphtheria is a highly infectious disease, which usually shows up as a sore throat and difficulty in breathing. It spreads through contact or cough and sneeze droplets, and is caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. In severe cases, the toxin secreted by this bacterium kills cells in the throat, and the debris forms a wing-shaped grey membrane, disrupting breathing and earning diphtheria the name “The Strangling Angel.” If the patient isn’t treated quickly with anti-diphtheria serum, the toxin can spread through the bloodstream hurting the heart and kidneys.
•Before the 1940s, when diphtheria vaccination grew widespread, millions of children died of the disease across the world. But as vaccination rates and sanitation improved, incidence dropped everywhere, including in India. Yet, India continues to be a world leader in diphtheria today, with 3,380 cases and 177 deaths reported in 2016. This year has seen worrying outbreaks in Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana, among other States.
How did it come about?
•India has had a diphtheria vaccination programme since the 1980s. Despite this, we continue to do poorly in controlling the disease because the vaccination does not reach everyone. Under the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), all children below one year of age are supposed to get three doses of the Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP) vaccine, followed by two booster doses between 1-2 years and 5-6 years. But coverage of the three primary doses is inadequate at 80% across the country. Data on coverage with the two booster doses is patchy, with one Hyderabad-based study showing poor rates of around 60% and 36% for each dose, respectively, in 2006. This data explain why diphtheria is increasingly infecting adolescents and adults in India, though it was historically an illness of children under five. As primary vaccination coverage is improving steadily, booster coverage remains poor and there is no vaccination for grown-ups. Some countries like the U.S. recommend booster doses every 10 years to tackle waning immunity among adults. The link between low vaccination rates and disease is clear in all recent epidemics. For example, Bihar, which has a poor record of primary immunisation, saw 41% of its cases in the under-five age group, while Kerala, which has high rates of immunisation, saw 74% of cases in the above-10 age group, according to a WHO report. A review from Chennai’s National Institute of Epidemiology also found low rates of vaccination among Muslim communities, one of the reasons driving outbreaks in States like Andhra Pradesh. Kerala, despite its high vaccination rates, has susceptible pockets for the same reason. An outbreak in Malappuram this year seems to have been driven by anti-vaccination sentiments seeded by Islamic clerics in the district. These outbreaks have been worsened by stock-outs of the anti-diphtheria serum in these regions.
Why does it matter?
•Any disruption of vaccination programmes can trigger a deadly resurgence of diphtheria, as historical precedents show. During the 1990s, an epidemic swept across the former Soviet Union, making 1,57,000 people ill and killing 5,000 in eight years. It was triggered by an ill-advised change in vaccination schedules and socio-economic instability after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This year, the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh saw large outbreaks owing to low rates of vaccination and overcrowded and unclean camp conditions.
What next?
•The only answer is better vaccination. The director of the National Institute of Epidemiology, Manoj Murhekar, recommends in his 2017 epidemiological review that a dose of tetanus-diphtheria vaccine be given to children at school entry, because over 80% of all Indian children attend primary schools. Also, vulnerable communities like Muslims in Andhra Pradesh must be targeted with awareness campaigns.
📰 Diagnosing early-stage cervical cancer using artificial intelligence
The AI identifies precancerous tissue, and also the stage of progression in minutes
•The morphology of healthy and precancerous cervical tissue sites are quite different, and light that gets scattered from these tissues varies accordingly. Yet, it is difficult to discern with naked eyes the subtle differences in the scattered light characteristics of normal and precancerous tissue. Now, an artificial intelligence-based algorithm developed by a team of researchers from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur makes this possible.
•The algorithm developed by the team not only differentiates normal and precancerous tissue but also makes it possible to tell different stages of progression of the disease within a few minutes and with accuracy exceeding 95%. This becomes possible as the refractive index of the tissue is different in the case of healthy and precancerous cells, and this keeps varying as the disease progresses.
•“The microstructure of normal tissue is uniform but as disease progresses the tissue microstructure becomes complex and different. Based on this correlation, we created a novel light scattering-based method to identify these unique microstructures for detecting cancer progression,” says Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay from IISER Kolkata and first author of a paper published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics.
•Elaborating on this further, Prof. Prasanta K. Panigrahi from IISER Kolkata and corresponding author of the paper says: “The collagen network is more ordered in normal tissues but breaks down progressively as cancer progresses. This kind of change in tissue morphology can be picked up by light scattering.” White light spectroscopy (340-800nm) was used for the study.
