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India stayed out of the joint declaration on the trade pillar of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ministerial meet in Los Angeles, with Union Commerce Minister PiyushGoyal citing concerns over possible discrimination against developing economies.
India was the only one of the 14 IPEF countries, which include South East Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, not to join the declaration on trade.
However, a statement by the government said India had “engaged exhaustively” on all the four pillars, and was “comfortable” with the outcome statements on the other three pillars: supply chains, clean economy (clean energy) and fair economy (tax and anti-corruption).
The decision to stay out came just four months after the launch of the talks by the IPEF leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the sidelines of the Quad Summit in Tokyo in May.
We have to see what benefits member countries will derive and whether any conditionalities on aspects like environment may discriminate against developing countries, who have the imperative to provide low cost and affordable energy to meet the needs of our growing economy,” Mr. Goyal said, explaining the decision at a press conference after the meeting.
He also complimented the IPEF members for the speed of the launch of the ministerial talks and said the IPEF grouping would set rules between those countries that believe in “fair play, transparency and rules-based trading” in future.
Mr. Goyal said that that one of the reasons for staying out of the trade pillar was that the “contours of the framework” had not emerged yet, particularly on the kind of commitment each country would have to make on “environment, labour, digital trade and public procurement”.
In addition, Mr. Goyal pointed to the fact that the government was still firming up its data protection and privacy laws, in a reference to the 2019 Personal Data Protection Bill that the Modi government withdrew from Parliament in August.
The IPEF move by Mr. Goyal also mirrors India’s decision to walk out after seven years of negotiations from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a grouping resembling the IPEF that includes China but doesn’t include the U.S.
A government statement pointed out, however, that India had not walked out of the IPEF talks, and that delegations would continue to participate in future IPEF talks, including on trade with an “open mind”.
New adoption rules create confusion (Page no 1)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Thereafter, amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016 were notified which state, “all the cases pertaining to adoption matters pending before the Court shall stand transferred to the District Magistrate from the date of commencement of these rules.
Adoption agencies, lawyers and activists say there is confusion in the entire system about the requirement to transfer the cases from courts to DMs as well as the status of the court orders passed on or after September 1 after several months of court proceedings.
The regulations detailing the procedure to be followed by the DMs as well as defining the roles of various agencies and authorities involved too are yet to be notified.
The District Magistrate office tells us that they have not received any instructions about adoptions. Judges say they don’t have any information either.
We obtained an adoption order for a Bangalore-based couple on September 2, but the law is not clear on whether that will now be nullified or will have to be ratified by a DM.
In the absence of an adoption order parents can’t obtain birth certificates for adoptees which impacts school admissions. In one case adoptive parents had to admit their child to a hospital, but they can’t claim health insurance yet.
Worse, in case of inter-country adoptions by foreigners or NRIs who live abroad, parents can’t take home a child without the court order and a passport.
The Bengaluru lawyer says that courts should be allowed to close adoption cases that have already been brought before them, and only fresh petitions filed after September 1 should be sent to DMs to avoid any inconvenience.
States
Kerala Rubber plantations in Crisis (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The wide belt of rubber plantations that has taken over the tropical hills of the State are now giving nightmares to growers.
With the price of natural rubber in a free fall, about 12 lakh small-scale rubber farmers in Kerala, the country’s rubber heartland, are counting their losses since the last couple of months.
With the impact of the falling prices beginning to reflect in their daily lives as well as the local economy, the growers are up in arms against the authorities for their perceived delay in checking the slide.
The price of latex has fallen below ₹120 while that of rubber sheets to ₹150 from ₹180 just ahead of the Ukraine-Russia war. Compounding their fears, reports of a recession afflicting large parts of Europe too have begun to emerge.
The falling prices have come as a double whammy to the sector, plagued by an unprecedented rise in input costs. About 60% of the rubber plantations in the State are due for replanting and if no action is coming forth at this point, this will only exacerbate the situation.
Among the key demands of the farmers include raising the import duties for latex and compound rubber. They are also demanding raising the replanting subsidy in Kerala, which remains at ₹25,000 per ha, and the support price of the crop under the price stabilisation scheme to ₹200 from ₹170.
