Tag: Kerala

Exclusive: Nipah virus has been contained, says Kerala health secretary

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus has claimed at least 13 deaths in Kerala, which boasts the best healthcare system in India.  The ‘newness’ of Nipah — it was first identified in 1999, according to the World Health Organization —   and the absence of a vaccine to combat the virus that can be transmitted to humans from animals and is hosted by fruit bats make the task of health officials daunting. Despite these challenges, the Kerala government has successfully managed to contain the virus, said health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan. This has been possible largely due to the robust healthcare system in Kerala, he told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview by email.

What is the status with regard to the containment of the Nipah virus? Media reports say the spread of the virus has been contained but the death toll continues to rise. 

We believe the epidemic has been contained. There has been only one foci, no animal infections and the first wave (persons who were infected by the original case) and we are awaiting the second wave (persons who have been infected by the persons who picked up the infection from the first case). Until now, we have not seen such a wave. But a few cases will come up until the June 4 — 16 days after the cases were picked up.

Our virus belongs to the Bangladeshi Genome, which is much for virulent than the Malaysian variety. Our death rate has been among the highest (only three survivors from 16 cases) but all of them have been detected late. The person who was detected early, Ubeesh, is doing well.

Please explain in detail how the Kerala government and your department responded to combat the virus. 

Kerala’s health response always leverages the awareness of our population and the depth of our health system. We maintained total transparency issuing periodic media bulletins and advising people who have had contact with positive cases to maintain house quarantine. This had a negative impact of ostracisation of the affected families. But it helped to prevent infection. Panchayats and elected representatives all played a very supportive role.

The media in Kerala, especially the print media, took over the task of educating the population and reassuring them. The health department prepared the list of contact cases, with the location and time of contact and assigned the field staff to visit these contacts, advise them house quarantine, and began tracking them. A Command Centre was set up with the top medical officer, Director of Health Services, being posted there permanently until the end of the episode. Data of admissions, sending of samples, results, deaths and discharges were collated and made available as daily bulletins. The cases were managed in the Kozhikode medical college. Personal protection equipment was distributed to health workers at all levels.

We contacted the best international experts in the field, including the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, WHO etc and discovered that the Queensland government had stockpiled a promising Human Monoclonal Antibody for compassionate use. Using our contacts, we contacted the Queensland government, and obtained the offer for 50 vials. Indian Council of Medical Research made the formal request to the government of Australia, the Drug Controlller General of India agreed to the use of an unpatented drug for compassionate use.

What lessons do you have to offer to the rest of the country when it comes to tackling such priority diseases? 

All of us need to have a robust surveillance system to pick up such diseases.

Did it help that Kerala has a robust healthcare system? 

We picked up the case in time and prevented its spread only because of the health system.

“Unlike other states, we are open about our epidemics. We believe that helps us manage the epidemic even though the national media goes to town on it. It is also a sign of our confidence that such bad press does not bother us too much.”

Despite the existence of a robust healthcare system and an educated class of citizens, Kerala experiences a bout of diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, malaria etc every year. Please explain this paradox.   

We have the problem of only dengue. All the other cases such as Filariasis, Malaria, TB and Leprosy are on the verge of elimination. We do have occasional cases of Leptospirosis and JE but the issue is not serious. Our problems are non-communicable diseases. Unlike other states, we are open about our epidemics. We believe that helps us manage the epidemic even though the national media goes to town on it. It is also a sign of our confidence that such bad press does not bother us too much.

What has been the impact of the Nipah virus on Kerala’s tourism economy? Media reports say there have been several cancellations of bookings for Kerala medical tourism tours. 

To a tourist, any part of the state looks the same. So there were some cancellations. We issued a travel advisory listing four districts that people were advised to avoid. This may have hurt the tour operators, but it again is part of our policy of transparency.

What are the next steps the government will undertake to combat the virus?

Kerala will work with WHO and ICMR to develop drugs against Nipah. We will also carry out, with the help of the best experts from Asia, a surveillance of the fruit bat population in the state to assess the potential for recurrence.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India steps up hunt for origin of mysterious brain-damaging Nipah virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

India began a fresh round of tests to trace the origin of a rare brain-damaging virus that has killed 13 people, a health official said on Monday, as initial tests on animals suspected of carrying the Nipah virus showed no sign of the disease.

