November 2016
November 2016 (पाक्षिक)
GREEN
FEATURES
Hydro power projects in Himalayan region face flood
risk
NEW DELHI
November 24, 2016 04:37 IST
Source:
The Hindu (A view of the Himalayan glacier).
Paucity of data on the health of the
Himalayan glaciers; design should factor higher water flows
Potential hydro power projects in the Himalayan
region would need to factor in chances of increased floods from the formation
of new lakes and the expansion of existing ones due to melting glaciers, says
an analysis of Himalayan glaciers and their possible future impact on
livelihoods in States adjoining the region. The results are part of a modelling
study by Swiss researchers on the impact of climate change in the Himalayas.
According to the study, 441 hydro power projects
spanning India, Nepal, Pakistan and China, that is, 66 per cent of the
constructed and the potential projects, are on possible Glacier Lake Outburst
Floods (GLOF) tracks. This means they could be gorged with extra water from
melting glaciers. Almost a third of these projects could experience GLOF
discharges well above what these dams account for, says a study.
“If hydro power projects were to be situated
close to these glaciers, they would have to account for higher water flows,”
said Dr. Markus Stoffel from the University of Geneva, lead scientist with the
study. “But that does not mean they cannot be built. It might need extra design
or safety features.”
India accounts for 129 of the hydro projects
analysed. India’s environment and water resources ministries are engaged in a
tiff with the power ministry over the construction of hydro power projects in
Uttarakhand. Broadly, they deal with the impact of these projects on the local
ecology and on the natural flows of the rivers they are built upon.
Dr. Stoffel said there was a paucity of data
regarding the health of the Himalayan glaciers, and depending on their location
within the Himalayan range, there were varying rates of glacial melt. The
findings come even as researchers note that global warming could cause glaciers
to melt rapidly, which is already evident in an increase in the number of
glacier-fed lakes in Himachal.
In the Beas basin, six lakes in 1989 increased to
33 in 2011, and in the Parvati Valley catchment area, there was an increase
from 12 lakes (in 1989) to 77 lakes (in 2014). Most of the Himachal Pradesh
lakes were relatively small or with a capacity of a million cubic metres, and
only a few of them had a capacity larger than 10 million cubic metres.
Collaborative
research
The Indian Himalayas Climate
Adaptation Programme, which coordinated research into the Himalayan glaciers
and their potential impact downstream, is set to receive an additional $3.5
million CHF (Swiss Francs; approx. Rs 24 crore) in funding for the next phase
of the programme.
Farmers in Uttar Pradesh resort to barter system
“We are using the barter system as we have no cash. Landless farmers are working in our fields in exchange for vegetables and rice,” said Aadesh Rathi, a resident of Bagu- Santoshpur village in Baghpat.
‘Govt. has
failed us’
“The government has failed to provide relief in rural areas. Bank branches
and post offices here run out of cash very quickly. So we have decided to
exchange food items with other people. We farm vegetables such as cauliflower
and spinach. We have exchanged vegetables for paddy,” said Ashok Singh, a
farmer from Baroli-Basdevpur in Bulandshahr.“We have lost faith in the government.. Rural areas are totally neglected when it comes to distribution of fresh currency notes. The value of bartering items can be negotiated, but here we are not negotiating as it is not about business but about lives,” said Sunil Tyagi, a farmer from Siyana in Bulandshahr.
Some farmers are bartering seeds. “We are giving farmers seed on credit. Some are giving us vegetables,” said Than Singh, a farmer and a fertiliser dealer from Bulandshahr.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
Vegetable sellers, small traders adopt e-payment
Naresh Kumar, who owns a grocery shop in Greater Kailash, is availing online payment services to keep his business going.
“Our sales dropped after the government scrapped high-value currency notes. People would come with old currency notes, which we don’t accept. So I started accepting payments online. Some customers who order in bulk are finding it easy to pay me online,” said Mr. Kumar.
Sethipandian, a seller of south Indian food in Daryaganj, installed Paytm on his phone a few days after the government announced the demonetisation decision. “After the government announced the decision, the number of customers declined. I then installed Paytm on my phone. I ask my customers to pay through my mobile wallet. My sales are back to normal,” Mr. Sethipandian said.
Benefits
galore
Some vegetable vendors in Delhi have also adopted cashless transactions by
installing a card reader. “People have less cash on them. Since I installed a
card reader, my customers are happy and I am doing good business,” said Ravi.People facing the cash crunch are also relieved with the gradual acceptance of digital payments by vendors.
