Daily News Notes

27AUGUST 2014

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PATHWAY TO SUCCESS AND SERVICE
NATIONAL
Breaking of law by Army officers shocking: court
If the ammunition reaches the hands of terrorists, they will use it to kill innocent people, Justice
Dattu told Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi in the Supreme Court on Tuesday about the illegal
sale of arms and ammunition by an Army official.
It said the very act of an Army officer breaking the law to sell his gun for profit in a disciplined
force is shocking, Justice Dattu said.
Referring to a case of illegal sale of non-standard-pattern weapons and imported ammunition by
high-ranking officers of the Southwestern Command in Ganganagar district of Rajasthan near the
India-Pakistan border, Justice Dattu said, If this is happening in one Command, what is
happening in the other eight Commands ... are they [guilty officials] going scot-free? These are
not cadets, but high-ranking officials involved. This [Rajasthan case] must be the tip of the
iceberg. I think we will have to enlarge the scope of this inquiry to include the nine Commands.
He asked the Attorney-General to get instructions from the government and give a reply on
September 16, the next date of hearing.
The Bench wants the governments stand, by the next hearing, on the prospects of re-convening
the Army proceedings in the Rajasthan case so that the guilty Army officials can be handed a
punishment fitting the gravity of their offence.

15,000 have fled border villages, says J&K govt.
The Jammu and Kashmir government told the Assembly on Tuesday that more than 5,000
families had been affected and about 15,000 people had fled their villages on the Indian side
because of firing from Pakistan.
The statement came on a day Indias Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) lodged a
protest with his Pakistani counterpart over the increased border ceasefire violations.
The DGMOs talked on the phone for about 10 minutes during which all relevant issues were
discussed and they agreed to hold flag meetings to defuse the situation.


While occasional firing is a feature of life in the border villages, the intense shelling over the past
two weeks has completely disrupted life in the border areas of R.S. Pura and Arnia.
A small garden at the Government Girls School in Maulanian village of R.S. Pura is a
temporary refuge for two villages, Khurdana Basti and Nai Basti. About 600 villagers came on
August 23 morning after spending a night crouching on the ground.
Investigate gunrunning by Army men: SC
Observing that guns are sold like toys in the market, the Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a
full-fledged investigation covering all nine Army Commands into the illegal sale of arms and
ammunition by Army officials. A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde was hearing a
public interest litigation petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Arvind Kumar Sharma on the
nexus between Army officials and arms dealers. The petition focusses on the illegal sale of non-
standard-pattern weapons and imported ammunition by high-ranking officers of the
Southwestern Command in Ganganagar district of Rajasthan near the India-Pakistan border. A
Court of Inquiry report of September 25, 2008 had found 72 Army officials guilty of selling
ammunition and imported arms.
I nvestigation to cover all nine Army Commands

Centre to unveil home loan scheme for transgenders
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) has proposed rolling out
a loan assistance scheme that will for the first time help transgenders and economically weaker
sections to secure home loans in urban areas.
The Ministry has tweaked the existing Rajiv Rinn Yojna (RRY), which was launched as an
instrument to aid the EWS (economically weaker sections) and LIG (lower income group)
segments in urban areas, through enhanced credit flow and replaced it with a new scheme that
will make it easier for the economically weaker sections and minority groups to own homes.
The RRY launched by the UPA government with much fanfare failed to take off and funds
earmarked for it lapsed. The Ministry has now not only given it a new name HOMES (Home
Owners Mortgage Equity Subvention Scheme) but has also made it more attractive by enhancing
the loan amount and increasing the interest subsidy from 5 per cent to 5.5 per cent on loans
granted to construct houses or extend the existing ones.
To begin with, applicants will no longer have to run from pillar to post to get an income
certificate, in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modis direction for allowing self
attestation, the Ministry has decided to do away with seeking a certification from government
officials.