All animal samples, including those from bats, cattle, goats and pigs from Kerala, sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, were negative for Nipah, said animal husbandry officer A. Mohandas.

The department was now collecting samples of fruit bats from Perambra, the suspected epicentre of the infection and nearby areas, Mohandas said.

Separately, tests run on dead bats in Himachal Pradesh were negative for Nipah, an official there said.

Of some 116 suspected cases sent for testing in recent weeks, 15 have been confirmed as Nipah, the Kerala government said on its website on Monday.

The latest victim was a 26-year-old rickshaw driver from Kerala’s Kozhikode district who died on the weekend, hospital officials told Reuters.

No confirmed cases of the virus have yet been found outside Kerala, despite fears it has spread. Some neighbouring states including Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka have sent samples for testing of people who reported Nipah-like symptoms in the last few days.

There is no vaccine for the virus, which is spread through body fluids and can cause encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The usual treatment is to provide supportive care.

Infectious disease outbreaks can be a challenge in India, the world’s second most populous country, where infection control and surveillance systems are weak, leading to hundreds of deaths annually from diseases such as mosquito-borne dengue.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said last week that Profectus BioSciences and Emergent BioSolutions would receive up to $25 million to accelerate work on a vaccine against Nipah virus.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Nipah claims one more life in Kerala, death toll climbs to 13

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The death toll due to Nipah rose to 13 in Kerala, with one more person succumbing to the deadly virus here today. Twenty six-year-old Abin, hailing from Palazhi in the district, died at a private hospital after battling for life for one week, official sources said.

Kalyani, a septuagenarian woman who was undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College here, died yesterday. After the outbreak of Nipah at a hamlet in Perambra here last week, 16 people have tested positive, of whom 13 have died so far.

Health Minister K K Shylaja told reporters that the authorities had collected details of people who had direct contact with the deceased persons and all of them are now under observation.

However, the authorities are still clueless about the actual source of the spread of the virus. As samples of insectivores bats tested negative for the virus, the Kerala Animal Husbandry Department and the Pune based National Virology Institute (NVI) are jointly collecting samples of fruit-eating bats to be sent for expert tests. The samples would be sent for tests at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal, official sources said.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said in Thiruvananthapuram that the government and the department would take the initiative to alleviate the concern among tourists and stakeholders following the outbreak of Nipah.

The effective steps taken by the government and the health department had helped contain further spread of the disease and the situation is under control now, he said in a meeting of the state Tourism Advisory Committee.

The outbreak of the Nipah virus infection, a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans, is suspected to be from an unused well in Perambra which was infested with bats. The natural host of the virus is believed to be fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Telangana checks suspect cases in outbreak of rare brain-damaging Nipah virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Officials in Telangana were checking on Friday if two people had been infected with the brain-damaging Nipah virus that has killed 12 in southern Kerala, although the government described the outbreak as minor.

Such outbreaks are a concern in a country where hundreds die from infectious diseases each year for lack of vigorous disease tracking systems. There is no vaccine for the virus, carried by fruit bats, and the only treatment is supportive care.

The virus has not spread beyond Kerala, the government said after investigation by health officials linked the initial deaths to a well colonised by bats whose water the victims had been using.

“The Nipah virus disease is not a major outbreak and is only a local occurrence,” the government said in a statement, adding that a team of experts continued to monitor the situation.

Blood samples from two men who showed the flu-like symptoms of the virus were sent for testing, said a health official in Telangana, a state neighbouring Kerala.

“We just sent them as a precaution,” said K Shankar, medical superintendent of the Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases in Hyderabad.

Two suspect cases in Karnataka, another state bordering Kerala, proved negative, said a medical official there.

All the confirmed infections have involved people who caught the virus from the first victim while he was being treated, said microbiologist G. Arun Kumar.

“Hospital-acquired infections are a major path of human to human transmission,” added Kumar, who heads the Manipal Centre for Virus Research that is testing virus samples.

The virus, spread through contact with bodily fluids, has a mortality rate of about 70 percent.

A global coalition to fight epidemics this week struck a $25-million deal with two U.S. biotech groups to speed work on a vaccine.

