Daily News Compilation (HINDU) for 16th April

No country for whistle-blowers

The author wants to point out the lack of whistle blowers' protection regime in India.

Mr Dinesh Thakur acted as a whistleblower and brought out the fraudulent practices at Ranbaxy and as a result:

1. Ranbaxy was fined $500 million

2. More inspectors being appointed by FDA for India and China

3. helped in identification of other problems in Indian companies

4. Steps like direct communication line between the US regulators and Indian regulators have been taken to strengthen the regulatory regime in case of Pharma companies.

This is ultimately good for Indian consumers and also for other countries like US where large part of generic drugs are from Indian companies.

All this could happen only because Dinesh Thakur was protected by a strong Whistleblowers' protection law of USA - False Claims Act.

Now compare this with what India does to its Whistleblowers.

>> Satyendra Dubey was killed for exposing financial irregularities in Golden Quadrilateral project in Bihar

>> Satish Shetty was fatally attacked for making a police complaint against irregularities in land purchases along Pune-Mumbai expressway

In 2010 Whistleblowers' Protection Bill was passed in Lok Sabha but the bill is still pending in Rajya Sabha. Apart from the delay in passage bill has also being criticized for the following:

1. It does not regulates Private sector and State governments.
2. it has critical flaws, such as not admitting anonymous complaints and insufficiently penalising officials who retaliate against whistle-blowers.

Presence of such a law is needed because:
1. it would put pressure on companies to follow ethical practices and to follow the laws properly
2. to prevent incidents of retaliation against whistle blowers
3. it can act as an additional source of revenue for the government from the penalties imposed

Interesting features of FCA act :
Under the FCA, a private person such as Mr. Thakur can sue a company on behalf of the federal government in what is called a qui tam suit. If the federal government collects a settlement or court judgment because of the information provided by the qui tam plaintiff, the government is required to pay a portion of the recovery to the plaintiff. An integral component of the FCA gives legal protection to whistle-blowers from retaliation by companies that cheat the government.

Reining in cancer

Grim statistics present the deadly reality of the spread of cancer in India:

• one million new cases of different cancers are diagnosed every year in the country; 
• an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 people were killed in 2012. 
• The fact that tobacco was singularly responsible for nearly 40 per cent of all cancers is also painfully underlined again. 
• A few papers published recently in the journal Lancet Oncology point out that men were the most affected by tobacco, with the commonest cancers being those of the lung and of the lip and oral cavity. 
• Tobacco companies continue to have a stranglehold over nearly 275 million tobacco-users in India — 35 per cent of the adult population and about 14 per cent of children in the age range 13 to 15. 

All this reflects the miserable failure of the government in implementing tough and effective measures to counter the tobacco companies’ devious ways of attracting and trapping young minds. Though it would take 10 to 20 years for the benefits to show, half the battle against cancer would be won if only tobacco consumption can be reined in.
In the case of women, breast cancer is the most common, followed by cervical cancer. Changed lifestyle is one of the reasons for the increase in breast cancer incidence — the incidence of this cancer type in rural areas is one-third of the total in urban areas, and the big metros have higher numbers than non-metro cities. India’s cancer burden is projected to increase to 1.7 million by 2035. Mortality will double to 1.2 million a year by 2035.

There is a need to take remedial steps, and quickly too.

• More cancer registries are needed to cover a greater percentage of the population. Those in place today cover less than 10 per cent of India’s population. However, each registry has good incidence data as it has its own methods of capturing them. But cancer mortality data are at best sketchy and not quite reliable. 

The three pillars of reducing the mortality are

>>prevention,
>>early detection and
>>more effective treatment.
Concerted efforts with respect to the first two have been found wanting, and there are several challenges even in providing effective treatment. With only one cancer specialist for every 5,000 new cases, the total number of oncologists in India is frighteningly low in proportion to the increasing population of cancer victims.

The availability of doctors and facilities is skewed — the urban areas are better served than rural areas. There is also an imbalance in the distribution of cancer facilities and doctors: the south and the west of the country have about 60 per cent of the facilities.