Reasons for failure
One of the major reasons why the scheme failed is because applicants had to secure an income
certificate from local revenue officials, who were reluctant to do the job. This will now be
replaced with self attestation as announced by the Prime Minister, said an official, not wishing
to be named.
Hike in income slab
The income slab has also been increased for eligible categories which include women, widows,
SC/STs, persons with disabilities and transgenders; from the existing Rs. one lakh for EWS, the
income group will now be extended to Rs. 2 lakh and for the LIG category it will be up by a lakh
to Rs. 3 lakh per annum.
The size of the dwellings has been increased too for both the categories. The new scheme that
will be sent for Cabinets approval soon, has enhanced the loan amount for the EWS category
from the existing Rs. 5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh and for the LIG category from Rs. 8 lakh to Rs. 15
lakh for a period of 20 years. Housing and Urban Development Corporation and National
Housing Bank have been designated as the Central Nodal Agencies for the Scheme.
Under HOMES, applicants need not seek certification from government officials


INTERNATIONAL
In Gaza, long-term ceasefire comes into effect
Celebrations erupted in Gaza on Tuesday as a long-term ceasefire agreed by Israel and the
Palestinians went into effect, ending 50 days of the deadliest violence in a decade.
The agreement, which came into effect at 1600 GMT, involves an immediate halt to the violence
in Gaza, which began on July 8 and has claimed the lives of 2,143 Palestinians and 69 on the
Israeli side.
The number includes an Israeli who was killed by a mortar round in the last hour before the
fighting stopped.
A 'permanent' one
The Palestinians said it was a permanent truce, while a senior Israeli official described it as
unconditional and unlimited in time.
As the ceasefire took hold, thousands of Palestinians flooded on to the streets of Gaza City, some
firing joyfully into the air, among them gunmen from Hamas, AFP correspondents said.


Mosques used their loudspeakers to broadcast celebratory chants of God is greatest as the war-
torn enclave hailed the apparent end to seven weeks of violence that has seen a quarter of the
territorys 1.8 million people flee their homes.
News of the agreement first emerged from the West Bank city of Ramallah where a Palestinian
official told AFP an elusive deal had been reached over a durable halt to more than seven
weeks of bloodshed and violence in and around Gaza. Hamas hailed the deal as a victory for the
resistance.
The official told AFP the agreement involved a permanent ceasefire, a [deal to] end the
blockade and a guarantee that Gazas demands and needs will be met, but gave few other
details. Ending Israels crippling eight-year blockade of Gaza had been a key Palestinian demand
in earlier, abortive truce talks in Cairo. The formal announcement came from Palestinian
President Mahmud Abbas in a live speech at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Next round of talks
Shortly afterwards, Israel confirmed its acceptance of the deal, saying the negotiating teams
would return to Cairo within a month but without saying when.
We have accepted, once again, an Egyptian proposal for an unconditional and unlimited-in-time
ceasefire, a senior official said.
The framework includes an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and then, inside a month,
both delegations will be in Cairo raising issues with the Egyptians, he said.
We will be raising our concerns about demilitarisation and preventing Hamas from rearming
and they will be raising their concerns. This is the framework that has been on the table for
weeks now.
In a statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry said there would be an immediate opening of Israeli
border crossings to allow in both aid and reconstruction supplies.
Alongside a comprehensive ceasefire, the two sides agreed to the simultaneous opening of the
border crossings between Israel and Gaza to enable the rapid entry of humanitarian aid and relief
and reconstruction supplies, a statement said.
The Egyptian-brokered deal also provides for the immediate extension to six nautical miles of
the area open to Gazas fisherman working the seas off the coastal enclave.
It also refers to the continuation of indirect negotiations between the two sides on other matters
within one month of the ceasefire taking effect.
News of the reported deal came after weeks of Egyptian-led efforts to end the violence.
AFP


