The Scandalous Abduction of Girls in Nigeria

 

With a population of 175 million Nigeria is the largest East African country both in terms of population and GDP but its per capita is half of South Africa. Nigeria is experiencing a crescendo of international opprobrium following abduction of over 270 girls from its northern states in April and May by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram. Boko Haram founded by Mohammed Yousuf in 2002 with Arabic name of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, meaning People Committed to Propagation of Prophet’s teaching and Jihad with initial motto of opposing western education. Their long term political goal is to establish a pure Islamic state ruled by Sharia. The group was popularly referred to as Boko Haram in the native tongue Hausa. Haram is something forbidden, Boko is fake or simply translated, western education is forbidden. The organisation has it foot hold in North Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger threatening the security of this region. With ruthless bomb attacks, assassinations and now abductions they have spread a reign of terror. United Nations Security Council has now added Boko Haram under the growing list of Al-Qaeda entities. It was designated as the most dangerous radical Muslim outfit after Taliban by the US.

In 2009 Boko Haram started attacking  mosques, churches and police stations. Nigerian forces retaliated with brutal crackdown and hanged their founder Yousuf. The group went underground and re-emerged in 2010 under the new leader Abubakar Shekau with sporadic attacks. It expanded operations between 2011 and 2012, the frequency and intensity of attacks increased in northern states affecting lives of 3 million people. In 2013, amidst escalating violence emergency has been imposed in the three northern states, the breeding grounds of Boko Haram by the President Goodluck Jonathan to contain the attacks. But for the past one year situation deteriorated and civilian killings have nearly doubled.

In March, 2014 Boko Haram intensified their campaign against western education, which they believed was corrupting young girls. They abducted girls from a school in Yobe and in Chibok in April while the students were writing their metric examinations.  Over 270 girls were kidnapped and held hostage. Further, they carried out a destructive urban bombing campaign in capital Abhuja where 70 civilians were charred to death. Till now 1500 people were reported killed by Boko Haram attacks this year. Under growing International ire, the president has now sought help from non- African countries. The United States, France, Britain, Israel and China have subsequently dispatched advisers to Nigeria.

Nigeria, the leading member of African Union (A.U) in spite of its unwillingness for outside help, is forced to seek military cooperation to tackle domestic insurgency. AU till recently has been very reluctant to deployment of European and American troops on African soil. Nigerian military which has a world-wide reputation of successfully leading international peace keeping missions like Forces of West African Nations to Liberia and Sierra Leone has failed miserably in rescuing the girls. The in capacity of the forces has been attributed to lack of trust, motivation and unavailability of sophisticated weaponry. Many believe that massive corruption prevalent in the country is ailing the military troops too. Following the failure of Nigerian forces to rescue the girls, the campaign “Bring back our girls” originated in Nigeria. It began gaining international ground after the first lady Michelle Obama and other business personalities started displaying these posters.

In the meanwhile Boko Haram reiterated their demand of release of detainees or payment of ransom in exchange for the freedom of kidnapped girls. US military strategists believe that the task of rescuing girls is extremely difficult owing to the remoteness of the place and ruggedness of the terrain. Further, the girls would have been separated into small groups, making the rescue efforts more difficult. President of Nigeria out of desperation requested France to convene African Summit of Francophone nations of West Africa, also the neighbours of Nigeria - Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger. At the meeting in Paris, the five nations have mutually agreed on intelligence coordination, sharing of information, centralisation of means, border surveillance. All the nations believed in a regional approach. It was decided to share intelligence and border surveillance to locate 270 abducted girls. While the Western countries obliged to provide the expertise and training to combat the extremists. Nations agreed for a greater need for such cooperation as the porous borders of these nations are used by militants for quicker penetration into new lands. The region is being stabilised by the militants by forging cooperative networks with radical Muslim organisations like Al-Qaeda.

France in the meanwhile is wary of American influence in this region as it intends to safeguard its pre-colonial influence over the sub-Saharan region. Further it is concerned about its Uranium reserves in Niger. America is hankering to gain foot hold in Africa. It wants to utilise this opportunity of extending help in combating terrorism to get strategic control over the rich, untapped oil and mineral reserves and flow of natural resources to countries like China. Nearly one-thirds of Oil imports to China are from Africa. It is also emerging as major trading partner and investor in Africa. Ever since Africa has become investment hub for emerging like China, India, Brazil, America has been anxiously waiting for an opportunity to set foot on African soil. As a part of this ambitious exercise, the US African Command (AFRICOM) was started by George Bush in 2007 to have a permanent military base in Africa. Initially it had a small base in Djibouti, a tiny country in Africa. Now AFRICOM has 18 operating stations and its operations have been steadily increasing. Now with the countries like Nigeria willing to offer a foot hold space, America has received a major fillip for its long standing ambitions. Nigerian people believe that inclinations of west are sinister. They are wary of American military intentions with cautionary tales in countries like Iraq and Pakistan. 