In central Travancore, where political discourses are inextricably linked to fortunes of the plantation sector, the matter has assumed new proportions with the leading yet warring factions of the Kerala Congress jumping in.
While Jose K. Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress (M) has urged the State government to hike the support price to ₹200, P.C. Thomas, working chairman of the Kerala Congress, called for constitution of a special fund to support the growers.
Sources in the Rubber Board say the prices could not have reached this low had the domestic industry cooperated. The manufacturing decline in China owing to its zero-COVID strategy has also coincided with high production of natural rubber in that country. The Indian industry too took advantage of this situation and are now sitting on a huge buffer stock.
News
University dives into desert dust’s impact on air quality(Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Researchers at the Central University of Rajasthan (CUoR) have started studying the impact of desert dust and emissions by human activity on air quality and climate change, under a project funded by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The research falls within the domain of atmospheric chemistry.
The Kishangarh-based university is the first academic institution to get a research grant from the country’s national space agency, ISRO, headquartered in Bengaluru.
The university’s Department of Atmospheric Science will look for remedies to curb the menace of degrading air quality in the State by deploying new instruments and conducting field studies.
The researchers would measure the atmospheric “trace gases”, present in small amounts, influenced by dominance of desert dust and natural and anthropogenic emissions. The mission is to study the changes in atmospheric chemistry and recommend measures to improve the quality of air for both flora and fauna.
The university had earlier worked with the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre for three years under a project for stratified biomass modelling, using hyper-spectral data, which started in 2017.
A team of the university’s Department of Environmental Science, which dealt with the renewable organic material coming from plants and animals, had handled the project.
The ISRO-funded project, with the grant of Rs. 34.7 lakh for the first year, will make an attempt to discern the ambient air with the help of state-of-the-art instruments and advance the scientific understanding of physical, chemical and photochemical processes of atmospheric particles, gases and radicals.
The scale of the issue is so huge that a Nobel Prize was awarded in 2007 to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), along with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, for disseminating knowledge about climate change to facilitate steps to tackle it.
The Indo-Gangetic Plains have high levels of anthropogenic emissions and the gases, smoke and fog travel long distances, including Rajasthan, influencing the air quality and health at far-off places.
The role of atmospheric chemistry in processing these pollutants was yet to be fully understood, the researchers would study the “production and loss processes” which create a balance for concentration of atmospheric gases.
The study is significant in terms of comparison between emissions brought in from Delhi and Indo-Gangetic Plain and the local emission of trace gases, besides identifying the reaction mechanisms as a result of loss of gases through deposition and interaction between gases and aerosols, comprising suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in air.
‘Cooperatives only way to resist farm distress’(Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Agriculture)
Eminent agro economistSukhpal Singh, who has done detailed studies about Punjab’s agricultural systems, will take charge as the new Chairman of the State’s Farmers and Farm Workers Commission.
Speaking from his office at the Punjab Agriculture University, where he is a principal agro economist, Dr. Singh said only the cooperative system can save agriculture and the economy.
Dr. Singh, who believes that farming can be made a profitable vocation with a little help from the government, said crop diversification is a priority for him and for that, both the Centre and the State should frame policies.
The mandate is yet to be prepared. But certainly there is a need to develop the agriculture policy of the State. It should be a long-term policy consisting of the various long-term aspects on income behaviour, natural resources management, marketing policy, expenditure patterns and profitability of farmers. It should be also about the value-addition process of the Punjab’s agricultural economy. Trade is also important here.
International trade is the mandate of the Union government. We are a border State. We need opportunities to seek avenues to improve our trade with the neighbouring countries too.
Punjab is an agriculture State, producing for the market. We produce mostly foodgrains, which are not perishable. Considering the international ecosystem and international economic scenario, we must produce foodgrains.
Punjab is a land of small peasants. Average land holding though is higher than national average, farmers are facing problems and committing suicide.
Farming gives income and there is profitability. But due to liberalisation, all the social sectors such as health and education are now privatised. Farmers, as a result, are not entitled to get income from their work.
We will frame a strategy in discussion with the State government and the Punjab Agriculture University to see that the share of an agriculture producer in consumer’s rupee should be increased.
