📰 Violence in Manipur over ‘outsiders’ Bill
•Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were imposed in Jiribam district of Manipur after an “anti-Indian” Bill, passed by the Assembly on July 23, triggered violent protests.
•The Manipur People’s Protection Bill, 2018, seeks to regulate the entry and exit of “outsiders” on the lines of the British-era inner-line permit system prevalent in three other north-eastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.
•The Bill sets 1951 as the base year to identify locals and prevent an influx of outsiders. If approved by the Governor and made an Act, people who came to Manipur after 1951 would be viewed as “foreigners” and would have no voting or land rights.
•At least 10 people were injured when hundreds of protestors led by the All Jiribam United People’s Joint Action Committee took to the streets on Friday and clashed with the police. The injured included M. Mubi Singh, the district’s Superintendent of Police.
📰 These beautiful strangers now thrive in India
Tamil Nadu has the highest number of exotic plants among 471 aliens
•These ‘aliens’ are here to stay. As many as 471 plant species that are alien or exotic — not native to India — are ‘naturalised,’ for they can thrive in the country’s wildernesses by forming stable populations, says a recent report.
•This list of naturalised exotic or alien species, ranging from the common guava (Psidium guajava) to prolific invasives such as lantana (Lantana camara), has been compiled in a recent study published in Biological Invasions, an international journal dedicated to the patterns and processes by which organisms invade ecosystems they are not usually found in.
Ecosystem altered
•Naturalised species reproduce naturally in the environments they colonise. Invasive species do this so prolifically that they alter the workings of the natural ecosystems they colonise or invade. Lantana, for instance, replaces undergrowth and prevents native undershrubs and plants from surviving.
•An international team — including scientists from the University of Delhi’s Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) in Kolkata, Uttarakhand’s Central Himalaya Environment Association and Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Krishnadevaraya University — collated information on alien plant species from several sources, ranging from online plant lists to old compilations of India’s national and regional flora.
Tamil Nadu leads
•The team also developed the first lists of naturalised plants for each State; these lists reveal that 110 alien plants now naturally occur in more than 31 States in India. At 332, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of naturalised exotics, followed by Kerala (290), while Lakshadweep has the least (17).
•The distribution across Indian States of over 20 of these naturalised species (in the list of 471) is unknown.
•A majority of these naturalised plants are herbs such as the invasive Siam weed Chromolaena odorata, native to south and central America.
•The new list shows that many exotic species are now part of our natural flora, said co-author of the study, C. R. Babu, Professor Emeritus, CEMDE.
•“We have to worry about the invasive species among these,” he added over the phone. “The government needs to strengthen quarantine measures adopted before a plant is brought to the country. We have to stop planting exotics just because they are fast-growing.”
•More than 13,000 plant species are now naturalised in ecosystems across the world due to human activity; many of these later turn invasive and impact local flora and fauna. Last year, a study identified India as one of the ‘hotspots’ of naturalised plant species and among the seven regions in the world that have the highest number of invasive species. The ENVIS Centre on Floral Diversity hosted by the BSI lists more than 170 invasive plant species in India.
•Tamil Nadu has the highest number of exotic plants among 471 aliens
•These ‘aliens’ are here to stay. As many as 471 plant species that are alien or exotic — not native to India — are ‘naturalised,’ for they can thrive in the country’s wildernesses by forming stable populations, says a recent report.
•This list of naturalised exotic or alien species, ranging from the common guava (Psidium guajava) to prolific invasives such as lantana (Lantana camara), has been compiled in a recent study published in Biological Invasions, an international journal dedicated to the patterns and processes by which organisms invade ecosystems they are not usually found in.
Ecosystem altered
•Naturalised species reproduce naturally in the environments they colonise. Invasive species do this so prolifically that they alter the workings of the natural ecosystems they colonise or invade. Lantana, for instance, replaces undergrowth and prevents native undershrubs and plants from surviving.
•An international team — including scientists from the University of Delhi’s Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) in Kolkata, Uttarakhand’s Central Himalaya Environment Association and Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Krishnadevaraya University — collated information on alien plant species from several sources, ranging from online plant lists to old compilations of India’s national and regional flora.
