Drawing lines in the water,indo-bangla relation,ias mains

An international tribunal’s award last week on the maritime territorial dispute between India and Bangladesh and its acceptance by Delhi and Dhaka should set the stage for substantive regional maritime cooperation in the Bay of Bengal. India and Bangladesh, in partnership with Myanmar, are now in a position to take the destiny of Bay of Bengal into their own hands at a time when the strategic significance of its waters is drawing the attention of great powers.

The judgement of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague brings to a close one of the subcontinent’s long festering territorial disputes. The partition of the subcontinent and China’s entry into Tibet in the middle of the last century left India with multiple territorial disputes on its land frontiers. Nearly seven decades later, India’s land borders with Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and Nepal remain to be settled.

India’s record on the maritime front has been a little better. Over the years, India has delimited its maritime boundaries with Maldives, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia. The Hague verdict now settles the maritime boundary with Bangladesh. That leaves the maritime boundary with Pakistan the only one to be sorted out.

It is tempting for many in both Delhi and Dhaka to define the verdict in terms of what each side has “won” and “lost”. The subcontinent has the tragic tradition of ignoring the opportunity costs of letting boundary disputes simmer and refusing to find reasonable settlements and move on.

The inability of India and Bangladesh to settle the dispute all these years bilaterally has prevented the fisherfolk of both countries from effectively exploiting the large but disputed waters of the Bay of Bengal. National companies and their international partners could not drill for oil in the bay that has seen the discovery of many new fields in the last few years.

Given the complexity of the issues involved in such cases, there was never going to be a  “winner takes all” outcome. As in any arbitration, each side won some, but not all, of their arguments at the Hague. Delhi and Dhaka rightly welcomed the verdict of the tribunal as beneficial for the people of both countries. This break from the “lose-lose” politics of the past reflects the new spirit of friendship between the two countries.

The long overdue settlement of the boundary dispute at the Hague underlines the enduring value of international arbitration in settling bilateral disputes, especially those that do not raise existential national security questions. India has accepted such international involvement in the drafting of the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 and in resolving some of issues arising from its implementation since then. India also agreed to settle the dispute over the Rann of Kutch with Pakistan through arbitration.

The resolution of the maritime dispute between Delhi and Dhaka in accordance with international law

follows a similar settlement between Bangladesh and Myanmar two years ago. This stands in contrast to the escalating maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea adjoining the Bay of Bengal. China has refused to abide by the principles of international law and has begun to use force to assert its expansive claims over the South China Sea.

The resolution of Dhaka’s maritime territorial disputes with Myanmar and India now opens the door for substantive regional cooperation in the Bay of Bengal littoral. This cooperation is no longer a luxury but a vital strategic necessity. For the Bay of Bengal is no longer a backwater of the Indian Ocean.

The rise of China and its growing maritime interests in the Indian Ocean have made the Bay of Bengal a theatre of critical interest for Beijing. China’s vital sea lines of communication pass through the Bay of Bengal. It is also the closest body of water for many of China’s landlocked south western provinces. China, therefore, is building transport corridors, energy pipelines and new ports in the Bay of Bengal.

To cap it all, China is now promoting the idea of a maritime Silk Road in the Bay of Bengal that connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Only the very bold will claim that all these developments pose no long term challenges for India. While Beijing’s initiatives do create the possibilities for economic cooperation, Delhi can’t afford to ignore the strategic consequences of China’s rise for the Bay of Bengal.

A century ago, at the beginning of the First World War, a rising Germany shocked the government of India by having its warship, ‘Emden’, sneak up to Madras and bombard the city. Three decades later, in the Second World War, Delhi was surprised again by the swift Japanese occupation of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

As Beijing eyes a vigorous strategic presence in the Bay of Bengal littoral, the Americans can’t be far behind and are seeking active maritime collaboration with Bangladesh and Myanmar. India has two choices as its quiescent maritime frontiers to the east come alive. Delhi could keep quibbling with its neighbours on minor territorial issues and allow outside powers to play a larger role in the Bay of Bengal and its vast hinterland. Alternatively, it could quickly implement the boundary settlement with Dhaka, boost trilateral
maritime cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar, and improve the region’s leverage with the external powers.