Nigeria was a former British colony. In 1914 Britain, merged both the Northern and Southern regions though they had separate administrations. In South Christian missionaries and colonial government opened schools to train skilled workers and local bureaucrats. In North, indirect rule via pre-colonial ruling class existed. Missionaries were banned in this region. Islamic clergy were funded to provide education through religious schools. Currently the relatively rich South west Nigeria is reaping the benefits of its oil reserves while northern part of the country is poverty stricken. Wealth inequality is extreme. North Nigeria has been spawning Islamist terrorists who largely oppose the western education, democracy and governance. Now Nigeria is under deep domestic crisis with hapless parents of the abducted girls and citizens hitting the streets but sadly, forces barely made any progress in rescuing the girls.  Hope the concerted efforts of all the nations can see light at the end of the tunnel........

 

 

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Certitude Of Hope

 

With Narendra Modi ascending to highest echelons of power officially, a new realm of hope and optimism pervades the nation. This is not the first time that a man from a humble beginning has made to the highest office of power. But for the younger generation, he has become a new icon of hope and inspiration as well.  India’s second prime minister Late Lal Bahadur Sastri, was another such figure who assumed reins of power in independent India. Due to his very short stint at the highest office, his contributions to nation remained obscure and uncelebrated. Thanks to the aggressive political marketing strategy to reach masses, early life of Modi and his steady rise to power is now popular among people who wish to emulate him.

After scripting scintillating victory, Modi’s moves have been closely followed by media and people with keen interest. To begin with his novel diplomatic move of extending an invitation to heads of SAARC nations for swearing in ceremony, first ever by any Indian prime minister has taken acclaimed political pundits and common man by surprise. Slowly he began to win hearts of people who have voted him to power out of desperation by his modest acts. His reverential bow to the steps of the Parliament has swept away people emotionally. Indeed it was a pleasant relief for millions of young Indians who were dismayed and anguished by unceremonious desecration of the temple of democracy in the last Parliament session. His opening emotional, passionate and patriotic acceptance speech in the parliament central hall reiterating his commitment of taking India to newer heights has made a mark on people’s heart.

Modi has been voted to power at a time, when people lost their hope in leaders and started abhorring the current breed of politicians. His clarion call of Ek Bharat, Shresht Bharat during election campaigning and promise of good governance offered a glimmer of hope to the young. He convinced people of being an Oasis in the political desert.  With the result he could romp home the most convincing victory and a majority for his party. Having reassuring the youth of total overhaul of the government, people’s expectations are sky high now. The fever of optimism has been so high that national Sensex has been bullish ever since exit poll results predicted a victory for Modi. Even gold prices have slumped to a new low. Business is riding high on this new wave of optimism and on prospect of a dynamic economic policy.  This new wave of positivity is expected to work wonders for a country like India where things have been bearish following successive eruptions of various scams from 2011. The poor governance and in adept leadership has taken a huge toll on nation. Consequently, mood nation has been off beat and economy began to perform badly followed by political commotion of disconcerted voices within government.

In constituting his team for India, Modi has yet again set an example by rewarding merit and hard work by accommodating new and young leaders in his cabinet. He allayed fears of feminists by inducting 25% of women into his cabinet. People and especially women folk had premonitions that Modi with his strong right wing affiliations would undermine women power. Indeed he lived up to the promise of empowering women by having 6 women as cabinet ministers and one minister of state with independent charge. With a compact and accomplished team of 45 members assisting the prime ministers in governance, India is set for a new journey. Again giving shape to his poll promise of minimum government maximum governance, he set a new precedent by clubbing relevant ministries. Interestingly, his cabinet doesn’t feature individuals with big names. There is no trace of buckling down under pressure in awarding the key portfolio’s as the legendary names didn’t make it to the team. Even individuals with high political back ground were also not cleared. Roles were clearly defined and talent has been richly rewarded. Leaders who were not even members of both houses of parliament were part of the lean team of ministers.  With this he triumphantly put an end to the dynastic rule and opened up new vistas for the young, aspiring, energetic and committed individuals to play an active role in nation building.