Nandini Tomar, a resident of south Delhi said: “It is a
major relief that some grocery shops and fruit sellers are accepting payments
online. There are long queues outside banks and arranging for cash is a real
problem.” — PTI
IIT team tracks brown carbon’s effect on atmospheric
warming
High levels of the aerosol found in Kanpur due to biomass
burning
The effect of biomass burning in increasing atmospheric
aerosols and in turn atmospheric warming through light absorption has been
highlighted in a study by a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Kanpur.
While the role of black carbon produced by
biomass burning in increasing atmospheric warming has already been well
established, this study highlights the lesser-known role of brown carbon.
Compared with earlier studies carried out in the
U.S, absorption of light of 365 nanometre wavelength was found to be five times
higher in Kanpur, which has a high biomass burning area. Also, brown carbon
accounts for about 30 per cent of light absorption in Kanpur. The results were
published on November 24 in the journal Scientific Reports.
“What is seen in Kanpur can be generalised for
the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain because the sources of aerosol remain the same
throughout the region,” says P.M. Shamjad from the Department of Civil
Engineering, IIT Kanpur, and the first author of the paper.
In search of a new red corridor
image source: umble in the jungle: “The Maoists are
seeking to use tribal angst to build a political presence.” The Naxalite
Special Division of the Tamil Nadu Police during a combing operation in a
hamlet near the Erumad police station, which borders the Wayanad forests of
Kerala.
In
the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu enveloped by forests,
Maoists scout for new recruits and a home. Srinivasan Ramani reports
There
can’t be a more picturesque spot than where the three States of Kerala,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu meet — in the Muthanga forest reserve, adjoining the
Bandipur and Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary, all part of the Nilgiris bioreserve.
Here, spotted deer, herds of elephants and bisons have made their home. As has
the tiger, an elusive animal to spot; camera traps have identified 86 of them
in the reserve and the adjoining forests. As elusive but seemingly omnipresent
are a group of foot soldiers of the Peoples’ Liberation Guerrilla Army of the
Communist Party of India (Maoist), whose movements amidst the thick vegetation
are confirmed by the tribals, the original human inhabitants of the region, and
the police who are chasing this new phantom in the tri-junction.
As
many as three dozen or more “absconding” Maoists are roaming the jungles,
separated into three dalams named after the three rivers, Kabini, Nadukani and
Bhavani in the area, say police officers of Gudalur, Tamil Nadu and Wayanad,
Kerala. They have reportedly been entering the tribal villages that abut the
dense forests regularly. These villages are inhabited by the Kattunayakan
community that depends primarily on selling forest produce for a living; the
Paniya and Adhiya communities who have traditionally been agricultural workers
and with a history of labour exploitation; and the relatively better-off
Kurichiya and Kuruma agrarian tribal communities.
Encounters
and ‘encounters’
After
months of a cat-and-mouse game in the tri-junction, the Kerala Police’s
anti-Naxalite Thunderbolts force reported a major exchange of fire with Maoists
in the Kuralai region of the Nilambur forests in Malappuram district on
Thursday. Two Maoist cadre — Kuppu Devaraj from Karnataka and Ajitha alias
Kaveri — were said to be killed in what was the first “encounter” of its kind
in Kerala.
Before
the “encounter”, sightings of Maoists were scattered across the region: the
latest were in Agali in the forests of northern Palakkad district, in the
Paattakarimbu tribal colony in Malappuram district, in Thirunelly in northern
Wayanad among others. Nilambur-like “encounters” are rare. But for the major
incident, which occurred nearly a week after this reporter’s visit to Wayanad
and Malappuram, that itself followed a firing incident close to the nearby
Mundakadavu colony in October, the last serious exchange of fire was in Kunhome
forest nearly two years ago.
The
arrest of Maoist leader Roopesh and his wife Shyna in Coimbatore in May 2015
was a setback to the rebels in the region. Roopesh is believed to have been
associated with the Kabini dalam. Since his arrest, say police officers, the
Maoist journal Kaatu Thee (Forest Fire) has not been published or
circulated in the region. His position is believed to have been taken by
another native of Malappuram who goes by the alias ‘Soman’ and is said to
belong to the Nadukani dalam (which publishes the periodical, Chenkaadu
(Red Forest).