In the southern Indian Ocean, Delhi has already embarked on trilateral maritime cooperation with Maldives and Sri Lanka. It is likely to be expanded to include Mauritius and Seychelles. A similar framework for security engagement with Bangladesh and Myanmar should be at the top of Delhi’s agenda in the Bay of Bengal.

Beyond that, there are unlimited possibilities for strengthening maritime cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar — ranging from joint scientific research to environmental monitoring and from major trans-border projects to trilateral naval exercises. If Delhi decides to play for small stakes in the Bay of Bengal, it will deal itself out of the emerginggreat game in the east.

Giving new direction to planning commission

An independent evaluation of the Planning Commission done by Ajay Chibber has recommended that the Planning Commission be scrapped altogether and a new think tank be appointed instead. The commission was set up in the 1950s by Jawaharlal Nehru to give direction to the developmental activities. The commission was to ensure that policies implemented by different ministries should not work at cross purposes. The power ministry, for example, wants to cut the forests for generation of electricity while the environment and forests ministry does not want to cut them for conservation of biodiversity. The Planning Commission was expected to synchronise such policies.

The commission has generally been successful in doing this as seen by the strides the country has made since Independence. Indeed, the commission may have exceeded the scope of its authority by exercising undue influence on the allocation of funds to the state governments. But it should not be read as its failure; rather it may be a product of overreach fostered by personal equations that the likes of Montek Singh Ahluwalia enjoyed with Manmohan Singh. The commission has got progressively cut off from the people and deeply connected with the PMO. The world, however, is moving in the opposite direction.

In the neighbouring China, at the annual central economic conference in 2012, Xi Jinping, then general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, demanded establishment of decision-making consulting mechanisms and developing think tanks that are capable of assisting decision-makers. Just one month after he was elected president, Xi expressed his approval to a proposal of building think tanks with Chinese characteristics. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November 2013 decided to establish a complete consulting system for decision-makers.

Looking back, this demand for increased consultation is a new stage in development of governance. In 1750 only England and the Netherlands had placed limits on the powers of the king. All the other rulers of Europe, the Muslim empires, and China had absolute power. The situation changed dramatically with the oncoming of the industrial revolution. The economic changes lifted the standard of living and education of the masses. People began to question the assumptions of absolute governments.

The new idea was that people can figure things out, and they can come up with better decisions. In the 1600s John Locke wrote that a ruler’s authority is based on the will of the people. He also spoke of a social contract that gave subjects the right to overthrow the ruler if he ruled badly. The worldwide spread of democracy was the direct result of the technological changes that came with the industrial revolution.Today we are moving onto the next plane due to the development of information and communication technologies. People can now download and read government policy documents and they have the mind and the energy to respond to it. They want to be heard and their concerns and ideas to be taken on board. It is here that our Planning Commission has miserably failed.

Sham discussion

In India, the commercial interests of hydropower companies are very powerful. I along with Swami Gyan Swarup Sanand had filed a case in the National Green Tribunal challenging the findings of a studies done by IIT Roorkee and Wildlife Institute of India regarding impact of hydropower projects on environment. The tribunal directed the government to give a hearing to us. Member, Planning Commission, B K Chaturvedi called us for discussion. But that was a sham. Not one point made during the discussion was accepted or even rebutted in the report. The Commission had totally delinked with the people.

Scrapping the commission and establishing a fresh think tank will not serve any purpose as long as it remains isolated from the people. The Energy Research Institute (TERI) is one of the Indian think tanks that is mentioned in the top 100 non-US think tanks worldwide. Yet I find it is happy to misstate facts when project money is involved. TERI assessed that people were willing to pay about Rs 7 per unit of electricity. Later the National Hydro Power Corporation gave a contract to TERI to evaluate the costs and benefits of two hydropower projects. TERI now concluded that the benefits of electricity were Rs 100 per unit. The benefits were increased from Rs 7 to Rs 100 when prompted by a hydropower company. This is the sad state of our globally-ranked ‘independent’ think tanks.

