• Aetna International white paper highlights antibiotics resistance as a serious hazard to public health~
• 7 Lakh deaths per year due to Antimicrobial Resistance. Expected to reach 1 Crore per annum by 2050~
• Antibiotic consumption to increase by 99% in BRICS countries~
• Agricultural consumption of antibiotics expected to rise by two-thirds by 2030 causing a serious threat to environment~

New Delhi : India is amongst the world’s largest consumers of antibiotics for human health. A recent white paper by Aetna International titled Â‘Antibiotic resistance: Toward better stewardship of a precious medical resource’ highlights the need for immediate action to contain the situation. Multiple factors, such as high burden of disease, poor public health infrastructure, rising incomes and the unregulated sale of cheap antibiotics have amplified the crisis of antibiotics resistance in India. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is causing around 7 Lakh deaths worldwide and the death toll may reach 1 crore per annum by 2050.

A 12-country survey by the World Health Organisation in 2015 demonstrates that at least 75 percent of respondents from four countries including India reported taking an antibiotic within the last six months, compared with just 35 percent of those from Barbados. As per a Lancet report, resistant infections are more expensive to treat and patients infected with resistant strains of bacteria are more likely to require longer hospitalisation. In the US alone, over 2million people suffer from illness due to drug resistant bacteria every year. This costs the United States an additional Rs.1,30,000 Crores(20 billion US dollars) in healthcare spends. In BRICS countries, antibiotic consumption is expected to increase by 99%. Agricultural consumption of antibiotics, which is primarily used to promote growth and not treat disease in animals, was estimated at 63,151 tons in 2010 and is expected to rise by two-thirds by 2030. Research shows that 75-90% of antibiotics given to animals pass through to the environment. This promotes drug resistant bacteria that infect humans and animals. A partial solution to the problem of antibiotic usage in agriculture would be to reduce people’s reliance on meat as a source of nutrition. The UK-based Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics advocates that going meat-free for one day a week can improve your health and the environment.

Addressing the growing concerns around the Antibiotic Resistance worldwide, one of the contributors to the white-paper, Dr. Prashant Kr Dash, Chief Medical Officer, vHealth by Aetna said, “The majority of Indians think antibiotics can cure illnesses such as common cold and gastroenteritis, which is a wrong perception. The majority of these infections are caused by viruses and antibiotics have no role in their treatment. This problem of inappropriate antibiotic use is compounded by their easy availability at pharmacies. In many cases, patients experience unwanted serious side effects of antibiotics like an allergic reaction, diarrhea, vomiting, kidney failure, changes in blood sugar levels and toxic effects on the heart and liver. This persuaded us to collate this study which will create awareness on the issue and draw attention to the alarming health crisis being faced globally.”

On Aetna International’s plan tocombat antibiotic resistance in India, Mr. Manasije Mishra, Managing Director, India Health Organisation & Aetna India said, Â“Antibiotic resistance is a crisis that effects everyone globally.  We need to address this issue now with a global, multifaceted strategic solution. In India, with our vHealth by Aetna teleconsultation service, Aetna is taking a three-stage approach that emphasizes antimicrobial stewardship in clinical training audit medical consultations, the identification incorrect antibiotic usage in patients and offers counselling on appropriate usage, dosage, duration and rationale of using antibiotics. By these means, we are initiating steps to help combat the growing threat of AMR in the country.”

Supersonic commercial travel is on the horizon. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin Skunk Works a contract to design, build and flight test the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, an X-plane designed to make supersonic passenger air travel a reality.

“It is super exciting to be back designing and flying X-planes at this scale,” said Jaiwon Shin, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics. “Our long tradition of solving the technical barriers of supersonic flight to benefit everyone continues.”

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works will build a full-scale experimental aircraft, known as an X-plane, of its preliminary design developed under NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) effort. The X-plane will help NASA establish an acceptable commercial supersonic noise standard to overturn current regulations banning commercial supersonic travel over land.

“We’re honored to continue our partnership with NASA to enable a new generation of supersonic travel,” said Peter Iosifidis, Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator program manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. “We look forward to applying the extensive work completed under QueSST to the design, build and flight test of the X-plane, providing NASA with a demonstrator to make supersonic commercial travel possible for passengers around the globe.”