The
Kattunayakan dwellers of Paattakarimbu village confirmed the visits by Soman to
their village, the most recent one sometime in October 2016. The womenfolk tell
us that the colony dwellers are relatively educated (with many of them
finishing high school) but are unskilled and dependent on the forest. There is
a lack of an organised market for their produce and the dwellers are keen on
better implementation of promised welfare schemes (the Integrated Tribal
Development Projects, various State welfare schemes).
Kochu Ravi, who was roughed up by
the Maoists for allegedly talking to the police about their visits. |
Photo Credit: Dinesh Krishnan
Caught
in the crossfire
Narayanan
(name changed) and another villager, Kochu Ravi, returned from the forest at
our behest and told us that they are aware of various government schemes but
they are poorly implemented in the village. This is the reason why Maoists
visit them, says Narayanan. “They want to get recruits from among us while the
police want us to inform them about their visits. The police do not allow us to
go alone to the forest for collecting the produce; we have to go as a group.
The Maoists sometimes make us sit and listen to their views. This hampers our
work. Then there are the wild elephants that can attack us if we are not
careful. This Maoist-police business is making life very difficult for us,” he
says.
In
fact, Ravi, an Ezhava who married into a tribal family and settled down in
Paattakarimbu, has already been named in Chenkaadu as a suspected police
informer and was roughed up by the Maoists for allegedly talking to the police
about their visits.
“The
Maoists are very persuasive. Soman is the one who talks to us in Malayalam. He
explained our problems and told us not to vote in elections. The Maoists, when
they visit our colony at odd hours, treat us respectfully. Women are always
talked to only in the presence of women cadre. And they try to explain issues patiently,”
concedes Narayanan. “But I want to ask the Maoists, how different are you from
any other political party? You seek power too. There is no difference except
that you carry guns. We want to be left alone. We know how to get things done
even if they are difficult”.
The
theme of harassment — being caught in a battle between the “absconding Maoists”
and the wary security forces (the police and the Thunderbolts) is a repeated
complaint by Kurichiya villagers in the Kunhome forest near Mananthavady in Wayanad.
The
Kurichiya hamlet called Chappa has a settlement of about four families living
off farms that grow bananas, pepper, paddy among a variety of crops and are on
the edge of the forest. In December 2014, security forces engaged in combing
operations in the village found the guerrillas in a natural meadow in the
forest. After firing some shots, the Maoists fled deeper into the jungle, and
that was the last they were seen, says Gopi, a Chappa resident.
Since
the incident though, a slew of welfare measures were implemented — a better
road from the towns leading up to the village, grant of milch cows to the
families and ease of access (albeit done haphazardly) for children to nearby
schools, among others.
Some
of the villagers welcome the welfare measures, but others say that there are
new inconveniences. “The Maoists stopped coming after the firing incident. But
we are still not free to go to the forest or to even harvest our own crop in
the fields in the night. My brother is constantly interrogated because he had
given the Maoists food and provisions,” says Gopi’s brother. “Tribals like us
do not refuse anyone food and beverage if they come to us. Besides, when they
come to us with guns, we do not have a choice. This does not mean we support
Maoists. Yes, the Maoist visits here in the past may have helped us get the
attention of the government and some development work, but the repeated
questioning by security forces and restrictions on our movement is harassment,”
he adds angrily.
Policing
the tri-junction
Wayanad
Superintendent of Police (SP) K. Karthik says that the inconvenience is a price
to pay for security operations against the Maoists in the area but asserts that
the police treat the tribals with respect and care — avoiding raids on houses,
for example.
SP
Karthik belongs to the 2011 batch of the Indian Police Service and has been
posted in Wayanad for about a year. The SPs in Chamarajanagar district in
Karnataka and the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu that abut the tri-junction
with Wayanad are also from the same batch. Having batchmates as SPs has
strengthened the already regular coordination between the police forces of the
three States, says Karthik. “2013-14 was when the activities of the Maoists
peaked — when resorts were attacked, policemen and forest officials were
threatened. But since 2015, these have slowed down,” he says, adding, “the
Maoists are more active through their front organisations such as Porattam and
Revolutionary Democratic Front.”
Only
two days before the interview, an activist of the radical Porattum group was
arrested on the way to a press meet and charged under the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act with being a Maoist sympathiser and advocating violence
against the state.
Tribal
activists say that police actions on activist groups have been in a manner that
does not distinguish between anti-state actors and other “democratic”
dissidents. Sreejith, a local area committee member of the ruling Communist
Party of India (Marxist), says that Wayanad has been in the throes of agrarian
distress for years, the most affected being the Paniya and Adhiya tribals. The
Maoist presence in the area is a subtext to these tribal issues of
unemployment, he says, adding that they have not helped the cause of tribal
welfare.