Modi’s style of working is very different and averse to existing manipulations of power politics. Smitten by his infectious commitment, Kiran Bedi, expressed her willingness to jump into political fray and openly acknowledged her inclination to work under his leadership. This new change would definitely change people’s perception towards politics. Consequently many who were defiant to be part of government earlier would push themselves and make contributions for nation building.

India is an emerging nation with majority of people hailing from middle class. The images of Modi meeting his mother and brothers of modest living touched the hearts of millions who began to find greater resemblances with their own lives. The persona of Modi had invigorated Indian youth who are in search of an iconic figure to lead the nation. They are truly impressed by the rise of a self-made man and began reposing tremendous faith in him. Intriguingly, on the other hand, he is hugely shunned by a cross section of people who condemn him for the Gujarat riots 2002. His allegiance to RSS and an open proclamation of Hindu national has been another reason for his exclusion by the self-proclaimed progressive and elitist people. Political parties too have also singularly targeted Modi for his Hindutva ideology and carried out massive smear campaigns to tarnish his image. The election results have in a way given a befitting reply to these parties but still people are sceptical and brand him of indulging in partisan politics.

As he began his innings as prime minister of India with bilateral friendly talks with heads of SAARC nations, there are speculations that he would walk the talk. In India, majority are middle class and they are able to connect up emotionally to Modi.  Well begun, is half done, perhaps holds true for the novel initiative taken by him. Let’s hope India would usher into a new era with Modi at the helm of affairs. May the young India with high aspirations and hopes for future realise their dream in shining and vibrant India. There are still miles to go....but let’s hope for the best....

Everything that is done in this World is done by hope –Martin Luther King

 

 

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Cataclysmic Glacier Melt Down

Two sections of people are inimitable for their responses to the changes in environment. The first group contains resolute environmentalists, perturbed by deviations in the climate and environment. While the other section simply override thoughts of the impending calamities of global warming and abuse of environment. But this indifferent attitude needs to be shunned as studies published in reputed International journals Geophysical Research Letters and Science recently had warned about imminent collapse of glaciers. Study revealed that the grounding line of Pine Island glacier and Thwaites Glacier retreated over 31km and 14km respectively during the period of 1992 to 2012. As the grounding line starts shrinking it become exposed to sea water wherein glacier melting is accelerated. Also the ice at the farther end starts pushing more quickly resulting in thinning of glacier. At least 6 glaciers that hold ice having capacity to increase the sea level by 4-13 ft have started melting consistently every year at significant rates. Computer modelling of the Thwaites Glacier, an early-collapsing glacier in West Antarctica indicated that changes have become irreversible or reached a point of no return. If the thawing of the glacier picks up speed, it has potential to increase the sea level by 1mm every year. Although it is a long drawn process but their eventual collapse is unstoppable.

As the leviathan glaciers of west Antarctica have started melting it would trigger a chain reaction. As opposed to popular belief, glacier melting is not triggered by general temperature rise. But the collapse is accelerated by strong winds pulling warm waters from oceans resulting in melting of the thick ice sheets from below. Global warming primarily contributed to strengthening of winds and the effect is magnified by holes in Ozone layer over Antarctica. Hence glacier thinning is linked to climate change and emissions in the years to come might pave way for a rapid collapse of these glaciers. If the humongous ice sheets were to be melt the sea level would rise by 4-13 feet submerging most of the countries along the coasts.

The recent trail of disastrous avalanches on the Himalayan terrain is the fall out of glacier melting. The deadly disaster claimed lives of 16 mountaineers last month following which the annual expedition to Mt. Everest has been suspended by Nepal. The annual terrain exploration expedition generated revenue worth $ 3.4 million to the impoverished nation in lieu of permit fees. Mountain glaciers account to 1% of frozen ice and have potential to increase sea level by 1-2 ft. These glaciers are located in regions where ambient temperatures are higher. So they tend to melt away faster than its counterparts at poles. Raising global temperatures have reduced Nepal’s glaciers by a quarter. Glacier melt down more often results in numerous flash floods, avalanches and landslides effecting lives of millions of mountain dwellers and people living in the low lying remote villages. Himalayan glaciers are life line of major Asiatic rivers and over a billion people living along these river basins. Raising temperatures especially in this part of the world have increased the frequency of flash floods. The most horrendous devastation that ravaged Uttarakhand killing over 5700 people last year has been caused by the meltdown of a glacier Chorabari at 3800 ft and subsequent eruption of Mandakini River. Often the melt down accumulates as lake at the base of the glaciers and sudden breakdown of the basins inundates the downstream villages. Although the meltdown of glaciers may initially increase the rundown of the rivers but if they melt fast, their effects would be perilous to the entire region.

