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Kerala’s trauma

The unprecedented deluge in Kerala unleashed by heavy rain, overflowing rivers, brimming dams and massive landslips.
State government and rescue agencies are struggling to make a complete assessment of the devastation.
164 people have died so far, 3,14,000 people had been moved to more than 2,094 relief camps. The number is going up.
There is an outpouring of goodwill and support from across the country and even abroad.
It indeed needs all the support it can get.
When people were served notices to evacuate, no one did, ”
The dam had released its waters in 1981 and 1992 as well. It is typically done when the water level is near full reservoir capacity, in order to ease the pressure on the structure, and there had been no damage on those occasions.
This time around, after the second and the third gates were opened in quick succession, the surging waters forced people to flee their homes, leaving everything behind, and take shelter in their kin’s houses in the upper reaches.
The southwest monsoon, which has pounded Kerala with 29.5% excess showers as of August 15.
James Wilson, Kerala’s special officer for Interstate Water, contends that the situation now is a repeat of the 1961 floods, the second biggest to hit the State in a century.
Tourism has been badly affected. In Munnar, the blooming of the Neelakurinji flower (Strobilanthes kunthianus), which occurs every 12 years, was expected to draw in the crowds.
In the wake of the tragedy, there have been calls to implement the Madhav Gadgil Committee report (2011) on the Western Ghats.

Front Page News

82,000 rescued in battered Kerala
Bigger boats, more choppers to be deployed in flood-hit areas; more heavy rain forecast for 48 hours
Hundreds of volunteers and fishworkers in Kerala joined teams from the armed forces, the National Disaster Response Force, and State government agencies on Friday in a massive operation to rescue over 82,000 persons from flooded locations in four districts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached here late in the night ahead of an aerial survey of the State on Saturday.

No child left behind

NFHS-4 in 2015-16, Global Nutrition Report 2016 and the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017, which ranks India at 100 out of 119 countries, with a low overall score of 31.4.
Poor nutrition in India, especially among children, adolescent girls and women is compelling
Wasting in children less than 5 years: 21% in the 2017 index — it was 20% in 1992
Reduction in stunting: from 61.9% in 1992 to 38.4% in 2017
Mortality among children less than 5: declined to around 5% from 11%
25% of India’s children less than 5 years old are still malnourished.
190.7 million people in India sleep hungry every night • Over half of adolescent girls and women are anaemic.

Flagship program

National Nutrition Mission (NNM), or Poshan Abhiyaan of Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Its own specific budget of ₹9,046 crore and a proposed World Bank loan of $200 million, to ensure convergence among the various programmes of the government.
NITI Aayog: National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) for 100 districts.

Cynical view

We have seen such declarations before – after all, the special attention to nutrition was highlighted in 2008 when the Prime Minister’s National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges was constituted.
A detailed report, “Addressing India’s Nutrition Challenges” , was submitted in 2010 by the Planning Commission, the convergence of an extensive and multi-sector consultation. But nothing changed significantly.

Optimistic view

Exploring new models & structures: learning from what has worked or not
Focus: implementation will be critical to delivering better nutritional outcomes

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: will contribute positively to nutrition outcomes, and well-structured public-private partnerships could be the catalyst.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), with its network of 1.4 million Anganwadi Centres, reaching almost 100 million beneficiaries who include pregnant and nursing mothers and children up to 6 years
Mid-day meals (MDM) that reach almost 120 million children in schools
Public Distribution System (PDS) that reaches over 800 million people under the National Food Security Act.
The National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) has set very ambitious targets for 2022 and the Poshan Abhiyaan has also specified threeyear targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition and low birth weight by 2% each year, and to reduce anaemia by 3% each year.
Both the NNS and the NNM have recognised the criticality of working collaboratively across Ministries; yet both are silent on the constructive role that the private sector, development agencies and civil society can and must play in realising these ambitious goals

Involving the best nutritionists
Food fortification
Multiple campaigns: Nutrition is complex, and therefore its delivery must be simplified through greater awareness and actions.

How the ‘deep state’ gamed the system

Uninterrupted democracy for the past decade has inspired hope.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto reign is the closest we can trace to a genuine civilian advantage over the military structure.
The Pakistan army had been thoroughly discredited after its defeat in the 1971 war.
Pakistan army learned its lesson and in the 1980s consciously cultivated a new network of politicians to counterbalance the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
As Christophe Jaffrelot notes, “From the start of his career in Punjab under Zia’s patronage until the election campaign of 1990, [Nawaz] Sharif owed his political success wholly to military support. But even if he was the most famous client of the security establishment, he was not the only one to enjoy its protection.”
Similarly, Imran Khan should be viewed as another strategic investment by the deep state that dislodged the erstwhile twoparty structure monopolised by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the PPP.
Symbiotic military-civilian relationship: both groups collectively profit from the systematic plundering
‘HYBRID STATE’: whereby the military establishment, acutely conscious of the costs of martial rule, has promoted an alternative framework so that there is a ‘buffer’ between the army and society.

Important News

India bids goodbye to its gentleman politician
South Asian Leaders Pay Last Respects to Vajpayee
Proposal for city-level GDP under study
With urban India responsible for an increasingly large share of the national GDP, the Centre now hopes to bring out city-level GDP data.
This could help both cities and investors make wise decisions, and also help municipal bodies raise funds for their own infrastructure needs, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
The urban sector is likely to account for three-fourths or 75% of India’s GDP by 2020, according to government data as well as several external reports. This is a sharp spike from 1951, when the urban sector only accounted for 29% of the national GDP. By 1981, it was 45%, and by 2011, it had crossed the 60% mark.
SC for lower storage at Mullaperiyar

The Supreme Court on Friday suggested that the disaster management subcommittee, the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) and the supervisory panel monitoring the Mullaperiyar dam in flood-hit Kerala hold meetings to explore ways to reduce the water level in the dam to 139 feet.
It said every step should be taken to give advance warning to the people living in the downstream areas before water is released from the dam. The court said Kerala should follow the instructions issued by the NCMC on rescue and rehabilitation, while Tamil Nadu should “scrupulously” comply with any instruction to bring down the water level of the dam.
‘Aerodrome would hit Chilika’s biodiversity’
The Airports Authority of India’s move to set up a water aerodrome in Odisha’s Chilika Lake has stirred a controversy.
Local politicians cutting across party lines, green activists and fishermen in Chilika have all opposed the proposal to set up an aerodrome in one of Asia’s largest brackish water lagoons (खलीज), asserting that it would impact the lake’s biodiversity.
Prafulla Samantara, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, has accused the Centre and the State governments of tinkering with the biodiversity of the lagoon, which is designated a Ramsar site – wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
The endangered Irrawaddy dolphins are sensitive to sound pollution.
Rare ‘Bamboo Rat’ Photographed at Machu Picchu
A rare rodent species known as a “bamboo rat” that lives around the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu in Peru has resurfaced after a decade of absence and been photographed for the first time.
A specimen of the rodent Dactylomis peruanus was spotted by guards among bamboo trees at the citadel, which is surrounded by a protected area, said the National Service of Natural Protected Areas.
The last time the animal was recorded at Machu Picchu was in 2008.
The bamboo rat lives in subtropical or wet tropical areas, according to Peruvian authorities.
In Peru, the animal is on a list of creatures about which little is known because it is seen so rarely.