A clutch of dead bats discovered on the roof of a school in Himachal Pradesh triggered a brief scare, but there are no suspected human infections, said health official Sanjay Sharma.

The finding of dead bats was not an unusual event, said one state forest official.

“This is not unusual, but the department has sent bat samples for tests as a precautionary measure,” said the official, Ramesh Kang.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US biotechs to speed work on Nipah vaccine as virus hits India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

A global coalition set up a year ago to fight epidemics has struck a $25 million deal with two US biotech companies to accelerate work on a vaccine against the brain-damaging Nipah virus that has killed 12 people in India.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said on Thursday that Profectus BioSciences and Emergent BioSolutions would receive up to $25 million to advance development and manufacturing of a shot for the bat-borne disease.

There is currently no vaccine or treatment to tackle Nipah, which has a mortality rate of around 70%.

The death toll from the latest outbreak in Kerala rose to 12 on Thursday, following the death of a 61-year-old man who had already lost three members of his family, including his two sons, to the virus.

Indian officials said they were awaiting blood test results from a further 16 patients suspected to have the infection.

The experimental vaccine being developed by the biotech companies has produced promising results in animal tests, following more than 15 years of research by scientists at the US-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Based on data so far, Christopher Broder, one of the main researchers behind the project, said the Nipah vaccine in development was also “highly likely” to work against the related Hendra virus.

Experts believe both Nipah and Hendra are spread by flying foxes – bats of the genus Pteropus – with humans becoming infected by exposure to bat urine and saliva on fruit, or from infected pigs and horses. It can also spread person-to-person.

Outbreaks of Nipah occur annually in Bangladesh and 105 people died from the virus in Malaysia 1999, when more than a million pigs were slaughtered to stem its spread.

Still, Nipah remains a relatively rare tropical disease – like Ebola – which severely limits the incentive for drug companies to invest in vaccines or drugs.

It was the slow response to West Africa’s 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,300 people before an effective vaccine was developed, that prompted the launch of the CEPI coalition in January 2017.

The group, which sees itself as a global insurance policy against epidemics, is funded by Norway, Germany, Japan, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

Nipah is on the World Health Organization research and development priority list alongside Ebola, Zika, MERS, Lassa and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Nipah virus claims 3 lives in Kerala, 8 under observation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Nipah virus has so far claimed three lives in Kerala while one person is undergoing treatment and 8 others are under observation in Kozhikode district, Health minister K K Shylaja today said.

The three deaths, which occurred over the past fortnight, were from the same family, including two siblings in their early twenties.

The man who is undergoing treatment for ‘Nipah’ is the father of the two brothers who died.

Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.

The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus.

A bat was found in the well of their house which has now been closed, the minister said.

A nursing assistant, Lini, who had treated three infected persons, died this morning.

However, it is yet to be confirmed if she had contracted the virus, which spreads through bats.

Five more people have died due to high fever and similar symptoms of the virus here and in neighbouring Malappuram district.

However, it is yet to be confirmed if their deaths was caused by the virus, health department sources said.

Health minister Shylaja and Labour minister, T P Ramakrishnan, who hails from Kozhikode, held discussions with officials and assured that the government had taken all necessary steps to prevent the spread of the virus, which has affected the state for the first time.

A high level team from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has already arrived in Kozhikode district to take stock of the situation.

The state has been put on high alert and two control rooms have also been opened here.

The minister said there was no need to panic as the virus spreads only through direct contact with the infected person.

“We have listed the persons who have got in touch with the patients. They have been isolated as precautionary measure,” she said.

The minister said peripheral hospitals in the vicinity of Medical college have been asked to set up isolation wards and if they have patients with symptoms of the virus, they should be directed to the medical college.

NiV was first identified during an outbreak of disease that took place in Kampung Sungai Nipah in Malaysia during 1998. Then, pigs were the intermediate hosts.

However, in subsequent NiV outbreaks, there were no intermediate hosts.

In Bangladesh in 2004, humans became infected with NiV as a result of consuming date palm sap that had been contaminated by infected fruit bats.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kerala tourism to focus on new markets; targets 20% growth

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Last month, Kerala Tourism had reported that 2017 was its best one in the last decade.

Tourist footfalls into Kerala had increased by 10.94%, and the state welcomed a record 1.58 crore tourists from across the country and the world.