Tamil Nadu leads
•The team also developed the first lists of naturalised plants for each State; these lists reveal that 110 alien plants now naturally occur in more than 31 States in India. At 332, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of naturalised exotics, followed by Kerala (290), while Lakshadweep has the least (17).
•The distribution across Indian States of over 20 of these naturalised species (in the list of 471) is unknown.
•A majority of these naturalised plants are herbs such as the invasive Siam weed Chromolaena odorata, native to south and central America.
•The new list shows that many exotic species are now part of our natural flora, said co-author of the study, C. R. Babu, Professor Emeritus, CEMDE.
•“We have to worry about the invasive species among these,” he added over the phone. “The government needs to strengthen quarantine measures adopted before a plant is brought to the country. We have to stop planting exotics just because they are fast-growing.”
•More than 13,000 plant species are now naturalised in ecosystems across the world due to human activity; many of these later turn invasive and impact local flora and fauna. Last year, a study identified India as one of the ‘hotspots’ of naturalised plant species and among the seven regions in the world that have the highest number of invasive species. The ENVIS Centre on Floral Diversity hosted by the BSI lists more than 170 invasive plant species in India.
📰 India has potential to be the global leader in tiger conservation: expert
“More work needs to be done to protect big cats”.
•She was only five months old when her mother died. On March 2016, she was taken almost 150 km from her home to the eastern part of Madhya Pradesh. Today, three-year-old tigress T-11 is thriving at Sanjay Dubri National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
•Vincent Kabir, field director of the national park said that the tigress was radio-collared and released into the wild in October 2016 and in June 2017 she gave birth. In about a year, the three cubs will establish territories of their own.
Living free
•“Over the past few years in Madhya Pradesh, we have released nine tigers after slowly acclimating them to the wild,” said Rajneesh Kumar Singh, deputy forest conservator, Madhya Pradesh.
•As the world celebrates Global Tiger Day on July 29, there are number of such success stories of tiger conservation that India can boast of. A few months ago, the first successful inter-state translocation of a pair of tigers was carried out from tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh to Satkosia in Odisha.
•The results of the ongoing All India Tiger Assessment, 2018, are expected by the end of the year. As per the assessment of the Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey (2014), the number of tigers in the country is estimated at 2,226 as compared to the 2010 estimate of 1,706.
•“India being home to 70% of the tiger population in the world can be a global leader in tiger conservation,” Rajesh Gopal, secretary general of Global Tiger Forum, told The Hindu. A lot more needs to be done on the conservation front, he said. “The tiger is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders and it cannot be left to the forest staff alone,” Mr. Gopal said, highlighting the need for surveillance and maintenance of tiger corridors.
•The Ministry of Environment recently said that 45% of the tiger deaths between 2012 and 2017 could be attributed to unnatural reasons. Of the 45%, 22% of the deaths were due to poaching, 15% due to seizures of body parts and the remaining could be attributed to road and railway accidents. Over the past few years, instances of tigers travelling hundreds of kilometres looking for territory has come to the fore.
•In 2017, 115 tigers died and in 2016, the number of deaths was 122.
•The Ministry has admitted that there is a 29% frontline staff vacancy against sanctioned posts in the tiger reserves of the country. Mr. Gopal stressed on the need for capacity building of the forest staff.
📰 ‘Made in India’ tank engines handed over to the Army
We can produce our own products: Defence Minister
•Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, handed over two fully indigenous battle tank engines, V-46-6 and V92S2, that power the T-72 Ajeya tank and the T-90 Bhishma tank, produced by the Engine Factory Avadi (EFA), a unit of Ordnance Factory Board, to the Vice Chief of Army Staff.
•She said the “indigenisation of two of the three types of tanks used by the Army, had made the Army battle-ready”. The effort has resulted in savings for the exchequer to the tune of ₹33 lakh for the T-90 engine and ₹9.75 lakh for the T-72 engine.