Tapping
into the distress
The
Maoists have also sought to prevent resort expansion in the forested areas and
have issued threats against quarrying — a major issue that is not being taken
seriously by the government, say forest officials. But these actions have
resulted in environmental activists being branded as Maoists. “Maoists believe
and engage in mindless violence. But sometimes, they offer a strong opposition
and obstacle against illegal anti-environmental activity in the forests here,”
says a forest official who did not want to be named.
Apart
from targeting poorer tribals, the Maoists had also identified a Sri Lankan
Tamil resettlement colony near Mananthavady for possible recruits. Babu (name
changed) works in the Kambamala tea estate and is a second-generation refugee
whose parents migrated here after resettlement in the late 1970s. He says that
the Maoists frequented the colony seeking recruits as the condition of the
workers here is very poor.
Residents
in the colony complain that they have poor employment opportunities beyond
temporary and limited permanent jobs within the estate. The lack of a
(Scheduled Caste) certificate for many residents in the colony is the major
reason, they argue. As “refugees”, their plight is no less than other
marginalised caste groups, they say.
Older
residents in the colony are less pessimistic, having come to the area with
nothing during resettlement and painstakingly built their lives in the estate.
But those among the younger generation are desperate for better lives and for
permanent jobs, not tied only to the estate. They are wary of talking about the
Maoist visits.
The
latest of those visits, says a resident, was during the Assembly elections in
May when the Maoists asked them to boycott polls. Some deny having seen them at
all. But others open up about their views on the Maoists, saying that the
latter understood their plight and communicated well with them with some cadre
(including women) speaking to them in Tamil.
In
chaste Tamil, Mala (name changed), a young mother, speaks up. “The women cadre
looked nice in that green uniform and the long gun. When I first saw them, I
rushed to meet and greet the women. Some among the Maoists spoke our language
and listened to us as we told them about our distress. No one else does that
here,” she says.
It
is clear that the Maoists are striving hard to move beyond a protean presence
in the region, even if it is limited only to about three dozen armed guerrillas
moving around the forests in the States’ tri-junction. With tribal livelihoods
lagging behind other sections of society, the Maoists perceive a potential
support base that could inform them about police operations and also provide
foot soldiers for the cause.
Nipping
it in the bud
Across
the border, SP Murali Rambha, based in Ooty, says the Maoists in the area call
themselves as part of the “Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee” and are led
by a Tamil-speaking leader named Kuppuswami. Other senior cadre in the area
include Vikram Gowda and Sundari from Karnataka and Kalidas from Tamil Nadu.
Rambha
argues that the Maoist movement in the tri-junction was at a preliminary stage
with their aims limited to attracting new recruits and establishing a presence
in the forests. But he adds that the Tamil Nadu Police is regularly tracking
sightings at villages close to the State border (such as Paattakarimbu) and
engaged in frequent combing and patrol operations along with the anti-Naxalite
Special Task Force. “We are empowered to arrest anyone even if they are not
formally Maoists but propagate Maoist views or sympathise with them,” he says.
Rambha
adds that the police is treating “left-wing extremism” as being more than just
a law and order problem. Bringing his experience as a block development officer
in undivided Andhra Pradesh during the peak years of the People’s War Group to
play, he is coordinating with the revenue department to ensure that the
development schemes in the villages are properly implemented.
Since
the merger of two major Naxalite groups in 2004 into the CPI(Maoist), the
radical communist organisation has built a presence in areas where the Indian
state is weakest in its presence — the tribal-dominated belts of central India.
A decade of “civil war” has reduced the Maoists to a military and guerrilla
force from its heyday in Telangana and north Andhra Pradesh as a radical
political organisation. A series of military and leadership setbacks has
perhaps forced the Maoists to seek new areas to build its influence.
The
tri-junction area between the three States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
has been identified by the Maoists as one such area where a coordinated
military effort by the Indian state would be difficult. Wayanad had seen
Naxalite action in the late 1960s, when police camps were attacked, but that
movement petered out early. The only major Naxalite group in Kerala, the
Central Reorganisation Committee (CRC) led by K. Venu, had withered away too.
The Naxalites of the present generation, the Maoists, claim in their pamphlets
that they have been present in the area for the past three and a half years;
the movement received a fillip after the merger of the CRC offshoot Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari with the CPI(Maoist).
