Apply for Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship,

Applications are invited for the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship. Launched in September 2014, the scheme aims at building long-term capacity to address climate change-related issues in India and the US.

The doctoral research fellowships under this scheme are designed for Indian scholars who are registered for a PhD at an Indian institution. These fellowships are for six to nine months.

The postdoctoral research fellowships are designed for Indian faculty and researchers who are in the early stages of their research careers in India. Postdoctoral fellows will have access to some of the finest resources in their areas of interest and will help build long-term collaborative relationships with US faculty and institutions. Their duration is for eight to 12 months.

The selected candidate will have affiliation with one US host institution during the grant. All applicants must identify institutions for affiliation and correspond in advance with potential host institutions.

Applicants must have conducted adequate research in the relevant field, especially in the identification of resources in India and the US. They must be registered for a PhD at an Indian institution at least one year prior to August 1, 2016.

For the postdoctoral fellowships, applicants should have been awarded a PhD degree within the past four years. Application deadline for 2017-2018 awards is July 15, 2016.

The programme begins in August-September 2017. The United States-India Educational Foundation administers the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship on behalf of both the governments.

Source: Hindustan Times, 23-3-2016

The Buddha In Me, The Buddha In You

David Hare





Everyone's a Buddha ­ that includes you, your best mate, your lover, your beautiful kids, your gorgeous grandma and your favourite teacher from school. But you knew that already , right?
The thing is, it also includes the colleague who b****es about you, the friend who betrayed you, the lover who stopped loving you, the driver who cut you up at a roundabout, the father who judged you, the boss who sacked you, and that snotty little kid down the road who you feel like strangling sometimes! Although this may be hard to believe, Nichiren was adamant that everyone has Buddha-potential, explaining that fire can be produced by a stone taken from the bottom of a river, and that a candle can light up a place that has been dark for billions of years.Of course, the qualities of Buddhahood ­ wisdom, courage, joy , life force and compassion ­ are more manifest in some people than others, but the big and bold claim of the Lotus Sutra was that everyone has Buddhahood somewhere deep inside, in a latent state waiting to be tapped.
In the 13th century Japan into which Nichiren was born, this spirit of equality had long since disappeared, with priests acting as intermediaries between ordinary people and the `divine'. There is no better example of this than the belief, vehemently opposed by Nichiren, but taught in preLotus Sutra teachings, that women were unable to attain enlightenment and deserved no better treatment than animals ... He writes that the only way to repay the debt one owes one's mother is to follow the Lotus Sutra because all the other sutras `speak disparagingly of women'.
This is not a `pick and mix' religion ­ the challenge is that the teaching of everyone having Buddhahood, like the principle of cause and effect, is all or nothing. It's either true or it isn't, this Buddha in me, this Buddha in you.Nichiren Buddhism is not one of those religions where you can `pick and mix' the bits you agree with ­ tempting as that may sometimes be ­ because they're all ultimately inseparable, they're intertwined and, i believe, watertight.
To get back to the main point i want to emphasise: everyone's Buddha.
Everyone's life can be more magnificent right here, right now, in the midst of daily reality. This was a revolutio nary teaching in feudalistic 13th century Japan and still ruffles a few feathers now.
I'm a Buddha, you're a Buddha ... and so what? Well, to me this is a message of great hope. It means that you and everyone else can become indestructibly happy , that we have enormous untapped potential, that we are capable of progress even in the most difficult of circumstances, often in ways that we never imagined. Again, so what? Don't all the modern personal development books say the same thing? Yes, they do. But 750 years ago, Nichiren took it a step further. If everyone's a Buddha, it means that you and everyone else are worthy of respect, so it's more inclusive than a self-help philosophy . It's also more democratic than any political system ever will be. If everyone's a Buddha, it means that we can overcome the differences that separate us; it means, in short, that the destiny of the human race is completely and totally in our hearts and our hands. The fundamental spirit of Buddhism is that all people are equal. A person is not great simply because of his social standing, fame, academic background or position.(Abridged from The Buddha In Me, The Buddha In You: A Handbook For Happiness, Rider, Penguin Random House.)

