Aug 07 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

1 lakh children go missing in India every year: MHA

Deeptiman.Tiwary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi





Neighbours Pakistan And China Lose Only 3,000 & 10,000

On February 5, 2013, a Supreme Court bench, angry over 1.7 lakh missing children and the government's apathy, had remarked: “Nobody seems to care about missing children.
This is the irony .“One and a half years later, government data show over 1.5 lakh more children have gone missing, and the situation remains the same with an average of 45% of them remaining untraced.
Data on missing children put out by the home ministry last month in Parliament show that over 3.25 lakh children went missing between 2011 and 2014 (till June) at an average of nearly 1 lakh kids going missing every year.
Compare this to our trouble-torn neighbour Pakistan where according to official figures around 3,000 children go missing every year. If population is an issue, then one could look at China, the most populous nation, where official figures put the number of missing children at around 10,000 every year.
National Crime Records Bureau, in fact, deciphers missing children figures in India in terms of one child going missing in the country every eight minutes.
More worryingly , 55% of those missing are girls and 45% of all missing children have remained untraceable, raising fears of them having been either killed or pushed into begging or prostitution rackets.
Maharashtra is one of the worst states in terms of missing children with over 50,000 having disappeared in the past three and half years.
Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh are distant competitors with all recording less than 25,000 missing children for the period.
Worryingly , however, all these states have more missing girls than boys. In Maharashtra, 10,000 more girls went missing than boys. In Andhra Pradesh, the number of girls missing (11,625) is almost double of boys (6,915). Similarly , Madhya Pradesh has over 15,000 girls missing compared to 9,000 boys. Delhi, too, has more girls (10,581) missing compared to boys (9,367).
Experts say several children run out of home due to poverty or physical abuse.
Once on the street, without protection, they could be pushed into any racket or abused.
What's worse is that in the law and order machinery there is no special focus on tracing children. In fact, in the states with a missing persons' bureau in their police department, good officers are seldom posted as it's not considered a coveted division.

Aug 07 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

UGC bans dissection in all colleges

Ekatha.Ann@timesgroup.com

Chennai





UGC has banned dissection of animals for academic purposes either by students or teachers at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels on college and varsity campuses.UGC's decision, which comes following sustained pressure from activists and an observation that many of the animals used for dissection were caught from their natural habitat, is an improvement on the partial ban on dissection it had issued in 2011 -when it allowed teachers to perform dissection as students watched, while postgraduate students were allowed to dissect unprotected species.

Aug 06 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

Ants show the way to new antifungal drugs

Pune Mirror Bureau punemirror.feedback@gm TWEET @ThePuneMirror





Researchers are collecting samples of antifungal bacteria found on various species of Brazilian ants that could fight off everything ­ fungal and viral infections to cancer and Chagas disease