Tribals
here in the southern States are relatively better off than those in central
India, but with Wayanad barely recovering from a prolonged agrarian crisis, the
Maoists are seeking to use tribal angst to build a political presence. But as
the Kurichiya farmer Gopi says, “We have lots of problems and many issues. The
Maoists tell us many things about our problems and issues with the government,
but in the end only the government can help us.”
srinivasan.vr@thehindu.co.in
With E.M. Manoj and Dinesh Krishnan
‘Truth sometimes needs fiction’
Kiran Doshi, shortlisted for The
Hindu Prize, talks about his Bombay-centric, Jinnah-centric novel and about the
people the gods choose to destroy
iran Doshi, author of Jinnah Often Came to
Our House , is a retired diplomat. While with the Indian Foreign Service, he
was often required to tackle India’s relations with Pakistan. He describes it
as an ‘exciting but frustrating’ task. What strikes you about the author, a
lifelong student of history, is that his eye is sharp but also benign. He looks
upon the sub-continent’s story in cycles — as ironies of our times. Excerpts
from an email interview:
Congratulations and best wishes for The Hindu Prize nomination.
How do you feel ?Pleased... and honoured, for The Hindu is — it has always been — the best. And thank you for your good wishes.
You have a novel with the name Jinnah in the title — is it a personal choice or a political statement?
Both really. As a student of history, I have
often wondered why relations between India and Pakistan, now almost 70 years
old, have always been so terrible, often bloody, and almost impossible to
improve. The reasons for that are not, I have long felt, what either country
says they are. Those are only sideshows or symptoms. (Even Kashmir is just a
symptom.) The real reasons have much deeper roots. They go back a long time
before 1947.
How so?
It is not always easy to decide when the history
of any phenomenon began, especially when we talk about India and Pakistan,
which are intertwined like no other two nations in history. In the case of the
essentially hostile nature of Indo-Pak relations, however, I could decide
almost as soon as I started to write the book, that its modern phase began
shortly after the partition of Bengal — with Jinnah, ironically the brightest
rising star in the Indian National Congress at the time, taking a wrong turn in
pursuit of his political ambitions.
As for the personal side, my wife is a Muslim, a
doctor from Christian Medical College, Vellore. By definition, therefore, half
my relatives are Muslim. (Here let me add a politically incorrect statement:
Indo-Pak questions cannot be entirely divorced from the larger question of
Hindu-Muslim relations in the sub-continent.) My wife’s mother ran a charitable
hospital in Bombay. More importantly, her maternal grandfather was a barrister,
a contemporary and friend of Jinnah in his nationalist days. Family lore has it
that Jinnah often went to their house.
Is that why the title?Yes. Incidentally, many of the stories from that lore find mention in the book — in different garbs though. For in main, Jinnah... is a work of fiction.
Then why is Jinnah ... a novel and not a biography?
The short answer to the question, as given in the
Acknowledgements, is: ‘Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to
make it plausible.’ I hasten to add that the book was not intended to be, and
is not, just a ‘biography’ of Jinnah, nor only an account of the freedom
struggle and its terrible twin, the struggle for a separate homeland for the
Muslims of India.
It is a lament (through the fictional part of the novel) for the millions of
lives lost or twisted tragically out of shape because of a Shakespearean flaw
in Jinnah’s character, exploited to the hilt by the British. Of course, it is
also a trip down memory lane — to a Bombay that is gone forever, the Bombay-meri-jaan
.What kind of research went into the book — for the detailing? It is so alive!
I had to do a good bit of research while writing
the book, but much less than what I would have needed to do had the novel been
set in another time and place. You see, all my life I have been a student of
the history of modern India. I also know Bombay well, having studied there and
lived there for long stretches at different times in my life. Then there is the
family lore.
I wrote the novel largely from memory. The
research was either to get simple information (e.g. when was Ramadan in the
year 1904?) or to double-check facts I already knew, but was no longer sure of
(e.g. Did Ruttie go with Jinnah to Nagpur in 1920?), or to ascertain crucial
details (e.g, Was Jinnah in Karachi in January 1948?).
I think one reason the narration seems ‘so alive’
is because right from the start of the novel, I made a conscious effort not ‘to
think ahead’. That is to say, not to write about something that had not
happened.
But in historical fiction you know the future...
Perhaps what helped me are: a) conscious effort,
b) the intricate interweaving of the fictional with the historical, so that
‘the end’ of the novel consisted, in effect, of multiple endings, both
fictional as well as non-fictional, c) revision, revision, revision, d) writing
between the lines, and e) an excellent editor.
