Early Warning; Extended Frontiers; Sanity Guard
Opinion Watch
Early Warning
After deaths of over 100 people and displacements of several hundreds, The Economic Times turned spotlight on scientific gaps in dealing with climate events, listing that only one-fourth of 72 vulnerable districts have early warning system, and that only one of three persons exposed to extreme weather events are protected with scientific tools. The business daily quoted a report of the 2021 Council of Energy, Environment and Water Study to state that 27 of 35 States and Union Territories are prone to extreme climate events.
The daily is short on research, as it could not lay its hand on a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which slammed the DRDO, tasked with Snow and Avalanche Establishment, for poor track record in putting men and machines to save lives of the people. At a time when funds are splurged on event management to pump persona of some, it’s baffling that critical gaps aren’t filled which will cost only a fraction of amounts otherwise drained by public exchequer for vote gaining efforts.
Extended Frontiers
The Telegraph has in its Editorial said that the non-inclusion of Ukraine in NATO at its Vilnius (Lithuania) Summit just means that the military group wants someone else to fight its dirty war. The Kolkata-based daily, while stating that Turkey is cleverly waling the diplomatic tightrope to protect national interests, opined that Japan office of the NATO to be unveiled soon will mark the Asian outreach of the military bloc, and India should be cautious because Indo-Pacific is New Delhi’s extended neighbourhood.
The war machine of NATO shielded the US from slipping into recession, and it will be in the Indian interest to draw lessons from the first and the second World War when millions of Indians lost their lives fighting battlers for others. India must not be NATO’s extended outpost at any cost.
Sanity Guard
After alleged deaths of children because of consuming Indian made cough syrups in African and Central Asian countries, the Tribune has opined in its Editorial that the proposed Drugs, Medical Devices and Cosmetics Bill, 2023 will have to pass the hurdles of the pharmaceutical lobbies, particularly from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The Chandigarh-based daily stated that the bill seeks vesting great power in the hands of the Central regulator in certifying, currently done by states, for drugs, while it seeks to repeal the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. Yet previous efforts in 2007 and 2013 with similar objectives had come to naught, added the daily.
Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is presiding over an unprecedented strength in both the Houses of Parliament, and that should help to clean the rot in the regulations of drugs for the safety of the people within the country and also abroad.
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