- Life on earth has always been about species struggling to secure their odds of survival. A little known story, though, is the complex role that viruses have played in our evolution.
- Today, these microscopic bugs are among our biggest threats, especially the zoonotic kind like the novel coronavirus. We must constantly adapt to stay a step ahead of them.
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Twenty years ago, Matt Ridley’s The Red Queen, a brilliant and seamy proposition of how human behaviour has evolved in order to help protect the survival of our species. Ridley theorizes, with support from every corner of the animal kingdom—from water fleas to aphids, from guppies to peacocks and from cockerels to chimpanzees—that human beings are locked in a race for survival like Lewis Carroll’s character, the Red Queen.
To enhance their chance of survival, for instance, some bamboos flower only once every 121 years simultaneously worldwide and then die, killing their parasites with them. Female red finches choose the reddest male on offer as he is genetically more disease-resistant. The earliest civilizations were all ruled by emperors with large harems of women whose fertility was carefully observed, controlled and managed for the reproductive prolificity of their ruler.
Indeed, as we progressed from the paleolithic age, foraging for lean meats and berries, we randomly or intentionally (the verdict is still out) cultivated crops. The seed of civilization was planted. This is not a new theory and has been espoused by many, but Jared Diamond popularized this narrative for the lay person most strikingly if sensationally in his runaway 1997 success of a book, Guns, Germs and Steel.
As human beings settled down to an agricultural life with food aplenty, they domesticated animals. Living in groups of large human settlements resulted in the transmission of viruses such as smallpox, measles and influenza from domesticated animals to us. The Old World, having periodically been ravaged by these diseases from time immemorial (smallpox has been found in Egyptian mummies), was largely conferred immunity, unlike New World populations that were decimated by these infections after Europeans landed on their shores.
So then, what does evolutionary biology tell us about viruses? As Carl Zimmer puts it, we are literally living on A Planet of Viruses. For one, human beings are greatly outnumbered by them. The ocean alone holds viruses that would extend for 42 million light years if they were all in a line.
Viruses are also much older than us. In a cave in Mexico, 26 million year-old crystals were found to be teeming with viruses. Above all, we have been shaped by them. About 8% of our DNA consists of endogenous retroviruses.
A retrovirus called ERV-L that lurks in our genome dates back to 100 million years ago, and is now found in armadillos, elephants, manatees and humans. Another such virus called HERV-W actually makes syncytin, a protein critical to providing nutrition in the placenta. When it first infected the common ancestor of mammals, it was possibly responsible for evolving the very first placenta.
While this paints a somewhat rosy picture of our symbiotic relationship with viruses, the truth is less rosy. Viruses are our greatest existential threat, with smallpox killing close to 300 million people, measles 200 million and polio around 25 million people in the 20th century alone. Influenza, HIV, Ebola, SARS, MERS, H1N1 and of course SARS-COV2 are just a few of the viruses that have plagued us.
Staggering advances in science have led to vaccines and treatments for many of these. The past year has been a testament to the astonishing success of human beings to rapidly decode the genome and produce multiple vaccines for SARS-COV2.
But as our population continues to grow, and as we brush up against and further encroach upon the habitats of every other species, novel viral epidemics are going to become more common. Unlike smallpox and polio, these so-called zoonotic diseases are virtually impossibly to eradicate as they can be borne by other species.
As David Quammen, author of Spillover, writes of zoonotic diseases: “Ecological circumstance provides opportunity for spillover. Evolution seizes opportunity, explores possibilities, and helps convert spillovers to pandemics.”
As we ponder our fate in 2021, we would do well to think of our evolutionary history and the principles of the Red Queen. We may have evolved into apes with large brains, but we somehow seem blissfully unaware of our fate. Those who don’t adapt will not survive. And those who do adapt may find it takes “all the running you can do to keep in the same place”.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)