Table of Contents
Anatomy of an outbreak
• The detection of the virus is an indicator of the proper functioning of the surveillance system.
• Ebola is a constant threat in the DRC. What adds to our confidence in the country’s ability to respond is the transparency they have displayed once again… we will fight this one as we did the last,” WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
• While Congo has displayed its considerable experience and also promptness in its response, WHO has also made similar moves.
WHO released $1 million from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies. Its multidisciplinary team began an active search for cases and people who had come in contact with those who were infected. Then, treatment facilities and mobile laboratories were set up and the community educated on safe practices.
• But despite the pro-active measures this time, 14 laboratory-confirmed cases were reported about 10 days after the outbreak was declared.
• Most were in remote, hard-to-reach areas.
• VSV-EBOV, an investigational vaccine, developed by Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory and manufactured by Merck.
• In total, 3,330 people were vaccinated (May 21-June 30).
• On July 24, WHO announced the end of the outbreak when a period of 42 days (two incubation periods) following the last possible exposure to a confirmed case had elapsed without any new confirmed cases being detected.
Change gears
• India’s law governing motor vehicles and transport is archaic (प्राचीन), lacking the provisions necessary to manage fast motorisation.
• The lacunae (खाममयों) in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, require to be addressed to improve road safety, ensure orderly use of vehicles and expand public transport.
• The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha last year, seeks to do this, but it has now run into opposition in the Rajya Sabha because of its perceived shift of power from the States to the Centre.
• Concurrent List: Parliament can make a law defining powers available to the States.
• Some State governments are concerned about the new provisions, Sections 66A and 88A, which will empower the Centre to form a National Transportation Policy through a process of consultation, and not concurrence.
• The changes will also enable Centrallydrafted schemes to be issued for national, multi-modal and inter-State movement of goods and passengers, for rural mobility and even last-mile connectivity.
• Major investments made in the urban metro rail systems are yielding poor results in the absence of last-mile connectivity services.
• Regulatory changes introduced in Europe over the past few years for bus services have fostered competition, reduced fares and increased services operating across European Union member-states.
• Road safety: we are likely to achieve little without strong enforcement by the States.
• It is the certainty of enforcement, zero tolerance and escalating penalties that will really work.
The problem at the WTO
• Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank & International Monetary Fund) were to embed the new financial trade order.
• An International Trade Organisation (ITO) was also to be created to establish multilateral rules for the settlement of trade disputes.
• Adherence to the rules of an international trade organisation was expected to serve as an important domestic incentive (and imperative) for governments by allowing them to resist protectionist demands and provide for greater legal certainty.
• Successive multilateral conferences were held between 1946 and 1948, and led to the adoption of the Havana Charter, a draft agreement for the creation of the ITO.
• The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) came to replace the ITO, interestingly as an ad hoc and provisional mechanism.
• Four decades later, the U.S. drove the agenda to establish the World Trade Organisation (WTO) purely to pursue its own commercial interests.
• In trade wars, the objective is not to settle a dispute; it is to win the battle.
• The U.S. has systematically blocked the appointment of new Appellate Body members (“judges”) and de facto impeded (बाधा डालना) the work of the WTO appeal mechanism.
• With only four working members out of seven normally serving office in July 2018, the institution is under great stress.
• One needs to bear in mind that the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is not a world trade court. The process remains political and diplomatic.
• Beijing might well be the new WTO leader.
• China has largely benefited from the rules-based WTO system.
• Beijing is unlikely to unite with Brussels against Washington.
• The world has changed and multilateral institutions now have to embed these changes.
• The time has come for the emerging economies and the developing world to have a greater say in how to shape multilateralism and its institutions.
Brexit troubles
• Both the EU and the U.K. are against a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, key to the Good Friday Agreement that has ensured peace on the island since 1998.
• Mr. Barnier pointed out that goods and services are often inextricably linked, and that the U.K. cannot expect to have free movement of goods without free movement of services, people and capital — the ‘four freedoms’ of being part of the European Single Market — nor, as an external party, expect to be allowed to collect customs duties on the EU’s behalf.
Important News
• J&K tense ahead of SC hearing
• Complete shutdown in Kashmir Valley to defend Article 35A; Amarnath yatra suspended
• A day ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on whether a Constitution Bench should go into the question of Article 35A, which empowers the State legislature to define “permanent residents” and provide special rights and privileges to them.
• Article 35A lets the J&K Legislature decide the “permanent residents” of the State, prohibits a non-J&K resident from buying property in the State and ensures job reservation for its residents.
• The special status was bestowed on Jammu and Kashmir by incorporating Article 35A in the Constitution, by an order of President Rajendra Prasad under Article 370 in 1954 on the advice of the Nehru Cabinet. Parliament was not consulted.
• Article 368 (1) of the Constitution mandates that only Parliament can amend the Constitution by introducing a new Article.
• However, there were no reports of any violence.
• The State administration has submitted to the SC to defer the hearing “in the wake of preparations being made for upcoming panchayat and municipal polls in J&K and its fallout on the law and order situation.
• Sources said Governor N.N. Vohra, in a letter last month, also conveyed to the Centre the ground situation and warned against any move to scrap the Article.
• Both the Centre and the State government have not filed any counter affidavit before the SC.
• SC judges upset at change in Justice Joseph’s seniority
• A few Supreme Court judges intend to meet Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Monday to express dissatisfaction over the government altering Justice K.M. Joseph’s seniority, making him junior to Justices Indira Banerjee and Vineet Saran in the apex court.
• According to highly placed sources in the Supreme Court, the judges are “upset and agitated” by the way the government seemed to have overlooked the fact that the collegium had “separately reiterated” Justice Joseph’s name to the government on July 16, before recommending Justices Banerjee and Saran.
• “It depends on the Chief Justice of India… how he wants to handle it. Unless the matter is taken up immediately by the CJI, nothing is going to happen,” Justice Lodha said.
• India taps Antigua for Choksi extradition
• Official sources said a team from India was sent to Antigua a few days ago to persuade the authorities there to extradite Choksi.
• Hotline to figure in talks with Chinese Minister
• U.K. to have new organ donation law
• The proposed new system of consent for organ and tissue donation, which will presume that people have agreed to transplants unless they have specifically opted out, is expected to come into effect in England in 2020 as part of a drive to help Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people.
• Govt. to seek new bids for Pawan Hans
• The government will soon invite fresh bids for 100% stake sale in Pawan Hans by issuing an addendum to the disinvestment document as ONGC is ready to sell its entire stake in the company, an official said.
• Helicopter services provider Pawan Hans is a joint venture between the government, which holds 51% stake, and state-owned ONGC, which owns the remaining 49% shareholding. Pawans Hans has a fleet of 46 choppers.
• ‘Solar duty may do more harm than good’
• Safeguard duty on solar panels from China, Malaysia not only offers little to domestic makers, but may also hurt existing projects
• The government implemented a 25% safeguard duty on solar cell imports from China and Malaysia for the period between July 30, 2018 and July 29, 2019.
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