Satellite images from the NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and IceSat indicated that glaciers are melting away releasing 260 billion metric tons of water every year. The members of the Dark Snow Project reported an increase in Arctic melt down in Greenland. It has 10% of World’s ice and can cause an increase in sea level by 23 ft. Meltdown has increased partly due to the increase in temperature, black carbon soot deposited by forest fires and industrial pollution. Albedo or the ability to reflect sun’s rays into space has decreased as the ice was blackened due to the deposition of black soot from forest fires. Further the warm waters flowing around the glaciers are enhancing melting. A complete melt down of all glaciers would increase sea level by 215 ft. Scientists fear that glacier melting is an irreversible process.

Research indicates that by the year 2100, glaciers might increase of sea level by 30-40 cm drastically affecting lives of 100 million people who live within a meter of sea level. Glacier water acts as thermal regulator by controlling the water temperatures, aquatic life and snow cover. These water supplies have a direct impact on agriculture, its allied activities and power generation. Glacier melt down might result in flooding in wet season and dry drought in the summers. Global warming has resulted in disappearance of most of the glaciers in British Columbia of West Canada as well.

Glaciers are rivers of ice frozen from snow in the colder regions. The snow freezes into granular, frozen ice called firn. This hardens further to form glaciers which move around the sides of mountains. Antarctica has the largest existing frozen ice mass. East Antarctica is colder and higher and doesn’t melt. Increased global warming has also led to an increase in snowfall thus containing the melting losses. But the ice in West Antarctica, has started showing signs of rapid melting. Scientists believe that as long as the emissions of heat trapping Carbon dioxide increases melting would continue.

Increased emissions of gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide are changing the atmospheric flux. During early 1970’s when the effects of global warming have been enunciated people were sceptical about its impact even. Only few were worried about the carbon foot print. But as the vicious effects of global warming have become more imminent, governments and corporations are vouching for stringent environmental conservation laws. The momentum is picking up but a lot needs to be done to avert the catastrophic effects of glacier meltdown.

 

 

 

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Election Analysis: Voters Spurned UPA

 

The 16th Lok Sabha elections were regarded as the most crucial post emergency not only for the veracity of the corruption and poor governance but also due to the growing resentment among people. Though the results were not completely unexpected or out of sync but were a rude shock to the pusillanimous Congress party which failed to qualify for the status of leader of opposition. A popular poll survey agency, Chanakya, which shot into fame for predicting eclectic performance of AAP in Delhi Assembly elections, had predicted similar results in its exit poll analysis for the NDA. But the exit poll predictions were largely undermined and dismissed by most political parties. They were characteristically cynical and arrogant. Some exit poll predictions projected much conservative numbers even. These were doing rounds after the final phase of elections and have tipped the possibility of a khicidi sarkar with various regional satraps becoming the king/Queen makers of the incumbent government. But much to the dismay of the ruling coalition and the pseudo-intellectual, class who never lost an opportunity to undermine the credentials of the prime minister nominee, of the erstwhile principle opposition party, the electorate have gifted a sweeping victory to the much abhorred leader, Narendra Modi. Interestingly, while the electoral verdict handed over to debutante political party AAP in the recent assembly elections was highly commended, a class of self-styled intellectuals are quite defiant to accept the electoral decision of the current Lok Sabha elections. The triumphant victory was dubbed by them as an act of polarisation.

After a span of nearly three decades Indian masses have delivered a clear majority to one national party, bringing an end to the growing regime of coalition governments. A stable government at centre, at this stage can reboot the economy and restore investor confidence. All the major strategic decisions can be executed firmly irrespective of the coalition approval. After a decade long rule of the muted and diffident Man Mohan Singh, at the helm of affairs, there has been a raging listless among people.

 A democratic nation endows its citizen to elect the government and this electoral process kicked off in India with first general elections in India in 1952. The concept of democratically electing people’s representatives was borrowed from the western world. Its cogency in a nation like India post independence was largely debated since majority were illiterate. This has eventually led to assigning various symbols to different political parties by the election commission to facilitate illiterate masses to elect representatives. But the contour of India has undergone greater transition over the period of six decades.