Statistical biomarker
•The change in scattered light as disease progresses is marked by a change in tissue refractive index. The team has quantified the changes in tissue refractive index using a statistical biomarker — multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA). The statistical biomarker has two parameters (Hurst exponent and width of singularity spectrum) that help in quantifying the spectroscopy dataset.
•While MFDFA provides quantification of light scattered from the tissues, artificial intelligence-based algorithms such as hidden Markov model (HMM) and support vector machine (SVM) help in discriminating the data and classifying healthy and different grades of cancer tissues.
•“The classification of healthy and precancerous cells becomes robust by converting the information obtained from the scattered light into characteristic tissue-specific signature. The signature captures the variations in tissue morphology,” says Prof. Panigrahi.
•“The MFDFA-HMM integrated algorithm performed better than the MFDFA-SVM algorithm for detection of early-stage cancer,” says Mukhopadhyay. “The algorithms were tested on in vitro cancer samples.”
In vivo samples
•The team is expanding the investigations to study in vivo samples for precancer detection. While the accuracy achieved using in vitro samples was over 95%, based on a study of a few in vivo samples the accuracy is over 90%.
•“In the case of in vitro samples we were able to discriminate between grade 1 and grade 2 cancer,” says Prof. Nirmalya Ghosh from IISER Kolkata and one of the authors of the paper. “More testing is needed using in vivo samples.”
•“Superficial cancers such as oral and cervical cancers can be studied using this technique. And by integrating it with an endoscopic probe that uses optical fibre to deliver white light and surrounding fibres to collect the scattered light we can study cancers inside the body,” says Prof. Ghosh.
📰 The lowdown on diphtheria and its resurgence
It could begin absorbing dyes within 15 minutes, metals in about 6 hours
•Scientists from Indian Association for Cultivation of Sciences (IACS), Kolkata, have developed a new gel that can remove toxic organic dyes and metal ions from waste water. They found the hydrogel began absorbing various commonly used dyes within 15 minutes. The dyes tested were malachite green, congo red, brilliant blue and rhodomine B. In the case of metals, the hydrogel was able to considerably remove commonly found ones such as cobalt and nickel from industrial effluents in about six hours.
•Basic amino acids like leucine and phenylalanine were used to make the gel; the gel is biodegradable. It was stable at room temperature and remained as a gel for several months.
Effective treatment
•The current methods used for treating wastewater — adsorption using activated carbon, chemical precipitation or electrochemical techniques — are largely ineffective due to incomplete removal or high energy requirements. In comparison, the new hydrogel-based material is able to remove the hazardous waste effectively as it has high water permeability, large surface area for adsorption and is also simple to use.
•“We monitored the uptake capacity of the hydrogel using UV spectroscopy and found that within a few hours the gel absorbed the dyes and the waste water turned almost colourless. The hydrogel can absorb the wastes for up to 60 hours before reaching a saturation point. The gel was able to remove 78-92% of the dyes and more than 80% metals ions,” explains Nibedita Nandi, research scholar at IACS and first author of the paper published in Peptide Science.
Reusable resource
•“The hydrogel can be washed with sodium bicarbonate and ethyl acetate and reused. As the dyes and metal ions are soluble in water they get washed out from the gel and the hydrogel can be used for up to four cycles. It can be used by the industries for effective treatment before wastewater disposal,” says Prof. Arindam Banerjee, senior professor at the Department of Biological Chemistry, IACS, and corresponding author of the paper.
•The researchers say that the production of the gel can be scaled up to the desired volume for use in water treatment at industries.
📰 IISc: How seasons drive a lizard's life
The current year’s juveniles were the breeding males the next year
•Winter blues and summer lows may be the only ways the weather affects human behaviour, but scientists have found that seasonal climatic changes govern the life cycle of a species of tropical lizard. The breeding of the rock agama shows a distinct annual cycle, tracking periods of hot weather and rain in its habitat. Changes in global climate, which can affect regional temperature and rainfall, could affect the biology of such cold-blooded reptiles, write the scientists.
•While temperate systems show distinct seasons with climatic conditions varying drastically, the tropics are usually less variable. However, in some parts of the tropics, such as the Rishi Valley in southern Andhra Pradesh, the extremes are apparent. Here, summer temperatures peak between March and May ranging between 8-41 degree C, and rainfall is highly seasonal.
•Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, studied how this seasonality affects the breeding of Peninsular rock agama (a tropical lizard found across rocky habitats in peninsular India) at Rishi Valley. The backs of male agamas turn a bright yellow–orange during the breeding season, while the bulging bellies of females are a sign that they are carrying eggs. Identifying these breeding characteristics of 205 tagged lizards across three years, the team also took physical measurements by recapturing some of these individuals and collated daily temperature and rainfall data from a local weather station.
•Most males began displaying breeding colouration in May, when temperatures peaked, and lasted till September. The breeding season ended around September.
•Meanwhile, the females began laying the first eggs in June–July, only after the first rains of the year. This could be possibly because the rains loosen the soil, helping them dig holes to lay their eggs. Juvenile lizards began emerging from September to December, mid-way into the monsoon when food resources are abundant. Censuses conducted by the team to arrive at lizard numbers in the area show the highest number of juveniles during November.
•“The current year’s juveniles were the breeding males the next year, hinting at a rapid growth to attain reproductive maturity,” says Shreekant Deodhar, the lead author of the study published in Current Science. “But after that, they just disappeared. This annual pattern was unexpected because you would expect these large lizards to live longer than a year.”
•Though the team sampled all males of the population they studied, only very few were re-sighted and re-captured across breeding seasons; the species do not hibernate or migrate to other sites.
•“Climatic changes could affect these cold-blooded reptiles faster, giving us an inkling of what could be happening with changes in global weather patterns,” he adds.
📰 In Kerala, a devastating cyclone and after
•Kerala is still coming to terms with the trail of destruction left behind by Ockhi, the cyclonic storm which struck the southern tip of the subcontinent and Lakshadweep on the morning of November 30.
What happened?
•Caught unawares, the State government initially struggled to deal with the human tragedy as hundreds of fishermen from five coastal villages in Thiruvananthapuram were reported missing at sea. The death toll so far is 65. The storm, the likes of which the southwest coast of India has not seen for decades, exposed the chinks in Kerala’s disaster preparedness.
Weren’t people warned?
•Almost a month after the storm, there has been no let-up in the blame game between the India Meteorology Department (IMD) and the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) about why people were not told of the impending danger. While the State government and the SDMA assert that the IMD failed to issue a cyclone alert on time, thus jeopardising the lives of hundreds of fishermen, the Central agency maintains that the State ignored its warning of a deep depression that was threatening to intensify into a cyclone.
•The coastal communities in Thiruvananthapuram, which bore the brunt of the storm, are not enthused by the ugly spat between officials. Over 150 traumatised families are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their breadwinners, their anguish expressed in the vociferous protests against State Ministers and the poignant scenes during Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s visit to the fishing village of Poonthura early last week.
•The government has rebutted the charge of having lost valuable time in launching a search and rescue operation at sea. But the raging dispute over the number of missing fishermen, between the Fisheries and Revenue Departments on the one hand and the government and the Latin Archdiocese on the other, is something it cannot deny. Search teams have recovered 65 bodies offshore, and 80 fishermen are still missing at sea. Relief and rehabilitation measures have been stepped up and the government has announced ₹20 lakh in ex gratia for the families of the dead or missing fishermen. The State has urged the Centre for a cyclone relief package of ₹7,340 crore, besides an assistance of ₹420 crore, from the National Disaster Relief Fund.
Will things change?
•A major revamp of the SDMA is on the cards, with more experts expected to be brought on board. The government has also initiated efforts to deploy satellite communication facilities for the safety of fishers at sea.
•“That this cyclone was of a rare nature that defied scientific prediction is of little solace to the victims. Life will never be the same again for them. We have been let down by the administration and the scientific community,” says T. Peter, secretary, National Fishworkers Forum.
•The coastal communities are not willing to settle for anything short of exemplary punishment for those guilty of lapses in alerting them to the cyclone. They harbour a deep mistrust in the government’s capacity to spend the relief funds without diversion or wastage.
•Cyclone Ockhi has underlined the need for meteorologists to come up with better forecasting systems, especially in light of projections about the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events along the western coast due to the warming of the Arabian Sea. But experts point out that the best prediction model is useless unless the government deploys an efficient dissemination system to warn vulnerable communities in time.
•Scientists feel that Ockhi should be an eyeopener for Kerala. “It should force us to re-assess our vulnerabilities and develop appropriate mitigation strategies in view of the challenges posed by climate change,” says George Chackacherry, director, Institute of Climate Change Studies, under the State government.