Cooperative system is the way for it. We should develop a cooperative system for production and for marketing. Cooperative system is the only solution for the economic problems. We should develop cooperatives, not corporates.
Cooperatives will help to develop backward and forward linkages in agriculture. Cooperatives will also help MSMEs to face the crisis they face now.
Crop diversification is very important from the farmers’ and the natural resources management angles. The problem here is economics. Farmers are tied up to wheat and paddy cultivation.
Science and Tech
Why cloudburst forecast in India still remains elusive(Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Cloudbursts — violent and voluminous amounts of rain pouring down in a short duration over a small area — have been reported since the mid-19th century.
Yet, the characteristics of these events remain elusive, and our efforts in monitoring and forecasting them is at an embryonic stage.
However, their disastrous impact that cause loss of lives and property are seemingly increasing in a changing climate and have led to close observations in the recent decade, advancing our understanding of these events.
Clouds blanket 70% of the Earth’s surface at any given time. They are like a thin layer of the floating ocean, with enough water to cover the entire surface of Earth with about one inch of rain.
A modest-sized cloud (1 cubic km) may contain more than 5,00,000litres of water — equivalent to the mass of hundred elephants.
Cloudburst events are often associated with cumulonimbus clouds that cause thunderstorms and occasionally due to monsoon wind surges and other weather phenomena.
Cumulonimbus clouds can grow up to 12-15 km in height through the entire troposphere (occasionally up to 21 km) and can hold huge amounts of water.
However, cloudbursts are not defined based on cloud characteristics and do not indicate clouds exploding. Cloudbursts are defined by the amount of rainfall.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), 100 mm of rain in an hour is called a cloudburst. Usually, cloudbursts occur over a small geographical region of 20 to 30 sq. km.
In India, cloudbursts often occur during the monsoon season, when the southwesterly monsoon winds bring in copious amounts of moisture inland. The moist air that converges over land gets lifted as they encounter the hills.
The moist air reaches an altitude and gets saturated, and the water starts condensing out of the air forming clouds. This is how clouds usually form, but such an orographic lifting together with a strong moisture convergence can lead to intense cumulonimbus clouds taking in huge volumes of moisture that is dumped during cloudbursts.
Tall cumulonimbus clouds can develop in about half an hour as the moisture updraft happens rapidly, at a pace of 60 to 120 km/hr.
A single-cell cloud may last for an hour and dump all the rain in the last 20 to 30 minutes, while some of these clouds merge to form multi-cell storms and last for several hours.
Cloudbursts, hence, occur mostly over the rugged terrains over the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, and northeastern hill States of India.
The heavy spells of rain on the fragile steep slopes trigger landslides, debris flows, and flash floods, causing large-scale destruction and loss of people and property.
Aiming to build molecular neuromorphic computing technology(Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning can cause a veritable revolution in the working of the world today, yet their development is hindered by the fact that the present state of the art in electronics does not match up to what is needed.
In a move towards developing devices that can mimic the workings of neurons in the brain, researchers from Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (IISc), have designed neuromorphic devices using organic materials that have not been used hitherto. Their work since 2014 aimed towards this.
Organic materials had been considered the poorest of different material types in making computing components because they were fragile and unstable.
We chose this genre as our horse for the race because we believed that if there was a way to resolve these performance issues, the functionalities we could extract out of these materials could blew anything else that exists.
He and his collaborators have published significant papers in this field since 2017 in Nature Materials , Nature Nanotechnology , Advanced Materials and Nature , establishing that organic materials can compute reliably and, in some aspects, are even better than inorganic materials.
The human brain which inspired the researchers in their work, in the words of SreebrataGoswami, who is now with CeNSE, IISc, “vastly outperforms any artificial electronic analogues in terms of its learning, cognition and decision-making ability.”
Its remarkable performance uses up just 20 watt of power over a space of 1260 cc. Some of the properties that it exhibits which are desirable include interconnectedness and reconfigurability.
The neurons in the brain operate on the verge of chaos with a highly non-linear feedback mechanism. We are in search of materials that can capture such properties, an elusive goal.
Molecular materials are characterised by interactions between molecules and ions, which then present a multi-dimensional landscape of parameter space that can be tinkered with to develop suitable functionalities.
