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Transliterated medical textbooks, bilingual classes without separate language-based batches or faculty, and the choice of taking exams in Hindi or English — these are the main features of the new MBBS course being offered in Hindi, with the first batch of students set to begin their classes in Madhya Pradesh this coming week.
However, a number of stakeholders in the medical community have questioned the long-term viability of the system, and the employability of doctors who have studied this primarily-English language syllabus in transliteration.
In the first phase, transliterated books in three subjects — Anatomy, Medical Biochemistry and Physiology — will be offered to students.
This means that the text will be in the English language written in the Devanagiri script rather than actually being translated into Hindi. Madhya Pradesh is the first state in India to have issued these books and the first to offer the programme.
There will be no language-based segregation of students or faculty. Students studying in Hindi and English will share classroom and teachers.
The aim is to ensure that students who have finished their schooling in regional languages are able to make a smooth transition into the tough medical graduation programme.
MP plans to make textbooks in Devanagari script available to all the 13 government and 11 private medical colleges. The State is also working to add transliterated textbooks for second year MBBS students as well.
Textbooks for medicine, nursing, and pharmacy planned for all major Indian languages within three years. So far, two other State Governments — Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand — have also promised to offer MBBS programmes in regional languages.
Chamu Krishna Shastry, chairman of the BharatiyaBhashaSamiti, said that education is a State subject, and it is the mandate of the State governments to get textbooks translated.
Each State has GranthAcademies which are mandated with the translation of textbooks in higher education. There are a total of 22Granth Academies in States.
Apart from this, State Sahitya Academies are also involved in translation of textbooks of higher education. Until 1985, the University Grants Commission was involved in aiding translations. However, the scheme was stopped after that.
At the Central level, the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) brings out glossaries and dictionaries of scientific terms.
Working under the aegis of the Education Ministry, the Commission is supposed to collaborate with State governments, universities, regional textbook boards and State Granth Academies to produce university-level textbooks and reference materials in Hindi and other Indian languages with the use of standard terminology as evolved by the CSTT.
States
Tirupati’s megalithic burial sites in a state of neglect (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
Tirupati district is dotted with anthropomorphic burial sites, said to be the largest as a collection in Andhra Pradesh.Anthropomorphic sites are those marked by a representation of human form above the megalithic burials.
However, most of them are in a state of neglect, with neither the government nor the local residents caring to protect what could become a cherished heritage.
The most prominent one is the ‘pillared dolmen’ of the megalithic era, found at Mallayyagaripalle, nestling on a hillock between Chandragiri and Dornakambala, 20 km from Tirupati.
The structure locally referred to as ‘PandavaGullu’ or ‘Pandavula Banda’ in memory of the Pandavas, is estimated to be 2,500 years old.
Compared to other districts, the erstwhile combined Chittoor district [Tirupati district was carved out of it in April 2022] has an array of such structures, found almost in every mandal.
This could be an indication to the presence of humans living in groups during the megalithic period (300–500 BC) in this region,” observes noted archaeologist SivakumarChalla, who is associated with the Archaeology Research Group (ARG).
The pillared dolmen with rock art beneath the capstone at Mallayyagaripalle came under threat owing to granite mining in the vicinity.
The site escaped damage by a whisker after local villagers, supported by anthropologists, intervened and got the mining activity stopped. The Mines department is said to have granted licence for mining without verifying the importance of the site.
The Mallayyagaripalle structure is a cist burial chamber. Such chambers are built by arranging slabs neatly broken from huge stones at a time when there were no proper tools.
There is another endangered megalith monument in Palem village near Kallur, which resembles a bull’s horn. Called locally as ‘DevaraYeddhu’, the site has suffered repeated damage due to clandestine excavation by treasure hunters.
Yet another type of a megalithic burial site is the ‘stone circle’, where the tomb is surrounded by round stones arranged in a circle.
One such site in Venkatapuram, 15 km east of Tirupati near Karakambadi, is damaged due to the installation of a mobile tower.