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and NASA have partnered for more than a decade to enable the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin Skunk Works a contract in February 2016 for the preliminary design of the supersonic X-plane flight demonstrator

The aircraft will be built at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, and will conduct its first flight in 2021.

Chittagong/Dhaka: A terrain of water, forests and greenery, Bangladesh has come a long way since it was liberated in 1971 and the country celebrated its 47^th Independence Day on March 26, soaking in all hues and colours of freedom with a promise of marching ahead on the path of development.  

As our US-Bangla airline’s flight from Kolkata lands in the afternoon at Chittagong airport, the massive expanse of Karnaphuli river merging into the Bay of Bengal with numerous barges, oil tankers and fishing vessels dotting it are visible. Though the airport  is relatively small, quiet efficiency of the immigration officers ensures that the passengers are cleared without any fuss. Our host is senior advocate Jahangir Alam Chowdhury who along with his professor wife has come to receive us at the airport. The hospitality of the Chowdhury family is splendid and we meet at Chittagong Seniors’ Club in the heart of the city which also has a rich history behind it. About 50-minute drive from the airport to the city centre is smooth with well laid wide roads. Chittagong is the biggest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and is widely described as the commercial capital of the country. The city also played a key role during India’s freedom struggle as well as during the war for liberation of Bangladesh.

We are also invited to the Chittagong Press Club where all office bearers and members extend a warm welcome and talk about friendly and cordial ties between the scribes of the countries. Many of them have visited India more than once and have returned with fond memories. The journalists of Chittagong are also desirous of having active ties with the press clubs in India. They generally speak of warm and friendly Indo-Bangladesh relations and express desire of more exchange visits between the two neighbours in all fields.

Chittagong is also home to about two lakh population of Hindus who were busy celebrating Basanti Puja at this time of the year. Shayamal Kumar Palit who heads the city’s largest cable television network and helps in organizing one of the biggest pujas in Chittagong informs that nearly 200 Durga Pujas are held in the metropolitan area of Chittagong. Our guide and fellow senior scribe Jasim Chowdhury Sabuj says the city wears a colourful, festive look during the puja season which brings to fore the enthusiastic participation of the people. Mr. Sabuj also takes us round the important landmarks in the city – J M Sen Hall where leaders used to hold meetings during the British rule, the headquarter of the then Assam-Bengal Railways, European Club which was  by Priti Lata in  the 30s who worked in tandem with Masterda Surjo Sen, revolutionary leader whose group had mounted a series of attacks against the then British rule. Masterda remains a legendary figure in Chittagong. 

Markets and streets in the city are bustling with vehicles with rickshaws, three-wheelers, and cars jostling for space. Chittagong port city has a population of about 2.5 million with a density of 16000 people per sq km. Interestingly, three-wheeler auto rickshaws in Dhaka and Chittagong have fixed wire grills on both the sides, protecting the driver and passengers from potential bag snatchers – a crime which is increasing in Delhi and other cities of India by each passing day.

By the time we land in Dhaka, Independence Day celebrations have already begun and March 26 is a public holiday but students and the city youth are enthusiastically participating in different campaigns with catchy slogans and songs being played from the vehicles in which they criss-cross different parts of the city, spreading the message of peace and vowing to work for the progress and development of the nation.

Arterial roads of Dhaka and commercial areas are home to well-lined markets, modern restaurant chains, shops, luxury hotels, a sprawling lake in the middle and many modern and recently-built high-rise buildings. Vertical urban growth seems to be catching up in Dhaka which hosts 16 million people with a density of nearly 50,000 people per sq km. Traffic jams in Dhaka are unpredictable and notorious even as several flyovers have come up in the metropolis. People have a fetish for big cars and mostly Toyota sedans can be easily spotted in good numbers. India’s Tata and Ashok Leyland trucks and trawlers are also visible and so is Mahindra, another auto major.

Dhaka’s National Press Club is the nerve-centre for journalists who make it a point to meet up during the day and discuss the day’s developments with their colleagues or chat up with them or simply indulge in delicious food and snacks that are available in its canteen. On March 26 evening, we are invited to the reception, hosted by the President at Bangabhawan and despite an overcast sky, invitees from all walks of life turn up in large numbers to celebrate the independence day and also register their joy as Bangladesh prepares to shed the tag of LCD (Least Developed Country) and becomes a developing nation.