In the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, leaf-cutter ants carry fresh foliage back to their home colony. There, the partially digested leaves nourish a “garden“ of white fungus that the ants cultivate to feed their larvae, their queen and other ants that never leave the nest.Like human gardeners, the fungus-farming ants must protect their crop from invaders. The parasitic fungus Escovopsis poses a constant threat. Fortunately, the ants have an ally: Pseudonocardia bacteria. During more than 45 million years of symbiosis with the ants, the bacteria have evolved to produce specific antifungal compounds that kill invading Escovopsis while sparing the good fungus. The ants, meanwhile, have evolved special pockets and glands in their bodies to house and feed their bacterial partners.
A team of scientists from the US and Brazil hopes that studying the compounds these bacteria produce will lead to new drugs that combat invasive fungal infections in people, as well as new treatments for cancer and parasitic diseases.
The idea is rooted in history. Pseudonocardia belongs to a group of actinobacteria that has already provided most of the world's antibiotics as well as antifungals, antivirals, anti-clotting drugs and more. And the fungus they fight for the ants is related to fungi that cause life-threatening human disease. To date, no one has gone hunting for natural compounds in the fungusfarming ant ecosystems.
“I'm very excited. I think this project has a good chance of success, and I think it aligns ecology and drug discovery in a way that we haven't tried before,“ said Jon Clardy from the Harvard Medical School, who will co-lead the team with Monica Pupo of the University of Sao Paulo.
INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY
More than 200 kinds of fungus-farming ants live in South and Central America. Many of them make their homes in the diverse biomes of Brazil. Each colony may host a slightly different strain of bacteria that makes slightly different compounds to fight a slightly different invader. “We have an incredible opportunity to rigorously evaluate biodiversity in the context of therapeutic discovery and ecology,“ said Clardy.
The team's main focus will be discovering antifungal agents. The world is in desperate need of new antifungal medicines. Invasive fungal infections ­ those that spread inside the body, as opposed to superficial infections of the skin and nails ­ are on the rise, new strains are emerging and infections are getting resistant to drugs.
“Worldwide, more people die of invasive fungal diseases than die of malaria or tuberculosis,“ said Clardy. “What's scary is it's not widely appreciated how dangerous these diseases are because the incidence is quite low, but the mortality is typically very high.“
Aspergillosis, for example, may only affect about 2,00,000 people worldwide, but it has a mortality rate between 30 to 95 per cent. Fungal infections are a top cause of infection-related death in cancer and transplant patients.
In addition to antifungals, the team will look for natural products that could become anticancer drugs. Many chemotherapeutics act in a similar way to antifungals: They spare slowergrowing cells (like those of ants, beneficial fungi and humans) while killing faster-growing cells (like those of invading fungi and tumours). In fact, many chemotherapy drugs were originally developed as antifungals, including the immune suppressor rapamycin, which was found in soil-dwelling actinobacteria on Easter Island.
The team's third goal involves searching for antiparasitics to help treat Chagas disease, also known as the New World version of African sleeping sickness, and leishmaniasis, both of which the World Health Organisation has named neglected tropical diseases. Chagas disease is a particular burden in Brazil, where it kills as many each year as tuberculosis.

Aug 06 2014 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)

BRAND BREAKOUT - How Indian Brands Can Go Global





Going global is all very well, but how?
Management guru and author Dr.Nirmalya Kumar has some suggestions

