Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Jyotsna Pandit

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has claimed its first canine victim. A stray dog has died of the virus in the Caspian nation of Azerbaijan, raising fears of a similar outbreak in India. As a result, the ministry of health and the ministry of animal husbandry have stepped up surveillance over cats, dogs and pigs. Samples are being collected and tested as soon as any news of mortality among these animals is reported. States have been asked to implement .......more

Economics of Naxalite resurgence

Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala

Synthetic diamonds
here to stay

By Kusum Mehta

EDITORIAL

For best view

If one drives to Akhnoor from this city and looks on the other side of the mighty Chinab in the last leg one will see a historic citadel and a couple of shrines. This is an imposing sight. The fort is known for the coronation of Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1822. The Archaeological Survey of India has been preserving it. As one moves nearer after taking a circuitous route through the only bridge one comes to know that Akhnoor has actually been a Harappan site, the only one of its kind to have been excavated so far in the State. The slope to the shrines also leads to a raised platform on one side of which someone has inscribed a poem written by late Dogri poet Padamdev Singh "Nirdosh" who was a local hero. For many this part of the Chinab is as sacred as the Ganga. They immerse the ashes of their beloved ones in its waters. Therefore, the entire atmosphere on this particular spot is holy. Once there one gets a feeling that one is at as magnificent a location as Haridwar or Rishikesh. There is so much religion and history woven around it. As one's imagination runs riot one finds that the entire bank can be developed as a top-class tourist destination and a regular picnic spot particularly during summers. After all, how many places in the country can claim such privileged setting? Chinab is considered the world's coldest river. Naturally the air passing through it has a remarkably soothing effect and has earned for Akhnoor (light of the eyes) a well-merited name. However, it turns out that we are not the first ones to think of improvement and promotion of its fences. Someone in the Union Tourism and Culture Ministry has already done a little homework. As it is a sum of about Rs 1.14 crores has been released so far during the current financial year in the name of "development of Chinab river front at Akhnoor". This constitutes a major portion of the total Rs 1.42 crores earmarked for the current financial year. The expenditure has been sanctioned under a scheme for "product/infrastructure development of destinations and circuits". Local inhabitants can always test its actual implementation with their own eyes.

Akhnoor is one of the six beneficiaries in the State of Central financial assistance. Its aim is "to preserve, retain and enrich natural resources to ensure regulated growth of tourism and for achieving sustainable tourism development". Five other plans in the State along with their sanctioned expenditure are: Pahalgam golf course (Rs 4.32 crores), Gulmarg golf course upgradation (Rs 2 crores) integrated J&K circuit (Rs 7.99 crores), Kongdoor ski destination (Rs 4.35 crores) and Patnitop infrastructural facilities (Rs 4.61 crores). In all there are 96 spots across the country selected in this category which has its basic thrust on growth of eco-tourism. For understandable reasons J&K happens to be among the biggest recipients of the monetary aid.

The State Government may do better by exploiting the full tourism potential along both sides of the Chinab. From the Himachal border to Akhnoor the river roars through hills and plains. Experts can identify spots on the way for sight-seers to have best views and facilities. Surely, the Indus Treaty will not be an obstacle.

Heed this fatwa

This is one fatwa against terrorism which deserves to be admired. For, if followed in letter and spirit it can usher in sanity in the present world. What is equally remarkable is the role played by the educated Muslim women of Varanasi in this behalf. They have actually taken the lead in securing this religious edict in writing. Their concern like that of every citizen in the country must have been stirred by the recent bomb blasts in the holy town. In response to their plea, Mufti-e-Banaras (old but still popular name of Varanasi) and Imam of Shahi Masjid Gyanavapi has quoted extensively from Quran in support of his three-page proclamation that thinks little of those resorting to violence and bloodshed. He has ruled that a person of any country or religion involved in act of terrorism goes against the teaching of Islam. Such persons could not be termed as religious-minded, as terrorists have no religion. "Islam not only restricts a person from doing wrong but also commands not to support evil as it is sin", according to the Mufti. The fatwa says: "Islam is synonymous with peace and protection of humanity. Allah has expressed unhappiness on those acts that breach peace." It adds: "Allah says: Slaying an individual without any reason is a heinous crime and sin; if one kills an innocent person, it is the killing of entire humanity; and if one saves an innocent person it is an act of protecting the entire humanity". Two women --- Ms Qamar Jehan, former head of the Urdu department of the Banaras Hindu University and Ms Muniza Rafiqu Khan, registrar of the Gandhian Institute of Studies, had desired to know whether terrorism had any place in Islam. The former also wanted to understand the meaning of new terminology "Islamic terrorism" in the light of teachings of Quran. Mufti Maulana Abdul Batain Nomani gave the verdict that all human beings of the world were members of the family of Allah. He stated that the safety of each individual was essential and there was no barrier of religion or geographical boundary. He referred to specific portions of holy Quran which strictly denounce the act of violence. "It is the duty of each and every Muslim to have good relations with all individuals irrespective of their religion", he decreed.