Parliamentary elections are also due to be held later this year in Bangladesh and the coming months promise to be hectic and politically exciting.

Chittagong/Dhaka: A terrain of water, forests and greenery, Bangladesh has come a long way since it was liberated in 1971 and the country celebrated its 47^th Independence Day on March 26, soaking in all hues and colours of freedom with a promise of marching ahead on the path of development.  

As our US-Bangla airline’s flight from Kolkata lands in the afternoon at Chittagong airport, the massive expanse of Karnaphuli river merging into the Bay of Bengal with numerous barges, oil tankers and fishing vessels dotting it are visible. Though the airport  is relatively small, quiet efficiency of the immigration officers ensures that the passengers are cleared without any fuss. Our host is senior advocate Jahangir Alam Chowdhury who along with his professor wife has come to receive us at the airport. The hospitality of the Chowdhury family is splendid and we meet at Chittagong Seniors’ Club in the heart of the city which also has a rich history behind it. About 50-minute drive from the airport to the city centre is smooth with well laid wide roads. 

Chittagong is the biggest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and is widely described as the commercial capital of the country. The city also played a key role during India’s freedom struggle as well as during the war for liberation of Bangladesh.

We are also invited to the Chittagong Press Club where all office bearers and members extend a warm welcome and talk about friendly and cordial ties between the scribes of the countries. Many of them have visited India more than once and have returned with fond memories. The journalists of Chittagong are also desirous of having active ties with the press clubs in India. They generally speak of warm and friendly Indo-Bangladesh relations and express desire of more exchange visits between the two neighbours in all fields.

Chittagong is also home to about two lakh population of Hindus who were busy celebrating Basanti Puja at this time of the year. Shayamal Kumar Palit who heads the city’s largest cable television network and helps in organizing one of the biggest pujas in Chittagong informs that nearly 200 Durga Pujas are held in the metropolitan area of Chittagong. Our guide and fellow senior scribe Jasim Chowdhury Sabuj says the city wears a colourful, festive look during the puja season which brings to fore the enthusiastic participation of the people. Mr. Sabuj also takes us round the important landmarks in the city – J M Sen Hall where leaders used to hold meetings during the British rule, the headquarter of the then Assam-Bengal Railways, European Club which was by Priti Lata in  the 30s who worked in tandem with Masterda Surjo Sen, revolutionary leader whose group had mounted a series of attacks against the then British rule. Masterda remains a legendary figure in Chittagong. Markets and streets in the city are bustling with vehicles with rickshaws, three-wheelers, and cars jostling for space. Chittagong port city has a population of about 2.5 million with a density of 16000 people per sq km. Interestingly, three-wheeler auto rickshaws in Dhaka and Chittagong have fixed wire grills on both the sides, protecting the driver and passengers from potential bag snatchers – a crime which is increasing in Delhi and other cities of India by each passing day.

By the time we land in Dhaka, Independence Day celebrations have already begun and March 26 is a public holiday but students and the city youth are enthusiastically participating in different campaigns with catchy slogans and songs being played from the vehicles in which they criss-cross different parts of the city, spreading the message of peace and vowing to work for the progress and development of the nation. Arterial roads of Dhaka and commercial areas are home to well-lined markets, modern restaurant chains, shops, luxury hotels, a sprawling lake in the middle and many modern and recently-built high-rise buildings. Vertical urban growth seems to be catching up in Dhaka which hosts 16 million people with a density of nearly 50,000 people per sq km. Traffic jams in Dhaka are unpredictable and notorious even as several flyovers have come up in the metropolis. People have a fetish for big cars and mostly Toyota sedans can be easily spotted in good numbers. India’s Tata and Ashok Leyland trucks and trawlers are also visible and so is Mahindra, another auto major.

Dhaka’s National Press Club is the nerve-centre for journalists who make it a point to meet up during the day and discuss the day’s developments with their colleagues or chat up with them or simply indulge in delicious food and snacks that are available in its canteen. On March 26 evening, we are invited to the reception, hosted by the President at Bangabhawan and despite an overcast sky, invitees from all walks of life turn up in large numbers to celebrate the independence day and also register their joy as Bangladesh prepares to shed the tag of LCD (Least Developed Country) and becomes a developing nation.