•Speaking on the importance of improving the manufacturing sector in the country, Ms. Sitharaman said: “We have the capability and talent to produce and manufacture our own products, but we continue to import. This is why Prime Minister Modi started ‘Make In India’.”
•Ms. Sitharaman also underlined the importance of manufacturing defence products used by the armed forces. “If we keep importing parts for defence equipment, it might end up being a stumbling block to India’s security. The equipment and parts may not be available when necessary, or servicing could become difficult. The Engine Factory Avadi has shown that it is possible to manufacture engines and other equipment all by ourselves,” she said.
•“If we reach a stage where we can produce quality complex technological systems in India, the businesses will come to us automatically,” she said. So far, India has been depending on the Russian Federation for certain critical assemblies like the turbocharger, supercharger, fuel injection pumps, etc. “Why should we go outside if we can buy quality products here in India?”
•Anil Kumar, GM, EFA, promised the Defence Minister that the UTD-20 engine would also be indigenised by the end of this fiscal year.
•The EFA has manufactured more than 12,000 engines since its inception in 1987 for the Indian Army.
📰 Experts pick holes in data protection Bill
‘Some of the clauses will create hurdles for businesses’
•While the draft Bill for protection of personal data of Indian citizens has been welcomed as a positive start, it is not without loopholes, according to various stakeholders who have called for an in-depth consultative process before the Bill becomes a law.
•An expert panel headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna, on Friday, submitted its report on data protection as well as the draft ‘The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018’ after a year-long consultation process.
•“India’s data protection law will shape the relationship between users and the companies and government entities they entrust with their data,” said Mitchell Baker, Chairwoman of Mozilla – the company behind Firefox browsers.
•“This draft bill is a strong start, but to truly protect the privacy of all Indians, we can’t afford loopholes such as the Bill’s broad exceptions for government use of data and data localisation requirements,” she added.
•Mishi Choudhary, managing partner at MCA, emphasised that the Bill in its current form should not be introduced in Parliament and further consultations must take place.
•Among other things, she pointed out that the recommendations make every offence cognizable and non-bailable which just creates more hurdles for businesses and individuals. “This isn’t to say there should not be harsh penalties. But what have we learnt from almost a decade with the IT Act? With little understanding of technology, sections are slapped forcing companies and executives to deal with the criminal machinery, the effectiveness of which need no mention.”
•Ms Choudhary added that the Bill makes it cumbersome for even the data principals – whose data it is – to understand and exercise their rights effectively.
‘Proxy surveillance’
•In a blog, Mozilla argued that data localisation is bad for business, users and security. “Notwithstanding the protections on processing in the interest of the security of the state, it’s hard to see that this provision is anything but a proxy for enabling surveillance,” it said.
•The National Association of Software and Services Companies pointed out policies that govern data protection, storage and classification need to be carefully crafted given the global footprint of the IT-BPM sector. “Service providers in India process financial, healthcare and other data of citizens globally…mandating localization of all personal data…is likely to become a trade barrier in the key markets,” it said.
•A member of the expert panel, Rama Vedashree, the CEO of Data Security Council of India set up by Nasscom, has termed the data localisation requirement as “not only regressive but against the fundamental tenets of our liberal economy.” Her dissent note is part of the report submitted.
•Likewise, another committee member Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, director, IIM, Indore, in his dissent note has said, “The requirement that every data fiduciary should store one live, serving copy of personal data in India is against the basic philosophy of the Internet and imposes additional costs on data fiduciaries without a proportional benefit in advancing the cause of data protection.”
•The draft law has proposed that critical personal data of Indian citizens be processed only in data centre located within the country, personal data may be transferred outside India. However, at least one copy of the data will need to be stored in India.
•“The bill exempts government agencies from seeking consent when it comes to the delivery of services and instead mandates that such data collection should be necessary. It isn’t clear why both can't apply,” Amba Kak, policy advisor for Mozilla told The Hindu.
•This could be concerning because several government services exist in the same marketplace as private actors, from schools and hospitals to payment systems and transportation, she said, adding that it is not clear why the government need not obtain consent, in situations where similar private services will have to.
