2015 March - Interesting Articles & Links

* On 5G Telephony - http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21646962-5g-mobile-wireless-will-be-faster-fibre-your-phone-steroids

* Nagoro - a Japanese village where life-size dolls outnumber people! - http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/143300/fritz-schumann/valley-of-the-dolls

* DOS - Denial of Service attacks on the internet -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/03/economist-explains-25

* Solar on your roof - 101 - http://www.livemint.com/Money/RBdquY1XECHfxeCD5XnfTP/What-you-should-know-before-going-solar.html

* Photography - Karen Knorr - India Song -- http://karenknorr.com/photography/india-song/

* Mes Aynak - an ancient Afghan city being lost to Chinese copper mines ? -- http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/31/mes-aynak-afghanistan-buddhist-treasure

* Iceland - the world's greatest genetic lab -- http://www.wired.com/2015/03/iceland-worlds-greatest-genetic-laboratory/

* Meet Cyanogen -- the Android Killer -- http://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2015/03/23/meet-cyanogen-the-startup-that-wants-to-steal-android-from-google-2/

* Discarded medical devices flood Indian markets -- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/First-worlds-discarded-medical-devices-flood-Indian-markets/articleshow/46696235.cms

* MRI Scans of Vegetables - http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/mri-scans-produce-are-completely-amazing

* Best Headphones -- http://time.com/74886/best-headphones/

* Salil Tripathi on LKY and Singapore - http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/tJmgofWYWCJmdQYzaNbAtO/Lee-kuan-yews-Singapore.html
* LKY's Singapore - lessons India did not learn -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/rahul-jacob-what-china-learned-from-lee-kuan-yew-115032501154_1.html

* On development aid in Nepal -- http://data.parliament.uk/WrittenEvidence/CommitteeEvidence.svc/EvidenceDocument/International%20Development/DFIDs%20work%20in%20Nepal/written/18612.html

* Saudi's and the Swedish minister - http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9481542/swedens-feminist-foreign-minister-has-dared-to-tell-the-truth-about-saudi-arabia-what-happens-now-concerns-us-all/

* Wishes for desi's you hate -- http://www.buzzfeed.com/imaansheikh/wishing-you-biryani-without-boti

* Getting rid of Bunions -- http://naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/how-to-get-rid-of-bunions-with-this-simple-and-powerful-remedy/

* How to Write -- http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/ZPmaHVnmMNiqhAsHCxz8fP/How-to-write.html?utm_source=copy
* Use of Good Words -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/03/johnson-writing-style?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fbl%2Fed%2Fusegoodwords


* (26Mar15, Hindu) - Corruption in governance breeds antibiotic resistance - http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/corruption-in-governance-breeds-antibiotic-resistance/article7032499.ece
* (26Mar15 ToI) - China agrees to supply more Japanese Encephalitis shots - http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-27/news/60553555_1_japanese-encephalitis-je-vaccine-china

* On foreigners in Japan -- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/03/23/voices/spare-thought-western-men-trapped-japan/

* Italian cheese made by Sikhs -- http://scroll.in/article/710676/Video:-The-Sikhs-who-make-Italy's-famous-Grana-Padano-cheese

* When India ate Beef -- http://www.rediff.com/news/column/when-hindus-ate-beef-india-was-never-conquered/20150324.htm

* Tharoor on Indian Railways -- http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-railway-budget-by-shashi-tharoor-2015-03

* Photography - Nikon35mm
- http://petapixel.com/2013/05/16/the-top-8-reasons-why-im-a-big-believer-in-35mm-lens-photography/
- http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35f14ais.htm
- http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/10-best.htm
- http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/dx-dream-team.htm
- The best 35mm for DX - http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/dx-dream-team.htm


* Japan's policemen with big sticks - http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/20/reference/police-who-stand-with-big-sticks

* 10 Indian poets -- http://scroll.in/article/715138/Video:-On-World-Poetry-Day,-listen-to-the-works-of-ten-Indian-poets

* LinkedIn - What kind of pain can i solve? -- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-switch-careers-without-starting-over-liz-ryan?trk=hp-feed-article-title

* WSJ - India's fight against Big Pharma is a Just War -- http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/03/19/inside-india-indias-fight-against-big-pharma-patents-is-a-just-war/
. Last week, GoI withdrew patent protection for an emphysema drug marketed by Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH
. The country’s pharmaceutical sector was expected to grow to at least $48.8 billion in sales by 2020 from $11 billion in 2012
. India’s law sets a higher bar for protection than in some other countries, limiting the ability of companies to get patents for new versions of drugs whose active ingredients were previously known unless they can show significant therapeutic benefit.
. In 2006, India’s patent office refused to give Novartis AG a patent for Gleevec, an extremely effective drug for a rare cancer.
. In 2012, India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board revoked a Roche Holding AG patent for a hepatitis C drug saying technology involved in the drug’s invention was “obvious” and could be replicated easily.
. In January, India’s patent office rejected a patent application from the U.S. biotech firm Gilead Sciences Inc. for a hepatitis C treatment, saying it lacked novelty and didn’t show significant efficacy over previously known compounds.
. The collective effect of a low bar for patents drives up healthcare costs and insurance premiums for patients.

* Ram, Vidya (19Mar2015): An answer to Fund-Bank domination - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/vidya-ram/an-answer-to-fundbank-domination/article7007864.ece

* Kanjilal, Prateek (19Mar15): Borrowing from Nature - http://www.financialexpress.com/article/fe-columnist/borrowing-from-nature/55093/

* A reality-check from @RahulJacob -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/rahul-jacob-make-believe-in-india-115031801145_1.html @MakeInIndia #Manufacturing


* Horizontal Gene Transfer - http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21646197-human-beings-ancestors-have-routinely-stolen-genes-other-species-genetically
- Many of the matches are to genes of unknown purpose—for it is still the case, more than a decade after the end of the human genome project, that the jobs of many genes remain obscure. But some human transgenes are surprisingly familiar. The ABO antigen system, which defines basic blood groups for transfusion purposes, looks bacterial. The fat-mass and obesity-associated gene, the effect of which is encapsulated in its rather long-winded name, seems to come from marine algae. And a group of genes involved in the synthesis of hyaluronic acid originates from fungi. Hyaluronic acid is a chemical that is an important part of the glue which holds cells together. (It is also a frequent ingredient of skin creams.)

* 13 ways to eat Maggi noodles -- http://www.buzzfeed.com/niralishah/maggi-maggi-maggi

* Shyam - Elephant Trails , Tvm -- https://shyamgopan.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/the-elephants-i-never-saw/

* Churpi -- Yak cheese as dog snack in G8 -- https://news.yahoo.com/traditional-nepal-cheese-hit-overseas-dog-snack-072951741.html

* Top 15 websites for free images download -- http://www.jeffbullas.com/2015/03/17/15-top-websites-to-find-free-images-for-your-content-marketing/

* BBC's Hypocrisy -- http://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/merchants-of-black-imagery/article1-1327094.aspx
. we need to break free from the vicious grip of the merchants of the black imagery who earn their fortunes by marketing globally some of our weakest chinks.