Lists comprising the 100 most global brands, such as by Interbrand, demonstrate that all of the leading global brands pretty much originate from the developed world. India has been unable to develop true global brands such as Lenovo, Samsung or Toyota. In response, some argue that as India is a large country, it may be unnecessary to invest in global brands.
In other words, it is enough for indigenous brands to concentrate on the local market. For most Indian brands this is true. Rather than becoming global brands, they simply need to be globally competitive. By globally competitive, I mean they must be able to hold their own when multinational brands come knocking for the Indian consumer.Yet, over time, brands may find even being the largest domestic player in India does not allow them to remain globally competitive. Why? India accounts for 2%-3% of global GDP. As a result, in several industries, domestic firms playing on the limited India playground will find themselves at a scale disadvantage versus global competitors. For example, it may be impossible to adequately fund R&D if you are targeting 2%-3% of global demand while your competitors like Apple, Unilever, or Nestle are addressing 90% of the world market. Being global allows such brands to devote many more absolute dollars towards R&D, while simultaneously spending a smaller percentage of their sales on R&D. Ultimately, R&D resources are bought by absolute dollars, not percentages of sales. For locally focused brands, similar diseconomies may exist in purchasing, operations, and marketing.
It is challenging for emerging market brands, including those from India, to build a business with consumers in developed markets. Research indicates that North American and European consumers associate brands from emerging markets as being of poor quality, unreliable and cheap. Furthermore the cost of marketing to end consumers in these countries is prohibitive for most emerging market brands. In our book Brand Breakout: How emerging market brands will go global, we developed eight strate gies to overcome these challenges. Three of the recommended strategies are particularly relevant, and indeed, being pursued by some consumer brands from India that aspire to be global.
The “cultural resources“ route: or leveraging the country of origin for global advantage means positioning the brand on positive cultural myths. In spite of the general poor perception of the general poor perception of emerging markets, Western consumers do associate certain emerging markets with specific positive attributes.
These can be turned into a source of strength and differentiation. For exam ple, Brazil's Havaianas positioned its casual footwear (flip-flops) on the Brazilian national identity of beach, fun, sensuality, youth, and vibrant colours. It now sells on the high street in the US, the UK and many other countries.
Indian brands desiring to follow the cultural resources route should choose only one or two cultural meanings that the target segment will recognise anywhere in the world and will regard as credibly linked to the nation's culture.
Of course, these cultural meanings should be ones that no other brand has claimed, and that are relevant, or that the marketer can make relevant, to the product. Marketers can transfer cultural meaning to their consumer brand through three interrelated activities: brand development -developing the brand name, logo, slogan, and writing style that convey the intended cultural meaning; brand communication -determining the setting, the characters, and the media to use in storytelling and myth-making; and brand reinforcement -aligning the other elements of the marketing mix, such as pricing, product placement, promotion, distribution, and packaging, so that they amplify the cultural meanings. India is a country rich in culture (eg, Ayurveda, Indian hospitality, Taj Mahal, yoga) and there are many opportunities to successfully employ this strategy.
A second pathway is to “use the diaspora as beachhead“: As the cost of advertising and distribution in developed markets is very high, the idea is to go after one's own ethnic population living in the developed market. For example, the Indian diaspora is very large in the UK and the USA. It is usually already aware of the Indian brand attempting to go global. Furthermore, they can be easily and efficiently reached via Indian ethnic shopping areas. By first building a business with them, the aspiring global brand gets some scale and resources to subsequently target the non-ethnic consumers in the developed market. Dabur and ICICI bank are following this route.
For the diaspora strategy to succeed, some factors are necessary. The diaspora beachhead has to be large enough to generate the resources required for sub sequent marketing to the mainstream population. Secondly, the brand itself must have attributes with universal appeal such as “natural“ for Dabur or “high interest rates“ for ICICI. In contrast, Bollywood movies have limited appeal for crossover audiences and play mostly to ethnic audiences in developed markets. Thirdly, it helps to have a diaspora segment with a high proportion of “biculturals.“ Biculturals are those immigrants who have a sense of belonging to two cultures without losing their cultural identity. As they are more integrated in the host country's social networks, they are more effective promotional conduits to the host population.
A third pathway is to “brand natural resources“: A brand can be created for natural resources, standing in as both a quality guarantee and a provider of emotional satisfaction. This is achieved by associating the brand with a particular geography. France and Italy excel at this. Sparkling wine cannot be called champagne unless it is from Champagne region of France. To succeed with this strategy the geographical area must be tightly defined, preferably coupled with mythical qualities; expensive, elaborate, and transparent production process specified; an independent authenticating body that conducts regular audits; and finally, the area is marketed and branded globally .
Sri Lanka has been taking steps to obtain “protected geographical indication“ (PGI). Sri Lanka has now two global trademarks of natural resources ­ Pure Ceylon Cinnamon and Pure Ceylon Tea. Manufacturers from other countries may not lawfully use Ceylon in their branding or marketing efforts.
Unfortunately, India has not exploited the vast untapped opportunity for branding natural commodities in any systematic manner. As a result, for example, 30,000 more tons of Darjeeling tea is bought every year than is produced. Just imagine, to name just a few, Golconda diamonds, Alphonso mangoes, Tussar silk, Jaipur jewellery, and Coorg cardamom. While there is an initiative currently underway, we could launch 100 Indian global brands with this strategy alone.