Indeed it is heartening that for every voice in support of the terror there are at least two against it. There is turmoil in the Muslim world. It can't be denied that extremists are going ahead with their crude version of jihad. But at the same time it is also true that the self-professed Islamic states (Saudi Arabia for instance) and the intelligentsia of the community almost all over are quite vocal in speaking up against the evil. Certain fatwas are blatantly discriminatory and ridiculous. There is one, for instance, in the neighbouring country which prohibits terrorism in Pakistan but justifies it elsewhere. It defies imagination that there should be two standards for measuring a wicked threat to the humanity as a whole. There can't be any ambivalent attitude in this matter. Terrorism is a curse that has to be wiped out from the world. The latest message from Varanasi is very encouraging. Who can deny its relevance to this State?

Avian flu catastrophe

By Jyotsna Pandit

Information has been filtering of high mortality among pigs. Samples from North-East and Baroda have been collected. The pigs in North-East died of swine fever while the results on the Baroda samples are yet to come. There is an element of risk that the virus may jump from birds to animals. The central government has planned to monitor pigs and cats after reports received from Germany on the avian influenza virus affecting civet cats. Almost a year ago, the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory tested 15 pig samples but could not spot the virus. However, now, with thousands of bird samples being tested every week at Bhopal, there is shortage of manpower and technical resources to also start testing samples of animals randomly from affected areas.

According to WHO officials, experimental studies have shown H5N1 virus can infect domestic cats. In these experiments, cats developed diseases following direct inoculation of virus isolated from a fatal human case, and following the feeding of infected raw chicken.

Studies have shown H5N1 infection in large cats kept in captivity. In December 2003, two tigers and two leopards, fed on chicken, died at a zoo in Thailand. Subsequent investigation identified H5N1 in tissue samples.

Microbiologists have little to rejoice about, for they know that the threat of avian flu is here to stay as more and more areas in Maharashtra are reporting the disease. There is a fear that the disease will spread to other parts of the country. The virus, H5N1, has already shown that it can be deadly to people who come into direct contact with infected birds or eat uncooked poultry. The worst fear is that the virus will soon begin to swap genes with its human counterpart and turn itself into a more lethal form, transmissible from human to human, triggering a once-in-a-century catastrophe.

What makes influenza such a fearsome virus? Why is it called the ultimate master of disguise? How does it wreak havoc on the fittest human immune system? Essentially, the influenza virus is highly elusive and has evolved over millions of years. Like any other virus it is caught between the world of the living and non-living. But the greatest danger it poses arises from the fact that it's airborne and is capable of entering the body via the throat or lungs. Unlike other infections such as polio (spreads in the water) or HIV (spreads through body fluids), flu viruses spread by aerosols, which are dispersed as particles through air.

Influenza, like some other viruses (such as HIV), carries its genetic information as ribonucleic acid or RNA, according to Prof. J.S. Malik Peiris, who discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 1997 and the highly lethal H5N1 six years later. Unlike viruses that are made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), such as smallpox, the primordial RNA viruses mutate fast, generating many new variants each time they invade a cell. Each infected cell bears hundreds of thousands of offspring, each subtly different and competing against one another for survival. The high mutation rate allows the virus to keep changing and stay one step ahead of the immune system of birds, pigs, cats or humans.