* Mighty Mites -- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/02/mites/dunn-text

* Paul Kalanithi in WP - Before I Go: A Stanford neurosurgeon’s parting wisdom about life and time --  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/03/12/before-i-go-a-stanford-neurosurgeons-parting-wisdom-about-life-and-time/
- "Everyone succumbs to finitude.... The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described, hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed."

* WSJ - Smart-enough Watches -- http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-a-just-smart-enough-watch-is-better-than-an-apple-watch-1426181071

* What ails Indian Science (2014, R Prasad) -- http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/what-ails-indian-science/article5863637.ece
- in the case of the U.S., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are outside the government bureaucracy.
- the malaise of promotion based on years of service, and not by achievement

* Origin of expressions -- http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/14-expressions-with-crazy-origins-that-you-would-never-have-guessed/

* Bangladesh vs. MNCs - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-08/-10-copy-of-gilead-s-blockbuster-sovaldi-appears-in-bangladesh

* Cricket - sledging -- http://www.scoopwhoop.com/sports/cricket-sledging/

* Salil Tripathi -- An Argument Without Beef -- http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/Nv56zpiYyDRgiD8fgbnmOL/An-argument-without-beef.html

* WSJ - 11Mar15 - Four Years After Tohoku -- http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/03/11/photos-four-years-after-the-tohoku-disaster/#slide/1

* NYT -- http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-doctors-give-in-on-vaccines?

* FT - India Healthcare -- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0b916fde-c64a-11e4-9bf4-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3TyylVhOd

* Cabron's prob -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosing_spondylitis

* On Virgil's quote on 9/11 memorial -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/opinion/07alexander.html?_r=0

* Science as art - http://www.nature.com/news/science-as-art-wellcome-image-awards-2015-1.17118

* Why are only white people called expats? -- http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/mar/13/white-people-expats-immigrants-migration

* Its never too late to start a venture -- http://digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/never-too-late-start-venture

* Words -- http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/bob-ombinate?bftw&bffb&utm_term=4ldqpgy#.rpNqOABvBg

* Is most of our DNA garbage? -- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/magazine/is-most-of-our-dna-garbage.html
- Genomes are like biological books, written in genetic letters known as bases; the human genome contains about 3.2 billion bases.
- the onion’s genome was five times bigger --
- why do the broad-footed salamander (65.5 billion bases), the African lungfish (132 billion) and the Paris japonica flower (149 billion)?
- The human genome contains around 20,000 genes, that is, the stretches of DNA that encode proteins. But these genes account for only about 1.2 percent of the total genome. The other 98.8 percent is known as noncoding DNA.
- 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson published a short paper in the journal Nature setting out the double-helix structure of DNA.
- In 1964, the German biologist Friedrich Vogel did a rough calculation of how many genes a typical human must carry --  6.7 million
- 2001 - The Human Genome Project team declared that our DNA consisted of isolated oases of protein-coding genes surrounded by “vast expanses of unpopulated desert where only noncoding ‘junk’ DNA can be found.”
- John Rinn @Harvard -  studies RNA, but not the RNA that our cells use as a template for making proteins -- studies an RNA molecule (hotair) that, somewhat bizarrely, was produced widely by skin cells below the waist but not above.
- Rinn’s research revealed that hotair acts as a kind of guide for Polycomb, attaching to it and escorting it through the jungle of the cell to the precise spots on our DNA where it needs to silence genes.

* History in perspective - a great piece by @DalrympleWill on the supreme act of corporate violence in world history http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders
- - on 28 August 1608, William Hawkins had landed at Surat, the first commander of a company vessel to set foot on Indian soil.
- Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador sent by James I to the Mughal court, is shown appearing before the Emperor Jahangir in 1614
- 1739, when Clive was only 14 years old, the Mughals still ruled a vast empire that stretched from Kabul to Madras. But in that year, the Persian adventurer Nadir Shah descended the Khyber Pass with 150,000 of his cavalry and defeated a Mughal army of 1.5 million men.
- Three months later, Nadir Shah returned to Persia carrying the pick of the treasures the Mughal empire had amassed in its 200 years of conquest: a caravan of riches that included Shah Jahan’s magnificent peacock throne, the Koh-i-Noor, the largest diamond in the world, as well as its “sister”, the Darya Nur, and “700 elephants, 4,000 camels and 12,000 horses carrying wagons all laden with gold, silver and precious stones”, worth an estimated £87.5m in the currency of the time.
- August 1765, when the young Mughal emperor Shah Alam, exiled from Delhi and defeated by East India Company troops, was forced into what we would now call an act of involuntary privatisation.
- Within a few years, 250 company clerks backed by the military force of 20,000 locally recruited Indian soldiers had become the effective rulers of Bengal.
- sing its rapidly growing security force – its army had grown to 260,000 men by 1803 – it swiftly subdued and seized an entire subcontinent.
- The first serious territorial conquests began in Bengal in 1756; 47 years later, the company’s reach extended as far north as the Mughal capital of Delhi, and almost all of India south of that city was by then effectively ruled from a boardroom in the City of London.
- In many ways the EIC was a model of corporate efficiency: 100 years into its history, it had only 35 permanent employees in its head office.
- After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, a victory that owed more to treachery, forged contracts, bankers and bribes than military prowess, he transferred to the EIC treasury no less than £2.5m seized from the defeated rulers of Bengal – in today’s currency, around £23m for Clive and £250m for the company.
- Clive... committed suicide in 1774 by slitting his own throat with a paperknife
- By 1803, when the EIC captured the Mughal capital of Delhi, it had trained up a private security force of around 260,000- twice the size of the British army – and marshalled more firepower than any nation state in Asia.


* Fall of the Ottomans -- http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/01/fall-of-the-ottomans-eugene-rogan-review

* INDIA's DAUGHTER - (5Mar15) - Salil Tripathy -- why it should be seen in India -- http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/34Ls4cgDsZaDbEH8TdLBmN/Why-Indias-Daughter-should-be-seen-in-India.html
- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-article-rape-rhetoric-and-reality/article6705077.ece


* USA - dollar spending on diseases -- http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/03/03/the-diseases-we-spend-our-health-dollars-on/

* A scientist and an artist -- http://www.frontline.in/arts-and-culture/scientist-as-an-artist/article6954702.ece?homepage=true

* Nikon camera with a 83X zoom! -- http://www.wired.com/2015/03/nikons-new-point-shoot-absurdly-long-zoom-range/

* #Genes that adapt and remember -- an excellent book review -- http://www.wired.com/2015/03/fat-sick-blame-grandparents-bad-habits/ #Epigenetics #Methylation

* Economic Survey 2015 -- file:///C:/Users/Dinakar/Desktop/EconSurvey-2015-vol1.pdf
- Subsidies to the poor (pp23) -- Rs.377,000 Cr (4.2% of 2011 GDP)
- Agri - area, production (pp 78-79) -- Foodgrains - 126mHa; 265 mT-- Oilseeds 28mHa; 33 mT-- Pulses 25 mHa; 19mT
- Agri extension -- 59% of farmers have no access to govt research & extension (NSSO data)
- GM crops - rethinking needed (pp80)