Cities such as Kochi, Kovalam and Varkala were top picks, among overseas tourists, while Guruvayur and Thiruvananthapuram doubled up as other popular spots for domestic travellers.

Focusing on Offbeat Tourist Hubs

With the Kerala government publicising plans to double the number of international tourist arrivals and increasing domestic footfalls by 50%, by 2021,  the focus is shifting towards the state’s offbeat tourist hubs.

“Destinations such as  Kochi, Munnar, Thekkady, Alappuzha, Kumarakom, Varkala and Kovalam together account for 89% of all tourist arrivals to Kerala,” said P Bala Kiran, Director, Kerala Tourism.

“The government is now keen to focus on north Kerala, in an effort to increase the region’s present 4% share of total footfalls to 25% by 2021.”

The department said an additional 25 lakh tourists are expected to make their way to destinations such as Wayanad, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kannur, on the back of this effort.

The completion of the soon-to-be inaugurated Kannur International Airport later this year, will be a key driver in the Kerala government’s push to promote offbeat tourist getaways.

The airport will be ready by September and will cater to over a million passengers in the first year itself.

“Aside of the airport, we are also investing a total of Rs 325 crore towards a first-of-its-kind Malabar cruise, which we hope will draw footfalls to Kerala’s Malabar coast in the north,” said Kiran.

Attracting International Tourists

The game-changer, however, could come by way of new tourism source markets. At present, the Kerala government’s favourite source markets are Western Europe — the UK accounts for 1.8 lakh visitors to Kerala every year — and the Middle East.

“Footfalls from the UAE alone have grown by 40% in the last five years, even as Saudi Arabia and Oman have entered our top 10 source markets,” said Kiran. “Going forward, we hope to tap potential in new markets such as China and South East Asia.”

With this, the state government is expected to increase its revenue from tourism.

“I’m not going so bullish on revenue generation because tourist arrival does not automatically double revenue, but we are very bullish about reaching 20% (growth rate) by 2021,” said Kiran.

More importantly, the government says this push will also see an estimated 4.5 lakh jobs hit the market in the next three years, with over a lakh jobs in the next 12 months.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kerala becomes ‘NokkuKooli’ free on Labour Day

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

In a major push to transform Kerala as an investment-friendly destination, the
CPI(M)-led LDF government has banned the obsolete ‘Nokku Kooli’ practise used by headload workers to extract exorbitant wages without doing any work.

“The order, which was issued last night, comes into effect from today on Labour Day,” an official statement said.

“NokkuKooli, which literally means ‘gawking wages,’ is a euphemism for extortion by organised labour unions in the state under which wages have to be paid to trade union workers for loading and unloading works done by other workers or by machines,” it said.

The practise is widely considered a product of militant trade unionism that resulted in frequent altercation between workers and businessmen.

“The order was issued after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held discussions with labour union leaders on March 8,” the statement said.

Overcharging and ‘Nokkukuli’ had been causing difficulties in entrepreneurship development in the state, the labour department said.

According to the new order, entrepreneurs can now pay the wages fixed by the district labour officers. For non-listed works, wages need to be paid on the basis of bi-party agreement, while for domestic loading and unloading works and those related to farming, workers of their choice can be hired.

In case, trade union workers are employed, they can be paid as per the rate fixed by the government, it said.

The state government said strict warnings had been issued to trade unions against threatening entrepreneurs demanding more money or the right to work.

The major trade unions– Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) of the ruling CPI(M) and Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) of the opposition Congress– have welcomed the decision.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

PM asks Finance Commission to reward states that worked to control population

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked the 15th Finance Commission to incentivise the states that have worked to control population after south Indian states strongly opposed the terms set by the constitutional body to divvy up revenues.

The Union Government has suggested to the Finance Commission to consider incentivizing States who have worked on population control. Thus, a state like Tamil Nadu, which has devoted a lot of effort, energy and resources towards population control would certainly benefit: PM

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 12, 2018

The Prime Minister’s statement comes as states such as Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, among others, have accused the central government of being partial towards states from the north. The chief ministers and political parties of these states said the southern states that have diligently followed population control and development policies and are therefore in a better position than the rest of the country receive lower revenue share compared with northern states.

