1

Cover

2

Cover Inside

LETTERS 3

NEWS 34-38

EDITOR

Ajey Bharti

ASSOCIATE-EDITOR

Dr. Phool Chand

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY:

Ishwardas Mahajan on behalf of Swadeshi

Jagaran Samiti, 'Dharmakshetra', Sector-8,

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CONTENTSCOVER STORY 6

Attempt to

Defame

IndiaDr. Ashwani Mahajan

Vol-27, No. 5

Baishakh-Jyeshtha 2079 May 2022

1 Cover Page

2. Cover Inside Page

08 DISCUSSIONEdible Oils: Growing Foreign Dependence & High Disease Burden

........................................... Prof. Bhagwati Prakash Sharma

11 ANALYSISIndia: Reset Terms of Engagement

..........................................................................KK Srivastava

13 YOGAAyurveda and Yoga spearhead India’s medical diplomacy

.......................................................................... Sandhya Jain

16 HEALTHTraditional Medicine on Trial

.......................................................................Dr. Jaya Kakkar

18 OPINIONUS does a lot for India, but India too does a lot for US

.......................................................................... Sanjaya Baru

20 ISSUEDue Diligence to Organic Farming in Sri Lanka

............................................................................... Alok Singh

22 AGRICULTUREHow consumers can play a key role in making agri-food systems

sustainable

................................................................... Devinder Sharma

24 ENVIRONMENTEarth Day: Affirm Conservation as Resistance

.............................................................. Indra Shekhar Singh

26 HEALTHGlyphosate and Roundup: All roads lead to cancer

..................................................................Swadeshi Samvad

30 E-COMMERCEOverview: Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)

..............................................................................Vinod Johri

32 HISTORYMewar as the Locus of Guhila State (Part-I)

..................................................... Prof. Nandini Kapur Sinha39 Back Inside Cover

40 Back Cover

4

Quote-Unquote

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�Letters

Atmanirbharta in DefenceRecent events in Europe and subsequent embargos placed on Russia by

US led NATO countries makes the case of self reliance in defence for

India even more urgent. India is a fast emerging world power and this alsoupsets the current world powers. Therefore an unsaid threat of trying to

choke India´s ascent at the world stage becomes even more real.

As per Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), outof global 2+ trillion dollar military expenditure India stood at 3rd posi-

tion with 77 billion dollar spend in 2021. Even though for 2022-23mili-

tary budget,India earmarked 68% of capital acquisition from domestic firms,its share in global import remains very high at 11%. Though atmanirbhar-

ta push has reduced the imports by 21% through 2016-21, a lot remains to

be done. India´s defence exports have jumped from 213m$ in 2015 to1.5billion$ in 2019 but the export restrictions and over dependence on

public sector has kept the exports very low and dependence on imports very

high.DRDO has managed to develop many local products for Indian defence

forces (Advanced Light Torpedo (TAL), Radars, composite materials for

LCA, AEW&C, Astra, LCA Tejas; ASAT, BrahMos, Nag missile,SAAW, Arjun MBT)but future wars will be morearound drones, cyber-

space, artificial intelligence, state of the art reconnaissance abilities, superi-

or cyber security and modern weaponry. Fast tracking of setting up defencemanufacturing corridors, heavy investment by private sector and dispropor-

tionate investment in defence research is urgently needed to equip our defence

forces with the latest and the best.A robust defence procurement policy with indigenized manufacturing

abilities boosted by cutting edge research and development as well as partic-

ipation of private sector is the need of the hour.

— Naresh Sharma is a Swadeshi Warrior based in Stockholm.

We have an exceptional

semiconductor design

talent, making 20% of

the world’s engineers.Narendra ModiPrime Minister, Bharat

After UPI, another game

changing idea to

democratise commerce

- ONDC soft launched to

select consumers, sell-

ers and logistics provid-

ers. Get ready for a world

of choice, convenience

and transparency.Piyush Goyal

Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry

and Consumer Affairs, Bharat

Agriculture means care

for the land. It involves

regeneration of biodiver-

sity, living soil & health

of people & planet. Care-

less technologies in-

cluding Agri chemicals

derived from fossil fuels

& giant harvesters run-

ning on fossil fuel de-

stroy biodiversity, soil,

climate, health.Dr. Vandana Shiva

Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty

advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author.

5

EDITORIAL

Sri Lankan Crisis and IndiaSri Lanka has been going through very serious economic problems for some time now. Sri Lankan government is

seemingly clueless about how to deal with this crisis, which is believed to be first of its kind for the country. There is noconsensus in the government about how to deal with this situation.

Sri Lanka had come out of a very painful civil war in the past, which continued for 26 years and ended only in 2009. Butdespite the severity of the civil war at that time, Sri Lanka did not experience any big economic crisis. The rampant inflationin food and fuel in Sri Lanka, after January this year followed by acute shortage of goods is making life hell for the people ofSri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's per capita income in the year 2020 on the basis of market exchange rate was recorded at $4053 annually andon the basis of purchasing power parity, it was $12537 annually, which was more than double of that of India. If we talkabout human development, according to the Human Development Report of the United Nations (2020), Sri Lanka rankedat 72nd position in the world, whereas India was at 131st position.

Sri Lanka's credit rating has been significantly lowered by international agencies, pushing Sri Lanka out of the interna-tional capital market. As a result, Sri Lanka could not reschedule its foreign borrowings. The devaluation of Sri Lanka'scurrency started due to the paucity of foreign exchange, and when Sri Lanka tried to curb imports, it led to shortage ofcommodities, especially fuel and food, causing hyperinflation. The Sri Lankan government believed that by curbing imports,foreign exchange would be saved and domestic production would be encouraged, which would also increase exports. Butthis could not happen and the foreign exchange reserves kept depleting further. The Sri Lankan government had to sell itsgold reserves and enter into currency swap agreements with India and China to prevent any default in repayment ofinternational debt.

Behind Sri Lanka's crisis is China's old strategy of debt trap. Not only Sri Lanka, but many more countries of the worldhave been trapped by China. Story starts with Sri Lanka accepting China’s proposal for development of Hambantota port,without any feasibility study. Between 2007 and 2014, China gave five loans amounting to $1.26 billion for the developmentof this port, in the beginning at 1 per cent or 2 per cent, but later escalated to 6.3 per cent with short repayment periods. Afterthat China invested $1.4 billion in Columbo port city project. Billions of dollars in loans have been given to Sri Lanka byChina, for developing a seaport, airport, highways and power stations. By 2020, Sri Lanka’s total liability to China hadincreased to about $ 8 billion (2020), but these projects are far from earning adequate revenues for debt servicing, even today.

Sri Lanka suddenly decided to move towards completely organic farming, in a very irresponsible manner and chemicalfertilizers were banned. Due to the ban on the import of chemical fertilizers, agricultural production was affected badly andthe prices of agricultural commodities started increasing wildly. Due to this the export of tea also got affected significantly.Although there is no harm in organic farming, but doing the same in an unmindful manner is no good.

While government revenues were already declining, the Sri Lankan government's reckless reduction in direct andindirect taxes made matters even worse. Due to compulsion to increase government spending, the budget deficit widened;leading to inevitable increase in money supply, and therefore inflation.

Sri Lanka has been importing a lot of essential goods for consumption; and when imports were banned, naturallythere was a shortage of food and fuel. Sri Lanka's exporting industries were also affected due to non-availability of importedraw materials and essential intermediates. Due to which Sri Lanka's exports decreased significantly. China has providedbillions of dollars in loans to Sri Lanka for developing a seaport, airport, highways and power stations. While the country’sdebt liability to China has increased to about $ 8 billion (2020), these projects have yet to yield adequate revenues for debtservicing.

Significantly, Sri Lanka is home to a large number of Tamil people, who migrated from Tamil Nadu centuries ago. Inview of the deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka, a large number of Tamil refugees are reaching the Tamil Nadu coast.Naturally, humanitarian help to them will be the priority of the Government of India and State government of Tamil Nadu.Apart from this, the government has given a credit line of $ 1 billion to Sri Lanka and has also given assistance of $ 500million to buy essential petroleum products. Apart from this, the Sri Lankan government has sought additional assistanceof $ 1.5 billion from the Indian government.

At the global level, the international organizations will have to come united and respond to this ill-fated effort ofChina. In addition, the Government of India may provide humanitarian and commercial assistance to Sri Lanka, and helpthem with an action plan for Sri Lanka's sustainable development. For this, the revival of Sri Lanka's agriculture, apart fromrescheduling of debt and repayment of the sovereign debt; help in ending instability caused by the lack of raw materials inindustries, ensure availability of essential commodities for the common people; are some other contours of India’s help toSri Lanka. These endeavours can help India earning goodwill of Sri Lankan people; trapped in the clutches of China, and takeit on the path of development once again. Today, when China's ill-fated strategy has been fully exposed, this is an importantopportunity to defeat its Ill designs to disturb peace in Indian Ocean and remove its shadow from the region.

6

CIOVER STORCIOVER STORCIOVER STORCIOVER STORCIOVER STORYYYYY

Attempt to Defame India

World Health

Organisation is

trying to defame

India by

questioning the

statistics of COVID

related deaths. The

Government of

India should give a

befitting reply to

these attempts.

Dr. Ashwani

Mahajan

A report published in the New York Times (NYT) onApril 16, 2022, quoted the World Health Organization(WHO) as saying that India is hindering the World HealthOrganization’s effort to accurately assess the deaths dueto COVID infection. On the basis of that report, op-position leader Rahul Gandhi has said that whereas 40lakh deaths have occurred in the country due to COV-ID, only 5 lakh deaths have been reported by the gov-ernment.

The Government of India has registered a strongobjection to this report. Government of India has said

in a press release, that, while NYT has not been able to get data for other coun-tries, it’s selectively quoting data for India on behalf of WHO. It seems that the‘cooked’ data of the WHO is being used mischievously with the intention ofdefaming India.

Today, while the whole world is appreciating India’s vaccination program,with more than 90 percent of eligible population already vaccinated, it seems thatthe WHO officials are deliberately trying to undermine India’s outstanding per-formance and achievement by questioning the government’s published figures ofdeaths due to COVID in India.

WHO is re-estimating the death toll due to COVID in the whole world, andhas concluded that actually many more deaths have occurred during pandemic, ascompared to what various governments have declared. However, the major causeof concern is that WHO, while giving estimates of 0.9 millions extra deaths, overand above earlier figures, of 0.6 millions; more than one third of the differencebetween the two estimates is being reported from India. It is worth noting thatthe NYT quoted the WHO as saying that while it was being reported by allcountries that some 60 lakh people died due to Covid, in reality this figure is 150lakh. This figure is more than twice, what has been reported by different coun-tries. But out of the 90 lakh additional deaths that are being reported, 35 lakh aresaid to be from India. That is, the WHO is trying to say that 40 lakh people dieddue to COVID in India instead of 5.2 lakhs declared by the government.

WHO is being quoted as saying that this figure of deaths is not only of directdeaths from COVID, but it also includes the deaths of those who were sufferingfrom other illnesses and who died during the period as they couldn’t get medicalaid due to the lockdown during COVID. However, the big difference in thefigures comes from direct deaths due to COVID only.

Concerns have been raised by the Government of India over this act of theWHO. The Government of India has issued a press release saying that the WorldHealth Organization has adopted double standards to estimate the figures ofdeaths. For ‘Tier-1 nations’, under which sources say about 80-90 countries havebeen counted, WHO has accepted official estimates as authentic; for other typesof countries (Tier-2 countries), which include India, a mathematical modeling

7

process has been adopted. Thegovernment has said that no justi-fication has been given for divid-ing the countries into different cat-egories. The government has fur-ther said that if the mathematicalmodel that has been adopted forthe second type of countries, itneeds to be authenticated by ap-plying the same model to the Tier-1 countries as well, which theWorld Health Organization hasfailed to do. The government hassaid that it has written six letters tothe World Health Organization andlodged its objection regarding thisprocess five times in virtual meet-ings, to which the WHO did notgive any satisfactory answer. “Theyhave looked at numbers from 18states to arrive at the figure. Theyhave not revealed the sources ofthe data used to compute the finalestimate. We do not even knowwhich states these are,” a govern-ment source has said.

WHO’s MessThe World Health Organiza-

tion, is an organization under theauspices of the United Nations thatis responsible for protecting thehealth of the people all over theworld. It is expected from WHO,that in case of health disaster in anypart of the world, it should takeappropriate steps itself, and alsoadvise the governments for theappropriate measures.

Perhaps citing this, the WorldHealth Organization argues that thecorrect assessment of deaths dur-ing COVID will help in making theright policies in the context of suchpandemics in the future. Althoughthere is no fault in this argument,the World Health Organization hasactually lost trust of the world,because the same been mired with

controversies due to its mis-actionsduring the pandemic itself.

At first instance, there was alack of honesty on the part ofWorld Health Organization in theassessment of the cause of infec-tion. Significantly, on January 14,2020, the World Health Organiza-tion said in a tweet that there is noevidence of human-to-humantransmission of this infection. How-ever, this infection was spreadingsince September 2019. This tweetby WHO misled countries aroundthe world that it will not spreadfrom humans to humans. All coun-tries continued with their interna-tional passenger flights. Due to thisnegligence on the part of WHO, thisvirus of Wuhan, China became thecause of great devastation all overthe world. After a long time, test-ing was started at international air-ports, and a process of quarantinewas also adopted.

Not only this, the WorldHealth Organization also tried tohide that the infection originatedfrom China’s Wuhan Laboratory,and against a strong opinion aroundthe world, WHO kept arguing thatit originated from the animal mar-ket of China. Most of the expertsaround the world rejected thisclaim of the World Health Orga-nization. It’s strongly believed thatMr. Tedros, became Director Gen-eral, WHO, of this organization onlythrough the support of China. Insuch a situation, the head of theWorld Health Organization couldnot afford to displease China.

Realizing this mess of theWorld Health Organization, thethen US President Donald Trumpdecided to stop the contributionof $ 0.4 billion being given byAmerica to this organization. It isworth noting that the WHO re-

ceives predetermined contribu-tions from countries around theworld, as well as many types ofvoluntary contributions. Major con-tributions to the voluntary fundingof the WHO come from the BillMelenda Gates Foundation, otherso-called philanthropy organiza-tions, and the United States, Chi-na, and many other developedcountries. Various organizations,including Gates Foundation, haveinfluence over the functioning ofthe World Health Organization.