* BCG-CII Report on the Indian IT Sector (2013) - http://cii.in/WebCMS/Upload/BCG%20CII%20report%20on%20Domestic%20IT%20-%20March%202013%28final%29.pdf

* Regulating Genome-Edited Crops (not-yet GMOs) -- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150225132251.htm

* China Cement production -- http://www.igsnrr.cas.cn/xwzx/jxlwtj/201405/P020140522355603140914.pdf
- From less than 50 mT (1978) to over 2000 mT now.... India is no.2 at 360 mT

* Budget 2015 -- Speech
- India's Annual Budget INR 17,774,770,000,000 to USD = 287,129,901,878 US Dollar  (17 Lakh Crores = $ 287 Billion)
- Rs. 1 Lakh Cr = US$. 16 Billion

* 1995, Newsweek -- A prediction that went haywire -- http://www.newsweek.com/clifford-stoll-why-web-wont-be-nirvana-185306

* Labnol - Removing password protection from PDF files -- http://www.labnol.org/software/remove-pdf-password/20017/

* Indian shrines in SE China -- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/medieval-southeastern-china-neighbours-india-shrine-remote-village/1/421327.html
- traders from south India made Quanzhou and its surrounding areas their home during the reign of the Song (960-1279 AD) and Yuan (1279-1368 AD) dynasties when Quanzhou was the busiest port in the world.

The Power of QA

How far will you go to buy a quality product?

According to the Economist, Chinese tourists are flying in droves to markets in Tokyo to purchase... toilet seats!

On the face of it this may seem a trivial or even whimsical thing to buy. But to those who have used to this piece of working art, it is difficult to see the regular plastic and ceramic contraptions as anything but retrograde.

However the point of interest is not the art or electronics but the fact that many of the seats the Chinese buy from Akihabara and carry back home, actually carry the label "Made in China".

Aparently, many Chinese consumers do not trust the reliability of such items sold at home—and refuse to pay the often higher prices charged for export-standard goods. Prime minister, Li Keqiang, has told Chinese firms to raise the quality of their own seats. “At least that could save consumers the price of a plane ticket,” he said.

Saving plane tickets is besides the point. It took a Chinese reader to hit the nail in the head:

I bought many stuffs in Japan even it says Made In China, but nothing in China itself because I know if the Chinese want to sell their stuffs in Japan, they must go through the rigorous Japanese quality assurance procedure, whereas there is none in China.

How do companies, and countries, acquire a reputation for accepting and delivering nothing less than the highest possible quality?

The Japanese embraced the ideas of an American guru, Edward Deming, to pull itself out of the morass of exporting poor quality umbrella's, matchboxes and textiles.

In India it appears that many outward looking, export-oriented companies have grasped the importance of perception, and understood the power of QA. There are also exceptional organisations like Aravind Eye Care and Narayana Health/Hrudayalaya that have blended high quality with affordability and public access.

What will it take for this idea to seem through our government and the vast network of institutions it controls?

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LINKS:

* http://www.economist.com/news/china/21647299-rush-buy-japanese-toilet-seats-prompts-soul-searching-china-race-bottom

IPO - Like a Rock

In the early 1990's when I visited the Indian Patent Office (IPO) for the first time, it was as gloomy and depressing as any other dysfunctional sarkari office. Over the years, it certainly seems to have changed for the better.

Now, at a time when, "advanced industrialised countries are ratcheting up global standards for intellectual property protection with monotonous regularity, keeping in view the interests of the dominant corporate interests" (Biswajit Dhar, FE), our patent office has been standing its ground.

Section 3(d) of Patents Act ensures that rights cannot be obtained for minor innovations, and this is being implemented quite effectively -

• 2006 - India’s patent office refused to give Novartis AG a patent for Glivec (Imatinib), an extremely effective drug for a rare cancer - CML
• 2012 - India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board revoked a Roche Holding AG patent for a hepatitis C drug (Pegasys) saying technology involved in the drug’s invention was “obvious” and could be replicated easily.
• January 2015 - India’s patent office rejected a patent application from the U.S. biotech firm Gilead Sciences Inc. for a Hepatitis C treatment (Sovaldi) , saying it lacked novelty and didn’t show significant efficacy over previously known compounds.
• March, 2015 - IPO withdrew patent protection for an emphysema drug (Spiriva) marketed by Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, in response to an objection filed by Cipla.

What (or who) is the driving force behind this transformation of the Indian Patent Office?  What mechanisms do they have in place to ensure that Big Pharma do not get away with Evergreening? And, most importantly, what can the patent office do to improve our own abysmal record in encouraging innovations, and building innovative, world-class products?

Perhaps organisations like the Lawyers Collective had a strong role to play here.

------------------------------------------------
LINKS

* Key Medicines -  Patent Status in India -- http://www.lawyerscollective.org/drugs-list

* http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/gilead-india-patent-idINKBN0KN20V20150114

* India Patent Office -- http://www.ipindia.nic.in/

* (19Mar15) - WSJ - India's fight against Big Pharma is a Just War -- http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/03/19/inside-india-indias-fight-against-big-pharma-patents-is-a-just-war/

* Biswajit Dhar (2014): IPR policy must drive innovation -- http://www.macroscan.net/pdfs/ipr_policy.pdf

Yella's Discoveries

One of the simple pleasures of life is to find an Indian-sounding name in a piece of work that touches excellence. Quite often, I find myself waiting for the credits to roll at the end of a great movie, or flipping through the 'acknowledgements' section of a book, or a computer app, just to take delight at the number of such names that turn up.

Yesterday, I started on a book that had such a name right on the front-cover: Siddhartha Mukherjee's "The Emperor of All Maladies". It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 but, until now, I had put it away, assuming that it was a work of fiction that was somehow connected to Jumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies". Never have I been so wrong about titles!

The book actually combines three things that I would never tire of -- history, science and technology. It is a biography of a disease we all dread - Cancer.

Right at the beginning of the story, amid 20th century scientists of Europe and USA struggling to understand this strange disease, an Indian name pops up in the most unlikely place and time - Yellapragada Subbarow at Harvard Medical School, 1923. Yella was a product of Madras Medical College, but his degree was not recognized, so he started all over again at Harvard as a biochemist, supporting himself by working as a part-time janitor, cleaning halls and toilet-bowls.

Down the road, he went on to discover the role of phosphocreatine, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as an energy source in the cell, and developed methotrexate for the treatment of cancer. He discovered polymyxin widely used even today in cattle-feed and aureomycin (the first broad-spectrum antibiotic), and the first of tetracycline antibiotics. SubbaRow and his team of organic and biological chemists isolated folic acid from liver and a microbial source and then synthesized it in 1945. As Director of Research at Lederle, he  found in Hetrazan  (diethylcarbamazine (DEC), the cure for filariasis. The method for estimating phosphorous is called the Fiske-SubbaRow Method.