Parliamentary elections are also due to be held later this year in Bangladesh and the coming months promise to be hectic and politically exciting.

Antibiotics differ from almost every other class of drugs in one important and dangerous way: the more they are used, the less effective they become. For developing countries like India, where antibiotic resistance is growing as a result of over-prescription and misuse, it is only a matter of time before the bacteria win.

CHENNAI – Last year, a 30-year-old teacher suffering from a severe bloodstream infection arrived in my emergency room for treatment. The woman had been in and out of local clinics with a stubborn chest infection and fever, and by the time I examined her, she was receiving chemotherapy for blood cancer.

Instinctively, I treated her infection with an antibiotic from a group of drugs known as “carbapenems,” strong medicines commonly prescribed to people who are hospitalized. But after further tests I discovered that she was carrying a strain of bacteria that is resistant to most antibiotics in our therapeutic arsenal. There was no option but to treat her with drugs that I knew would be largely ineffective; she was lucky to recover.

Sadly, many patients are not so fortunate. Around the world, people are being admitted to hospitals with infections that do not respond to antibiotics, and relatively benign germs – like Klebsiella and E. coli Â– have become potent killers, shrugging off medicines that in the past easily contained them.

Antibiotics are different from almost every other class of drug in one important and dangerous respect: the more they are used, the less effective they become. When microbes are repeatedly exposed to antibiotics, the bacteria eventually win.

Each year, an estimated 750,000 people die from antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections, and the death toll will climb unless the global health community acts decisively. In the absence of detailed and reliable reporting from all countries, the British government commissioned a series of reports on AMR, estimating that by 2050, as many as ten million people could die annually from AMR complications. Moreover, the economic impact of “superbug” outbreaks could top $100 trillion; low-income countries would suffer disproportionately.

Uneven and unregulated antibiotic usage is one of the most important reasons behind the AMR crisis. In developed countries, doctors prescribe antibiotics for even the most basic maladies, like the common cold. Stronger regulations of antibiotics prescriptions in these countries, like those implemented in Finland several decades ago, could help to mitigate resistance.

Yet such rules alone will not be enough, because in much of the developing world, antibiotics can be obtained without a prescription. Inequalities in access to medicine, excessive use, and poor sanitation services complicate the problem further. And when farmers uses antibiotics to speed the growth of chickens and other livestock, drug-resistant germs find new ways to enter the environment.

In 2017, the World Health Organization, in an effort to address these challenges, classified antibiotics into three groups and issued guidance for how each class of drugs should be used to treat 21 of the most common infections. For example, the first of these groups consists of medicines that should always be available to patients, preferably by prescription. Amoxicillin, the preferred medicine for respiratory-tract infections in children, is in this group. The second tier includes carbapenems, which, as my patient last year discovered, are increasingly ineffective. And the third group, including colistin and other “last resort” antibiotics, are drugs that must be used sparingly and only for medical emergencies.

Clearly, guidelines are an important first step in addressing the global AMR challenge. But governments, medical associations, and hospitals must also commit to tackling the antibiotic crisis together. That is what the health-care community in India is doing. In 2012, India’s medical societies adopted the Chennai Declaration, a set of national recommendations to promote antibiotic stewardship. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his monthly radio address to urge doctors to join the effort.

Still, the AMR threat remains real; containing it will require concerted effort. In India, for example, we must implement the regulation, formulated by the Indian Health Ministry, controlling over-the-counter sales of antibiotics. The WHO’s advice should strengthen support for this move.

India’s Red Line campaign – which demands that prescription-only antibiotics be marked with a red line, to discourage the over-the-counter sale of antibiotics– is a step forward.

Meanwhile, health-care communities in advanced economies must find the political will to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use by people, and in agriculture. “Last resort” antibiotics should never be used as growth promoters in livestock farming, but achieving this will require significant changes to current practices.

Superbugs should strike fear in doctors and patients everywhere, but fear cannot lead to paralysis. The next time a patient arrives in my ward with a treatable infection, I need to be certain that the medicine I prescribe will be effective. Luck should never play a role in a patient’s recovery.

(The Author Abdul Ghafur, a Chennai-based infectious disease consultant, is the coordinator of the Chennai Declaration.)