It is worth noting that whenIndia was moving fast towardsmanufacturing a vaccine on its own,the top officials of the WorldHealth Organization were dismiss-ing our efforts as ‘vaccine national-ism’ saying that it will delay the de-velopment of vaccine and thereforeelimination of infection. Not onlythis, Bill Gates was heard saying thathe is not in favor of sharing thevaccine formula to countries likeIndia, because it will affect the qual-ity of the vaccine. Under pressurefrom ‘Gavi’, an affiliate of the GatesFoundation, the World Health Or-ganization was also pressuring In-dia to make a binding commitmentto buy the vaccine being made bylarge multinational companies, un-der Covax facility.

Today, when India is not onlysuccessful in manufacturing vac-cines and has vaccinated almost itsentire population, is dealing withpandemic much better than mostof the other countries of theworld, becoming almost self-reli-ant in medicines and equipments,World Health Organisation is try-ing to defame India by question-ing the statistics of COVID relat-ed deaths. The Government ofIndia should give a befitting replyto these attempts. qq

CIOVER STORCIOVER STORCIOVER STORCIOVER STORCIOVER STORYYYYY

8

Edible Oils: Growing Foreign Dependenceand High Disease Burden

Processing and

heating of palm

oil causes glycidyl

fatty acid esters

(GEs.) to form.

When digested,

these GEs break

down and release

glycidol, known

for its

carcinogenic

effects in animals.

The same may be

suspected in

humans. Taking

palm oil along

with medications

that also slow

blood clotting

might increase the

risk of bruising

and bleeding.

Prof. Bhagwati

Prakash Sharma

The policy shift introduced in the1990s, paving way for blending of edible oilswith imported palmolein and other cheap oils, along with import facilitation

of non-conventional oils has turned India from an erstwhile edible oil exporterto an import dependent country with a high disease burden. Consequently, thetraditional domestic oils like mustard, sesame and groundnut oils have largelybeen replaced by palm oil and soybean oil to the tune of 75%in last 3 decades.Now these non-conventional oils have been believed to be leading to increaseddisease burden, comprising coronary heart disease cancer, thrombosis, certainailments of brain and so on.

So, further incentivizing “oil-palm” cultivation and promotion of palm oilagainst the traditional oils would further aggravate and jeopardize the health pro-file as well as lead to further economic centralization in the edible oils sector.Indeed, decentralized production in the edible oils sector, by promoting tradi-tional oils and oil seed cultivation can generate manifold more jobs, with moreinclusive economic growth. Wider participation of the people in farming andnon-farming jobs in the edible oils sector is possible through conventional oilseeds, as it would promote oil expellers across the villages, instead of large sol-vent and extraction plants.

Edible Oils, Health Profile and Disease BurdenEdible oils are not mere cooking media for food items. But, they are key

sources of nutrients, necessary for proper functioning of heart, brain, body,muscles and nervous system along with the endocrine environment. Beyond this,they can as well be a very rich source of micronutrients and bioactive substancessuch as alkaloids, carotenoids, and polyphones. Since, the edible oils are one ofthe main components of our diet, especially in India, it is important to comparethe nutritional and biological effects of different oils. There is a wide variety ofedible oils in the market and most common among these vegetable oils todayinclude palm oil, soybean oil, groundnut oil, mustard oil, cottonseed oil, sesame

DISCUSSIONDISCUSSIONDISCUSSIONDISCUSSIONDISCUSSION

9

oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, andcoconut oil etc. Each of these oilshas different composition, charac-teristics and physiological action.Oils play an important role in thenutrition, causation of diseases,immunity patterns and treatmentmanagement of diseases. Geneticexpression is also found to be af-fected by the fats found in oils con-stituting the diet.

Palm Oil: A Major Health HazardPalm oil is made from the

fleshy part of the palm fruit, andit contains 52 percent saturated fat-ty acids. Saturated fatty acids ofpalmolein are hazardous to cardio-vascular health. Besides, oxidizedpalm oil presents even greaterhealth risks. The oxidization occursduring processing for culinary use,generating toxins that adverselyaffect the heart, liver, kidneys andlungs. Raw, unprocessed palm oilisn’t associated with these effects,when fresh. However studies linka boost in atherosclerosis develop-ment in as little as six months whilereheating palm oil to cook foods.

Moreover Carcinogenesisfrom palmolein is also emergingas major health concern. Process-ing and heating of palm oil causesglycidyl fatty acid esters (GEs.) toform. When digested, these GEsbreak down and release glycidol,known for its carcinogenic effectsin animals. The same may be sus-pected in humans. Taking palm oilalong with medications that alsoslow blood clotting might increasethe risk of bruising and bleeding.

Soybean Oil and GeneticDegeneration in Brain

In a new study at the Univer-sity of California (UC) Riverside,researchers reported a link be-tween soybean oil and genetic

changes in the brains of mice. Re-searchers in 2015 examined thepotential contribution of soyabeanto cause obesity and diabetes andreconfirmed it. Soybean oil hasshown impact on the brain espe-cially changes in the hypothalamus,a brain region ssociated with anumber of functions like bodyweight, metabolism, body temper-ature, reproduction and stress re-sponse.

The researchers also conclud-ed that certain genes in the micethat were given soybean oil weren’toperating properly, identifyingabout 100 of them. They noticedone particular gene that producesoxytocin, also known as the lovehormone, and essential for parentchild bonding seemed to be im-paired in mice who ate soybean oil.Among those mices, oxytocin lev-els were lower than normal. Whenthe researchers tested coconut oilon the mice, they found it didn’tproduce as many gene changes inthe hypothalamus as the soybeanoil did.

From Exporter Status Bhar-at has become Import De-pendent

Traditionally, India has beenan exporter of edible oils beforeIndependence and had remainedself-sufficient in edible oils up to1994. Several post-Independencepolicy changes, including importfacilitation since early 1970s hasturned the country import depen-dent with elevated disease burdendued to policy bias in favor ofpalmolein and soybean oils. Inspiteof policy shifts in favor of importof edible oils, of 1970s and 80soils, India regained its self-sufficien-cy in the early 90s from 1991-94.But, as a result of several policy

blunders, now we have turned intothe biggest importers of edible oilsin the world. India imports around65-70% of edible oils, worth morethan US $ 12 billion (Rs 90,000crore).This constitutes more than65% of our annual edible oil re-quirement of 23 million tones.

The ethnic cuisine, traditionalayurvedic wisdom and the concernfor health, had led to the prefer-ence for mustard oil in north andeast India, coconut oil in south In-dia, ground nut or cottonseed oilin west India, and sesame oil inRajasthan. Sesame oil is describedto slow the aging process and pro-mote al-round health of the con-sumers. In 1973-74, the healthy tra-ditional oils like groundnut, mus-tard, sesame and cottonseed oilshad a thumping 96% share in totalconsumption of edible oils whichhas come down to 25% today.Traditionally the oil industry washighly decentralized, wherein, inmost of the blocks, towns andeven villages indigenous oil expel-lers and expelling clusters werewidely spread. The oil seeds weretraditionally extracted by coldpressing and then this oil was fil-tered. This technology suited tosmall scale processing, leading toperpetual employment for gener-ations in oil cultivation, expellingand trading. It also encouraged lo-calized procurement. Thus, it wasan ecologically more sustainablesystem to avoid long distance trans-port, involving pollution.

It was since 1976 that thegovernment banned the use ofground nut oil and mustard oil formaking vanspati to help vanspatiindustry to turn more profitable byuse of imported cheap palmoleinwhich was never used in food tillthen in the country help palmolein

DiscussionDiscussionDiscussionDiscussionDiscussion

10

exporters as well. The palmoleinbecome the main stay of the vans-pati industry for enhanced profi-teering at the cost of human health.It rendered oil seed cultivation lessremunerative due to dumping ofcheap palm oil. So, the whole eco-system was dismantled. It had adetrimental effect on the growthof domestic decentralized edibleoils sector, affecting cultivation andlocal expelling a losing propositionfor farmers as well as domesticMSMEs operating in edible oilssector. Its production stagnated ataround 10 billion tonnes of oil-seeds between 1970 to 1986, whilethe growing population had con-siderably pushed the demand up.But, the government passed onthese benefits to foreign exportersof cheap cheap palmolein for un-known reasons. Thus, a vicious cy-cle was put in place to eliminateoil seeds domestic cultivators, de-centralized expellers and small trad-ers. Thousands of oil industry clus-ters vanished in the country .The95% reliance on domestic edibleoils maintained in the 1960s and1970s, fell down to 70% since 1980for few years which has currentlydwindled to 30-35%.

To reverse this import depen-dence, in the year 1977 the then fi-nance minister, H M Patel in theMorarji cabinet had advised Amulcooperative federation for an“Operation Flood” like project foredible oils via a farmers coopera-tive network based on Amul mod-el for self-reliance in edible oilsthrough NDDB, for improvedfarmer livelihoods for oil seedsgrowers, local producers and trad-ers. The Dhara brand was intro-duced and it brought the prices ofdomestic oil at par with cheaperimported edible oils. NDDB and

GCMMF worked together andlaunched several varieties of fil-tered and refined mustard oil, cot-tonseed oil, and double filteredgroundnut oil etc. The well estab-lished Amul distribution networkfacilitated marketing of domesticoil. So, by 1991-92, Dhara attainedsales of 1, 32000 M T pa, whichwas around 50% of the organizedsector.

The area under oilseeds culti-vation which has stagnated be-tween 15-18 million hectares be-tween1970-85, increased to 25 mil-lion hectares by 1991 and the oil-seed production which had stuckat around 10 million tonnes be-tween (1970-85) had went up to18 million tonnes in 1991. Indiaonce again begun to produce 98%of its edible oil requirement by1990-91. The oilseed growers alsobegun to revive and thrive. The pe-riod between 1990-94 was beenfor the Indian oil seeds growersand decentralized edible oil indus-try, as well as for the domestictrade in edible oils.

This self-sufficiency continuedtill the Narsimha Rao governmentsigned the agreement formingWTO in 1994 and brought edibleoils under OGL (Open GeneralLicense) list for imports with low-ered import duty of 65%. By 1998we again started importing around30% of our edible oil when theduty was lowered to 15%. Thismove obliged the foreign suppli-ers and facilitated dumping ofpalm oil into India, leading towardsa death knell for conventional do-mestic edible oils sector.

Conspiracy of Aulteration ofMexican Poppy Oil

Soon, a conspiracy played‘havoc’ when mustard oil was

found to be adulterated with Arge-mone Mexicana (Mexican Poppy)oil. This caused spread of deadlydropsy disease across the north In-dia. The government then bannedthe open sale of edible oils andimported huge quantity of pal-molein and other oils. It led to theclosure of hundreds of thousandsof oil expellers and wiped out in-digenous edible oil clusters and dis-couraged oil seeds cultivation. Con-sequently, today India has to im-port 65-70% of its edible oil re-quirements.

Way AheadThe way ahead to curb the

disease burden, being caused fromedible oils and to promote oil seedcultivation and growth of decen-tralized edible oils sector for morejob creation with participatory eco-nomic growth, the conventionaland healthy oils like sesame, mus-tard and ground nut oils should bepromoted. Hence, now instead ofpromoting oil palm cultivation,production and consumption ofpalm oil, government should pro-mote healthy conventional oils likesesame, mustard, groundnut etc. ina mission mode, as it had done topromote self-sufficiency in pulses.High Yielding varieties of conven-tional oil seeds with higher oil con-tent can also be planned. Cultiva-tion of conventional oil seeds needto be incentivized in the same wayas was done in case of pulsesthrough bonus price over the MSP.It would also promote greateremployment generation in the de-centralised oil expelling sector.Whereas palm and soybean oilsfacilitate only large scale solventextraction plants for extraction ofpalmolein and soybean oil alongwith raising disease burden formasses in the country. qq

DiscussionDiscussionDiscussionDiscussionDiscussion

11

India: Reset Terms of Engagement

Under the

dynamic

leadership of PM

Modi India’s

foreign policy has

shed it’s diffidence

and ambivalence.

Self interest is the

sole guiding force.

KK Srivastava

It is time for India to summon courage to tread an independent path in worldaffairs, notwithstanding the enormous pressure to toe the line suggested by

one major power or the other. The present Russian-Ukraine war is testing ourresolve. Perhaps west did not expect the Indian response being what it is in faceof unfair Russian invasion and consequent western retaliation, including the eco-nomic sanctions. Yet, while the west has issued not so subtle threats to India, noconcrete action has been taken, nor has India budged from its position. Instead,India has admonished the west to not lecture on taking the ‘appropriate’ stance,especially when its own record has been murky, especially when China tried toinvade India in recent past. While India has responded the way it has partiallybecause of the fact that Russia is a major defence supplier and partly becauseRussia is embracing China with a firm grasp, let us understand that actually theforeign policy assertion is in consonance with Modi’s renewed resolve to preserv-ing strategic autonomy in the world order. To be sure, even Nehru had set foritself the goal of pursuing an independent foreign policy.

No doubt since Modi government came to power eight years ago, India hasenthusiastically tried to build its ties with the U.S. and Western Europe, especially,as some would say, in view of the presence of a hostile neighbor, China. This wasfurther catalyzed with the latest formation of the group of four nations, theQuad, where again India made common cause with the US. Many analysts there-fore concluded that India has joined the Western camp, partially to offset thegrowing might of Russia-China nexus. Jaishankar, our foreign minister, of courseled by the PM, has put paid to this conclusion more than once on many plat-forms. India’s increasing global heft is primarily an outcome of its calibratedstrategic positioning in a new world order that is no longer dominated by thewest and yet it is far from being controlled by rising power China (with helpfrom Russia). The powers of the West are waning, especially when the rivals haveunderstood that west (Washington and its allies) will not intervene in the ongoingwar so long as NATO territories remain unharmed.

ANALYSISANALYSISANALYSISANALYSISANALYSIS

12

Yet, the fact remains that theWestern grouping is still the wealth-iest global grouping. It still has afirm grip on world’s financial, cul-tural, and even academic institutionsplus the media. This soft powerhelps it weave the popular narra-tives. It seeks to achieve its professedaims through deployment of dip-lomatic and coercive powers.