It does not matter whether the Planning Commission is retained as a fund allocator, limited to its role as a planner or scrapped and a new think tank established. The fundamental problem is that the government is being run by a combine of business and bureaucratic interests. They have no interest or concern for the people. The need it to change the mindset of the bureaucrats. A robust system of public participation in all facets of the government has to be put in place.

I have two suggestions. One, a department of social audit must be established. This department would appoint a committee consisting of elected representatives, independent professionals, NGOs, and public representatives to make a social audit of all government departments. The promotions of the concerned official and fund allocations for ensuing years would be made contingent on this audit report. Indeed, many of these Committees will be co-opted to sign on the dotted line. But there will be others that will resist and give a correct picture.

My second suggestion is that the government should enact a ‘right to reply Act’ along the lines of Right to Information Act. It should be made obligatory for government officials to give a reasoned response to suggestions given by the public. It should be obligatory for the executive engineer, for example, to give reasons for rejecting a suggestion like increasing the capacity of a 

The three ‘Ms’ of change,GOOD FOR IAS MAINS

States are being upended by the market, Mother Nature and Moore’s law.

In the 1960s, there was a popular sitcom — “Get Smart” — about a hapless secret agent named Maxwell Smart, played by Don Adams. Smart went by the code name “Agent 86.” “Get Smart” famously introduced the shoe phone to American audiences, but the show also introduced something else: its own version of the bipolar world. Do you remember the name of the intelligence agency Maxwell Smart worked for? It was called “Control.” And do you remember the name of Control’s global opponent? It was called “Kaos” — “an international organisation of evil.”

The creators of “Get Smart” were ahead of their time. Because it increasingly appears that the post-post-Cold War world is cleaving into the world of “order” and the world of “disorder” — or into the world of “Control” and the world of “Kaos.”

How so? First, we said goodbye to imperialism and colonialism and all their methods of controlling territory. Then we said goodbye to the Cold War alliance system, which propped up many weak and newly independent states with money to build infrastructure and to buy weapons to control their borders and people — because the stability of every square in the global chessboard mattered to Washington and Moscow.

And, lately, we’ve been saying goodbye to top-down, iron-fisted monarchies and autocracies, which have been challenged by massively urbanised, technologically empowered citizens.

So, today, you have three basic systems: order provided by democratic, inclusive governments; order imposed by autocratic exclusivist governments; and ungoverned, or chaotically governed, spaces, where rickety failed states, militias, tribes, pirates and gangs contest one another for control, but there is no single power center to answer the phone — or, if they do, it falls off the wall.

Look around: Boko Haram in Nigeria kidnaps 250 schoolgirls and then disappears into a dark corner of that country. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, a ragtag jihadist militia, carves out a caliphate inside Syria and Iraq and boasts on Twitter of beheading opponents. NATO decapitates Libya’s regime and sets loose a tribal-militia war of all against all, which, when combined with the crackup of Chad, spills arms and refugees across African borders, threatening Tunisia and Morocco. Israel has been flooded with more than 50,000 Eritreans and Sudanese refugees, who crossed the Sinai Desert by foot, bus or car looking for work and security in Israel’s “island of order.”

And, just since October, the US has been flooded with more than 50,000 unaccompanied children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. “They’re fleeing from threats andviolence in their home countries,” noted Vox.com, “where things have gotten so bad that many families believe that they have no choice but to send their children on the long, dangerous journey north.”

Why is this happening now? Well, just as I’ve argued that “average is over” for workers, now “average is over for states,” too. Without the Cold War system to prop them up, it is not so easy anymore for weak states to provide the minimums of security, jobs, health and welfare. And thanks to rapid advances in the market (globalisation), Mother Nature (climate change plus ecological destruction) and Moore’s Law (computing power), some states are just blowing up under the pressure.

Yes, we blew up Iraq, but you can’t understand the uprising in Syria unless you understand how a horrendous four-year drought there, coupled with a demographic explosion, undermined its economy.