Syria: U.S. to send spy planes
The United States is poised to send spy planes into Syria to track Islamic State jihadists whose
advances have sparked international concern and American air strikes in neighbouring Iraq.
A U.S. official confirmed the plans after Syria said on Monday it was willing to work with the
international community, including Washington, to tackle extremist fighters.
But American officials said they did not plan to ask Damascus for permission for the flights,
despite Syrian insistence that any military action on its soil must be coordinated in advance.
International concern about IS has been rising after a lightning offensive by the group through
parts of Iraq and a string of brutal abuses, including the murder of U.S. journalist James Foley.
The United Nations has accused IS and affiliated groups in Iraq of acts that could amount to
crimes against humanity.
On Monday, Damascus said for the first time that it was willing to work with the international
community, including the United States and Britain, to tackle IS and al-Qaedas Syrian affiliate
al-Nusra Front.
Act of aggression
But Foreign Minister Walid Muallem also made it clear that Syria would not accept unilateral
military strikes by the United States or any other country. Any violation of Syrias sovereignty
would be an act of aggression, he said.
There would be no justification for strikes on Syrian territory except in coordination with us
to fight terrorism. He added that Syria was seeking cooperation within an international or
regional coalition, or at the bilateral level within the framework of a recent U.N. Security
Council resolution targeting IS and Al-Nusra. There have been few signs that the international
community is willing to work publicly with President Bashar al-Assads regime, which has been
engaged in a brutal effort to put down an uprising that began in March 2011.
The United States began air strikes against IS in neighbouring Iraq on August 8, in a bid to roll
back its advances.
But U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has acknowledged that
the group cannot be defeated without addressing that part of the organisation that resides in
Syria.
The White House says no decision has been taken on whether to carry out air strikes in Syria,
although U.S. aircraft have already entered Syrian airspace covertly at least once for a failed
mission to rescue hostages including Foley. AFP
Washington unlikely to seek permission from Damascus



Putin, Poroshenko hold talks
A face-to-face meeting between Russias Vladimir Putin and Ukraines Petro Poroshenko, at
loggerheads over the crisis in Ukraine, had started in Minsk, the Ukrainian presidential
administration said on Tuesday in a Twitter post.Earlier, the leaders of Russia and Ukraine held
key talks on the brutal conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels after the Kremlin admitted
for the first time its troops had entered Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shook hands with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin,
but there were few hopes of a breakthrough to defuse tensions some fear could trigger all-out
war. Fears the conflict could intensify mounted when Ukraine on Monday released footage
purporting to show 10 Russian soldiers it had captured on its territory.
A Moscow military source claimed the soldiers had crossed into Ukraine by accident. AFP
Few hopes of a breakthrough to defuse tensions

NASAs New Horizons crosses Neptunes orbit

picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole-planet images taken through the green and
orange filters on the Voyager 2 narrow angle camera. The images were taken on August 20, 1989, at a
range of 4.4 million miles
NASA probe, New Horizons, passed Neptunes orbit on Monday, nearly 25 years after Voyager
2 spacecraft executed the first-ever flyby of faraway Neptune and its icy moon Triton.
It was a perfect time for the New Horizons team to pay tribute to Voyager 2. We stand on the
shoulders of giants like Voyager project scientist Ed Stone and his Voyager science team that
pioneered how to do the exploration of the deep outer solar system, Alan Stern, principal
investigator of New Horizons, told the media.


New Horizons is scheduled to pass through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. Astronomers are
expecting surprising results when New Horizons reaches Pluto because very little is known about
the dwarf planet. New Horizons will map the dwarf planet and its five known moons, determine
the composition of Plutos surface and atmosphere, search for undiscovered moons and a ring
system. IANS


EDITORIAL
IS, Frankensteins monster unleashed
U.S. President Barack Obama has labelled the jihadist juggernaut that calls itself the Islamic
State a cancer, while his Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, has called it more dangerous than
al-Qaeda ever was, claiming that its threat is beyond anything weve seen. No monster has
ever been born on its own. So the question is: which forces helped create this new Frankenstein?
The Islamic State is a brutal, medieval organisation whose members take pride in carrying out
beheadings and flaunting the severed heads of their victims as trophies. This cannot obscure an
underlying reality: the Islamic State represents a Sunni Islamist insurrection against non-Sunni
rulers in disintegrating Syria and Iraq.
Indeed, the ongoing fragmentation of states along primordial lines in the arc between Israel and
India is spawning de facto new entities or blocks, including Shiastan, Wahhabistan, Kurdistan,
ISstan and Talibanstan. Other than Iran, Egypt and Turkey, most of the important nations from
the Maghreb to Pakistan (an internally torn state that could shrink to Punjabistan or, simply,
ISIstan) are modern western concoctions, with no roots in history or pre-existing identity.
The West and agendas
It is beyond dispute that the Islamic State militia formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant emerged from the Syrian civil war, which began indigenously as a localised revolt
against state brutality under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before being fuelled with
externally supplied funds and weapons. From Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-training centres
in Turkey and Jordan, the rebels set up a Free Syrian Army (FSA), launching attacks on
government forces, as a U.S.-backed information war demonised Mr. Assad and encouraged
military officers and soldiers to switch sides.
But the members of the U.S.-led coalition were never on the same page because some allies had
dual agendas. While the three spearheads of the anti-Assad crusade the U.S., Britain and
France focussed on aiding the FSA, the radical Islamist sheikhdoms such as Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as well as the Islamist-leaning government in
Turkey channelled their weapons and funds to more overtly Islamist groups. This splintered the
Syrian opposition, marginalising the FSA and paving the way for the Islamic States rise.


