Commendable initiative

At a time when open defecation remains something of a taboo subject and is seldom discussed in public, it is commendable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned the spotlight on the practice while addressing the nation on August 15 and brought the discourse straight into lakhs of drawing rooms. Soon after he urged the corporate sector to “prioritise the provision of toilets in schools” under corporate social responsibility programmes, the social movement is slowly gaining traction. Two companies — Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Enterprises — have committed themselves to playing their part in achieving the monumental task of ensuring that all schools in the country have toilets for boys and girls in a year’s time. Hindustan Zinc Limited has increased by 10,000 the number of toilets it would build in villages in three districts of Rajasthan; its earlier target number was 30,000. There is an urgent need for many more companies to follow suit quickly. But building toilets alone would achieve next to nothing if providing access to water does not go hand in hand with it. That over 620 million people inIndia still defecate in the open is at once a shameful and disgusting statistic. The ignominy becomes all the more striking as India has the most number of people in the world continuing with this abhorrent practice; Indonesia is a far second with 54 million people doing that. That Bangladesh reduced the prevalence from 34 per cent in 1990 to 3 per cent in 2012 is a potent reminder that the war against open defecation has to be won in double quick time. This can be achieved only if building toilets, both in schools and in households, continues to be a priority for the government and every other sector in the country.

The ramifications of open defecation are too grim to be ignored. Many of the water-borne diseases — cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, Hepatitis A, typhoid and polio — are linked to open defecation. Hence, it is no coincidence that nearly 14 per cent (over 300,000) of deaths among children in India under five years of age are caused by diarrhoea-related diseases; diarrhoea is the second biggest killer in this age group. Also, frequent diarrhoeal events result in malnutrition and, in turn, stunting in children under five. The absence of toilets in schools is one of the reasons why girls drop out of the system at an early age. There is a huge economic cost, too. According to a document of the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme, the economic impact of poor sanitation is about Rs.2.4 trillion (which represented 6.4 per cent of India’s GDP in 2006). It is important to remember that building toilets without building awareness and changing the mindset, would still yield poor results.

Bipin chandra,The eternal critic of the self died

When the news came of Bipan Chandra’s passing away on the morning of August 30, my mind went back to an afternoon in a fly-ridden tea shop at Aligarh, where our long friendship began 55 years ago. I was instantly drawn to him for his commitment to the cause he had taken up (a journal at the time), his infectious enthusiasm and a quite irrepressible sense of humour.

Born in 1928 in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, Bipan Chandra was quite the mature scholar at the time we met, having studied at the Forman Christian College, Lahore, and then at Stanford University, US, where he was harried, he told me, by Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crew, for Bipan had decidedly leftist views. He was now teaching at Hindu College, Delhi. While he conscientiously performed his duties as a teacher and pursued relentlessly the cause of his journal, Enquiry, he carried out an astonishingly massive amount of research that resulted in his Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India, 1880-1905, published in 1966. This work brilliantly illuminated a neglected aspect of early Indian nationalism, and is plainly a great achievement.

Given his approach, Bipan was naturally impatient of the search for individual motivations in the national movement by the post-1947 historians of the Cambridge School, as well as of the attempts to refute the nationalist case against an exploitative Britain. He penned a fiery article in 1968 against Morris D. Morris, an American scholar who had doubted the reality of de-industrialisation under British rule.

Bipan became increasingly concerned with the rising tide of communalism, sharply criticising both its Hindu and Muslim variants. He carried out surveys of texts used in religious and quasi-religious schools. This concern also led him, I believe, to focus on writing for a popular readership. Many of his essays are for the general reader. The most outstanding work of this genre is his “Modern India”, an NCERT textbook published in the late 1970s for secondary schools. It manages to cover, within a limited size, almost all aspects of modern Indian history. It ran into several editions and was republished in 2012.

He also undertook, with his colleagues, more detailed studies of the national movement and of India since Independence. These efforts resulted in two major works edited by him, India’s Struggle for Independence (1989) and India Since Independence (1998).

For reasons I could never fully understand, he turned increasingly critical of the Left after the 1970s, as was revealed in a whole volume he edited in 1983. But, characteristically, he never let this come in the way of our friendship or bar cooperation between us in other fields.

Bipan Chandra was an enormously popular teacher, as one might expect. He became professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, soon after it wasestablished. After his retirement in 1993, JNU made him professor emeritus. From 2004 to 2012, he was chairman of the National Book Trust, in which work he showed the same zeal and drive as he did in everything else. (By constant telephoning, he made me write a book on medieval India within a set time-frame!)