Source – www.project-syndicate.org

With one quarter of the global tuberculosis cases found in India, a first of its kind survey has shown among all TB patients tested, MDR-TB rate was 6.19% with 2.84% among new and 11.60% among previously treated TB patients.

Any isoniazid resistance among new and previously treated TB patients was 11.06% and 25.09%, respectively. Any drug resistance among new TB patients was 22.54%, with 36.82% among previously treated TB patients and 28.02% among all patients.

Results of this largest and first-ever National Drug Resistant Survey conducted by any country in the world also showed there was negligible rifampicin mono-resistance in the survey and isoniazid resistance was invariably associated with rifampicin resistance. Any pyrazinamide resistance was 6.95% and 8.77% among new and previously treated TB patients, respectively. Among MDR-TB patients, additional resistance to any fluoroquinolone was 21% and any second line drug resistance was 3.84%. Among MDR-TB patients, XDR-TB rate was 1.3%.

A total of 5280 sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB patients (3240 new and 2040 (previously treated) diagnosed at the designated microscopy centres (DMCs) of RNTCP were enrolled in the survey.

There were wide variations in the state-wise levels of drug resistance, highlighting that national level estimates tends to mask the local and focal epidemics that need to be addressed with specific interventions, the survey has said.

With a population of 1.32 billion, India has the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) in the world.

The Survey has recommended setting up and strengthening drug resistance surveillance including using state of art next generation sequencing. This will provide the programme with the trends of drug resistance, transmission patterns and mapping of hot spots in different states for better understanding of molecular epidemiology for TB surveillance  and strengthening epidemiologic intelligence for specific interventions based on local epidemiological profile.

India has more new tuberculosis (TB) patients annually than any other country globally, contributing to 27% of the world’s TB burden. About 2.79 million TB patients are estimated to be added annually. The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) notified around 1.94 million TB patients in 2016.

As per the Global TB Report 2017, worldwide approximately 4.1% of new TB patients and 19% of previously treated TB patients have multidrug resistant-TB (MDR-TB), i.e. TB resistant to at least two of the first-line drugs – isoniazid and rifampicin. Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), defined as MDR-TB with additional resistance to at least one fluoroquinolone and one second line injectable drug, has been reported by 123 countries.

The proportion of XDR-TB among MDR-TB patients is 6.2% worldwide. The estimated number of MDR/rifampicin resistant (RR)-TB in India is 147 000, accounting for one fourth of the global burden of MDR/RR-TB.

India initiated the programmatic management of drug resistant TB (PMDT) in 2007 to address the emerging problem of drug resistant-TB (DR-TB), and the national PMDT scale-up was achieved by March 2013. The treatment success rate among MDR-TB patients in India is consistently about 46% and the death rate is around 20%, as against the global level of treatment success rate of 52% and death rate of 17%. High rates of treatment failure and deaths are associated with fluoroquinolone resistance in the Indian cohort of MDR-TB patients.

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras has joined hands with Deakin University, Australia, to establish India’s first Bilateral Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Advanced Materials and Manufacturing.

The IIT Madras-Deakin University Centre of Excellence on Advanced Materials and Manufacturing is being set up with seed grant from both Deakin University and IIT Madras. The CoE will execute the recently funded Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) project. The Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Madras,  in collaboration with the  Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University have come together to establish the CoE.

Philip Dalidakis, Minister for Trade and Innovation, Victoria, Australia, inaugurated the Centre of Excellence and unveiled the Signage in the presence of Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, and other dignitaries.

Key research areas of this Centre includes next generation wear-resistant and high temperature alloys, smart and functional materials such as nano-spun fibres and nano-composites for bio applications besides Light and strong materials which encompasses Novel forming techniques for ultra-high strength steels.

The Centre will collaborate with Industries and R&D Organisations such as International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory and Defence Institute of Advanced Technology.

Speaking about this Centre of Excellence, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said, “This is the culmination of a long, productive and growing Relationship between IIT Madras and Deakin University. We started with faculty and student exchange, graduated to a joint PhD programme, and now to a CoE in Advanced Materials and Manufacturing. The CoE leverages the combined expertise of the faculty of the two universities and will create new materials and next-generation manufacturing techniques at the global cutting-edge.”