News
‘We want G-20 heads to meet, solve issues’ (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
While Indonesia is encouraging all G20 leaders to meet and resolve issues at the upcoming summit in Bali, no information has yet been received on any plans for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said the Indonesian Ambassador to India.
On the eve of the summit, Ambassador Ina Krisnamurthi said that Indonesia and India have been working closely together on developing the G20 agenda for the “Global South”.
The G20 forum of the world’s largest economies will be steered by emerging economies for the near future: Indonesia this year, India in 2023 and Brazil in 2024.
At the summit level, we always, always want the leaders to meet, because the principle of hosting these events is to maintain dialogue, to maintain discussions in whatever format -- trilateral or bilateral or multilateral.
If there is no dialogue, then how can any issues between them be resolved,” said Ambassador Krisnamurthi. All eyes will be on the meeting between US President Joseph Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, the Ambassador said that as host,Indonesia does not “intervene” to ensure any bilateral meetings take place, and had not been intimated about the possibility of any meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi on the sidelines of the G20.
Mr. Modi is due to arrive in Bali after overnight travel from Delhi on Sunday, and will return to Delhi. During the summit, Mr. Modi will accept a handover from Indonesian President Joko Widodo, as India assumes presidency of the G20 process from December.
On the sidelines of the summit, Prime Minister will hold bilateral meetings with some of his counterparts. Prime Minister will also address and interact with the Indian community in Bali,” the MEA had announced, although officials said the exact number of bilateral meetings was still under discussion.
Much of the interest surrounds any possible interaction between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi, given the continuing standoff at the Line of Actual Control, and the fact that the two leaders have not spoken to each other in three years.
Mr. Modi is expected to meet with Mr. Biden during the summit, and is likely to have pull-aside meetings with the newly appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak, French President Emannuel Macron, and Saudi Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, who cancelled a visit to Delhi, due to scheduling issues.
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed last week that he would not attend the G20 summit, given the war in Ukraine, and Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelensky has been invited to address the grouping via video. The Presidents of Brazil and Mexico will also not attend the summit, due to election processes in their countries.
India supports ASEAN-centrality in the Indo-Pacific region: Dhankhar (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
India supports ASEAN-centrality in the evolving regional architecture in the Indo-Pacific region, said Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar at the 19th ASEAN-India summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which is commemorating the 30th anniversary of the India-ASEAN dialogue.
During the summit, the delegations declared the establishment of the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and reaffirmed the importance of “freedom of navigation and overflight” in the strategically important region.
The cultural economic and civilisational ties that have existed between India and Southeast Asia since time immemorial provided the strong foundation to build our partnership in modern times from a sectoral partnership in 1992 to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022.
A Joint Statement issued on the occasion recognised the importance of “unimpeded lawful maritime commerce” saying that disputes should be resolved by following “universally recognised principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the relevant standards and recommended practices by the International Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Both sides also agreed to intensify maritime cooperation including anti-piracy operations, armed robbery against ships, maritime safety, search and rescue (SAR) operations, humanitarian assistance, and emergency response and relief. Among other security measures, both sides announced plans to enhance collaboration against “terrorism and transnational crimes including international economic crimes and money laundering, cybercrime, drugs and human trafficking and arms smuggling.” “Military medicine” is also an area that drew attention during the deliberation.
Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in the space sector including “through the establishment of Tracking, Data reception and Processing Stations in Viet Nam and Indonesia”.
India and ASEAN agreed to expedite the review of the ASEAN-India trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) to render it “trade-facilitative”.
In a press conference after the summit, Secretary (East) Saurabh Kumar said Indian tourism with Cambodia will receive a boost in the coming months.
Number of Indian tourists arriving in ASEAN region is not very high. But, we feel tourism will increase if our connectivity improves.
Saudi PM puts off Delhi visit; officials cite ‘scheduling’ difficulties on both ends (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) cancelled a planned visit to Delhi on Sunday due to “scheduling issues” on both sides, according to sources.