His later years were marred by ill-health. The death of his gracious wife Usha some years ago was a great blow to him. It was a blow to my wife Sayera and me as well, since Usha and Bipan had always treated us as members of the family. One can now only offer condolences to the two sons, Bikash and Barun, they have left behind

The prime minister has hoisted his administration’s flag on the masthead of good governance. This is a welcome and timely objective. The question is, what does the prime minister mean by “good”? He campaigned on the slogan of “minimum government, maximum governance”. This would suggest that he equates “good” with “small”. There is merit in this equation. Our government is bloated, inefficient and wasteful. It needs to be slimmed down. But I am sure this does not capture the totality of the PM’s intent. He knows that governance is not about big versus small, maximum or minimum. The financial crisis that roiled the Western world in 2008-09 was at least in part the result of slackened government supervision over the financial community. The crony capitalism that led to the 2G scam and “coalgate” was also partly due to the institutional and power vacuum created by delicensing.

“Good” governance 101 for the 21st century is not about size, scope or ideology. It is about getting things done. It is about narrowing the distance between the governor and the governed. It requires strong institutions, rule of law, technology, information and talent. The executive must be empowered; the judiciary unencumbered and capable of providing timely justice; and Parliament functional for debates and legislation. It requires entrepreneurial decision-making and a systemic receptivity to new ideas and innovative solutions. It requires a government that encourages lateral entry of talent and the forging of partnerships and collaborations with business, academics and civic society. It is a government that is “smart” and biased towards action. These are different requirements from those when the world was not so connected, competitive and challenged by problems like global warming that do not respect national boundaries.

The question is, do the prime minister’s political and party colleagues understand the nature of these requirements? Do they recognise that good governance can only be built on the above pillars? I ask these questions because I am perplexed by the logic of decisions that are reportedly under consideration, or have been taken. I do not understand why, for instance, the government would wish to compel the resignation of the independent directors on the boards of large public sector entities simply because they were appointed by the previous government, or why it would wish to circumscribe the autonomy of the IITs by bringing them under the umbrella of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The only explanation I can think of is that some members of the government have not fully appreciated the need to adapt to these new requirements and are stuck in the groove of siloed and self-serving politics.

I know that several ministers have reshuffled their senior civil servants simply because they did not want to deal with appointees of the previous government. I can understand this decision, although I do not support it. Iunderstand it because ministers have the prerogative to choose their own teams. I do not support it because civil servants should be insulated from political exigency. Else they cannot proffer unbiased and professional advice. What I cannot understand or support is the decision to remove the independent directors from the boards of economically significant PSUs like ONGC and Indian Oil. The reason I do not understand or support the decision is because the government gains little but loses, potentially, a lot. After all, it is not as if these directors have substantive influence. They are not involved in management and are outvoted by the government representative. On the other hand, they provide a strategic sounding board, act as a check against corporate malfeasance and inject gravitas. Most directors are individuals of eminence and integrity. By removing them, the government is signalling its disdain for corporate governance, due process and institutional integrity. In a similar vein, I do not understand the logic of subserving the operational and academic integrity of world-class institutions like IITs to a bureaucratic and procedure-bound organisation like the UGC. In and of themselves, these two examples are trivial, but when seen through the lens of “good” governance, they show that the narrative of governance is not contemporaneous with the demands and complexity of a digitised, global and competitive world.

The prime minister could take a major step towards “good” governance by removing the deadweight of the prevention of corruption act that is presently on the shoulders of civil servants. As I have written before, this act exposes officials to the charge of corruption if they take a decision that is deemed to have benefitted a private entity. There is no statute of limitation and so a person can be hauled up by the CBI long after she has retired. It is no wonder, therefore, that civil servants have preferred to sit on files or simply pass them on to the next desk rather than put signatures to paper. The “act of omission” has been a safer bet than the “act of commission”. The prime minister has already lightened somewhat the weight by meeting the 70-odd secretaries to the government of India and by assuring them of his safeguard. But if he wants to galvanise his bureaucracy into an action and problem-solving mode, he should remove the weight totally by amending the act through an ordinance.