Dear Reader



WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY HOLI




TISS GUWAHATI CAMPUS LIBRARY

March 22: World Water Day

Every year World Water Day (WWD) is observed globally on 22 March to preserve and ration consumption of water. Significance of the Day: WWD is observed to make a difference for the members of the global population who suffer from water related issues. It marks a day to prepare for how we manage water in the future. 2016 Theme: “Better Water, Better Jobs”. It focuses on the central role that water plays in creating and supporting good quality jobs. Almost half of the world’s workers (nearly 1.5 billion) people work in water related sectors and nearly all jobs depend on water and those that ensure its safe delivery. Background WWD was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Later, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) accepted the recommendation of UNCED and celebrated first World Water Day on 22 March 1993. Since then this day is observed annually to draw attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of fresh water resources. 2015 theme of WWD was ‘Water and Sustainable Development’.

India’s water crisis is set to worsen

In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a touchstone of dystopian literature, men will visit violence upon each other for the sake of water to drink. The future, unfortunately, is now in Latur in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region where the collector has invoked Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code relating to unlawful assembly. His order prohibits more than five people from gathering near 20 water storage tanks until 31 May in order to prevent possible violence over water scarcity in the drought-hit area. This has been some time coming. Last year, the city’s residents were supplied municipal water once in 15 days; this was later lowered to once a month.

In Punjab, meanwhile, the state Assembly has defied the Supreme Court to resolve that the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) will not be built. With the Punjab Sutlej-Yamuna Link Land (Return of Property Rights) Bill, 2016, it has decided to deny Haryana its allotted share of the waters of the Ravi and Beas rivers, reneging on a 1976 deal. The consequence: half of the state receiving canal water for eight days after every 32 days, with the state’s southern regions particularly hard-hit.

The specifics are different in both cases. But there are two common inefficiencies that reflect upon India’s burgeoning water crisis—political and agricultural, the latter deriving in large part from the former.

Maharashtra’s sugar belt— which includes Marathwada— declared record production of the crop in 2014-15, a year in which it also faced a second drought after 2012-13. The problem: sugarcane is a water-guzzling crop, consuming over 70% of irrigated water, although it occupies just about 4% of farmed land in the state. That discrepancy hasn’t stopped successive state governments from bailing out the sugar industry time and again with subsidies and loan waivers, short-circuiting market dynamics and incentivizing sugarcane production. This must be seen in the context of the sugar lobby’s political influence and the involvement of a number of state politicians in the industry.

The SYL presents a different kind of opportunism. The issue, framed in populist terms, has been used as a political football since the days of the Khalistan movement. That legacy has shaped the terms of the debate, particularly in light of Punjab’s crop patterns; water-intensive rice crops cover over 60% of the state’s area under cultivation. That makes it easy to portray any inclination to honour the SYL agreement as being antifarmer, the kiss of death in Punjab’s politics.

Marathwada and the SYL are a microcosm of the water disputes that speckle the Indian map. And they are going to grow more intractable. Over the past 50 years, per capita availability of fresh water in India has declined from 3,000 cubic metres to a little over a thousand cubic metres; the global average is 6,000 cubic metres. Underlying this, both cause and effect, is escalating groundwater scarcity.

Of the country’s two sources of fresh water—surface water and groundwater—the latter accounts for some 55%. It also accounts for about 60% of irrigation needs, which take up 80% of India’s total water usage. That skewed pattern is in direct and growing conflict with growing urbanization levels, given that urban water demand per capita daily is thrice as high as rural demand. With India’s urban population expected to hit 50% of the total population by 2050, according to UN figures, that is an untenable situation.