The question they asked in a recent paper published in Advanced Materials was whether they could manipulate these many-body interactions to achieve plasticity and reconfigurability in the devices.
They did this by measuring the current-voltage curves as a function of temperature over a wide range. They could capture functionalities spanning bipolar, unipolar, non-volatile, and volatile memristors.
JNCASR’s novel molecule prevents obesity in mice(Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
In spite of all the discipline of diet and exercise, are you still finding it difficult to stay in shape? The developed world suffers from numerous cases of obesity due to a more sedentary mode of life offered by the comforts of the first world.
In contrast, in the developing world, due to irregular food habits and economic stress, a large number of individuals have an accumulation of visceral fat especially in the stomach area as well as in the liver.
Although obesity is more of a lifestyle-related health disorder, it can lead to several other diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diabetes and osteoarthritis. Surprisingly, there are no reliable drugs available for obesity and its associated disorders.
While there are several drugs undergoing clinical trials for tackling obesity, many have already fallen through due to undesirable side effects in human patients.
Over the past two decades, our laboratory has been working on how the modifications of the gene rather than the gene sequence itself can regulate gene function.
This branch of molecular biology is called epigenetics. The epigenetic changes are reversible and directly correlated with habits as well as social and environmental cues.
Our genetic material DNA is wrapped around protein balls called histones to form the highly organised genome. Different chemical modifications of both DNA and histones can dictate the fate of genes in terms of them being switched on or remaining switched off. This on/off balance of gene expression is critical for health and disease.
We have discovered that one such rarely studied chemical modification of histone — lysine butyrylation — is critical for fat cell development that underlies obesity manifestation.
This finding encouraged us to search for a small molecule that could specifically inhibit this modification and thereby arrest or ameliorate obesity.
After many years of effort, we could finally demonstrate that a semi-synthetic derivative of garcinol, a molecule naturally found in Garcinia indica (kokum) fruit rind, could selectively reduce the levels of this modification by inhibiting the catalytic activity of the enzyme responsible for it — the master epigenetic enzyme p300.
Since this molecule (LTK-14A) is very specific for only one enzymatic activity of the multi-functional enzyme p300, we expected minimal toxicity from this compound for biological applications.
As per traditional knowledge, kokum ( Garciniaindica ) extracts have been known to have a protective effect against obesity.
However, its exact molecular targets were not known. Furthermore, its major chemical constituent garcinolwas found to be toxic as it targets many enzymes non-specifically.
Our semi-synthetic molecule, LTK-14A, could offer greater efficacy due to targeted inhibition of the less abundant butyrylation modification that becomes relevant in the context of fat cell development.
FAQ
What is the G7 planning on Russian oil? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
On September 2, Finance Ministers of all G7 countries, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, as well as the European Union.
They announced their plan to “finalise and implement a comprehensive prohibition of services which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally”, unless they are purchased at or below a “price cap” they will fix. The plan, however, doesn’t include Russian gas, which Europe is still quite dependent on.
The price cap plan is the latest of the sanctions proposed by Western countries against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as well as Belarus for its support to Russia.
For the past few weeks, U.S. and EU officials have been trying to convince countries including India, China and Turkey to join the coalition or to at least support the price cap, which they say is in the interests of all oil buyers from Russia as it will give them leverage to lower purchase prices.
For countries that join the coalition, it would mean simply not buying Russian oil unless the price is reduced to where the cap is determined. For countries that don’t join the coalition, or buy oil higher than the cap price, they would lose access to all services provided by the coalition countries including for example, insurance, currency payment, facilitation and vessel clearances for their shipments.
In addition, the price cap is expected to be finalised when members of the G-20 countries meet in Bali in November, and will go into effect on December 5.
This is the day that the European Union begins its sixth set of sanctions, to ban all Russia crude oil imports by sea, which would increase the pressure on Russia to reduce its selling price of oil. G7 countries say they are aiming to reduce the price of oil, but not the quantity of oil that Russia sells, so as to control inflation globally while hurting the Russian economy and its ability to fund the war in Ukraine.
This could only work, of course, if all countries joined the coalition. However, if Russia is able to sell its price higher than the price cap, it would mean a huge squeeze on oil available to the coalition countries, especially the G7 which are major consumers, and could result in oil prices sky-rocketing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the plan, warning that Russia would not supply “anything at all” if it contradicts Russian interests.