How did you select the events for this narrative?
The novel is both Bombay-centric as well as
Jinnah-centric. It skips events and individuals, however important those might
have been otherwise, that had little to do with Bombay and Jinnah, and dwells
on events in which Jinnah was involved.
What did the writing show you?
A curious thing that sometimes happens when you
are writing a book is that the pen takes over. I mean, you find yourself
writing things you had not planned to write. I did get to know a few things in
the course of writing Jinnah.... For instance, of what really happened —
and who really did what — in the twin struggles (for freedom and partition), I
also discovered that those whom the gods wish to destroy first turn madly
religious.
Amandeep Sandhu is working on a novel and a non-fiction book on Punjab. His novelRoll of Honour was
short-listed for The Hindu Prize 2013.
RESEARCH Health
The stealth superbug, decoded
A team of scientists in Bengaluru is behind the genome
sequencing of Candida auris, a fungus that has caused disease outbreaks in five
continents this year
On November 4, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, a leading public health institute in Atlanta, U.S., reported 13
cases of infection by the deadly fungus Candida auris in several parts
of the country. Apart from the U.S., outbreaks have been reported this year in
eight countries across four continents — India, Pakistan, South Korea, Kuwait,
South Africa, Colombia, Venezuela and United Kingdom.
A paper by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in
Bengaluru has shown that many cases of Candida auris have been
misdiagnosed in the country. In 2015, a team led by Utpal Tatu, professor of
biochemistry, IISc, completed the genotype sequencing of Candida auris,
widely considered an emerging superbug fungus as it does not respond to
conventional antifungal drugs. The genome data were submitted to the National
Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. and is now considered as the
reference genome across the globe.
India, an
epicentre
Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by Candida species, often seen in
patients whose immune system is compromised, such as AIDS patients or in case
of transplants, malignancies and the use of catheters. Most of the infections
are hospital-acquired, especially in ICU settings.The first case reported was in Japan in an external ear canal infection in a patient in 2009. Since then, most cases have been invasive in nature and India has one of the highest number of infections caused by this superbug, says PhD student Sharanya Chatterjee, a member of the IISc team who studied isolates of Candida from a private hospital in Bengaluru. She found that in many cases, the fungus had been misidentified with another Candida species, Candida haemulonii.
Dr. Tatu’s team was among the first to report the high rate of misdiagnosis of Candida auris. “Current diagnostic procedures to detect fungal infections cannot detect Candida auris, which is resistant to common antifungal treatment. In several patients, by the time we had made the correct diagnosis, it was too late,” says Ms. Chatterjee.
The team of scientists has developed a diagnostic tool to detect Candida auris using polymerase chain reactions. “The rise of more virulent forms is connected to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics,” says Dr. Tatu, adding, “The strain found in the United States was resistant to even the third class of antifungal treatment.”
Highly
resistant fungus
One reason for the high resistance to existing drugs is that this species
has a higher number of drug efflux pumps compared to other species, says Ms.
Chatterjee. Drug efflux pumps are proteins that prevent other drugs from
crossing the cell membrane. The IISc team’s research was published in the
September 2015 issue of BMC Genomics.Sudarshan Ballal, director, Manipal Hospitals, which provided the isolates for the study, says the research highlighted the need for clinical-academic collaboration. “We have been able to dissect a fungus found commonly in hospitals and study it at the genome level. Some fungi look alike at macroscopic level, but their genotype could be very different, sort of like twins,” he says, adding, “If you know it is Candida auris from day one, you could start off with treatment which it is sensitive to.” Dr. Ballal agrees with Dr. Tatu about indiscriminate use of antibiotics as a possible cause: “Killing all kinds of bacteria gives space for fungi to grow.”
Dr. Tatu and his team of researchers feel that it is high time officials took note of the situation. “It is very difficult to establish how many cases have been misdiagnosed in India as very little study has been done on this, and since most patients who acquire Candida are already quite ill, a delayed diagnosis could be fatal,” he says.