Aug 06 2014 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)

Do not Put English Farther out of Reach





The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) may not be the French Foreign Legion, but it still requires its members to be equipped with specific skills. Being proficient in English happens to be one of them. English is a link language that connects not every Indian, but every opinion-making, decisiontaking Indian. To disregard this, is to disregard reality . The civil servant, well versed as he may -and should -be in any other Indian language, must be proficient in this language, rather than be able to simply comprehend it, particularly in these globalising times.For the government to make concessions to the populist demand to scrap the English comprehension portion of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) preliminary examination is doubly unfortunate in this regard. Not only does this endorse the erroneous notion that one doesn't require English to become a civil servant, but it also drives the “English-non-English“ wedge even deeper. And the consequences of this will be felt beyond the UPSC exam.
But the anti-English agitators have a point. English is a language of power, status and class. A person proficient in English is far more likely to negotiate the world than someone who is not. This is apparent in the huge demand for English language learning among young job-seekers and job-enhancers across India irrespective of their socioeconomic backgrounds. It is a travesty that non-English languages have lagged as a vehicle for quality education. And the quality of English teaching in state-funded schools is abysmal. The government should ensure that quality English is available to all. And it should abstain from compromises that would erode the quality and coherence of governance in the country.

Aug 06 2014 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)

SWAMISPEAK - Green Revolution 2.0

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar





Honour Norman Borlaug on his centenary by approving GM crops The most conclusive evidence is that three trillion meals with genetically-modified foods have been eaten in the US with no evidence at all of ill-effects

Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace but now a strong critic of that organisation, is livid about the hypocrisy and pseudoscience of activists opposing genetically-modified (GM) foods. These, he says, are critical to increasing agricultural yields, reducing hunger and conquering poverty . He seeks to raise funds to prosecute Greenpeace and other GM opponents for crimes against humanity in international courts.This is relevant in today's debate in India on GM crops. Many Indian activists have long opposed GM foods, claiming to be saviours of humanity against wicked multinationals promoting monster foods. But Moore would say that the real monsters are the activists. He sees them as ideologues of pseudoscience determined to hurt farm incomes and yields, thus prolonging hunger. These, he says, are crimes against humanity. Guilty Without Evidence
The last UPA government didn't approve even field trials, let alone commercial cultivation, of GM foods. But now the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee has cleared field trials (under stringent controls) of 15 GM crops including rice, brinjal, mustard and chickpeas. This is not approval for commercial sales. It is simply approval to test the varieties. Yet, ideologues oppose even testing.
In effect, they have declared GM foods guilty of being dangerous without evidence, and refuse to permit tests that would establish the evidence.
A major farmers' group like Chengal Reddy's Federation of Farmers Associations has long campaigned in favour of GM crops, saying these are essential to raise farm incomes, and reduce pesticide use. Chengal Reddy points out that farmers spray conventional brinjal with pesticide 30-35 times per crop, whereas Bt brinjal will require only five sprayings.
Far from being more dangerous, Bt brinjal is much safer because of lower pesticide content. Environment minister Prakash Javadekar says no final decision has yet been taken.
Umbilical Cord Called Funds
International NGOs now have enormous budgets and channel millions of dollars into developing countries to spread their ideas, good or bad.
Many Indian NGOs now depend critically on dollar inflows for their fortune, fame and future prospects. This explains why they exude so much passion on western agendas like GM crops, while saying relatively little about environmental disasters that India actually needs to focus on, like millions of deaths and disease caused by polluted water and air, the destruction of acquifers by farmers using free electricity to pump excessive amounts of water, and fertiliser misapplication that ruins our soil.
There is no space in this column to go into all the issues relating to GM crops. Suffice to say that the same activists opposing GM foods earlier opposed Bt cotton, a GM variety , as dangerous and useless. In fact, Bt cotton helped double cotton yields, greatly reduced pesticide use and converted India into a major cotton exporter. Over 90% of cotton farmers switched to the Bt variety . Instead of admitting their folly, the activists keep insisting that Bt cotton is actually a disaster, and that poor farmers have been misled by the propaganda of seed companies into adopting Bt cotton. The activists have told repeated lies and published bogus research -which has consistently been proved false in detailed reviews in top scientific magazines like Nature.
It's worth highlighting Mark Lynas, once a famous crusader against GM crops. He has now reversed his anti-GM beliefs as unscientific and untenable given growing evidence that GM foods are potential saviours of the human race, not dangers. The most conclusive evidence, he says, is that three trillion meals with GM foods have been eaten in the US with no evidence at all of ill-effects. Europeans who oppose GM foods conveniently forget their fears when visiting the US as tourists, and happily eat GM food there -with no ill-effects.
In Nature's Footsteps
Indian activists who once embraced Lynas now sneer that he is not a scientist and so cannot judge the matter.
However, Moore is a scientist of high repute, and says the same thing. 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Norman Borlaug, founder of the Green Revolution. The world faced a Malthusian food crisis after World War II, given rapid population growth after the introduction of mass vaccinations and antibiotics.
Environmentalists like Paul Ehrlich predicted global disaster. But Borlaug's hybrid wheat experiments produced new dwarf varieties that revolutionised yields, increasing farm incomes and food availability at the same time. He has been praised for saving one billion lives, more than anybody in history .
Borlaug was an outspoken supporter of GM crops. He blasted anti-GM activists as alarmists ignorant of nature and spreading falsehoods based on imaginary dangers. “There is no evidence that biotechnology is dangerous. After all, Mother Nature has been doing this kind of thing (crossing genes) for god knows how long.“
He dismissed anti-GM activists as people who had not produced a kilo of food but yelped about biosafety.
Prakash Javadekar, as environment minister, you must kindly honour Borlaug on his centenary by accepting his position on GM crops, and promoting the research that he held essential for the future of humanity .