The demography of 21^st century India is different with 50% of its population under 35 years of age. Further with perceptible increase in literacy rates and high penetration of information and technology, there has been a gross change in perception of youth. Globalisation due to the economic reforms post 1991 has resulted in emergence of vibrant class of people with new aspirations for a better future. People now have high aspirations about better life and consciously want India to be an empowered nation. They realise the importance of good governance and the need for an efficient government. Or simply put, people are clear about what they want and whom they want. These resurgent masses can no longer be lured by subsidies and freebies. They have become more vigilant about issues related to country’s progress and development. People are now able to understand the implications of large scale of corruption and its impact on their daily lives. The last decade has witnessed a humongous numbers of money swindling cases and scams resulting wide spread anger. The growing desperation among people and their fervent hope for a change in governance together resulted in decimation of the ruling government.

Unlike yesteryears where more than half of the eligible voters were illiterates and their electoral choices were largely confounded by the parameters of race, religion, caste etc. Young India is effusively energetic. They have defied the clandestine discriminatory barriers and en masse voted for a new hope. These elections have witnessed a new precedent, where people have mercilessly rejected the leaders who went on a spree of shamelessly indulging in ruthless and massive corruption. People made a clarion call to politicians to seriously shed their feudalistic attitude and refrain from taking people’s approval for granted. In the mad rush for power, politicians across the parties have failed to connect up with people.

In this election people made a conscious decision of giving a chance to development and good governance. But the situation across India across different sections has not been same. Election campaign this year experienced new lows with parties indulging in speeches laced with vicious and discriminatory monologues. It has become a rare predicament to find leaders delivering motivating speeches focussed on development and growth.  While leaders who have struck a chord with the aspirations of common man were amply rewarded others were made to bite dust.

Though the message has been loud and clear that people have a zero tolerance towards corruption and misgovernance, an analysis of the vote share indicated that BJP has the lowest vote share to secure majority. This indicates a sanguine change towards a new change but the divisive forces too had held their sway but fortunately, the vote share failed to translate into numbers. Still the winds of change have to brush past the majority for building a strong and vibrant India. May people voice reign supreme and may the democratic process be more strengthened so that every new positive transformation in the society can contribute towards betterment of nation as a whole.

 

 

 

 

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Vaccine Companies: An Indian Perspective

 

Vaccines are the miracle drugs that have substantially helped the mankind to prevent life -threatening diseases. Small pox, a vaccine preventable disease, was wiped off effectively by vaccines way back in 1978. Baring few countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria the World has now become Polio free. These two classical examples provide the impetus to further scientific research on vaccines and to make new advancements for their large scale production. Vaccines are averting 2.5 million deaths of children from vaccine preventable diseases. Proper immunization schedule together with sanitation and clean drinking water are curtailing nearly 10 million deaths of children annually.

Vaccines can be prophylactic or therapeutic. Prophylactic (preventive) vaccines ameliorate or prevent the disease. These are administered universally to children to prevent the incidence of various diseases like Polio, Measles etc. These vaccines are part of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and have lion’s share in global vaccine business.  While Therapeutic vaccines include cancer vaccines, given during the course of treatment. These are targeted to attack the growth of tumors but don’t cater to long term prevention of cancer. Prophylactic vaccines are available at low cost and are in great demand. In recent years demand for therapeutic vaccines has increased substantially. These are usually very expensive and have the promise of generating better revenues from both local and export markets.

Approximately 2.5 billion children need vaccines every year. Developed countries administer vaccines to children against 12 diseases whereas in India under the government immunization schedule vaccines are given for less than 5 diseases. It is believed that as countries become more economically empowered, substantial investments are made towards health sector and consequentially the vaccine usage would increase. Global vaccine market valued at $34 billion in 2012 (pediatric vaccines valued at $23 billion) is expected to increase to $56 billion by 2016. Vaccine business of Indian companies during the year 2012 stood at $600 million which is less than 2% of the Global Market. Four vaccine giants GSK, Sanofi-Aventis, Wyeth and Merck control nearly 71% of vaccine global market.