•“When it comes to certain sensitive data, like caste, religion or political party affiliation, they must show that it is "strictly necessary". While we welcome this strong standard, there will be a need for more guidance on what these terms mean in practice,” Ms Kak said.
•Talking about Aadhaar, she said, “As a significant data fiduciary under this Bill, the UIDAI would also be subject to stricter security requirements, including the necessity of independent audit. This could be one way to increase transparency in the currently opaque security practices of Aadhaar.”
•The panel has recommended that the Aadhaar Act be amended “significantly” to bolster privacy protections and ensure autonomy of the UIDAI. Interestingly, the suggestions are limited to the report and are not part of the Bill.
•On individual rights, while comprehensive rights of correction, updation, and data portability have been included in the draft law, rights to deletion and to object to processing, which are guaranteed by other data protection lawsaround the world including the EU’s GDPR, are notably missing.
•Stating that the bill provides “substantive protections” from potential mass surveillance, Mozilla pointed out that for the number of intelligence and security agencies that currently operate in a legal vacuum, this bill would necessitate certain regulation.
📰 The lowdown on GST rate cuts
What is it?How did it come about?Why does it matter?What next?
•The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, at its 28th meeting, reduced the tax rates on more than 50 items, including commonly used products like sanitary pads, and white goods like washing machines, refrigerators and kitchen appliances. Sanitary pads have been exempt from the GST — it had a 12% tax rate earlier. White goods have seen their tax rates reduced to 18% from the earlier 28%.
•Also of interest to the common man, the Council decided to tax footwear of value up to Rs. 1,000 at 5%, where earlier this slab was reserved for footwear up to a value of Rs. 500.
•The Council also decided to provide relief to the hotel industry by saying that the rate of tax on the accommodation service would be calculated on the basis of the transaction value and not the declared tariff.
•The Council took a key decision on the returns filing process. Assessees with an annual income of less than Rs. 5 crore can now file their returns on a quarterly basis. This affects more than 90% of GST filers, and so has been seen as a welcome move for small businesses. In addition, the Council finalised two simplified forms — Sahaj and Sugam — for the large filers.
•The rate reductions are in keeping with the Council’s ongoing efforts to rationalise the tax rates and keep as few items in the 28% bracket as possible. The simplification of the return filing procedures is also the next in a series of steps taken by the Council such as widening the eligibility criterion of the Composition Scheme, putting on hold the more complicated aspects of filing GST returns, and simplifying the forms in a staged manner.
•The decision to exempt sanitary pads from the GST has been seen as a women-friendly and progressive move that will greatly reduce their price. This is an incorrect assessment, given how the GST is structured. Products exempt from the GST are also ineligible for input tax credits. So, while the output tax has been slashed, the input tax burden on companies making these pads has increased.
•With the two main manufacturers of pads in India likely wanting to maintain their profit margins at the same levels as before the rate cut was announced, the decrease in price for the consumers is likely to only be a few rupees.
•Further, the government deflected questions on the revenue impact of its rate reductions on white goods by saying that the increased demand due to the price reduction would mean that the overall tax revenue from these products would remain largely unaffected. First, the tax relief will result in only a 7-8% price reduction of these white goods, many of which cost several thousand rupees. Second, the demand for these white goods is relatively inelastic in the sense that people will not buy more of them simply because they are cheaper. You will buy only as many washing machines as you need.
•That aside, what the rate cuts have done is to narrow the 28% rate slab to only luxury items and sin goods such as tobacco and cigarettes. This is a welcome move, and a big step towards possibly removing the slab altogether, thereby further simplifying the GST.
•The GST Council takes up new rate-related issues at each of its meetings. Looming over the agenda is the issue of petroleum products and when they will be included in the GST. Reports say the Council will take this up in a staged manner, first considering natural gas, then aviation turbine fuel, and then possibly petrol and diesel.
•The return filing process is also in for some more gradual changes as the Council finalises the manner in which the invoice-matching system can be incorporated into the system. Without invoice matching, the GST is still incomplete.