Russia and China are findingcommon cause because on one handRussia has been crowded out fromthe global high table (and many East-ern European countries joiningNATO), while on the other Chinaperceivers increasing threat fromgroupings like Quad, AUKUS,ASEAN, etc. Both are pushingagainst West. While Russia is uppingthe military ante in its neighbour-hood, China is challenging the West-ern economic and governance mod-el. In this background, the West isfinding it perplexing as to why Indiais not on its side. But India is fol-lowing a policy of enlightened self-interest amid the shifting sands ofgeopolitics that is now permanent-ly in flux. Indeed, this ever transientstate is helping India since on onehand it can build its military set up,and on the other it can sign mutual-ly beneficial trade deals with nationsof all hues to move towards be-coming a five trillion economy.

During the recent India-US2+2 dialogue India firmly articulat-ed the independence of India’s for-eign policy. Not only that, it hasconvinced US (and most recentlyBoris Johnson, of the UK) to ac-cept New Delhi’s position on Rus-sia. No doubt the Indo-US relationswere further strengthened. Yet, itdid not present the foreign ministerfrom chiding the Western world onbeing hippocrite on issues like hos-tile invasions or violation of human

rights or challenges to democraticinstitutions in India, particularly inthe background of Western world’sless than stellar record on all thesecounts. India thus showed its firm-ness, and even defiance in face ofwestern coercion. India is showingto the world that it has the sole agen-da of growing strong without tilt-ing in either direction-Russia or US– and yet forge fruitful ties with allthose who matter to achieve thisgoal. It has decided, and commu-nicated this fact to the rest of theworld, that it will stand firm againstany kind of bullying economically,militarily, or diplomatically.

Since Nehru’s times the coretenets of India’s foreign policyhave always been to play a balanc-ing game with rival camps (mainlyUS and erstwhile USSRby pursu-ing partnerships with all great pow-ers of the time (China was not somighty then). And now even theUS administration has conceded tothe fact that while India wishes tofurther cement its relationship withUS, this will not come at the ex-pense of severing-or even limiting– meaningful ties with Russia. Theworld is not unipolar, and in a mul-tipolar world order, the only sen-sible realpolitic stance would be torefrain from tilting excessively in

either direction. The only guidingforce should be the hawk eyed fo-cus on managing the self interest.India has amply demonstrated thisresolve through words and actionon global theatre in wake ofUkraine crisis. India needs to takecare of its own interests withoutbeing intimidated.

India needs to acquire eco-nomic heft through domestic in-dustrialisation and modernization.It should also work in the direc-tion of plural financial and digitalsystems that are not the monopolyof any one nation or few institu-tions. It should seek a balance ofpower in its immediate neighbour-hood, rather in Asia and the wholeof the world. When the cold warended, the post war scenario failedto accommodate all sides in fairmanner. The ‘defeated’ power –Russia – is now refusing to acceptthe US and EU formulation ofdefence security architecture hand-ed out to it. This is the primaryreason for the current crisis. Indiashould aim at connecting with Eur-asia. Closer home it should build acounterforce to Chinese influenceby deepening ties with its ownneighbours. It should catalyze abeneficial trade and investment sys-tem at global level by flexing itseconomic muscles. And it shouldemphasize the fact that it is a mul-ticivilization world, sans the dom-inance of any one that we live in.

It is time the world comes toterm with an assertive India whichrefuses to be dictated and definedby the west. India is looking at thepossibility of convergence of in-terests of all players; it is refusingto play ball to the classic westernapproach; are you with us oragainst us? We are committed toonly our self interest. qq

And now even the US

administration has

conceded to the fact that

while India wishes to

further cement its

relationship with US, this

will not come at the

expense of severing-or even

limiting – meaningful ties

with Russia.

AnalysisAnalysisAnalysisAnalysisAnalysis

13

Ayurveda and Yoga spearhead India’smedical diplomacy

India’s Traditional

Medicine systems

(Ayurveda,

Siddha, Unani,

and Sowa Rigpa of

the Himalayan

ranges) and other

world traditions

will now be

studied and

preserved at the

Global Centre for

Traditional

Medicine (GCTM).

Sandhya Jain

India’s medical tourism sector, largely confined to allopathic treatment (barringKerala), received a major fillip with the World Health Organisation selecting

India to host the first and only WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine(GCTM). Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mauritius Prime Minister PravindKumar Jugnauth and WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, laid the foun-dation stone of the Centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, on April 19, 2022. Interestingly,Mauritius has been observing Dhanteras as Ayurveda Day since 2017.

India’s Traditional Medicine systems (Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and SowaRigpa of the Himalayan ranges) and other world traditions will now be studiedand preserved at the GCTM. Jamnagar was selected as it established the world’sfirst Ayurvedic University five decades ago, and hosts the Institute of Teachingand Research in Ayurveda. The Traditional Medicine industry has been growingexponentially since 2015, and is currently worth $18.1 billion annually. It is expect-ed to touch $23 billion by 2022-23. The central budget for Ayush promotion for2022-23 has been raised to Rs 3050 crore.

Yoga at OlympicsThe intangible benefits of Yoga have long been recognised across the spec-

trum. Yoga is now being clinically studied at NIMHANS, AIIMS, and S-VYASA,for its therapeutic value in the treatment of non-communicable diseases such asdiabetes, cancer, hypertension, and psychological problems like depression that isknown to cause loss of grey matter in the brain. Yoga helps in memory lossassociated with mild cognitive impairment.

Breathing techniques taught in Yoga expel bodily impurities and heal thebody in a non-invasive manner. Yoga is compatible with other medicinal systems.The Integrated Oncology Guidelines framed in 2014 with European and USparticipation found Yoga helped cancer patients to cope with fatigue, nausea, anddepression. Western doctors are urging recognition of Yoga and insurance cover-age for yoga therapies.

YOGAYOGAYOGAYOGAYOGA

14

India has now taken a quanti-tative leap by promoting Yoga asa sport to attract children and theyouth. This, combined with the pullof International Yoga Day (June 21)could make Yoga a truly globalphenomenon and eventually have itaccepted as an Olympic sport. Thisrequires acceptance in at least 80countries; so far, 35 are on board.

The National Yogasana SportsFederation, affiliated to the WorldYogasana Sports Federation, believesthat making Yogasanas an Olympicevent would expand awareness ofyoga and its myriad mental and phys-ical health benefits. It began laying thefoundations for this goal by conduct-ing national championships in yogain 30 states; a world championshipwill be held later in 2022. Interest-ingly, the first World Yoga Cham-pionship was held in 1989 in Mon-tevideo, Uruguay, so this may notbe a very far-fetched ambition.

NYSF president Udit Shethpoints to the need to train coachesand judges, besides the athletes.Curriculum is being framed forteaching asanas, standardising thesystem of scoring, and refining theasanas with the aid of technologyand artificial intelligence. Using theKarate Model, where white toblack belt indicates the level ofaccomplishment, the federation in2015-16 prepared eight levels oflearning, with four levels for coach-es. In 2018-19, the Indian YogaAssociation met at the Coimbatoreashram of Jaggi Vasudev to honethe agenda; Swami Ramdev helpedrefine asanas appropriate for acompetitive format. To enhancethe appeal of the sport, the feder-ation has asked the centre to includeYoga in the proposed Ayush Visafor foreigners coming to India fortreatment or study.

GCTMThe WHO Global Centre for

Traditional Medicine will be a gamechanger for traditional medicinewhich, for millions across theworld, is often the first line of treat-ment. It will create a database oftraditional knowledge systems us-ing technology; create internation-al standards for testing and certifi-cation of traditional medicines toenhance confidence in these medi-cines; evolve as a platform for glo-bal experts of traditional medicinesto share experiences; and perhapshost an annual traditional medicinefestival. The GCTM will mobilizefunding for research in traditionalmedicines and develop protocolsfor holistic treatment of specificdiseases so that patients could ben-efit from both traditional andmodern medicine. It has beentasked to ensure that indigenouscommunities benefit from theirintellectual property.

The Government of India hasextended a grant of US$ 250 mil-lion to the GCTM. As many as 170out of 194 WHO Member Statesuse traditional medicine, and theirgovernments urged WHO’s sup-port in creating a body of reliableevidence and data on traditionalmedicine practices and products.

The medicinal value of plantshas been known to diverse com-munities across regions who sharedthis knowledge freely, without put-ting a price on it, an “open sourcemodel”, as Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi put it. Ayurveda andYoga together offered India holis-tic health for over five thousandyears. During the Covid pandem-ic, both proved especially helpfulfor India and the world, boostingimmunity and countering stress.

The post-Covid world offers

enormous scope for TraditionalMedicine systems, and vast em-ployment opportunities in the cre-ation of supply chains, diagnostictools, telemedicine. For farmers, itoffers an opportunity to growmedicinal plants and trees; the FS-SAI is currently finalising regula-tions for exports and framingguidelines for Ayush Aahar.

The Centre plans to launch anAyush Visa for medical touristsseeking Ayurveda treatments in thecountry, especially in the Himalay-an Hill States where infrastructureis being developed to facilitatewellness centres. An Ayush Markwill help in branding products tocertify quality. The union ministriesof Ayush and Commerce and In-dustry are also setting up an AyushExport Promotion Council.

An Ayush-pedia online por-tal on the lines of Wikipedia hasbeen proposed, and the CharakAshram of Kotdwar will be rec-reated with help from the Archae-ological Survey of India.

Sowa-RigpaAn episode in the epic, Ra-

mayana, shows Hanuman going tothe Himalayas to get a life-givingherb for Laxman. The NationalInstitute of Sowa-Rigpa, set up inLeh in November, 2019, providesfree medicine and therapy throughOPD and regular camps. A Sowa-Rigpa Traditional Knowledge Dig-ital Library has been set up withCSIR-TTKDL Unit Delhi. Tradi-tional healers are being trained tostrengthen public health in remoteareas, and the cultivation of endan-gered and commercially viablemedicinal plants of the Trans Hi-malayas encouraged.

Sowa-Rigpa, Science ofHealing in Bhoti (Tibetan) is one

YogaYogaYogaYogaYoga

15

of the oldest, living, and well doc-umented medical traditions in theworld. Widely practiced in Lada-kh, Himachal Pradesh, ArunachalPradesh, Sikkim, Darjeeling, andTibetan settlements in India, aswell as Central Asia, it was formallyincluded under the Ayush systemof medicines in 2010. The visualexamination of urine is a distinc-tive diagnostic tool in this system,besides examination of the tongueand pulse.

Medicinal plantsAs a vast number of pharma-

ceutical products are based on nat-ural substances, mainly plants, thereis urgent need to conserve biodi-versity and sustainability. The pop-ular aspirin derives from the barkof the willow tree, the contracep-tive pill from the roots of wildyam plants, and child cancer treat-ments have been based on the rosyperiwinkle. Nobel-prize winningresearch on artemisinin for malar-ia control can be sourced to an-cient Chinese medicine texts.

Modern scientific methodsare now being utilised to study tra-ditional medicine. Artificial Intelli-gence is used to screen natural prod-ucts for pharmacokinetic proper-ties, and magnetic resonance imag-ing (MRI) is used to study brain ac-tivity and the relaxation responsefollowing meditation and yoga.

Medicinal plants thus offer ahuge opportunity for farmers.However, most pharmaceuticalcompanies at the Global AyushInvestment and Innovation Sum-mit (GAIIS) voiced concerns oversourcing of materials. They moot-ed protocols for growing medici-nal plants, with national level certi-fication, training of staff, labs, etc.The National Medicinal Plant Board

could set up a Digital Platform andnotify the khasra number of eachfield from where plant material istaken. All plants must be organic,no urea or fertilisers used.

Industry leaders mooted salesthrough the Forest Department, asis the practice in the north east.Alternately, villages can be organ-ised at district level. Medicinal plantfarmers could form a consortiumto provide data on industry needsfrom each plant species, with test-ing facilities for each plant. TheIndian Council for AgriculturalResearch must standardize themethodology for evaluating bio-active markers in plants, so thatthere is no lab-to-lab variation.

Emphasising the importanceof data, Acharya Balkrishna, MD,Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., pointed outthat the bioactive compound inhaldi (turmeric) and ashwagandhais different in different states, andneeds a biomarker. He lamentedthat the Arjun tree takes 30-40 yearsto grow, but dies when the bark istaken. The forest department sug-gested that bark could be provid-ed from trees felled for other rea-sons. Balkrishna said afforestationmust be increased in mountainousregions, and mooted proper train-ing of farmers in the cultivation ofmedicinal plants, with increasedgeo-fencing and geo-tagging.

The addl. Director-General,Forests, said tissue cultivation could

harness plant material from endan-gered forest species. But certifica-tion of seed source is imperativeunder WTO provisions, and onlyUttar Pradesh has undertaken cer-tification so far. The seed, bark,flowers, roots, all need certificationof source, and guarantee of puri-ty (no pesticide). However, hestressed that the Forest Depart-ments need to know how muchproduct is needed by industry andwhen. The sector being unorgan-ised, poses impediments for indus-try. Around 20 lakh hectares arecultivated by farmers so far; thereare seed banks for 42 species andgerm plasm for 20 species, butmuch remains to be done. E-Char-ak is documenting all species in theMedicinal Plant Conservation Area.

Global AYUSH Investment &Innovation Summit

The charkha-shaped MahatmaMandir, Ahmedabad, hosted thethree-day investment summit thatended on a promising note withthe Ayush sector receiving lettersof intent of over Rs 9,000 crorein major categories such as FMCG,Medical Value Travel (MVT) andservices, pharmaceuticals, technol-ogy & diagnostics, and farmers &agriculture. These are expected togenerate around six lakh jobs. TheUnion Defence Ministry signedMOUs for ayush benefits in hos-pitals in 37 cantonment areas.

The Union Science and Tech-nology Ministry has proposed jointresearch and a joint PhD programwith the Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research. There are plansto develop a network of AYUSHparks to encourage the promotion,research and manufacturing of AY-USH products across the country.qq

https://chintan.indiafoundation.in/articles/ayurveda-and-yoga-spearhead-

indias-medical-diplomacy/

The Union Science and

Technology Ministry has

proposed joint research

and a joint PhD

program with the

Council of Scientific

and Industrial Research.

YogaYogaYogaYogaYoga

16

Traditional Medicine on Trial

While traditional

medicine system is

based on our

ancient wisdom,

practices, and

experience, there

is a lack of

rigorous clinical

trials. This issue

needs addressing.