According to Banerjee, "Any one of these achievements should have been enough to guarantee him a professorship at Harvard. But Subbarow was a foreigner, a reclusive, nocturnal, heavily accented vegetarian who lived in a one-room apartment downtown, befriended only by other nocturnal recluses".

How is it that we never heard about him in our own school science textbooks?

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LINKS

• Mukherjee, Siddhartha (2011): EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES - A BIOGRAPHY OF CANCER, Scribner, 2011 -- url -- http://www.amazon.in/The-Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography/dp/1439170916 
• Indian Academy of Clinical Medicine -- http://medind.nic.in/jac/t01/i1/jact01i1p96.pdf
• Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_of_All_Maladies
• Yellapragada Subbarow (12 January 1895 – 9 August 1948) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellapragada_Subbarow
• Miracle Man of Miracle Drugs -- http://www.ysubbarow.info/ 

Merchants of Rosy Imagery

Joseph Goebbels would have been quite pleased with this illustration.

It shows a somewhat effeminate Shah Alam, one of the last Mughal emperors in an opulent court , handing over a scroll - the "Treaty of Allahabad" - to Robert Clive, representative of the East India Company (EIC), in 1765.

Under this treaty, Clive was appointed as the new governor of Bengal, Orissa and Bihar, with full rights to collect taxes as EIC pleased -- one of the earliest cases of a sovereign state subcontracting its own work to a multinational corporation (MNC).  It was also a legal fig-leaf to cover a plunder that had started a few years earlier, after the Battle of Plassey (1757).

According to William Darylmple, "The entire contents of the Bengal treasury were simply loaded into 100 boats and punted down the Ganges... Clive transferred to the EIC treasury no less than £2.5m seized from the defeated rulers of Bengal – in today’s currency, around £23m for Clive and £250m for the company."

Recent research goes to prove that there had been no grand court scene at the court of Shah Alam. The scroll had actually changed hands at Clive's tent pitched in a parade ground. "As for Shah Alam’s silken throne, it was in fact Clive’s armchair, which for the occasion had been hoisted on to his dining room table and covered with a chintz bedspread."

EIC had commissioned an illustrator to create a grand image for the benefit of the British parliamentarians, and the general public. It worked beautifully. Over the next hundred years EIC reinvested the 'revenue' from East India, and public loans and grants, to build an vast army to conquer, subjugate and plunder the subcontinent.

According to Darlymple, the EIC merchants were merely taking advantage of a power vacuum in India. Between the time the first EIC ship sailed into Surat in 1608 with William Hawkins, and Robert Clive's 'treaty' of 1765 came a disaster that crippled the Mughal empire. Persian adventurer, Nader Shah had trotted down with 150,000 horsemen, defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal (1739), and carried away treasures worth over GBP 87.5 million.

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LINKS

* WD - East India Company -- http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders
* Rajiv Malhotra - Debating foreign funded NGOs -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OWY_haNDNI#t=2127

Rape and the Criminal Justice System

Two cases stand in sharp contrast today.

Case-I: Dimapur, Nagaland

Last month, on 24 Feb., 2015,  an immigrant trader in Dimapur, Nagaland was accused of raping a woman. He was arrested an lodged in the jail. Yesterday evening, a mob of over 1500 people barged into the jail, overpowered the guards, and dragged away the accused man. He was then lynched and had his body strung up on the town square.

Nagaland has one of the lowest incidence of crimes against women in India.  

Case-II: New Delhi, Delhi

More than three years' ago, on 16 Dec., 2012, a paramedic-student was gang-raped in a moving bus. The attack was so brutal that she succumbed to her injuries in a couple of weeks. In response to the huge public outrage that followed, a "fast-track" court was set-up. All the accused men were tried, and sentenced to death. The case, however, continues to linger under an appeal process. The remorseless ramblings of one the rapists is now the centrepiece of a BBC documentary "India's Daughter". 

If the legal maxim, "Justice delayed is justice denied" hold true, does the Indian Criminal Justice System inspire any public confidence or credibility? If this is how speedy justice is being administered by a "fast-track court", can the Nagas be faulted for lynching a rapist?


----------------------------------------------------
LINKS

- Log kya kahenge? (what will people say?) -- http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/log-kya-kahenge
- BBC - India's Daughter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvlwmIfyx0 (This link may not last -- YouTube seems to have agreed to GoI's demand to block this, at least in India)
- (5Mar15) - Salil Tripathy -- why it should be seen in India -- http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/34Ls4cgDsZaDbEH8TdLBmN/Why-Indias-Daughter-should-be-seen-in-India.html
- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-article-rape-rhetoric-and-reality/article6705077.ec
- WSJ - A Rape Map of India -- http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/01/03/a-rape-map-of-india/
- Parliamentary Debate -- http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/in-parliament-debate-on-documentary-on-delhi-gang-rape-india-s-daughter/358686?fb

Our Little Game of Pretence

Sometimes we act as though China does not exist. It is a disconcerting little game of pretence.

Yesterday, a top bureaucrat at the Indian Ministry of Commerce tweeted:

On the face of it, this looks like a useful nugget - until you start wondering who is no. 1. That is when everything comes into perspective.

It took India hundred years to grow its cement industry to about 360 million tonnes. China, on the other hand, expanded its cement production from less than 50 millon tonnes (mT) in 1978, to over 2000 mT in 2014. It now produces more than half the entire global production. Yet we think our achievement over the last 100 years is something "spectacular".

Now consider the Indian pharmaceutical industry. We claim to be a global powerhouse in generic medicines. And then comes along a BCG-CII report saying that Indian companies are completely dependent on Chinese imports for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), the most critical ingredient in the drug manufacturing process.

Here is what an ET report says:

Imports of APIs and advanced intermediates have grown close to 20 per cent a year from $800 million in 2004 to $3.4 billion now. China accounts for 58 per cent of such imports by value and 80 per cent by volume, trade estimates point out.

The essential drugs include Paracetamol, Ranitidine, Metformin, Amoxicillin, Ciprofloxacin, Acetyl Salicylic Acid, Ofloxacin, Cefixime, Ibuprofen, Ampicillin, and Metronidazole. A recent industry report pointed out any strain in the Sino-Indian relationship could cause a severe shortage of essential drugs.

This leaves us with one big puzzle. Why on earth do the Chinese companies continue to let India pretend to be a pharma powerhouse? Why don't they just go ahead with their APIs and manufacture the drug formulations themselves?

One expert suggests that they are just warming up for the next big thing - Biosimilars. Wonder if this is true...