While the visit was not officially announced, it has been under planning for several weeks, after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had delivered a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, inviting the Saudi Prince.
Officials confirming the cancellation said both Prime Minister Mohammad and Mr. Modi are expected to meet in Bali for the G-20 summit beginning Monday, and the Saudi Prince will reschedule his visit to Delhi in the near future.
According to officials involved in the planning, MbS was due to make a half-day visit to Delhi to discuss a number of issues, including energy cooperation, oil trade and investment in renewable energy projects in India, as well as other areas of infrastructure investment by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This would also have been the first such visit since Riyadh protested remarks on Prophet Muhammed made by a BJP spokesperson in May this year, and MbS’s travel to India was expected to indicate the strength in bilateral ties despite the controversy.
The visit to Delhi was one of a number of visits planned by the Saudi Prince in November. Earlier this month, the Algerian government announced that he had cancelled his visit to attend the Arab League summit in Algiers due to “the recommendations of doctors who advised him not to travel”.
During this tour, Mr. Salman was due to travel to India, Indonesia for the G-20, South Korea for a bilateral visit, Thailand for the APEC summit, and South Korea.
According to Pakistani officials, he was also expected to travel to Pakistan on his way back to Riyadh on November 21, which has now been put off to be “rescheduled” as well.
According to sources, Mr. Modi’s schedule has also been busy due to campaigning in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. As a result, he was unable to visit Cambodia on Saturday for the ASEAN-India commemorative summit marking 30 years of ties as well as the announcement of an upgradation of relations to a Strategic Comprehensive Partnership, and Vice-President JagdeepDhankar officiated instead.
Mr. Modi had also indicated that he wouldn’t be able to travel to Bali for a handover of the “B-20” Business forum for G-20 on Sunday due to the visit of Prime Minister Mohammad, and would only land in Bali on Monday morning in time for the first plenary session.
The officials said that given the busy schedules of both leaders, as well as the short period available for them to meet, they decided to put off the visit to when more “substantive” outcomes could be achieved.
World
At ASEAN summit, Biden promises countries that U.S. will work with them (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
President Joe Biden promised on Saturday that the United States would work with a strategically vital coalition of southeast Asian nations, telling leaders that we're going to build a better future that we all want to see in the region where US rival China is also working to expand its influence.
Citing the three Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits he's participated in as president, Biden said the 10-country bloc is at the heart of my administration's Indo-Pacific strategy and promised to collaborate to build a region that is free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure.
I look forward to continuing our work together with ASEAN and with each one of you to deepen peace and prosperity throughout the region to resolve challenges from the South China Sea to Myanmar and to find innovative solutions to shared challenges, citing climate and health security among areas of collaboration.
Biden's efforts at this year's ASEAN summit are meant to lay the groundwork for his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping the first face-to-face encounter of Biden's presidency with a leader whose nation the US now considers its most potent economic and military rival.
Biden and Xi will meet on Monday at the Group of 20 summit that brings together leaders from the world's largest economies, which is held this year in Indonesia on the island of Bali.
Traveling to Phnom Penh earlier Saturday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will raise issues such as freedom of navigation and illegal and unregulated fishing by China with the ASEAN leaders aimed at demonstrating US assertiveness against Beijing.
Freedom of navigation refers to a dispute involving the South China Sea, where the United States says it can sail and fly wherever international law allows and China believes such missions are destabilizing.
Sullivan said the US has a key role to play as a stabilizing force in the region and in prevention of any one nation from engaging in sustained intimidation and coercion that would be fundamentally adverse to the nations of ASEAN and other countries.
There's a real demand signal for that, Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. Referring to the People's Republic of China, Sullivan continued: I think the PRC may not love that fact, but they certainly acknowledge it and understand it.
One new initiative related to those efforts that Biden will discuss Saturday focuses on maritime awareness, specifically using radio frequencies from commercial satellites to better track dark shipping and illegal fishing.
