Surging bird flu cases may increase human infection risk, warn UN agencies & WOAH (GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- The recent surge in bird flu outbreaks among mammals could help the virus spread more easily among humans, United Nations agencies Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) warned.
- They urged countries to strengthen disease surveillance and improve hygiene at poultry farms.
New H5N1 strain:
- A new H5N1 strain of bird flu explosively spread to new geographical regions earlier in 2023. The strain, which was highly contagious to wild birds, infected and killed a variety of mammal species and raised fears of a pandemic among humans.
- Avian influenza viruses normally spread among birds, but the increasing number of H5N1 avian influenza detections among mammals which are biologically closer to humans than birds are raises concern that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily.
Transmission:
- Human bird flu cases are usually the result of direct or indirect exposure to infected live or dead poultry or contaminated environments.
- About 10 countries have reported cases of avian flu outbreaks in both land and sea mammals since 2022, including in farmed mink in Spain, seals in the United States, and sea lions in Peru and Chile. Outbreaks have been reported in 26 species and H5N1 was recently detected in cats in Poland.
- Some of these infected mammals may act as mixing vessels for influenza viruses, leading to the emergence of new viruses that could be more harmful to animals and humans.
- However, only about half a dozen cases in people who had close contact with infected birds have been reported to the WHO and most of those have been mild.
Measures to curb the spread of the virus:
- Enhancing biosecurity measures in farms and in poultry value chains and apply good hygiene practices
- Rapid detection, reporting and response to animal outbreaks
- Strengthening influenza surveillance in animals and humans
- Conducting epidemiological and virological investigations around animal outbreaks and human infections
- Encouraging collaboration between animal and human health sectors, among others
Infected mammals:
- A host of mammal species are known to be infected to date, like ferret, mink, several otter species, European badger, skunk and Virginia opossum.
- Felines like Amur leopard, Amur tiger, mountain lion, European polecat, lynx, bobcat, and domestic cats have been reportedly infected as well, along with red fox, coyote, racoon, racoon dog, South American bush dog, American black bear, brown Bear and grizzly bear.
Is it possible to have partial app bans?
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) sought inputs on whether it would be possible to have “selective” app bans instead of internet shutdowns, in order to reduce the impact that a wholesale communications lockdown can entail.
Does India have a history of Internet shutdowns?
- Internet shutdowns are imposed in States and districts across India from time to time in order to prevent the rapid spread of provocative content during communally charged periods. The Indian government considers Internet shutdowns a legitimate tool of maintaining law and order.
- In Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Manipur, authorities and courts have gradually loosened long-term restrictions by allowing wired internet connections and limited wireless internet access.
How would the TRAI move work?
- The approach suggested by TRAI would require telecom operators and messaging app firms like WhatsApp to cooperate with each other and stop access to services during a shutdown.
- The telecom regulator has sought inputs on licensing messaging apps in India, which may require firms to be subjected to surveillance and blocking requirements.
Has the TRAI considered app regulation before?
- In 2015 and 2018, the TRAI had held consultations on regulating messaging apps, a process that led to wide-ranging protections for net neutrality — the concept that all internet traffic should be treated equally.
- Telecom operators had then called for regulation because they argued that messaging apps provide the same service without going through the stringent security and surveillance regulations that telecom operators go through.
- Telcos were also wary of their revenues being undercut by online calls and messages, which were cheaper than calling and SMS rates then.
- However, from 2016 onwards, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the TRAI have rejected this argument, holding that telcos cannot discriminate between categories of data used by consumers.
- Since then, regulating messaging apps has become more a matter of security and policing. Seeking a deterrent against communal misinformation and provocative content spreading online, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology added a requirement of ‘traceability’ to the IT Rules, 2021, wherein one can find the original sender of a forwarded message.
What about VPNs?
- It is possible to block websites and certain apps by ordering telecom operators to do so. However, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) make these blocks trivial to bypass.
- VPNs tunnel a user’s internet traffic through another server. While these tools are mostly used for completely innocuous purposes, the government has been showing a growing distrust of VPNs. This is because VPNs are often encrypted, leaving the government with little visibility into what goes on in users’ connections.
- VPN firms usually route data through servers located in another country, and frequently cycle the IP addresses these servers use to evade detection and blocking.
- When the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) published directions in 2022 requiring VPN firms to retain records of users from India, most large VPN providers stopped offering servers physically located in India.
- However, these firms continued serving users in India, allowing people to connect to foreign servers through an encrypted connection and access blocked sites.
Can VPNs be blocked?
- Blocking VPNs is not straightforward, as companies operating them tend to frequently change the IP addresses associated with their servers. While VPN services’ websites may be blocked, the installation files can be found elsewhere online.
- The Manipur High Court was informed as much by telecom operators, who said that blocking VPNs was technically unfeasible.
What is the National Research Foundation?
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- The Union Cabinet has approved the introduction of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Bill in Parliament, placing once again the debate on science and technology funding in the spotlight.
What is the NRF?
- Setting up the NRF was one of the key recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020.
- The NRF intends to act as a coordinating agency between researchers, various government bodies and industry, thus bringing industry into the mainstream of research.
- NRF plans to seed, grow and facilitate research in India’s universities, especially State universities, by funding research infrastructure and researchers.
How will it be funded?
- The NRF will operate with a budget of ₹50,000 crore for five years, of which 28% (₹14,000 crore) will be the government’s share, and the remaining 72% (₹36,000 crore) will come from the private sector.
- The NRF draft proposes the government’s share to increase eventually to ₹20,000 crore per year.
- Out of the government’s share, ₹4,000 crore will be used from the existing Science and Engineering Research Board’s budget, which will be subsumed under the NRF. Therefore, the government has earmarked an additional 10,000 crore over the next five years for the NRF.
- However, this increase in the nation’s gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) seems too meagre, (less than 2% of GERD) especially if one compares the GDP and the comparative spending in other big economies, such as the U.S. and China.
- As per the last available statistics (2017-18), India’s GERD was ₹1,13,825 crore. While India’s GDP was 7.6 and 5.1 times smaller than that of the U.S and China respectively, India’s GERD was nearly 24 times less than both these countries during the same period. And in the last five years, that gap has further widened.
How can the NRF facilitate the “ease of doing science”?
- The time between applying for a research grant and receiving the money must be minimal, preferably within six months. Although the NRF draft mentions that the peer-review process will be completed within six months, releasing funds may take time, pending financial clearance.
- All the paperwork must be digitally processed without sending stacks of papers in hard copies to the NRF.
- All finance-related queries, paperwork, approval, and acceptance need to be between the NRF and the finance department of the university/research institution keeping the scientist free to focus on research.
- The NRF needs explicit spending guidelines away from the General Financial Rules (GFR) and the government’s e-Marketplace (GeM) usage. Scientific research needs independent guidelines for spending money, which provides flexibility while making scientists accountable.
- Finally, the release of money needs to be timely. Although the NRF draft mentions timely disbursal of funds, a mechanism needs to be in place to facilitate and implement this.
What next?
- The proposed NRF is largely modelled after the National Science Foundation of the U.S. It borrows some of the best practices from the German, U.K., Swiss, Norwegian, South Korean, and Singapore science agencies.
- Even if the NRF draft discusses critical thinking, creativity, and bringing innovation to the forefront, it is unclear how the NRF will transparently seed, fund and coordinate research across institutions.
- The success of NRF will lie in how the government sets rules and implements the same, different from what already exists.