The CoE would strive towards establishing a world-class additive manufacturing facility at IIT Madras that complements the facilities at Deakin University. This would position IIT Madras as the Additive Manufacturing research leader in India, and also strengthen Deakin University’s eminence in the field.

The expected outcomes and impact of this centre includes cutting-edge science and innovation, new significant infrastructure at IIT Madras, accelerated growth in student numbers under the joint doctoral program and increased industry interaction and technology translation besides demonstrated collaboration for bilateral funding opportunities and Joint grant proposals, conference and workshops.

The existing researcher-to-researcher relationship and joint doctoral program between IIT Madras and Deakin University would form the platform for growth and increased research commitment through the CoE.

Although IIT Madras and Deakin have invested some seed funding for this CoE, the Centre will be self-sustaining soon with funding from Government, industry and various HR programmes that will be conducted by the CoE. There are a number of industries which are already collaborating with both IIT Madras and Deakin University and they are likely to be the funding partners for the CoE.  

Additional funding from the industry would also be raised for the Centre through specific sponsored and consultancy projects. Regular workshops and hands on training programmes that would be conducted would be for the benefit of academia, research labs and industry. The Indo-Australian Workshop on Advances in Materials and Additive Manufacturing is the first workshop of the CoE, which is being organised between 21-22 March 2018at the Research Park, IIT Madras.

JAIPUR: Elephant rides and night tourism at Amber Fort in Jaipur will remain closed between March 17 and 26 in the wake of Navratri festival.

This has been done keeping in mind the massive crowds that throng the Shri Shila Mata Temple inside the Fort and to ensure the safety of the devotees and the tourists, according to Mr. Pankaj Dharendra, Amber Palace Superintendent.

To facilitate the tourists, the booking for visiting Amber Palace can be availed at Tripolia Gate and Singh Pol. Exit will be from Tripolia Gate from March 18 to 25.

During April, the elephant rides will be reduced to three rounds for each elephant starting from 7:00 am to 10:30 am. In May and June the rides will be further reduced to two per elephant starting from 7:00 am to 10:00 am.

NEW DELHI: India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs  Kiren Rijiju has advocated that law enforcement and security agencies worldwide must collaborate to tackle the threat posed by Cyber Crimes.

Addressing the Valedictory Session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) here on Thursday,  he observed that the existing frameworks, programmes and tools are often too slow and bureaucratic to allow for a timely and effective response. Rather than multiple partners investing in and developing the same highly specialised skill-sets and expertise, perhaps a more effective, high-level model would be for law enforcement and relevant partners to focus on distinct core competencies and to make them available to others ‘as a service’, he added.

 He said that Law Enforcement Agencies that seek to keep communities safe are faced with increasing challenges of rapidly evolving technologies, cyber space being the most important.

Here is the text of the Minister’s address to the conference:

 Commission of cyber-crime is getting easier as the extent to which cyber technology provides it easy to commit crime at a faraway place, in total anonymity, and with global reach. Tools and techniques to conduct cybercrime — hacking software, malware — can be downloaded freely. There are even step-by-step video instructions online that explain how to use them.

In fact, crime-as-a-service is also being offered in dark web, we can see from looking at standard consumer technology that it only takes a few iterations of a product for it to become straightforward to use. So the barrier to entry for cybercrime is very minimal — just needs to access internet. In the past systems would have only been available only to technology-savvy cybercriminals. Now such criminal services can be bought and used by anyone, regardless of their technical skills. What this evolution has revealed is the extent to which other criminal activities, beyond economic crime, are now being supported by these infrastructures.

As per National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a total of 33,531 cyber-crime cases were registered during 2014-2016. During 2016, 48.6% of cyber-crime cases reported were for illegal gain (5,987 out of 12,317 cases), followed by revenge with 8.6% (1,056 cases)  and insult to  modesty of women with 5.6% (686 cases). During 2016, cyber-crime (7.7%) was recorded as the fourth largest crime (first Cheating-68.4%,- second criminal breach of trust-11.7%, third forgery-8.6%) in India.