Some countries have resisted 1.5°C goal in COP-27 text, says U.S. (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
A few countries have resisted mentioning a global goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C in the official text of the COP-27 summit in Egypt, U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry.
There are very few countries, but a few, that have raised the issue of not mentioning this word or that word," Mr. Kerry said when asked about opposition by some governments to mentioning the 1.5C target.
But the fact is that, in Glasgow that was adopted, the language is there. And I know, Egypt doesn't intend to be the country that hosts a retreat from what was achieved in Glasgow," referring to last year's COP summit in Scotland.
World governments agreed in 2015 during a UN summit in France to try to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5°C, a deal dubbed the Paris Agreement that was seen as a breakthrough in international climate ambition.
Greenhouse gas emissions have been rising ever since, however, and scientists say the world risks missing the target without swift and deep cuts. Breaching the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing the worst consequences of global warming.
Already, the world has warmed more than 1.1°C from the preindustrial average temperature — fueling extreme weather that is already delivering steep economic losses.
Many developing countries have demanded the establishment of a "loss and damage" fund that could disperse cash to countries struggling to recover from disasters.
Mr. Kerry said the United States would not support establishing such a fund, and instead believed existing platforms should be used.
It's a well known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish ... some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability. That's just not happening".
We will find a way, I am confident, to be able to have financial arrangements that reflect the reality of how we are all going to deal with the climate crisis.
Science
Personalised cell ‘editing’ used to treat cancer patients: study (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Scientists have, for the first time, used CRISPR technology to insert genes that allow immune cells to attack cancer cells, potentially leaving normal cells unharmed and increasing the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
The CRISPR gene editing technique has been previously used in humans to remove specific genes to allow the immune system to be more activated against cancer.
The research, published in the journal Nature, used CRISPR to not only take out specific genes, but also to insert new ones in immune cells efficiently redirecting them to recognise mutations in the patient's own cancer cells.
When infused back to patients, these CRISPR engineered immune cells preferentially traffic to the cancer and become the most represented immune cells there.
The human immune system has specific receptors on immune cells that can specifically recognise cancer cells and differentiate them from normal cells.
These are different for every patient, so finding an efficient way to isolate them and insert them back into immune cells to generate a personalised cell therapy to treat cancer is key to making the approach feasible on a large scale.
The researchers found an efficient way to isolate these immune receptors from patient's own blood.
After isolation, the immune receptors are used to redirect immune cells to recognise cancer using CRISPR gene editing.
This is a leap forward in developing a personalised treatment for cancer, where the isolation of immune receptors that specifically recognise mutations in the patient's own cancer are used to treat the cancer.
The generation of a personalised cell treatment for cancer would not have been feasible without the newly developed ability to use the CRISPR technique to replace the immune receptors in clinical-grade cell preparations in a single step.
The researchers report treating 16 patients with a variety of solid cancers including colon, breast and lung cancers.
‘Substantial’ pre-symptomatic monkeypox spread found (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
There is now more evidence for pre-symptomatic transmission of monkeypox virus. A study published recently in BMJ, which involves a larger cohort, found that pre-symptomatic transmission had taken place as long as four days before symptoms manifested.
The researchers have estimated that 53% of monkeypox virus transmission have occurred during the pre-symptomatic phase.
Pre-symptomatic transmission of monkeypox virus will mean that many infections cannot be prevented by simply isolating people showing symptoms.
Also, the effectiveness of contact tracing and subsequent quarantine will not be sufficient to break the transmission chain since by the time all the contacts have been traced, they might have already spread the virus to other people. “Pre-symptomatic transmission has implications for vaccination strategies and the feasibility of disease elimination.
Previously, two smaller studies — published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and Nature Medicine — had found evidence of such transmission before symptoms showed up.
The smaller studies are more what one would call a signal. They were too small to be considered solid evidence of this phenomenon. [This] paper is really compelling with a much more robust sample size.
The contact tracing study of 2,746 individuals who tested positive for the monkeypox virus in the U.K. between May 6 and August 1, 2022 has linked data on case-contact pairs and on probable exposure dates together with modelling to determine pre-symptomatic transmission.