Why is the Kushiyara River treaty important? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
During Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India from September 5 to 8, the two sides signed a slew of agreements, including the first water sharing agreement since the landmark Ganga Waters Treaty, 1996.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on sharing of the waters of the Kushiyara river, a distributary of the Barak river which flows through Assam, and then on to Bangladesh.
The agreement comes in a year when both lower Assam in India and Sylhet in Bangladesh have witnessed deadly floods highlighting the requirement for greater cooperation on flood control and irrigation-related issues between the two countries.
Over the last century, the flow of the Barak river has changed in such a way that the bulk of the river’s water flows into Kushiyara while the rest goes into Surma. According to water expert, Dr. AinunNishat, the agreement is aimed at addressing part of the problem that the changing nature of the river has posed before Bangladesh as it unleashes flood during the monsoon and goes dry during the winter when demand of water goes up because of a crop cycle in Sylhet.
Though the details of the agreement are not yet known, Dr. Nishat says that under this MoU, Bangladesh will be able to withdraw 153 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from the Kushiyara out of the approximately 2,500 cusecs of water that is there in the river during the winter season.
Under the agreement, Bangladesh will be able to withdraw 153 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from the Kushiyara that will solve the water crisis for farmers of Sylhet.
There are various estimates about the area that will benefit from this supply but it is generally understood that approximately 10,000 hectares of land and millions of people will benefit from the water that will flow through a network of canals in Sylhet benefiting the farmers involved in Boro rice, which is basically the rice cultivated during the dry season of December to February and harvested in early summer.
Bangladesh has been complaining that the Boro rice cultivation in the region had been suffering as India did not allow it to withdraw the required water from the Kushiyara.
The agreement addresses Bangladesh’s concern over water supply along the river, during the winter months but flood control in the basin of Kushiyarais expected to require much more work.
How does COVID nasal vaccine work?(Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
On September 6, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation had approved Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine for primary immunisation against COVID-19 in the 18-plus age group for restricted use in an emergency situation.
It is hoped that Bharat Biotech’s ChAd36-SARS-CoV-S recombinant vaccine, to be administered nasally and developed in association with the University of Washington, will prove a powerful tool in the battle against the virus by preventing infections, something the other vaccines have not been able to do.
A nasal vaccine is delivered through the nose or mouth and it is expected to work on the mucosal lining, prompting an immune response at the entry points of the virus in the human body.
It likely prevents the infection right there, thereby also blocking its spread. Scientists have called this sterilising immunity, where the virus is prevented from causing infection in the host effectively.
Early studies at Washington University, according to a report published on the varsity’s website, “showed that nasal delivery of this vaccine creates a strong immune response throughout the body, especially in the nose and respiratory tract. In animal studies, the nasal vaccine prevented infection from taking hold in the body.”
Emily Waltz explains in an article in Nature, that the COVID-19 vaccines currently in use do a good job of reducing disease severity and preventing hospitalisation, but don’t block mild illness or transmission that well.
The reason for that is that they are injected into the muscle. “Intramuscular shots prompt an immune response that includes T cells, which destroy infected cells, and B cells, which produce antibodies that ‘neutralise’ pathogens — binding to them to stop them entering healthy cells.
These cells and antibodies circulate through the bloodstream. But they aren’t present at high enough levels in the nose and lungs to provide rapid protection. In the time it takes for them to journey there from the bloodstream, the virus spreads, and the infected person gets ill.”
Exactly how successful these vaccines will be is unclear. Expecting a vaccine to stop transmission of a virus or prevent even mild illness — achieving what is calledsterilising immunity — is a high bar.
Bharat [Biotech] and CanSino [Chinese vaccine maker that has secured a licence to use another nasal vaccine] won’t know whether their vaccines can achieve this until they have conducted further efficacy studies.
Both Bharat Biotech and CanSino have announced that their trials have been successful but have not released data. She points to two other nasal vaccines that have reportedly been deployed in populations, one in Iran and the other, an intra-nasal version of Sputnik V in Russia, but says scant data is available from either of them.