An influenza virus measures just about 100 nanometres (one thousand-millionth of a metre) and resembles a spiky pin cushion under the microscope. The spikes that stick out of the pin cushion are pieces of two key proteins, neuraminidase (N) and haemagglutinin (H), the most destructive weapons in the virus' arsenal. The H protein helps the virus invade the cells in the throat (in birds it's the digestive tract), while the N protein allows viral progeny to chop their way out of infected cells. In fact, the H protein has an amazing ability to unlock the cells of the host animal. It latches onto the receptors on the surface of the host's cells, which are duped to believe that the enemy is a hormone or a protein. On the other hand, the N protein slices through newly-made bits of viruses so that it's freed from the host cell and is ready to spread to the rest of the body. Anti-viral drugs like oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) target this protein. "However, drugs become ineffective when a virus like H5N1 changes its genetic makeup," says Dr. T.N. Naik, deputy director of the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata. "Tamiflu-resistant strains of the virus have already been reported in Vietnam" he adds.

There are nine types of N and 16 types of H, making it possible to create 144 possible flu strains. However, only three have so far made it to humans. "Just like the current strain, which has the pattern H5N1, the earlier pandemics had thrown up H1N1 (1918), H2N2 (1957) and H3N2 (1968)," notes Dr. Penmetcha K.R. Kumar, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) at Tsukuba in Japan. Even a single mutation that causes a slight change in H or N, called antigenic drift, can be significant, allowing the virus to acquire a completely new outer coat.

The antigenic drift makes the virus a master of disguise. This is why every now and then a flu virus appears with surface proteins so different that our immunity to past infections does not offer any protection. The changeable nature is also the reason we can't produce a perfect vaccine (that lasts long) as we don't know exactly what form the virus will take. In addition, the H5N1 virus across Asia is not a homogeneous entity. There are many variants of the virus. So we may have to innovate more than one candidate H5N1 vaccine.

The ability to swap genes helps the virus to survive and adapt to different species. The recombination that occurs in pigs can be most dangerous because pigs have receptors for both avian and human flu virus. Virologists believe that unhygienic pigsties in south-east Asia could provide a launch pad for a human flu pandemic.

According to many microbiologists, the reshuffling of genes of viruses across species can create the most dangerous hybrid flu from H5N1. When this happens, we may have a new virus with a brand new disguise (comprising H and N) and the human population will have no immunity at all to fight it off. A pandemic may begin only when such hybrid influenza begins to spread from human to human. Although this virus has still not acquired the ability to transmit from human to human, it certainly has the potential to do so. That is how the three pandemics of the last century arose. We will certainly have such pandemics this century too. INAV

Economics of Naxalite resurgence

Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala

Home Minister Shivraj Patil has called a meeting of Chief Ministers of 13 states affected by Naxalite attacks. This will be preceded by a meeting of the Chief Secretaries and Police Chiefs of the States. This decision was taken at a meeting attended by National Security Advisor and Chiefs of Intelligence Bureau and Central Reserve Police Force. It is clear that the Government sees the Naxalite problem, not as a social or economic issue but as one of law and order. This strategy is destined to fail because the basic problem is that economic reforms being implemented by Dr Manmohan Singh are leading to more inequality and fewer jobs. There is deep frustration among educated youth which attracts them towards Naxalism. Instead of correcting these economic policies, Dr Singh wants to repress the movement by police force. The pressure in a kettle on fire cannot be contained by putting more weight on the lid. Likewise, the Naxalite movement fed by wrong economic policies cannot be contained by the use of more police force.

Naxalite movement had gripped the rural countryside of the country, especially West Bengal, in the seventies. The growth of Naxalite movement follows the course of economy. According to the Economic Survey published by the Government, the per capita income of the people of Bengal and Bihar grew by 21 and 30 percent respectively in the eighties. Bengal was slipping and was the center of Naxalite activities. The situation changed in the nineties. Bengal and Bihar grew at 83 and (-) 10 percent respectively. Bengal progressed and Naxalite activities subsided in that state; while Bihar slipped and has become the center of the same. Clearly economic growth at the ground level is necessary to contain Naxalism. Poor youth are attracted towards Naxalism if economic growth is less or concentrated only among the upper classes.