The researchers first set out to find the mean incubation period and mean serial interval using two models. Serial interval is the time from illness onset in the primary case to illness onset in the secondary case.
They found the mean incubation period to be 7.6 days in one model and 7.8 days in the other, and the mean serial interval to be 8 days in one model and 9.5 days in the other.
The most important finding was that the median serial interval was 0.3-1.7 days shorter than the median incubation period. This provides crucial evidence that considerable transmission was happening even before symptoms showed up.
In a cohort of 13 case-contact patient pairs with detailed individual-level patient data — symptom onset date in the primary case, date of exposure in contacts, serial interval, and the incubation period — 10 out of 13 linked patients had documented pre-symptomatic transmission.
Recharging groundwater by water harvesting measures (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
When looking for a new home, one issue that is never forgotten is “how deep is the water table there”. The water table defines the depth at which cracks and pores in rocks are saturated with water.
Such water, stored in subterranean spaces, is called groundwater and the water-bearing rock strata are called aquifers. Groundwater is the principal water source for a fourth of the world’s population. India is the world’s largest groundwater user; nearly 250 cubic kilometrewas taken out in 2017. About 90% of this was used for irrigation, the rest went to towns and villages.
The agrarian economy of the Indo-Gangetic plains is sustained by groundwater. But there are fears that the Indo-Gangetic basin aquifer may soon be incapable of supporting so much irrigation.
This is very noticeable in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan (Joshi et al, Journal of Hydrology, 598 (2021)). The Green Revolution has been sustained by using tube wells.
The lowering of the water table forces farmers to use high-powered submersible pumps, which has worsened the situation.
Satellite gravimetry has provided convincing evidence in support of the alarming rates of groundwater depletion. The data are reinforced with local-level water table measurements in wells.
The average rate of groundwater decline in this part of India has been 1.4 cm per year in this century. Depletion is not so acute in regions where groundwater is brackish.
Aquifers are recharged with water from rainfall and rivers. Post-Independence, India saw an increase in the construction of canals for distributing water. These canals leak water, which also augments groundwater levels.
An important factor contributing to the good health of aquifers in some parts of our country is community-based movements to recharge groundwater.
A good example is seen in the semi-arid regions of Saurashtra. Here, thousands of small and large check dams have been built across seasonal rivers and streams.
These slow the flow of water and contribute to groundwater recharge as well as to check soil erosion. In villages, bori bandhs are built, which are essentially sand-filled bags placed in the path of rainwater runoffs.
FAQ
How has the EWS ruling altered reservations?(Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court, by a 3:2 majority, has upheld the validity of the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, providing reservation up to 10% for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in education and employment among those groups that do not come under any community-based reservation.
The legislation marked a major change in the country’s approach to reservation. From a form of affirmative action in which membership of a social group was the main basis for extending reservation, it moved towards using income and means as the basis for special provisions.
In IndraSawhney (1992), a nine-judge Bench had ruled that there can be no reservation solely based on economic criteria, as the Constitution did not provide for it.
The 103rd amendment introduced Article 15(6), an enabling provision for the state to make special provisions for “any economically weaker sections of citizens” other than those mentioned in the previous two clauses, namely, the “socially and educationally backward classes” and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
It also introduced a corresponding Clause 6 in Article 16 to enable reservation for “economically weaker sections”, other than the SEBCs and SC/ST, in public employment and education.
Article 15, which protects against discrimination on any ground, and Article 16, which mandates equality of opportunity in public employment, were thus changed to allow special provisions and reservations for the EWS category, subject to a maximum of 10%.
Following this amendment, the government also notified in 2019 the criteria to identify EWS. By this, anyone having an annual family income of less than ₹8 lakh from all sources in the financial year preceding the year of application would be identified as EWS for reservation purposes.
Also excluded were those who had five acres of agricultural land, or a residential flat of 1,000 square feet, or a residential plot of 100 square yards and above in notified municipalities, or 200 square yards in other areas.