The anti-Assad coalition indeed started off on the wrong foot by trying to speciously distinguish
between moderate and radical jihadists . The line separating the two is just too blurred.
Indeed, the term moderate jihadists is an oxymoron: Those waging jihad by the gun can never
be moderate.
Invoking jihad
The U.S. and its allies made a more fundamental mistake by infusing the spirit of jihad in their
campaign against Mr. Assad so as to help trigger a popular uprising in Syria. The decision to
instil the spirit of jihad through television and radio broadcasts beamed to Syrians was deliberate
to provoke Syrias majority Sunni population to rise against their secular government.
This ignored the lesson from Afghanistan (where the CIA in the 1980s ran, via Pakistan, the
largest covert operation in its history) that inciting jihad and arming holy warriors creates a
deadly cocktail, with far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on international security. The Reagan
administration openly used Islam as an ideological tool to spur armed resistance to Soviet forces
in Afghanistan.
In 1985, at a White House ceremony in honour of several Afghan mujahideen the jihadists
out of which al-Qaeda evolved President Ronald Reagan declared, These gentlemen are the
moral equivalent of Americas Founding Fathers. Earlier in 1982, Reagan dedicated the space
shuttle Columbia to the Afghan resistance. He declared, Just as the Columbia, we think,
represents mans finest aspirations in the field of science and technology, so too does the struggle
of the Afghan people represent mans highest aspirations for freedom. I am dedicating, on behalf
of the American people, the March 22 launch of the Columbia to the people of Afghanistan.
The Afghan war veterans came to haunt the security of many countries. Less known is the fact
that the Islamic States self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi like Libyan militia leader
Abdelhakim Belhadj (whom the CIA abducted and subjected to extraordinary rendition) and
Chechen terrorist leader Airat Vakhitov become radicalised while under U.S. detention. As
torture chambers, U.S. detention centres have served as pressure cookers for extremism.
Mr. Obamas Syria strategy took a page out of Reagans Afghan playbook. Not surprisingly, his
strategy backfired. It took just two years for Syria to descend into a Somalia-style failed state
under the weight of the international jihad against Mr. Assad. This helped the Islamic State not
only to rise but also to use its control over northeastern Syria to stage a surprise blitzkrieg deep
into Iraq this summer.
Had the U.S. and its allies refrained from arming jihadists to topple Mr. Assad, would the
Islamic State have emerged as a lethal, marauding force? And would large swaths of upstream
territory along the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in Syria and Iraq have fallen into this
monsters control? The exigencies of the topple-Assad campaign also prompted the Obama
administration to turn a blind eye to the flow of Gulf and Turkish aid to the Islamic State.
In fact, the Obama team, until recently, viewed the Islamic State as a good terrorist
organisation in Syria but a bad one in Iraq, especially when it threatened to overrun the