You can’t understand Egypt’s uprising without linking it to the 2010 global wheat crisis and soaring bread prices, which inspired the anti-Hosni Mubarak chant: “Bread, Freedom, Dignity.” You also can’t understand Egypt’s stress without understanding the challenge that China’s huge labour pool poses in a globalised world to every other low-wage country. Go into a souvenir shop in Cairo, buy a Pyramids ashtray and turn it over. I’ll bet it says, “Made in China.” Today’s globalisation system rewards countries that make their workers and markets efficient enough to take part in global supply chains of goods and services faster than ever — and punishes those who don’t more harshly than ever.

You can’t understand the spread of ISIS or the Arab Spring without the relentless advance in computing and telecom — Moore’s Law — creating so many cheap command-and-control Internet tools that superempower small groups to recruit adherents, challenge existing states and erase borders. In a flat world, people can see faster than ever how far behind they are and organise faster than ever to protest. When technology penetrates more quickly than wealth and opportunity, watch out.

The combined pressures of the market, Mother Nature and Moore’s Law are creating the geopolitical equivalent of climate change, argues Michael Mandelbaum, author of “The Road to Global Prosperity,” and “some familiar species of government can’t survive the stress.”

So, please spare me the “it’s all Obama’s fault.” There are plenty of reasons to criticise Obama, but everything is not about what we do. There are huge forces acting on these countries, and it will take extraordinary collaboration by the whole world of order to contain them

First Indigenously Built Research Ship “Sindhu Sadhana” to Nation

In a historic ceremony held at the Marmugao Harbour of Goa today, Dr.Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Department of Personnel and Training, Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Atomic Energy, Space and Earth Sciences, dedicated to the nation the first ever indigenously built Research Vessel (Ship) " Sindhu Sadhana " acquired recently by the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography. Sindhu Sadhana is a multi-disciplinary research vessel equipped with a number of laboratories for data collection, echo sounders, acoustic doppler, profiler, autonomous weather station, air quality monitors and a host of other world-class latest equipments in the field of ocean technology and ocean research. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that after the successful launch of PSLV-23 satellite in space from Sriharikota on June 30, today's launch of Sindhu Sadhana into the ocean is the second major initiative in the field of science and technology within seven weeks of taking over of the Narendra Modi Government. This only indicates the high priority attached by the present Government to the development of science and technology in the country,he observed and added that just as PSLV-23 enabled India to become part a of world's exclusive space satellite club, Sindhu Sadhana has brought India to the world map of ocean technology. Dwelling on the salient features of the new research ship, Sindhu Sadhana, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, it will greatly enhance the capabilities of Indian oceanographers to make multi-disciplinary observations with a capability to predict the future changes in oceanographic processes, thus generating enormous inputs, which will benefit not only India but also the number of other nations and seas around India. As India marches ahead to become a world power in the next one decade,Dr Jitendra Singh said, initiatives like Sindhu Sadhana will also help an economic breakthrough in the area of shipping, fishing, exploration for oil and natural gas, submarine pipeline etc. Accompanied by the Captain of the ship and crew members, Dr.P.S.Ahuja, DG CSIR, Dr. S.W.A. Naqvi, Director CSIR-NIO, scientists and sailors, Dr.Jitendra Singh went around each and every room, cabins and chambers of the ship and personally met each of the staffers on duck.

Nabard launches RuPay Kisan cards

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) today rolled out RuPay Kisan Card and RuPay Debit Card here today.

"This is the first time that RuPay Card, which is in the nature of ATM cum Debit Card, is being issued by any cooperative bank in the state of Haryana," said Nabard Chief General Manager (Haryana) D V Deshpande.

He said the issue of RuPay cards by cooperative banks will enable them to improve their customer service and bring it on par with any other bank to farmers and other customers.

Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda asked Nabard to increase the refinance given to cooperative banks from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.

Speaking on the occasion of its 33rd Foundation Day here today, Hooda said reducing groundwater level and shrinkage of fertile land posed big challenges which could be met by promoting piped and drip irrigation, constructing green houses, promoting dairy and techniques of vertical farming.

Hooda asked Nabard to work at the micro level for the expansion of these techniques and said it should provide finance for setting up water bodies in the state.

He said while Kisan Clubs have been set up in all sub-divisions of the state, there is a need to set up Kisan Clubs in all villages.