The EWS quota has since been implemented in Central government and Central public sector recruitments.
A law can be declared unconstitutional if the court finds that it violates fundamental rights. However, when the law is a constitutional amendment, it cannot normally be struck down, as it is part of the text of the Constitution.
However, the Supreme Court evoked the ‘basic structure doctrine’ under which it has held that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution has some inherent limitations.
Why are talks on 1.5°C at a cliff edge at COP27?(Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
After the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015, the focus is on voluntary national actions to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and keep the rise in average global temperature to well below 2°C and as close to 1.5°C as possible by the end of the century.
All nations that signed on to the pact under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the COP27, to review progress, raise ambition on emissions cuts and draw up funding plans to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.
But the scientific community is losing hope that temperature rise can be stopped in time, before uncontrollable tipping points are reached, leading to catastrophic climate change that will harm human health, biodiversity, and agriculture. This has provoked global protest movements. Youth in particular are restive at their uncertain future.
Scientific reports from the UN that contribute to the understanding of climate change released ahead of the COP27 meeting in Egypt point to the extremely narrow window available to close the emissions gap and prevent rise in average temperature beyond 1.5°C.
The UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2022 says, even if all the conditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — voluntary pledges submitted under the Paris pact — followed by targets to reduce emissions to net-zero are implemented, global warming is projected to rise to 1.8°C with a 66% probability.
The report also points out that global annual emissions during 2021 at 52.8 Gigatonnes (GtCO2e), represents a slight increase compared to 2019, the pre-COVID year, and that the outlook for 2030 is not bright.
Collectively, G20 members account for 75% of emissions, although it is the richer countries that are responsible for accumulated emissions since the industrial revolution.
At the Egypt conference, scientist Johan Rockstrom said the key tipping points are the potential Greenland ice sheet collapse, West Antarctic ice sheet collapse, thawing of the boreal permafrost, and tropical coral reef die offs, all of which are expected to happen at 1.5°C.
These and other estimates of temperature impacts were reported in a recent paper in the journal Science by Armstrong McKay and others.
Business
‘India can buy Russian oil outside price cap’(Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The United States is happy for India to continue buying as much Russian oil as it wants, including at prices above a G7-imposed price cap mechanism, if it steers clear of Western insurance, finance and maritime services bound by the cap.
The cap would still drive global oil prices lower while curbing Russia's revenues, Ms. Yellen said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a conference on deepening U.S.-Indian economic ties.
Russia will not be able to sell as much oil as it does now once the European Union halts imports without resorting to the capped price or significant discounts from current prices.
Russia is going to find it very difficult to continue shipping as much oil as they have done when the EU stops buying Russian oil. They're going to be heavily in search of buyers. And many buyers are reliant on Western services.
India is now Russia's largest oil customer other than China.Final details of the price cap to be imposed by wealthy G7 democracies and Australia are still coming together ahead of a Dec. 5 deadline.
The existence of the cap would give India, China and other major buyers of Russian crude leverage to push down the price they pay to Moscow, Yellen said. Russian oil "is going to be selling at bargain prices and we're happy to have India get that bargain or Africa or China.
Ms. Yellen told Reuters that India and private Indian oil companies "can also purchase oil at any price they want as long as they don't use these Western services and they find other services.
The cap is intended to cut Russia's oil revenues while keeping Russian crude on the market by denying insurance, maritime services and finance provided by the Western allies for tanker cargoes priced above a fixed dollar-per barrel cap. A historical Russian Urals crude average of $63-64 a barrel could form an upper limit.
The cap is a concept promoted by the United States since the EU first laid out plans in May for an embargo on Russian oil to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
India's Finance and Energy Ministries were not available for comment on Ms. Yellen's remarks, but other officials have said they were wary of the untested price cap mechanism.
Rosneft, Russia's largest oil exporter, is expanding its tanker charter business to avoid its buyers having to find tankers, insurance or other services affected by the price cap.