Indian vaccine companies are major suppliers of vaccines to UNICEF. World Health Organization (WHO) provides the service of prequalification (PQ) of vaccines to UNICEF and other UN agencies. PQ procedure of WHO ensures the purchase of vaccines of global standards of quality, safety and efficacy thereby promoting international standards in vaccine production. It is a kind of quality certification standard with an assurance that the vaccines are safe, effective and suitable for use in poor countries. These purchases are made from different agencies for maximum optimisation of health resources and outcomes.  Nearly two-thirds of world children are immunised with these PQ vaccines. Usually these are of high-quality and affordable. These are used for national immunisation programmes in developing world. India is one of the largest suppliers of the PQ vaccines. About 31 preventive vaccines are listed in the prequalified list of vaccines manufactured by 27 companies from 20 countries. India produces 20 vaccines in different combinations under 60 different brand names. There are still 11 vaccines which are not produced in India. Indian companies, Bharat Biotech, Chiron Behring Vaccines, Biological E, Zydus Cadilla, Pancea, Haffkine Biopharmaceutical and Serum Institute of India supply to UNICEF. There is still a great scope for improvement and for more players to enter the fray.

Recently Shan-5, a pentavalent vaccine developed and manufactured by Shanta Biotech has acquired prequalification status. It is effective against Diphtheria, tetanus, Pertussis, HiB and Hepatitis B. As more Indian vaccines acquire this status, the potential of India emerging as a global hub for various biologics will improve. Vaccines constitute the largest component of the Indian biopharma segment and immense opportunities lie in creating an ecosystem in India that will take India to the next level as a hub for global biologics. China dominates the low cost PQ vaccines. It has already proved its mettle by becoming the first ever country to obtain a PQ status for a new vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis (JE). It has huge vaccine manufacturing facilities capable of producing high-quality and low cost vaccines for developing countries and emerged as second major player in vaccine market after the US.

Vaccine development and large scale production is a very arduous process. It involves lot of researching, testing and manufacturing. Development and testing of a vaccine usually takes around 15 years and costs around 200-800 million USD in developed countries whereas it is 100 USD in developing countries. Developing countries like India have attained greater economies of scale in production of traditional EPI vaccines using time tested technology. Consequently these countries have started exporting EPI vaccines to UNICEF and other agencies but not to other industrialized nations at inexpensive prices. Unfortunately, developing countries like India have failed to embark on newer vaccine production as they lack needed expertise. Developing Countries Vaccines Manufacturing Network (DCVMN)  constituted by 34 members from 14 countries contribute to 86% of vaccine doses amounting to 10-12% of global vaccine market in terms of value. Market for developing world is through UN agencies, UNICEF, GAVI and PAHO (Pan American Health Organization). Egypt, Mexico, Algeria, Turkey obtain vaccines from private markets directly. UN agencies procure nearly 40% of World vaccine supplies.

Vaccine companies in industrialized countries, develop newer vaccines. They invest many years in developing newer technologies, spend several millions of dollars and follow stricter patent regimes. Since the technology has been discovered and owned by a single or few manufacturers’ vaccines supply is meager, leading to higher pricing of vaccines.  International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA) is constituted by such 25 international companies. They generate 80-85% of revenues of global vaccine market and contribute to 12-15% of global vaccine requirement. They supply vaccines to developing world through tiered pricing.

Rejuvenated by the success of the Pulse Polio Immunisation Program India is now on a mission mode to eradicate measles and rota virus. Government procurement of vaccines has subsequently increased. As Government has decided to phase out the oral polio drops in the next two years and replace it with injectable polio vaccines, there will be greater demand for more vaccine doses too.  Other important growth drivers propelling resurgence of the vaccine industry are -swift increase in the population growth, large populations which are to be immunised, increasing focus of governments on national immunisation schemes, fast growing private markets for vaccines, innovative international initiatives to reach out to the unimmunised populations. Hence there is huge demand for vaccines globally. Institutes like GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), WHO, PAHO have pledging to vaccinate every single child across the world. India has a great potential to produce and export vaccines. Indian vaccines companies have recorded 25 % growth during the year 2012. With proper government support and transfer of technology from Western World Indian companies are touted to attain more than 50% growth.

 A new set of vaccines have been developed for meningococcal meningitis, diarrheal disease, rota virus, avian influenza caused by H1N1, pneumococcal disease and cervical cancer caused by human papiloma virus (HPV). Indigenous vaccine companies must acquire the expertise and master the technology of bulk production of these new vaccines to expand its leverage in the ever growing, intensely competitive global vaccine market.

 

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Second/ Global Citizenship – A Fall Out of Lopsided Growth Phenomenon

The new craze of obtaining second citizenship is catching up with the Ultra wealthy and super rich classes of people in India and China. The second citizenship or the global citizen is the process of obtaining residence in a foreign land. High Net worth (HNW) or rich Indians are individuals with net worth of $ 30 million or more and constitute one of the largest populations of individuals abroad.