Dr. Jaya Kakkar

According to WHO 170 out of 194 member states of the organization usetraditional medicines but do not necessarily have reliable evidence and data

on traditional medicine products and practices. Without that policy building andintegration of these medicines into their health systems is not possible. HenceWHO has opened global centre for traditional medicine in India.

According to WHO a traditional medicine is the total sum of the “knowl-edge, skills, and practices indigenous and different cultures have used over time tomaintain health and prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illness. Itsreach encompasses ancient practices such as acupressure, ayurvedic medicine andherbal mixtures as well as modern medicines.”

In India these include practices and theraples involving Ayurveda, Siddha,Yoga and others (homeopathy, unani, etc.) that have been part of Indian tradi-tions since ancient times. While Ayurveda and Yoga has spread countrywide, dif-ferent regions have their own traditional medicine systems.

As on date traditional medicines are not integrated into national health sys-tems and strategies. Nor there are accredited courses and health facilities. It isnotable that nearly 40% of approved pharma products are derived from naturalsubstances, such as contraceptive pills. Thus there is a need to rely on biodiversityand sustainable practices. In order to bring traditional medicines into mainstreamtheir efficacy needs to be scientifically tested and validated. For this modern prac-tices such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), artificial intelligence etc. need tobe increasingly deployed (these are already being used, though not on a widescale, due to lack of systematic research) to establish their therapeutic and preven-tive values. Technology should aid the establishment of credentials of such med-icines as also in their adoption and usage far and wide.

During the pandemic leading companies launched hundreds of natural andherbal products. However, post easing of the problem ayurvedic products sharehas either stagnated or declined. However, according to Research and Informa-

HEALTHHEALTHHEALTHHEALTHHEALTH

17

tion System (RIS) the Ayush mar-ket – comprising Ayurveda , Yoga,Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy– is estimated to have expandedto $20.6 billion in 2021 fromaround $18 billion in 2020. Peo-ple’s belief in Ayurveda has in-creased over the years and the pan-demic has helped accelerate it. Ini-tiative like global centre shouldboost this acceptance across theworld since these healing methodscan go a long way in mitigatingdiseases. Many people around theworld rely on herbal products forsome part of primary healthcare.GCTM can act as an accessible, eco-friendly and interactive facility show-casing global traditions and advance-ments in traditional medicine.

Much of traditional medicineis based on received knowledgeand home remedies. Faith andtrans-generational anecdotal – asagainst scientific – support havebeen its mainstay. Anyone withpersuasive skills has scope forpracticing these medicines in anunregulated market. Thus eventhough the medicine may not beat fault, the practitioner’s ill bakedknowledge makes the patient andpotential users skeptical about theirefficacy. The WHO GCTM seeksto change this. It will work on fourstrategic areas: one, gathering evi-dence and learning, two, deploy-ment of data and analytics for ex-perimentation and fastertesting;three, keeping in mind the environ-mental footprints and sustainabili-ty; and four, adoption of innova-tion and technology. Once the tra-ditional medicine becomes evidencebased – based on scientific testing– it will be treated at par with mod-ern (aka allopathic) medicine.

The goal of an appropriatehealth system should not be mere-

ly to cure. Rather, it should worktowards maintaining well beingand health, prevent disease, anddiagnose and treat it in most ef-fective manner. The efficacy of thesystem needs to be measured interms of time and cost of treat-ment, minimization of side effects,etc. Moreover, the health systemshould have universal access andacceptability. The idea is not to re-place ‘modern’ medicine by tradi-tional one; rather, to optimize thewhole health system by integratingtraditional medicine, which anywayhas a very strong base in India, soas to search for best available so-lutions. The patient – indeed thewhole general population – shouldhave alternative choices for theirhealth needs. Remember whileAyurveda is India born, Unani is acentral Asian import, while Home-opathy was developed by a Ger-man practitioner, and Siddha hasits base largely in south India.

Above all, traditional Indianmedicine must meet global stan-dards. This is the primary require-ment since there are skeptics ga-lore who associate the traditionalmedicine system with only quack-ery and fraud. It is a known factthat even established, large tradi-tional medicine manufacturers es-cape scrutiny when they make tallclaims like cure cancer, heart dis-ease, and many such terminal dis-eases. Yet it is undeniable that inour country where an average per-son’s access to standard allopathictreatment is limited by both reachand expense, promoting alternativemedicine choice which has morewidespread access and relatively ata lower cost is an idea that needsextensive support.

Bharatiya Janata Party hascome into power with a broad

socio-cultural agenda. This includesreestablishing our ancient gloriouspart, be it ancient scientific wisdom,vedic math, rich historical tradi-tions, or Yoga. In the same line theBJP government, immediately af-ter coming to power decided toset up Ministry of Ayush in Sep-tember 2014. While the idea wasindeed laudable one must not shuteyes towards problems in promot-ing efficacious traditional medicine.

Firstly, there are no uniformstandards nor effective monitoringmechanism in the area of tradition-al medicine. Consequently, as wesald earlier, fraud and quackery arewidespread. This includes the useof harmful steroids and metals inhomeopathic and Ayurvedic med-icines and products. Even the gov-ernment has been overzealous inpromoting traditional medicinewithout underlying scientific basisfor government protocol sanction-ing Ayurvedic and yoga practices,the latest case being endorsementof their use for prevention andcure for asymptomatic and mildcovid patients. While it may be truethat these medicines may have beeneffective, the Indian medical asso-ciation objected to non-availabilityof any scientific proof. Secondly,the sector is completely unregulat-ed with presence of micro enter-prises; everyone relies on traditionaltexts which have not been put un-der any kind of scrutiny.

Having said that the latest en-deavour of setting up the GCTM,alongwith need to reduce the quackpractices, should help in providingthe seeker a reliable, low cost, freeof side effects alternative on onehand and in freeing the poor pa-tient from the clutches of profi-teering multinational drug mafiaon the other. qq

HealthHealthHealthHealthHealth

18

US does a lot for India, but India too doesa lot for US

What the bilateral

trade figures do

not reveal is the

transfer of wealth

from India to the

US through the

export of talented

Indian migrants.

Sanjaya Baru

Ask not what the United States does for India, ask what India does for theUnited States. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ought to have paraphrased

that famous line from John F. Kennedy during his recent interaction with USPresident Joe Biden. In media reports of the virtual meeting between the twoheads of government and the 2+2 meeting between the defence and foreignministers of both countries that followed, the focus has largely been on how theUnited States can and does extend strategic support to India. It is helpful toremind ourselves and the US every now and then that India too has long extend-ed strategic support to the United States.

Too much is made of the merchandise trade deficit of $23 billion that Indiaenjoys with the United States. Former President Donald Trump and his adminis-tration’s trade representative made quite a fetish out of quoting it. The US seeksto wipe this out by doubling its defence sales to India from the present level of$21 billion, at the expense of several rival suppliers, especially Russia.

What the bilateral trade figures do not reveal is the transfer of wealth fromIndia to the US through the export of highly talented Indian migrants. Indianbrain power fuels the engines of education, research, innovation, corporate man-agement and the services economy in the United States — all fields that give theUS a global edge over its rivals and peers. As recently as in 1990, the total numberof Indian migrants to the

US was estimated to be 450,000. By 2020, this was over 2.7 million.Till the turn of the century economists viewed this migration as a “brain

drain”. Over the past couple of decades they have come to view the Indianglobal diaspora as a “brain bank”. Whatever form this brain power takes, the factremains that this Indian talent has contributed positively to all the countries host-ing it. This “brain power” is India’s investment in the development of those host

OPINIONOPINIONOPINIONOPINIONOPINION

19

countries. One need not take amoral or political view of this phe-nomenon, whether it is good orbad, but one must quantify it andunderstand in what way India’ssociety and economy have contrib-uted to the development of thecountries that are receiving suchtalent.

In the 1950s, Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru invited the No-bel Prize-winning American econ-omist Milton Friedman to studyIndia and offer his advice on itseconomic development. WhileFriedman made himself unpopu-lar with Nehru by suggesting thatthe Planning Commission bewound up and the public sectorbe privatised, he made one pre-scient observation that ought tohave been taken more seriously.The United States economy grew,Friedman wrote in a 1955 note toNehru, because it had vast naturalresources at its disposal and suckedin labour power from across theworld. India has limited naturalresources but a vast pool of peo-ple. Invest in your people, he sug-gested, and they will be for Indiawhat land and natural resourceswere for America.

It is one idea that has failed tocapture the imagination of succes-sive generations of the Indian po-litical and intellectual leadership. Ofcourse, India has invested in itspeople and many of them fuel theengine of growth. But comparedto the vast pool of people avail-able, the educated and skilled re-main a limited set.

Worse, from this pool of tal-ent, a sizeable number migrate tothe developed world, mostly to theUnited States. It is, therefore, timefor India to define the two-wayrelationship in a more balanced

way, quantifying not just what theUS does to support India’s rise butalso what India and Indians do tosupport America’s global domi-nance.

India certainly needs the Unit-ed States, not just for the guns,ships and jets that it can sell andthe intelligence it can share, but forall the new technologies it can giveaccess too. The United States alsoneeds India, not just as an ally againstChina and a provider of low-costdefence personnel and services inthis part of the world, but as asource of highly talented manpowerthat can ensure America’s globaldominance in information technol-ogy-enabled businesses.

The US-India strategic part-nership has often been viewedthrough the prism of third parties,and they are relevant to a certainextent. In dealing with the China-Pakistan axis, India has found itsrelationship with both Russia andthe US to be helpful.

However, the US-India part-nership also stands on its own legsprecisely because it is a two-waystreet. This fact is not adequatelyappreciated, indeed generally notrecognised, because it has not been

quantified. What exactly has beenthe contribution of 2.7 million peo-ple of Indian origin to sustainingUS global power?

Milton Friedman thought thatpopulation can do for India whatnatural resources did for the US. Theirony is that the best of Indians aredoing for the US what Friedmanhad hoped they would do for In-dia. Of course, we in India musttake full responsibility for this.

The out-migration of talenthas both a pull and a push dimen-sion and there is no point blamingindividuals. The question to ask iswhat can more India do to retainits talent so that it can fuel the coun-try’s development.

The problem of out-migra-tion of talent has been accentuat-ed in recent years by the shortageof opportunities at home as wellas by domestic social and politicaltrends. In my book India’s PowerElite: Class, Caste and a CulturalRevolution (2021) I show how the“secession of the successful” hasaccelerated in the past five years.The turn that domestic politics istaking may contribute to a furtheracceleration of this process.

The beneficiaries will be thecountries of the Anglosphere —the United States, Britain Canada,Australia and other English-speak-ing countries like Singapore and theUnited Arab Emirates.

The government may be ableto do very little to prevent thismigration, and indeed it is doing alot to make educated young Indi-ans want to leave the country, butit can at least try and quantify it sothat the host countries are awareof India’s generous contribution totheir global dominance. qq

The writer is an economist, a former newspaper

editor, a best-selling author, and former adviser to

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

OpinionOpinionOpinionOpinionOpinion

The US-India

strategic

partnership has

often been

viewed through

the prism of third

parties, and they

are relevant to a

certain extent.

20

Due Diligence to Organic Farming inSri Lanka

As a responsible

neighbour of Sri

Lanka, we should

own the

responsibility to

bail out Sri Lanka

during this crisis

with the same

spirit as we did

with the Covid-19

vaccine.

Alok Singh

Sri Lanka attempted the complete migration to organic farming in the least leadtime. One day the government decided to completely ban chemical fertilizer

based farming. The business interest of seed and chemical fertilizer companieswere ruined by this one decision of the government of Sri Lanka. The businessinterest was not only of the Sri Lankan companies. But the business interests ofthe big companies of the developed countries and of course china.

The political leadership of Sri Lanka had committed in their recent electionpromises that they will transmit the country to organic farming from harmfulchemical-based farming in the next decade. It was an attack on the business inter-est of the greedy companies who claim to conduct unbiased science-based re-search to suit their interests at the cost of the health of the general public. But thegovernment deviated from the original plan and executed the decision to goorganic in a single step huge long jump. What had to be executed in ten years wasexecuted blindly in one day. It seems to have failed. It’s still tough to say that hadSri Lanka avoided this quick jump then its economy, politics and people wouldhave a better future. To blame the switching to organic farming as the only rea-son is to catch the low hanging fruits. The deep pocket producers of geneticallymodified seeds and chemical fertilizers have managed to create propaganda thatthe decision to go organic was too little and too fast. It could not save the econ-omy and politics of Sri Lanka from turbulence. But the other argument is thathad Sri Lanka avoided this courageous step to go organic then could it be assuredwith a certain probability of guarantee that its situation would have been better. 

The crisis of Sri Lanka has deep foundations. This foundation of crisis hasChinese roots. The early warning signals were ignored and by the time it wasadmitted by the government to the people it was too late and the government

ISSUEISSUEISSUEISSUEISSUE

21

had fewer arrows in its quiver. Theonly visible arrow that the govern-ment of the day could offer to itspeople was organic farming in elec-tion speeches and when the situa-tion deteriorated it used its arrowin a haphazard way as opinion-makers believe. One more arrowwas lost but no relief, either to theeconomy or to the people.

The big question is that is itso? We have seen during the Cov-id vaccination programme, howthe trial of a vaccine which con-sumes years, approximately tenyears to recommend for use wasapproved for emergency use with-in a year. The nations of the worldhad limited alternatives and the riskwas executed which paid favour-ably well in subsequent waves ofthe Covid-19. Our own BharatBiotech came up with Covaxinwithin a year’s time and it saved usfrom the politics of the ‘VaccineNationalism’, and vaccine as a toolto arm-twist the foreign and eco-nomic policy. We are doing rela-tively well because we aimed forself-reliance in the Covid-19 vac-cine and it gave us strength in ournational as well as international en-deavours. We had seen how theBharat Biotech had to face trou-bles at every stage of trial and thepropaganda against our own vac-cines. We could successfully ma-noeuvre ourselves from such pol-itics which reflected in columnsand articles and research paperswhich did not favour Covaxin. Theexecution of Sri Lanka to go or-ganic in the least lead time is labelledas unplanned, but during emergen-cy situations, many standard pro-tocols are rescheduled to optimisethe advantage. It seems Sri Lankadid so.