------------------------------------------
REFERENCES

* China Cement production -- http://www.igsnrr.cas.cn/xwzx/jxlwtj/201405/P020140522355603140914.pdf

* IBEF on the Indian Pharma Sector - http://www.ibef.org/industry/pharmaceutical-india.aspx

* USFDA lens on China is bad news for India -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/us-fda-scolds-chinese-api-maker-on-basic-mfg-problems-115010800858_1.html

* * (2014, OCt29, ET): Soma Das -- India relies on China for 90 per cent of drug raw materials -- http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-10-29/news/55559092_1_essential-drugs-bulk-drugs-apis

* (2014, Nov14, ToI): Sushmi Dey -- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Overdependence-on-China-for-drug-ingredients-worries-NSA/articleshow/45278715.cms

2015 - February: Interesting Articles & Links

* Nirupama Rao's recco -- Canteloube - "Bailero" sung by Patricia Rozario -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSqSznrgaSU&feature=youtu.be

* Bill Gates on the Future of Diseases -- http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/25/8103759/bill-gates-interview-hiv-malaria-vaccine-future-disease
- River Blindness - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onchocerciasis

* WSJ Insiders guide to Delhi -- http://www.wsj.com/articles/insiders-guide-to-delhi-india-1424983405

* (2015, Feb26 - Guardian) -- Black rats wre not the primary caus of the Great Plague of 1347


* (2015 Feb24 - Hindu) - From the first human genome, to a "great library of life" -- http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/from-the-first-human-genome-to-a-great-library-of-life/article6927137.ece
- Lecture at AIIMS by Eric  Lander, leader of the Human Genome Project
- Cost of sequencing - mapping a single genome (as part of HGP 1990-2003) cost $3billion, today it costs $3000
- Global Alliance for Genomics and Health - 246 organisations; 28 countries

* (2015, Feb24, BS) - Waiting for PMs word on GM - On #GMcrops #India - "Regrettably, the sane and well-founded counsel of the scientific community is being largely disregarded." -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/surinder-sud-waiting-for-the-pm-s-word-on-gm-115022301250_1.html
* (2015, Feb24, BL) - Dangerous Experiments - closure of Astra Zeneca lab, Blr


* Raghuram Rajan on India's Political Economy -- http://scroll.in/article/708502/Full-text:-Invoking-Hitler,-Raghuram-Rajan-warns:-A-strong-govt-may-not-move-in-the-right-direction

* Cool devices -- http://www.wsj.com/articles/interstellar-visual-effects-supervisor-paul-franklins-favorite-gadgets-1424372907
- Digital silence -- Digital Silence DS-101A

* The science of cool design -- http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032932/evidence/the-science-of-cool

* Caravan -- Why India's approach to regulating GM crops is a cause for concern -- http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/why-indias-approach-regulating-gm-crops-cause-concern

* Superbugs -- http://www.livemint.com/Politics/TIs8kQgktJRd6aRi9XLGlO/Superbug-spread-reveals-thin-pipeline-of-newest-antibiotics.html
- Some 16 new antibiotics were approved from 1983 to 1987, but the rate of new drugs coming to market has fallen since then. From 2008 to 2012, just two were approved, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
- While drugmakers charge more than $100,000 for the latest cancer treatments, antibiotics command far less. Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., an antibiotic developer bought by Merck & Co. for $8.4b this year, charges between $2,000 and $4,500 for its therapies.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year at least 2 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bugs in the US.


* Drone attack in graphics -- https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/02/can-bacteria-affect-our-dna/

* CSS Puns -- http://saijogeorge.com/css-puns/

* Rema on H1N1 Swine Flu -- http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/celebrating-shivas-holy-night.html
- (2010, ET) -- Did WHO experts fuel swine-flu scare? -- http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-01-13/news/28405023_1_vaccine-manufacturers-arnold-monto-sage

* On Sivaratri - Devdatt Pattnaik -- http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/celebrating-shivas-holy-night.html

* Mothers - photography -- http://www.jadebeall.com/#!/index/G0000Wm35big.yVE

* What makes You -- http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/what-makes-you-you.html

* EMOTIV - story of a bioinformatics co founder - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2951852/My-mother-said-captured-pirates-drink-Incredible-story-multimillionaire-CEO-started-life-four-year-old-refugee-fleeing-Vietnam-vial-poison.html

* Obama's pharma deal in India -- http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/obama-versus-obamacare-acting-at-big-pharmas-behest-us-president-hurts-india-others-and-his-own-legacy/

* Idioms - http://blog.ted.com/2015/01/20/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/

* Japan's Debt - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-10/how-japan-borrows-9-trillion-practically-for-free

* Pronouncing place names correctly -- http://designtaxi.com/news/372514/Useful-Guide-Shows-How-To-Pronounce-The-Tricky-Names-Of-32-Places-Correctly/

* Testosterone Check- http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21642000-promiscuity-and-fidelity-seem-be-specific-biological-adaptations-their
- The other was of 1,300 people who had had the lengths of their index and ring fingers measured. The ratio of these lengths indicates the effect on an individual of exposure to testosterone in the womb. (A long ring finger compared to the index finger means a big effect.) This ratio corresponds, throughout the primates as a group, to the amount of promiscuity found in a species’s mating system.

* Delhi Elections - the funny side - http://www.newslaundry.com/2015/02/10/the-funny-side-of-delhi-elections/
* Election Tweets - funny - http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/02/10/modi-invites-kejriwal-for_n_6649978.html
* Kerjiwal documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3l3RKEBC0M

* 12 Cognnitive Biases -- http://io9.com/5974468/the-most-common-cognitive-biases-that-prevent-you-from-being-rational

* "Encouraged flattery and chamchagiri" - @Ram_Guha takes a dim view of #Indian leaders who set a poor example http://www.ndtv.com/opinion/the-staggering-vanity-of-indias-powerful-737618

* Memory - http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/idea-happened-memory-recollection?intcid=mod-latest

* Farmers, migrant workers - http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-04/how-produce-aisle-looks-migrant-farmworker

* Bengal Famine - http://yourstory.com/2014/08/bengal-famine-genocide/

* India -- 28 Reasons Why You Should Never Ever Visit India -- http://www.buzzfeed.com/andreborges/

* Catepillar - Snake Mimicry - http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/caterpillar-appears-snake-camouflage/

* #Polio - how a #Vaccine programe carried on despite "“one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in U.S. history” - http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/ike-trusted-new-vaccine

H1N1 Swine Flu - The Burden of Import Dependent Diagnosis

(Note: When this piece started out as a prospective op-ed article, the H1N1 death-count was around 650. Today - 18Mar15 -  it has crossed 1800)

------------------------------------

Your child has developed a fever. Could it be Swine Flu? Perhaps it is Bird Flu or Monkey Flu?  

It is difficult not to panic when you have been getting bombarded with daily reports on skyrocketing infections, a rising death toll, shortages of diagnostic kits and medicines.

Unfortunately, our nationwide response to the spread of H1N1 Swine Flu has been just that - reactive rather than proactive. There has been a sudden rush to procure diagnostic kits; an increase the number of ‘authorised outlets’ selling drugs; A DGCI letter to requesting states to ensure that  diagnostic kits and drugs are available at the “right price”, and an awareness campaign that leaves you with more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths has climbed to 1537, and the number of confirmed cases has shot up to over 27,000. The list now includes film stars, top bureaucrats, and senior politicians.

Accurate Diagnosis is the Key

Accurate diagnosis is the first and most critical step in disease control.

For many known diseases the diagnosis and treatment protocols are centred on something called Antigen-Antibody Reactions. Antigens and antibodies are molecules with unique shapes that tend to lock into one another. Antibodies act like policemen in our blood-stream, waiting to ‘handcuff’ any foreign antigens that slip in. Most vaccines contain antigens that provoke our immune systems to produce more antibodies, in case of a real attack. Diseases like measles, for instance, have only one antigenic-type, and this makes the vaccines relatively easy to make, and are therefore quite affordable.

Indian vaccine manufacturers are quite strong in this area. They supply 90 per cent of all measles vaccines worldwide, as well as half of WHO’s requirement for DPT and BCG vaccines against tuberculosis.

Influenza or Flu is caused a much smarter virus. It keeps changing its cell-surface proteins so frequently that detecting it accurately and then formulating drugs to counter them becomes rather difficult.  According to the US Centre for Disease Control there are now more than 800 different influenza viruses. This flu season, the annual influenza vaccine in USA proved only 23% effective. Last year, it was about 60% effective.

When it comes to diagnosis, the only reliable way identifying the flu virus comes from a method called Real Time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).

Why is RT-PCR Test so Expensive?

RT-PCR is a technique that amplifies genetic material to get a detectable signal. Its accuracy and reliability has made it the cornerstone of modern molecular biology.

The starting point for this test is Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses.

Despite its unwieldy name, the RT-PCR machine is essentially a hi-tech heater. It ‘melts’ DNA strands at high temperatures and re-joins them again at lower temperatures using special enzymes called polymerases.

Every organism has certain nucleotide sequences which are unique to it. These ‘signature sequences’ are first carefully identified and recreated as “primers”. Detection of H1N1 Swine Flu usually begins with the DNA extracted from a sample of body fluids of an infected person.  It is mixed with H1N1 primers and probes are introduced into a RT-PCR machine.  If the primer finds a match, the machine creates multiple copies of it. Over time – usually 24 hours – there is enough of the genetic material that can be detected by running it through a device called gel chromatograph.

Most of the RT-PCR machines used in India are imported. Apart from the high cost of these machines, the cost of critical consumables - imported primers, probes, enzymes and assays - continue to drive the high cost of accurate diagnosis.  So even the minimum cost for a test comes to about Rs.4,500.

We also have home-grown pioneers like Molbio (Goa) and RAS LifeSciences (Hyderabd) who have developed indigenous, portable PCR kits that lower the cost of the tests to Rs. 800. Despite getting clearances from DCGI and ICMR, the state governments prefer to procure imported kits.

This state of affairs in not unique to diagnostic devices. According to a KPMG report (2011), even though there are about 700 medical device makers in the country, India imports approximately 75 percent of devices.

Is There a Better Way Forward?

Coming soon after the Ebola scare, our tardy response to the H1N1 influenza ought to set the alarm bells ringing.

As the number of nationwide flu-related deaths crosses 1600, we need to ask ourselves if we are sufficiently prepared to tackle the new cohorts of emerging drug-resistant diseases.

We already have world class facilities for manufacture of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. Will the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament introduce the much needed amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 – especially with respect to medical devices? Can the on-going ‘Make in India’ initiative pull together the key players in the Government and the private sector, to create the right policy environment for reducing our dependence on expensive, imported diagnostic kits?

Unless we get our act together, we are bound to lurch helplessly from one round of infections and pandemics, to another.

  

REFERENCES

·         DGCI Notice to states - H1N1 / SwineFlu Diagnostic Kits being sold at exhorbitant prices -- http://cdsco.nic.in/writereaddata/swine%20flue.pdf

·         National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) -- http://www.ncdc.gov.in/

- Procurement of RT-PCR kits -- (11,12) -- http://www.ncdc.gov.in/writereaddata/tenders/160.pdf

·         Dr. Path Labs – List of Molecular Diagnostic Tests - http://www.lalpathlabs.com/genetics.aspx

·         (28Feb15) - http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/swine-flu-deaths-breach-1000-mark-40-more-succumb-to-virus/

·         (2Mar15) -- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/swine-flu-toll-health-ministry-nadda/1/421902.html

·         (9Mar15) -- Molbio develops first SwineFlu diagnostic -- http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-03/news/59725551_1_swine-flu-swiss-firm-roche-diagnostics-flu-tests

·         (9Mar15) - DRDO-RAS diagnostic for SwineFlu -- http://www.thenewsminute.com/news_sections/3181

Swiss Dance

Wish I could understand modern dance.

The title of the performance we attended today was - "Re-mapping the Body - hear the movement / see the music", presented by Compagnie Linga, Switzerland, at the FICCI Auditorium. The work was supposed to make use of the 'dominant role of science and technology as adjuncts to the human body'.

The stage setting was quite dramatic. Placed on at centre of were half-a-dozen devices that looked liked pagers with their LEDs blinking. The show started in a rather un-Swiss way -- 15 minutes late -- with sound effects that seemed almost completely out of sync with the movements on stage.

At first we got the impression that the LED devices were movement sensors linked to sound system. This impressed gathered weight when the dancers were seen adjusting the settings carefully from time to time. The ticket had also claimed that the music was to be created entirely by the movements of the dancers. However the sounds seem to emanate from another altogether disjointed universe...

The dancers themselves were superb - each of them was amazingly lithe and agile. Despite the scratchy sound system and the squeaking chairs of FICCI auditorium, they managed to leave a lasting impression.

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LINKS -

http://www.linga.ch/en/home.php

Caterpillar Snake

(Pic - by Daniel Janzen U-Penn/GrindTV)

Recently, I was stunned to see this photograph -- a caterpillar pretending to be a snake!

Cuckoo's can fool crows into hatching their eggs, hermit-crabs can learn to use discarded shells for protection, and even lung-breathing whales could have evolved over time to life in the oceans. But can an organism that cannot see very well, evolve to mimic one of its numerous predators in the forest?

Can the Theory of Evolution really explain this?

As if to mock this theory, this is what the caterpillar eventually becomes - a drab looking moth (Hemeroplanes triptolemus) that depends on its sense of smell to mate and survive.

(Source - Wikipedia)

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LINKS

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/caterpillar-appears-snake-camouflage/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemeroplanes_triptolemus

Self-love of the Great Indian Male

Earlier this month, Ramachandra Guha had written a brilliant piece in the Telegraph.

It started out with the Emperor's new clothes but much of the piece was focussed on the stalwarts of Indian Science & Technology community: CNR Rao's move to get a landmark outside IISc to be named after himself; RA Mashelkar's editorial in Current Science showering praises on his own 'achievements'.

Guha contrasted this with the conduct of scientists like Obaid Siddiqui who founded the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), and an anecdote starring JBS Haldane - "You only talk about yourself. But science begins with an interest in the world outside yourself."

This reminded me of PK Kelkar, one of the founding fathers of IIT Kanpur who had strongly discouraged any form of sycophancy or hero-worship.

And now we have RK Pachauri of TERI. The 74-year-old scientist is under police investigation for sexually harassing his Research Assistant.

Where are we headed?

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LINKS

* Guha, Ramachandra (2015) - The Self-love of the Great Indian male -- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150207/jsp/opinion/story_1886.jsp#.VNn1LfmUezw

War - What is it Good For?

Why did Yugoslavia break-up?  According to a Croat "...we had lived in peace and harmony because every hundred meters we had a policeman to ensure that we loved each other very much".

Ian Morris's latest book takes this line of thinking way beyond the alleys of the former Yugoslavia to an analysis of war and conflict across history, and comes to a startling conclusion. According to him, War is good for humanity.

Large-scale, organised violence apparently makes way for extended periods of peace and prosperity. It encourages trade and economies of scale. At their height, the greatest of empires - the Roman in the West, the Han in China and the Mauryan in modern India and Pakistan - each covered about 1.5 - 2 million square miles, governed 30-60 million people.

For some reason, the technology that drove organised violence seems to have grown much faster in Eurasia than in the Americas. Sticks and stones gave way to swords, spears, war-horses, chariots, the composite bow, and then the great jump to cannons, fire-arms and missiles. Morris seems to agree with Jared Diamond's argument about latitudes in Guns, Germs and Steel.

Somehow his arguments seem to fall apart when it comes to explaining how warfare will evolve in the present context. How long can the American globocop control the world through its grip on the internet, and drones raining hellfire through joysticks held in Arizona?

As always, hindsight is 20:20.

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINKS

* Amazon - Ian Morris - http://www.amazon.com/War-What-Good-For-Civilization/dp/0374286000 

* Review in the Telegraph -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10786021/War-What-Is-It-Good-For-by-Ian-Morris-review.html 

2015 - January: Interesting Articles & Links

* Why is academic writing so academic? -- http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-is-academic-writing-so-academic

* Literature - 50 Quotes - http://www.buzzfeed.com/jenniferschaffer/i-am-i-am-i-am#.fe8ovPk6z

* Anti-Fracking -- http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/05/children-ban-talking-about-fracking?CMP=share_btn_fb

* Biotech - unboiling eggs! - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/scientists-find-how-to-unboil-eggs/article6823761.ece

* Blue LED's inventor's advise to Japanese youngsters (get out!) :) - http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/01/23/nobel-prize-winner-shuji-nakamura-to-japans-young-people-get-out-of-japan/

* Kiran Bedi's mythmaking - http://www.firstpost.com/politics/bjps-legendary-cm-candidate-story-of-kiran-crane-bedi-more-myth-than-fact-2056451.html

* Ajit Sivadasan - Big data lessons for global brands - http://gakuran.com/ama-the-pearl-diving-mermaids-of-japan/

* Ama pearl divers, Japan - photos -  http://gakuran.com/ama-the-pearl-diving-mermaids-of-japan/

* Atul Gawande's BBC Reith Lecture Series - download - http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith

* Entrepreneurs at 40+  -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/08/15/why-teaching-grandmothers-to-code-isnt-a-crazy-idea/

* NYT - The Secret Life of Passwords -- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/magazine/the-secret-life-of-passwords.html?_r=0

* TED - 20 Most Popular - http://blog.ted.com/2013/12/16/the-most-popular-20-ted-talks-2013/

* Project Management - PRINCE2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRINCE2

* Pesek, William (2014): WHAT DOES INDIA KNOW THAT THE REST OF ASIA DOESN'T, BS 19Jan15

* A site for web-designers -- http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

* A journalist flogged -- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/opinion/nicholas-kristof-an-islamic-reformer-lashed.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

* The Strange Existence of Ram Charan -- http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/30/8405482/index.htm
- He knew from Sanskrit teachings that "fear, anger, laziness - these are the downfalls of human beings"; that peace of mind alone is worth striving for; that dedication and mastery are their own rewards.
- At Harvard Business School - MBA student - share notes?  "I'm not going to do that," Charan said. "I'm spending my own money. I don't care if I flunk. If I learn something, I'll succeed."
- Gas company, Honolulu - "Reduce pressure from 10PM-4AM and you will makde dividends" - he combined financial acuity with engineering know-how and an eye for the role played by interpersonal relationships to solve a vexing problem.
- He was interested more in cause and effect than statistical correlation. His aims were practical: How can I solve this problem? How can I help this person? This company?
- Skeptics liken him to Chauncey Gardiner, the simple-minded hero of the 1979 film classic Being There, who gets a lot of mileage out of utterances...
- a three-item agenda following a script devised by Charan: What unique thing happened in your store last week? What issues did you face that kept you from serving your customers better? How can we fix those issues right now?
*  http://www.ram-charan.com/

* http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/ram-charan-on-advice-leadership-lesson-to-ceos-mindrush-2014/1/213974.html
- I truly believe in the Indian culture of dedication. It has served me well. Do the best you can and learn to be the best. Focus. It will take you there.
- Keep your eye on the big prize and what it takes to get there. In outsourcing we lead. I believe we can lead in generics.


* Amazing CT Scans -- http://www.vox.com/2015/1/12/7533155/ge-ct-scans

* In defence of the chronicler of Kongu -- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/in-defence-of-the-chronicler-of-kongu/article6778031.ece

* 13 Signs of a Disengaged Employee -- http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234436

* Demand for synthetic biocompatible polymers will increase 4.7 percent annually to $3.2 billion in 2018- http://www.business-standard.com/content/b2b-plastics-polymers/biocompatible-materials-market-in-us-to-touch-5-6-bn-115010700437_1.html
- Hyaluronic acid will generate the fastest revenue gains

* Exploitation in the Cotton Industry -- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/opinion/a-long-history-of-exploitation-in-the-cotton-industry.html

* The stories the West tell itself about #Ebola - http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142762/emmanuel-dharcourt/three-myths-about-ebola

* Indian  Patent Office grants 90% of its patents to foreign firms -- http://www.newindianexpress.com/business/news/More-Spends-on-Patents-Needed/2015/01/11/article2613526.ece

* Can Fracking handle oil below US$50/barrel -- http://www.wired.com/2015/01/adventures-mapmaking-mapping-fracking-boom-north-dakota/?mbid=social_twitter
- Great graphics - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/24/upshot/nd-oil-well-illustration.html?abt=0002&abg=1

* Swaminathan R (2014):  TIME TO COUNTER TROJAN HORSES, GovernanceNow/MPost
- Intelligence stumped by spoofed IP addresses

* The Problem with Meaning - David Brooks, NYT/Hindu 7Jan15 -
- Speech to Stanford Alum by John Gardner

* Spicejet lessons for Aviation - Amber Dubey, FE 7Jan15 -- http://www.financialexpress.com/article/fe-columnist/column-spicejet-lessons-for-aviation/26797/