As Marathwada and SYL show, the problem ties into a political ecosystem that is entangled in calculations of patronage and electoral viability. Massive agricultural subsidies, a mainstay of every administration, have incentivized indiscriminate water usage and inefficient cultivation patterns—a problem the Economic Survey 2015-16, presented last month, recognized when it said that the system “encourages using more inputs such as fertiliser, water and power, to the detriment of soil quality, health and the environment”. The result, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration: India’s water tables are dropping at the rate of 0.3 metre a year. That sets up a vicious cycle, increasing the importance and political value of surface water, making those disputes more difficult in turn, thus boosting dependence on—and depletion of—groundwater. And unpredictable monsoon adds to the mix; according to the Central Water Commission’s latest numbers, water levels in India’s most important reservoirs now stand at a mere 29% of total capacity.

South Asia is a severely water insecure region. Climate change, according to multiple studies, will hit Asia’s coastal regions among the hardest; large parts of India are already highly stressed. Today happens to be World Water Day. It’s an apt time to consider the policies that are hastening the process.

Source: Mint epaper, 22-03-2016

India’s Agasthyamala among 20 UNESCO world biosphere reserves

India has been campaigning for the inclusion of the reserve in the network for the past few years.

The sustained campaign to include the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve (ABR) in UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves (BR) has eventually paid off.

The Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve was included at the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere programme of UNESCO that concluded in Peru on March 19.

The ABR covers the Shendurney and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries and parts of the Neyyar sanctuary in Kerala and the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu.

India has been campaigning for the inclusion of the reserve in the network for the past few years.

10 make it to the list

The Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve was the only site considered from the country by the International Advisory Committee for Biosphere Reserves during the Paris session held last year. That time, the ABR was listed in the category of “nominations recommended for approval, pending the submission of specific information.”

With the addition of the ABR, 10 of the 18 biosphere reserves in the country have made it to the list.

The others are Nilgiri, Gulf of Mannar, Sunderban, Nanda Devi, Nokrek, Pachmarh, Similipal, Achanakmar-Amarkantak and Great Nicobar.

The BRs are designated for inclusion in the network by the International Coordinating Council after evaluating the nominations forwarded by the State through National MAB Committees.

Scientific expertise

The ABR would benefit from the shared scientific expertise of all the other members of the world network. The State is expected to work for the conservation of nature at the reserve while it fosters the sustainable development of its population, said a UNESCO official.

The ABR is situated at the southern-most end of the Western Ghats and spread over Kerala and Tamil Nadu and covers an area of 3,500 sq km at an altitude ranging from 100 metres to 1,868 metres above the Mean Sea Level.

Hotspot

The area falls in the Malabar rainforests and is one of the noted hotspot areas because of its position in the Western Ghats, according to the management plan of the reserve. It is estimated that more than 2,250 species of dicotyledonous plants are in the area and 29 are endemic to the region. Many plants are considered endangered too.

Researchers have noted that about 400 Red Listed Plants have been recorded from ABR. About 125 species of orchids and rare, endemic and threatened plants have been recorded from the reserve.

There are 669 biosphere reserves in as many as 120 countries.

Keywords: UNESCO, world biosphere reserves, Agasthyamala

Source: The Hindu, 22-03-2016

Standing up to patent bullying

The Modi government must stop engaging U.S. bureaucrats as patent consultants and instead showcase the Indian patent statute as an exemplar for a balanced regime

Earlier this month, the media reported that India “privately” assured the United States that it will not issue any more compulsory licenses. This report was reminiscent of a theory propounded by psychologist Lenore E. Walker in 1979 on abusive patterns in relationships.