The prime minister is also looking to redefine the Planning Commission. If he does decide to reincarnate it as a government-financed think tank, he should task the new entity to find answers to questions such as: What must be done to modernise governance? What changes must be made to improve the delivery and quality of service? What needs to be done to inject a spirit of entrepreneurialism and innovation into decision-making? What, in short, must be done to create a government that is contemporaneous and “works”, to borrow from US President Barack Obama? These are not easy questions, but the new body could bethe forum where big data on the subject of governance is collated, organised and disseminated, new ideas are generated through crowdsourcing, public-private collaborations are forged, relevant e-governance technologies are leveraged and lateral talent is located. It could be a strategic planning tool for incentivising productivity, efficiency and innovation. It could be the body that puts flesh around the word “good” and in the process, aligns everyone around the promise that the prime minister made from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15

Shri Piyush Goyal to Launch Three Energy – Efficient Initiatives

Shri Piyush Goyal Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal, and New & Renewable Energy, will launch three energy efficient initiatives at 11 am, on Tuesday, 2nd September 2014, at DRDO Bhawan here. The initiatives developed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency under Ministry of Power include Design Guidelines for Energy Efficient Multi-Story Residential Building Star Rating for Hospital Buildings and for Diesel Generators. Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas will deliver the keynote address at the function. Energy-Efficient Design Guidelines for Multi-Storey Residential Buildings Design Guidelines for ‘Energy-Efficient Multi-Storey Residential Buildings’ is developed with the objective to provide a comprehensive information on how to design energy-efficient multi-storey residential buildings. The guidelines take into account different climatic conditions prevailing in the country. Current guidelines are applicable to Composite and Hot-Dry Climates of India. The guidelines can be used by the agencies or persons involved in the regulation, design, and construction of multi-storey residential buildings in urban areas such as private and government sector developers and builders, architects and other design professionals, and urban local bodies. It is estimated that by adopting these guidelines, electricity savings of around 50 are possible. Star Rating Scheme for Hospital Buildings and Diesel Generators  The voluntary scheme for star rating of commercial buildings was developed with an aim to create a market pull for energy efficient buildings. Currently the scheme is applicable to three categories of buildings i. e. Day use Office buildings, Shopping Malls and BPOs. The rating plan is prepared by developing bandwidths for the Energy Performance Index (EPI) of buildings in that sector. Star rating scheme for hospital buildings has been developed in order to promote energy efficiency in hospital buildings. This scheme rates the actual performance of the hospital building based on a statistical model using regression and distribution analysis. The model is calibrated from sample data across various climatic zones and focuses on the key drivers of energy consumption including location, physical and operational characteristics. Considering that hospital buildings have complex and sophisticated engineering systems, their operations are energy intensive as they are used 24 x 7 throughout the year. Therefore in order to promote energy efficiency in hospital buildings, Star rating scheme for hospital buildings has been developed. This scheme rates the actual performance of the hospital building based on a statistical model using regression and distribution analysis. The model is calibrated from sample data across various climatic zones and focuses on the key drivers of energy consumption including location, physical and operational characteristics. Bureau of Energy Efficiency has developed the schedules for the star labeling of Diesel Generator (DG ) set on voluntary basis in association with Petroleum Conservation Research Association ( PCRA). It has been estimated that DG set could achieve an efficiency 36.48% from the existing average efficiency of 33.16%, which may save Rs. 79 crore in the first year of implementation with total saving fuel Consumption 12.88 Thousand Metric Tons (TMT) per year under the proposed voluntary Standard &Labeling ( S&L) programme. Diesel Generator Sets with engine capacity up to 19 kW ratings are covered under phase 1 of Program . The Diesel Generator set must comply with latest statutory requirements of the government. RM/ND

Environment and Progress Can Go Hand in Hand, Says Javadekar at the Convocation for Indian Forest Service Probationers in Dehradun

Environment and progress can supplement each other and they are not contrary to each other as is general perception. This was the observation of the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Information and Broadcasting at the annual convocation of 2012-14 course of the Indian Forest Service Officer trainees of Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy in Dehradun today. The Minister exhorted the young forest officers to perform their duty to the society with passion, compassion and integrity. He said the forest cover of India has to be increased from present level of 24 per cent to 33 percent and to achieve it the forest officers will have to be innovative in policy, process and outreach. He said instead of more infrastructure, we need more faculty and the forest officers should come forward andwork as faculty to teach the young officers. The Minister gave away diploma and awards to 78 officer trainees of the 2012-14 batch, including 22 lady officers and 2 officer trainees from Bhutan. This batch consisted of 4 PhDs, 48 Post Graduates and 26 Graduates in different science subjects. The convocation function was presided over by Dr. S.S.Garbyal, Director General and Special Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The Minister later also laid foundation stone of UNESCO centre for ‘Natural World Heritage Management and Training for Asia and Pacific Region’ at Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun. On this occasion Shri Javadekar said the demands of nature and the demands of development should not be seen in conflict with each other. He urged the Wildlife Institute of India to help schools and colleges by creating environment related syllabus in easy-to-understand language. He said that on one hand India needs 10 per cent economic growth but on the other, it also needs one percent forest cover growth for development.  Earlier the Union Environment and Forest Minister had deliberations with Shri Harish Rawat, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and the senior officers of the state. The environment Minister agreed to empower the nodal officer of his Ministry in Dehradun for forest clearance upto 5 hectare forest land in 13 types of projects like road, water, electricity etc. The Union Minister also assured to consider releasing 1200 crore rupees under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). He also assured to soften and redefine the parameters to allow quarrying in the rivers.