The problems faced by Sri

Lanka can be classified as system-atic risks and unsystematic risks.The Covid-19 risk is systematic riskand the unprepared people world-wide faced it. Even China suffereda lot, though the fingers of thedeliberate or accidental leak arepointed toward the Wuhan lab ofChina.

This systematic risk createdserious troubles for the tourismand hospitality sector. Many islandnations feed their population basedon the tourism economy. So, SriLanka suffered huge earnings in thetourism sector due to Covid-19.Sri Lanka could do nothing tocounter this risk.

The unsystematic risks are thechoice of the trade agreements andthe type of economy in which itdecided to place itself. The choiceof Sri Lanka to choose a free-market economy with an unprec-edented dilution of the roles ofregulators and a zero-tariff tradepolicy is the long term culprit. Thisfree-market economy creed a hugegap between the rich and the poorand by the time they realised it isunsustainable and inequitable it had

already created a web of traps forthis island nation. It opened its econ-omy to the world and China saw itas an opportunity to control it. To-day, Sri Lanka is the biggest victimof China’s debt-trap strategy.

In the middle of such a crisis,Sri Lanka had to make a call.  Itcalled to go organic in the farmingsector so that it can achieve self-reliance in food and save importbills on fertilizers and artificial seeds.During the initial days of this or-ganic farming decision it was ap-plauded by the caretakers of theclimate issue; rational, unbiased andnature-friendly scientists; advocatesof sustainable living; and opinionmakers who care for climate, na-ture and future generations.

Every process has a cycle timebefore the final product takes vis-ible shape. By increasing the re-sources the output can be increasedbut the cycle time can’t be reduced.The fair opinion is that Organicfarming will also consume its ownshare of cycle time and the sensi-ble world leaders in general andBharat, in particular, has to createways for Sri Lanka to survive dur-ing this cycle time of going throughorganic farming process.

We had vaccine diplomacywith the needy nations in generaland poor nations of the world inparticular. As a responsible neigh-bour of Sri Lanka, we should ownthe responsibility to bail out SriLanka during this crisis with thesame spirit as we did with the Cov-id-19 vaccine. At, no cost the deci-sion of Sri Lanka to go back tofertilizer based farming be encour-aged. Serious due diligence is need-ed. This effort will be good forhumanity. qq

(Alok Singh is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of

Management Indore and is a freelancer

academician.)

IssueIssueIssueIssueIssue

The execution of

Sri Lanka to go

organic in the least

lead time is labelled

as unplanned, but

during emergency

situations, many

standard protocols

are rescheduled to

optimise the

advantage.

22

The more the

consumers assert,

the more the

farmers will

change. The key to

the next revolution

in agriculture lies

in the hands of

consumers.

Devinder Sharma

AGRICULTUREAGRICULTUREAGRICULTUREAGRICULTUREAGRICULTURE

Addressing the Khalsa College at Am-ritsar the other day, I said the next revo-lution in agriculture will be consumerdriven. A few weeks later, delivering thekeynote at a national convention on non-chemical farming under the banner of“Kudrat Utsav” organised by the non-profit Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM) atChandigarh, my call to the audience,which comprised primarily of urban con-sumers and practitioners, was to exer-cise their right in demanding safe andhealthy food.

Why I listed the two events is to es-sentially drive home the point that the

next revolution in agriculture will be largely influenced by the consumers. Unlikethe Green Revolution, which increased crop production manifold to meet thechallenges of food shortages, the next major transformation in agriculture – let’scall it as an Evergreen Revolution, a term that was first used by Dr M S Swami-nathan — will be driven by health and environmentally conscious consumers. Thedemand for organic food has been growing, and given the increasing realisationof the need for healthy food to boost your immune system, I can foresee anexponential jump in the years to come.

The organic food market in India is projected to grow by a compoundannual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.5 per cent in the next five years, between 2022and 2027. This is impressive, and given an increased understanding among con-sumers of the damaging role intensive agriculture plays in climate change, thedemand will further grow. The higher the demand for organic food, the higherwill be the pressure on farmers to move towards a healthy transformation –from chemical to non-chemical farming systems.

In the years to come, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)has in a series of reports warned of the destructive consequences of a tempera-ture rise beyond the permissible limits. Considering that agriculture contributesapproximately a third of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GNGs) that the worldgenerates, consumers are becoming aware of the devastating consequences ofhigher emissions. Further, with soil fertility declining to almost zero in intensivelyfarmed regions; and resulting soil erosion expanding the process of desertifica-tion, the harmful implications that stare ahead are clearly visible. Add to it theexcessive mining of groundwater which is sucking aquifers dry, more so in exhaus-tively farming regions — like Punjab and Haryana in India — and with chemicalpesticides becoming extremely pervasive in environment, an average consumer is

How consumers can play a key role inmaking agri-food systems sustainable

23

AgricultureAgricultureAgricultureAgricultureAgriculture

becoming aware of how the entirefood chain has been contaminated.

The development narrativetoo is changing. The irreversibleimpacts of climate change – iftemperature exceeds 1.5 degreescentigrade – are not only wellknown, but equally frightening.More droughts and heat waves willravage the planet. Already studiesare pointing to displacement of700 million people in Africa if thewarming is not kept within theprescribed limits. Frequency of cy-clones, storms and extreme weath-er conditions is increasing. Rise insea water level will wipe out coastalcommunities in several parts of theworld, and many island nations willdisappear. Already glaciers are melt-ing at an alarming rate, and weath-er precipitation is necessitating a shiftin habitats. This is expected to bringan additional 350 million people tobe faced with water scarcity.

I don’t think the consumer isinsensitive as well as indifferent tothe severe consequences of climatechange at home, and they do wor-ry about the possibility of an apoc-alypse in future if business as usualcontinues. That is why from build-ing more heat-absorbing concretejungles, the focus is now shiftingto greener cities of the future.From fossil fuel to greener fueloptions – like solar and electricpower, so much so that many dis-cernible among them are beginningto question even the economicgrowth model. Chasing the GDPis leading to the destruction ofnatural resources, and increasing aglobal movement for degrowthand green growth as a pathway isalso building up. People do realisethat farming is increasingly vulner-able to the climatic aberrations. Butunfortunately, the solutions being

offered remain the same: moreaggressive push for industrial agri-culture. Despite the dominant eco-nomic thinking remaining inclinedtowards intensive farming systems,citing the possibility of increasinghunger and malnutrition with atransformation towards non-chemical farming systems, con-sumers can still play a significantrole by seeking foods that are cul-tivated by regenerative agriculturepractices that does minimal harmto the environment.

Consumers need to be dou-bly cautious about their food hab-its ensuring that it does not lead tomore toxic soils, more water be-ing pulled out for crop cultivation,and does not allow for cultivationpractices leading to further con-tamination of the food chain. Al-ready there is a visible shift towardssafe food globally, slowly butsteadily it is growing in proportion.Instead of large industrial farms,the emphasis has to shift to smallscale agriculture which as per nu-merous research studies is moreefficient than big agriculture. Asmall scale agro-ecological farm-ing method is the crying need ofthe times. Public policies are in-creasingly coming under pressureto encourage a transformation to-wards ecologically safe small scalefarming systems.

This is a healthy sign. The factthat consumers are asserting thatfood has to be healthy, meeting theneeds of nutritional security, is in-dicative of the growing public sup-port for non-chemical agriculture.And the need for healthy nutritiousfood is driving a change in foodhabits, and the shift towards nutri-tious foods like millets, coarsegrains, pulses, vegetables and dairyproducts is evident. Already the

area under millets has expanded,and farmers are getting a betterprice. Requiring less water, milletscan very well fit into a farming sys-tem that is climate resilient. Sincestaple foods - wheat and paddy -will face reduction in yields becauseof rising temperatures, the demandfrom consumers should hopefullyshift to crops that can fit into thechanging climate.

Why I am hoping that con-sumers will call the shots in the yearsto come is because with amplefood production that the world issaddled with, and despite agri-business industry creating a fearpsychosis, people do realise thatthere is no evidence of any short-fall in food production. A third ofwhat the world produces every yeargoes down in the landfills. If foodwastage was a country, it wouldhave ranked third in global meth-ane emissions. The challenge there-fore is to first reduce the monumen-tal food wastage. Therefore, it is notwrong to say that people are awarethey now have the option to freelyexercise their food choices.

If the world doesn’t trans-form towards a healthy and eco-logically safe farming systems, con-sumers must take the blame. Afterall, if they had demanded for in-stance the food that does not re-quire more use of chemical fertil-isers and pesticides, which definitelyadds on to global warming, thefarmers would have got the rightmessage. The more the consum-ers assert, the more the farmers willchange. The key to the next revo-lution in agriculture therefore liesin the hands of consumers. qq

(The author is a noted food policy analyst and an

expert on issues related to the agriculture sector.

He writes on food, agriculture and hunger)

https://www.thehansindia.com/business/how-consumers-can-play-a-key-

role-in-making-agri-food-systems-sustainable-738446

24

Let us be realistic

as we try to limit

pollution and

global warming.

Then we can hope

the earth will.

Indra Shekhar

Singh

ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT

Happy Earth Day, fellow earthlings! It’s a mystery how spaceship Earth hassurvived another century, pumped up on fossil fuels, forests burned, water

wasted and half the world population living in poverty, without fresh water, airor nutrition. When we hear corporate overlords say, “Great Reset”, “Fourth In-dustrial Revolution”, and “corporates for Earth”, we must shiver. For it onlyheralds a new Great Game to privatise nature.

The theme of Earth Day this year is “Invest in our planet”. It, too, is in linewith the corporate-fuelled agenda. But that’s no surprise. Giant multinational cor-porations and countries in the developed world want us to spend our hard-earned resources to clean up their messes. The developing world faces 9/10th ofthe world’s climate burden, while Wall Street was busy last year, setting up a Nat-ural Asset fund and management companies to profit from climate control. Thesustainability reports filed by corporate giants sound lovely, and their commitmentsto net-zero are being promoted as an ultimate solution. But remember, plastic andaluminium were once the green thing to do too, and look where that got us.

The reality is, green targets are an economy in which every dollar or rupeewe spend goes into the pockets of the corporate sector—and the clean-up cost isours, too. Here is how: Recently, while travelling in Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh, Ifound a unique agricultural practice still in action. People use agri-chemicals to alimited extent. They still allow their land to rest for six months, restoring soilfertility. But that should not surprise us either: we know that the 50 least devel-oped countries contribute less than 1% to global carbon emissions.

Then I also saw trash, mostly empty packets of packaged food items, allover Himachal Pradesh. Untreated sewage was entering rivers and streams in ev-ery town, village and city. When it rains, the residue from quarries, and untreatedmunicipal waste, overflow into the nearest river. In short, no place is safe fromcorporate-generated filth in India or the world. And who is destroying the naturalenvironment every day except the corporations that own the mines, even ourgarbage? Agreed, even though the scales vary widely, the developing countries,

Earth Day: Affirm Conservation asResistance

25

too, must play a role in climatechange mitigation. For, the more theearth grows warmer, the more in-equalities will rise. Yes, we in Indianeed to leave our rivers, glaciers andremote areas alone to rejuvenate.

Or else, considering the scaleat which anthropogenic activitiesare fuelling environmental disasters,there won’t be many natural sitesleft if collective action to mitigaterising global temperature is ignored.That is why the Kyoto Protocolspoke of ”common but differen-tial responsibility” in 1997. And,whatever happened to the $100billion promised to the developingworld at COP-21 in France? Noteven half its target has been reached.Perhaps it is a result of the moveaway from mitigating and adaptingstrategies to individual role in envi-ronment and climate change. Thesystemic issues are relegated to thesidelines, since developing nationsbear the burden of climate changeand need fuel resources to propeltheir rise out of poverty.

Let us talk about how we caninvest in “our earth” in this con-text. The way ahead is not to ap-pease “industry leaders” becausetheir leadership has landed us in theclimate crisis in the first place. Theirloyalties are, supposedly, to theirshareholders and profit, not theplanet. If anything, we should in-sist corporations fulfil their envi-ronmental “conservation” missionsby not hurting it more. We mustinsist that corporations set moreambitious targets to reduce emis-sions. We need more changes: Na-ture doesn’t charge for water, sowhy do corporates get to make uspay for a bottle of it? In otherwords, sure, invest in the planet,but not through Wall Street.

Indeed, the corporate-led

model of growth and develop-ment has forced us to believe thatindividuals can achieve a betterearth while collective action is dis-incentivised.

Now on, let us use our mon-ey—our government’s money, thetaxpayers’ money, citizen’s mon-ey—to buy and promote the localeconomy. We must get our gov-ernments to invest time, effort, andmoney to restore our local envi-ronments. Go ahead and plant atree, dig a pond, eat local produceand meat, but collective action isthe only way forward to see changeglobally. To get governments todisinvest from planet-killing busi-nesses, we need peoples’ advoca-cy campaigns that demand ac-countability from those who pol-lute the earth most. We inherit theearth as a commons. So we mustdisempower corporate tyrannyover food, water, and natural re-sources. This can only be done bypromoting local decentralised sys-tems and climate-friendly develop-ment models.

The next big investment is intowater and seeds. To save waterdoes not mean using less water athomes. It means helping regener-ate water while remembering thatthe developing countries are striv-

ing to cover greater populationswith access to clean water. If wewant to limit domestic water con-sumption, we have to plan waterwaste-free homes and local waterprojects, not retro-fit them decadeslater. We have to do collectivework for water and energy securi-ty. And a crucial aspect of this iskeeping water out of privatehands.

Today, what the planet needsmost is a political investment. Wehave to ensure corporations do notget control over our planet. Wemust resist this. One example ofresistance would be to have a pol-lution tax. The Himachal Pradeshand Uttarakhand governmentsimpose a “green cess” on pollut-ers, especially those who manufac-ture plastic and bottle “soft” drinks.The entire clean-up cost of pick-ing up after these industries mustalso be recovered from those whorun polluting factories and gener-ate polluting waste. Corporationsthat manufacture food items needto use bio-degradable packaging.We cannot afford to contaminatethe upper courses of rivers, just likethe overwhelming pollution down-stream from industry, agriculture,and domestic waste.