 

 

Already China and India has sizeable number of individuals in foreign lands. As the precedent has been set, more and more people are moving to newer lands. In most of the cases, the reasons for such a movement is for better standard of living, greater stability and security, tax efficiency, ease of travel, increased options for children’s education and investment opportunities. In order to obtain such secondary citizenship, individuals have to shell out money for making business investments in the new land to a tune of around £ 1 million for Britain or $ 500,000 in potentially risky projects (various foundations or partnerships). Investor initially gets EB5 visa (temporary residence) and after two years he can get permanent residence (green card) if the business has created more than 10 jobs. Dual citizenship is recognised in US. After 7 years of residence second citizenship is possible. It just costs 0.5% of their liquid assets or 0.1% of their net worth to enjoy the positive benefits of the country.

As per Britain’s Migratory Advisory Committee India is the fifth largest nationality to infuse funds in UK after the introduction of the investor VISA scheme in 2008. Under this scheme individuals are required to make business investments of minimum of £ 1 million in government gilts or loan but a British passport is not offered. Russian Oligarchs top the list with 850 followed by Chinese (496), US citizens (96), Egyptian millionaires (46) and Indians (44) in order. Billionaire Pallonji Mistry got Irish citizenship under similar scheme. One in every seven ultra high net worth individuals (UHNW) in the World- of the 2,00,000 UHNWs 27,000 are either an Indian or Chinese. Other countries which offer second citizenship are St. Kitts and Nevis, Common Wealth of Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria and Australia. While permanent residency can be obtained from Hong Kong and Singapore by making business investments citizenship is ruled out as dual citizenship is not recognised.

As trillions of wealth is being generated in Asia which constitutes 60% of world population, more and more HNW individuals are moving off shores for various benefits which they are unable to get in their home lands. Europe is the most popular destination in terms of UHNW secondary citizenship applications. A study carried out in China, revealed the pattern and reasons for self-willed  migration. It was found that most of the upper middle class are trying to move to different countries. Most of the skilled people are not seeking better employment opportunities or better political freedom but a better quality of life. Most of them are tired of the persistent rat race, one child policy, stressed life, and slackened safety- net. A vast majority of them are leaving for the country for good. Unlike the past waves of migration, people are now leaving the country not for financial gains. As a result in the past decade nearly 1 million Chinese have obtained permanent resident status in Canada. They are now making up for the large chunk of resident populations in America and Australia as well. Their residency has nearly doubled in Italy accounting to almost 1,20,000.  With a steep surge in the Chinese migration, countries like Canada have begun to step up their barriers. But the economically hit south European countries are easing up the regulations to lap up the cash reserves of skilled Chinese business men into their countries.

Greece and Portugal are now offering residency at a much lower investments than in Canada. The super wealthy Chinese are now literally spread all across the globe. As the real estate has picked up in China, people are selling off their immovable assets in Beijing and are moving to different countries that offer them more positive benefits. For most of them living abroad has become a less costly affair too. While it is necessary in America, Australia or Canada to stay there to qualify for citizenship- referred to as immigration jail, is not mandatory in Italy or Greece. Of late, these exit routes from mainland are mostly availed by the corrupt Chinese officials to migrate to foreign lands since anti-corruption drive has been intensified. Now with the worst ever pollution threats and rampant corruption Chinese are in search of safe havens. The motto seems to be: if you want to be a millionaire stay in China, else move out and enjoy life.

This study clearly portrays the effects of the lopsided growth of China though hailed and emulated by various countries. India is next in line, itching for similar growth phenomenon. The economic prosperity evident in China is absent in India as of now. But as we are progress towards a better growth rate and higher per capita income with inadvertent destruction of the natural resources, India is at potential risk of falling into the same trap. No doubt substantial economic gains would enhance the purchasing capacity of the citizens, but the quality of life might be sub-standard. Development should better lives of the citizens in every aspect- better quality of life, availability of basic needs like safe drinking water, electricity, housing facilities, education and enhanced social security through conservation or optimum utilisation of natural resources. In short, good governance is the key for a vibrant nation else the citizens with big pockets might flock to foreign lands for a superior quality of life.