Disease and ecology

LOOKING at the many vector-borne diseases, particularly viral, one finds that there exists a complex host-parasite relationship among various animals, their arthropod vectors and infective organisms. The results of human entrance into the infectious chain are deleterious, since man becomes an integral part of the host-parasite relation which changes his environment. Therefore, before thinking of controlling the diseases, efforts must be made to understand vector-transmitted infections in man in relationship to his environment.

Parasitic diseases of humans and animals are obviously a part of the broad evolutionary development. The application of the theory of insect-carriers led to a better understanding of diseases such as sleeping sickness, malaria, yellow fever, bubonic plague and typhus. While the role of animals, vectors and man in the natural cycle of disease transmission was established about two centuries ago, not much importance has been given to understanding the role of the environment and the necessity of an ecological approach to study this. The lack of accurate knowledge concerning the ecology of wild reservoir hosts, vectors and the human victims in nature has been responsible for a poor understanding of the epidemiology of many diseases, particularly arthropod-borne viral diseases.

The Russian parasitologist and geographer Eugene N. Pavlovsky’s extensive researches in the middle of the last century gave us a greater understanding of the evolution of natural adaptations of infectious diseases. The concept means that wild enzootic foci of many diseases exist in nature independently of man and domestic animals. These foci present well-defined ecological peculiarities wherein pathogens and natural hosts are associated, often through an intermediate vector.

The environmental factors determining these associations are climate, soil, vegetation and topographical features (landscape epidemiology). These serve as reliable indicators of the existence of certain diseases. Areas at the edge of deserts, with burrowing rodents, may harbour Cutaneous leishmaniasis (a skin infection, as in Rajasthan); areas at the junction of mountains, forests and agricultural fields or grasslands (interfaces) may harbour many vector-borne diseases. These natural foci, which may be called “silent zones of diseases”, may remain undetected until susceptible human beings come into contact with them directly or indirectly and become infected. With accurate ecological knowledge, similar foci in other areas may be detected before human disease can be predicted.

SEE MORE

http://www.frontline.in/science-and-technology/disease-and-ecology/article6189534.ece#test

Brain-controlled flight

IN work carried out as part of a European Union-funded project called “Brainflight”, scientists of the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) and the Technische Universitat Berlin (TUB) demonstrated the feasibility of flying with amazing precision using brain control alone (and no hands). Pilots of the future may be able to control their aircraft by merely thinking commands.

A long-term vision of the project, according to Tim Fricke, who heads the project at the TUM, is to make flying accessible to more people. “With brain control, flying, in itself, could become easier. This would reduce the workload of pilots and thereby increase safety. In addition, pilots would have more freedom of movement to manage other manual tasks in the cockpit.”

Seven subjects took part in the flight simulator tests. They had varying levels of flight experience, including one person without any practical cockpit experience whatsoever. The accuracy with which the test subjects stayed on course by merely thinking commands would have sufficed, in part, to fulfil the requirements of a flying licence test. Several of the subjects also managed the landing approach under poor visibility. One test pilot even landed within only few metres of the centre line.

Normally, pilots feel resistance in steering and must exert significant force when the loads induced on the aircraft become large. This feedback is missing when using brain control. TUM scientists are now focussing on the question of how the requirements of changing flight dynamics can be incorporated in the new control method, which basically converts electrical potentials into control commands. Brain waves of the pilots are measured using electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes connected to a cap. An algorithm developed by scientists from the TUB allows a program to decipher electrical potentials and convert them into appropriate commands. The brain-computer interface only recognises the very clearly defined electrical brain impulses required for control. “This is pure signal processing,” Fricke emphasised.