Echoing Dr. Ballal, Dr. Tatu says the emergence of superbugs is a small example of the lacunae between academic research that studies the current disease scenario and current clinical practices, and shows the need for greater collaboration between the two. Apart from Candida auris, Dr. Tatu’s team is also studying numerous other infections, their evolutionary origins, diagnosis and treatment, with a view to filling this gap.
cinthya.anand@thehindu.co.in
H5N8 expands
its reach
Health Ministry issues advisory despite the low risk this bird
flu strain poses
India has reported an outbreak of a highly contagious bird flu virus in
Karnataka, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on
Friday, citing a report from the Indian Agriculture Ministry.The virus, H5N8, spreads through direct contact with secretions from infected birds, their feed, etc. So far there are no reported cases of H5N8 affecting people. The virus is caused by Type “A” influenza and is a subtype of the H5N1 virus. With nearly 50 ducks dying of the virus last month at Delhi zoo, the State government had issued a health advisory asking people to not consume uncooked chicken or eggs.
In the latest case, in Karnataka, the H5N8 virus was confirmed among birds in the village of Itagi, in Hosapete taluk; all 1,593 of the birds at risk from the disease died or were culled, according to the report posted by the OIE.
No details were given on the type of birds or location involved.
The H5N8 bird flu strain has been found in several countries in Europe and West Asia in recent weeks, leading some states to order poultry flocks to be kept indoors.
The same virus had previously affected livestock in Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.
Precautionary
steps
Earlier this week, Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste had informed
the Rajya Sabha that poultry birds in Bellary, Karnataka, had tested positive
for H5N8.“Based on current knowledge, the public health risk to human population is considered low for avian influenza subtype H5N8,” he said.
Mr. Kulaste added that as a matter of caution, the Union
Health Ministry has issued an advisory to the States and Union Territories to
minimise bird-human interface, ensure that those handling sick or dead birds
use personal protective equipment, and also keep them under surveillance.
Demystifying Science
What
are Yamanaka genes?
They
are the four essential genes that can reprogramme the cells in our body and, in
principle, be used to regenerate old cells or grow new organs. Collectively
known as OSKM (for the initials of the genes, Oct4 , Sox2 , Klf4
and Myc ), these Yamanaka genes are named after Japanese scientist
Shinya Yamanaka. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012,
along with Sir John B. Gurdon for pioneering a technique to use these genes for
reprogramming cells. In the years since, it’s been found that while necessary,
the genes are not very efficient at reversing cell-ageing. Worse, they may also
induce a particular type of tumour (known as teratoma) that makes cell
reprogramming incompatible with its potential clinical use. This week, however,
another set of scientists have found a ‘stress factor,’ a pro-inflammatory
molecule called interleukin-6 (IL6), that may be responsible for reducing the
efficiency of the OSKM genes. If this can be better understood, the Yamanaka
genes may finally result in practical therapy.
China: In the shadow of eight dragons
With growth slowing, will the
country continue on the path of debt-fuelled growth or pursue painful
structural reform?
“The
biggest problem in China’s economy is that the growth is unstable, imbalanced,
uncoordinated and unsustainable.” — Former Premier Wen Jiabao, March 2007
China’s
economic achievements are unparalleled in economic history. The country has
achieved a 10 per cent annual growth rate over the last 35 years, quadrupled
per capita real GDP and lifted more than 600 million people from poverty. The
per capita income currently is $8,300 and in purchasing power parity terms, it
is close to $14,200.
The
one lingering issue is whether growth has been driven by ever-rising inputs of
cheap labour and capital or by that elixir of growth, which economists term as
“total factor productivity growth.” China’s productivity growth has been
falling, especially post the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, when the
government had embarked on a massive stimulus and avoided structural reform.
With growth slowing in China, the question now is - will China continue on its
path of debt-fueled growth or pursue a much-needed but painful structural
reform.
Debt
build-up
The
eight dragons identified in the accompanying chart are potential triggers for a
crisis in China. The first dragon is over-investment. The world has been
impressed with the infrastructure investments and the rapid transformation of
physical infrastructure in China during the last two decades. However, a recent
study by the Said Business School (2016) argues that cost overruns and
misdirected infrastructure investments account for at least one-third of the
massive debt build-up that will likely engender economic and financial
fragility.
The
second dragon is total debt to GDP. It is worth noting that between 2006 and
2015, the corporate debt has zoomed from $3.4 trillion to $17.8 trillion - a
five-fold increase in 9 years. While state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China
have accounted for bulk of the debt taken, private property developers have
also borrowed heavily. More importantly, a research conducted by the Bank for
International Settlements indicates that the gap of the credit to GDP ratio gap
vis-a-vis its long-term trend China is now at 30.1 per cent, more than three
times the normal deviation and is a robust early warning indicator of banking
crisis.