📰 Government-mukt governance
Why we need to do better on e-governance
•Many years ago, in a bid to evangelise the use of the Internet in India, a global technology giant decided to ‘seed’ some non-traditional locations in India with Internet access-enabled devices and free WiFi. These ‘non-traditional’ locations included schools in low-income areas, and slums.
Collateral benefits
•Some time later, they noticed a few interesting things happening. Some enterprising individuals had started offering a whole host of ‘services’, using this free Internet access, to other, more technologically challenged, neighbours for a small fee. From downloading, printing and selling application forms for various government services such as ration card and water connection to downloading movies to CDs, they had managed innovative ways to use the Internet and profit from it. Some of these ‘services’ were not exactly what the proponents of the experiment had in mind when they started. They found, for instance, that one of the most sought-after ‘services’ was providing access to porn sites/ clips. Nevertheless, the bulk provided genuine and clearly needed services to people who otherwise had to depend on agents and touts for securing access to basic services that they were, at least on paper, legally entitled to.
•In fact, such learnings eventually prodded the government to reluctantly push forward with not just e-governance initiatives, but deliver access to e-governance through measures like the ‘e-seva kendras’ which facilitate e-form submissions, e-filings and e-payments for government services.
•Unfortunately, while there is much talk of pushing the cause of e-governance in India, actual progress has been slow. True, the so-called G2C (government to citizen) stack is now well-advanced. You can access most government service providers electronically to get bills and make payments. With the introduction of the GST network, you can now pay almost all your taxes electronically, file returns, claim refunds, and so on.
•However, in other areas like public health and land records, the progress has stopped with putting up some downloadable forms online. Many government departments still insist on physical forms and signatures, despite the near universalisation of an identity instrument like Aadhaar, which allows simple and foolproof authentication.
•This is probably why India continues to rank a relatively low 96 in the United Nation’s E-Government Development Index, whose 2018 rankings were released last week. That is probably because there is little to write home about, despite the astonishing pace of digitisation in India.
•The UN E-Government Development Survey is the only global initiative to measure and track how governments are faring on the e-governance front. According to the UN website, the report “looks at how e-government can facilitate integrated policies and services across the three dimensions of sustainable development”. With an EGDI index score of 0.5669, India is just above the world average of 0.55. The Asian leader in e-government, South Korea, scored 0.9010 (marginally behind world leader Denmark’s 0.9150). India’s score is also shy of Iran (0.6083). Even in the SAARC region, Sri Lanka is ahead of India.
•However, India does rank very high in one sub-index. It moved up 12 places in the E-Participation Index, from 27 in 2016 to 15 in 2018. While not as general as the EGDI, the EPI looks at issues like e-information, e-consultation and e-decision making to arrive at a score. India’s high ranking does signify two things: that the government is making more information available online and that more people are in a position to access that information, and also electronically participate in policy formation and decision-making. A good example of this was when the government first mooted its ‘smart cities’ initiative, when citizens were able to actively participate with ideas on what kind of initiatives their city should adopt and how these initiatives should be designed and implemented.
•Unfortunately, that form of crowd-sourced public planning appears to have been just a flash in the pan. The reason the UN compiles this index and urges member countries to focus on e-government initiatives is that there is a clear link between greater e-governance and easier public access to government services and a reduction in poverty and inequality. One of the biggest reasons our poverty alleviation measures have failed to achieve the desired impact (apart from corruption and leakage) is inefficient targeting, and lack of information with the intended beneficiaries about plans and schemes meant to assist them.
Access is crucial
•Knowledge is power, but access to knowledge is another kind of power. This is where digital can be a great disruptor. With the India Stack (Aadhaar, UPI, etc. aimed at ensuring presence-less, cashless and paperless service delivery), and the ongoing mobile and broadband revolution, India can become a world leader in e-governance. But it may have to learn some lessons from Iran and South Korea first.
📰 How safe is CRISPR?
There is growing fear that the promising gene-editing system is being prematurely rushed for clinical use
•The clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) (CRISPR-Cas9) system has revolutionised genetic manipulations and made gene editing simpler, faster and easily accessible to most laboratories. The technique has gained considerable traction recently to repair defective genes for potential therapeutic applications. Based on this promise, multiple clinical trials have been initiated in the U.S. and China (using the CRISPR-Cas9 system) to produce gene-edited cells for cancer and HIV-1 therapy.