Among the more rampant cyber-crimes under Indian IT Act (various sections) are: tampering computer source documents,   publications / transmission of obscene/ sexually explicit contents,  breach of confidentiality / privacy,  data theft,  cyber terrorism

Among the cyber-crime motives are:   illegal gain,  revenge, insult to modesty of women,  extortion / blackmailing,  sexual exploitation,  causing disrepute,   inciting hate crime against community,  developing own business / interest,  political motives,  disrupt public services,  piracy,  steal information for espionage,  serious psychiatric illness viz. perversion, etc.

Recently we also noticed rise in sophisticated to naïve cyber-crimes in financial sector.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) based malware attack witnessed in two Indian Banks (Union Bank of India — 171 million USD, almost all them are recovered and City Union Bank — 2 million USD only part could be recovered till Feb 28, 2018). In the first Bank case, an employee of the Bank opened an email attachment, which looked like it had come from India’s Central Bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The attachment initiated the malware that hackers used to steal the Bank’s access code for the SWIFT, a system that lenders use for international transactions; the codes were used to send transfer instructions for about 170 million USD to Bank’s account at CitiGroup Inc in New York. However, bank could recover all the money back. In the other case, money was transferred in accounts in Dubai, Turkey and China. But in this case, a partial amount is yet to be recovered.

District of Jamtara in eastern India is getting notoriety for financial frauds. Here the youngsters (all 8^th or 10^th graders & dropouts) are using simple phishing techniques to obtain sensitive financial data (like PIN number, card CVV, etc.) and transfer the money to e-wallets and subsequently to bank accounts. They cleverly entice the victims to reveal OTP just through smart conversation. To obtain the SIMs they use “surrogate SIM” [being very poor and with lack of education, elderly people are lured to provide their biometric authentication through Aadhaar to obtain SIM. Fraudsters obtain 7 to 9 SIMs and pay small amount to the elderly] and transfer the money to “surrogate bank accounts” [Government has opened bank accounts for poor for facilitating government’s direct cash benefit transfer. Such bank accounts are hired by fraudsters to get their debit card on monthly rentals. The poor and elderly are not aware of their cards being misused for withdrawing money]. The fraudsters are also using techniques to evade detection by changing the mobile tower location while making phishing calls to the victims. This they do just by driving their motorbike/car around different mobile towers.

To further complicate the traditional cyber-crime challenges to policing, new technologies like Internet of Things, Virtual Currencies, Advanced Malware, Artificial Intelligence, etc. have taken the challenges to a new level. Coping with such rapid changing technologies by Police has become a huge task for effective Policing. Across many countries many cyber criminals use technologies like darknet, proxy servers, The Onion Router (TOR) services to hide their identity. Extensive use of VoIP, caller ID spoofing, use of crypto currencies, encrypted channel for communication, use of social media have virtually created a syndicates of criminals irrespective of their nationality.

The business of supporting online criminality has become a truly global enterprise, with help desks, regular software updates and platform development roadmaps created to service the needs of their users. In fact having imitated the very best enterprise approaches and unbound by legislative requirements, they have become innovative and agile businesses. This creates a two-tiered, organised criminal enterprise: those committing crimes that directly victimise and those that are automating and supporting the businesses of crime. The question becomes where should law enforcement’s limited resources be allocated: the criminals that carry out the crime, or those that provide the infrastructure that make it possible?

Law enforcement, policy makers, legislators, academia and training providers need to become even more adaptive and agile in addressing the phenomenon. Existing frameworks, programmes and tools are often too slow and bureaucratic to allow for a timely and effective response. Rather than multiple partners investing in and developing the same highly specialised skill-sets and expertise, perhaps a more effective, high-level model would be for law enforcement and relevant partners to focus on distinct core competencies and to make them available to others ‘as a service’.

It is important to consider law enforcement as one of the key partners in ensuring cyber security globally. Prevention campaigns should not focus solely on preventing citizens and businesses from becoming victims of cybercrime, but also on preventing potential cybercriminals becoming involved in such activity. Such campaigns must highlight the consequences of cybercrime for both the victim and perpetrator.

Besides technology, challenges in cyber-crime investigation stems from tack of adequate capacity as also legal challenges. Law enforcement should continue to focus on attribution and intelligence development in order to identify, locate and prosecute key criminal individuals to achieve more permanent impact on the criminal community. Law enforcement must continue to develop and invest in the appropriate specialised training required to effectively investigate highly technical cyber-attacks. A foundation level understanding of cyber-facilitated and cyber-enabled crime, including the basics of digital forensics should be required by all law enforcement officers, especially first responders.