The Government had adopted a two-pronged strategy to contain the movement in the seventies. One, land reforms were implemented. About 40 percent of all land distributed under land ceiling laws in the country has been distributed in Bengal. Educated youth got involved in the cultivation of paan leaves or coconuts and were weaned away from Naxalism. Simultaneously, police action suppressed the Naxalite leadership. The kettle of social unrest was removed from fire and also weight put on the lid. Slowly the pressure inside subsided.

It appears that Dr Man Mohan Singh recognizes the need for economic growth at the ground level. Possibly he has given much importance to National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) for this reason. Perhaps he believes that the educated youth will be satisfied with 100 days employment provided under the scheme and abandon Naxalism. But Dr Singh has no policy whatsoever for the creation of jobs in large numbers. In fact, the economic reforms started by Dr Singh are the cause of the problem. Dr Singh has given full freedom to large companies to destroy the jobs of the poor. They are allowed to produce soap, bottled soft drinks and cloth using automatic machines. Cottage soap manufacturing units, Rasvanti and handlooms are being decimated. Large companies are making huge profits since they use machines to produce these goods at lower cost. But jobs are shrinking in the process and fueling social unrest. According to the Economic Survey, the number of jobs in the organized sectors has declined from 282 lac persons in 1997 to only 270 lac persons in 2003. The economic polices implemented by Dr Singh contain an explosive mixture of increasing inequality and decreasing employment. Land reforms are not a part of his reforms. Protection available to small industries is being withdrawn. No wonder the educated youth are attracted towards Naxalism.

Schemes such as NREGS will not be able to contain this disaffection among the people. Money for the NREGS is collected from income and corporate tax from the rich. In other words, increasing wealth of the rich is the basis of NREGS. A handful of rich persons will earn huge incomes. The Government will tax a small part of this income and provide minimum subsistence to the poor from that revenue. There is no sense of controlling inequality in this dispensation. This is quite opposite to the land reforms wherein land is taken from the rich and distributed to the poor. The poor feel less anger towards the rich after land is distributed because the rich are less rich now. The poor feel more anger in the NREGS approach because higher profits by the rich are part of the dispensation.

Another difference is about the opportunities of self-development provided to the beneficiaries. The educated unemployed youth will get job for 100 days in which he will do manual works such as digging foundations for community buildings or carrying mortar for the construction of roads. His lower abilities of physical labour are activated in the process. In contrast, he can grow paan or coconut or sell milk if he gets land. He gets an opportunity to express his full human potential. He buys, sells, learns about new technologies, etc.

The third difference is regarding the tyranny of the Government machinery. The NREGS is implemented by the government employees. The implementing agencies like the panchyats will act merely as sub-contractors of the Government. The beneficiary remains dependent upon the Government employees who stand tall above the poor beneficiary. The government machinery stands with the urban rich and provide nominal benefits to the rural poor. In contrast the Government employees stand on the side of the poor in the implementation of land reforms. They work in tandem with the poor to deprive the rich of excess lands.

Schemes like the NREGS are likely to be wholly unsuccessful in containing Naxalism. Truly, Dr Singh does not understand the meaning of dharma. He is wholly working as a representative of the rich. He wants the country to progress with their support. Just like the tyrannous landlord gives two dry rotis to the poor bonded labourer, likewise the tyrannous Government machinery headed by Dr Singh proposes to give 100 days jobs at subsistence wages to the unemployed. Indeed, the problem will not be solved even by the implementation of land reforms in the present times. The prices of agricultural produce are declining and agricultural has turned into a loss proposition. Land has been fragmented due to increase in the number of persons in the family. Thus, it will be necessary to put in place other employment-generating economic policies such as protection to small and labour-intensive industries, lower taxation of industries generating large number of jobs and imposition of higher taxes on job-eating technologies like harvesters and excavators. But the rich do not like these policies hence Dr Singh's economics has no place of them. In consequence, Dr Singh is first pushing the youth into Naxalite activities by rendering them unemployed and then aims to control them by the use of police force.