Legal recognition for transgenders

In a significant step, the Supreme Court on Tuesday recognised the transgender community as a third gender along with male and female.
A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri, in separate but concurrent judgments, said “eunuchs, apart from the binary gender, be treated as a “third gender” for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under our Constitution and the laws made by Parliament and the State Legislature.” The ruling came on a petition filed by the National Legal Services Authority.
The Bench directed the Centre and States to take steps to treat them as socially and educationally backward classes and extend reservation for admission in educational institutions and for public appointments.
The Bench said “recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue. Transgenders are also citizens of India. The spirit of the Constitution is to provide equal opportunity to every citizen to grow and attain their potential, irrespective of caste, religion or gender.”
By virtue of this verdict, all identity documents, including a birth certificate, passport, ration card and driving licence would recognise the third gender.
The Bench said gender identification is essential. It is only with this recognition that many rights such as the right to vote, own property and marry will be meaningful.

Mayaram is new Finance Secretary

Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram has been designated as the new Finance Secretary.

“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved that Mayaram may be designated as the Finance Secretary,” official sources said.
Dr. Mayaram, a 1978 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, has been holding charge as the Economic Affairs Secretary since 2012, and will continue to look after the Department of Economic Affairs.
The post of Finance Secretary was lying vacant after Sumit Bose retired on March 31

Inflation pressures continue to remain elevated

Growing at the fastest pace since December, wholesale price inflation hit 5.7 per cent in March. All major categories - food, fuel, and manufactured goods - showed accelerated price growth, according to the official data released here, indicating that inflation pressures in the economy continue to remain elevated.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement here that this rise in WPI inflation had to be attributed to supply side constraints in the agricultural side since demand in the economy was weak — as is evident from all indicators of growth. The statement released listed the steps that the government must take to control food inflation:

>> supply side initiatives to raise agriculture productivity,

>> augmenting investment in agri-infrastructure

>> improving supply side management,

>> delisting perishables from Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee,

>> encouraging foreign direct investment in retail which would boost agriculture production, and the like.

India to suggest renaming of Internet as ‘Equinet’

In a major diplomatic initiative, India is all set to challenge the U.S.’ hegemony of the World Wide Web at a global meet on Internet governance in Sao Paulo (Brazil) next week. India has decided to propose renaming of Internet as ‘Equinet’ so that all nations can have equal say in its operations, besides calling for “internationalisation” of core Internet resources.

Starting April 23, the two-day, ‘Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Governance’, also referred to as ‘NETmundial’, will see representatives from nearly 180 nations debating the future of Internet governance and cyber security. India has decided to take this opportunity to highlight U.S. dominance of the Internet and press for equal rights and say for all nations on matters related to Internet governance and cyber security.

India is likely to side with Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and Iran to make its point. In fact, it was Brazil which took the lead in organising this conference parallel to the U.S.-dominated Internet Governance Forum (IGF) following reports of U.S. agencies spying on top Brazil government officials, including President Dilma Rousseff’s office, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower.

India-born poet wins Pulitzer

India-born poet Vijay Seshadri has won the prestigious 2014 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for his collection of poems "3 Sections."

Most climate models show El Nino’s return, says U.N. body

A majority of weather forecasting models indicate that an El Nino weather phenomenon may develop around the middle of the year, but it is too early to assess its likely strength, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

El Ni?o, characterised by unusually warm surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, has a significant impact on climate in many parts of the world and a warming influence on global temperatures, the meteorological organisation said.

“Model forecasts indicate a fairly large potential for an El Nino, most likely by the end of the second quarter of 2014,” the WMO said.

The WMO statement follows predictions by several national forecasters, including the U.S., Japanese and Australian weather bureaus, that an El Nino event was likely within months.

“For the June to August period, approximately two-thirds of the models surveyed predict that El Nino thresholds will be reached, while the remaining models predict a continuation of neutral conditions. A few models predict an earlier El Nino onset, such as in May.”

The WMO said none of the climate models surveyed suggested there would be a La Nina event — the opposite of El Ni?o, which is associated with cooling — in 2014.
What it can do

El Nino conditions could affect commodity prices and are likely to be blamed for extreme weather events. The worst El Nino on record in 1997-98 was blamed for massive flooding along China’s Yangtze river that killed more than 1,500 people.