Kurdish regional capital, Erbil. In January, Mr. Obama famously dismissed the Islamic State as a
local JV team trying to imitate al-Qaeda but without the capacity to be a threat to America. It
was only after the public outrage in the U.S. over the video-recorded execution of American
journalist James Foley and the flight of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis that the White House re-
evaluated the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Full circle
Many had cautioned against the topple-Assad campaign, fearing that extremist forces would gain
control in the vacuum. Those still wedded to overthrowing Mr. Assads rule, however, contend
that Mr. Obamas failure to provide greater aid, including surface-to-air missiles, to the Syrian
rebels created a vacuum that produced the Islamic State. In truth, more CIA arms to the
increasingly ineffectual FSA would have meant a stronger and more deadly Islamic State.
As part of his strategic calculus to oust Mr. Assad, Mr. Obama failed to capitalise on the Arab
Spring, which was then in full bloom. By seeking to topple a secular autocracy in Syria while
simultaneously working to shield jihad -bankrolling monarchies from the Arab Spring, he ended
up strengthening Islamist forces a development reinforced by the U.S.-led overthrow of
another secular Arab dictator, Muammar Qadhafi, which has turned Libya into another failed
state and created a lawless jihadist citadel at Europes southern doorstep.
In fact, no sooner had Qadhafi been killed than Libyas new rulers established a theocracy, with
no opposition from the western powers that brought about the regime change. Indeed, the cloak
of Islam helps to protect the credibility of leaders who might otherwise be seen as foreign
puppets. For the same reason, the U.S. has condoned the Arab monarchs for their long-standing
alliance with Islamists. It has failed to stop these cloistered royals from continuing to fund
Muslim extremist groups and madrasas in other countries. The American interest in maintaining
pliant regimes in oil-rich countries has trumped all other considerations.
Today, Mr. Obamas Syria policy is coming full circle. Having portrayed Mr. Assad as a
bloodthirsty monster, Washington must now accept Mr. Assad as the lesser of the two evils and
work with him to defeat the larger threat of the Islamic State.
The fact that the Islamic States heartland remains in northern Syria means that it cannot be
stopped unless the U.S. extends air strikes into Syria. As the U.S. mulls that option for which
it would need at least tacit permission from Syria, which still maintains good air defences it is
fearful of being pulled into the middle of the horrendous civil war there. It is thus discreetly
urging Mr. Assad to prioritise defeating the Islamic State.
Make no mistake: like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State is a monster inadvertently spawned by the
policies of those now in the lead to combat it. The question is whether anything substantive will
be learned from this experience, unlike the forgotten lessons of Americas anti-Soviet struggle in
Afghanistan.
At a time when jihadist groups are gaining ground from Mali to Malaysia, Mr. Obamas current
effort to strike a Faustian bargain with the Afghan Taliban, for example, gives little hope that any


lesson will be learned. U.S.-led policies toward the Islamic world have prevented a clash
between civilisations by fostering a clash within a civilisation, but at serious cost to regional and
international security.
(Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author, most recently, of Water, Peace, and War,
Oxford University Press, 2014.)
By seeking to topple a secular autocracy in Syria while simultaneously working to shield jihad
-bankrolling monarchies from the Arab Spring, Barack Obama ended up strengthening
I slamist forces.
Like al-Qaeda, the I slamic State has been inadvertently spawned by the policies of those now
in the lead to combat it. But will anything substantive be learned from this experience?

Risky, if not reckless
Scotland, which has had a separate Parliament since 1999, votes in a referendum next month to
decide whether its four million voters want independence from the United Kingdom, potentially
bringing down the curtains on a historic union of 307 years. The September 18 ballot will
determine the need for a second plebiscite to authorise the precise terms of a separation. The
Conservative and Labour parties, besides the Liberal Democrats, have been strongly opposed to
the demand for Scottish independence; but not necessarily to a referendum as a means to decide
the question. Arguably, had this device of direct democracy been deployed more responsibly in
the past, the vote may not have become inevitable. In the event, the referendum became a reality
after the Scottish National Party secured an overall majority in the 2011 elections to the Scottish
Parliament on the promise of a plebiscite. Mainstream parties have relied on the recourse to a
referendum as a way of dealing with intra-party divisions over Europe and, more recently, on
electoral reforms. Britains first-ever referendum of 1975 was beleaguered Prime Minister
Harold Wilsons attempt to shore up support for the countrys accession to the European
Economic Community in the wake of Labours vote against continuation of the membership.
The effect of an emphatic yes to stay inside was but short-lived, as the eurosceptic backbenchers
gained ground in the subsequent decades. As a result, political parties were hamstrung when it
came to taking difficult decisions, and London was unable to exercise its legitimate influence in
the bloc. Nearly 40 years after 1975, a referendum on renegotiating the U.K.s membership, and
worse, on whether the country should quit the EU, is on the agenda of the current Conservative-
led coalition. The most recent nation-wide plebiscite held in 2011 on an alternative vote to the
first-past-the-post system of election for Westminster lacked genuine political backing from any
party. For the Conservatives, who prefer the status quo , the vote was merely a compromise
struck during coalition negotiations with the Liberal Democrats. The situation was no different
for the latter, who have long championed proportional representation. The Labour party was a
divided house, even though it promised voting reform in the 2010 general election manifesto.
The U.K. Electoral Commission estimated a cost of 75 million for the 2011 referendum. There
is also the likelihood of the subject of any plebiscite being overshadowed by more immediate
concerns. The wisdom behind asking the general population for a precise opinion on a specific