"Nabard should extend a helping hand in doing so. These clubs would act as a bridge between NGOs, self-help groups, farmer groups," he added.

Gene therapy to cure vision loss: Research

Researchers have created a new approach to develop personalised gene therapies for patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a leading cause of vision loss.

The approach, the first of its kind, takes advantage of induced pluripotent stem cell technology to transform skin cells into retinal cells, which are then used as a patient-specific model for disease study and preclinical testing.

Using this approach, researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) showed that a form of RP caused by mutations to the gene MFRP (membrane frizzled-related protein) disrupts the protein that gives retinal cells their structural integrity.

They also showed that the effects of these mutations can be reversed with gene therapy. The approach could potentially be used to create personalised therapies for other forms of RP, as well as other genetic diseases.

“The use of patient-specific cell lines for testing the efficacy of gene therapy to precisely correct a patient’s genetic deficiency provides yet another tool for advancing the field of personalised medicine,” said Stephen H Tsang, the Laszlo Z Bito Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and associate professor of pathology and cell biology.

While RP can begin during infancy, the first symptoms typically emerge in early adulthood, starting with night blindness. In later stages, RP destroys photoreceptors in the macula, which is responsible for fine central vision.

In the current study, the CUMC team used iPS technology to transform skin cells taken from two RP patients – each with
a different MFRP mutation – into retinal cells, creating patient-specific models for studying the disease and testing potential therapies.

By analysing these cells, the researchers found that the primary effect of MFRP mutations is to disrupt the regulation of actin, the protein that makes up the cytoskeleton, the scaffolding that gives the cell its structural integrity.

The researchers also found that MFRP works in tandem with another gene, CTRP5, and that a balance between the two genes is required for normal actin regulation.

In the next phase of the study, the CUMC team used adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to introduce normal copies of MFRP into the iPS-derived retinal cells, successfully restoring the cells’ function.

The researchers also used gene therapy to “rescue” mice with RP due to MFRP mutations.

According to Tsang, the mice showed long-term improvement in visual function and restoration of photoreceptor numbers.

“This study provides both in vitro and in vivo evidence that vision loss caused by MFRP mutations could potentially be treated through AAV gene therapy,” said coauthor Dieter Egli, an assistant professor at CUMC.

The paper was published in Molecular Therapy, the official journal of the American Society for Gene & Cell Therapy.

India becomes world's largest consumer of antibiotics

 India has emerged as the world's largest consumer of antibiotics with a 62% increase in popping habits over the last decade.

As the world braces for its worst ever threat in the last century - global antibiotic resistance due to unnecessary and unregulated popping of antibiotics, an average Indian has been found to be popping over 11 antibiotic pills a year.

India's antibiotic use went up from 8 billion units in 2001 to 12.9 billion units in 2010.

The study "Global Trends in Antibiotic Consumption, 2000-2010," by scientists from Princeton University has found that worldwide antibiotic use has risen a staggering 36% over those 10 years, with five countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) — responsible for more than three-quarters of that surge.

Among the 16 groups of antibiotics studied, cephalosporins, broad-spectrum penicillins and fluoroquinolones accounted for more than half of that increase, with consumption rising 55% from 2000 to 2010.

The study quantifies the growing alarm surrounding antibiotic-resistant pathogens and a loss of efficacy among antibiotics used to combat the most common illnesses.

The study has also confirmed an increasing resistance to carbapenems and polymixins, two classes of drugs long considered the last resort antibiotics for illnesses without any other known treatment.

Speaking to TOI, one of the authors Ramanan Laxminarayan said "Indians consume around 11 antibiotic tablets per year. That's five days of antibiotics for every person in the country which is much lesser than the Chinese or Brazilians. An average Chinese popped 7 antibiotic pills a year. However both India and China's numbers are lesser than the Americans who on average pop 22 antibiotic pills a year. The paper confirms that global use of antibiotics is surging and specially in India".