India has sought to empower stakeholders and public through various policy initiatives which had positive outcomes at the operational level, – active partnerships with private sector both for R&D initiatives and also tangible deliverables. Police across the countries also needs to evolve a better coordination, information sharing mechanism and develop mutual trust by respecting the local Laws and Regulations. Without such international cooperation, it would be extremely difficult for a country to address the new age policing single handedly. Steps should be taken to facilitate intensified cooperation across government (law enforcement), to allow information sharing and a coordinated approach to response to cybercrimes and attacks.

Cyber diplomacy is an evolving subject at both bilateral and multilateral levels. India has sought to play a responsible role on both these fronts. Concerns of like-minded multiple stakeholders — the model that India supports — were articulated in the ICANN conference held in Hyderabad, ‘’

BENGALURU:  Stephen Hawking (January 8, 1942 – 14 March, 2018)  passed away in the early hours of March 14, leaving behind a rich intellectual legacy that will dominate theoretical physics for years to come. Coincidentally, March 14^th is Albert Einstein’s birthday and January 8 was the day on which Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy. Hawking held the Lucasian chair of Mathematics at Cambridge, a position once filled by Isaac Newton. It is indeed fitting that these names are all strung together in the same paragraph and mentioned in the same breath. They are the giants who transformed theoretical physics into the shape that it has taken today.

Hawking’s early work (in collaboration with Roger Penrose) was on singularity theorems in Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This work showed decisively that Einstein’s theory predicted singularities: regions of space and time where our theories no longer hold. Einstein’s general relativity seemed to predict its own demise. There was new physics beyond general relativity.

Another seminal work of his concerns the areas of black holes. Hawking showed that the area of a black hole always increases with time. This suggested an analogy with entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, which predicts that disorder of a closed system always increases. This analogy was initially not taken seriously because it seemed so farfetched and, indeed, flawed.

However, Jakob Bekenstein, an Israeli physicist, persisted with the analogy, despite the obvious flaw that black holes absorb light and do not let it escape, whereas black bodies in thermal physics emit as well as absorb light. Hawking’s striking insight was to realise that black holes were indeed thermodynamic objects which have a temperature and emit radiation- now called Hawking radiation. This brilliant insight nailed the analogy and has led to deep relations between gravitation, quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics which are still being explored today. Hawking has made many seminal contributions to cosmology, black holes and the relationship between geometry, gravitation and quantum theory, too numerous and technical to mention here.

Hawking brought to the subject a style of mathematical physics that used subtle methods from differential geometry and differential topology to bear on the physics of black holes and cosmology. There is a strong Indian connection here. The idea of a black hole had its roots in the work on the stability of white dwarf stars by S. Chandrasekhar, an American physicist of Indian origin. Hawking’s analysis of singularities and the area theorem relied crucially on an equation discovered by Amal Raychaudhuri, an Indian physicist whose name is perhaps better known abroad than in his native land. The classic book by Hawking and Ellis on the large scale structure of space time summarises some of these developments in a rigorous mathematical way.

Hawking has captured the public imagination both for the boldness of his ideas and the trying circumstances they were developed in. His bestselling book “A brief history of time”, and its sequels, have drawn lay public into the esoteric realms of space, time and black holes.

Hawking is very much a part of popular culture. He has appeared on “The big bang theory”, a popular television serial that pokes gentle fun at the arcane mysteries of theoretical physics and the curiously warped personalities and personal lives of the cerebral and self-absorbed people behind the science.

Hawking is featured in “The SimpsoBookns”, another popular and satirical television cartoon show. He has also been sensitively portrayed by Eddie Redmaynein the movie “The Theory of Everything”.

What is most remarkable and has captured the public imagination is the circumstances in which Hawking did his seminal work. At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative disease (also referred to as motor neuron disease). His doctors gave him two years to live. They were off by about fifty – 50 more years in which Hawking continued to defy the odds and leave his eternal mark on the theories of black holes and cosmology. (India Science Wire)

(The author is a theoretical physicist at Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, and works in the areas of general relativity, quantum theory and quantum information theory.)