matter with implications over the long term is also not conclusive. The rarer the recourse to a
referendum the better, is the lesson from recent history.

Blow for public integrity
The Supreme Court verdict holding coal block allocations made since 1993 illegal confirms a
long-known, but little-acknowledged malaise pervading the administration: cronyism often
overshadowing merit, and systems and processes being undermined by power and influence. The
sweeping nature of the finding that allocation of coal blocks through the government
dispensation route as well as through a non-statutory screening committee suffered from
arbitrariness is a fierce indictment of successive governments, rendering it difficult to apportion
blame on any particular party or regime. Rather, as the judgment points out, the approach was ad
hoc and casual. There was no fair and transparent procedure, and this resulted in unfair
distribution of national wealth. The judgment, in essence, sticks to the constitutional norms the
Supreme Court has been applying since the time it cancelled 122 telecom licences in 2012 based
on the finding that illegal allocation of 2G spectrum had been made. Of course, a Constitution
Bench has now calibrated the law that once tended to make competitive auction the sole basis for
the exploitation of natural resources, and given some policy leeway to the government to adopt
alternative methods, subject to constitutional principles being adhered to. The court will
deliberate on the consequences of its findings in further hearings, but it has already sent out a
clear message that it will no more countenance arbitrary and illegal allocation of natural
resources.
Political parties may seek to blame one another, and industry may count its losses and lament the
verdicts impact on the cost and availability of power and the cost of importing or transporting
coal. Some may fret over the viability of existing projects and the fate of investments already
made. They may calculate the impact on financial firms with exposure to this sector. All these
factors will now be weighed by the Court when it sits again to decide whether to cancel the
allocations or find a just alternative. It has clarified that its verdict will not touch ongoing probes
by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into illegalities
committed in the allocation of coal blocks. The judgment also exempts 12 coal blocks linked to
Ultra-mega Power Projects that were allotted on the basis of competitive bidding. Those who
consider the public interest paramount and are concerned about good governance and the
integrity of institutions will doubtless welcome this judgment. The tasks that remain are, first, to
disgorge the windfall gains made by the players in the scam; second, to save the mining and
power sectors from the consequences of the illegal allocations; and third, to bring to book those
guilty of criminal conduct.

U.N. health agency urges crackdown on e-cigarettes
Governments should have tougher rules for electronic cigarettes, banning their use indoors and
putting them off limits for minors until more evidence can be gathered about their risks, the U.N.
health agency said on Tuesday.


In a bid to set public policy, the World Health Organization said the popular nicotine-vapour
products, particularly the fruit, candy and alcohol-drink flavours, could serve as gateway
addictions for children and adolescents.
It recommended governments forbid or keep to a minimum any advertising, promotion or
sponsorship in a market that has mushroomed to $3 billion last year and now includes 466
different brands.
In a report, the Geneva-based agency found that the boom in e-cigarettes presents a public health
dilemma.
Regulation is a necessary precondition for establishing a scientific basis on which to judge the
effects of their use, and for ensuring that adequate research is conducted and the public health is
protected and people made aware of the potential risks and benefits, the report said.
The report, requested in 2012 by the 179-nation WHO treaty for controlling tobacco, is to be
discussed at a conference in Moscow in October. If the recommendations are adopted, the next
step would be for nations to strengthen their laws and policies to meet the treaty obligations.
Little is known about the health effects of e-cigarettes, which have been sold in the U.S. since
2007, and contain less toxic substances than traditional cigarettes do. AP


Jai Hind.