 

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Voting Rights for Indian Diaspora

India is currently going through the long drawn electoral carnival where almost 80.5 Crores people are going to exercise their Adult Franchise. The 16^th Lok Sabha elections are characterised by remarkable enthusiasm as elections so far have recorded highest polling ever. However, the Indian Diaspora abroad is deprived of this proud privilege. Indian Diaspora comprises of two distinct categories- Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Non- Resident Indians (NRI). PIOs as the name suggests are Person of Indian Origin or ancestry whose ancestors were born in India or nations with Indian ancestry but not a citizen of India and have acquired the citizenship of a different country. While NRI is a citizen of India holding Indian passport  and has emigrated to a different country temporarily for a period of six months or more for employment or education or residence etc.

It sounds ridiculous that a nation that tops the global remittances with whopping $71 billion (little short of three times the money received through FDI) and an IT superpower failed to evolve a mechanism to allow 10 millions of Indians abroad to cast votes in elections. 115 countries of the World allowed its overseas citizens to vote albeit with some restrictions on the number of years of overseas stay. These include 28 African countries which are less developed. India too falls in this illustrious list after it has made amendments in the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010 by inserting section 20A in the Representation of People Act, 1950. As per the new amendment, a person who is a citizen of India and hasn’t acquired the citizenship of any other country is eligible to be registered as a voter. They can get their name registered as a voter by filing duly filled Form 6A and sending the same to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of their respective constituency as per the place of residency mentioned in the passport. Now a provision has been made to send the form directly to the district collector.

Election commission provides the facility of postal ballot to ‘service voters’ that includes individuals who are residing outside India and employed in a post under government and working for the cause of the Nation. This group includes members of armed forces and persons who are employed by Government and residing outside the country on government duty. Spouses of these people are also eligible for postal ballot. But persons who are temporarily out of their polling station for employment, education or working for private sector even within and outside the country are not eligible for postal ballot. Thus, the huge numbers of the Indians living abroad are denied of their franchise. Different countries across the world have adopted different mechanisms to facilitate overseas voters. These include postal ballot, internet voting, voting through proxies. Interestingly, two countries Estonia and Netherlands allow internet voting while Australia accepts voting by fax.

Even Supreme Court in its recent judgement has directed the authorities to remove hurdles for NRIs to vote from their country of residence. But it also admitted the inability of Election Commission (EC) to allow postal or electronic voting this season. The decision was widely welcomed by Diaspora who is very emotional and touchy about the issues of national importance and look forward for greater political participation. India may allow the postal ballots at the diplomatic mission abroad as they do it for other Indian diplomats serving in foreign nations.  But the whole proposition of Diaspora voting is an uphill task and jammed with impediments of huge dimensions.

As a preface to the whole process, a separate section of Overseas Electors is created and all the registered overseas voters are included under this section in the relevant constituencies. Thus, overseas voter can cast the vote in their constituency in person. As of now no consolidated voting method has been adopted by EC for the overseas voters who are unable to cast ballot in person. Internet voting has been ruled out as it is prone to hacking. It is not possible to organise voting for huge numbers of the persons by postal ballot in consulates and Embassies as they are constrained by limited manpower and infrastructure. Moreover, it is difficult to send large number of postal ballots to lakhs of overseas electorate spread in different countries within a limited period of 15 days. Generally the duration between the day of finalisation of list of contesting candidates and the date of counting is 18-19 days. The returning officer will require at least 2 days for printing and dispatch of postal ballot. Even staff in consulate is not allowed to cast postal ballot as it is not a workable option. Also, they might belong to different constituencies and arranging Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for all of them is not a workable option. If the EC were to allow the postal ballot of overseas Indians, it must be able to provide 543 EVMs for Parliamentary Constituencies and 4120 Assembly Constituencies showing the ballot paper (if both are held together). In some countries there are large populations of Indian electors that it would be impossible to arrange polling on a single day at Indian Missions. EVMs are to be arranged at several Indian missions in large countries otherwise people have to drive several miles to reach the embassies. It would be very difficult to arrange for the personnel to conduct polls and making security arrangements, etc in foreign land.  

Though disenfranchisement of 10 million Indians living abroad is of serious concern so far little progress has been made to find out a suitable voting mechanism for this large chunk voting in absentia. Of the 14,000 online valid applications received for registration with election authorities 12,653 voters are from Kerala. Owing to large scale difficulties in opting for postal ballot Supreme Court was convinced of e-voting as suitable mechanism provided it acts as an effective fool proof system. Government is keen on enfranchisement of its Diaspora and actively pursuing suitable mechanisms for the same.

 

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