We need to invest in taking atechnological leap, devising ways topromote green policies for eco-sensitive areas. Agriculture needs tobe at the forefront of this policy.Sustainable agriculture is the wayto rejuvenate damaged land andwater systems. We need to joinwith the earth. If not, the capitalistindustrial empire will drive us allinto extinction, killing humanityeven before the planet dies. qq

The author is an independent agri-policy

analyst and writer and former director, policy and

outreach at NSAI. The views are personal.

https://www.newsclick.in/Earth-Day-Affirm-Conservation-Resistance

EnvironmentEnvironmentEnvironmentEnvironmentEnvironment

Today, what the

planet needs most

is a political

investment. We

have to ensure

corporations do

not get control

over our planet.

26

The increase in

mir-10 caused by

glyphosate

exposure in the

experimental

animals may

provide one

mechanism by

which users of

Roundup have

succumbed to

another blood

cancer, known as

non-Hodgkin

lymphoma.

Swadeshi Samvad

HEALTHHEALTHHEALTHHEALTHHEALTH

Glyphosate and Roundup lead to changesin gene regulatory microRNAs (miR--NAsor miRs) linked with cancer, newly publisheddata show. The analysis, of a type known assmall RNA profiling, was conducted in livertissue from rats exposed to glyphosate andRoundup MON 52276, an EU-approvedformulation, over 90 days.

In the new results, Roundup MON52276 was found to reduce the levels of miR-22 and miR-17, whereas glyphosate de-creased the level of miR-30 and increasedthe amount of miR-10. These changes in miR-

NAs are important because they are known to alter the expression of crucial cellgrowth regulator genes, which can lead to the development of cancer.

A gene function that is central to multiple cellular processes, p53, is a partic-ular target of these miRNAs. The miRNA changes can lead to alterations in p53gene expression, as has been found in multiple types of cancer in humans.

The link between the changes in miRNAs and p53 gene expression is consis-tent with the findings within the same study showing gene expression changes inRoundup- and glyphosate-exposed rats. The gene expression changes stronglyimply a p53 pathway DNA damage response. DNA damage is a major riskfactor for cancer development.

Furthermore, increases in miR-10 have been found in other studies to beassociated with leukemia, a blood cancer. The increase in mir-10 caused by gly-phosate exposure in the experimental animals may provide one mechanism bywhich users of Roundup have succumbed to another blood cancer, known asnon-Hodgkin lymphoma. These results could strengthen the legal cases of thecancer sufferers in the US who are suing Bayer/Monsanto because they believethat exposure to Roundup caused their disease. Three such cases have alreadybeen decided in favour of the plaintiffs.

Study lead Dr Michael Antoniou of King's College London said, "The newdata showing changes in miRNA patterns add yet more evidence to the cancer-causing potential of glyphosate and Roundup. What is more, our results showthat it is not just Roundup, which is a mixture of glyphosate with various addi-tives, that has carcinogenic potential, but also glyphosate alone."

Previously reported findingsThe new data confirm and build on previously reported findings that were

published as a pre-print in April 2021, which GMWatch reported on. The studywith the additional findings has now passed peer review and is published in theprestigious journal, Toxicological Sciences.

Glyphosate and Roundup:

All roads lead to cancer

27

The pre-print version of thestudy had reported that glyphosateand glyphosate-based herbicidessuch as Roundup activate mecha-nisms involved in cancer develop-ment, including DNA damage –and these effects occur at doses as-sumed by regulators to have noadverse effects. The data suggestthat the DNA damage was causedby oxidative stress, a destructiveimbalance in the body that cancause a long list of diseases. Oxi-dative stress is the likely cause ofthe damage seen to the liver, lead-ing to an inflammatory (immunetype) response, which in turn cancause DNA damage.

Crucially, the study found thatthe isolated active ingredient ofRoundup – glyphosate – damagedDNA. This finding, according tothe EU’s pesticide law, should re-sult in a ban on glyphosate and allits formulations.

All these findings are carriedover into the peer-reviewed ver-sion of the study.

How the study was doneThe study builds on the find-

ings of a previous one by the sameauthors. In the previous study, theresearchers had compared the ef-fects in rats of MON 52276 withthose of its "active ingredient", gly-phosate, tested alone. The findingsshowed that glyphosate andRoundup herbicide, given at dos-es that regulators say are safe, re-sulted in the animals suffering gutmicrobiome disturbances and ox-idative stress, with indications thatthe liver was affected and possiblydamaged.

In the current followup study,the researchers analysed the livertissue from the same rats to see ifdamage had indeed occurred.

The researchers carried outsome of the standard tests that reg-ulators require the pesticide indus-try to conduct to gain market au-thorisation for their products –namely blood biochemistry andkidney and liver histopathology(microscopic examination of tis-sue).

They also carried out in-depthtests (molecular profiling) that arenot demanded by regulators ortypically carried out by the indus-try. One type of test looked foradverse effects at a profound mo-lecular level of biological function-ing through analysis of gene expres-sion (transcriptomics) and epige-netics (DNA methylation) in the liv-er and kidneys. Another type oftest, using specialised geneticallyengineered cell lines, was intendedto highlight changes in functionlinked with cancer formation.

In addition, the researcherscarried out tests that can detect di-rect damage to DNA.

Roundup causes fatty liverdisease – confirmed

The standard tests, histopa-thology and blood biochemistryanalysis, found adverse effectsfrom the Roundup treatment,namely a dose-dependent and sta-tistically significant increase in fattyliver disease and liver cell death.

The finding of fatty liver dis-ease from exposure to the MON52276 formulation of Roundupconfirmed the same researchers'previous observation that an ultra-low dose of another Roundupformulation, Roundup GrandTravaux Plus, administered to thesame strain of Sprague-Dawleyrats over a 2-year period, causednon-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

An increase in liver and kid-

ney lesions was also detected inanimals treated with glyphosate,although this did not reach statisti-cal significance. However, the au-thors commented that an experi-ment of longer duration usingmore animals may have resulted instatistical significance.

Non-standard tests most re-vealing

Worryingly for public health,it was the non-standard molecularprofiling tests that are not requiredby pesticide regulators that weremost revealing.

First, Roundup was found toalter the expression of 96 genes inthe liver specifically linked to DNAdamage and oxidative stress, aswell as disruption of circadianrhythms or "body clocks". Themost affected genes in liver alsohad their expression similarly al-tered in kidneys. Crucially, a coreset of genes whose expression wasaltered by Roundup was similarlychanged in the glyphosate-treatedanimals. This strongly suggests thatthe key changes in gene functionreflective of oxidative stress andDNA damage was due to glypho-sate and not the additional sub-stances (adjuvants) present in theRoundup formulation.

Second, direct DNA damageto the liver was found to increasewith glyphosate exposure.

These findings potentially con-stitute a bombshell that could endthe authorisation of glyphosate inthe EU. That’s because the EUpesticide regulation (1107/2009)has what’s known as hazard-basedcut-off criteria. This means that ifa pesticide active ingredient isshown to cause a certain type ofharm to health at whatever dose,it must be banned. One of the

HealthHealthHealthHealthHealth

28

named types of harm is damageto DNA. The discovery that gly-phosate alone damages DNA in aliving animal should, if regulatorsfollow the law, result in a ban onthe chemical.

Third, both glyphosate andRoundup were found to cause epi-genetic changes known as DNAmethylation. Epigenetics describeslayers of molecular structures asso-ciated with DNA that control theunderlying function of genes. Thedefining feature of epigeneticchanges is that they can alter howgenes work but do not involvechanges to the actual DNA sequence.These types of changes were foundat over 5,000 genomic sites for gly-phosate and over 4,000 for Round-up. This is a concern because suchalterations are typically found at highfrequency in cancer tissues.

All findings lead to sameconclusion

The researchers performed fur-ther laboratory tests in mouse celllines, which are designed to highlighteffects that can lead to cancer for-mation. Glyphosate and threeRoundup formulations were as-sessed in these tester cell lines. It wasfound that two formulations ofRoundup herbicide, but not glypho-sate, activated oxidative stress andmisfolded protein responses, bothclear markers of carcinogenicity.

Commenting on the totalityof the data, Dr Antoniou said,"No matter what molecular mea-surements we undertook, they allled to the same conclusion: that is,both glyphosate and Roundup arepotential carcinogens."

Other studies, including theindustry ones submitted to supportregulatory approval of glyphosate,have also found that glyphosate

causes cancer in experimental ani-mals. Based on studies in animalsand humans, as well as mechanis-tic data, in 2015 the InternationalAgency for Research on Cancer(IARC) classified glyphosate as aprobable human carcinogen.

Other implications of thenew study

1. Ending animal testing is

not yet feasible: Interestingly, inthe new study, glyphosate wasshown to damage DNA in livinganimals but not in the cell culturesystem. This shows that in vitro labtests using isolated cells cannotfully substitute for evaluations in aliving animal because certain effectswill be missed. This is because an-imals (including humans) are wholeorganisms whose complexity can-not be replicated in a flask, petridish, or test tube. While many peo-ple (GMWatch included) wouldlike to see an end to animal testing,as long as pesticides and otherchemicals are allowed to be releasedinto the environment, such a movewould put public health at risk.

2. Roundup is more toxic

than glyphosate: In summary, ingeneral Roundup was found to bemore toxic than glyphosate, con-firming and building on previousobservations. However, taken to-gether, the results from the variousassays conducted show that bothglyphosate and Roundup herbicidesactivate mechanisms involved incancer development, causing geneexpression changes reflecting oxi-dative stress and DNA damage.Also, glyphosate alone was clearlyable to induce DNA damage.

These findings directly chal-lenge the global regulatory practiceof only assessing the isolated de-clared active ingredient (glyphosate)

and not the complete commercialformulations (Roundup) as soldand used.

The study further highlightsthe power of in-depth molecularprofiling "omics" methods to de-tect changes that are missed by re-lying solely on conventional bio-chemical and histopathologicalmeasurements conducted in stan-dardised industry tests on pesticideactive ingredients. The study pavesthe way for future investigations byidentifying gene expression chang-es and altered DNA methylationsites, which can serve as biomark-ers and potential predictors of neg-ative health outcomes resultingfrom exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides.

3. Results could allow sur-

vey of human population for

glyphosate herbicide exposure:

Commenting on the implicationsof the results for human exposuremonitoring, study lead Dr Micha-el Antoniou said, "The biomark-ers we identified (such as the miR-NA and gene expression changes)can be tested for in people, but wedon't know if this particular pat-tern of biomarkers is unique to gly-phosate-based herbicide exposure.Thus the biomarkers would needto be correlated with a history ofexposure to glyphosate-based her-bicides and measurements of gly-phosate in urine.

"If high levels of glyphosatewere found in the urine, and thiscorrelated with the biomarkersidentified in the new study and theperson's history of glyphosate her-bicide exposure, this would indi-cate that exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides might be respon-sible for any health effects that areboth indicated by our findings andfound in the person. These find-

HealthHealthHealthHealthHealth

29

ings should be tested first by in-vestigations of herbicide applica-tors, as their exposure can be highand details of the particular herbi-cides used are often recorded,which would enable clearer resultsto be obtained."

4. "Safe" and "no effect"

doses were shown to be harm-

ful: In the 90-day rat feeding study,different groups of animals werefed three different doses of glypho-sate and the glyphosate-equivalentdose of Roundup MON 52276.The lowest dose was the concen-tration that regulators assume to besafe to ingest on a daily basis over alifetime (the EU acceptable daily in-take or ADI: 0.5 mg per kg ofbodyweight per day). The middledose was the dose that EU regula-tors concluded had no observableadverse effect (the "no observableadverse effect" level or NOAEL)in industry-sponsored rat feeding

studies (50 mg per kg of body-weight per day). The highest dosewas 175 mg, the dose that US reg-ulators concluded had no observ-able adverse effect.

Adverse effects were foundfrom Roundup exposure at alldose levels in a dose-dependentfashion. These findings show thatthe glyphosate ADI for the EU –and that of the USA, which is evenhigher – is not safe to ingest. Like-wise, it shows that the EU and USregulators were only able to con-clude that glyphosate had "no ob-servable adverse effect" at the lev-els mentioned above because thetests that they require industry tocarry out are insufficiently sensitive.

Study supports plaintiffs inRoundup-cancer litigation

Summarising the implicationsof the study for the Roundup-can-cer litigation in the US, Dr Antoni-

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ou said, “Our results are the firstto simultaneously show glyphosateand Roundup toxicity in a wholemammalian animal model systemand provide a mechanism – oxi-dative stress – by which DNA dam-age has been observed in othersystems, such as mammalian tissueculture cells.

“These findings show that gly-phosate and Roundup score posi-tive in various tests of carcinoge-nicity – transcriptome/epige-nome/miRNA changes, oxidativestress, protein misfolding, andDNA damage – in a living animal(rat) that is accepted as a surrogatefor human health effects. In myview, this strengthens the argumentthat exposure to Roundup herbi-cides can lead to the type of can-cer suffered by the plaintiffs inmany of the court cases – non-Hodgkin lymphoma.” qq

Courtesy: https://gmwatch.org/en/106-news/latest-news/19980

HealthHealthHealthHealthHealth

30

E-COMMERCEE-COMMERCEE-COMMERCEE-COMMERCEE-COMMERCE

Overview: Open Network for DigitalCommerce (ONDC)

The project aims to

curb digital

monopoly by

creating a platform

that can be utilised

by all online

retailers. It is

going to go global.

Vinod Johri

ONDC launched by the Department for Promotion of Industry and InternalTrade (DPIIT) of the Union Commerce Ministry is an initiative aimed to pro-mote open networks for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services overdigital or electronic networks.According to a strategy paper by ONDC pub-lished in January, there needs to be a paradigm shift from an operator-drivenmonolithic platform-centric model to a facilitator-driven, interoperable decen-tralized network.The idea of an ONDC first came up in 2020 in order to stan-dardise and streamline the country’s e-commerce industry. ONDC is based onopen-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network proto-cols independent of any specific platform. Govt claims that as UPI is to thedigital payment domain, ONDC is to e-commerce in Bharat.

The DPIIT appointed an advisory committee for its ONDC project. ONDChas Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, former McKinsey Bharat head AdilZainulbhai and National Health Authority CEO R S Sharma as advisors.The taskof implementing the project has been given to the Quality Council of India (QCI),which establishes and operates the National Accreditation Structure for confor-mity assessment bodies and provides accreditation in education, health and qual-ity promotion. The council aims at promoting open networks developed onopen-sourced methods, leveraging open specifications and open network proto-cols that are independent of any specific platform. This project eases the opera-tional aspects of running an e-commerce business. For instance, onboarding ofsellers, vendor discovery, price discovery and product cataloguing can be madeopen source. The format will be similar to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)model.Once mandated, sellers will be onboarded through open networks and

31

marketplaces such as Amazon,Flipkart will also be asked to reg-ister on the ONDC platform. 

