Thursday 25 August 2011

Cloning Matters.


Sir Ian Wilmut

Cloning is an advance technological invention for producing a genetic twin of a living thing, an organism that starts life with the same genes as of its parents. In 1997, researchers at Scotland’s institute, led by embryologist Ian Wilmut successfully cloned a lamb—named Dolly—from the cell of adult "ewe" and this was of its first kind in the world. Sir Ian Wilmut is an English embryologist born on 7th July 1944 in Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, England is best known for cloning. He has been awarded with some prestigious awards of OBE, FRS, FMedsci, 1997 Time man of the year runner up.

The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning; human clones in the form of identical twins are commonplace with there cloning occurrence during the natural process of reproduction. There are two commonly discussed types of human cloning : “ Therapeutic Cloning and reproductive Cloning “. Therapeutic  cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research. Reproductive Cloning would involve making cloned humans. A third type of cloning is called “ Replacement Cloning “ is a theoretical possibility, and would be a combination of therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Every such inventions has some merits and demerits. Human cloning could be misused to destroy the existing humanity and civilization. We have seen the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the spectrum of germs and chemical warfare. Scientist, Philosophers, Thinkers, Philanthropists from all over the world spoke out against human cloning, prompted by fears that the world has taken a step further towards nightmare of humans replicated in the laboratory. The human cloning can tear the society into pieces, it can endanger the very existence of human being in this world. Advocates of human therapeutic cloning believe that the practice could provide genetically identical cells for regenerative medicine, tissues and organs would neither trigger an immune response nor require the use of Immunosuppressive drugs. Both the basic research and therapeutic development for serious disease such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, as well as improvements in burn treatment and reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, are areas that might benefit from such new technology.

India & G-20.



The emergence of G-20 group and  its continuous strengthening highlights the rise of multilateralism in the management of global financial and economic order. This goes well with the policy and position of India. India has been a founder member of G-20 groups. It has played an active role in the summit meetings and other deliberations of G-20. The membership of G-20 has enabled India to play a major role in the global financial and economic matters, which is commensurate with the sustained economic growth and size of the country. The participation of G-20 is likely to boost India’s global image as a responsible emerging power. However, one of the major achievements of G-20 is the reform of international financial institutions, which has been a longstanding demand of India for many years. India being a major developing country, has the opportunity to represent the interest of other developing and Least Developing Countries at the global level through its active participation in a global financial forum like G-20. The active role played by India is likely to strengthen its claim and opportunity to get effective representation in other international bodies like the UN Security Council. India can also utilise G-20 as an effective forum of North-South dialogue.

G-20 facts :

There are striking similarities between G-8 and G-20 as far as their origin is concerned—both originated in the wake of financial or economic crisis. It should be recalled that G-8 was originated in 1975 in the wake of oil crisis as an aftermath of Arab-Israel war, 1973. Similarly the G-20 was originated in 1999 in the wake of Asian financial crisis, 1997. Both were concerned with the management of emerging crisis.

The G-20 originated as a forum of Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers of 20 emerging economies in 1999. Its first meeting was organised in Berlin (Germany) in December, 1999. These Governors and Ministers used to meet once in a year.

As the global financial crisis deepened in 2008, the G-8 was found inadequate to manage the crisis. Hence, G-20 ministerial meeting was elevated to summit format in 2008. G-20 summits are held twice in a year. The summit meetings so far held are give below:-

   No of Summit          Place                   Country             Date
Ist              Washington              U.S.A              Nov. 2008      
IInd                London                    U.K              April. 2009
IIIrd             Pittsburg               U.S.A             Sep. 2009
IVth               Toronto                Canada             June. 2010
Vth                  Seoul                   S.Korea             Nov. 2010

VIth and VIIth summits are to be held France(2011) and Mexico(2012).

It should be noted that from the year 2011 onwards, the G-20 summit shall be held at annual basis. During the IIIrd summit held at Pittsburg in Sept. 2009, it was decided that G-20 would replace G-8 as the main forum of global financial and  economic consultation.

The G-20 consists of 20 members. These are 19 countries and one regional organisation- European Union. It should be noted that by Lisbon treaty, 2007, the European Union has assumed a separate legal identity and is represented as single entity at various international forum. The 19 members countries of G-20 are:- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America.

The G-20 has so far not evolved any formal organisational structure. However, the work is carried out through the following bodies.

Summits consists head of government of member countries. It is the highest decision-making body of G-20. The personal representative of leaders are known as ‘ Sherpas ’.

Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of member countries. It meets once in a year and prepares agenda of summit meetings.

Working Groups and expert Groups. These groups are established when need to support the works of summit leaders, finance Ministers, central Bank Governors.

So far working groups and three Expert groups has been appointed to carry on the work of G-20.

The four working groups are :
On framework of strong, sustainable balanced growth.
On Anti-corruption (established by Toronto summit).
On Development (established by Toronto summit).
On International Monetary Fund Quota and Governance Reform.

The three expert groups are :- On Financial safety, On Financial inclusion and On Energy.

The work of G-20 is also supported by the key international financial and economic organisations such as World Bank, IMF, OECD (organisation of Economic and Development),  ILO (International Labour Organisation), WTO (World Trade Organisations) and United Nations. It should be noted that the representative of IMF and World Bank take part in the summit meetings of G-20.

Food Crisis in World.


FAO Report
Food and Agricultural Organisations and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in its report that the number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably high despite expected recent gains that have pushed the figure below 1 billion. The new estimate of the number of people who will suffer chronic hunger this year is 925 million—98 million down from 1.023 billion in 2009. But with a child dying in every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems, hunger remains the world’s largest tragedy and scandal. The continuing high global hunger level makes it extremely difficult to achieve not only the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) but also the rest of MDGs. The recent increase in food prices, if they persists, could hamper efforts to further reduce the number of world’s hungry. It is ironic that the majority of them actually live in rural areas of developing countries. Indeed over 70% of the world’s extremely poor (those people who live on less than US Dollar one a day) live in rural areas. That’s a billion people, and four out of five of them are farmers to some extent or the other. Globally, the 2010 hunger figure marked a decline of 9.6% from the 2009 level. The reduction was mostly concentrated in Asia, where 80 million people were estimated to be going hungry this year. In sub-Saharan Africa the drop was much smaller (about 12 million) and one out of three people there would continue to be undernourished.

Some of the Key findings are :

Two thirds of the world’s undernourished live in just seven countries of (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, China and India).

The region with the most undernourished people continues to be Asia and The Pacific with 578 million.

The proportion of undernourished people remains highest in sub-Saharan Africa at 30% in 2010, or 239 million.

Progress varies widely at country level. As of 2005-2007 the Congo, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria had already achieved MDG 1 in sub-Saharan Africa; Ethiopia and others are close to achieving it. However, the proportion of undernourished rose to 69% in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In Asia, Armenia, Mayanmar and Vietnam had already achieved MDG 1 and China is close to doing so.

In Latin America and Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica and Nicaragua had already achieved MDG 1 while Brazil is coming close.