The bone of contention for the southern states is  the terms of reference that the 15th Finance Commission has set. According to these terms, the 2011 Census – and not the 1971 Census as has been the norm – has been set as the base year to determine how revenue is divided.

Southern states fear that the new base year will harm their interests.

The BJP, which leads an alliance to run the central government,  has been elected to power in several north Indian states.

On Thursday, Modi denied that his government was biased against the southern states, and said these were baseless allegations.

Earlier, Karnataka chief minister K Siddaramaiah opposed the terms of reference of the Finance Commission and asked the southern states to oppose it. “This will further affect the interests of the south, we need to resist,” Siddaramaiah tweeted.

He also asked chief ministers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Puducherry to resist the move by the commission.

On Tuesday, finance ministers and officials from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka and Puducherry met in Thiruvananthapuram to strongly oppose the terms of reference. Andhra Pradesh finance minister Y Ramakrishnudu had said the Centre arbitrarily decided the terms of reference for the new policy, without consulting state governments.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it’s time states stood together to demand recasting the terms of reference, as it was necessary to save the federal structure of the Indian Union.

On Wednesday, Kerala finance minster Thomas Isaac told NDTV the South will lose Rs 80,000 crore under the new Finance Commission.

Karnataka agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda said all states that performed their duty of bringing down the population in their respective jurisdictions were set to lose out because the plan is to shift the base from 1971 to 2011 Census.

With elections in Karnataka fast approaching and a storm of protests raging in other states, only higher revenues to southern states could defuse the tension.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Several states mulling joint memorandum on finance panel

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Political leadership of south Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and union territory of Puducherry on Tuesday mulled the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission and plan to submit a joint memorandum to the President on the issue, a minister said.

“We have decided to prepare a joint memorandum on the manner in which the Finance Commission should go about things and take different states into confidence,” Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac told the media here.

The states would even explore legal steps on the issue, Issac said at the end of a workshop he organised here for his counterparts from southern states to facilitate a review and critique of the terms of reference.

“We have entrusted (state-owned) Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation to prepare a draft and by end of April or early May, we will meet again to finalise the memorandum in Visakhapatnam. We will also invite governments of other non-BJP ruled states. Thereafter, the memorandum will be send to the President and others,” Issac said.

Earlier, in his inaugural address at the one-day event, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it’s time they stood together to demand reframing of the terms of reference), as it was necessary to save the federal structure of the Indian Union.

The Finance Commission, which delves into the financial relations between the Centre and states, should be guided more by its constitutional mandate than arbitrary terms of reference, Vijayan said.

“… (there is) a conspicuous bias in-built in the terms of reference of the new commission. It is widely feared that these terms framed by the Centre will prevent the panel from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility,” Vijayan added.

Apart from Vijayan and Issac, those who attended the workshop were Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Rama Krishnudu and other top officials. Representatives from Telengana and Tamil Nadu were absent.

Vijayan said all states should appeal to the central government to reframe the terms of reference.

“The reframing of the terms of reference is imperative to strengthen the federal structure of the country and to reinforce its unity and integrity,” said Vijayan, a senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader from Kerala.

Vijayan said the commission’s role assumes significance, given the fact that the Centre is given near monopoly over the right to mobilise resources.

“We are all aware that the terms of reference have created apprehension about the principles of fairness and equity in the distribution of national resources for development. The unity of India can be preserved only if there is real fairness and equity in devolution of financial powers and resources to the states by the Centre,” the Chief Minister added.

Vijayan expressed reservation over the Financial Commission proposal for “measurable performance-based-incentives” which he claimed was an attack on the federal structure of the Indian state.

“Such terms of reference, we fear, might end up altering the commission’s status from a constitutional authority entrusted with devolution of national fiscal resources to an administrative mechanism for fiscal administration and monitoring,” added Vijayan.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, in his address, said all states that performed their duty of bringing down the population in their respective jurisdictions, were set to lose out since the plan is to shift the base from 1971 to 2011 Census.

Ramakrishnudu flayed the Centre for alleged arbitrary manner in fixing the commission’s terms of reference.

Puducherry’s Narayanasamy, who also holds the finance portfolio, complained that when it came to central schemes, the Union government treated Puducherry as a state but with regard to grants it was treated as a union territory.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow