Newspaper Editorials With English Vocab 15/3/2016

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THE HINDU: Ensure a credible clean-up in Kodaikanal

The settlement in the Kodaikanal mercury poisoning case, which came to light 15 years ago after the release of contaminated waste materials into the environment, brings partial closure to a long-running struggle between the community and a major industrial corporation. 

Hindustan Unilever Limited has come to an agreement with 591 former workers and their families for payment of ex gratia amounts towards livelihood and skill enhancement. The Madras High Court has taken the settlement on record, and the disbursal of the fund should bring some succour to those who suffered various health setbacks that they believe are related to mercury exposure. The closure is the culmination of a sustained campaign by environmental activists and concerned citizens for these 15 years, which got global attention after a rap song on the plight of those affected went viral on the Internet. The HUL case highlights the often neglected questions of occupational health interests of workers, and poor diligence shown by governments in allowing industries that handle toxic materials without satisfactory management processes. Many workers in Kodaikanal were claiming for over a decade that they fell ill after working in the thermometer factory, but received little government support. That is unsurprising, considering that occupational health receives low priority in policymaking, while environmental concerns are counterposed to rapid growth of industry as an obstacle. The Kodaikanal story should convince Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, who said his Ministry would no longer be a “roadblock”, that a culture of superficiality in making impact assessments is unsustainable, even counterproductive.

There is also the unresolved issue of the clean-up of the unit, of environmental remediation and the standards to be adopted. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has to ensure that the decontamination meets the highest standards adopted anywhere, and in any case, not less than the new standards being considered by the Environment Ministry as part of its guidelines for contaminated sites. While many national institutions have gone into the issue of fixing a remediation standard, there appears to be clear divergence between what the Ministry’s draft of 2015 proposes — a soil clean-up standard of 6.6 mg per kg for residential purposes — and the much higher quantum of 20 mg/kg that is under consideration by the pollution control authorities. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a fresh and transparent review of the ecological issues arising from any mercury residues in Kodaikanal, an important segment of the southern Western Ghats, before a decontamination plan is finalised. The pollution issue in the hill town arose from the open sale of 5.3 tonnes of mercury-contaminated scrap from the factory to a dealer; several tonnes of scrap was moved by the company from its yard in 2001. Government and industry should now endeavour to regain public trust, and this is possible only through credible scientific scrutiny and community participation. Crippling pollution cannot be justified as a small negative externality that must be endured for short-term growth.

con·tam·i·nate

Make (something) impure by exposure to or addition of a poisonous or polluting substance.

ex gratia 

 An ex gratia ​payment is not ​necessary, ​especially ​legally, but is made to show good ​intentions

suc·cor

Assistance and support in times of hardship and distress.

coun·ter·pose

Set against or in opposition to.

di·ver·gence

The process or state of diverging.

en·deav·or

Try hard to do or achieve something.

THE HINDU: Why marital rape must be a crime

The question whether marital rape should be treated as a criminal offence has once again arisen after Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi repeated the government’s stand in a written reply in Parliament. She said, “The concept of marital rape as understood internationally cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs [and the] mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament.” This controversial formulation must be familiar to those calling for marital rape to be criminalised and those opposing it on the ground that it would ruin the institution of marriage. The argument that there is too little education and too many customs and beliefs in Indian society is often held up to stall legal reforms. The principal objection to the criminalisation of rape within a subsisting marriage is rooted in western tradition too. It originates in the common law principle of marriage as ‘coverture’, the idea that the woman is always under the husband’s protection and authority. In England, Matthew Hale’s 1736 dictum that a man can never be guilty of raping his lawful wife, “for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract, the wife hath given herself up in this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract”, has been abandoned in progressive jurisdictions.

The Justice J.S. Verma committee, which recommended sweeping changes in the law relating to offences against women, called for marital rape to be made an offence. This was not implemented. The present Indian law exempts non-consensual sex between a husband and wife, not being less than 15 years of age, from being charged with rape. However, by another provision it makes rape of a wife who is living separately a criminal offence. The age limit of 15 years above which marital rape is not an offence is inherently problematic, as normally sex with a girl up to the age of 18 is an offence regardless of consent. The exemption given to marital rape, as Justice Verma noted, “stems from a long out-dated notion of marriage which regarded wives as no more than the property of their husbands”. Marital rape ought to be a crime and not a concept. Of course, there will be objections such as a perceived threat to the integrity of the marital union and the possibility of misuse of the penal provisions. It is not really true that the private or domestic domain has always been outside the purview of law. The law against domestic violence already covers both physical and sexual abuse as grounds for the legal system to intervene. It is difficult to argue that a complaint of marital rape will ruin a marriage, while a complaint of domestic violence against a spouse will not. It has long been time to jettison the notion of ‘implied consent’ in marriage. The law must uphold the bodily autonomy of all women, irrespective of their marital status.

sac·ra·ment

A religious ceremony or act of the Christian Church that is regarded as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace, in particular.

cov·er·ture

Protective or concealing covering.

dic·tum

A formal pronouncement from an authoritative source.

pur·view

The scope of the influence or concerns of something.

jet·ti·son

Throw or drop (something) from an aircraft or ship.

       

INDIAN EXPRESS: Good to Go

On Sunday, after a hat-trick of wins, Google’s AlphaGo programme surrendered a game of Go to a human, South Korea’s Lee Se-dol. The news made waves in Korea, which read it as a reaffirmation of the anthropocentric universe. That’s because Korea is mad about Go, with 24-hour TV channels covering tournaments non-stop. At first, the significance of the series of human-computer Go games in Seoul was not appreciated in the rest of the world. Computers have repeatedly defeated chess grandmasters, right, so what’s the big deal?

The deal is actually remarkably big. Chess is a relatively limited game, and computers win because they can visualise the whole decision tree of a game from opening gambit to checkmate, while humans are more likely to lose the plot. Go is the world’s most statistically complex game, with millions of possible outcomes. It is useful to think fuzzily about 20 moves ahead, not to the end of the game, and that gives humans an edge over machines, which are traditionally exact. In short, a programme is unlikely to defeat a human. But AlphaGo, a project of Google’s artificial intelligence company DeepMind, won three games straight. Was it, Asimov forbid, thinking like a human?
But it’s just a game, right? It is, and weirdly enough, many aspects of human behaviour can be modelled as maximisation games. The possibilities for deep, human-like intelligence in autonomous connected devices are both amazing and fearsome. Autonomous devices are deployed in a wide range of formats, from the home thermostat to complex weapons systems. The possibility that machines can think like humans, and better than us, raises humankind’s second-oldest anxiety after the fear of death: The rise of the machines. For now, it’s only a game, and the machine has won 3:1. Humans can be sporting about it.

reaffirmation

Reassertion: renewed affirmation

an·thro·po·cen·tric

Regarding humankind as the central or most important element of existence, especially as opposed to God or animals

for·bid

Refuse to allow (something).

BUSINESS STANDARD: Exchange rate dilemma

In two major speeches on Sunday, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan made several thoughtful points about the global economy and the direction of monetary policy that deserve careful consideration. At the Ramnath Goenka Memoral Lecture, Dr Rajan made a powerful case that India should no longer be seen as "obstructionist" in global negotiations and instead build coalitions to "influence the global agenda", thinking that is largely in line with the government's own reconfiguration of such negotiations. He also made the case for greater Indian representation at the high table; this links into his speech at the conference organised by the finance ministry and the International Monetary Fund where he repeated his warning, made several times previously, about the dangerous impacts on emerging markets of the "spillovers" from expansionary monetary policy in the developed world. He called for the Fund to more clearly recognise the threat such spillovers posed to monetary policy, and for discussions to begin on whether a code could be formulated to promote stability under such circumstances. From a realistic perspective, it is difficult to see how such a code could operate; it is to be presumed that Dr Rajan does not expect any such instrument to come into being in the near or medium term. The RBI will be on its own in fighting the instability injected into the Indian system by developed-world central banks fighting recessions.

Dr Rajan also discussed, at considerable length, the question of the rupee's "true" value, and its impact on imports. He argued that the impact of the exchange rate of the rupee on India's exports was "in the eye of the beholder", saying that the real effective exchange rate had been quite "flat" in the recent period even as India's exports slumped. His point, however, that the collapse in Indian exports "is similar to what has happened elsewhere" is not quite on the money. Even as India's exports have been contracting for several consecutive months, many countries in its peer group have in fact seen their exports increase while world trade has slowed down - Bangladesh saw exports go up about nine per cent in the period between July 2015 and February 2016. Vietnam posted a trade surplus in the first two months of 2016, with a three per cent increase in exports over the same period in the previous year.

Dr Rajan's export pessimism, and his dismissal of the value of an undervalued currency for a country trying to export, relies on a claim that India is substantially different from East Asian tigers that had "weak firms and small domestic markets". On the one hand, if Indian firms were indeed as competitive as the RBI Governor implies, they would not be clamouring for protection, and they would be doing better as exporters than they are. On the other hand, it is dangerous to rely on policy based on the size of a domestic market; that argument leads to the temptation of protectionism. The argument for a weaker rupee is therefore substantial. While it is true, as Dr Rajan said, that capital inflows - that push the rupee up - are an important part of India's infrastructure-building strategy, it is nevertheless the case that the RBI should not shut its eyes to the dangers of the rupee's overvaluation being sustained. Indeed, the government and its political leadership should resist the temptation of propping up the rupee in the mistaken belief that this alone would improve India's strength as an economy.

obstructionist

Someone who systematically obstructs some action that others want to take

spill·o·ver

An instance of overflowing or spreading into another area.

beholder

Perceiver: a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses

slump

Sit, lean, or fall heavily and limply, especially with a bent back

pes·si·mism

A tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future.

clam·or

(of a group of people) shout loudly and insistently.

prop

Position something underneath (someone or something) for support

THE Dawn: Extremism on campuses

SOMETHING is rotten in the state of higher education in the country. A familiar set of circumstances — students belonging to different unions attacking each other, triggering disciplinary action by university authorities — has yielded an extraordinary confession.

A student of Punjab University allegedly not only told university authorities at a disciplinary hearing that he considers slain Taliban chieftains Nek Muhammad and Baitullah Mehsud to be his leaders, but that he intends to avenge their deaths in drone strikes.

Revealingly, Attique Afridi, the student now in custody of the intelligence apparatus, is believed to be associated with the Pakhtun Educational Development Movement — a PU student association, alongside a Baloch group, that clashed with the Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba, the student union more commonly associated with religious extremism on public campuses.

The roots of extremist links in universities, both public and private, appear to have spread far and wide.

Long rumoured, but mostly ignored, the problem of militancy and extremism among university students may be coming to the fore for a complex set of reasons.

The relentless pressure on the banned TTP and other anti-state militant outfits has likely created a vacuum that new breeds of militancy will try and fill.

In addition, the turmoil in the Middle East, the rise of the militant Islamic State group and a growing online culture where hate material and militant propaganda have vastly proliferated, have probably worked to attract a growing number of university students to extremist fare and militancy.

Certainly, the problem is not new — Omar Sheikh remains one of the most notorious private-school educated militants in the country’s history — and is not confined to public campuses. Indeed, private universities may be more vulnerable to creeping extremism and militancy on campus because most have no experience of monitoring or handling extremist organisations on campus, among teachers or students.

Combating extremism and militancy on campuses will prove a formidable challenge. For one, the state itself appears to have underestimated the problem.

The National Action Plan drawn up in December 2014 rightly identified the need to reform and modernise madressahs, but there was no mention of universities in the mainstream.

In addition, the higher-education landscape is heavily fractured, with the provinces trying to assert their rights under the 18th Amendment, the centre failing to embrace a new role as coordinator among the federating units, and private universities having mushroomed in recent years with no adequate regulatory structure.

But those challenges only underscore the need for urgency. Recent history has demonstrated how militancy and extremism can metastasise quickly, so while the problems on campuses today are real, they still appear to be confined to relatively small sections of the student population.

Action taken now — concerted, meaningful action across the provinces that balances the concerns of security with the rights of students — could help avoid a terrible societal unravelling. Extremism on campuses is an addressable problem.

rot·ten

Suffering from decay

a·venge

Inflict harm in return for (an injury or wrong done to oneself or another).

ap·pa·rat·us

The technical equipment or machinery needed for a particular activity or purpose.

clash

Meet and come into violent conflict.

ru·mor

Be circulated as an unverified account

re·lent·less

Oppressively constant; incessant.

tur·moil

A state of great disturbance, confusion, or uncertainty.

prop·a·gan·da

Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

pro·lif·er·ate

Increase rapidly in numbers; multiply

no·to·ri·ous

Famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed.

con·fined

(of a space) restricted in area or volume; cramped.

vul·ner·a·ble

Susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.

mush·room

Increase, spread, or develop rapidly.

un·der·score

A line drawn under a word or phrase for emphasis.

me·tas·ta·size

(of a cancer) spread to other sites in the body by metastasis.

so·ci·e·tal

Of or relating to society or social relations.

un·rav·el

Undo (twisted, knitted, or woven threads).

THE DNA: Toxic formulations

The ban on 335 fixed drug combinations (FDCs), which include some popular cough syrup, analgesic and antibiotic brands, comes after years of public health experts raising questions about the efficacy and appropriateness of these non-steroidal drugs to treat ailments like common cold, cough, fever and other infections. The health ministry, in a gazette notification on March 10, said that these FDCs were “likely to involve risk to human beings whereas safer alternatives to the said drug” were available. How were these drugs cleared for sale, and if never cleared, how were they available over the counter for use and misuse? This important question remains unanswered despite the government ban. FDCs are two or more drugs combined in a fixed ratio and available in a single dosage form. They were conceived as an effective way to manage serious diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS through the particular combination of active ingredients in each individual drug. However, pharma companies realised the huge market for cough syrups, analgesics, and antibiotics to treat colds, fevers, inflammations, and infections, and took advantage of the lax regulatory structures to flood the market with thousands of unapproved FDCs.

It is interesting to note that the health ministry crackdown on FDCs will mean that those affected include some market leaders using codeine-based formulations like Pfizer’s Corex cough syrup and Abbott’s Phensedyl. Among the FDCs banned include seven containing codeine, 16 combinations containing nimesulide, which has anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-pyretic properties, 79 combinations containing paracetamol, the most popular analgesic, 42 combinations of popular anti-histamine, cetirizine, and 64 combinations of popular decongestant phenylephrine. For years now, health experts have warned against FDCs that contained combinations of nimesulide and paracetamol because of its extreme hepato-toxic potential. Five of the 335 FDCs now banned had nimesulide and paracetamol combinations and many of the FDCs had combinations of paracetamol-phenylephrine, paracetamol-cetirizine and cetirizine-phenylephrine. The health ministry notification stated that an expert committee appointed by the central government could find no “therapeutic justification” for these combinations.

In a paper published in the journal PLOS Medicine in May 2015 by Patricia McGettigan and others, the researchers had discovered that over 73 per cent of the 124 analgesic FDC formulations marketed in India were not approved by the regulating authority, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). The paper goes on to state that the multiple unapproved FDC formulations have, in turn, given rise to hundreds of unapproved FDC branded products, of varying dosages. Based on the expert committee’s recommendations, the government has now exercised its powers under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, to ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of these FDCs. However, despite the existence of the CDSCO, the very fact that so many unapproved FDCs could find their way to the market explains the state of our pharmaceutical vigilance. Even the official mechanisms to report adverse reactions to these FDCs are ineffective, which could explain why there is little publicity or research or awareness about the side-effects. So claims by the pharma companies that these FDCs are safe for consumption will have to be taken with a pinch of salt. It is also noteworthy that many of the FDCs are banned in developed countries like the US. As it is unclear what scientific methodology was used by the expert committee to certify these drugs as unsafe, pharma companies like Pfeizer have already challenged the order in court and secured an interim stay on the Corex ban. But the more important question is if the regulator, the CDSCO, and its counterparts in the states can now ensure that the production of hundreds of branded medicines containing these banned FDCs is stopped and all current stocks of these medicines are withdrawn from retail shops.

an·al·ge·sic

(chiefly of a drug) acting to relieve pain.

ef·fi·ca·cy

The ability to produce a desired or intended result.

nimesulide

Nimesulide is a relatively COX-2 selective, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with analgesic and antipyretic properties.

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