Synthetic diamonds here to stay

By Kusum Mehta

Synthetic diamond are produced through chemical or physical process in a factory. Like naturally occurring diamonds, they are composed of a three-dimensional carbon crystal. Besides jewellery, synthetic diamonds are used in many industrial application areas such as electronics and medicine. They are also called industrial diamond, artificial diamond or cultural diamond.

But the term imitation diamonds strictly refers to gemstones which are similar to some respects to natural diamonds but differ in chemical composition and structure.

Synthetic means builtup from its constituent elements (synthesised). By definition synthetic diamonds are man made material which have some optical, chemical physical and structural properties as its natural counterparts. It follows that any regularities in the temperature, pressure or chemical environment around the growing crystal can cause irregularities in development and structure of the crystal. Some man-made gems are more synthetic than others, as some methods of producing man-made crystals simulate the conditions found in nature better than others.

For the first time, diamond synthesis was successfully carried out by the Swedish organisation ASEA in 1953. The General Electric Company of America independently synthesised diamonds in 1954 and a confirmatory announcement was made on February 15, 1955. On October 22, 1957, the GEC group announced that 10,00,000 carats of synthetic diamonds had been produced till then and the price was 425 dollar per carat.

The minimum conditions necessary for diamond synthetics include pressures around 45000 atmospheres (300 tons per square inch) and temperatures around 1200 degree celcius to be maintained simultaneously for several minutes.

Synthetic diamonds are now produced in many countries - the USA, South Africa, Ireland and Sweden. Smaller production occurs in Japan, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands and China. As in the case of gem diamonds, De Beers produces and markets more than half the world's synthetic diamonds used for industrial purposes.

The world consumption of synthetic industrial diamond is more than 200 million carats (40 tonne) per year and some hundred tonne of graphite or other carbon containing material must have by now been converted into diamonds.

Today, ever new applications are being found for synthetic diamonds by the industry, and De Beers offers more than a score of diversified types and sizes, as against just three products marketed by then in 1950. Whereas natural diamonds are of necessity graded post-factum, the requisite characteristics of synthetic diamonds are pre-determined. Selection is thus made easy and economy in use assured.

Fabrication of diamonds on such an extensive scale does not mean that it is easy to produce diamonds of gem size and quality. Large crystals inevitably require long growth periods and the extreme conditions required for diamond formation have to be maintained for hours. This was a major handicap and the growth of gem diamond was not patented until 1967.

Artificial diamonds, whether chemically identical to mined diamonds, are created by engineers in a laboratory. The introduction of large, feasible diamonds grown artificially has set off a heated controversy about the advantages, disadvantages, and strategies associated with these new gems. As more people invest in synthetic diamonds, others are concerned about their impact on the international diamond industry.

However, there are many tests which a gemologist can use to identify a diamond. Diamond eye or Relative Reflectometer (Lustre-meter) with a relative scale of lustre to show the expected response for different gems and give numerical values for the lustre of the surface exposed for measurement, is an instrument used for identification of diamonds.

Diamond Tester, which is a refractive measuring instrument, can also judge whether the exposed piece is a diamond or its imitation.

The other development is Ceres diamond probe, based on the thermal productivity of diamonds at room temperature. This is speedier, taking only about three seconds and is stated to be effective.

The Kashan Diamond Detector also works on the principal of thermal conductivity. It uses a silver screw as test point. The Ceres Corporation has developed a pocket size instrument called Czechmate. This also works on the same principle.

Diamond Testing Disc, a low priced device for distinguishing diamond from its simulants, has been introduced by the Gemmological Instruments Ltd., London. By rotating the disc the constants viz. the specific gravity, hardness, fluroscence and other characteristics can be viewed.

Yet another diamond tester based on termal conductivity, the Diamond Prover, has been put in the market by America manufacturer.

There is also the diamond pen, developed by the Gem Instruments Corporation which differentiates simulants and diamonds by the behaviour of a special liquid that spread on the surface of a diamond beads on simulants.

The globule test is another simple test to perform. A drop of water is placed upon the diamonds face. It is then touched with a point of a finely sharpened panel to see if the globule breaks or spreads. If the stone is genuine, the globule keeps its form, while the surrounding parts of the face remain dry. The reverse happens in the case of imitations.

PTI Feature.