NEW DELHI ESTH REPORT: JULY 2008 FIRST WEEK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 001843 SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/STC, OES/SAT, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS STATE FOR STAS STATE PASS TO NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS HHS PASS TO NIH STATE PASS TO USAID STATE FOR SCA, OES (STAS FEDOROFF),OES/PCI STEWART; OES/IHA SINGER PASS TO HHS/OGHA (STEIGER/HICKEY),CDC (BLOUNT/FARRELL),NIH/FIC (GLASS/MAMPILLY),FDA (LUMPKIN/WELSCH, GENEVA FOR HOFMAN) PASS TO MAS/DAS/JESTRADA PASS TO MAC/DAS/HVINEYARD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO SENV AMED CASC KSCA ECON ETRD BEXP EINV PGOV TSPL, TRGY, TNGD, EIND, ENRG, KGHG, IN SUBJECT: NEW DELHI ESTH REPORT: JULY 2008 FIRST WEEK NEW DELHI 00001843 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Summary: This edition of the New Delhi ESTH biweekly includes information about establishment of research base in the Arctic region by India. The environment section covers information about the visit of U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysts to discuss Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),India experimenting with tiger relocation, and new Secretary level assignments in the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources (MNRE). The health section includes information about the CDC delegation visit to India to discuss Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) and a polio update. -------------- --- INDIA ESTABLISHES A RESEARCH BASE IN THE ARCTIC -------------- --- ¶2. (U) The Indian Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Mr. Kapil Sibal, inaugurated India's research base in the Arctic region called "Himadri" on 1 July 2008. The base is situated at 78055' N, 11056' E, Ny-Alesund in Norway, about 1200 kms from the North Pole and is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to carry out scientific research year round. India has become the eleventh country to establish a research base in the Arctic. 'Himadri' will be managed by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR),an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences located at Goa, India. NCAOR has already been managing a wide gamut of Antarctic research activities since 1980. ¶3. India initiated the Arctic research program in August 2007 with a small contingent of 5 scientists and has now expanded this activity to a full fledged research station in less than one year. The focus of the center would be climate change studies. NCAOR has already identified 18 research proposals covering diverse subjects in atmospheric and biological sciences, geology, geophysics, glaciology, oceanography and paleoclimate to be carried out at 'Himadri'. During the course of the visit Mr.Kapil Sibal also visited the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (also called the Doomsday Vault) and deposited five varieties of Indian seeds - two of rice (IR-36 and IR -64) and three of wheat (Lerma Rojo, Sonoro-64, and Ridley). -------------- GAO VISIT TO INDIA -------------- ¶4. (U) The ESTH office supported the visit of two analysts June 30 - July 1, 2008 from the GAO interested in evaluating the effectiveness of India's experience with the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol for a report due to Congress in November 2008. In Delhi, the GAO delegation met with Government of India (GOI) officials, Non Government Organizations (NGO),the World Bank, and private industry who stated the CDM had overall been effective in jump starting clean technology projects in India despite high transaction costs and bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the CDM Executive Board. Reporting cable will follow. -------------- INDIA EXPERIMENTS WITH TIGER RELOCATION -------------- ¶5. (U) The Rajasthan Forest Department recently relocated a tiger from Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve to Sariska National Park under the supervision of veterinarians and wildlife biologist's from the Wildlife Institute of India. The three and half year old tiger will be kept in a large enclosure for a few weeks inside Sariska National NEW DELHI 00001843 002.2 OF 002 Park for observation, before being released. The tiger is radio colored and the Rajasthan government has plans to relocate a total of 5 tigers over a period of 2-3 years. This is the first time the Government of India has attempted relocation of tigers. -------------- MOEF AND MNRE APPOINT NEW SECRETARIES -------------- ¶6. (U) Mr. Vijay Sharma is the new Secretary in the MOEF replacing Ms. Meena Gupta, who retired on June 30, 2008. His previous assignments include Special Secretary, and Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat's National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention, prior to which he was the Chief Electoral Officer for UP State. He worked as Joint Secretary - Climate Change in the MOEF between 2000 and 2002. He is expected to be the Secretary, MOEF for about two and a half years before he retires. Mr. Sharma is from the 1974 group of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and belongs to the Utter Pradesh cadre. ¶7. Mr. Deepak Gupta has joined as the new Secretary in the MNRE replacing Dr. V. Subramanian. His previous assignment was as Special Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He also worked in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Water Resources, Commerce and Industry, Textiles and with the World Health Organization. Mr. Gupta is from the 1974 group of the IAS and belongs to the Jharkhand cadre. -------------- CDC DELEGATION JULY VISIT TO INDIA -------------- ¶8. (U) HHS/CDC Coordinating Office for Global Health delegation comprising of Dr. Mike St. Louis (Team leader),Dr. Ramesh Krishnamurthy and Mr. Eric Gogstad, will visit India July 8-29 for discussions related to the IDSP Information Technology component and develop distance-learning training tools. During their visit they will hold meetings in New Delhi with IDSP officials at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD). The CDC delegation will travel to the States of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to document IDSP related information flow and will return to New Delhi and assist NICD officials to identify gaps and challenges and provide solutions. -------------- POLIO UPDATE -------------- ¶9. (U) On June 29 SciOff staff traveled with Dr. Roma Solomon from the Core Group Partners project to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh to observe activities commencing a new round of sub-national immunization days covering the entire state from June 30 to July 7. According to the National Polio Surveillance Project, as of June 21 a total of 275 cases have been detected (5 P1, 270 P3) in India, mostly in the highly endemic states of Utter Pradesh and Bihar, including 7 new cases of P3 since June 13. DAVISON