* Training Aircraft - Scuttling a 'Made in India' project: The case of the HTT-40 Trainer, BS-7Jan15 -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/scuttling-a-made-in-india-project-the-case-of-the-htt-40-trainer-115010601289_1.html
- Scuttling of Hindustan Turbo Trainer (HTT-40) for a Swiss Pilatus PC-7 Mark-II
- 2009 IAF decision - requirement 181 trainers >> 75 to be purchased abroad, and 106 to be purchased locally from HAL (PC-7 Mk-II)
- 75 Pilatus cost IAF SFrancs 557 million (Rs. 3600 cr) -- Rs. 40 cr per aircraft
- HAL aircraft had engines from Honeywell (TPE-33112B) -- Pratt & Whitney refused licensed mfr in India

* Why PK is OK - Vanita Kohli Khandekar, BS-7Jan14

* How volcanic eruptions happen -- http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000003431211/how-it-happens-volcanic-eruptions.html?smid=tw-nytimes

* 32 Truths presented beautifully -- http://bluegape.com/photo-story/abhinav/32-unavoidable-truths-life-presented-beautifully/

* Narisetti - Minds that should matter - http://forbesindia.com/article/special/minds-that-%28should%29-matter/39289/0

* TED - Sending Money Home - http://www.ted.com/talks/dilip_ratha_the_hidden_force_in_global_economics_sending_money_home

* Seven minute workouts -- http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ss/the-7-minute-workout-slideshow

* The secret to raising smart kids -- http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1/

* Tharoor explains tweets on ancient Indian science - http://www.ndtv.com/article/opinion/tharoor-explains-his-tweets-on-ancient-indian-science-644141

* Mana Nayestani's cartoons - http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2014/07/18-brilliant-cartoons-will-make-think-oppression-like-never
- more - https://tavaana.org/en/cartoons

* Vikram S. Mehta (2014): OIL-POLITIK - WHY OPEC IS ALLOWING PRICES TO FALL, FE, 5Jan15

Mango Exports: The Cost of a Fruit Fly

 Copy of cover story published in IndiaSpend on 30 Jan., 2015

BadNews, Mango Lovers. Good News, India

R. Dinakar, January 30, 2015

Last summer was a bonanza for mango lovers in India. Shoppers were pleasantly surprised to find the king of them all, Alphonso mangoes, piled up on street-carts, alongside the more affordable range of Langra, Dashehari, and Chausa.

Alphonso prices had crashed, thanks to a European Union (EU) ban on mango imports from India.

At the heart of the ban was a tiny fruit fly. Importing countries feared that this exotic pest would infest and destroy their local crops, such as lettuce, cucumber and tomato.

India is the world’s largest producer of mangoes. Its annual output, at 18-19 million metric tonnes (MT), is about 40 per cent of the world’s production.  Yet, only a tiny fraction of production, 41,280 MT in 2013-14 or 0.2%, is exported.

Compare this to the world’s no.1 exporter, Mexico. This South American nation produces some 1.6 million MT of mangoes, and exports about 270,000 MT. That’s around 17 percent!

Productivity in India is low and wastage is high, as our accompanying story explains.

India’s exports were worth Rs 285 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 265 crore the year before, according to APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) data. About 60 per cent of its exports are to the United Arab Emirates. Shipments to the EU were around 4,000 tonnes, valued at Rs 50 crore in 2012-13.

In April last year, plant quarantine authorities in Brussels found Indian consignments infested with fruit flies. Mango imports were banned in May, until December 2015.

This week, an EU committee endorsed a proposal of the European Commission to lift the banon the import of mangoes from India, citing “significant improvements” in its certification system.

Export of fruits and vegetables is a complicated business, more so when each country has its own set of requirements.

Japan insists on mangoes being subjected to treatment with hot vapours. The US and Australia buy only irradiated fruits, while others, including the EU, specify hot-water treatment.

These diverse requirements obviously add to export costs. In its advisory to exporters, APEDA specifies that the costs of positioning foreign inspectors, whether American or Japanese, must be borne by export-facility owners.

Last year, India raised these requirements as a “specific trade concern” at the World Trade Organisation, pointing out that the high cost of certification, on account of supervision by US inspectors, made Indian mangoes uncompetitive.

Two developments have somewhat turned the tide in India’s favour.

The first was a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in October and, more recently, a clarification issued by the EU that its ban is being lifted this year on an assurance from India that all consignments would be processed in APEDA’s hot-water treatment facilities and duly certified before being exported.

The FAO report is quite significant. Until recently, it was assumed that fruit flies were pests unique to India. The EU, USA, Japan and Australia had imposed similar restrictions on imports from other tropical countries, citing infestations from Oriental, Philippine, Invasive and Asian Papaya fruit flies.

A multinational research effort was launched by FAO in 2009 involving nearly 50 researchers from 20 countries. In October 2014, the research team came to an unequivocal conclusion: four of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests are actually the same fruit fly.

Therefore, all four previously-considered distinct fruit-fly species will now be combined under the single name: Bactrocera dorsalis, the oriental fruit fly.

An oriental fruit fly laying eggs in a papaya, Credit: Wikimedia

“This outcome has major implications for global plant biosecurity, especially for developing countries in Africa and Asia,” said Mark Schutze, lead author of the FAO study. “The fruit fly has devastated African fruit production with crop losses exceeding 80 percent and has led to widespread trade restrictions with refusal of shipments of products into Asia, Europe and Japan, and significant economic and social impacts on farming communities”.

Precise identification of pests is central to pest management. Now scientists can focus their attention on developing standard protocols introducing bio-markers and insect birth-control techniques. Standard methods like the introduction of mass-produced sterile Oriental fruit fly males can now be used against all the different populations of this major pest.

Trade barriers based on fears of ‘exotic fruit fly infestation’, may soon become a thing of the past. This season, Alphonso mangoes may not be available for discounted prices in your local market, but the summer of 2015 may turn out to be a happy one for mango farmers, as well as other fruit & vegetable exporters in India.

(Dinakar R. is deputy general manager with Biotech Consortium India Ltd. These are his personal views.)

__________________________________

REFERENCES:

* FAO: Four in One – New Discovery on Pest Fruit Flies (28 Oct., 2014) -- http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/262972/icode/

* WTO – Meeting of the Committee on Sanitary and PhytosanitaryMeaaures (15-17 Oct., 2014) -  http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/sps_e/agenda_oct14_e.pdf

* UNCTAD --- http://www.unctad.info/en/Infocomm/AACP-Products/COMMODITY-PROFILE---Mango/

* APEDA Advisories-

• http://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/Announcements/Advisory_for_exporters_of_fresh_fruits.pdf
• http://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/HACCP/DAYWISE_REPORT_FRUITS_VEGETABLES_EU.pdf

* ToI (6 May 2014) - UK help sought to lift EU ban on Indian mangoes -- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/UK-help-sought-to-lift-EU-ban-on-Indian-mangoes/articleshow/34748433.cms

* Mint (8Jan 2015 -LiveMint) –EU agrees to lift ban on Alphonso mangoes - http://www.livemint.com/Politics/fMXWwNQ0ZCL5ZjVAoGyhGI/EU-agrees-to-lift-import-ban-on-Alphonso-mangoes.html