The
third dragon is the inefficiency of the SOEs. There are about 150,000 SOEs with
aggregate assets of about RMB 100 trillion ($15 trillion), whose return on
assets was only 2.4 per cent compared to 6.4 per cent in the U.S. More
importantly, even the largest SOEs are actually loss-making, if the the cost of
subsidies that they received are fully accounted for. The fourth dragon is
represented by the non-performing loans of the banking sector. Charlene Chu of
Autonomous Research estimates that by the end of this year, almost 22 per cent
of all loans outstanding will be non-performing, although the official non
performing loans as a per cent of total loans is only 1.75 per cent as of March
2016.
The
fifth dragon is the shadow credit products estimated at RMB 40 trillion ($6
trillion). These are high risk products that offer yields of 11-14 per cent
compared to 6 per cent on loans and 3-4 per cent on bonds. Almost 50 per cent
of the shadow credit products are of low quality and are risky.
The
shadow credit products account for 8 per cent of banks’ assets concentrated in
listed banks (outside of the big four) and unlisted banks and the aggregate
exposure is several times their capital.
Increasing
dependence on the inter-bank market for mobilising deposits could become a
source of transmission of stress in case this market freezes up. In other
words, banks must raise retail deposits as dependence on wholesale markets
could turn risky. The U.S. experience reveals that only decisive action by the
Fed, to force banks to conduct stress tests, disclose it publicly and raise
capital, saved the banking system from the brink and ultimately the U.S.
economy.
It
is hard to imagine a similar speed of response in China in the event of a
crisis.
The
sixth dragon is the overvalued currency and net capital outflows. In the post
global financial crisis period, the current account surplus of China has
significantly declined, the overvalued currency led to fears of abrupt
devaluation prompting capital outflows. In 2015, the net capital outflows came
to $673 billion - about 6.2 per cent of GDP. As per International Institute of
Finance (IIF) data, net capital outflows in 2016 till September was $320
billion. Despite capital controls, there has been substantial net capital
outflows. As per BIS data, the RMB is overvalued by about 20 per cent. Goldman
Sachs strategists are predicting a 12-month Yuan U.S. dollar rate of 7.30. The
rate currently hovers around 6.92. While China lacks some of the pre-conditions
such as open capital account and deep and liquid financial markets necessary to
be a part of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the inherent tension
between the aspirations to internationalise the currency and at the same time
to have tight controls domestically will add another layer of uncertainty to
the value of its currency.
The
seventh dragon is rebalancing. When Premier Wen Jiabao made the comment in
2010, investment and private consumption as a share of GDP were 40 per cent and
38.3 per cent respectively. By 2015, investment increased to 45 per cent of GDP
and private consumption was 38.2 per cent of GDP. So rebalancing is still
awaited.
The
eighth dragon is demographics, the old age dependency which is measured as the
ratio of the population that is 65 years or above to the working age population
(15-64 years) will increase from 0.13 currently to 0.47 by 2050.
Full-blown
crisis
From
a political economy perspective, Xi Jinping, the current President, has been
recently anointed as “Core” leader and is leaning more toward eradication of
corruption domestically, geopolitical adventurism and new-found regional
assertiveness of China as against its earlier claim of peaceful rise. Our view
is that since the Communist Party has targeted doubling the GDP and GDP per
capita by 2020 compared to 2010 levels, it will not settle for low-growth and
painful structural reform in the short-term. The significance of 2020 is it
also coincides with the 100-year anniversary celebrations of the Chinese
Communist Party.
While
several international organisations such as IMF and BIS have warned of the
dangerous levels of debt in China, we expect a full-blown crisis in the next
18-24 months triggered by busted banks, corporate defaults or a sharp
devaluation of the currency to stem massive net capital outflows.
U.S trade sanctions on China could
be the ultimate tipping point. A large Yuan devaluation will result in a sudden
stop of capital flows to emerging markets and global risk-aversion will rise.
As regards its impact on India, a negative feedback loop will likely arise
between a falling stock market and a depreciating rupee, with distinct
overshooting possibilities. However, there may be an opportunity for India to
embark on serious reform now, especially cleaning up the banking sector of
non-performing assets and revving up the corporate investment cycle to be
better prepared to withstand the heat from those eight fiery dragons that are
emerging as a credible threat to China’s sustained economic growth and
stability.
Sivaprakasam Sivakumar is MD,
Argonaut Global Capital LLC, U.S. and Himadri Bhattacharya is Senior Advisor,
RisKontroller Global
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