Aug 06 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Like it or not, you just can't do without English

Subodh.Varma@timesgroup.com





The CSAT imbroglio has willy-nilly stirred up divisive language passions, and political brinkmanship.Some argue for more importance to Indian languages, others for embracing English, seeing it as a global lingua franca.
India isn’t unique in having many languages. Indonesia has 706 compared to India’s 406. China has 298, Russia has 105. Tiny Cameroon has 280.
What makes India unique is the number of people speaking different languages within the country. In most other countries, one language dominates. In China, nearly 93% of its 1.3 billion speak Chinese, in one of its variants. Same is the case with German, French, or Japanese — they’re spoken by a majority of the population.
Most of the Third World has local languages, and often, a national language borrowed from colonial times.
India has large numbers of people with diverse first languages. Hindi is spoken by over 420 mn making it the country’s largest language, not the majority one. Some languages spoken by large numbers include Bangla by over 80 mn, Telugu by 74 mn, Tamil by over 60 mn. These figures, from Census 2001, (the 2011 figures haven’t been released) give an idea of the complex language issues.
What does this imply for governance? The local administration must be well versed in the local language so there’s a bridge between people and those administering. It means all languages need the opportunity to flourish through state encouragement, and promoting regional language speakers into administration.This must be balanced with the reality of contemporary times — increasingly, English has become the language of choice for international business. This is because of history and the economic power that resides in AngloSaxon countries. English is the world’s third most-spoken language with 335 mn primary speakers in 99 countries. Chinese is the most spoken with 1,197 mn speakers in 33 countries, followed by Spanish by
414 mn in 31 countries.But English is now the second language for 505 mn more people, apart from the 335 mn primary speakers. The IT revolution has boosted the status of English. A reported 45% of web-pages are in English. Finnish telecom major Nokia and German softwarecompany SAP use English as official language. English learning is seen as a way of moving up. A British Council study estimates that by 2020, 2 billion people will study English. Even in China, with a highly-developed language, more people are studying English than in any country, and 100,000 native English speakers are teaching there.
While some solution will be found for CSAT, more important is to improve language teaching in schools.