The project aims to curb dig-ital monopoly by creating a plat-form that can be utilised by allonline retailers. It is going to goglobal. The government’s intentionis not to get into business but cre-ate standards through the OpenNetwork for Digital Commerce(ONDC) that it expects will beadopted by the global e-commerceecosystem.

ONDC is expected to digi-tise the entire value chain, standar-dise operations, promote inclusionof suppliers, derive efficiencies inlogistics and enhance value for con-sumers. When a project is madeopen-source, it is available for freefor others to use and redistribute.Consumers can log in and searchfor products or services and basedon their location they will be ableto access a list of sellers, along withproduct details and price. The plat-form will support payment gate-ways and will also offer deliveryand logistics services.Dynamic pric-ing, inventory management andoptimisation of delivery cost arethe three important things inONDC which will help reduce thecost of doing business for every-body, including retailers.

On the platform, eSamudaay,ERP player Gofrugal, digital busi-ness platform for enterprise busi-ness Digiit, and digital marketingoutfit Growth Falcon, will workwith sellers on the app, while Pay-tm will be on the buyers’ side.

About 20 entities have con-tributed a total of Rs 255 croreinto the ONDC equity. These in-clude NPCI and Punjab NationalBank (Rs 25 crore each); KotakMahindra Bank (Rs 20 crore); Bank

of Baroda, NSDL eGovernanceand National Stock Exchange (Rs.15 crore each); and BSE, StateBank of India, HDFC Bank andICICI Bank (Rs 10 crore each).

Initially it was launched in fivecities - Delhi NCR, Bengaluru,Bhopal, Shillong and Coimbatoreon 29th April 2022. It is to be not-ed that the launch of the platformcomes after Competition Com-mission of India (CCI) searcheddomestic sellers of Amazon andsome of Walmart’s Flipkart fol-lowing accusations of competitionlaw violations.

The government plans to rollout ONDC for the public in 100Indian cities by Diwali to providemillions of kirana stores and con-sumers an alternative to multina-tional platforms such as Amazonand Flipkart.

The two large multinationalplayers Amazon and Flipcart con-trolled more than half of the coun-try’s e-commerce trade, limiting ac-cess to the market, giving preferen-tial treatment to some sellers andsqueezing supplier margins. The twoglobal giants poured a combined$24 billion into Bharat and captured80% of the online retail market withaggressive discounts and promotionof preferred sellers.

With ONDC, the govern-ment aims to help smaller business-es and reduce the domination ofgiants such as Amazon and Wal-mart-Flipkart. The exploitation ofthe e-commerce business hasreached to an extent that lakhs ofshops have been forced to closeby unethical business practices ofe-tailers in Bharat. Our country hasa fast-growing $1 trillion retailmarket, but the market is frag-mented. Currently, there are over4,000 small and big e-commerce

companies in India, 500 logisticscompanies to deliver goods, andmore than 20,000 entities includ-ing travel and hotels that provideservices through e-commerce.

Amazon India said that theywere closely engaged with theONDC team to better understandthe proposed model and remainedcommitted to the government’svision of digitizing kiranas, localstores and creating opportunitiesfor businesses across Bharat by sim-plifying technology adoption tohelp local stores and businessescontribute to Bharat becoming a$5 trillion economy. Amazon saysthat they are closely engaging withthe ONDC team to better under-stand the proposed model andevaluate the role Amazon can playto better serve Indian customersand sellers.

In the last quarter of 2020, thee-commerce order volume in ourcountry increased by 36 per centand the largest beneficiaries werethe personal care, beauty and well-ness segments, says IBEF report.The Bhartiya e-commerce marketis expected to grow to USD 200billion by 2026. According toa 2021 report by Bain & Compa-ny, India is home to the world’sfourth largest retail market in theworld, pegged at around $810 Bil-lion. An Inc42 report  said that theaddressable ecommerce market inthe country is expected to reach the$200 Bn mark by 2026. ONDCwill surely boost swadeshi indus-tries, entrepreneurship and gener-ate employment with growth inFMCG sector by allowing levelplaying field to even medium andmarginal industries scattered allover the country. qq

Vinod Johri: Sah VicharVibhagPramukh,

Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Delhi Prant

E-commerceE-commerceE-commerceE-commerceE-commerce

32

HISTORYHISTORYHISTORYHISTORYHISTORY

Mewar as the Locus of Guhila State (Part-I)

The Guhila

lineages had

appeared and

dominated a large

part of Rajasthan

during the Early

Medieval period.

However, the

trajectory of

History proves that

the Guhilas of

Mewar (Southern

Rajasthan)

successfully carved

out a full fledged

state in Mewar

between the tenth

and thirteenth

century.

Prof. Nandini

Kapur Sinha

The Guhilas of Chatsu initially started their political career in the area of Tonkin the seventh century. They seem to have extended their power up to the

area of Chatsu near Jaipur by the tenth century. Their growing territorial expanseand political power is evident from prestigious claims made in the Chatsu inscrip-tion of Guhila ruler Bäläditya (tenth century). They laid claims to the status ofBrahmaksatränvita and to the lineage of Guhilavamsa. Baladitya took pride in hisoverlords, the Gurjara Pratihâras who controlled eastern and southern Rajasthantill the tenth century. Yet their subordinate political status as allies of the Pratihâraswas no deterrent to their prestigious social linkages. They consolidated their pow-er in eastern Rajasthan through matrimonial alliances with contemporary Paramäraand Cahamana chiefly families. However, it is important that no record of thisGuhila family appears beyond the tenth century. It seems that the Guhilas ofChatsu had been integrated into the growing kingdom of the Cähamânas ofSâkambhari who held major parts of eastern Rajasthan by the late tenth century.

The Guhilas of UnstraMemorial Stone Inscriptions of 1179-80 and of 1190 at an ancient Jain

temple at Unsträ suggest the existence of a pocket of Guhila power in this aridtract of Marwar. The inscriptions record the deaths of Rãnã Tihunapala’ andRãnã Motiœvara, both of the Guhilautra (Guhila) lineage. The Inscription of1179-80 also records that Rãnã Tihunapâla’s wives, Pälhanadevi (of the Bodanalineage) and Mätâdevi, became satis.” Rânâ Motiúvara’s wife, Raji of the Mohililineage, also became a sati.”

The title of râna and the limited territorial control of the Guhila chiefs ofUnstrã suggest that they served in the capacity of subordinate allies and probablydied fighting for the cause of an overlord.” The overlord could be a NädolCahamäna ruler as an inscription of King Samanta Simhadeva of 1202 is foundat a nearby site at Bali, Bamnera The presence of Bodana and Mohili Rajputs alsosuggests that Unstra was a part of the Cahamãna state of Nadol as Bodana andMohili are the two subdivisions of the Cahamãna clan. Unlike the contemporaryNâgdâ Ahada Guhilas, the Guhila ranäs of Unstrå made no claim to exaltedorigin. They simply referred to themselves as Guhila.” This may have been inkeeping with their subordinate status.

The Guhilas of BagodiaA Bâgodia Tirthamba Inscription of 1054 points to the existence of chiefly

Guhila families at Bagodia, near Jodhpur (Marwar). It is also a memorial stoneinscription: it refers to the death of one Dhalavana, son of Alaja Vichari, a Gu-hilaputra, Its recording of the construction of a devali(temple), further suggeststhe association of the Guhilas with this area.

The Guhilas of NadolA Guhila base of power at Nadüladägikä, Nädol (Pali district) is evident

from the Jadvaji Jain Temple Inscription of the Reign of Nadol Câhamana Ruler,

33

HistoryHistoryHistoryHistoryHistory

Maharajaputra Rayapãladeva(1137-8) and from the AdinathTemple Inscriptions of the sameGuhila family. Both inscriptionsrecord grants of grains, sharesfrom oil-mills, incense, flowers,etc., by Thakkura Rajadeva, son ofUdhärana of the Guhila limeage.”The donations were granted fromNadüladägikâ. In addition, thegrants included parts of the dutieslevied on pack oxen going to andfrom Nadüladägikä. ThakkuraRajadeva is described as ‘holdingNaduladägikä’.” Both these charterssuggest the position of the Guhilafamily as subordinates of the Ca-hamänas of Nadol.

The Guhilas of MangrolThe Sobhadi Vão Stone In-

scription of 1146 takes us to aGuhila centre of power outsideRajasthan: Mängrol, in Saurashtra.The genealogical list in the inscrip-tion eulogises Guhila Sahajiga’ssons as protectors (military officials)of Saurashtra. In the same genea-logical line, the contemporary Gu-hila Mülaka bears the title of naya-ka (chief) of Saurashtra.

The progenitor of the family,Úri Sähâra is simply referred to asa Sri Guhila. Thus the Guhilas ofMängrol seem to have been inte-grated into Caulukyan polity ofGujarat through a system of distri-bution of roles and services evidentin such administrative titles as naya-ka of Saurashtra. However, theabsence of any other claim indicatesthat the Guhilas of Mängrol enjoyedterritorial and political power onlywithin Saurashtra. The limited po-litical power is also evident fromthe political ranking of Guhila Müla-ka in the Thakkura category.”

The Guhilas of Nagda-Aha-da and state formation inMewar, Tenth-Thirteenthcenturies

It was the Guhila family ofNagda-Ahada which appears to bedirectly connected with the rise ofa state. It is with the history of thisfamily that we shall be concernednow. The imperial Pratihâras heldtheir sway over southern Rajasthaninthe ninth century but their con-tinuous military campaigns keptPratihära Bhoja 1 (836-92) occu-pied in the north, with Devapalaof Gauda in the east, and with theRästrakütas of Deccan for mostof his reign.” There was no directannexation of southern Rajasthanby the Pratihâras in the period.Like their contemporary neigh-bours, the Nägda-Ähada Guhilasare likely to have acknowledgedPratihara supremacy over northernIndia. But such acknowledgementmust have been temporary in theircase as is apparent from the declineof the Pratihära power in southernRajasthan by the mid-tenth century.The presence of Pratihära representatives at the strategic fortress ofChittaur (as is evident from the Sirur

inscription of the time of RästrakûtaAmoghavarsa of 866 and KarhadPlates of Krsna II of 959) couldnot therefore, effectively interruptthe political career of the Nägda-Ahada Guhilas.

The Guhilas of Nägda-Aha-da not only consolidated theirpower in their base region but alsoterritorially integrated the centralpart of the Mewar hills and possi-bly touched the northern Mahi ba-sin. For this, we have a circumstan-tial evidence: the total disappear-ance of the Guhila house ofKiþkindhã after the eighth centu-ry. The Nägdä-Ahada house mighthave expanded southwards at theexpense of the Kiþkindha Guhil-as. It is equally significant to notethat, of all the Guhilas of south-ern Rajasthan, it is only the Guhilahouse of Nagda-Ahada which fig-ures as political subordinates of thePratihâras in Mewar along with asmall ruling family of the Cäha-manas at Pratapgarh in districtChittaurgarh bordering Mandasaur(upper Banas plain) in tenth centu-ry. There is no trace of the Guhilasof Dhavagartã or those ofKiºkindha in Pratapgarh Inscription(942-6), the only epigraphical recordfrom Mewar dating to the reign ofPratihära Mahendrapala II. This ex-tension of Nägdä-Ahada Guhilaterritory was achieved through mil-itary superiority. In fact, grants madeby Bhartrpatta II at Pratapgarh in-dicate that the Nägdä-Ahada Gu-hilas held some territorial claim inthe southern part (Pratapgarh) ofthe upper Banas plain before 950.The title of mahäräjädhiräja forGuhila Bhartrpatta (II) in the Pratap-garh records (as against the title ofbhupo or mahâsämantas for theCahamanas” of Pratapgarh) is sig-nificant in this respect. qq

The Guhilas of

Nägda-Ahada not

only consolidated

their power in their

base region but also

territorially

integrated the central

part of the Mewar

hills and possibly

touched the northern

Mahi basin.

34

NEWS

SJM Hails ED’s Action AgainstAmway India

Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has welcomed theEnforcement Directorate’s (ED) action against Am-way India Enterprises Private Limited, a company ac-cused of running a multi-level marketing scam, andhas demanded a probe by the central investigativeagencies against all such institutions or companies whichare working to “rob innocent people” by luring themwith more income.

The forum has also demanded strict action againstthe culprits of such cases.

While welcoming ED’s action against Amwayfor “running a pyramid fraud schemes under the guiseof Direct Selling Multi-Level Marketing Network”,SJM, issued a statement saying that there is a need tocreate a regulatory framework for such Multi-levelmarketing (MLM) companies to strongly preventfraudulent practices.

SJM claimed that there are several more MLMcompanies which have been selling their products atexorbitant prices by “looting innocent citizens” andby “luring them to earn handsome incomes” in India.“When those in the net of these companies start lur-ing their friends and acquaintances, the chain starts,”SJM added.

SJM, in the statement, cited a report publishedby the Federal Trade Commission that studied thebusiness models of 350 MLM companies, saying that99 per cent of people involved in MLM businesseslose money.

“The business model may be there, but for thegullible, it is causing a definite loss rather than an in-come opportunity,” the statement read.

On April 18, the ED attached assets worth Rs757.77 crore belonging to Amway.

The attached properties include land and facto-ry building of Amway at Dindigul district in TamilNadu, Plant and Machineries, vehicles, bank accounts,and fixed deposits, said the agency, in a statement.

The attached properties include Rs 411.83 croreimmovable assets and bank balances of Rs 345.94 crorefrom 36 different accounts belonging to Amway.

A money-laundering investigation by the ED re-vealed that Amway is running a pyramid fraud in theguise of direct selling multi-level marketing network.

“It is observed that the prices of most of theproducts offered by the company are exorbitant ascompared to the alternative popular products of re-puted manufacturers available in the open market,”said the ED.

The federal agency accused that the commongullible public is induced to join as members of thecompany and purchase products at exorbitant pricesand are thus losing their hard-earned money.

“The new members are not buying the prod-ucts to use them but to become rich by becomingmembers as showcased by the upline members. Real-ity is that the commissions received by the uplinemembers contribute enormously to the hike of pric-es of the products,” said the ED.