Four stages of abuse

Walker studied abuse in family situations and outlined an important model detailing four stages of abuse. Had the U.S. and India been human beings, this would have been a classic case of household abuse. The first stage documented by Dr. Walker is tension-building where there is strain in the relationship and one partner tries to dominate the situation. Indeed, the U.S. has successfully dominated the discussions simply by citing India every single year, most often unfairly, to take control of the situation. For years, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has pounded India using the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), an administrative body, as its chosen mechanism to repeatedly criticise India and unfairly escalate issues on a yearly basis. The preaching from the PhRMA filtered through the USTR’s pressure tactic has been in complete disregard of the impact on India’s sovereignty and public health. The issuance of notices by USTR for submissions by industry followed by the dramatisation to convene public hearings expecting sovereign nations to justify their positions to the U.S. administrative body are all acts leading towards escalation of tensions. In fact, the USTR process is a documented attempt to dominate and direct other countries’ trade postures. The process allows the U.S. to unilaterally exert pressure indirectly to amend laws or cease fair implementation of local laws although the U.S. has agreed to multilaterally resolve all disputes. Importantly, the legality of such unilateral Special 301 process of the USTR is, at best, shaky under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) jurisprudence. Yet, it allows the U.S. to cite the USTR’s Special 301 process to take control of the dialogue — this forms Dr. Walker’s second stage of the abusive cycle (the incident itself).

The announcement from India, though, landed the country into the third stage. Dr. Walker terms this as the honeymoon stage wherein the abused feels confused and may mistakenly feel responsible. India is in classic third stage, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempting to pacify President Barack Obama by instituting a committee to create a National Intellectual Property Rights policy long after the statutes were amended to become compliant with the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Now, the “private” announcement to not implement an important flexibility — compulsory license — established as a safeguard to protect public health firmly posits India into the end of the third stage of abuse. The fourth stage, according to Dr. Walker, is a phase of relative calm and peace, which we hope India will enjoy.

If there is a cautionary note here, it is that reconciliation never ends the cycle of abuse. Assuredly, neither PhRMA nor the USTR will relent or retract from this pattern until India economically harms itself by instituting TRIPS and other measures leaving the Indian generic industry on a suicidal path. After all, abuse is a pattern of control that one party exercises over the other to force actions or inactions that cause some form of harm to the abused.

Compulsory license

Meanwhile, the Modi government needs to appreciate that compulsory license is an important flexibility that countries negotiated as part of their membership with the WTO. India has one of the most sophisticated compulsory licensing provisions which is fully compliant with the TRIPS agreement. Under the Indian law, compulsory licenses can be granted on several grounds including satisfying the reasonable requirements of the public with respect to the patented invention, ensuring availability to the public at reasonable price, meeting the demand for the patented product, and tackling national public health emergencies. The step India took when it compulsorily licensed the Bayer drug, Nexavar, which was originally priced approximately at $4,700 per month and beyond the reach of even the top 20 per cent of Indians, was bold. It showcased India’s confidence that its patent statute has been carefully engineered to accommodate India’s national objectives within the scope of the flexibilities accorded under the TRIPS agreement.

Patenting, a concern in the U.S.

Further, the Modi government will do well to appreciate that even in the U.S., patenting and its effect on unrealistic drug pricing has become a major concern. For example, in 2015, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and senior committee member Chuck Grassley sought public comments on the high price of Sovaldi, a Gilead drug, and its impact on the U.S. health care system. In 2016, several Democratic members of the House reportedly urged government agencies to consider diluting or diminishing the exclusive rights of drug companies. Recently, a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 77 per cent of the American public picked the increasing prices of drugs for HIV, hepatitis, mental illness and cancer as their foremost health concern. Given such realities, India needs to confidently showcase how it handled Bayer’s unrealistically high pricing of Nexavar using Section 84 of the patent statute (compulsory licenses).

Importantly, compulsory licensing forms a part of a larger package of flexibilities that India negotiated with the support of other G-77 and African countries in the Doha Development Round. These are valuable concessions that India cannot afford to forget or renege from. The burden is on this government to ensure that its work is not seen as resulting in losing the ground that previous governments had gained on the subject. In any event, it is best for the Modi government to stop engaging U.S. bureaucrats as patent consultants and instead showcase the Indian patent statute as an exemplar for a balanced patent regime to the rest of the developing world.

(Srividhya Ragavan is Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law.)

Keywords: pharma sector, intellectual property, TRIPS agreement, WTO

Source: The Hindu, 22-03-2016