"This is both good news and bad news. It means that more Indians are able to access antibiotics, which are particularly important for those who previously died of easily treatable infections. However, the massive increase in use, both appropriate and inappropriate, is leading to increases in drug resistance. Antibiotic use is the single most important reason for resistance. Also use of last resort drugs like carbapenems has gone up significantly in India, and it is difficult to justify why such powerful antibiotics are being use so much more frequently".

Laxminarayan added "We have to remember that before we had antibiotics, it was pretty easy to die of a bacterial infection. And we're choosing to go back into a world where you won't necessarily get better from a bacterial infection. It's not happening at a mass scale, but we're starting to see the beginning of when the antibiotics are not working as well".

"This paper breaks new ground with the comparative antibiotic consumption data by country of the first decade of the 21st century," said Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England and chief scientific adviser for the Department of Health, London. "There is a direct relationship between consumption and development of antibiotic resistance, so the data is key for us all developing a 'National Action Plans Against Antimicrobial Resistance' as set out in the World Health Assembly Resolution in May".

The study noted that antibiotic use tended to peak at different times of the year, corresponding in almost every case with the onset of the flu season.

In the northern hemisphere, for example, consumption peaked between January and March, while in the southern hemisphere it peaked between July and November. One notable exception was India, for which usage peaked between July and September, correlating with the end of the monsoon season.

The scientists said that programs promoting rational use of antibiotics should be a national and global priority. That process has to begin with the BRICS countries, which are experiencing the highest rates of increase in antibiotic consumption.

Dr Arjun Srinivasan, associate director at Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta recently said humans and livestock have been overmedicated to the point that bacteria have grown so resistant to antibiotics that we are now in "the post-antibiotic era". He has added "There are patients for whom we have no therapy, and we are literally in a position of having a patient in a bed who has an infection, something that five years ago even we could have treated, but now we can't".

British prime minister David Cameron recently jumped into the global fight against superbugs and has warned that the world could be "cast back into the dark ages of medicine" where people die from treatable infections because deadly bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Cameron has now announced an independent review led by world renowned economist Jim O'Neill to identify why the international market has failed to bring forward new antibiotics.

The PM called for governments and drug companies around the world to work together to accelerate the discovery of a new generation of antibiotics.

The review will set out a plan for encouraging and accelerating the discovery and development of new generations of antibiotics, and will examine: the development, use and regulatory environment of antimicrobials, especially antibiotics, and explore how to make investment in new antibiotics more attractive to pharmaceutical companies and other funding bodies.

About 25,000 people die annually across Europe because of infections that are resistant to antibiotic drugs, Cameron said.

"Growing numbers of bacterial and viral infections are resistant to antimicrobial drugs, but no new classes of antibiotics have come on the market for more than 25 years. Lack of new drugs which are capable of fighting bacteria has been described by the World Health Organization as one of the most significant global risks facing modern medicine," Cameron said.

The PM said "The full scale of the economic burden of drug resistant infections - and the cost of a failure to take concerted action to address it - is not yet fully understood. Resistance to antibiotics is now a very real and worrying threat, as bacteria mutate to become immune to their effects. If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine where treatable infections and injuries will kill once again".

Professor Davies added "The soaring number of antibiotic-resistant infections poses such a great threat to society that in 20 years' time we could be taken back to a 19th century environment where everyday infections kill us as a result of routine operations".

Resistance to antibiotics was declared a major global threat to public health by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO revealed that resistance is occurring across many different infectious agents specially in seven different bacteria responsible for common, serious diseases such as bloodstream infections (sepsis), diarrhoea, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and gonorrhoea.

The results are cause for high concern, documenting resistance to antibiotics, especially "last resort" antibiotics, in all regions of the world.

Antibiotic resistance causes people to be sick for longer and increases the risk of death. For example, people with MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are estimated to be 64% more likely to die than people with a non-resistant form of the infection. Resistance also increases the cost of health care with lengthier stays in hospital and more intensive care required.

"Without urgent, coordinated action, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill," says Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Security. "Effective antibiotics have been one of the pillars allowing us to live longer, live healthier, and benefit from modern medicine. Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating."

Antibiotic resistance-when bacteria change so antibiotics no longer work in people who need them to treat infections-is now a major threat to public health.