Editorial 1 : A timely warning
Introduction: For more than a century since it was discovered by German neuroscientist Alois Alzheimer, the disease named after him has boggled the scientific community. In this context, the latest development by the researchers of AIIMS, Delhi is an achievement in itself.
About Alzheimer disease
- Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that causes brain cells to degenerate and die.
- It’s the most common cause of dementia, leading to a continuous decline in thinking, behavioral and social skills that disrupts a person's ability to function independently.
The danger from Alzheimer disease
- Global life expectancy at the time of the discovery was less than 35 years.
- With the average lifespan increasing to more than 70 today, Alzheimer’s afflicts many more times the number of people today than when it was discovered.
- More than 55 million people worldwide over the age of 60 today suffer cognitive impairments and 60-70 per cent of them go on to develop the most corrosive form of dementia.
What is the status of diagnosis and cure of Alzheimer disease?
- Though research over the years has identified the characteristics of the disease, and in recent years, drug development has made some headway, questions remain about how best to treat Alzheimer’s.
- In most parts of the world, including India, tests to diagnose the disease are undertaken only after the onset of symptoms.
- However, there is growing unanimity amongst scientists that the precursors to Alzheimer’s begin to accumulate in the brain at least 10 years before the symptoms show up.
- That’s why a blood test developed by researchers at AIIMS, Delhi, could be a significant breakthrough in Alzheimer’s management.
How AIIMS researchers will be significant?
- The AIIMS researchers tested 90 people on six blood markers, the levels of which can indicate an early onset of Alzheimer’s.
- The test can detect the biomarkers of the disease 10-15 years before it becomes full-blown.
- Alzheimer’s develops over 15-20 years.
- An early diagnosis can help clinicians manage symptoms better — medicines that promise a cure for the milder form of the disease have not yet entered the treatment protocols in most parts of the world.
Significance of the latest development in the context of India
- Dementia screenings are particularly relevant for India where cognitive impairments are often confused with “natural” signs of ageing.
- Though diagnostic rates are improving, the disease remains poorly understood, even amongst sections of the medical community, and many patients live with symptoms that their near ones find difficult to understand.
- If it is successful in larger trials, the blood test developed by the AIIMS researchers could be a step towards easing the predicaments of the caregivers and giving patients a life of dignity.
- Last year, another study by AIIMS Delhi researchers in collaboration with 18 other institutes in the country and the University of South California estimated that 7.4 per cent of senior citizens in India suffer from dementia.
Conclusion: With the population of the elderly growing in the next decade, the disease could affect close to 1.7 crore Indians by 2035, the study warned. India needs a healthcare strategy for its elderly. The blood test developed by AIIMS researchers could be a key part of it.
Editorial 2 : Note to Krishi Bhawan
Introduction: The tenure of the new Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, starts from a place of policy paralysis. His primary challenge is to regain the trust of the farmer. It will need sensitive handling that should begin with the scrapping of the infamous MSP committee formed in the aftermath of the farm laws.
India’s quest with agriculture policy
- India has not had an agriculture policy for decades unlike the US, the EU and China, who change their policy at frequent intervals.
- The commissioning of a new policy is in order and, during that process, the minister will gain time to get a grip on things.
- The policy will have to change tack on multiple fronts, beginning with pragmatically designing for “strategic autonomy” rather than targeting “self-sufficiency” in agricultural production.
- It must be appreciated that when it comes to Indian agriculture, what is true for the whole is rarely true for its parts.
- Some of this is attributed to the diverse agro-climatic regions in the country and the federal structure under which policy works.
The possible challenges for the new Agriculture Minister
- The central government policy is restricted by the fact that agriculture and land are in the domain of the states; animal husbandry and fisheries where real growth is visible are separate ministries; the budgetary allocations are controlled by the Ministry of Finance; and an outdated inflation policy is dictated by the RBI.
- Although there has not been any major drought in last 10 years, but this cannot be taken granted for next 5 years.
- The other big challenge for the minister is to convince the government and the RBI to change their methodology of targeting inflation.
- In developed countries, where central banks use the consumer price index to measure and control inflation, food constitutes a small portion of the expenditure basket, while wages impact it far more.
- But, in developing nations like India, food constitutes about 40 per cent of the basket.
- In trying to protect the consumer, RBI’s actions are constantly putting explicit and implicit pressure on the government to act on food prices, which leads to a spiral of lower farmgate prices.
How RBI’s inflation targeting impacts more than 40% of India’s population?
- Consider government actions around non-essential commodities like onion, which expose its convoluted policies and why the idea of improving farmer livelihoods by doubling their incomes is difficult.
- A family of four consumes about 15 kg of onion a month.
- If the price spikes by Rs 20 per kg, the monthly budget of the family rises by only Rs 300 per month.
- While artificially subduing (through stock-holding limit, export restrictions etc.) farmgate prices by Rs 20 per kg leads to a loss of Rs 2,00,000 per acre for every farmer growing onions (assuming the yield to be 100 quintals/acre).
- Considering on an average an onion farmer cultivates about two acres of land, the order of magnitude is astounding.
Why government should intervene to protect farmers from price drops?
- It is neither the responsibility of the farmer to provide cheap food nor is it justified for the RBI to sacrifice farmers at the altar of inflation targeting.
- The government should roll out a mechanism to compensate farmers when its policies depress farmgate prices.
- Additionally, with the RBI, it can devise methods of softening the impact of rise in the price of food by direct benefit transfers (DBT) or coupons and other such for consumers.
- DBT has its share of issues, but is not uncommon.
Conclusion: Policy makers should pay heed to the lessons learnt from the farm: There are no perfect solutions, there never were any. For the ministry, the big question is: What is the level of imperfection the Union Minister is willing to settle for?