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Agreeing to disagree{International Relations}

News:

• One hopes the decision on Doklam, which comes a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to go to China, will guide the bilateral spirit beyond the September 3-5 BRICS summit to be held in Xiamen.

Chinese stand:

• Statements from China during the stand-off indicate that it no longer recognises the gains made in the Special Representative talks in 2012. Nor does it regard the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction near Batang-La to have been settled.

India’s Stand:

• India has made it clear that it does not consider the Sikkim boundary settled either, and both sides will have to walk swiftly to come back to some semblance of an accord on such basic issues before they can move further.

Beyond News:

• Once Mr. Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met, diplomats must begin the heavy lifting required to repair the rupture in ties over the past few months, beginning with the cancellation of the Nathu La route for Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims.

• India and China must revert to the spirit of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement of 2013, which laid down specific guidelines on tackling future developments along the 3,488-km boundary the two countries share.

Centre set to roll out new treatment for encephalitis {Health issue}

News:

• Weeks after several children died of encephalitis-related complications at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, Gorakhpur, the Centre is looking to introduce a new drug, traditionally used for acne, to deal with the seasonal outbreaks of acute encephalitis.

Beyond News:

• Last year the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the drug did not appear potent enough to merit being immediately rolled out as a standard treatment for treating patients afflicted with the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus.
• Independent teams of doctors and researchers between 2008 and 2013 have conducted trials on patients and have concluded, that minocycline worked well on patients with AES symptoms, who survived the first day of hospitalisation.
• According to the studies the drug did not measurably protect patients beyond three months.
• The studies included a trial on 50 patients, time at the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur itself on the use of minocycline, in specific cases of JE.
• The ICMR said last year that the trials showed that the number of patients who seemed to benefit wasn’t “statistically significant” and a larger, more systematic trial at multiple locations was needed to establish the efficacy of the drug.

Doklam standoff ends as India, China step back{International Relations}

• After weeks of diplomatic negotiations, India and China agreed to disengage from the standoff on the Doklam plateau, disputed between China and Bhutan, with a formula that saw China promise to make “necessary adjustments” to their troop deployments, after Indian troops withdrew back to their posts in Sikkim.
• According to a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, the process of disengagement by border personnel had been “almost completed under verification” from both sides by Monday evening, indicating that no more troops were expected on the face off point at Doklam, which reverted to status quo ante June 16.

Dipak Misra is 45th Chief Justice of India{Judicial System}

News:

• On his first day in office, Chief Justice Misra headed a Bench that included Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud and heard a roster of over 70 cases.

Beyond News:

• Justice Misra was elevated to the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011. He enrolled himself as an advocate on February 14, 1977 and was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996.
• After a stint in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, he became a Permanent Judge in December 1997 before assuming charge as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in 2009. Later, he served as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.
• As the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority, Justice Misra launched a number of initiatives to turn the offices of the State Legal Services Authorities into hubs providing facilities for litigants to access court documents, find out case status and connect to their advocates online and through dedicated phone numbers.

The stories rocks tell{Art & Culture}

• Travelling from Bengaluru International Airport to the city’s downtown, you cannot escape the ugly sight of a billion-year-old granite hillock being vandalised in the name of quarrying.
• Once a hillock with a panoramic view, it has now been reduced to half its size. This is just one of several cases of regular destruction of India’s geological heritage.
• The country accounts for more than 30% of stone production in the world speaks volumes about the magnitude of quarrying and excavation.
• Apart from marble that dominates the stone production industry, export of what is collectively called granite — the term encompasses diverse suites of metamorphic and igneous rocks — fetches billions in foreign exchange.
• Weak environmental laws govern it. The area under stone mining operations exceeds more than 10% of the total area of India and if these activities are allowed to go on unchecked, especially in the context of current developmental interests, India’s topography and geological heritage stand to be lost forever.
• We need sustainable conservation approaches to safeguard our natural geological heritage as has been done in the area of biodiversity.

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