It is observed that the company has collected anamount of Rs 27,562 crore from its business opera-tions from 2002-03 to 2021-22. Out of this, the com-pany has paid a commission of Rs 7588 Crore to itsdistributors and members in India and in the USAduring Financial Year 2002-2003 to 2020-21.

“The entire focus of the company is about prop-agating how members can become rich by becomingmembers. There is no focus on the products. Prod-ucts are used to masquerade this MLM Pyramid fraudas a direct selling company,” said the ED.

Amway has brought Rs 21.39 crores as sharecapital in India in 1996-97 till Financial Year 2020-21,said the ED, it added, “the company has remitted thehuge amount of Rs 2,859.10 crore in the name ofdividend, royalty and other payments to their inves-tors and parent entities”.

Britt Worldwide India Private Limited and Net-work Twenty One Private Limited also played a ma-jor role in promoting the pyramid scheme of Amwayby conducting seminars for joining members under theguise of sale of goods by the enrolment of membersin the chain system, said the Central agency.”

The promoters are conducting mega conven-

35

News

tions and flaunted their lavish lifestyle and used socialmedia to lure gullible investors,” the ED added.

https://www.latestly.com/agency-news/india-news-swadeshi-jagran-manch-hails-eds-action-against-amway-india-

3628839.html

India Warns Rules Still Apply toan Elon Musk-Owned Twitter

India has warned Elon Musk that it will contin-ue to demand checks on users and content whenthe Tesla billionaire takes over Twitter.

A change in ownership would make no differ-ence, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s junior minister forelectronics and technology said, when asked aboutMusk’s promise to uphold free speech.

“Our safety and trust expectations in law andrules require all intermediaries to do due diligenceabout its users and content to qualify to be an inter-mediary,” he said.

Indian government officials said last year socialmedia platforms may no longer be eligible to seekliability exemptions as intermediaries or the hosts ofuser content if they failed to comply with local infor-mation and technology laws.

Laws that took effect last year make social me-dia firms more accountable to requests for swift re-moval of posts and require them to give details ofthe originators of messages. The companies must alsohave mechanisms for addressing grievances.

The warning on Twitter comes as Musk facescontinued obstacles in selling Tesla cars in India.

NitinGadkari, India’s transport minister, said onTuesday that Tesla was welcome to set up shop in thecountry although “making in China and selling here isnot a good proposition”.

Some opposition to Tesla comes from an Indi-an nationalist group close to the ruling party headedby Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Swadeshi Jagran Manch said it was opposed toTesla getting tariff cuts.

“We want to promote our own domestic in-dustry,” SJM said. “Our automobile industry can nowcompete and is doing well.”

https://www.asiafinancial.com/india-warns-rules-still-apply-to-an-elon-musk-owned-twitter

Tesla loses $126 billion in valueamid Musk Twitter deal funding

concern

Tesla Inc lost $126 billion in value on Tuesdayamid investor concerns that Chief Executive ElonMusk may have to sell shares to fund his $21 billionequity contribution to his $44 billion buyout of Twit-ter Inc.

Tesla is not involved in the Twitter deal, yet itsshares have been targeted by speculators after Muskdeclined to disclose publicly where his cash for theacquisition is coming from. The 12.2% drop in Tes-la’s shares on Tuesday equated to a $21 billion drop inthe value of his Tesla stake, the same as the $21 billionin cash he committed to the Twitter deal.

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said thatworries about upcoming stock sales by Musk and thepossibility that he is becoming distracted by Twitterweighed on Tesla shares. “This (is) causing a bear fes-tival on the name,” he said.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a requestfor comment.

To be sure, Tesla’s share plunge came against achallenging backdrop for many technology-relatedstocks. The Nasdaq closed at its lowest level sinceDecember 2020 on Tuesday, as investors worriedabout slowing global growth and more aggressiverate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Twitter’s shares also slid on Tuesday, falling 3.9%to close at $49.68 even though Musk agreed to buy iton Monday for $54.20 per share in cash. The widen-ing spread reflects investor concern that the precipi-

36

News

tous decline in Tesla’s shares, from which Musk de-rives the majority of his $239 billion fortune, couldlead the world’s richest person to have second thoughtsabout the Twitter deal.

“If Tesla’s share price continues to remain in free-fall that will jeopardize his financing,” said OANDAsenior market analyst Ed Moya.

As part of the Tesla deal, Musk also took out a$12.5 billion margin loan tied to his Tesla stock. Hehad already borrowed against about half of his Teslashares.

University of Maryland professor David Kir-sch, whose research focuses on innovation and entre-preneurship, said investors started to worry about a“cascade of margin calls” on Musk’s loans.https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/tesla-loses-126-billion-in-value-amid-musk-twitter-deal-

funding-concern/articleshow/91113200.cms?from=mdr

CCI raids top sellers of Amazon,other etailers

Officials from the Competition Commission ofIndia (CCI) searched the offices of some of the coun-try’s largest online sellers including the Amazon-ownedCloudtail as well as Appario Retail, a joint ventureentity between the American online giant and the Pat-ni group, multiple people aware of the matter toldET. The antitrust regulator also visited some of thealpha sellers of Walmart-owned Flipkart and socialcommerce major Meesho, they said.

The raids were in relation to complaints aboutthe anticompetitive measures being adopted by thesesellers that move large order volumes for the giantecommerce companies.

“CCI is probing allegations of all sellers not re-ceiving equal treatment from ecommerce platformsand that (online marketplaces) enter into vertical agree-ments with select sellers,” according to people aware

of the matter.Offline traders and small online sellers have long

complained about these issues to the government andthe regulator.

Legal experts are of the view that raids are thefirst instance where CCI is probing a case involving‘vertical agreements’.

Vertical agreements are those where a large player(in this case, an ecommerce company) enters into ex-clusive deals with select vendors giving them prefer-ence over the other.

Earlier, the competition watchdog has investi-gated allegations relating to abuse of market positionor that of cartels.

“This is the first search and seizure which hashappened in relation to a vertical agreement fallingunder section 3(4) of the Act,” said GR Bhatia, headof competition law, L&L partners.

Earlier in 2020, CCI had begun investigationsinto allegations of antitrust practices at both AmazonIndia and Flipkart, the country’s largest online mar-ketplaces. This was in response to strident complaintsfrom offline retail traders, who have accused the twoecommerce giants of fostering close relations withso-called ‘alpha sellers’ that are responsible for a sig-nificant chunk of deliveries on these platforms.

People briefed on the matter said the probe con-ducted by CCI officials on Thursday was across ecom-merce firms but Appario Retail and Cloudtail are thetwo biggest entities in which the American ecommercegiant Amazon directly owns a stake.

Amazon India, Cloudtail, Appario Retail, andFlipkart did not reply to ET’s email queries on thedevelopment. A spokesperson for Meesho said thecompany has not received any communication fromCCI. “We operate a pure play marketplace as requiredunder the FDI ecommerce regulations in India.”

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT),which has been complaining against foreign etailerslike Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, said theraids were ‘much awaited’ and a welcome step fromthe CCI which will “vindicate the substance of vari-ous complaints made by the CAIT”. Praveen Khan-delwal, secretary general of CAIT, said, “Since thepast three years, the CAIT has been raising strongobjections against malpractices of Amazon and Flip-kart and filed complaints with CCI beside stronglyfighting delaying tactics of Amazon and Flipkart invarious courts as well”.

37

Cloudtail — which is owned by Prione BusinessServices, a joint venture between Infosys founder NRNarayana Murthy-backed Catamaran Ventures andAmazon - - has played a critical role in Amazon’s ear-ly success in India. Appario Retail, which is a subsid-iary of Frontizo Business Services – a JV betweenAmazon and the Patni group, has also emerged asone of the largest sellers on the platform. CAIT add-ed in its statement that Murthy’s role in Cloudtail shouldbe probed too.

The Jeff Bezos-led Amazon is now buying 100%stake in Cloudtail, and the deal has been cleared by CCI.

https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/cci-conducts-raids-at-amazons-top-sellers-cloudtail-appario/

articleshow/91143910.cms/

70% Indians favour ‘warningsign’ on packaged food, 8% say

no sign needed: survey

India has witnessed a significant rise in junk-food— especially, packaged and processed food over thelast two decades — leading to an adverse effect onpublic health as most of these foods contain highamounts of sugar or salt and bad fat ingredients thatresults in increased obesity as well as conditions likediabetes and heart disease.

LocalCircles, after taking cognizance of such is-sues and conducting a survey with over 11,000 re-spondents in 382 districts of India, found out thatseven out of 10 Indians are in favour of a “red warn-ing sign” on packaged food containing high fat, sug-ar, and salt.

LocalCircles, in its report, also stated, “nearly 5.8million people in India die from NCDs every yearout of total deaths of about nine million.” Interest-ingly, according to the World Obesity Federation’sprediction more than 27 million children in India maysuffer from obesity by 2030.

The report further added that “supermarkets inIndia, as well as e-commerce platforms, are sellinghundreds of varieties of packaged food products. Apack of fruit juice, per se, typically has up to 37 tea-spoons of more sugar in a litre than even carbonateddrinks, according to a study.”

Interestingly, the Food Safety and StandardsAuthority of India (FSSAI) has already proposed aplan to introduce Health Star Rating (HSR) for pack-aged food products, which would rate foods on afive-star scale based on factors such as energy, satu-rated fat, sodium, total sugar, and healthier aspects

such as protein and natural ingredients.The survey also makes it clear that only one in

two Indians surveyed support a star rating systemproposed by FSSAI, while eight per cent claimed that“none of the above is needed, packaged food prod-ucts must continue to be sold without any warningsor signs.” On the other hand, 39 per cent of respon-dents have also said that “there should be a green ororange sign on healthy products” in addition to thered sign.

Despite the criticism from consumer activistgroups and food experts, FSSAI has decided to goahead with a new star rating system for packagedfoods and beverages. Consumer activist groups areconcerned that such a system can be easily manipulat-ed by the industry, compromising public health andhave also written a warning letter to the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare.

Among the respondents of this survey, 61 percent were men while 39 per cent were women.Around 41 per cent of respondents were from tierone districts, 33 per cent were from tier two dis-tricts and 26 per cent were from tier three, four andrural districts.

As per the survey, one of the solutions to ad-dress this fast-growing problem is to introduce regu-lations to help consumers make informed choices aspeople should be able to distinguish between pack-aged and processed foods and the one that contains ahigh amount of salt, sugar, and fat content.

https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/70-indians-favour-warning-sign-on-packaged-food-8-say-no-sign-

needed-survey-330797-2022-04-22/

Give ‘warning’ label, not healthstar rating on junk food

packages: Experts tell to FSSAI

The government should issue a ‘warning’ labelon packaged junk foods instead of health star ratingsas they are misleading and doing more harm to cus-

News

38

tomers than good, health experts said on Wednesday.Health star rating is a labelling system that grades

packaged foods on the scale of one to five stars.If the government is serious about the “epidem-

ic” of obesity and non-communicable diseases, theconsumer needs to be cautioned about junk foodsthrough ‘warning’ labels, public health experts gath-ered at the ‘National Conclave on Sustainable FoodSystems’, organized by the Centre for Science andEnvironment (CSE) in Nimli, Rajasthan, said.

“Health star ratings are designed by the power-ful food industry to mislead the consumer. By push-ing these, the Food Safety and Standards Authorityof India (FSSAI) will give license to glorify junk foods,which is the opposite of what should be done,” Suni-taNarain, director general, CSE, said while leading theexpert deliberation on the ‘Need for front-of-packwarning labels on ultraprocessed junk foods’.

The deliberations included about 50 experts fromacross the country, including AmitKhurana, pro-gramme director, Sustainable Food Systems, CSE;George Cheriyan, director, CUTS International, Raj-asthan; Vandana Prasad, community pediatrician, Pub-lic Health Resource Network, Delhi; and Sanjay Pan-dey, lead advisor, Global Health Advocacy Incuba-tor, India.

Front-of-pack labelling on packaged foods wasfirst recommended by an the FSSAI-led committeeformed in 2013.

“CSE was part of this committee. FSSAI thencame up with a draft regulation in 2018, which hadstrict thresholds – limits to know unhealthy levels –based on those developed by the WHO for countrieslike India in the South-East Asia Region.

“Due to industry pressure, FSSAI came up withanother draft in 2019. The food industry was still notpleased and this draft was repealed. From January-

June 2021, stakeholder consultations were held on thelabelling design to be adopted, thresholds to madeapplicable and nutrients to be displayed. CSE hasdocumented all delays and dilutions until June 2021,”the organisation alleged in a statement.

The latest consultation took place in Februaryduring which it was made clear that FSSAI plans togo ahead with the ‘Health Star Rating’.

“The sole objective of the stakeholder consulta-tions, which were heavily dominated by the packagedfood industry, was to come up with a labelling sys-tem, which is industry-friendly,” said Khurana, whowas part of these consultations, adding that “all thiswhile, FSSAI has been insensitive to the informationneeds of the consumer”.

He alleged that the statutory body also ignoredthe global best practices and evidence around it.

“Instead, in an orchestrated way, through thescientific panel and commissioned studies, it is nowgetting ready to adopt a labelling system which is con-sidered least effective and rejected across the world,”he said.

Health star ratings are depicted based on an al-gorithm at the back-end, which is not known to con-sumers, CSE said, adding that it is only adopted vol-untarily in few countries such as Australia and NewZealand and only some food products carry it.

It has been rejected in several other countries asit can mislead the consumer and be easily manipulat-ed by the industry, the CSE said.

The proven best practice in front-of-pack label-ling is nutrient specific ‘warning’ labels, experts said.

They have been simple and effective in discour-aging junk food consumption. Several Latin Ameri-can countries, Canada and Israel have already adopt-ed warning labels. Many other countries are consider-ing them. Among them, the best known are symbol-based warning labels such as that of Israel.

These will be most suitable for India, as it wouldtranscend the literature and language barriers, the CSEsaid.

“We have submitted our concerns to FSSAI. Itcan’t allow a system that will effectively nudge theconsumer to make unhealthy choices. It will misleadthe consumer because of its design, algorithm andinclusion of positive nutrients in the calculation. It can’tallow relaxed limits and voluntary adoption,” Narainsaid. qq

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/give-warning-label-not-health-star-rating-on-junk-

food-packages-experts-tell-to-fssai/articleshow/90957359.cms

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