•However, is CRISPR ready for prime time and safe for clinical use?
What studies show
•Last year, a study by Stanford University, U.S., found that the CRISPR-Cas9 system introduces unexpected off-target (outside of the intended editing sites) effects in mice. Although the manuscript describing the study results has since been retracted (due to the lack of proper controls ascribing a causal role of the CRISPR-Cas9 system in introducing off-target effects), the fear that the CRISPR system is being prematurely rushed for clinical use lingers. Three recent reports have exacerbated this fear even further.
•Two studies, one from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and the other from the biopharmaceutical company Novartis, have highlighted that CRISPR-Cas9-edited cells might trigger cancer. The results from both studies were published last month in the scientific journal, Nature Medicine .
•In the Karolinska study, the authors showed that the CRISPR-Cas9 system induced activation of a protein called P53. This P53 protein acts like a gatekeeper or guardian in the cells to keep them healthy and prevents them (the cells) from turning cancerous. In many cancers, cells lose their ability to repair deleterious genetic changes due to an impaired P53 function. Researchers in the study claim that a functional P53 protein swings into action in the target cell and repairs the edited site rendering the Cas9-mediated editing process ineffective. In cells where editing is adequate, the cell’s P53 protein may be dysfunctional. Therefore, a functional pP53 protein is good for the cells to be healthy but makes the Cas9-mediated editing process less effective. On the contrary, a defective P53 protein is ideal for Cas9-mediated editing but makes the cells cancer-prone by introducing genetic changes elsewhere in the genome (outside of the editing sites).
•Like in the earlier study, the Novartis study found that a high efficiency of the CRISPR-Cas9 system in human pluripotent stem cells (cells that can self-renew indefinitely in cell culture) is linked to the presence of a dysfunctional P53 protein. Pluripotent stem cells usually have very low editing efficiency due to high Cas9 toxicity in those cells. A possible workaround to decrease Cas9 toxicity and, therefore, enhance the editing efficiency by inhibiting P53 function may increase the risk of mutations elsewhere in the genome in those cells.
•A third study, published this month in the scientific journal,Nature Biotechnology, and from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, U.K., provided further evidence for the unintended consequences of the CRISPR-Cas9 system.
•The study found that both the mouse and the human gene edited cells suffered from large DNA deletions far from the intended editing sites. The scientists have argued that the commonly used techniques to screen for off-target effects may not be sufficient to identify the adverse-effects sites and comprehensive genomic analyses of the edited cells, using long-read DNA sequencing technology, may be required to pinpoint those.
•The studies, which have showed the dark side of the CRISPR-Cas9 editing system, have, however, not deterred those who think that the system is ready for the clinic. The proponents argue that mice with genome-edited cells developing cancer have not been reported and the cells with adverse studies are not the ones currently in clinical trials. The cautious ones, however, say that it’s only a matter of time that a comprehensive whole-genome sequencing of the edited cells will show the adverse consequences of the CRISPR-Cas9 system. No matter which side wins, it will take years before the CRISPR system is ready for prime time and clinical use. It is no surprise, therefore, that George Church of Harvard University, a CRISPR pioneer himself, chose an older gene editing system TALEN over the CRISPR system to create virus-resistant human cells as the TALENs, although with less cleavage efficiency, have more editing precision.
View from India
•What are the implications of such findings in India? Although there are no clinical trials or studies to use CRISPR-Cas9 edited cells in the clinic currently undergoing in India, blood-related disorders such as haemophilia, sickle cell anaemia, and Beta-Thalassemia, and other disorders such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy are promising candidates for gene editing. In fact, for many of these diseases, results from the proof-of-concept studies have been published from elsewhere. There are many Indian researchers actively working in this area, and for them, the recent studies provide a cautionary tale to conduct a comprehensive genomic analysis before moving to use the CRISPR-Cas9 edited cells in the clinic.
